It's hard to be overly optimistic about this year's midterm elections, given how poorly the 2000 and 2004 general elections went for the Democratic Party. Further, given so many different stories about the insecurity of "black box" electronic voting machines, there's always a concern in the back of my mind that not every vote is being counted, that there just might be some uneven tallying aimed to keep the GOP in power. But aside from those feelings, just about every news service under the sun is saying that come Tuesday, the Democrats will take over the House of Representatives, and some are saying it is increasingly likely that the Senate will fall their way as well.

First, you have Stuart Rothenberg, a top non-partisan, claiming on CNN that the Democrats will take both the House and the Senate, picking up 34-40 seats in the House, and 5-7 seats in the Senate.

Chris Bowers of MyDD, in his forecast, conservatively estimates the Democrats will gain 26 seats in the House of Representatives, adding detail in every race to back up his claims.

Electoral-Vote.com shows the Democrats ahead in key Senate races, but says some of the races are within the margin of error of 1-3 percent. As of today, he says it's a 49-49 tie, with 2 races too close to call. This number has varied anywhere from 48 to 50 Democratic seats over the last few months.

News wire services also see Democrats picking up governorships, leaving the only place where they haven't made a dent to be the White House. It looks like we'll still have to wait at least two years for that.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are going out of their way to implode in a race to the bottom. It turns out our "oh so intelligent" administration posted instructions on how to make an atomic bomb on their Web site, with detailed documents, now pulled down, but not before pundits said they would be very helpful to aggressive countries, including Iran. This, compounded with news that a key evangelical leader likes to gain pleasure through trysts with a gay hooker, just makes you wonder if the Democrats could win it all just by watching the entire Republican leadership team fall in a series of resignations and indictments.

As Daily Kos often writes, we're just "four days until daylight". 

Our TiVo is a very necessary tool in our entertainment matrix - as well documented here. (Just click on "TiVo" in the ZoomCloud) With a minimum of effort, it brilliantly tracks our season passes for favorite shows, helps us blitz past the litany of foolish commercials, and over time, gets a pretty good idea of those things my wife and I enjoy. While we haven't been the best TiVo customers, holding on to our Series 1 box without an upgrade, we cringe every time we hear news saying the company might be in trouble, or that cable companies are electing to sell underfeatured, run-down, me-too DVRs in an attempt to elbow TiVo out of the market. Tonight, after having read John Battelle's screed against his Comcast DVR, I'm sure that for the good of humanity, TiVo must continue to innovate, and customers must push it to profitability and growth.

There are very few gadgets that come along to change the way we live - the Macintosh, the iPod, the cell phone or Blackberry, and the TiVo being among them. And as Microsoft did with Apple's market share in the 1990s, cable companies are all-too happy to take market share at the expense of their own customer satisfaction. For them, stopping the bleeding means to pass on the discontent to their wide customer base, who may someday accept the mediocrity they've been dealt.

As John writes in regards to the Comcast DVR, "Good Lord, it doth suck... Without a doubt, this is an interface built either by Machiavelli's cohorts, or by graceless bureaucrats, or both. No, wait, it's worse."

In marked contrast, the TiVo community at large can't say enough good things about their TiVo. From the touch of the TiVo remote, to the easy to understand menus, intuitive settings and pleasant interface, it is clear the company loves what they do and wants you to love their product. It is unfortunate that in an incredibly competitive world, companies like that don't always rise to the top, instead being attacked at the ankles and around the ears by Comcast and their ilk.

In our home, we will hold on to our TiVo until you pry it from our cold, dead fingers. And that better not happen very soon. Fight the power, John Battelle, we join you with an upraised fist!

Listening to ''It's Alright'', by Pet Shop Boys (Play Count: 2)

Maybe it's just me, but when I have managed to figure out a new technology feat that I'd butted heads with for days, months or even years, it's an exciting victory - even if by the time I've solved the problem I no longer crucially need it. Yesterday, I had an epiphany of sorts, when I remotely accessed our corporate Windows network wirelessly on my Mac OS X-based PowerBook from home, gaining the ability to edit, copy, save and delete from the couch. A small victory? Probably - but one that eluded me in my myriad of attempts before.

At the office, connecting to the Windows network from my Mac has never been hard. With the Mac's built-in CIFS/Samba support, from the Finder, I would choose the "Go" menu, and hit "Connect to Server". When the "Connect to Server" window opened, I would enter smb://, followed by the network I was to connect to, and then the shared machine. (For example: smb://network;machine/) If I were aiming to connect to a subfolder on that machine, a list of available shares would present itself, and I would then login using my network credentials (user name and password).

From home, even after having connected to the VPN, this simply doesn't work. I would always receive an error saying "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "smb://network;machine/" could not be read or written. (Error code - 36)" Not exactly helpful, and trust me... very annoying. Not even when I would substitute the known IP address for "network;machine" could I get anywhere - until last night.

Invention stems from curiosity, so I began monkeying with the way I listed the server name after the initial smb:// prompt. After a few incorrect server mounts, a solution was found! Instead of the "network;machine" method used while local at the office, I found that a full URL-like address was required to make everything hum. So instead, I entered: smb://machine.network.companyname.com and we were all set! Instead of an error (-36), I was able to select the shared folder and get working. Now I have even more ways to get work done from home when I should be relaxing! Is that good?

This eliminates yet another reason I should keep the Dell laptop around. I can upload, download and edit just as if the server were local. While some might take this for granted, we're pretty stoked that we figured it out. After all, it took long enough...

Listening to ''A Message'', by Coldplay (Play Count: 13)

Through the scattered static that accompanies every game I hear over AM radio broadcasting from Sacramento, the early score of today's season opener for the Kings against the Timberwolves at the Target Center showed our hoops heroes down early, as they struggled to shoot more than 30%, and couldn't stop Kevin Garnett. As the sound faded in and out, I heard the Kings' chances doing the same thing, while they trailed by 7 in the second quarter, closing the gap to tie it on three occasions during my drive home, but never finding a way to push over the hump and take the lead. An hour later, the T-Wolves had wrapped up the victory, sending the 2006-07 Kings off with a 0-1 record to start the year.

The Kings didn't shock anyone with their brilliance this pre-season, winning some games and losing others, but lacking the consistent teamwork and offense required to compete in today's NBA. With news that starting guard Mike Bibby would possibly miss time with a broken finger, the team's prospects looked even more dire. But we were excited to hear that Bibby felt well enough to play in tonight's game, and he did manage to put up 16 points, tied for second on the team in the eventual 93-82 loss, following a 28-17 4th quarter fade. The team's 4th quarter collapse was exacerbated by none other than Bibby, who hurt the team with his mouth, picking up two costly technical fouls and being removed from the game.

On the road, against a powerful conference foe, the Kings can hardly afford to see their team leader exit early, and they can't expect to win games by missing more than 5 out of every 8 shots. I hope it was just early-season jitters, and not, instead, a sign of things to come.

Listening to ''Love You More'', by Armin van Buuren (Play Count: 7)