In 2004, Electoral-Vote.com burst onto the scene by graphically tracking the presidential campaign by state, and indicating trends by state or nationally - as tracked by a host of national and local polls. Updated daily, the site would give you a snapshot of how many more states had to go Kerry's way or Bush's way to cement the nomination, and indicate the true battleground states.

With the 2006 senate races coming to a head with votes being cast in only two months, the site is back in action, prepped for what should be a close battle to see if the Republicans can keep their hold on the Senate and House chambers, or if the resurgent Democrats can ride the wave of anti-incumbent fever and tip the balance their way.

Today's score: GOP 52, Democrats 48. Should be an interesting few months.

Listening to ''Assorted Trance Volume 17'', by DJ Irish (Play Count: 3)

For a mega-brand such as Apple, there's little you can do without anybody noticing. With an army of hundreds of thousands scouring your Web site on a daily basis to uncover any hidden clues as to future products and features, or writing on their blog about directories that don't go anywhere (http://www.apple.com/movies) or domain names that don't mean anything (http://www.iphone.org/ and http://www.mammals.org), when you actually do put a tidbit of information out there, it gets devoured and digested more quickly than a pair of hot dogs in front of Takeru Kobayashi.

Today, in separate "findings"...

It was first revealed that Apple had filed patent applications for a multi-functional hand-held device, aimed to act as any or more of the following: a PDA, cell phone, music player, video player, digital camera, handtop, Internet terminal, GPS or remote control. Though the sketches are well... sketchy, it of course reinvigorated discussions that Apple would move beyond the iPod and go after the market it initially forged with the Newton. The application detailed a device that could potentially forgo traditional keys in exchange for touch-sensitive keys that would make room for full-screen viewing.

In a second discovery, it's now said that Apple may be trying to bring back the famous "Cube" which didn't do so well the first time around, priced too high and lacking standard features for upgradeability and accessibility. When high-profile cracks began to appear in the otherwise flawless-looking mini-desktop, Apple put the machines on ice, but suggested they might some day return. Now, a new patent application says the Cube form factor is back on the board. Of course, being laptop centric, I don't think we'll be getting one now either.

Listening to ''Brown Paper Bag'', by Roni Size/Reprazent (Play Count: 2)

Aside from the daily ups and downs of Oakland A's baseball, it's been a long, lonely summer for our TiVo. Without new shows each week from any of the networks, we resorted to the occasional late night show from Conan O'Brien or Jon Stewart, and took a liking to the syndicated Arli$$ from ESPN Classic, but can't say we've been satiated without the standard fare from Law & Order, CSI, 24 and the rest.

Now that September is upon us, the fall season premieres are just beginning to debut and give us hope. After some dark days which had seen us whittle our TiVo WatchList to less than one screen (TiVo owners know what I mean), we should soon be arriving home each day to new fares, and hopefully soon get to struggle not with finding anything to watch, but to instead, pick which show to watch. My wife and I had a conversation of that type just yesterday when we got home.

"What do you want to see when we get home," she asked. "Arli$$ or House?" "Both!" I answered.

So we did - somehow trying to get used to a kinder, gentler House who no longer finds himself addicted to painkillers and a cane following last season's dramatic conclusion which had him shot and on his deathbed. Arli$$ on the other hand was up to his usual tricks, and doesn't seem any better for it.

With the new season upon us, I grow wistful of those who may never grace our screens again - the West Wings and Convictions of the world who some mucky-muck decided had either run their course or never were to be allowed to forge one. But somehow, I think we'll push through and become acceptable TV viewers again, as we did before when we lost NYPD Blue, or even further back, when The Cosby Show and Family Ties said their farewells. Instead, we look to the future and welcome back War At Home, welcome back Jack Bauer and Gil Grissom and the crew as they go about their business. And our TiVo will once again love us back.

Listening to ''Assorted Trance Volume 16'', by DJ Irish (Play Count: 2)

Normally, Tuesdays are the days you can expect a plethora of news releases. Coming off of a longer Labor Day holiday, many companies opted to put their big announcements out on Wednesday instead.

As mentioned previously, many rumor sites had anticipated Apple would introduce new iMacs and iPods alongside an iTunes movie service as part of a special media event this upcoming Tuesday, September 12th. But the Cupertino computer maker surprised the bloggers by debuting the new iMacs a full week earlier. As anticipated, the new iMacs feature the latest in Intel processors, and the top-line version expands to a 24-inch screen, which should dominate just about any desktop. Apple's Mac Mini lineup also received a performance bump with the latest Intel processors. Seems like having a new CPU partner is doing Apple some good. (MacRumors  | Think Secret)

In more Web-focused news, it looks like the Silicon Valley may finally have found a wireless partner to blanket the region with ubiquitous high-speed Internet access. As I've always said, anywhere with air, food, water, a place to sleep and high speed Internet is where I call home. Luckily, it now appears I don't have to move to make that happen, as a consortium led by Cisco and IBM aims to offer wireless internet to the more than 2 million residents in the area. Businesses looking to utilize the network or gain increased bandwidth would have to ante up and buy additional equipment. Matt Marshall at VentureBeat says despite the news, it may be a long time before we can boot up from the park. (Mercury News | New York Times)

If it does indeed take a long time to roll out, then future historians can chronicle the planning on a new service from Google that has organized news articles from the past five-plus years, and is aggressively looking to span the last few centuries or so. The company's new archive search can come in very handy if you are looking to see how a company or product is covered over time. For more-popular items, you can delve into specific years or months to gain more granular data or read specific stories.

Examples: Segway in 2005, iPod in 2001, Bin Laden in 1998-1999