Here is an interesting comment on technology and poll-taking. "[Generating a truly random set of respondents] is a very challenging problem, in part because the technological landscape is changing so fast that it's hard for pollsters to use their experience from the last presidential election as a basis for refining their methodology. Among the things that presumably have changed since 2008: the number of people who have cell phones, the number who have abandoned land lines in favor of cell phones, the number who have caller ID and use it, the number who ignore calls from unknown parties, etc. And these kinds of things tend to vary by age, income level, ethnicity, etc. -- all of which correlate with which candidate a person will vote for. Pollsters can do things to try to correct for all of this, but the ground is shifting so fast that it's hard for them to know they're doing the right things."
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/is-ohio-a-toss-up/264571/ This a reminder that there are no permanent solutions in technology. Every invention carries in it the seeds of obsolescence. If it works at all, it must eventually become obsolete, because it works only because it fits in with the other machines, processes, standards, customs and so on prevalent at this moment in history. - Jed
