Trial Balloon: January 8, 2009 Archive

A Plume of White Smoke

Posted at 4:55 AM on January 8, 2009 by Dale Connelly (41 Comments)

The official time-honored processes and elaborate, inexplicable ceremonies have all been completed. The balloteers balleted. The electors elected. The sifters sifted through the results while the scrutineers scrutinized everything from top to bottom and we now have a name for the computer who runs things at Radio Heartland.

It is ... Jasper!

Jasper is a good, solid reliable name. It was submitted as part of a blog posting on December 19th by Radio Heartland listener DanT. Thanks, DanT, for the assist! Jasper is a name that is held by a number of fictional characters and actual places (including a town in southwestern Minnesota). The name also describes a kind of gemstone that was thought, in medieval times, to give the wearer the power to cure those who were possessed by devils.

Yesterday, our computer needed that kind of Jasper related mojo.

Our voter turnout (200) was a record for computer-naming conclaves and the number of posts on the blog (68) when voting closed this morning at 5 a.m. was impressive, though critics say that total was artificially inflated by the fact that our Windows media stream started the day broken, thereby giving people a reason to feel bitter and betrayed, which always bolsters turnout in an important contest.

We will proceed as if this is totally legitimate.
Feel free to file your challenges with the court of appeals.
So long Hal, and hello Jasper!

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