Cyrus Farivar

As Mike Janes, the CEO of FanSnap, told me in a phone interview: “We’re just a search engine just like google, pointing you to the people who do have the tickets and will take your credit card.”

Now, I’ll admit, I’m not one to buy tickets at the last minute very often. If there’s a show or a game that I know I want to go to — much to my friends’ annoyance — I’ll buy the tickets as early as possible and will hound said friends to do the same. But I could definitely see how a site like this could come in handy, so I wanted to give FanSnap a spin, and compare it to its brethren.

In order to do that, I’d have to pick an event. As a Santa Monica native, if there’s one event I’d love to catch tonight, it would be to watch my favorite Boys in Blue (hopefully) pull one out in Chavez Ravine.

So I typed in “Dodgers” into the search box of each of these three ticket sites.

On FanSnap, the first ticket result was tonight’s National League Championship Series game. I clicked through and was taken to a map of Dodger Stadium, with various colored circles indicating the location and price of each ticket. A mouse-over any particular section reveals the number of tickets available and the respective price. As of this writing, the cheapest seats are in the top deck, and go for 17 dollars via StubHub. One click through and I’m off to StubHub to actually pay for the tickets.

Next, I turned to TicketStumbler, and typed in “Dodgers” into their search field. The first 20 results were for games that were already played in September — if you’re a ticket company, you’d think that you’d be removing tickets to events that are long over. It took me a couple seconds to figure out that I was supposed to click on the left side of the screen, where it says “Los Angeles Dodgers Playoff.” Then, finally, I got a listing for upcoming Game 5.

Unlike FanSnap, TicketStumbler lacks a nice, easy-to-use visual graphic of the venue. To be fair, there is a stadium map in the lower left of the screen that I can check — but that doesn’t provide much more value than printing a map on a piece of paper. People, this is 2008. A multimedia CD-ROM from 1995 has more interactivity than a web-based static map, ok?

Anyway, I was intrigued by the fact that the first listing was for a set of three tickets at just a Hamilton apiece. But when I went to click “buy tickets,” I was taken to a StubHub auction site, where someone had listed these tickets for auction at that same price. Ok, fair enough.

SeatQuest was something else entirely. When I typed “dodgers” into the front door search field, it asked me: “Did you mean? Detroit Tigers Memphis Tigers Mens Basketball Los Angeles Dodgers LSU Tigers Football” and a bunch of other useless search results. I’m not really sure how or why SeatQuest thinks that I meant the Tigers when I typed Dodgers — it’s a pretty unique sports team name — but whatever. Off I went to click the third (!) search result. As expected, then was presented with a list of upcoming Dodgers events. Tonight’s game was, as it should have been, the first search result.

The SeatQuest interface presents a map of the venue much in the same way that FanSnap does, except that to get the rollover effect, you have to move the mouse precisely on the blue dots in the particular section. FanSnap nicely makes the dots much larger and thus, easier to locate. I checked for the cheapest tickets, which were two $11 tickets (including the service fee) via TicketFast.

It’s not clear to me if TicketFast is one of FanSnap’s partners, because if it is, I’m a bit mystified as to why I couldn’t buy those cheaper tickets. Janes, FanSnap’s CEO also told me that TicketFast isn’t yet one of their partners, which explains it. He also said that he didn’t really view TicketFast and SeatQuest as competitors — the company’s main competitor was Google.

“We’re not going to displace Google, but that’s where the target is,” he said.

I tried contacting some analysts to get their thoughts, but didn’t get anywhere — Gartner said they didn’t have anyone covering this sector.

After a quick trial run it seems that FanSnap is definitely the new leader in the online ticket sales sector. That is to say, assuming that TicketFast isn’t a partner, which would explain why I could find cheaper tickets elsewhere.

Anyone out there actually use these sites on a regular basis? What’s been your experience?

[via GigaOm]

But there were also a few troubling episodes on the technological front, with text messages and e-mails being used as a way to perpetuate false information.

Wired reported late last night that voters in Florida and New Mexico received a fake text message from 505-507-6041 that says things like: “Due to long lines if you are voting for Barack Obama you can vote tomorrow,” or “Due to the long lines today, all Obama voters are asked to vote on Wednesday.”

The AP adds that there have been reports of similar “robo-calls” and fake texts in Missouri and that the Missouri secretary of state and U.S. Attorney’s Office have been notified. I’m glad that this wasn’t widespread enough to have made a difference, but it’s still a troubling development.

But that’s not all. Thousands of students at George Mason University received an e-mail spoofed to look like it was from Provost Peter N. Stearns saying that “election day has been moved to November 5th. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.” Apparently the FBI is on the case.

And finally, while the outcome of the election was by a pretty overwhelming margin, there were still problems with electronic voting in numerous states, although not enough to have any sort of real impact.

Still,  we as a country really need to have a single standard for federal elections, get rid of these awful e-voting machines, and streamline this whole process so we don’t have to deal with this kind of crap anymore.

On a more personal and professional note, I share with you the news that this is my last post in Machinist, which is going on hiatus beginning tomorrow.

I thank all of you for reading and for your thoughtful and critical comments. If you’d like to follow me and/or any of my other work on public radio or elsewhere, you can do so on my blog: cyrusfarivar.com (where I’ll be announcing the result of our little trial voter-verified election), and/or you can email me at cfarivar [at] cfarivar [dot] org.

Cheers!

CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed. Images are processed and projected by computers and cameras in New York. There’ll also be plasma TVs in Chicago and Phoenix that will let the people being interviewed see Blitzer and other CNN correspondents. Bohrman says the network can project two different views from each city so Blitzer can appear to be in the studio with two holograms.

Jessica Yellin was the first CNN reporter to be “beamed” to the New York newsroom, where Wolf Blitzer interviewed her — and she reported that there were only 35 cameras pointed at her, and that “talk to the cameras in New York.” Apparently representatives in the Obama campaign in Chicago and the McCain campaign in Phoenix will be interviewed as holograms later in the evening.

It’s still unclear who makes this hologram technology, nor how much it costs, nor how exactly it works — nor when I’m going to get it in my house. Man, and I was just getting used to Skype video chat. Still, scope out the video below.

This is without a doubt the best Obama song that I’ve seen so far. It’s got catchy lyrics — Viva Obama! — snappy outfits, a line about healthcare, and that female violin player? Muy caliente!

2) Extra Golden – Obama

This half Kenyan band (just like Obama!) rock out on this chillaxed benga track. Great guitar riffs.

3) Cocoa Tea – Barack Obama

Jamaican reggae star Coco Tea recorded this tune earlier this year, earning a small writeup in the Jamaica Observer at the time.

As he told the newspaper:

“If you notice, Obama is getting a lot of support from the young people, and when the younger generation begin to call for change, it usually comes, as they and the future, and Obama’s future is in their hands. Support for Obama is also coming from other quarters including the Kennedy family, as he is seen as the man with a plan, therefore I was guided by Jah on this one.”

How can you argue with Jah?

4) Docta Musica WashiWara – Barack Obama

This tune comes to us from Cameroon, and if you believe what the Docta says on his Web site: “The video has quickly becomed a big hit on Youtube.” Indeed.

5) crbballgal – BARACK THE VOTE!

How can I deny two fly girls, an ’80s-style synth, and rapping in front of a bathroom mirror? Well done, ladies.

6) Mighty Sparrow – Barack the Magnificent

Mighty Sparrow is the world’s leading calypso singer, hailing from the island of Grenada. Cop a read on the lyrics over here — I’m sure this is the first time that the phrase “Foreign Relations Committee” has worked its way into a calypso song.

7) Obama Song Spanish Reggaeton

I’m not sure who wrote this song, but nothing makes me want to sing “Si se puede!” louder than this reggaeton tune.

Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream

This song debuted just two days ago at a rally in Cleveland, so if you drop this joint at your fiesta, you’ll definitely be about 75 percent as cool as the Boss himself.

9) Barackapella – Yes We Can

Although college a capella may get mocked on Stuff White People Like, this cover of the famed will.i.am song is perfectly pulled off by Barackapella, a group from Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. (Also, don’t forget the parody, by john.he.is!)

10) Guru – Obama dance mix

I really, really hope that this is the first song that the Obamas dance to at the inagural ball. Or at least at the party in Chicago tonight.