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Microsoft Settlement Comments
GreyPoopon writes: "I'm sure somebody has already sent this in, but what the heck. According to Excite, it looks like a summary of the comments on the Microsoft settlement only show 5 of the 47 released by the Justice Department in support of the settlement. Does this mean that Judge Kollar-Kotelly will rely on only these 47 to make her decision?" The comments that the DOJ describes as "major" are now published; the procedure the DOJ wants to follow for publishing all of the 30,000 comments received is contained in a court filing. (The Federal Register, if you don't know, is a dead-tree, daily publication of the doings of the U.S. Federal Government. The Department of Justice is arguing that there are simply too many comments to publish on paper, despite the legal requirement to do so.)
Actually, I was thinking; with an initiative like Canada is doing, where every household will have a Cable modem by 2004, true democratic process could be implemented -- shut off the internetwork access when a vote is to take place, let every cable connection vote once, including information such as the Social Security No# to verify it over encryption, with the vote(and authentication information) heading to a server at town hall, and after the process is complete, reactivate access.
There would be some hefty perks to owning the network citezens would be using to vote, such that hackers and false voters could be elimiated.
It's been a long time.
Actually it is not. It is a testament to the fact that people are much more likely to complain than they are to compliment. Ask the manager at your local grocery store or a restaurant owner which they get more of.
True, but at a grocery store or a restaurant you're not specifically requested to comment on the quality of the service. Typically, hearing no comments means everything is all right.
The situation here is completely different, there is a specific Request For Comments in a very high profile case. People not submitting comments are most likely people who are indifferent or have no strong opinions on the case. You can't really talk about "anti-Microsoft zealots" without mentioning the dual "Pro-Microsoft zealots". There's no reason the former would voice their opinions less or more loudly than the latter.
DZM