Re:Many aspects are already computerized.
on
eLection '04
·
· Score: 1
I wonder at what point the cost for my county to maintain their ~75 year old voting machines will be greater than the cost of replacing them. I understand the central office in the county uses a set of adding machines of similar vintage to compute the total for the county.
The voting machines are huge with weight to match. They stand on a set of 4 steel wheels.
I don't have much to add except to share an experience I had. Something I did in high school was viewed in much the same light. Although it did not result in disciplinary action, many faculty and students felt the need to discuss the situation with me and try to change my mind, some going so far as to demand that I had no right to do what I did.
I was in band and had been for years. The band was quite small and I was the only low brass player they had. During my 11th grade year, they hired a new assistant band director. This was when I learned that hiring as asst. director the person who had previously been director could be a bad idea. To put it simply, he wasn't happy not having the final say and frequently did things like took out any modern music (music that was popular with our age group within the last few years) on a day the director wasn't there. We wound-up with a marching version of the 1812 Overture and the theme from Ghost Riders in the Sky (apparently an old show, well before my time.)
It was the Thursday before the first game and next to last day of band camp. The asst. director decided to make a huge stink of something I did (it wasn't really a big deal, small enough I have long since forgotten it) and that was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." I decided I'd had enough of it, went home for lunch, typed a letter to the band director saying I was quiting and that it was personal differences with the asst. director, sealed it in an envelope and gave it to the director, along with my uniform and instrument (property of the school.) The only other people I shared that with was my parents.
Somehow, word quickly made the rounds of the school. I don't know how they found out the contents of the letter (could have been the director or asst. director sharing it, or it could have been my brother via my parents.) The fact that I didn't like the asst. director was well known and I was attacked for it. "I think it's horrible what you're doing to him" is exactly what one classmate said to me just as a class was starting (yelled across the room.)
I never did figure out that reasoning. I guess "it's high school" is the best explination. I made every effort to keep a personal difference from becoming a public event, but something went wrong somewhere. I had figured that the way the asst. director was just how the he was. I did not fight to change the organization when others seemed satisfied with it.
I was ultimatly asked to come back by the band director and agreed with the condition that the asst. director stay off my back. I was there because I enjoyed it. I would not be making a career of music and the band was far too small (not to mention too many of the members were only in it so they could see the football games for free) to be a competition band. For some reason, after that, the asst. director left me alone, and I had a rather enjoyable year. I wasn't in band the following year as I did "early admission" (freshman year of college in leiu of 12th grade.)
BTW: the asst. director had retired as director 10 years previous - when I was in 1st grade. While that likely was how he was, I had no way of knowing that until band camp started that year. IMHO, 3.5 days was a not an extensive amount of time to decide I couldn't stand the guy (band camp was only 5 days, 9am-4pm.)
This (the reasons stated) are some of the reasons I'm not the most fond of newspapers. Indeed, it is yesterday's news. Further, as my local paper doesn't have any competition anymore, they sometimes don't print stories you'd expect to see printed.
However, I still subscribe to the local newspaper as it's the most indepth source of news in my area (there are 3 TV news stations in the area, but they define their coverage area to be large enough they can only report the most major stories in some of the cities.) Plus, given the poor performance of some of the public officials in the area, the newspaper is needed to keep tabs on them.
However, logistical issues have prevented me from subscribing to their morning issue (specifically, the fact that although I leave at a normal time for work - 8am - the morning edition would not have arrived by then.) We stopped subscribing for a while because delivery was unreliable (I live in a rural area where delivery is done by car routes.)
>For my money, i'd just get a DSL, ISDN or Cable connection and wait a year or two for the cost of indecently fast connections to get cheaper. You might also look into a T1 frame relay if money isn't an object.
Mind, most of us who are looking for this live in areas where none of the afore mentioned methods of connecting are available. In my area, it's 26.4kbps (even with a 33.6 modem - analog phone lines are of too poor quality) with no ISDN or DSL option available from GTE. The local cable company will not service where I live due to their reliance on an old survey of the area (at that time, there were 7 residences on the road, 2 of which had satellite, 2 others were weekend only, now only one has satellite and the rest are full-time.) Since they are legally prohibited from charging me the cost they would incur to run the 1 mile+ of cable it would take to reach me they refuse to run a service out to that area.
So, my only option is wireless. Yeah, I'd love to have a better method, but it's not going to happen for the forseeable future. Besides, from what I've heard from the people who have cable modems from the various local cable companies (it isn't uncommon for there to be a dozen or so different cable companies with their own contract area in a county) they're not worth it as the cable operators are trying to avoid the expense of upgrade to make the throughput worth-while (one user commented to me that they go straight 56k modem between 7-10 pm as it's actually faster than cable modem is for them.) DSL isn't available in this corner of the state, and ISDN is still priced high.
To keep this on-topic, I will say that I do laugh at some of the things users do. I do *not* laugh at ones who are trying to learn, but at the ones who refuse to learn (it becomes a laugh-or-cry situation, particularly with one of my users.)
I wanted to comment specificially on the following: >[...] who says that working tech support is something that can be done with little training and no prior knowledge.
*Thank You*. There are some skills that cannot be easily taught. We can teach someone technical skills and customer service skills, but it may not help.
A place I used to work for tried what I presume was a cost-cutting measure (they did lower salaries) of hiring people who were on "welfare." I feel I must note here that I'm not putting down people on such assistance - most are there by hard luck, and the abuser stories tend to be the exception - as they are some intelligent people. However, this company was just trying to get people on the phones (and other positions at the company, like trouble-shooting in the hardware dept - when laptops came in for repair) with a minimal ammount of training.
Making this worse is that due to frequent changes in software, the company relied on the helpdesk to maintain the procedures (how to deal with various types of calls, etc.) Need I say that it didn't work well? Management didn't help much as they had a team leader who was more concerned about keeping the harmony of the team then if the answer was actually a: the right way to do it or b: would even *work* - there were officially accepted solutions to problem where the solution would *not* fix the problem or would cause its own set of problems.
Example of such a solution: with a Lexmark inkjet printer (ColorWriter/WinWriter, IIRC) the reps being supported were not given access to printer control panel so they could signal it to move the cartridge carrier over for a cartridge change. Instead of trying to get this problem corrected, they decided the proper thing to do was to turn the printer off, open the access door, reach inside, grasp the belt which moves the carrier and pull the carrier over. One guess the result? Three things tended to happen: the belt ran off of its pulleys (only one some models, others were designed such that this didn't happen), in time, the belt was stretched enough that it would slip, or the belt was broken.
A hot topic is which is more importiant for a perspective tech-support person to have: technical or customer service skills. My response, which usually doesn't go over well for some reason, is "That isn't an 'or' question." A good basis in both is importiant, how much of each depends on the specifics of the position in question and the organization they'll be working for.
Although the waiver will give you a defense, it won't prevent people from suing. As someone put it, "anyone can sue anybody for any reason." As dumb as it is, it's a fact of life.
My mother works for a public school district in the south-east US. They have filtering enabled for this very reason. Yet, even then, the local media jumps on the slightest story of inappropriate content getting through (even if it is something like a banner advert.)
And supports them rather well. As to some of the peripheral hardware that exists, that can be another ball game.
I have a SC that won't work under Linux. I'm not complaining...I really didn't expect it to. After all, since no Linux drivers were available and the thing never did work right under Windows... Maybe I should have been happy that I could play the first 1/2 second of any wave file I wanted and nothing more (no, I'm not kidding, that's exactly what it would do.)
As Linux becomes more popular, a number of these peoblems will vanish. Why? Realizing the lucrative market, hardware vendors will write Linux drivers and/or open their "propritary standard" or, best case, dump the propritary bits (assuming building a capable product is possible w/o their propritary bits.) Let's be real, most hardware makers don't make money of their software driver efforts. Generally, the drivers are free but only function with the device in question.
And the lawsuits when their little darling happens to see some content that the parents don't feel should be available via school computers.
My mother works for a school district in the states which happens to be in the heart of the bible belt. They recently implimented censorware largely in response to a threat by the local media to run a story that they had such content available (which likely would have lead to immediate lawsuits, etc.) For them, it was a CYA move. Until parents take some responsibility for raising their kids (and acknowledge the fact that despite our best attempts, kids will still do these kinds of things) we're going to have these problems. I know that a lot of the people in the schools wouldn't mind a court giving a directive, but for the previously mentioned reason need to stay on the good side of public opinion.
Thanks for posting that. Your point is well taken...anybody who claims to have all free software but doesn't *should* be called on it (and it doesn't matter who it is...Debian, RedHat, S.u.S.e, or any others.)
However, a point that is just under the surface there is this: one of our greatest strengths is that GNU/Linux comes in so many different packages. It's the same core but with many different makers (distros) which all provide their own set of options. What distro A lacks, B has, so if you need that function/option, B is the better choice. However, as sure as that B will lack something that A has.
I tend to view the fact that we have different distros and so many variations, yet all based very much on the same core system as a strength. If a Micro~1 product falls short, who can you turn to while keeping with Windows? No-body (generally speaking here.) If a GNU/Linux distro falls short, there is another to step-in and take its place.
I sometimes find it interesting how we spend so much time fighting each other and trying to destroy what is actually one of our strong selling-points.
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I wonder at what point the cost for my county to maintain their ~75 year old voting machines will be greater than the cost of replacing them. I understand the central office in the county uses a set of adding machines of similar vintage to compute the total for the county.
The voting machines are huge with weight to match. They stand on a set of 4 steel wheels.
I don't have much to add except to share an experience I had. Something I did in high school was viewed in much the same light. Although it did not result in disciplinary action, many faculty and students felt the need to discuss the situation with me and try to change my mind, some going so far as to demand that I had no right to do what I did.
I was in band and had been for years. The band was quite small and I was the only low brass player they had. During my 11th grade year, they hired a new assistant band director. This was when I learned that hiring as asst. director the person who had previously been director could be a bad idea. To put it simply, he wasn't happy not having the final say and frequently did things like took out any modern music (music that was popular with our age group within the last few years) on a day the director wasn't there. We wound-up with a marching version of the 1812 Overture and the theme from Ghost Riders in the Sky (apparently an old show, well before my time.)
It was the Thursday before the first game and next to last day of band camp. The asst. director decided to make a huge stink of something I did (it wasn't really a big deal, small enough I have long since forgotten it) and that was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." I decided I'd had enough of it, went home for lunch, typed a letter to the band director saying I was quiting and that it was personal differences with the asst. director, sealed it in an envelope and gave it to the director, along with my uniform and instrument (property of the school.) The only other people I shared that with was my parents.
Somehow, word quickly made the rounds of the school. I don't know how they found out the contents of the letter (could have been the director or asst. director sharing it, or it could have been my brother via my parents.) The fact that I didn't like the asst. director was well known and I was attacked for it. "I think it's horrible what you're doing to him" is exactly what one classmate said to me just as a class was starting (yelled across the room.)
I never did figure out that reasoning. I guess "it's high school" is the best explination. I made every effort to keep a personal difference from becoming a public event, but something went wrong somewhere. I had figured that the way the asst. director was just how the he was. I did not fight to change the organization when others seemed satisfied with it.
I was ultimatly asked to come back by the band director and agreed with the condition that the asst. director stay off my back. I was there because I enjoyed it. I would not be making a career of music and the band was far too small (not to mention too many of the members were only in it so they could see the football games for free) to be a competition band. For some reason, after that, the asst. director left me alone, and I had a rather enjoyable year. I wasn't in band the following year as I did "early admission" (freshman year of college in leiu of 12th grade.)
BTW: the asst. director had retired as director 10 years previous - when I was in 1st grade. While that likely was how he was, I had no way of knowing that until band camp started that year. IMHO, 3.5 days was a not an extensive amount of time to decide I couldn't stand the guy (band camp was only 5 days, 9am-4pm.)
This (the reasons stated) are some of the reasons I'm not the most fond of newspapers. Indeed, it is yesterday's news. Further, as my local paper doesn't have any competition anymore, they sometimes don't print stories you'd expect to see printed.
However, I still subscribe to the local newspaper as it's the most indepth source of news in my area (there are 3 TV news stations in the area, but they define their coverage area to be large enough they can only report the most major stories in some of the cities.) Plus, given the poor performance of some of the public officials in the area, the newspaper is needed to keep tabs on them.
However, logistical issues have prevented me from subscribing to their morning issue (specifically, the fact that although I leave at a normal time for work - 8am - the morning edition would not have arrived by then.) We stopped subscribing for a while because delivery was unreliable (I live in a rural area where delivery is done by car routes.)
>For my money, i'd just get a DSL, ISDN or Cable connection and wait a year or two for the cost of indecently fast connections to get cheaper. You might also look into a T1 frame relay if money isn't an object.
Mind, most of us who are looking for this live in areas where none of the afore mentioned methods of connecting are available. In my area, it's 26.4kbps (even with a 33.6 modem - analog phone lines are of too poor quality) with no ISDN or DSL option available from GTE. The local cable company will not service where I live due to their reliance on an old survey of the area (at that time, there were 7 residences on the road, 2 of which had satellite, 2 others were weekend only, now only one has satellite and the rest are full-time.) Since they are legally prohibited from charging me the cost they would incur to run the 1 mile+ of cable it would take to reach me they refuse to run a service out to that area.
So, my only option is wireless. Yeah, I'd love to have a better method, but it's not going to happen for the forseeable future. Besides, from what I've heard from the people who have cable modems from the various local cable companies (it isn't uncommon for there to be a dozen or so different cable companies with their own contract area in a county) they're not worth it as the cable operators are trying to avoid the expense of upgrade to make the throughput worth-while (one user commented to me that they go straight 56k modem between 7-10 pm as it's actually faster than cable modem is for them.) DSL isn't available in this corner of the state, and ISDN is still priced high.
To keep this on-topic, I will say that I do laugh at some of the things users do. I do *not* laugh at ones who are trying to learn, but at the ones who refuse to learn (it becomes a laugh-or-cry situation, particularly with one of my users.)
I wanted to comment specificially on the following:
>[...] who says that working tech support is something that can be done with little training and no prior knowledge.
*Thank You*. There are some skills that cannot be easily taught. We can teach someone technical skills and customer service skills, but it may not help.
A place I used to work for tried what I presume was a cost-cutting measure (they did lower salaries) of hiring people who were on "welfare." I feel I must note here that I'm not putting down people on such assistance - most are there by hard luck, and the abuser stories tend to be the exception - as they are some intelligent people. However, this company was just trying to get people on the phones (and other positions at the company, like trouble-shooting in the hardware dept - when laptops came in for repair) with a minimal ammount of training.
Making this worse is that due to frequent changes in software, the company relied on the helpdesk to maintain the procedures (how to deal with various types of calls, etc.) Need I say that it didn't work well? Management didn't help much as they had a team leader who was more concerned about keeping the harmony of the team then if the answer was actually a: the right way to do it or b: would even *work* - there were officially accepted solutions to problem where the solution would *not* fix the problem or would cause its own set of problems.
Example of such a solution: with a Lexmark inkjet printer (ColorWriter/WinWriter, IIRC) the reps being supported were not given access to printer control panel so they could signal it to move the cartridge carrier over for a cartridge change. Instead of trying to get this problem corrected, they decided the proper thing to do was to turn the printer off, open the access door, reach inside, grasp the belt which moves the carrier and pull the carrier over. One guess the result? Three things tended to happen: the belt ran off of its pulleys (only one some models, others were designed such that this didn't happen), in time, the belt was stretched enough that it would slip, or the belt was broken.
A hot topic is which is more importiant for a perspective tech-support person to have: technical or customer service skills. My response, which usually doesn't go over well for some reason, is "That isn't an 'or' question." A good basis in both is importiant, how much of each depends on the specifics of the position in question and the organization they'll be working for.
Just like in Linux, it doesn't (Sony hasn't released the specs yet.) Generally, a Win partition is kept around for that purpose.
Although the waiver will give you a defense, it won't prevent people from suing. As someone put it, "anyone can sue anybody for any reason." As dumb as it is, it's a fact of life.
My mother works for a public school district in the south-east US. They have filtering enabled for this very reason. Yet, even then, the local media jumps on the slightest story of inappropriate content getting through (even if it is something like a banner advert.)
>[...] but Linux DOES claim to run on Intel PCs
And supports them rather well. As to some of the peripheral hardware that exists, that can be another ball game.
I have a SC that won't work under Linux. I'm not complaining...I really didn't expect it to. After all, since no Linux drivers were available and the thing never did work right under Windows... Maybe I should have been happy that I could play the first 1/2 second of any wave file I wanted and nothing more (no, I'm not kidding, that's exactly what it would do.)
As Linux becomes more popular, a number of these peoblems will vanish. Why? Realizing the lucrative market, hardware vendors will write Linux drivers and/or open their "propritary standard" or, best case, dump the propritary bits (assuming building a capable product is possible w/o their propritary bits.) Let's be real, most hardware makers don't make money of their software driver efforts. Generally, the drivers are free but only function with the device in question.
> just the parents who fund the school.
And the lawsuits when their little darling happens to see some content that the parents don't feel should be available via school computers.
My mother works for a school district in the states which happens to be in the heart of the bible belt. They recently implimented censorware largely in response to a threat by the local media to run a story that they had such content available (which likely would have lead to immediate lawsuits, etc.) For them, it was a CYA move. Until parents take some responsibility for raising their kids (and acknowledge the fact that despite our best attempts, kids will still do these kinds of things) we're going to have these problems. I know that a lot of the people in the schools wouldn't mind a court giving a directive, but for the previously mentioned reason need to stay on the good side of public opinion.
Freed
Thanks for posting that. Your point is well taken...anybody who claims to have all free software but doesn't *should* be called on it (and it doesn't matter who it is...Debian, RedHat, S.u.S.e, or any others.)
However, a point that is just under the surface there is this: one of our greatest strengths is that GNU/Linux comes in so many different packages. It's the same core but with many different makers (distros) which all provide their own set of options. What distro A lacks, B has, so if you need that function/option, B is the better choice. However, as sure as that B will lack something that A has.
I tend to view the fact that we have different distros and so many variations, yet all based very much on the same core system as a strength. If a Micro~1 product falls short, who can you turn to while keeping with Windows? No-body (generally speaking here.) If a GNU/Linux distro falls short, there is another to step-in and take its place.
I sometimes find it interesting how we spend so much time fighting each other and trying to destroy what is actually one of our strong selling-points.