I see you're in Blackboxvoting.org. Can you e-mail me, I have issues with the voting machines we used since the last 5 years, and I would like to address them at City Hall? (Pig.hogger at gmail.com)
Here's a simple fix for the recount trigger problem: random manual recounts for every election. IF even ONE of the races turn up as fixed, the lid is blown and we go back to hand counts. I can only hope.
Here, recounts are automagically triggered if there is less than 5% difference between two candidates.
w do you know the source they give makes equals the binary you run?
It's very easy. Slots machine do.
In Nevada, no slot machine can run unless the manufacturer gives the Nevada Gaming Commission the source code. They can then compile it and get a MD5 checksum for it.
All they have to do then is to go in casinoes and do spot-check on some machines; all they do is plug a special diagnostic box which looks at the firmware and calculates the MD5 checksum, then compares it with the official checksum.
Any objection to a release of source code is utter lawyer bullshit.
You mean like a company wanting to protect it's investments?
In this case, yes, it's bullshit.
As the democratic process has to be, in essence, totally transparent (during ballot counting, candidates can appoint witnesses who closely watch the ballot tallying process), it is no mystery that voting machines should likewise operate in a totally transparent manner, that is, not only that the source code be available for inspection by anyone who wishes to, but also that there is a verification process to enable anyone to verify that the actual compiled code in the voting machine has actually been compiled from the source code (yes, this is possible - it is being done for slots machines).
People on Slashdot tend to forget that companies spend a LOT of time and money writing software. It makes absolutely no sense for them to do this and then go release it all for free to the public. Microsoft doesn't, IBM doesn't, and even the ever-pure Google doesn't. There really are good reasons why.
Some croporate sockpuppets on slashdot tend to forget that "intellectual" "property" is not an absolute thing like gravity or matter, but a convention that is GRANTED and, thus, can be witheld for specific reasons. Like, for example, insuring that the democratic process remains transparent.
Now, if a company does not like the idea of writing open-source software for it's voting machine, it is entirely free to refrain from doing so and leaving the market to those who do not mind.
And, besides, the software would be totally useless without the hardware, so why should one care if anybody can "steal" it???
Finally, since the specifications given by the government for voting machines should clearly state that the source code shall be available for anyone who asks, if the company wants to make money, nothing prevents it from bidding a higher price to allow releasing the software.
Say, for example, that Diebold does what you say. They go and release the source under the GPL and the Slashdot peasants rejoice! Huzzah! Suddenly everybody has access to the code that Diebold spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars writing. All of a sudden there's a whole bunch of other electronic voting companies that start up and offer their machines for less than Diebold because they aren't trying to recoup the costs of writing the voting software.
Diebold is not entitled to an automatic profit. Nor any other business for that matter. If it cannot factor in the fact that the software will be lifted by other companies, and goes bankrupt for this, well it only has itself to blame.
End result? Diebold either goes out of business or leaves that market because Bob's Voting Machines was able to sell for less and still make a profit.
This is bullshit. Others manufacturers would have to make their machines identical to Diebold machines, and there, Diebold would have a very good case for suing them.
So remind me, why in the world would they want to do what you're asking?
To make a profit, given that their software will be released as I pointed out above.
Unless there is third party auditing at the time of voting, or access to the source code with definitive proof that the shown code is compiled on the machines, and the machines haven't been updated, then it's an exercise in futility.
Actually, no. Slot machines and video poker are strictly regulated in regards to the actual object code being executed by the CPU. The various gaming commissions have hardware that is used to perform spot-checks (something like a big clip that you clamp on the CPU, and by pressing a button, it performs some diagnostics [à la CRC] to verify that the firmware has not been tampered with.
The same thing could be effected for voting machines.
Paper trail: the magical words. In Montréal, Québec, the recent municipal election is being contested. Mark-sense ballots were counted by machines, but ballots are kept in sealed boxes after being run through the machine (by the elector). Right now, the ballots are being recounted by hand in the courthouse.
Besides the fact that ppl like customizing stuff, it's also a pleasant way of knowing whose phone is ringing. My GF and I have identical phones. Yeah, we could play with different ring tones, etc.
Many moons ago, before ringtones, I was on the bus, and suddenly, a phone rings. I counted no less than 8 people checking their own phones...
* * *
Funniest thing I saw was also on a bus. On the back of one of those big articulated buses:
(RING)
- Hi! Where are you? ...
- Oh, I'm on a bus, too. ...
- Oh, we're getting near $SHOPPING_MALL ...
- You too? Well, we must be on the same bus!!!
I got several of those cameras and was disappointed with the results. Apparently, bikini clad women were not lounging around my house when I was away at work. If they had been, I would have asked them to do a litle vacuuming.
I hope the vacuuming would involve something else than the carpet!!!
Last summer, I had work at a place 10 km from home, to which I biked.
No one objected in me working in flashy spandex. The exercise gives me fantastic legs which makes me look great in the spandex. And the girls especially liked to look at my package whenever I showed up around them. The way they blushed was memorable!
Funniest thing that it always embarrassed the bunch of gays in the design department - they would not dare look at me, yet they had the look that killed; none of them would ever dare dress in flashy spandex at work. I just can imagine the gossip whenever I walked out of there...
There was one of them who was annoying with always the same kind of problem. One day, I decided to tackle him right-on by showing him exactly how to fix the most recurrent form of problems. As I had planned to do this for several days, I decided to do it on the day I was wearing my fluorescent green bike shorts (no I have no shame at all - spandex is my way to say "FUCK-YOU VERY MUCH" to the kind of people who object to it). I sat on a desk next to his, and I was careful to spread my legs to make my package most visible as I explained him for 20-25 minutes how to do it.
It was hilarious to look at him trying to concentrate on his computer, all the while wanting to have a good look at my package. I started this as the guy came back early from his lunch, so whenever the others walked-back in, they were wondering what the hell was going on, and one of them who kept wearing his sunglasses was obviously watching my package while pretending he was working on his computer...
You must work in the Sirius Cybernetic Marketing department, don't you?
Yeah, this is a hot button for me. People in a work environment who dress in garbage such as sandals, shorts, and grungy T-shirts have a predominate lack of respect. Lack of respect for themselves.
So in order to respect oneself, one has to submit to sadomasochism?
Lack of respect for their profession. Lack of respect for their outward presentation.
The outward presentation is bullshit. What counts is the results.
And that goes a long way towards explaning the attitude of most people in this business. Generally, dev-minded people have little or no respect for others, for authority, they are highly cynical and sarcastic, they don't like structure, they don't respect their customers.
Dev people have plenty of respect for RESPECTABLE people. That is, people who do not look at the bullshit aspect of things.
Authority is most often NOT RESPECTABLE, because it is clueless. Developping being all about being clueful, it's no wonder authority gets no respect.
They all want to be fucking cowboys riding free on the range. Whatever. It is a total joy for me when I get to fire these idiots.
No wonder your company makes crappy products!!!
I'd trade ten respectable, respectful developers who were good teammates over one genius who was a pariah and dressed like a moron who had nothing to lose.
And 50 years later, you'll still be searching.
I sincerely hope some level of professionalism and respect comes back to this business at some point.
So, I guess you do not think that professionalism is making bug-free products that works, and respect is not gobbling your customer's money in return for fluff.
You'll definitely be one of the first to be put against the wall!!!!
I had the CEO of a company I was working at start to gripe about my ignoring the dress code. I pointed at the pile of dirt and dust and dead insects that'd fallen out of the ceiling tile I'd pulled aside to work up in there and asked him if he was willing to get into that wearing his suit? He said no way, it was too expensive to ruin. I asked him if he was going to pay if I ruined my good clothes in there? He said no. "Then why should I? Now, can I get back to finding and fixing this wiring problem, or do you want the demo you're doing this afternoon, the one you said was critical to the company's success this year, to flop when none of the stuff you want to show off actually works?".
If I was required to dress differently for the sake of being professional by stereotypical standards, I'm coming in with a lab coat, reflecting the "scientist" part of my title.
Some time back, in a job where we did low-level system programming for custom hardware, we joked about wearing lab coats and clipboards...
The more it goes, the worse it seems. What's next?
- Sony rootkit eats kittens?
- Sony rootkit throws momma from the train?
- Sony rootkit spawns Darth Vader?
- Sony rootkit deflates tires of soccer moms?
- Sony rootkit steals cookies from girl scouts?
- Sony rootkit cheats at final exams?
- Sony rootkit pours hot grits down Natalie Portman's pants?
No hierarchical display of replies. Nothing makes me puke than being lured to a blog, only to find out it works with crappy BBCODE in it's default puky blue-green colour scheme, and who is full of stupid out-of-context comments and/or reduntant quotations.
Slashcode has hierarchical display of replies, yes, but is unfortunately written in PERL.
How did you know I'm wearing my spandex jogging pants???
That was an incredibly arrogant comment. This must still be slashdot. People who work in San Francisco are coming to live where I live in Lake County (CA) which is two and a half hours away, involves at least one trip over a toll bridge, and at least one twisty trip over a hill. And SF has good public transport, but those people can't even find someplace to live there. Meanwhile most places you can't afford to live near work because work is downtown and rent is high downtown. So you take the bus, maybe? When I was a teen working in santa cruz county it took me an hour and a half to two hours to get to work on the bus - a half hour car trip. I had the time, but if I were trying to support a family, I wouldn't. Most of the US is set up such that you need a car.
So? If you painted yourselves in the corner, what should I do? Cry you a river?
I'm rather laughing you a river, instead!!!
Only you can bring yourselves out of this predicament. Rethink your cities so you don't have to squander half your money on a pile of scrap with wheels. Rethink your life so you're not dependant on the POSWW.
Almost 30 years ago I decided never to be chained to a POSWW. I planned my life accordingly and I'm so glad I made the right choice.
Too bad you got rated so high for such a clearly unintelligent post. My wife and I own a Honda Insight. We love driving it and love the fuel savings we achieve (64mpg lifetime average over ~127,000 miles). We even bought it used and now save enough in gas over our old car that we use the gas savings to pay for our Honda Insight loan and use our now none existant loan payment for fun money. Another HUGE point the linked article missed.
You still have to move about a hefty hunk of metal whenever you have to go the 5 blocks to get a carton of milk.
BUT, to get to your point, a couple of weeks ago my wife and I found this beautiful sleigh bed made by the Amish Store. Our current bed is in serious need to be replaced. Now, with no delivery available from the store, how in the hell were we going to get the bed home? It sure as hell wasn't going to be in the Honda Insight. So, I had to call my brother who has a large Chevy pickup truck to come to the store, pick up the bed and matresses, and help me move them to my place. On a weekend.
Without cars, stores WILL offer delivery.
If there were no more cars, how would that be accomplished? Diesel delivery service? You seriously need to think about what the impacts of a vehicleless society would be before you post.
Mankind lived perfectly well for a million years without cars. Just ask your grandparents how they fared without cars.
My grandfather rode the train to/from work 4 times a day, and went home for lunch. He did not get a car until 50 years ago.
My grandmother took the train to shop downtown, and they simply delivered her stuff the next day.
And while you're at it, suggest how each human on the planet is going to make a living when transportation resources, zoning and other factors ensure commercial and industrial space is gathered together, and not dispersed throughout residential areas. Don't suggest public transportation, since that demonstrates a lack of understanding about how much they cost, how much pollution they generate, and how the numbers showing cost benefits to them do not take into account that taxes are not paid on the energy consumed by public transportation services.
Talk about blatant cluelessness! Public transportation used far less energy per body carried than private automobiles. And yes, is actually CHEAPER for the user than using a private automobile.
The strict separation per activity urban "planning" is a blight that, fortunately, only affects north america and a bit of Europe. So, yes, the majority of humans on the planet can live near their place of work so they can walk (or bike or take the bus) to their work.
It's not everyone who lives up the sticks in Hicksville, Alabama.
Until the US starts to tax gasoline products in order to encourage fuel efficiency, then the US will continue to drive around in inefficient gas guzzlers.
And for those of us who drive fuel efficient cars and can't afford the gas already, you recommend what course of action?
To adopt a lifestyle more in line with their financial means, perhaps? One that has zero automobile?
The U.S. doesn't "underprice" fuel; Europe taxes and regulates the bejeezus out of theirs.
The US subsidizes the price of fuel by not accounting the externalities such as the public health costs of the pollution (most respiratory diseases are a direct result of car exhaust) and the costs of the US foreign policy and the wars needed to pillage, rape and plunder cheap oil abroad.
Slashdot Mirror
If it's "too expensive" to vote, why do you think they still bother to pay for elections???
In Nevada, no slot machine can run unless the manufacturer gives the Nevada Gaming Commission the source code. They can then compile it and get a MD5 checksum for it.
All they have to do then is to go in casinoes and do spot-check on some machines; all they do is plug a special diagnostic box which looks at the firmware and calculates the MD5 checksum, then compares it with the official checksum.
As the democratic process has to be, in essence, totally transparent (during ballot counting, candidates can appoint witnesses who closely watch the ballot tallying process), it is no mystery that voting machines should likewise operate in a totally transparent manner, that is, not only that the source code be available for inspection by anyone who wishes to, but also that there is a verification process to enable anyone to verify that the actual compiled code in the voting machine has actually been compiled from the source code (yes, this is possible - it is being done for slots machines).
Some croporate sockpuppets on slashdot tend to forget that "intellectual" "property" is not an absolute thing like gravity or matter, but a convention that is GRANTED and, thus, can be witheld for specific reasons. Like, for example, insuring that the democratic process remains transparent.Now, if a company does not like the idea of writing open-source software for it's voting machine, it is entirely free to refrain from doing so and leaving the market to those who do not mind.
And, besides, the software would be totally useless without the hardware, so why should one care if anybody can "steal" it???
Finally, since the specifications given by the government for voting machines should clearly state that the source code shall be available for anyone who asks, if the company wants to make money, nothing prevents it from bidding a higher price to allow releasing the software.
Diebold is not entitled to an automatic profit. Nor any other business for that matter. If it cannot factor in the fact that the software will be lifted by other companies, and goes bankrupt for this, well it only has itself to blame. This is bullshit. Others manufacturers would have to make their machines identical to Diebold machines, and there, Diebold would have a very good case for suing them. To make a profit, given that their software will be released as I pointed out above.The same thing could be effected for voting machines.
Paper trail: the magical words. In Montréal, Québec, the recent municipal election is being contested. Mark-sense ballots were counted by machines, but ballots are kept in sealed boxes after being run through the machine (by the elector). Right now, the ballots are being recounted by hand in the courthouse.
* * *
Funniest thing I saw was also on a bus. On the back of one of those big articulated buses:
(RING)
...
...
...
- Hi! Where are you?
- Oh, I'm on a bus, too.
- Oh, we're getting near $SHOPPING_MALL
- You too? Well, we must be on the same bus!!!
Don't do it. The world has enough sociopaths already.
Your mistake there was telling your non-boss instead of your boss...
No one objected in me working in flashy spandex. The exercise gives me fantastic legs which makes me look great in the spandex. And the girls especially liked to look at my package whenever I showed up around them. The way they blushed was memorable!
Funniest thing that it always embarrassed the bunch of gays in the design department - they would not dare look at me, yet they had the look that killed; none of them would ever dare dress in flashy spandex at work. I just can imagine the gossip whenever I walked out of there...
There was one of them who was annoying with always the same kind of problem. One day, I decided to tackle him right-on by showing him exactly how to fix the most recurrent form of problems. As I had planned to do this for several days, I decided to do it on the day I was wearing my fluorescent green bike shorts (no I have no shame at all - spandex is my way to say "FUCK-YOU VERY MUCH" to the kind of people who object to it). I sat on a desk next to his, and I was careful to spread my legs to make my package most visible as I explained him for 20-25 minutes how to do it.
It was hilarious to look at him trying to concentrate on his computer, all the while wanting to have a good look at my package. I started this as the guy came back early from his lunch, so whenever the others walked-back in, they were wondering what the hell was going on, and one of them who kept wearing his sunglasses was obviously watching my package while pretending he was working on his computer...
Authority is most often NOT RESPECTABLE, because it is clueless. Developping being all about being clueful, it's no wonder authority gets no respect.
No wonder your company makes crappy products!!! And 50 years later, you'll still be searching. So, I guess you do not think that professionalism is making bug-free products that works, and respect is not gobbling your customer's money in return for fluff.You'll definitely be one of the first to be put against the wall!!!!
Driving a car on a public highway is a public act, and thus, one has absolutely no expectation of privacy doing it.
Furthermore, driving is a PRIVILEGE and NOT a right.
There.
- Sony rootkit eats kittens?
- Sony rootkit throws momma from the train?
- Sony rootkit spawns Darth Vader?
- Sony rootkit deflates tires of soccer moms?
- Sony rootkit steals cookies from girl scouts?
- Sony rootkit cheats at final exams?
- Sony rootkit pours hot grits down Natalie Portman's pants?
No hierarchical display of replies. Nothing makes me puke than being lured to a blog, only to find out it works with crappy BBCODE in it's default puky blue-green colour scheme, and who is full of stupid out-of-context comments and/or reduntant quotations.
Slashcode has hierarchical display of replies, yes, but is unfortunately written in PERL.
I'm rather laughing you a river, instead!!!
Only you can bring yourselves out of this predicament. Rethink your cities so you don't have to squander half your money on a pile of scrap with wheels. Rethink your life so you're not dependant on the POSWW.
Almost 30 years ago I decided never to be chained to a POSWW. I planned my life accordingly and I'm so glad I made the right choice.
My grandfather rode the train to/from work 4 times a day, and went home for lunch. He did not get a car until 50 years ago.
My grandmother took the train to shop downtown, and they simply delivered her stuff the next day.
The strict separation per activity urban "planning" is a blight that, fortunately, only affects north america and a bit of Europe. So, yes, the majority of humans on the planet can live near their place of work so they can walk (or bike or take the bus) to their work.
It's not everyone who lives up the sticks in Hicksville, Alabama.