When referring to governments, the classical definition of oligarchy, as given for example by Aristotle, is of government by a few, usually the rich, for their own advantage. It is compared with both aristocracy, which is defined as government by a few chosen for their virtue and ruling for the general good, and various forms of democracy, or rule by the people. In practice, however, almost all governments, whatever their form, are run by a small minority of members. From this perspective, the major distinction between oligarchy and democracy is that in the latter, the elites compete with each other, gaining power by winning public support. The extent and type of barriers impeding those who attempt to join this ruling group is also significant...
In my voting place there were no problems with the voting.
Some points that I observed: the machines take 1 full hour to "warm up" as they were calling it here (boot). That seems like a long time, specially since in many places the people in charge were LATE at opening the doors, so the machines were not ready by 7am. Some acusations of boycot on this (about 50 poll workers were late by 1 full hour).
The code is propietary, cannot be audited, and the voting machines DO NOT make a backup paper print of every vote.
In some polling places the workers unplugged the machines BEFORE they were shut down, so the data was LOCKED and it took almost a day for the company technitians to retrieve.
There was a severe thunderstorm in some areas that nocked off power and disrupted the voting... remember the machines take 1 hour to boot.
I am more worried about the lack of paper printouts as backup than about the organization problems. The later can be solved eventually, the former is not noticeable until you have a catastrophe of sorts...
Just some observations from down here for everybody to consider.
I have an active alice chat bot on irc, undernet's #planetchat ^Helga^, on private message. Also wrote my own tcl chat, its on Dalnet's #planetchat, ^Bartend.
I wrote a pretty good chatter, if anybody cares to check it, it's on IRC at dalnet's #planetchat. Say hi to ^Bartend. The chat is only for private message. In the channel it just runs a bunch of silly scripts.
^Bartend must be pretty cool, since some girls have proposed to him. LOL.
you are a referee????!!!! C'mon man, that WAS a penalty kick in any country where they play real FOOTBALL. You cannot stop the ball at the goal line with YOUR HAND if the hand is AWAY from the body. He saved the goal illigally, ergo, penalty kick to compensate.
I read the papers from England, Italy and Spain and they ALL agree on that one.
Also, if the World were American, Bush wouldn't be the President, who was the most people? China? So probably some chinese will be voted in. A close second some indian... you get the picture.
I agree, also I suppose your connection quality will vary greatly from daytime (when most cars are at the workplaces) to nitetime, when they are back home.
That bill will clear the house, where the republican party dominates, but it will NOT clear the senate. So don't get all wrapped on a bundle about it. This bill is D.O.A.
I was reading just recently about another company researching the same idea, but with solar powered lenticular semi-rigid blimp platforms in geostationary orbit.
Yesssss! I did exactly that a year ago and for $35 installed a roof anthena. All I ever use the TV for is news anyhow. DSL is great and worth a thousand times what TV has to offer.
Well, you can instead try sending the written letter via fax.
So, seriously, if fax, that reaches a much bigger percentage of the population has not killed snail mail, why whould e-mail? I think that logic is flawed...
Scary, really really scary. I guess I'll contact my Florida congresscritter to give them a piece of my mind... not that it'll be good for anything but to vent some air.
Slashdot Mirror
I am without speech! The Comodore is back baby! ;-)
Don't be so open-minded your brains will fall out.
When referring to governments, the classical definition of oligarchy, as given for example by Aristotle, is of government by a few, usually the rich, for their own advantage. It is compared with both aristocracy, which is defined as government by a few chosen for their virtue and ruling for the general good, and various forms of democracy, or rule by the people. In practice, however, almost all governments, whatever their form, are run by a small minority of members. From this perspective, the major distinction between oligarchy and democracy is that in the latter, the elites compete with each other, gaining power by winning public support. The extent and type of barriers impeding those who attempt to join this ruling group is also significant...
Quot erat demostratum.
In my voting place there were no problems with the voting.
Some points that I observed: the machines take 1 full hour to "warm up" as they were calling it here (boot). That seems like a long time, specially since in many places the people in charge were LATE at opening the doors, so the machines were not ready by 7am. Some acusations of boycot on this (about 50 poll workers were late by 1 full hour).
The code is propietary, cannot be audited, and the
voting machines DO NOT make a backup paper print of every vote.
In some polling places the workers unplugged the machines BEFORE they were shut down, so the data was LOCKED and it took almost a day for the company technitians to retrieve.
There was a severe thunderstorm in some areas that nocked off power and disrupted the voting... remember the machines take 1 hour to boot.
I am more worried about the lack of paper printouts as backup than about the organization problems. The later can be solved eventually, the former is not noticeable until you have a catastrophe of sorts...
Just some observations from down here for everybody to consider.
I second that
I have an active alice chat bot on irc, undernet's #planetchat ^Helga^, on private message. Also wrote my own tcl chat, its on Dalnet's #planetchat, ^Bartend.
I wrote a pretty good chatter, if anybody cares to check it, it's on IRC at dalnet's #planetchat. Say hi to ^Bartend. The chat is only for private message. In the channel it just runs a bunch of silly scripts.
^Bartend must be pretty cool, since some girls have proposed to him. LOL.
har har har. Anyway, he probably can avoid the filter by using the ip numbers to connect.
http://216.136.171.196/
you are a referee????!!!! C'mon man, that WAS a penalty kick in any country where they play real FOOTBALL. You cannot stop the ball at the goal line with YOUR HAND if the hand is AWAY from the body. He saved the goal illigally, ergo, penalty kick to compensate.
I read the papers from England, Italy and Spain and they ALL agree on that one.
Now ref, go study some more will ya.
good point
Also, if the World were American, Bush wouldn't be the President, who was the most people? China? So probably some chinese will be voted in. A close second some indian... you get the picture.
I agree, also I suppose your connection quality will vary greatly from daytime (when most cars are at the workplaces) to nitetime, when they are back home.
The best way to migrate from a MS environment to a Linux environment is to HIRE a linux company that will do it for you and provide support after.
In the US at this point nobody does it better than Red Hat. I suggest you call or email them for info.
JM2C (just my 2 cents)
Yeah and the sun came up yesterday too! I wonder why the Universe keeps repeating itself uh >:-/
I mean it, I wanna go to Mars and I was born too early! Let's get with the program people.
That bill will clear the house, where the republican party dominates, but it will NOT clear the senate. So don't get all wrapped on a bundle about it. This bill is D.O.A.
I was reading just recently about another company researching the same idea, but with solar powered lenticular semi-rigid blimp platforms in geostationary orbit.
http://www.lvcm.com/walden/products.html#strat
The pictures look great, they also have cargo and ecoturism lenticular blimp projects.
Yesssss! I did exactly that a year ago and for $35 installed a roof anthena. All I ever use the TV for is news anyhow. DSL is great and worth a thousand times what TV has to offer.
Well, if they don't like Lindows (an ugly name anyhow), how about Winux (still ugly but playing on the name Linux instead of Windows) >-)
Well, you can instead try sending the written letter via fax.
So, seriously, if fax, that reaches a much bigger percentage of the population has not killed snail mail, why whould e-mail? I think that logic is flawed...
well, i think they want to FINGERPRINT us all, ergo the new ID card.
i know it sucks, and there is not much we can do about it
The Army dentist took all 5 out at the same time, gave
;-p
me *FOUR* Tylenol III's and 24 hrs quarters. I still hate that guy.
Ah, military intelligence...
Basically, as computing
;-p~
equipment becomes smaller and more likely to be
carried around, major damage from static becomes a
serious threat.
So don't stay static and yer safe! Keep on moving boy
I don't bother following New Scientist links because IMO for accuracy it ranks somewhere below National Enquirer...
Yes! I second that.
Yeah, I hate those, specially the pop-under with an OK button, like a trouble message. Grrrrrrr
Scary, really really scary. I guess I'll contact my Florida congresscritter to give them a piece of my mind... not that it'll be good for anything but to vent some air.