I don't understand how this coercive vote you are so concerned about can't happen with a paper ballot?
An abuser is going to abuse. He doesn't need a reason.
The fact that the ballot is "secret" now just means that she can't prove it to her abuser (can't prove a negative), which will then call forth a beating for her lying to him....
So just use bank ATMs that are located in already secured bank lobbies. Use law enforcement personnel or security guards to monitor the ATM's during business hours (I already see LEOs in bank lobbies as it is). Use card access doors (valid ID or bank card will open) and surveillance video after hours.
Yes, this de-annonymizes your vote.
I get that this can be a problem. But I don't think it is unsurmountable. I am sure we can get there if we really tried.
I think it is a worthy goal to allow everyone a say.
Yeah, it used to be that I could go in to any DMV location on Saturday.
Now, I have to take time off of work if I need to do anything that requires the DMV since almost all locations are closed on Saturday now.
Also, the hours are exactly the 9-5 business hours that I also happen to work myself.
If it is about money, why not close the DMV for a few hours in the morning and/or afternoon every day and stay open later? Or how about closing the DMV on Wednesdays in favor of keeping it open Saturday?
Wouldn't the point be to serve the most customers as possible?
Yeah, but is it really anonymous? Most states require a government issued ID in order to vote. The second that ID comes out into open air, you have to assume that all of the information on it has been given up.
At best, I would say that our current process is semi-anonymous. Given enough effort, your vote can be deduced.
I am personally all for online voting. The reason is just this: The more people that are able to vote, the more democratic the system.
I think that REASONABLE anonymity can be achieved through the use of TOR and other means. Hell, if you don't want to allow just any computer, make bank ATM's a valid voting station.
Didn't something similar to this happen in recent memory?
I am thinking of food trucks. They sprung up in a largely unregulated area in order to bypass a lot of the food hygiene laws and associated fees.
Now, the laws have caught up and they are regulated along with other restaurants. But for a time, I seem to recall some controversy and push back from the establishment.
Still... where there is money to be made, there will be shady actors. It would become a game of whack-a-mole. We all know how that story ends.
Something needs to be done to improve the integrity of VoIP services. Not really sure what that looks like exactly, but a good start might be to implement a system like SPF for callerid.
That just means that a robocall will have a 1 in 12 chance of getting the correct answer. So, worst case, they need to re-dial the call 12 times... no problem.
In order for this to work, you would have to make the response complex. Math wouldn't work, because speech to text systems would make arithmetic trivial for the robocaller. So the question would have to require a alphabetic answer of more than 2 characters to be effective. Even then... with machine learning.. who know how trivial this would be to bypass?
The problem is VoIP. It is not a traditional phone system. There are hundreds of VoIP "carriers" who will eventually terminate a call in a traditional carrier's network (your cell or land line carrier).
So, if, say AT&T, sees a high volume of short duration calls originating from carrier X... sure, they can shut down that carrier, but what if that carrier had legit customers as well? Not only that, carrier X is paying AT&T per minute rates for calls terminating on AT&T's network.
yes, carrier X could shut down the customer... but they would only be shooting themselves in the foot because they would be giving up a good chunk of revenue. VoIP carriers are mostly small/medium sized businesses. In addition, short duration calls are more expensive than "conversational" calls (to recoup the cost) and carrier X knows that their high volume customer will just move to another VoIP carrier if they drop the customer.
It's not like it used to be where a high volume call center would need to bring in a bunch of PRI circuits and sign a contract with that carrier. A VoIP operation can choose any carrier they want more or less on-the-fly. The only thing required is a residential-grade network connection. As a matter of fact, the high volume operator will likely have 10 or more different carriers set up with least cost routing in order to get the best rate for each call made. So if any one carrier shuts down or has a problem, the caller would not even know it unless they looked at the logs.
Basically, the main issue is the ubiquity and low cost (almost zero, really) barrier to entry of VoIP calling. You just need to get yourself VICIdial (Linux-based, free call center software), A2Billing (Linux-based Asterisk billing/call routing software) and Zoiper (Free VoIP client software). Then buy some cheap USB headsets, low-end computers and a broadband Internet connection. Then make a couple deals with some VoIP carriers and you are in business. Total start up cost of less than a few thousand dollars (probably less). Added bonus that you can move your business anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat.
Also... there is tab complete in PS just like in bash so....
Although, unlike in bash, tab completion also works for command line parameters as well so you wouldn't need to type all of "-Recurse" you would just need to type "-R" and then hit Tab once. so now the difference in keystrokes is fairly minimal.
I find that a good way to do the "poor man's service" with powershell is to simply launch your powershell script using the "-windowstyle Hidden" command line parameter.
Then, in the PS script, put your code in a repeating loop with a sleep condition.
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I don't understand how this coercive vote you are so concerned about can't happen with a paper ballot?
An abuser is going to abuse. He doesn't need a reason.
The fact that the ballot is "secret" now just means that she can't prove it to her abuser (can't prove a negative), which will then call forth a beating for her lying to him....
Or for someone who works a job where they cannot really get time off.
All the DMVs in my area stopped servicing people on the weekend and cut their hours to less than banker's hours.
So just use bank ATMs that are located in already secured bank lobbies. Use law enforcement personnel or security guards to monitor the ATM's during business hours (I already see LEOs in bank lobbies as it is). Use card access doors (valid ID or bank card will open) and surveillance video after hours.
Yes, this de-annonymizes your vote.
I get that this can be a problem. But I don't think it is unsurmountable. I am sure we can get there if we really tried.
I think it is a worthy goal to allow everyone a say.
Yeah, it used to be that I could go in to any DMV location on Saturday.
Now, I have to take time off of work if I need to do anything that requires the DMV since almost all locations are closed on Saturday now.
Also, the hours are exactly the 9-5 business hours that I also happen to work myself.
If it is about money, why not close the DMV for a few hours in the morning and/or afternoon every day and stay open later? Or how about closing the DMV on Wednesdays in favor of keeping it open Saturday?
Wouldn't the point be to serve the most customers as possible?
Voting is meant to be anonymous.
Yeah, but is it really anonymous? Most states require a government issued ID in order to vote. The second that ID comes out into open air, you have to assume that all of the information on it has been given up.
At best, I would say that our current process is semi-anonymous. Given enough effort, your vote can be deduced.
I am personally all for online voting. The reason is just this: The more people that are able to vote, the more democratic the system.
I think that REASONABLE anonymity can be achieved through the use of TOR and other means. Hell, if you don't want to allow just any computer, make bank ATM's a valid voting station.
You still need to give an address.... how hard is it to track down the purchaser if you have a physical address?
P.O. Box? Just find out who owns it or stake out the location and wait for the pick up.
Windows 7 has a full backup solution built in and it works well. I have used it many times.
Boot with the Windows 7 media, choose the restore option and point it to your full backup. Done, bare metal restore.
Hell, even the built-in Windows 7 backup is pretty damned good, even for bare metal restores.
Also, every time an update is installed on Windows, a restore point is created.
Without any investment in 3rd party software and a very small investment in time, you can set up a full backup regimen using the built in tools.
And even when that might fail or is misconfigured, you still have the option to roll back to the last restore point (pre-patch).
There is nothing so permanent as temporary.
Didn't something similar to this happen in recent memory?
I am thinking of food trucks. They sprung up in a largely unregulated area in order to bypass a lot of the food hygiene laws and associated fees.
Now, the laws have caught up and they are regulated along with other restaurants. But for a time, I seem to recall some controversy and push back from the establishment.
Are you implying that you cannot order a taxi over the internet?
You may be 100% correct.
Still... where there is money to be made, there will be shady actors. It would become a game of whack-a-mole. We all know how that story ends.
Something needs to be done to improve the integrity of VoIP services. Not really sure what that looks like exactly, but a good start might be to implement a system like SPF for callerid.
That just means that a robocall will have a 1 in 12 chance of getting the correct answer. So, worst case, they need to re-dial the call 12 times... no problem.
In order for this to work, you would have to make the response complex. Math wouldn't work, because speech to text systems would make arithmetic trivial for the robocaller. So the question would have to require a alphabetic answer of more than 2 characters to be effective. Even then... with machine learning.. who know how trivial this would be to bypass?
The problem is VoIP. It is not a traditional phone system. There are hundreds of VoIP "carriers" who will eventually terminate a call in a traditional carrier's network (your cell or land line carrier).
So, if, say AT&T, sees a high volume of short duration calls originating from carrier X... sure, they can shut down that carrier, but what if that carrier had legit customers as well? Not only that, carrier X is paying AT&T per minute rates for calls terminating on AT&T's network.
yes, carrier X could shut down the customer... but they would only be shooting themselves in the foot because they would be giving up a good chunk of revenue. VoIP carriers are mostly small/medium sized businesses. In addition, short duration calls are more expensive than "conversational" calls (to recoup the cost) and carrier X knows that their high volume customer will just move to another VoIP carrier if they drop the customer.
It's not like it used to be where a high volume call center would need to bring in a bunch of PRI circuits and sign a contract with that carrier. A VoIP operation can choose any carrier they want more or less on-the-fly. The only thing required is a residential-grade network connection. As a matter of fact, the high volume operator will likely have 10 or more different carriers set up with least cost routing in order to get the best rate for each call made. So if any one carrier shuts down or has a problem, the caller would not even know it unless they looked at the logs.
Basically, the main issue is the ubiquity and low cost (almost zero, really) barrier to entry of VoIP calling. You just need to get yourself VICIdial (Linux-based, free call center software), A2Billing (Linux-based Asterisk billing/call routing software) and Zoiper (Free VoIP client software). Then buy some cheap USB headsets, low-end computers and a broadband Internet connection. Then make a couple deals with some VoIP carriers and you are in business. Total start up cost of less than a few thousand dollars (probably less). Added bonus that you can move your business anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat.
There is a reason this hasn't been solved yet.
Want to buy a third party? hahaha, go ahead, throw your money away!
Ah... too bad they aren't using the Celeron 300A (malaysia fab plant?).... I heard you could OC those a fair bit ;)
It's a computer made by an onion the size of a cherry that competes with a raspberry... only in this industry...
gci -recurse | sls 'hole_in_the_ground'
grep -r 'hold_in_the_ground'
Difference of about 10 characters.
Also... there is tab complete in PS just like in bash so....
Although, unlike in bash, tab completion also works for command line parameters as well so you wouldn't need to type all of "-Recurse" you would just need to type "-R" and then hit Tab once. so now the difference in keystrokes is fairly minimal.
I find that a good way to do the "poor man's service" with powershell is to simply launch your powershell script using the "-windowstyle Hidden" command line parameter.
Then, in the PS script, put your code in a repeating loop with a sleep condition.
while (1) { do stuff; sleep 10; }
Really-long-command-options-because-I-enjoy-typing-a-lot.
There are aliases to a lot of the most commonly used cmdlets by default.
If there is no default alias, you can easily set up an alias within your script so you don't have to type more.
New-Alias alias cmdlet
Also, if you are using the built in PowerShell ISE to write your script, all of the available cmdlets are auto-completed.
Exactly right. Simplicity
PowerShell: foreach ($line in (gc $filename)) { $line }
Perl: open FILE,$filename; while(<FILE>) { $_; }; close FILE;
You can see right away that PS is geared to abstract away a lot of the humdrum that other scripting languages make you do.
We do all run Linux... but we also run Windows.
Any "admin" who is not fluent in both is not an admin (imo).
And.... of course, nobody responds to this one.
No lolololololol posts stating how asinine the syntax is in PowerShell... oh... because it is actually a shorter command line than grep....
Personally, I love PowerShell.
I also love Perl.
In a lot of ways, the two are syntactically similar.
Being a long time Perl guy, I had no problem picking up PowerShell.
Farmville on every platform!