The case I mentioned up there was in Canada - 2 federal elections ago my region went Conservative by fewer than 20 votes. The judge running the second recount was quoted in the local paper as saying something along the lines of any mark that made it clear what the voting intention was was to be counted, that to do otherwise was against the concept that in a democracy every vote counts. So no, it isn't that simple, some people will put a check because they didn't look at the directions. Some people will use a different symbol for whatever reason. Some people will be enthusiastic and the mark will go beyond the circle they're marking. So long as there is clearly one circle marked in some way the vote should always be counted.
Completely off-topic, slashdot's feature of moving the page when you click in the edit comment box is the most annoying bug I have ever seen.
We've had a lot put in where I live, the ones around here the pedestrian crossing is placed such that the pedestrian crosses behind the first row of cars - the ones that are waiting for a space - and in front of the second row, which is watching in front of them for the first row to enter the circle. The number of pedestrian accidents has actually gone down since pedestrians only need to worry about one direction of traffic at a time - there's always an island between the entering and exiting traffic. Crossing the exiting side there is enough room for a car to stop outside of the circle if there is a pedestrian crossing.
EVs won't replace ICE cars until either rapid charging works and we can get a charge in a couple minutes, or a standard comes about to make batteries swappable (at a station by some form of robot obviously, not something you would likely do at home). I'm hoping for swappable personally since it also largely solves the age and recycling issues, but either way would make the relatively short range far less of an issue.
What if they're just old and have trouble controlling the pencil well enough to keep the mark in one box? You're throwing out an awfully large number of ballots for no reason if you reject everything that isn't perfect.
Spoiled ballots are relative though - Is it spoiled if someone made a checkmark big enough that part of it went through 2 circles? If someone used a smiley face instead of an X or check? For things that are on the line it's important to make sure that at the very least things are handled consistently, regardless of who is checking the ballots. During a second recount in my area the judge running the recount told the counters that he didn't care what the mark looked like, so long as it was obvious who the person meant to vote for the vote was to be counted, which may be the best idea but isn't necessarily what will happen if the person counting wants a specific outcome.
Most users aren't even aware of the filters. Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo all have good enough filters that seeing a true spam message is rare. Even ISPs filter for their normal users without an opt-in. Maintenance of filters is not an issue, just give people a 'spam' button to press and the filter can learn. I was using spamassassin about 10 years ago, it's free and feeding it a few days' worth of spam messages got it to the level where it was correctly identifying over 99.9% of the spam coming into the account.
For some reason I feel like I'm feeding the troll here...
Ah, a *nix programmer who doesn't understand Windows. That's fine. For reference I've programmed for 7-8 different OSes, including Windows yes, but also a couple flavors of Linux, HP-Unix, VAX/VMS, Solaris, and a couple others. Windows has gone through phases of encouraging separation of front and back-end code and not caring, MVC is basically all about separating the model from the view from the controller. Yes, for young people and people new to computers the CLI does not exist. Even in modern Linux distributions you never need to drop to command line, and that's a good thing. A GUI gives you the ability to figure out what you're doing even if you don't know anything about the program you're using. Try using a CLI pretending you don't know a single command. You don't know man or apropos. What do you do when you get a blinking cursor? The answer is that you continue to wish that it was 20 years ago and you could still pretend to be a computing god simply because you knew some set of non-intuitive commands.
Don't know about you, but where I am IT staff fall into the same category as firemen and electricians in that they can work infinite hours with no overtime if paid on salary because they are critical to the operation of the public infrastructure. Which is BS, and the fact that IT is vaguely defined to easily include software developers is also BS, but legally the companies can screw us over in quite a few areas.
The fact that you referred to the imperial system as 'customary' in your comment. It is not for the great majority of the world, and there is nothing that makes it any better than metric for someone who doesn't know either system already.
Define early basic. I started on basic in the late 80s and I distinctly recall being able to draw circles with the CIRCLE command.
Also, back then GUIs weren't used. Everything was terminal-based. Really until Windows 3.1 or 95 it was perfectly acceptable to do things with pure text input/output. These days there's no reason for a user to drop to a terminal, so it seems silly to expect them to get their first programming experience in one.
Totally agree. You can still throw up a couple dozen lines of code and get visible actions happening, those lines are just in javascript, html, and maybe PHP rather than Basic.
A computer can measure the slip on all 4 tires independently, apply brakes only to tires that have grip, compensate for skids properly (a lot of people steer the wrong way in a skid), and ideally even communicate to other cars about the location of slippery areas. A human has 2-3 petals, a wheel, and some form of shifter for control. The computer is going to do a far better job than we can.
If they look legit then you're also paying minimum wage, deducting taxes, and all that jazz. In other words, the business owner isn't making any profit off hiring illegals unknowingly. They need to be going after the ones that are doing it to lower the amount they need to pay their workers.
Try pulling a macbook plug straight out - it's hard, takes a lot of force. Most people will bend it up or down to remove it. This would allow the conacts to rub against each other each time it's removed which may enable a wipe.
EA once made a game called 'tank wars', where the idea was that you would program an AI for a tank given a fairly simple API they provided, and then you would put different AIs up against each other and see who wins. Something like that could be great for initial programming - there is a competitive aspect and the overhead to get something simple going is pretty low. The copy I had was buggy and didn't really work, but I think the idea is a sound one for introducing programming.
Most phones already have 4, and some have 5. GPS requires an antenna, although it is receive-only. If you're on Verizon and have a dual-mode phone you probably have a separate antenna for CDMA and GPRS.
I stopped carrying cash years ago. It's just too much of a pain, bills are fine but as soon as I spend them I end up with a pocket of heavy change, most of which is worthless anyway (and I live in Canada where those coins may be worth $2). The change then sits around till I get around to rolling it and going to a bank, which is maybe once a year. If a place is going to not allow credit (or debit), or charge extra for using credit on a small purchase then I will just go elsewhere. Although you have to be careful, one restaurant I go to sometimes charges $14.75 for a buffet. If you pay with credit they charge an extra quarter. If you pay with cash they'll give you $5 back as change, unless you ask for your quarter.
Not to mention they lose value every year, inflation pretty much forces wealthy people to keep their money working for them rather than sitting in a giant vault, Scrooge McDuck-style.
Once nearly everyone worked in agriculture. There were a few skilled people who would be carpenters, or blacksmiths, or bricklayers, but the majority of the population dealt with farming. Then we figured out ways to automate farming so that far fewer people could do the work, assisted by animals and machines. The great majority of people, who had been farming but were no longer required, were forced to find something else to do. This is no different than that, the people who worked factory must find something else, as they are no longer required in the factory, and in fact detract from the quality levels that machines can provide.
Go take a look at boost and ace and tell me threading and locking is hard. Just because Java has all the libraries distributed with the platform doesn't mean the same things aren't available for C++
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The case I mentioned up there was in Canada - 2 federal elections ago my region went Conservative by fewer than 20 votes. The judge running the second recount was quoted in the local paper as saying something along the lines of any mark that made it clear what the voting intention was was to be counted, that to do otherwise was against the concept that in a democracy every vote counts. So no, it isn't that simple, some people will put a check because they didn't look at the directions. Some people will use a different symbol for whatever reason. Some people will be enthusiastic and the mark will go beyond the circle they're marking. So long as there is clearly one circle marked in some way the vote should always be counted.
Completely off-topic, slashdot's feature of moving the page when you click in the edit comment box is the most annoying bug I have ever seen.
We've had a lot put in where I live, the ones around here the pedestrian crossing is placed such that the pedestrian crosses behind the first row of cars - the ones that are waiting for a space - and in front of the second row, which is watching in front of them for the first row to enter the circle. The number of pedestrian accidents has actually gone down since pedestrians only need to worry about one direction of traffic at a time - there's always an island between the entering and exiting traffic. Crossing the exiting side there is enough room for a car to stop outside of the circle if there is a pedestrian crossing.
EVs won't replace ICE cars until either rapid charging works and we can get a charge in a couple minutes, or a standard comes about to make batteries swappable (at a station by some form of robot obviously, not something you would likely do at home). I'm hoping for swappable personally since it also largely solves the age and recycling issues, but either way would make the relatively short range far less of an issue.
What if they're just old and have trouble controlling the pencil well enough to keep the mark in one box? You're throwing out an awfully large number of ballots for no reason if you reject everything that isn't perfect.
Spoiled ballots are relative though - Is it spoiled if someone made a checkmark big enough that part of it went through 2 circles? If someone used a smiley face instead of an X or check? For things that are on the line it's important to make sure that at the very least things are handled consistently, regardless of who is checking the ballots. During a second recount in my area the judge running the recount told the counters that he didn't care what the mark looked like, so long as it was obvious who the person meant to vote for the vote was to be counted, which may be the best idea but isn't necessarily what will happen if the person counting wants a specific outcome.
Most users aren't even aware of the filters. Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo all have good enough filters that seeing a true spam message is rare. Even ISPs filter for their normal users without an opt-in. Maintenance of filters is not an issue, just give people a 'spam' button to press and the filter can learn. I was using spamassassin about 10 years ago, it's free and feeding it a few days' worth of spam messages got it to the level where it was correctly identifying over 99.9% of the spam coming into the account.
For some reason I feel like I'm feeding the troll here...
Any patched computer no longer has autoplay enabled by default - I don't think it's even an option as of Vista.
No USB, so what are you plugging your keyboards into?
Ah, a *nix programmer who doesn't understand Windows. That's fine. For reference I've programmed for 7-8 different OSes, including Windows yes, but also a couple flavors of Linux, HP-Unix, VAX/VMS, Solaris, and a couple others. Windows has gone through phases of encouraging separation of front and back-end code and not caring, MVC is basically all about separating the model from the view from the controller. Yes, for young people and people new to computers the CLI does not exist. Even in modern Linux distributions you never need to drop to command line, and that's a good thing. A GUI gives you the ability to figure out what you're doing even if you don't know anything about the program you're using. Try using a CLI pretending you don't know a single command. You don't know man or apropos. What do you do when you get a blinking cursor? The answer is that you continue to wish that it was 20 years ago and you could still pretend to be a computing god simply because you knew some set of non-intuitive commands.
Don't know about you, but where I am IT staff fall into the same category as firemen and electricians in that they can work infinite hours with no overtime if paid on salary because they are critical to the operation of the public infrastructure. Which is BS, and the fact that IT is vaguely defined to easily include software developers is also BS, but legally the companies can screw us over in quite a few areas.
The fact that you referred to the imperial system as 'customary' in your comment. It is not for the great majority of the world, and there is nothing that makes it any better than metric for someone who doesn't know either system already.
Hate to tell you, but metric is the 'customary' system pretty much everywhere but the USA and Libya.
Define early basic. I started on basic in the late 80s and I distinctly recall being able to draw circles with the CIRCLE command. Also, back then GUIs weren't used. Everything was terminal-based. Really until Windows 3.1 or 95 it was perfectly acceptable to do things with pure text input/output. These days there's no reason for a user to drop to a terminal, so it seems silly to expect them to get their first programming experience in one.
Totally agree. You can still throw up a couple dozen lines of code and get visible actions happening, those lines are just in javascript, html, and maybe PHP rather than Basic.
A computer can measure the slip on all 4 tires independently, apply brakes only to tires that have grip, compensate for skids properly (a lot of people steer the wrong way in a skid), and ideally even communicate to other cars about the location of slippery areas. A human has 2-3 petals, a wheel, and some form of shifter for control. The computer is going to do a far better job than we can.
If they look legit then you're also paying minimum wage, deducting taxes, and all that jazz. In other words, the business owner isn't making any profit off hiring illegals unknowingly. They need to be going after the ones that are doing it to lower the amount they need to pay their workers.
Try pulling a macbook plug straight out - it's hard, takes a lot of force. Most people will bend it up or down to remove it. This would allow the conacts to rub against each other each time it's removed which may enable a wipe.
EA once made a game called 'tank wars', where the idea was that you would program an AI for a tank given a fairly simple API they provided, and then you would put different AIs up against each other and see who wins. Something like that could be great for initial programming - there is a competitive aspect and the overhead to get something simple going is pretty low. The copy I had was buggy and didn't really work, but I think the idea is a sound one for introducing programming.
Still doesn't help if you want to be able to receive on one antenna while sending on a different frequency on another.
Most phones already have 4, and some have 5. GPS requires an antenna, although it is receive-only. If you're on Verizon and have a dual-mode phone you probably have a separate antenna for CDMA and GPRS.
I stopped carrying cash years ago. It's just too much of a pain, bills are fine but as soon as I spend them I end up with a pocket of heavy change, most of which is worthless anyway (and I live in Canada where those coins may be worth $2). The change then sits around till I get around to rolling it and going to a bank, which is maybe once a year. If a place is going to not allow credit (or debit), or charge extra for using credit on a small purchase then I will just go elsewhere. Although you have to be careful, one restaurant I go to sometimes charges $14.75 for a buffet. If you pay with credit they charge an extra quarter. If you pay with cash they'll give you $5 back as change, unless you ask for your quarter.
Not to mention they lose value every year, inflation pretty much forces wealthy people to keep their money working for them rather than sitting in a giant vault, Scrooge McDuck-style.
That's actually a fairly complete summary of why Walmart sells crap.
Once nearly everyone worked in agriculture. There were a few skilled people who would be carpenters, or blacksmiths, or bricklayers, but the majority of the population dealt with farming. Then we figured out ways to automate farming so that far fewer people could do the work, assisted by animals and machines. The great majority of people, who had been farming but were no longer required, were forced to find something else to do. This is no different than that, the people who worked factory must find something else, as they are no longer required in the factory, and in fact detract from the quality levels that machines can provide.
Go take a look at boost and ace and tell me threading and locking is hard. Just because Java has all the libraries distributed with the platform doesn't mean the same things aren't available for C++