the simple fact that voting discrepancies are being discovered is proof that the auditing trail works.
The fact is that SOME voting discrepancies have been discovered.
That's about as reassuring as hearing that SOME of the bugs in Internet Explorer have been patched.
Given that there really is no one "auditing trail", but rather thousands of different ones in different municipalities, I don't see how you can have any faith in the system to work in all, or even most, cases.
I doubt that enough fraud/error will be found to change the outcome of any of this year's races. But that's no reason why we shouldn't take the closer look and find out just how much there was.
It's not about protecting Democrats. It's about protecting DEMOCRACY.
The MPAA has also been smarter at determining price points for their products that people see as a good deal, especially in comparison with similar RIAA audio products.
Hmm.... should I spend my $19 on 90 minutes of video content with 5-channel high-def surround sound plus bonus features, or 50 minutes of 2-channel stereo sound with no video? Tough choice.
Ok, I read the story submission and read both of the pages that were linked to in the story submission, and I still have no idea what a "Konfabulator" is or what it does.
Hewlett-Packard sells computers to people who want to just unpack everything and plug it in and it will work. If you want a bare-bones PC that you have to invest some of your own time and effort in before it'll boot up, there's plenty of other OEMs that sell them.
The thing about my home computer is, it always stays in the same place. I really have no objection to the CPU being tethered to the power outlet, and the keyboard and mouse and monitors and cable modem and home theater receiver to the CPU, and the coaxial cable to the cable modem, and six speakers to the receiver, because they never move. All the components stay in the same place in relation to each other and to everything else.
But you CAN win the war on drugs at NYU -- just make sure that Mary Kate and Ashley stay away from the guys in Washington Square Park, and the whole drug economy will collapse.
As before, the study ignores the thousands of automatically-spreading viruses for Windows.
And as before, michael just can't help adding his two cents to a story submission, rather than posting a comment in response to it like everyone else, subjecting his opinions to the moderation processes.
If only Slashdot admins could be elected rather than appointed...
The thing is, unlike a typical poll where it's okay to declare that two (or more) choices are within the margin of error and therefore tied, an election in the United States MUST have a winner.
It's better, if only illusorily so, to use possibly-innacurate user ballots to select someone for the office of President than to fall back to the constitutional Plan B and allow Congress to vote in their own candidate.
If Tanenbaum is so smart, why is he mirroring the site across 9 servers with different domain names and putting the onus to find one that's not down on the end-user, instead of setting them all up behind a load-balancing edge server and letting the servers figure out which ones are down and redirect accordingly?
What are the chances that 2 trial lawyers (who's biggest contributors are the trial lawyers associations) giving us the litigation reforms so crucial to getting escalating health care and pharm costs under control for the long term viability of our economy?
I won't answer this, because it isn't a cogent question.
There's no evidence that suggests that frivolous litigation has contributed to escalating health care and pharm costs, nor that medical tort reform would have any effect on reducing those costs.
The idea that voting for a third-party candidate in a presidential election will actually help that party is, to a significant degree, wishful thinking.
Parties have to get something like 15% of the popular vote to be eligible for federal funding, which is an oft-cited reason to support third-party campaigns. The Green Party got maybe a third of that in 2000 -- and this time around, they're only likely to get maybe a third of what they got 4 years ago.
Nader is running without a party affiliation this year, anyway, so I'm not even sure that argument applies to his campaign.
With the amount of mainstream support the two major parties have right now, voting for a third party as a way of sticking it to the Democrats and Republicans really is equivalent to not voting at all.
If we got rid of it, the presidential election campaigns would focus on the top five or ten population centers/media markets in the country
Which would be so much different than the current system, where the campaigns focus on the top five or ten states in terms of available electoral votes -- which are based on population.
Nobody will ever campaign heavily for the votes of people in North Dakota, even though with the weighting of the Electoral College a single person's vote in that state carries roughly three times the weight of that of a voter in California. Either with the EC or with direct election, it will still be more cost-effective to appeal to the voters in the large cities of California.
Why does "hating" someone mean what they're doing is wrong?
It's an effect-and-cause situation -- BECAUSE some of us think that what the Bush administration is doing is wrong and ultimately makes the world less safe rather than more, THEREFORE we "hate" him (scare quotes yours).
You yourself write "Hate Bush, hate America". That's a ludicrous, insane, foolish statement. How dare you suggest that one is equal to the other. Bush is not America. I love my country, and that's why I don't want Bush leading it.
you need to actually trick the user into giving you their GMail cookie by phishing....or by grabbing the cookies left behind by previous users off a public terminal.
But that's a minor concern, no one ever uses a public computing terminal to check webmail, or walks away without logging out properly.
Slashdot Mirror
the simple fact that voting discrepancies are being discovered is proof that the auditing trail works.
The fact is that SOME voting discrepancies have been discovered.
That's about as reassuring as hearing that SOME of the bugs in Internet Explorer have been patched.
Given that there really is no one "auditing trail", but rather thousands of different ones in different municipalities, I don't see how you can have any faith in the system to work in all, or even most, cases.
I doubt that enough fraud/error will be found to change the outcome of any of this year's races. But that's no reason why we shouldn't take the closer look and find out just how much there was.
It's not about protecting Democrats. It's about protecting DEMOCRACY.
Today's music isn't based on music, but on image and one hit wonders...
And how is this different from any time in the past 50 years...?
"I don't watch TV because all the shows have commercials and look the same to me."
"I don't drive because all of the cars seem the same to me."
"I don't vote because all of the candidates seem the same to me."
I pity you.
The MPAA has also been smarter at determining price points for their products that people see as a good deal, especially in comparison with similar RIAA audio products.
Hmm.... should I spend my $19 on 90 minutes of video content with 5-channel high-def surround sound plus bonus features, or 50 minutes of 2-channel stereo sound with no video? Tough choice.
Ok, I read the story submission and read both of the pages that were linked to in the story submission, and I still have no idea what a "Konfabulator" is or what it does.
A little help, please?
HP should consider bare-bones.
Why would they do that?
Hewlett-Packard sells computers to people who want to just unpack everything and plug it in and it will work. If you want a bare-bones PC that you have to invest some of your own time and effort in before it'll boot up, there's plenty of other OEMs that sell them.
I dunno, but I bought "Feel the Magic XYZZY" and feel that it was not worth the money.
WHen you play it, Nothing happens.
Methinks you give the mall food court too much credit.
They haven't even figured out how to prepare edible food, and you're expecting them to master delivery of ads via Wi-Fi?
The thing about my home computer is, it always stays in the same place. I really have no objection to the CPU being tethered to the power outlet, and the keyboard and mouse and monitors and cable modem and home theater receiver to the CPU, and the coaxial cable to the cable modem, and six speakers to the receiver, because they never move. All the components stay in the same place in relation to each other and to everything else.
It wasn't until your fourth bullet point that I realized you were talking about China and not New York City.
You can't win the "war" on drugs in Columbia.
But you CAN win the war on drugs at NYU -- just make sure that Mary Kate and Ashley stay away from the guys in Washington Square Park, and the whole drug economy will collapse.
As before, the study ignores the thousands of automatically-spreading viruses for Windows.
And as before, michael just can't help adding his two cents to a story submission, rather than posting a comment in response to it like everyone else, subjecting his opinions to the moderation processes.
If only Slashdot admins could be elected rather than appointed...
The thing is, unlike a typical poll where it's okay to declare that two (or more) choices are within the margin of error and therefore tied, an election in the United States MUST have a winner.
It's better, if only illusorily so, to use possibly-innacurate user ballots to select someone for the office of President than to fall back to the constitutional Plan B and allow Congress to vote in their own candidate.
If Tanenbaum is so smart, why is he mirroring the site across 9 servers with different domain names and putting the onus to find one that's not down on the end-user, instead of setting them all up behind a load-balancing edge server and letting the servers figure out which ones are down and redirect accordingly?
What are the chances that 2 trial lawyers (who's biggest contributors are the trial lawyers associations) giving us the litigation reforms so crucial to getting escalating health care and pharm costs under control for the long term viability of our economy?
I won't answer this, because it isn't a cogent question.
There's no evidence that suggests that frivolous litigation has contributed to escalating health care and pharm costs, nor that medical tort reform would have any effect on reducing those costs.
I agree, most people are stupid, and voting should be left to enlightened geniuses like Slashdot's own "maximilln".
Go fuck yourself, elitist prick.
The idea that voting for a third-party candidate in a presidential election will actually help that party is, to a significant degree, wishful thinking.
Parties have to get something like 15% of the popular vote to be eligible for federal funding, which is an oft-cited reason to support third-party campaigns. The Green Party got maybe a third of that in 2000 -- and this time around, they're only likely to get maybe a third of what they got 4 years ago.
Nader is running without a party affiliation this year, anyway, so I'm not even sure that argument applies to his campaign.
With the amount of mainstream support the two major parties have right now, voting for a third party as a way of sticking it to the Democrats and Republicans really is equivalent to not voting at all.
Can I vote for the judges who will decide this election instead?
For this election, no. But you might end up voting by proxy for the judges that could decide the NEXT presidential election...
If we got rid of it, the presidential election campaigns would focus on the top five or ten population centers/media markets in the country
Which would be so much different than the current system, where the campaigns focus on the top five or ten states in terms of available electoral votes -- which are based on population.
Nobody will ever campaign heavily for the votes of people in North Dakota, even though with the weighting of the Electoral College a single person's vote in that state carries roughly three times the weight of that of a voter in California. Either with the EC or with direct election, it will still be more cost-effective to appeal to the voters in the large cities of California.
Why does "hating" someone mean what they're doing is wrong?
It's an effect-and-cause situation -- BECAUSE some of us think that what the Bush administration is doing is wrong and ultimately makes the world less safe rather than more, THEREFORE we "hate" him (scare quotes yours).
You yourself write "Hate Bush, hate America". That's a ludicrous, insane, foolish statement. How dare you suggest that one is equal to the other. Bush is not America. I love my country, and that's why I don't want Bush leading it.
Just like most x86 gamers switched from Windows to Linux because Loki started releasing ports of popular Windows gaming titles?
Eh... I'm pretty sure some circuitboard "blanks" and a couple bottles of etching solution will still be less expensive for the electronics hobbyist.
What kind of GameCube controller do YOU have?
Mine has A, B, C, D, L, R, U, X, Y, and Z. Some of them more than once.
you need to actually trick the user into giving you their GMail cookie by phishing. ...or by grabbing the cookies left behind by previous users off a public terminal.
But that's a minor concern, no one ever uses a public computing terminal to check webmail, or walks away without logging out properly.
This story submission makes me long for the good old days of ATMs, when the machines ran on OS/2 2.x instead of WinNT 3.x.
I myself shed a tear for yesterday.