He can be impeached for anything that Congress decides meets the criteria. It could be a crime. It could gross imcompetence or lying to the public or Congress. I can certainly be because his administration is corrupt!
Besides, the committees are just getting warmed up. There will be direct evidence of personal wrongdoing before their through, I feel certain.
Bullshit. The rules were written into the Constitution this way. It is NOT a COUP, it is Congress' legitimate oversight of the Executive. The way the rules are written, the Speaker of the House is almost CERTAIN to be from the opposite party. If both the Pres and V.P. are guilty, as I believe they are, then this is the CORRECT action.
The Bush administration seems determined to create a showdown. He has had endless chances to heed public opinion and Congress and change directions in Iraq, Guantanamo, the DOJ, etc... His arrogance will soon leave nothing but impeachment left as a possible action.
But they DON'T share their idea, not really. They patent the idea, but they don't provide source code, they don't provide interoperability specs, and they also copyright the implementation. In short, the software patent does not provide any benefit to society.
I would argue that if any of the above were required (supply source to be inspected, interoperability specs, or forgoing copyright), then software patents might be worthwhile.
This couldn't be simpler. Hack into their machines yourself and place some really scary/offensive image as their wallpaper. Maybe erase some essential file from their most necessary program. After you come over to fix it, explain that you discovered their machine was being used to hack into the Pentagon. Tell them not to worry if the FBI shows up, because they didn't really do anything wrong, just answer the questions as best they can.
From that point on, any security suggestion you make should go down smooth.
Bad software engineers pick the most complicated solution and complain about how impossible the task is. Good ones find the nugget of truth that makes complicated problems easy. Same here... electronic voting is actually a very very easy problem if you realize the truth: secure systems are not needed at all...
I quite agree with you that this is the sort of system we need. This is essentially a paper ballot filled out by machine. But the original assertion was that an automated system like Diebold's was easy to implement, but that Diebold was incompetant. While that might be so, the problem (as they defined it) is actually a very hard (impossible?) nut to crack.
Your solution has the benefit of not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Keep the easy to follow/verify paper ballot, and address the butterfly ballot, hanging chads, half filled bubbles, and disabled access problems with the machine.
As a software engineer I'm constantly amazed at how incompetent Diebold and other companies making e-voting applications appear to be. This stuff is not rocket science at all, but fairly uncomplicated, basic software engineering.
As a software engineer I'm constantly amazed that other engineers think this is simple and easy. The first time I heard about "touch-screen voting machines" I thought to myself, "Now, THERE'S a BAD idea". Voting is much harder to program for than financial transactions are. For one thing, the stakes are higher. If someone steals some money, the FBI investigates, the criminal is caught (or not), and the security hole is fixed. A company is out some money they likely accounted for when weighed the cost/benefit of the system. Witness the recent flap over reprogramming ATM machines to spit out $20 but debit $5. While it was embarrassing and cost some ATM owners money, it was not a national crisis. If someone steals votes, investigation is left to partisan poll watchers, if the fraud is detectable at all. The end result is a crooked politician in power for 2-6 years where we can only hope they do nothing worse than steal money.
As we all know well, the more security you add to a system, the less user friendly it tends to be. This is a major problem when the general public is REQUIRED to use the device (unlike ATMs where use is voluntary) and when you face the fact that so many poll workers are part-time or casual volunteers.
In financial transactions, auditing is carried out by credentialed professionals that are experts in the field and in the systems they audit. They can take any resonable period of time required and can demand access to almost any part of the process. They can review detailed logs of transactions, and query database records in various fashions to bring irregularities to light. Elections are "audited" by non-professional observers and poll watchers on election day. Ballot secrecy endlessly complicates the problem. As a very first step, the identity of the voter must be separated from the actual votes themselves. The only data typically available after the election is finished are the tabulated vote totals, and the original ballots (oops, many of the electronic systems don't have those!) As the 2000 and 2004 elections showed us, recounts are nearly impossible to carryout politically anyway, so the count REALLY has to be correct the first time.
Sorry, but unless the laws are fixed, music with DRM will be the norm in the next decade. The masses will move towards it and a few intellectuals boycotting will do nothing. So then you have to figure out what DRM will win the upcoming war. Will it be Apple's or MS's and which would you prefer?
None of the above. I don't care if the masses run off the cliff, I'm not going. I'd rather do without. I won't buy copy protected software, and I won't buy DRM'd music. Besides, I think that after a few greedy DRM debacles and it won't just be "intellectuals" who don't want to buy.
What exactly could "go wrong?" Sure I could have my laptop, media server, and backup simultaneously die, while my CD backup burns in a fire. This differs from a non-DRM'd CD burning in a fire how?
What most of us worry about is Apple being forced by the studios or simply deciding to tighten restrictions on their DRM, leaving us holding the bag. Or being locked into iPod/iTunes when we'd rather be using the next great music platform. The fact is, DRM ALWAYS HURTS THE LEGITIMATE USER, and almost never acheives its stated objective, preventing piracy. I'm glad lots of you haven't gotten burned so far, but I don't like being treated as if I were a criminal when I buy music. I agree with the original poster. Buying music with DRM is stupid and shortsighted, and will only encourage the bastards.
It doesn't really matter that you're CS and he's Finance. What really matters is which of you will give the company the best leadership. The two of you should be able to agree on that. If not, it could be a long and rocky road.
Why should they imdemnify you, and why do you want/need them to? I can run Linux on Sun and HP servers all I want. It only limits your use of Linux if you choose to let it do so.
The article clearly states that the user turns this on or off. So it seems unlikely that a large number of challenges will start going out. As far as Grandma is concerned, you can add her email address to the OK list yourself so that she never sees a challenge. The only minor problem I see is receiving email from text only people, (Pine, etc..), or portable devices that might not render the bitmap correctly. But it seems a minor complaint, really.
BwaaaHaHaHaHa!!! You'll spend several evenings/weekends debugging, playing with UI, having the UI run dog slow, reprogramming the ir as you look for a good remote. It may be fun, if so go for it, but it will NOT take 3 hours.
>Don't you guys ever read the fine print? Amazon has
>a clear policy which states that they are not
>responsible for errors in pricing.
Reminds me of the sticker I saw on the back of a gravel truck yesterday, "Not responsible of broken windshields". The problem, of course, is that they are responsible for ANYTHING that falls off their truck. But they think just saying they aren't responsible gets them off the hook.
That said, Amazon is not responsible for errors, any more than a local store is responsible for every misprint in an ad. If this were an intentional tactic, then that would be another story.
The whole moral issue could be avoided if the software scanned for a particular share name, or comment field that indicated that the user WANTED to share the drive. Of course, then they wouldn't have all of these unwitting participants...
I know you were joking, but you're a genious! We use trained gophers. Tie the fiber to their tails. Do they have tails? Well, if they don't have tails we will have to come up with an alternate ass attachment method (AAM). After we conquer the AAM problem, we simply wire the entire country using these trained gophers. We don't have to worry about right of way, because as we all know, gophers don't care about stuff like that.
Most of these problems are device driver related. I've fixed many an unstable NT system by searching for updated drivers. NIC and Video card drivers especially. I really laugh at so called "servers" that have 3D graphics accelerators in them. Those companies position their drivers to play games quickly, not for stability. The bad part is unfortunately, some of the offending drivers are on the NT CD-ROM, and often even the top drawer companies seem to have trouble with this.
Of course, with the free software community, a problem like that would be publicized instead of buried. I've yet to see the docs for one of these updated drivers actually admit to the problem.
While I don't feel a personal need for formatted email, I do see the attraction. What I don't understand is why more plain text email programs and newsreaders don't support MIME at least enough to only display the only the "plain/text" portions? They understand it well enough for attachments. The same goes for mailing list software that can't filter out unwanted attachments and HTML. I can't count the number of times that mailing lists I've been on have been accidentally bombed by a newbie that sends 3 Mb of GIFs to the list or the list digests and archives that include inappropriate HTML and binary attachments. Blech!
Color me unimpressed with the GUI apps. All three are programmer's tools and one is a GUI version of EMACS. Not exactly state of the art in GUIs.
As far as the server side apps, I agree with you about C code, although in order to get the performance you suggest, it has to be native, not byte code. I would also wonder just how platform independent Mail.com really is. Most high performance database code is heavily optimized. I would bet there would be a heavy porting effort if Mail.com wanted to move to another platform.
I wasn't really dissing Java the language, just the notion of cross-platform GUIs.
Because Write Once Run Everywhere is just a complete hopeless pipe dream? I've yet to see a serious application of significant size run fast, well, and cross-platform. The only people who seem to REALLY believe in WORE GUI programs are the folks who would just as soon use the command line anyway. Cross-platform non GUI programs are easier, but C nearly accomplishes THAT. At least on a source level.
Did anyone actually bother to read the proposed legislation? The data will not be handed out, however, without the written permission of the individual. That's a pretty solid piece of protection, there.
You're kidding right? All that means is that every credit, rent, insurance, or employment application will also now include language signing away privacy of your employment data.
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He can be impeached for anything that Congress decides meets the criteria. It could be a crime. It could gross imcompetence or lying to the public or Congress. I can certainly be because his administration is corrupt!
Besides, the committees are just getting warmed up. There will be direct evidence of personal wrongdoing before their through, I feel certain.
Bullshit. The rules were written into the Constitution this way. It is NOT a COUP, it is Congress' legitimate oversight of the Executive. The way the rules are written, the Speaker of the House is almost CERTAIN to be from the opposite party. If both the Pres and V.P. are guilty, as I believe they are, then this is the CORRECT action.
The Bush administration seems determined to create a showdown. He has had endless chances to heed public opinion and Congress and change directions in Iraq, Guantanamo, the DOJ, etc... His arrogance will soon leave nothing but impeachment left as a possible action.
But they DON'T share their idea, not really. They patent the idea, but they don't provide source code, they don't provide interoperability specs, and they also copyright the implementation. In short, the software patent does not provide any benefit to society.
I would argue that if any of the above were required (supply source to be inspected, interoperability specs, or forgoing copyright), then software patents might be worthwhile.
This couldn't be simpler. Hack into their machines yourself and place some really scary/offensive image as their wallpaper. Maybe erase some essential file from their most necessary program. After you come over to fix it, explain that you discovered their machine was being used to hack into the Pentagon. Tell them not to worry if the FBI shows up, because they didn't really do anything wrong, just answer the questions as best they can.
From that point on, any security suggestion you make should go down smooth.
Bad software engineers pick the most complicated solution and complain about how impossible the task is. Good ones find the nugget of truth that makes complicated problems easy. Same here... electronic voting is actually a very very easy problem if you realize the truth: secure systems are not needed at all...
I quite agree with you that this is the sort of system we need. This is essentially a paper ballot filled out by machine. But the original assertion was that an automated system like Diebold's was easy to implement, but that Diebold was incompetant. While that might be so, the problem (as they defined it) is actually a very hard (impossible?) nut to crack.
Your solution has the benefit of not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Keep the easy to follow/verify paper ballot, and address the butterfly ballot, hanging chads, half filled bubbles, and disabled access problems with the machine.
As a software engineer I'm constantly amazed at how incompetent Diebold and other companies making e-voting applications appear to be. This stuff is not rocket science at all, but fairly uncomplicated, basic software engineering.
As a software engineer I'm constantly amazed that other engineers think this is simple and easy. The first time I heard about "touch-screen voting machines" I thought to myself, "Now, THERE'S a BAD idea". Voting is much harder to program for than financial transactions are. For one thing, the stakes are higher. If someone steals some money, the FBI investigates, the criminal is caught (or not), and the security hole is fixed. A company is out some money they likely accounted for when weighed the cost/benefit of the system. Witness the recent flap over reprogramming ATM machines to spit out $20 but debit $5. While it was embarrassing and cost some ATM owners money, it was not a national crisis. If someone steals votes, investigation is left to partisan poll watchers, if the fraud is detectable at all. The end result is a crooked politician in power for 2-6 years where we can only hope they do nothing worse than steal money.
As we all know well, the more security you add to a system, the less user friendly it tends to be. This is a major problem when the general public is REQUIRED to use the device (unlike ATMs where use is voluntary) and when you face the fact that so many poll workers are part-time or casual volunteers.
In financial transactions, auditing is carried out by credentialed professionals that are experts in the field and in the systems they audit. They can take any resonable period of time required and can demand access to almost any part of the process. They can review detailed logs of transactions, and query database records in various fashions to bring irregularities to light. Elections are "audited" by non-professional observers and poll watchers on election day. Ballot secrecy endlessly complicates the problem. As a very first step, the identity of the voter must be separated from the actual votes themselves. The only data typically available after the election is finished are the tabulated vote totals, and the original ballots (oops, many of the electronic systems don't have those!) As the 2000 and 2004 elections showed us, recounts are nearly impossible to carryout politically anyway, so the count REALLY has to be correct the first time.
Yeah, this is REALLY easy.
Sorry, but unless the laws are fixed, music with DRM will be the norm in the next decade. The masses will move towards it and a few intellectuals boycotting will do nothing. So then you have to figure out what DRM will win the upcoming war. Will it be Apple's or MS's and which would you prefer?
None of the above. I don't care if the masses run off the cliff, I'm not going. I'd rather do without. I won't buy copy protected software, and I won't buy DRM'd music. Besides, I think that after a few greedy DRM debacles and it won't just be "intellectuals" who don't want to buy.
What exactly could "go wrong?" Sure I could have my laptop, media server, and backup simultaneously die, while my CD backup burns in a fire. This differs from a non-DRM'd CD burning in a fire how?
What most of us worry about is Apple being forced by the studios or simply deciding to tighten restrictions on their DRM, leaving us holding the bag. Or being locked into iPod/iTunes when we'd rather be using the next great music platform. The fact is, DRM ALWAYS HURTS THE LEGITIMATE USER, and almost never acheives its stated objective, preventing piracy. I'm glad lots of you haven't gotten burned so far, but I don't like being treated as if I were a criminal when I buy music. I agree with the original poster. Buying music with DRM is stupid and shortsighted, and will only encourage the bastards.
It doesn't really matter that you're CS and he's Finance. What really matters is which of you will give the company the best leadership. The two of you should be able to agree on that. If not, it could be a long and rocky road.
And I either make an exception for that site (if the ads are not bad, or I stop visiting. simple.
Weren't they around DURING the .com bubble? Go ahead and block I say. I won't even install Flash, it is almost 100% used to advertise.
Why should they imdemnify you, and why do you want/need them to? I can run Linux on Sun and HP servers all I want. It only limits your use of Linux if you choose to let it do so.
The article clearly states that the user turns this on or off. So it seems unlikely that a large number of challenges will start going out. As far as Grandma is concerned, you can add her email address to the OK list yourself so that she never sees a challenge. The only minor problem I see is receiving email from text only people, (Pine, etc..), or portable devices that might not render the bitmap correctly. But it seems a minor complaint, really.
>>That's 3 hours of your time.
BwaaaHaHaHaHa!!! You'll spend several evenings/weekends debugging, playing with UI, having the UI run dog slow, reprogramming the ir as you look for a good remote. It may be fun, if so go for it, but it will NOT take 3 hours.
He was using their own content management system. It probably would have automatically generated a new signature anyway.
>Don't you guys ever read the fine print? Amazon has
>a clear policy which states that they are not
>responsible for errors in pricing.
Reminds me of the sticker I saw on the back of a gravel truck yesterday, "Not responsible of broken windshields". The problem, of course, is that they are responsible for ANYTHING that falls off their truck. But they think just saying they aren't responsible gets them off the hook.
That said, Amazon is not responsible for errors, any more than a local store is responsible for every misprint in an ad. If this were an intentional tactic, then that would be another story.
Hopefully. he didn't use it because your link requires registration.
If you only visit a couple of times a month, then ads shouldn't be a big deal. Sounds like a good move on Salon's part.
The whole moral issue could be avoided if the software scanned for a particular share name, or comment field that indicated that the user WANTED to share the drive. Of course, then they wouldn't have all of these unwitting participants...
I know you were joking, but you're a genious! We use trained gophers. Tie the fiber to their tails. Do they have tails? Well, if they don't have tails we will have to come up with an alternate ass attachment method (AAM). After we conquer the AAM problem, we simply wire the entire country using these trained gophers. We don't have to worry about right of way, because as we all know, gophers don't care about stuff like that.
Most of these problems are device driver related. I've fixed many an unstable NT system by searching for updated drivers. NIC and Video card drivers especially. I really laugh at so called "servers" that have 3D graphics accelerators in them. Those companies position their drivers to play games quickly, not for stability. The bad part is unfortunately, some of the offending drivers are on the NT CD-ROM, and often even the top drawer companies seem to have trouble with this.
Of course, with the free software community, a problem like that would be publicized instead of buried. I've yet to see the docs for one of these updated drivers actually admit to the problem.
While I don't feel a personal need for formatted email, I do see the attraction. What I don't understand is why more plain text email programs and newsreaders don't support MIME at least enough to only display the only the "plain/text" portions? They understand it well enough for attachments. The same goes for mailing list software that can't filter out unwanted attachments and HTML. I can't count the number of times that mailing lists I've been on have been accidentally bombed by a newbie that sends 3 Mb of GIFs to the list or the list digests and archives that include inappropriate HTML and binary attachments. Blech!
Well,
Color me unimpressed with the GUI apps. All three are programmer's tools and one is a GUI version of EMACS. Not exactly state of the art in GUIs.
As far as the server side apps, I agree with you about C code, although in order to get the performance you suggest, it has to be native, not byte code. I would also wonder just how platform independent Mail.com really is. Most high performance database code is heavily optimized. I would bet there would be a heavy porting effort if Mail.com wanted to move to another platform.
I wasn't really dissing Java the language, just the notion of cross-platform GUIs.
The data will not be handed out, however, without the written permission of the individual.
That's a pretty solid piece of protection, there.
You're kidding right? All that means is that every credit, rent, insurance, or employment application will also now include language signing away privacy of your employment data.