This is kind of old news. The army has always had great success drafting doctors and other professionals.
However, upon being drafted, doctors become medical officers. They don't become infantrymen or tankers or redlegs, etc. A similar situation would apply in an ultra-high tech army - geeks would become signal officers. In the event there is a draft, it is a good thing to have a skill which the military considers valuable.
What do you think will happen to the people in marketing? They go sell the enemy white flags? Think Gladiator.... Maybe we could use them as decoys and kill two birds with one stone...
I think it's illegal to order soldiers to use Windows. From the Uniform Code of Military Justice:
893. ART. 93. CRUELTY AND MALTREATMENT
Any person subject to this chapter who is guilty of cruelty toward, or oppression or maltreatment of, any person subject to his orders shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Please accept my humble apology for condescending "translations" and other down-talking stuff. I thought that no slashdotter other than myself would know what the hell I was talking about - guess I was wrong.
Even if you break all the encryption, modern tactical equipment jumps radio frequency hundreds or thousands of times a second. The frequency jumps are more or less random, you would need to do quite a bit of work just to listen in. Then you would have to break the encryption and keep up with the freq jumps.
Additionally, this data has a very short lifespan. The location of a platoon should change within a day, so you would 24 hrs to decrypt a transmission about a platoon's location before that info became obsolete.
The pay raise is for civil federal employees. All military personnel are paid based on rank and time in service. Pilots, lawyers, and doctors are paid extra. IT professionals are not paid extra, at least not yet. This will prob have to change, see below.
Needless to say, the Army has a tough time hanging on to techies. The Signal Corps (archaic Army-speak for IT) has a serious problem retaining soldiers, and an even more serious problem retaining officers. The whole army is currently critically short on captains, and so I would assume the SC is insanely short on captains. (English translation: a captain is a college graduate w/ 4-10 years of service.)
Additionally, the Army still does suck sometimes. As I write this, I am polishing my combat boots for this weekend, no kidding. Like any non-standard occupation(or part-time job) it has pros and cons that you won't find in a cube (or a computer lab...). For example, in the Army, you get to learn a whole new set of acronyms, which no geek will understand. If you ever need to sound like you're smart, you just tell somebody you executed a PCI on your LBE this weekend and it was succesful. This will impress any geek and he will be too embarassed to ask what the hell it means. (Translation - I made sure my canteens were full of water. I also managed to not lose my compass)
I'm a part-timer, believe me, I don't do it for the money. I like being something more than a regular techie. If you have a degree and are willing to take some off to go to Officer Candidate School and Officer Basic Course you can get a pretty good setup. I believe the OCS folks would sell their soul for a CS major right now.
Please see my real-world experience - I have provided office-type tech support to infantry officers, it is not fun.
Now, these are bold strides that the military is trying to make in advancing thier state of technology. But technology alone is no *magic bullet* which will enable soldiers on the ground to be more lethal, if they can't move or don't have the intelligence to work the equipment they have been issued. We've barely got enough time to get people to be really effective as regular infantrymen and can't even afford enough fuel and bullets to have soldiers learn their basic jobs. So, now were going to buy all this neato technology that goes beyond the current (and future) warfighting need?
The fundamental questions of modern land warfare are: where are they? Where are we? Whoever has more success in answering these questions will probably win.
The US forces in the Gulf War would have been lost in the desert without their GPSes. The Iraqis assumed that the coalition forces would be unable to maneuver in the desert - everything looks the same, all that terrain association crap they teach you becomes useless. Probably a good assumption. But GPSes allowed midwesterners to run circles around arabs in their own desert.
Also, soldiers still move from point a to point b by pointing a compass the direction they want to go and counting their paces. This is a very crude system, and if you're not very good at it (like me) you neve end up in the right spot. While I'm not an infantryman, the spatially-uninclined ones will probably be much more lethal with a HUD that tells them where they are.
A test of this stuff indicated the time needed to consolidate an airborne unit after the drop was reduced significatntly (no URL in my head, sorry.)
We're talking like 45 extra pounds of technology, a heavier, albiet, more capable weapon system with things like rangefinders, Laser Target Designators and thermal sights all built into a rifle, with a grenade launcher and 5.56 round capablity, all in a single system.
The good thing about this new toy is that it will make suppressive fire much more lethal, assuming it ever gets light enough to be practical. Supposedly, it'll let suppresive fire create a burst effect and kill people. Right now, most bullets are fired not to hit someone, but instead to keep them from moving quickly. Watch saving private ryan and notice how much complicated it is to move 5 feet under fire. This gizmo is supposed to make suppresive rounds explode, which means that most shots will now actually have the chance to hurt somebody.
Of course, anything that or gives the Signal Corps more $ or makes the Signal Corps seem more important is a good thing from my perspective...
Couple thoughts, from a highly biased perspective:
1) It works both ways. Many technologies, nuclear power, penicillin, jet aircraft, SUVs, food preservatives, etc. were developed for military use. These technologies were later adapted for use in civillian life. The Internet is probably the best example here.
2) It doesn't matter whether your software is GPL or not. The military can circumvent copyright, patents, and trade secrets without trouble.
The DoD is more or less exempt from copyright laws - read the fine print on say, the JDK license, and it talks in extensive legalese about how the license applies to non-DoD fedl agencies....
Also, patents and trade secrets are worthless protections against military exploitation of technology. Patent infringement is not a war crime. If the military wants to violate a patent (especially one held by an enemy national) nothing can stop them really. What would we do, execute an enemy signal officer for running Windows on his machines?
Trade secrets ain't worth anything either. Any military also probably has the resources to reverse engineer any technology of real value. That's why critical systems are supposed to be destroyed instead of captured - any nation-state can mount a succesful reverse-engineer. Reverse-engineering is resource-intensive, but that's not an issue here.
Disclaimer - this will be my last post to this story, I promise, sort of.
In the Army we do Pre-Combat Inspections (PCIs) a lot. These aren't done before combat really, the name is misleading. It's basically checking to make sure everybody has everything. Of course someone is always missing something or they have something that's broken, whatever....
PCI circa 2003:
Platoon Sgt: "Hold up your extra boots", "hold up your poncho", "hold up your kevlar", "boot up from LILO"
Pvt: "My MBR is malfunctioning, Sgt, I can't get Windows to load..."
"We don't use that unstable shit in my outfit, soldier!!!"
No, there are real uses for information technology of this type. I read about an airborne drop where soldiers transmitted their locations (computed throught GPS) to their platoon leader after they hit ground. (encrypted, of course.) The PL then looked at his map, picked a rally point, and transmitted the RP to all his troops... (encrypted again, of course).
One of the big problems with modern armies is that we don't make big formations anymore - people move in wedges and columns with 10-20 meters between each soldier. Multipy that by 200, and an infantry company will take up a square km of terrain. It's very easy to get lost/separated, wearable computers might solve this.
Sorry, this is interesting too. The important stuff is bold.
(1) Except as provided in s. 102.171, the certification of election or nomination of any person to office, or of the result on any question submitted by referendum, may be contested in the circuit court by any unsuccessful candidate for such office or nomination thereto or by any elector qualified to vote in the election related to such candidacy, or by any taxpayer, respectively.
(2) Such contestant shall file a complaint, together with the fees prescribed in chapter 28, with the clerk of the circuit court within 10 days after midnight of the date the last county canvassing board empowered to canvass the returns certifies the results of the election being contested or within 5 days after midnight of the date the last county canvassing board empowered to canvass the returns certifies the results of that particular election following a protest pursuant to s. 102.166(1), whichever occurs later.
(3) The complaint shall set forth the grounds on which the contestant intends to establish his or her right to such office or set aside the result of the election on a submitted referendum. The grounds for contesting an election under this section are:
(a) Misconduct, fraud, or corruption on the part of any election official or any member of the canvassing board sufficient to change or place in doubt the result of the election.
(b) Ineligibility of the successful candidate for the nomination or office in dispute.
(c) Receipt of a number of illegal votes or rejection of a number of legal votes sufficient to change or place in doubt the result of the election.
(d) Proof that any elector, election official, or canvassing board member was given or offered a bribe or reward in money, property, or any other thing of value for the purpose of procuring the successful candidate's nomination or election or determining the result on any question submitted by referendum.
(e) Any other cause or allegation which, if sustained, would show that a person other than the successful candidate was the person duly nominated or elected to the office in question or that the outcome of the election on a question submitted by referendum was contrary to the result declared by the canvassing board or election board.
(4) The canvassing board or election board shall be the proper party defendant, and the successful candidate shall be an indispensable party to any action brought to contest the election or nomination of a candidate.
(5) A statement of the grounds of contest may not be rejected, nor the proceedings dismissed, by the court for any want of form if the grounds of contest provided in the statement are sufficient to clearly inform the defendant of the particular proceeding or cause for which the nomination or election is contested.
(6) A copy of the complaint shall be served upon the defendant and any other person named therein in the same manner as in other civil cases under the laws of this state. Within 10 days after the complaint has been served, the defendant must file an answer admitting or denying the allegations on which the contestant relies or stating that the defendant has no knowledge or information concerning the allegations, which shall be deemed a denial of the allegations, and must state any other defenses, in law or fact, on which the defendant relies. If an answer is not filed within the time prescribed, the defendant may not be granted a hearing in court to assert any claim or objection that is required by this subsection to be stated in an answer.
(7) Any candidate, qualified elector, or taxpayer presenting such a contest to a circuit judge is entitled to an immediate hearing. However, the court in its discretion may limit the time to be consumed in taking testimony, with a view therein to the circumstances of the matter and to the proximity of any succeeding primary or other election.
(8) The circuit judge to whom the contest is presented may fashion such orders as he or she deems necessary to ensure that each allegation in the complaint is investigated, examined, or checked, to prevent or correct any alleged wrong, and to provide any relief appropriate under such circumstances.
So, it looks like a judge could order a re-vote...
(1) In counties where paper ballots are used, each elector shall be given a ballot by the inspector. Before delivering the ballot to the elector, one of the inspectors shall write his or her initials or name on the stub attached to the ballot; then the elector shall, without leaving the polling place, retire alone to a booth or compartment provided, and place an "X" mark after the name of the candidate of his or her choice for each office to be filled, and likewise mark an "X" after the answer he or she desires in case of a constitutional amendment or other question submitted to a vote.
Apparently you have to have the ballot set up so you put an 'x' by the candidate. Punch cards don't cut it.
- sorry, the URL will not work work for some reason, but CNN has the link at the bottom of this page
Apparently more Gore votes are showing up in the recount - thus far he's picked up 843 votes.
Also, another irregularity popped up:
"In one heavily Democratic county, officials said 19,120 ballots in the presidential race were tossed out before they were counted because more than one candidate was picked."
And there is a real chance of a revote, where the Nader supporters can redeem themselves.
Finally, there is one group of absentees we've all forgotten about: Jews in Israel. I guess there are quite a few Jewish-Americans casting ballots from there - more info here
Unfortunately, it looks like my links have died since I wrote that sentence. Hope they come back.
It seems that the one thing it does is keep the states with lower populations from becoming completely insignificant, amplifying their votes a bit.
Small states are radically over-represented in the Senate already. Why do they need overrepresentation in both branches of government? Also, it doesn't make sense to campaign in the small states - they naturally vote Republican - they're not "battlegrounds" so neither candidates visits the Great Plains since it's either hopeless or unecessary.
This could turn to Gore's favor. Assuming he wins the popular vote and the electoral vote is 269-271 for Bush, it would take only two electors who were iffy about the electoral college to change things.
If the BSA wants to "audit"/extort companies to see if they have any misappropriated software, then what about their code?
I would bet a substantial sum of money that all BSA members have used some code released under the GPL in their products. Maybe another organization should audit the source code and confirm that none of it has been released under the GPL.
Something like this: "Hello, this is the GPLSA. We've received a tip from a disgruntled developer that you may have illegally charged consumers for GPL-derived works. We'll be stopping by later today to check all your source code. If that's a problem we can get a search warrant."
Legally, in the US, the 4th amendment to the constitution grants everyone protection from unwarranted searches and seizures. They would need to be a law enforcement officer (which they are not) WITH a search warrant (which they won't have either) to be able to force a company to show them their software licenses.
Unfortunately, the fourth ammendment is now a joke. We really do allow police to peek in your windows, we really allow cops to claim it was a mistake if they execute an illegal search, we allow drug tests without suspiscion, etc. Warrants are like candy, and if you do get one overturned the cops will slash your tires in many areas.
Completely OT, this is thanks to the Reagan/Bush appointees on the US Supreme Court. I want to extend a hearty thank you to everyone who voted for the AWOL criminal who will add more of these folks to the Supreme Court. I want to extend an even more hearty thank you to all of you who voted for Nader, thereby making it very likely AWOL criminal will make Supreme Court appointments, especially if you live in Florida or New Hampshire.
OK, I started a flame war without meaning to. My original point was that neither party is particularly concerned with representing people who don't make a decent amount of money. Unions tell people to support Gore, but he shafts them every chance he gets. Europeans have parties who draw most of their voters from the working class. In these countries voter turnout is almost double the US turnout.
Now I will join the flaming:
I have little sympathy for those who faced that situation while raising children. I call them irresponsible, there is nothing more ridiculous than concieving a child (by this, I am not talking about those who have suffered rape) without planning ahead.
So we should vote for Bush so as many kids as possible get messed up. Let's make sure everyone is forced to have unwanted children. That'll help.
Sony is based in Japan for a reason. Who will pay the taxes once all the economic power gets sucked out of America?
Japan is insanely egalitarian. It is considered inappropriate to pay the CEO more than 10 times more than the lowest-paid employee. The Japanese government is huge, it actively manages the private sector.
Oh yeah, Daimler-Chrysler decided to headquarter in Germany, a country noted for its commitment to laissez-faire capitalism. (Sarcasm)
Poor in the United States is a filthy rich compared to being poor an any third world country where there are no jobs and a crappy economy thanks to corrupt government and a ridiculous choice for the place to hang your hat.
This is because we had a wonderful thing in America called the labor movement. It forced employers to pay semi-decent wages, establish safe working conditions, etc. And yes, the fedl govt had to order corporations to recognize unions and negotiate with them.
I live in MN, where you can register to vote the same day, and students are registered by their college. I had an easy time voting in the primary and today, but it's almost too easy to vote here - see Jesse Ventura for proof.
My buddy lives in the deep South, a region noted for making it easy for people to vote. They make you fill out several forms and provide a social security card and another form of ID, list the names and addresses of several registered voters who can attest to the fact you really do live where you do. All this has do be quite a while in advance.
The idea is to make sure only the better sort of citizen (translation: white) is able to vote. In order to register, you have to have someone who knows the system give you a hand. Of course, civil servants in this area provide the same assistance no matter what your skin color is....
"It's obviously a dirty trick late in the campaign by the Democrats," Yu told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Gimme a break!!! This is what I hate about Republicans - every bad thing is a dirty trick by the Evil Liberal Democrats or the Evil Liberal Media.
There is apparently a vast left-wing conspiracy that uncovers George Bush's criminal record, his dishonorable military service, sends his debate tapes to the Democrats, and now hacks their website. Maybe you wouldn't have these problems if your candidate wasn't a loser and you didn't ignore security (computer and physical).
What if the Green Party does get funding for the next time around? Isn't this just going to split the Democratic Vote and make it possible for the Republicans to get some real whack-o elected the next time around?
Yes and no. For reasons I don't wanna explain, we really do have a two-party system in America. (Electoral college, plurality voting, campaign funding, etc. Sorry, I'm a poli sci minor.) When a 3rd party gets any amount of the vote, the major parties steal it's ideas. The Bull Moose party, the Know-Nothing Party, Ross Perot, etc. all made some impact on the election. In the next election, one major party shifted left or right enough to pick up that minor party's voters. Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party got almost as many votes as the Republicans in one election. The next election, the Bull Moose party was officially supporting the Rep candidate, because the GOP changed it's platform substantially.
So, if Gore loses because of Nader, the next Dem will be more liberal by a generous amount. Gore's successor will spend more time talking about the environment, protecting consumers, helping the working-class, etc. A vote for Nader in 2000 is a vote for Paul Wellstone in 2004.(He's my senator, a very liberal democract)
If Nader does well, the Dems will absorb the Green Party. If Nader does poorly, they'll just ignore it. This is another problem - is it worth letting Bush be President in order to make the Democrats more liberal?
There are not Socialists in this country. Deal with it. The only reason Europe's economy didn't go to hell a couple of years ago, is because the US economy held. We are not Europe. American government was designed from the get-go to be as hands off as possible. Socialism and American doctrine rarely work.
Pre-comment - I DO NOT meet most definitions of socialist or communist, please no flames....
I had the pleasure of listening to Jon Katz personally explain to me why American's don't vote - he ignored me when I tried to present the real alternatives.
The textbook reasons why Americans don't vote are
1) it's insanely difficult to vote in this country (relatively speaking) 2) we don't have a socialist party.
1) Election day is not a holiday here - I had to get up early to vote for not-Bush(I wanted to vote Nader or Browne, but neither one has a shot in hell) before I went to school, after which I had to go to work (where I get to read slashdot until some idiot reformats their floppy). If I hated Bush less, I would have slept in.
Also, you have to engage in complicated segregation-era registration procedures here - my friend lives in a state where filing a tax return is easier than voting. (I will leave it to others to figure out why). Europeans dispensed with this mumbo-jumbo decades ago and had the government register voters.
2)Working class people in America believe, correctly, that the two major parties cater to the interests of the middle class and big corporations. Bush wants to give an across-the-board tax cut (gift to the rich) and Gore wants to give targeted tax cuts (gift to the middle class). Poor = shafted. They don't vote, because frankly, both parties will probably screw them. In Europe, these people vote because the left-wing parties really do represent their interests. Actually, they vote like crazy.
So, there are a great many "socialists" in America, it's just that they don't have anybody to vote for.
Still, property rights are the most fundemental human rights, after all.
Are you crazy? Property rights without other rights is a very nasty way to go. We tried that a while back, like 1900, and it resulted in an extreme concentration of power in the very, very wealthy - it wasn't just that they had lots of money (that's OK) but that they were able to use that money to fuck everything up. Property rights are the least fundamental ritghts, they will always be subject to some limitations(we're always gonna have taxes, we'll always have laws against harmful uses of property), and I just don't get it.
Actually, it goes even further than this. Copyright law was established in the Constution for the benefit of the public.
The Congress Shall have the power to...
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
Article 1, section 8
In other words, the idea behind copyright was to encourage people to contribute their work to the whole world - copyright was just an incentive for this. It definitely wasn't intended to allow corporations to deny total access to old content. Franklin refused patents on his inventions, believing that IP was for those was only for the very selfish - ideally people would develop things for the common good, not for personal benefit.
Slashdot Mirror
This is kind of old news. The army has always had great success drafting doctors and other professionals.
However, upon being drafted, doctors become medical officers. They don't become infantrymen or tankers or redlegs, etc. A similar situation would apply in an ultra-high tech army - geeks would become signal officers. In the event there is a draft, it is a good thing to have a skill which the military considers valuable.
What do you think will happen to the people in marketing? They go sell the enemy white flags? Think Gladiator.... Maybe we could use them as decoys and kill two birds with one stone...
I think it's illegal to order soldiers to use Windows. From the Uniform Code of Military Justice:
893. ART. 93. CRUELTY AND MALTREATMENT
Any person subject to this chapter who is guilty of cruelty toward, or oppression or maltreatment of, any person subject to his orders shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Clear maltreatment. Enough said.
Please accept my humble apology for condescending "translations" and other down-talking stuff. I thought that no slashdotter other than myself would know what the hell I was talking about - guess I was wrong.
Even if you break all the encryption, modern tactical equipment jumps radio frequency hundreds or thousands of times a second. The frequency jumps are more or less random, you would need to do quite a bit of work just to listen in. Then you would have to break the encryption and keep up with the freq jumps.
Additionally, this data has a very short lifespan. The location of a platoon should change within a day, so you would 24 hrs to decrypt a transmission about a platoon's location before that info became obsolete.
The pay raise is for civil federal employees. All military personnel are paid based on rank and time in service. Pilots, lawyers, and doctors are paid extra. IT professionals are not paid extra, at least not yet. This will prob have to change, see below.
Needless to say, the Army has a tough time hanging on to techies. The Signal Corps (archaic Army-speak for IT) has a serious problem retaining soldiers, and an even more serious problem retaining officers. The whole army is currently critically short on captains, and so I would assume the SC is insanely short on captains. (English translation: a captain is a college graduate w/ 4-10 years of service.)
Additionally, the Army still does suck sometimes. As I write this, I am polishing my combat boots for this weekend, no kidding. Like any non-standard occupation(or part-time job) it has pros and cons that you won't find in a cube (or a computer lab...). For example, in the Army, you get to learn a whole new set of acronyms, which no geek will understand. If you ever need to sound like you're smart, you just tell somebody you executed a PCI on your LBE this weekend and it was succesful. This will impress any geek and he will be too embarassed to ask what the hell it means. (Translation - I made sure my canteens were full of water. I also managed to not lose my compass)
I'm a part-timer, believe me, I don't do it for the money. I like being something more than a regular techie. If you have a degree and are willing to take some off to go to Officer Candidate School and Officer Basic Course you can get a pretty good setup. I believe the OCS folks would sell their soul for a CS major right now.
Please see my real-world experience - I have provided office-type tech support to infantry officers, it is not fun.
Now, these are bold strides that the military is trying to make in advancing thier state of technology. But technology alone is no *magic bullet* which will enable soldiers on the ground to be more lethal, if they can't move or don't have the intelligence to work the equipment they have been issued. We've barely got enough time to get people to be really effective as regular infantrymen and can't even afford enough fuel and bullets to have soldiers learn their basic jobs. So, now were going to buy all this neato technology that goes beyond the current (and future) warfighting need?
The fundamental questions of modern land warfare are: where are they? Where are we? Whoever has more success in answering these questions will probably win.
The US forces in the Gulf War would have been lost in the desert without their GPSes. The Iraqis assumed that the coalition forces would be unable to maneuver in the desert - everything looks the same, all that terrain association crap they teach you becomes useless. Probably a good assumption. But GPSes allowed midwesterners to run circles around arabs in their own desert.
Also, soldiers still move from point a to point b by pointing a compass the direction they want to go and counting their paces. This is a very crude system, and if you're not very good at it (like me) you neve end up in the right spot. While I'm not an infantryman, the spatially-uninclined ones will probably be much more lethal with a HUD that tells them where they are.
A test of this stuff indicated the time needed to consolidate an airborne unit after the drop was reduced significatntly (no URL in my head, sorry.)
We're talking like 45 extra pounds of technology, a heavier, albiet, more capable weapon system with things like rangefinders, Laser Target Designators and thermal sights all built into a rifle, with a grenade launcher and 5.56 round capablity, all in a single system.
The good thing about this new toy is that it will make suppressive fire much more lethal, assuming it ever gets light enough to be practical. Supposedly, it'll let suppresive fire create a burst effect and kill people. Right now, most bullets are fired not to hit someone, but instead to keep them from moving quickly. Watch saving private ryan and notice how much complicated it is to move 5 feet under fire. This gizmo is supposed to make suppresive rounds explode, which means that most shots will now actually have the chance to hurt somebody.
Of course, anything that or gives the Signal Corps more $ or makes the Signal Corps seem more important is a good thing from my perspective...
Couple thoughts, from a highly biased perspective:
1) It works both ways. Many technologies, nuclear power, penicillin, jet aircraft, SUVs, food preservatives, etc. were developed for military use. These technologies were later adapted for use in civillian life. The Internet is probably the best example here.
2) It doesn't matter whether your software is GPL or not. The military can circumvent copyright, patents, and trade secrets without trouble.
The DoD is more or less exempt from copyright laws - read the fine print on say, the JDK license, and it talks in extensive legalese about how the license applies to non-DoD fedl agencies....
Also, patents and trade secrets are worthless protections against military exploitation of technology. Patent infringement is not a war crime. If the military wants to violate a patent (especially one held by an enemy national) nothing can stop them really. What would we do, execute an enemy signal officer for running Windows on his machines?
Trade secrets ain't worth anything either. Any military also probably has the resources to reverse engineer any technology of real value. That's why critical systems are supposed to be destroyed instead of captured - any nation-state can mount a succesful reverse-engineer. Reverse-engineering is resource-intensive, but that's not an issue here.
Disclaimer - this will be my last post to this story, I promise, sort of.
In the Army we do Pre-Combat Inspections (PCIs) a lot. These aren't done before combat really, the name is misleading. It's basically checking to make sure everybody has everything. Of course someone is always missing something or they have something that's broken, whatever....
PCI circa 2003:
Platoon Sgt: "Hold up your extra boots", "hold up your poncho", "hold up your kevlar", "boot up from LILO"
Pvt: "My MBR is malfunctioning, Sgt, I can't get Windows to load..."
"We don't use that unstable shit in my outfit, soldier!!!"
No, there are real uses for information technology of this type. I read about an airborne drop where soldiers transmitted their locations (computed throught GPS) to their platoon leader after they hit ground. (encrypted, of course.) The PL then looked at his map, picked a rally point, and transmitted the RP to all his troops... (encrypted again, of course).
One of the big problems with modern armies is that we don't make big formations anymore - people move in wedges and columns with 10-20 meters between each soldier. Multipy that by 200, and an infantry company will take up a square km of terrain. It's very easy to get lost/separated, wearable computers might solve this.
I can tell you from personal experience that an infantry officer cannot properly use Microsoft Word without extensive tech support...
I fear I will go crazy one weekend a month, two weeks a year if this stuff ever makes it into the Guard...
Sorry, this is interesting too. The important stuff is bold.
(1) Except as provided in s. 102.171, the certification of election or nomination of any person to office, or of the result on any question submitted by referendum, may be contested in the circuit court by any unsuccessful candidate for such office or nomination thereto or by any elector qualified to vote in the election related to such candidacy, or by any taxpayer, respectively.
(2) Such contestant shall file a complaint, together with the fees prescribed in chapter 28, with the clerk of the circuit court within 10 days after midnight of the date the last county canvassing board empowered to canvass the returns certifies the results of the election being contested or within 5 days after midnight of the date the last county canvassing board empowered to canvass the returns certifies the results of that particular election following a protest pursuant to s. 102.166(1), whichever occurs later.
(3) The complaint shall set forth the grounds on which the contestant intends to establish his or her right to such office or set aside the result of the election on a submitted referendum. The grounds for contesting an election under this section are:
(a) Misconduct, fraud, or corruption on the part of any election official or any member of the canvassing board sufficient to change or place in doubt the result of the election.
(b) Ineligibility of the successful candidate for the nomination or office in dispute.
(c) Receipt of a number of illegal votes or rejection of a number of legal votes sufficient to change or place in doubt the result of the election.
(d) Proof that any elector, election official, or canvassing board member was given or offered a bribe or reward in money, property, or any other thing of value for the purpose of procuring the successful candidate's nomination or election or determining the result on any question submitted by referendum.
(e) Any other cause or allegation which, if sustained, would show that a person other than the successful candidate was the person duly nominated or elected to the office in question or that the outcome of the election on a question submitted by referendum was contrary to the result declared by the canvassing board or election board.
(4) The canvassing board or election board shall be the proper party defendant, and the successful candidate shall be an indispensable party to any action brought to contest the election or nomination of a candidate.
(5) A statement of the grounds of contest may not be rejected, nor the proceedings dismissed, by the court for any want of form if the grounds of contest provided in the statement are sufficient to clearly inform the defendant of the particular proceeding or cause for which the nomination or election is contested.
(6) A copy of the complaint shall be served upon the defendant and any other person named therein in the same manner as in other civil cases under the laws of this state. Within 10 days after the complaint has been served, the defendant must file an answer admitting or denying the allegations on which the contestant relies or stating that the defendant has no knowledge or information concerning the allegations, which shall be deemed a denial of the allegations, and must state any other defenses, in law or fact, on which the defendant relies. If an answer is not filed within the time prescribed, the defendant may not be granted a hearing in court to assert any claim or objection that is required by this subsection to be stated in an answer.
(7) Any candidate, qualified elector, or taxpayer presenting such a contest to a circuit judge is entitled to an immediate hearing. However, the court in its discretion may limit the time to be consumed in taking testimony, with a view therein to the circumstances of the matter and to the proximity of any succeeding primary or other election.
(8) The circuit judge to whom the contest is presented may fashion such orders as he or she deems necessary to ensure that each allegation in the complaint is investigated, examined, or checked, to prevent or correct any alleged wrong, and to provide any relief appropriate under such circumstances.
So, it looks like a judge could order a re-vote...
From the Florida legal code:
(1) In counties where paper ballots are used, each elector shall be given a ballot by the inspector. Before delivering the ballot to the elector, one of the inspectors shall write his or her initials or name on the stub attached to the ballot; then the elector shall, without leaving the polling place, retire alone to a booth or compartment provided, and place an "X" mark after the name of the candidate of his or her choice for each office to be filled, and likewise mark an "X" after the answer he or she desires in case of a constitutional amendment or other question submitted to a vote.
Apparently you have to have the ballot set up so you put an 'x' by the candidate. Punch cards don't cut it.
- sorry, the URL will not work work for some reason, but CNN has the link at the bottom of this page
http://www.startribune.com/viewers/qview/cgi/qview .cgi?template=elections_nation&slug= prez 09
Apparently more Gore votes are showing up in the recount - thus far he's picked up 843 votes.
Also, another irregularity popped up:
"In one heavily Democratic county, officials said 19,120 ballots in the presidential race were tossed out before they were counted because more than one candidate was picked."
And there is a real chance of a revote, where the Nader supporters can redeem themselves.
Finally, there is one group of absentees we've all forgotten about: Jews in Israel. I guess there are quite a few Jewish-Americans casting ballots from there - more info here
Unfortunately, it looks like my links have died since I wrote that sentence. Hope they come back.
It seems that the one thing it does is keep the states with lower populations from becoming completely insignificant, amplifying their votes a bit.
Small states are radically over-represented in the Senate already. Why do they need overrepresentation in both branches of government? Also, it doesn't make sense to campaign in the small states - they naturally vote Republican - they're not "battlegrounds" so neither candidates visits the Great Plains since it's either hopeless or unecessary.
This could turn to Gore's favor. Assuming he wins the popular vote and the electoral vote is 269-271 for Bush, it would take only two electors who were iffy about the electoral college to change things.
If the BSA wants to "audit"/extort companies to see if they have any misappropriated software, then what about their code?
I would bet a substantial sum of money that all BSA members have used some code released under the GPL in their products. Maybe another organization should audit the source code and confirm that none of it has been released under the GPL.
Something like this: "Hello, this is the GPLSA. We've received a tip from a disgruntled developer that you may have illegally charged consumers for GPL-derived works. We'll be stopping by later today to check all your source code. If that's a problem we can get a search warrant."
Legally, in the US, the 4th amendment to the constitution grants everyone protection from unwarranted searches and seizures. They would need to be a law enforcement officer (which they are not) WITH a search warrant (which they won't have either) to be able to force a company to show them their software licenses.
Unfortunately, the fourth ammendment is now a joke. We really do allow police to peek in your windows, we really allow cops to claim it was a mistake if they execute an illegal search, we allow drug tests without suspiscion, etc. Warrants are like candy, and if you do get one overturned the cops will slash your tires in many areas.
Completely OT, this is thanks to the Reagan/Bush appointees on the US Supreme Court. I want to extend a hearty thank you to everyone who voted for the AWOL criminal who will add more of these folks to the Supreme Court. I want to extend an even more hearty thank you to all of you who voted for Nader, thereby making it very likely AWOL criminal will make Supreme Court appointments, especially if you live in Florida or New Hampshire.
OK, I started a flame war without meaning to. My original point was that neither party is particularly concerned with representing people who don't make a decent amount of money. Unions tell people to support Gore, but he shafts them every chance he gets. Europeans have parties who draw most of their voters from the working class. In these countries voter turnout is almost double the US turnout.
Now I will join the flaming:
I have little sympathy for those who faced that situation while raising children. I call them irresponsible, there is nothing more ridiculous than concieving a child (by this, I am not talking about those who have suffered rape) without planning ahead.
So we should vote for Bush so as many kids as possible get messed up. Let's make sure everyone is forced to have unwanted children. That'll help.
Sony is based in Japan for a reason. Who will pay the taxes once all the economic power gets sucked out of America?
Japan is insanely egalitarian. It is considered inappropriate to pay the CEO more than 10 times more than the lowest-paid employee. The Japanese government is huge, it actively manages the private sector.
Oh yeah, Daimler-Chrysler decided to headquarter in Germany, a country noted for its commitment to laissez-faire capitalism. (Sarcasm)
Poor in the United States is a filthy rich compared to being poor an any third world country where there are no jobs and a crappy economy thanks to corrupt government and a ridiculous choice for the place to hang your hat.
This is because we had a wonderful thing in America called the labor movement. It forced employers to pay semi-decent wages, establish safe working conditions, etc. And yes, the fedl govt had to order corporations to recognize unions and negotiate with them.
I live in MN, where you can register to vote the same day, and students are registered by their college. I had an easy time voting in the primary and today, but it's almost too easy to vote here - see Jesse Ventura for proof.
My buddy lives in the deep South, a region noted for making it easy for people to vote. They make you fill out several forms and provide a social security card and another form of ID, list the names and addresses of several registered voters who can attest to the fact you really do live where you do. All this has do be quite a while in advance.
The idea is to make sure only the better sort of citizen (translation: white) is able to vote. In order to register, you have to have someone who knows the system give you a hand. Of course, civil servants in this area provide the same assistance no matter what your skin color is....
A Slashdot poll!!!
I am:
-Male
-Female
-Hermaphrodite
-Abnormal chromosones (X, XXX, Y, XYY, etc.)
-JonKatz
I'm gonna go submit it!
"It's obviously a dirty trick late in the campaign by the Democrats," Yu told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Gimme a break!!! This is what I hate about Republicans - every bad thing is a dirty trick by the Evil Liberal Democrats or the Evil Liberal Media.
There is apparently a vast left-wing conspiracy that uncovers George Bush's criminal record, his dishonorable military service, sends his debate tapes to the Democrats, and now hacks their website. Maybe you wouldn't have these problems if your candidate wasn't a loser and you didn't ignore security (computer and physical).
What if the Green Party does get funding for the next time around? Isn't this just going to split the Democratic Vote and make it possible for the Republicans to get some real whack-o elected the next time around?
Yes and no. For reasons I don't wanna explain, we really do have a two-party system in America. (Electoral college, plurality voting, campaign funding, etc. Sorry, I'm a poli sci minor.) When a 3rd party gets any amount of the vote, the major parties steal it's ideas. The Bull Moose party, the Know-Nothing Party, Ross Perot, etc. all made some impact on the election. In the next election, one major party shifted left or right enough to pick up that minor party's voters. Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party got almost as many votes as the Republicans in one election. The next election, the Bull Moose party was officially supporting the Rep candidate, because the GOP changed it's platform substantially.
So, if Gore loses because of Nader, the next Dem will be more liberal by a generous amount. Gore's successor will spend more time talking about the environment, protecting consumers, helping the working-class, etc. A vote for Nader in 2000 is a vote for Paul Wellstone in 2004.(He's my senator, a very liberal democract)
If Nader does well, the Dems will absorb the Green Party. If Nader does poorly, they'll just ignore it. This is another problem - is it worth letting Bush be President in order to make the Democrats more liberal?
There are not Socialists in this country. Deal with it. The only reason Europe's economy didn't go to hell a couple of years ago, is because the US economy held. We are not Europe. American government was designed from the get-go to be as hands off as possible. Socialism and American doctrine rarely work.
Pre-comment - I DO NOT meet most definitions of socialist or communist, please no flames....
I had the pleasure of listening to Jon Katz personally explain to me why American's don't vote - he ignored me when I tried to present the real alternatives.
The textbook reasons why Americans don't vote are
1) it's insanely difficult to vote in this country (relatively speaking) 2) we don't have a socialist party.
1) Election day is not a holiday here - I had to get up early to vote for not-Bush(I wanted to vote Nader or Browne, but neither one has a shot in hell) before I went to school, after which I had to go to work (where I get to read slashdot until some idiot reformats their floppy). If I hated Bush less, I would have slept in.
Also, you have to engage in complicated segregation-era registration procedures here - my friend lives in a state where filing a tax return is easier than voting. (I will leave it to others to figure out why). Europeans dispensed with this mumbo-jumbo decades ago and had the government register voters.
2)Working class people in America believe, correctly, that the two major parties cater to the interests of the middle class and big corporations. Bush wants to give an across-the-board tax cut (gift to the rich) and Gore wants to give targeted tax cuts (gift to the middle class). Poor = shafted. They don't vote, because frankly, both parties will probably screw them. In Europe, these people vote because the left-wing parties really do represent their interests. Actually, they vote like crazy.
So, there are a great many "socialists" in America, it's just that they don't have anybody to vote for.
Still, property rights are the most fundemental human rights, after all.
Are you crazy? Property rights without other rights is a very nasty way to go. We tried that a while back, like 1900, and it resulted in an extreme concentration of power in the very, very wealthy - it wasn't just that they had lots of money (that's OK) but that they were able to use that money to fuck everything up. Property rights are the least fundamental ritghts, they will always be subject to some limitations(we're always gonna have taxes, we'll always have laws against harmful uses of property), and I just don't get it.
Actually, it goes even further than this. Copyright law was established in the Constution for the benefit of the public.
The Congress Shall have the power to...
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
Article 1, section 8
In other words, the idea behind copyright was to encourage people to contribute their work to the whole world - copyright was just an incentive for this. It definitely wasn't intended to allow corporations to deny total access to old content. Franklin refused patents on his inventions, believing that IP was for those was only for the very selfish - ideally people would develop things for the common good, not for personal benefit.