Democracy and Communism are orthogonal. Democracy refers to how leaders are selected and Communism is an economic system. Their antonyms are Totalitarianism and Capitalism, respectively. And for the record, America is not a a Democracy, we are a Democratic Republic.
Actually, not quite so offtopic in this thread I guess.
My initial reaction was the same as yours, but on the third page of the article are the following quotes:
Poll workers found that screens on new electronic poll books froze or shut down as they tried to record arriving voters.
Bernice Wuethrich, voting at Grace United Methodist Church on New Hampshire Avenue, said she cast her ballot on the electronic machines after they were up and running. But even then, she said, not everyone's name was coming up on the computer.
"They don't have a printed list" of eligible voters, "they don't have a backup," Wuethrich said. "So when the computer goes down, they can't even look at a list to see who's eligible to vote."
Louise Bradley said she arrived at her polling station after the electronic cards had been delivered, but her card did not work properly. When she got to the section of the ballot listing candidates for the Democratic central committee, it was already filled out. Bradley said she had to remove the computer's choices and insert her own.
My initial reaction was the same as yours, and I rushed to this thread to be the first to be highly moderated for pointing that out. But when I saw that other posters had already pointed it out, I returned to continue reading the article and found these three quotes:
Poll workers found that screens on new electronic poll books froze or shut down as they tried to record arriving voters.
Bernice Wuethrich, voting at Grace United Methodist Church on New Hampshire Avenue, said she cast her ballot on the electronic machines after they were up and running. But even then, she said, not everyone's name was coming up on the computer.
"They don't have a printed list" of eligible voters, "they don't have a backup," Wuethrich said. "So when the computer goes down, they can't even look at a list to see who's eligible to vote."
Louise Bradley said she arrived at her polling station after the electronic cards had been delivered, but her card did not work properly. When she got to the section of the ballot listing candidates for the Democratic central committee, it was already filled out. Bradley said she had to remove the computer's choices and insert her own.
So it looks like, contrary to first impressions, the article summary was unfortunately correct.
Interesting that they did a preview of a product they’re not ready to formally announce yet. Rather uncharacteristic. I guess they feel their hand is being forced. Perhaps they’re trying to steal thunder from Vista Media Center Edition or whatever it’s called? You’d think they’d at least finalize the name, though. Really odd.
Or maybe they’re trying to convince the other movie houses that they’re really serious about this and that the public is interested enough.
Cool link, I knew approximately how India’s electronic voting machines worked but had never seen a picture.
Obviously it would be much cheaper to use such a beautifully simple electronic device as that instead of a full-blown general purpose computer, but how would it yield net savings against the paper-and-sharpie method, aside from requiring less volunteer labor to tally the paper ballots at the end of the night?
Based on their appearance, the fact that they're co-workers, the fact that they don't have a driver's license but instead have to ride with other co-workers to work, the fact that they don't own a home and wear the same clothes over and over again, the fact that they rely on co-workers to cash their checks because they cannot get a checking account at any of the local banks.
I know some of them, too. Around these parts we call ’em “poor.”
Five years into the craze that’s sweeping the nation, I finally saw some in real life recently. I was on vacation in Hawai‘i and some tourists had rented a few to roll around the grass in Kapiolani Park.
I though briefly about finding out where to rent them just so I could try one, but we had better things to do so we kept walking. I’m all for putting pedestrians on wheels and accelerating them to three times their natural walking speed, but I prefer getting some exercise out of the deal. I guess I’m just old-fashioned.
Would get “randomly selected” every time she flew. Finally one of the TSA goons took pity on her and explained why: seems their software (CAPPS II perhaps?) would flag anybody with two consecutive ‘a’s in their name. Her last name is Saavedra, which is Cuban, not Arabic.
NOBODY is stupid enough to propose such a thing. I think it’s a better guess that the tech in question is to be used to run ad-supported VOIP or similar.
I don’t know who those Faultline people are, but either they or El Reg (and now Slashdot) have been trolled. HAND
I only saw this thread because I ran up to where I can get an 802.11 signal to check a weather forecast. I wanted to make sure we’re not gonna get rained on... by the time this gets modded offtopic me and my woman will be on Waikiki Beach with a camera, a tripod, and a bottle of whisky.
being distracted by the real world for 6 hours isn't going to kill you
Please tell me you’re not comparing the cabin of a commercial aircraft with the real world. The real world I inhabit shares very few characteristics with that environment. Six or more hours in that world without adequate distractions is, to many of us, a rather undesirable circumstance.
In a few days my vacation will be over and I’ll fly from Hawai‘i to North Carolina; doing so without benefit of an iPod and a thick book is not something I look forward to. So no, my laptop is not a spleen. In fact, I’d rather check my spleen and have a laptop in my carry on, thank you very much.
Hmm, no takers. Oh well. The Tonight Show band often vamps on that as they go into the first commercial break after Jay Leno’s monologue. Or at least they did back in the 90s when I still watched TV.
It wasn’t really about the surveillance. That was merely a plot device. It was about a state of mind and the means to achieve that state.
In the superficial sense, i.e. electronic surveillance, much of what you mentioned has fallen into place over the past ten to fifteen years. And most of it has been implemented by commercial interests. As for the mindset? I, and I’m sure a whole lot of others around here, would say that the overwhelming majority of it has sprung up in the body politic within the past 58 months.
My mom’s boyfriend is on the list. He drives a fuel tanker, so he gets briefings from Homeland Security as they are considered terrorist targets. When he gets on a plane he’s a suspected terrorist, but when he’s in his truck the feds want him armed.
Great... just great. That leaves us with only one option... don't fly near the end of the month.
Lovely. My girlfriend and I will be boarding a plane Monday afternoon. Guess I shouldn’t wear my BUSH LIES t-shirt, huh? Perhaps I’ll be low-key and wear my FAUX NEWS shirt instead.
I'm getting tired of people redefining terrorism to mean whatever they want these days
I’m getting tired of the government redefining terrorism to mean whatever they want these days.
And while you’re essentially correct about the post you replied to, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that doing the things our Founding Fathers did would very much be considered terrorism today. (Which shouldn’t come as much of a suprise, as governments are notoriously averse to being violently overthrown.)
Back in the 80s our tradition on New Year’s Eve was for me and two friends to get up in front of all assembled and do a headbanging lip-synch of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, keep advocating such things and you may just be in Cuba by election day.
Democracy and Communism are orthogonal. Democracy refers to how leaders are selected and Communism is an economic system. Their antonyms are Totalitarianism and Capitalism, respectively. And for the record, America is not a a Democracy, we are a Democratic Republic.
Actually, not quite so offtopic in this thread I guess.
So it looks like, contrary to first impressions, the article summary was unfortunately correct.
Hopefully this one does slightly better, eh?
Interesting that they did a preview of a product they’re not ready to formally announce yet. Rather uncharacteristic. I guess they feel their hand is being forced. Perhaps they’re trying to steal thunder from Vista Media Center Edition or whatever it’s called? You’d think they’d at least finalize the name, though. Really odd.
Or maybe they’re trying to convince the other movie houses that they’re really serious about this and that the public is interested enough.
Cool link, I knew approximately how India’s electronic voting machines worked but had never seen a picture.
Obviously it would be much cheaper to use such a beautifully simple electronic device as that instead of a full-blown general purpose computer, but how would it yield net savings against the paper-and-sharpie method, aside from requiring less volunteer labor to tally the paper ballots at the end of the night?
Gee, too bad that word has already been defined in the public consciousness as the antonym of “communism.”
Ain’t that a shame. Let me know how your pro-commu-- err, I mean, anti-privatization thing goes, will ya?
I know some of them, too. Around these parts we call ’em “poor.”
It is not needed.
We geeks love to bitch about solutions in search of a problem; is there a clearer example?
Five years into the craze that’s sweeping the nation, I finally saw some in real life recently. I was on vacation in Hawai‘i and some tourists had rented a few to roll around the grass in Kapiolani Park.
I though briefly about finding out where to rent them just so I could try one, but we had better things to do so we kept walking. I’m all for putting pedestrians on wheels and accelerating them to three times their natural walking speed, but I prefer getting some exercise out of the deal. I guess I’m just old-fashioned.
Would get “randomly selected” every time she flew. Finally one of the TSA goons took pity on her and explained why: seems their software (CAPPS II perhaps?) would flag anybody with two consecutive ‘a’s in their name. Her last name is Saavedra, which is Cuban, not Arabic.
NOBODY is stupid enough to propose such a thing. I think it’s a better guess that the tech in question is to be used to run ad-supported VOIP or similar.
I don’t know who those Faultline people are, but either they or El Reg (and now Slashdot) have been trolled. HAND
I only saw this thread because I ran up to where I can get an 802.11 signal to check a weather forecast. I wanted to make sure we’re not gonna get rained on... by the time this gets modded offtopic me and my woman will be on Waikiki Beach with a camera, a tripod, and a bottle of whisky.
Please tell me you’re not comparing the cabin of a commercial aircraft with the real world. The real world I inhabit shares very few characteristics with that environment. Six or more hours in that world without adequate distractions is, to many of us, a rather undesirable circumstance.
In a few days my vacation will be over and I’ll fly from Hawai‘i to North Carolina; doing so without benefit of an iPod and a thick book is not something I look forward to. So no, my laptop is not a spleen. In fact, I’d rather check my spleen and have a laptop in my carry on, thank you very much.
Hmm, no takers. Oh well. The Tonight Show band often vamps on that as they go into the first commercial break after Jay Leno’s monologue. Or at least they did back in the 90s when I still watched TV.
It wasn’t really about the surveillance. That was merely a plot device. It was about a state of mind and the means to achieve that state.
In the superficial sense, i.e. electronic surveillance, much of what you mentioned has fallen into place over the past ten to fifteen years. And most of it has been implemented by commercial interests. As for the mindset? I, and I’m sure a whole lot of others around here, would say that the overwhelming majority of it has sprung up in the body politic within the past 58 months.
May you live in interesting times, comrade.
Heh, strong feelings on that one. So far: 1 Insightful, 1 Troll, 1 Informative, 1 Overrated.
Wake me when the backbone is no longer run through the NSA.
You really think you’d get out of the airport with that tape?
My mom’s boyfriend is on the list. He drives a fuel tanker, so he gets briefings from Homeland Security as they are considered terrorist targets. When he gets on a plane he’s a suspected terrorist, but when he’s in his truck the feds want him armed.
Lovely. My girlfriend and I will be boarding a plane Monday afternoon. Guess I shouldn’t wear my BUSH LIES t-shirt, huh? Perhaps I’ll be low-key and wear my FAUX NEWS shirt instead.
I guess we’re not counting the Windows dev team in this tally, are we?
I’m getting tired of the government redefining terrorism to mean whatever they want these days.
And while you’re essentially correct about the post you replied to, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that doing the things our Founding Fathers did would very much be considered terrorism today. (Which shouldn’t come as much of a suprise, as governments are notoriously averse to being violently overthrown.)
My grandparents are convinced that people only drink bottled water because it’s trendy to be seen carrying name-brand water.
Back in the 80s our tradition on New Year’s Eve was for me and two friends to get up in front of all assembled and do a headbanging lip-synch of Bohemian Rhapsody.