Is that it's difficult to perform large scale fraud, the kind that might effect the election result. Ok, so a few people might be able to get a couple of extra votes, it isn't going to change the result.
Of course this *all* goes out the window with postal ballots, a bloody stupid idea as the large scale postal voter fraud in Birminham shows.
It isn't a two horse race because there are just two political viewpoints. It's a two horse race because the electoral system penalises all but the largest two parties disproportionately.
In a 3 party election using the current electoral system the winner does *not* need a majority, he needs only 34% of the vote, the other 66% are discarded.
What has happened in the US is that the electoral system has effectively enforced a two party state. I mean, do you really believe that there are only two political views of the world?
They got only 36% of the votes but won 55% of the seats in the parliament, they have a working majority. There is remarkably little correlation between how people vote and the makeup of the UK parliament.
The larger problem is far deeper than this. In America, and in the UK the majority of voters simply don't matter in the first place.
You see, there are these things called safe seats, or safe states I suppose in the US. These safe seats and safe states can pretty much be ignored by all, allowing them to concentrate on seats/states which could potentially switch allegiance.
When your electoral system discards 49% of the votes in the case of a 2 party election. Or worse, discards 64% of votes in a 3 party election, as just happened in the UK. The Labour party was returned to power with just 36% of the vote.
The whole point of these new generation of batteries is to increase the energy density and as you do that you're increasing the danger.
There are still a load of muppets out there that think, oh it's just a battery, can't be very powerful... Well the current generation are pretty good and have an energy density similar to a tank of hydrogen compressed to about 100 atmospheres. The next generation of lithium ion, lithium sulphur batteries will have higher energy densities than tanks of hydrogen gas compressed to 200, 300 atmospheres.
[sarcasm]Yeah, there's been a real lack of progress in battery technology.[/sarcasm]
On THE FUCKING DESKTOP, Open Office in particular on the desktop but Linux also on servers and a little on the desktop are decimating the margins. You too can get a significant discount right now by implying that you're going to switch to Open Office. At some point in the relatvely near future MS are going to have to stop charging for Windows and Office, which is a problem, with them being their most (only?) profitable products.
I don't know if you noticed but the phone makers all have their own platforms. The phone platforms are not commoditised and the first to do so will lose their competitive edge to the other guy.
I think you'll find that most of the multimedia phones run a Symbian operating system, there's a few MS ones and a few Linux ones. There really isn't any reason that any single OS will dominate the multimedia cell phone market.
The problem is that MS already have 90% of the PC ad Office markets. With Linux and Open Office being free they can no longer compete on price or leverage in that market as they have in the past. They are now going after niche markets against companies that know exactly what they are doing, who do it very well and who are already entrenched.
To "rich" westerners like me, employ tens of thousands of Indians, import food, medicines and build decent homes and infrastructure with the money you've made and taxes you've paid.
I could make a lot of money integrating these things into European business systems at the prices they are talking about. I would have to be able to get hold of them though.
I agree. The Simputer would be handy. *If only I could get my hands on some!*. I don't know what they're playing at, they're complaining about low volumes but won't sell the bloody things outside India.
This is India. The technology has to be cheap in order to sell. That means cheap memory as well. Besides it supports USB2, put your data on a flash drive.
That's what really gets me. I hadn't heard of RealID until 3 days ago, and now it's been passed! Where was the debate on the establishment of a national ID card, which is what this is. You might as well not be living in a democracy.
"Nobody but slashdot readers and "bloggers" even know it exists."
exactly...
I mean, WOW. Where's the debate? How can you have a democracy when there's no debate of any sort? It looks like a two party state isn't all that much more democratic than a one party state.
The lines as I see it are like roads, or like electricity wires. It's in the local/national interest that they are of a good quality and can handle the load but after that what services you run over them is up to commercial providers. Giving a commercial company a monopoly on the lines, or roads is, well, anti free market.
Slashdot Mirror
Is that it's difficult to perform large scale fraud, the kind that might effect the election result. Ok, so a few people might be able to get a couple of extra votes, it isn't going to change the result.
Of course this *all* goes out the window with postal ballots, a bloody stupid idea as the large scale postal voter fraud in Birminham shows.
It isn't a two horse race because there are just two political viewpoints. It's a two horse race because the electoral system penalises all but the largest two parties disproportionately.
In a 3 party election using the current electoral system the winner does *not* need a majority, he needs only 34% of the vote, the other 66% are discarded.
What has happened in the US is that the electoral system has effectively enforced a two party state. I mean, do you really believe that there are only two political views of the world?
Been there, done that. I also actively campaigned during the election.
They got only 36% of the votes but won 55% of the seats in the parliament, they have a working majority. There is remarkably little correlation between how people vote and the makeup of the UK parliament.
e.g.
Labour, 36% votes, 55% seats
Tory, 33% votes, 30.5% seats.
Lib Dem, 22% votes, 9.5% seats
Others, 9% votes, 4.6% seats
Counted and then discarded.
The larger problem is far deeper than this. In America, and in the UK the majority of voters simply don't matter in the first place.
You see, there are these things called safe seats, or safe states I suppose in the US. These safe seats and safe states can pretty much be ignored by all, allowing them to concentrate on seats/states which could potentially switch allegiance.
When your electoral system discards 49% of the votes in the case of a 2 party election. Or worse, discards 64% of votes in a 3 party election, as just happened in the UK. The Labour party was returned to power with just 36% of the vote.
Is it just me or are Google turning into the Arkwright of the 21st century? Not in employment terms of course.
The whole point of these new generation of batteries is to increase the energy density and as you do that you're increasing the danger.
There are still a load of muppets out there that think, oh it's just a battery, can't be very powerful... Well the current generation are pretty good and have an energy density similar to a tank of hydrogen compressed to about 100 atmospheres. The next generation of lithium ion, lithium sulphur batteries will have higher energy densities than tanks of hydrogen gas compressed to 200, 300 atmospheres.
[sarcasm]Yeah, there's been a real lack of progress in battery technology.[/sarcasm]
Be promiscuous. Looks like they're basically planning to take over the news world.
On THE FUCKING DESKTOP, Open Office in particular on the desktop but Linux also on servers and a little on the desktop are decimating the margins. You too can get a significant discount right now by implying that you're going to switch to Open Office. At some point in the relatvely near future MS are going to have to stop charging for Windows and Office, which is a problem, with them being their most (only?) profitable products.
I don't know if you noticed but the phone makers all have their own platforms. The phone platforms are not commoditised and the first to do so will lose their competitive edge to the other guy.
I think you'll find that most of the multimedia phones run a Symbian operating system, there's a few MS ones and a few Linux ones. There really isn't any reason that any single OS will dominate the multimedia cell phone market.
They can see the end of Windows and Office steaming towards them from a mile off and they want to be able to step aside before it hits them hard.
The problem is that MS already have 90% of the PC ad Office markets. With Linux and Open Office being free they can no longer compete on price or leverage in that market as they have in the past. They are now going after niche markets against companies that know exactly what they are doing, who do it very well and who are already entrenched.
Cos where I come from $200 is about £110, and you can't buy anything but scrap for that kind of price. Never mind something mobile.
Put all the storage you like on it.
To "rich" westerners like me, employ tens of thousands of Indians, import food, medicines and build decent homes and infrastructure with the money you've made and taxes you've paid.
I could make a lot of money integrating these things into European business systems at the prices they are talking about. I would have to be able to get hold of them though.
I agree. The Simputer would be handy. *If only I could get my hands on some!*. I don't know what they're playing at, they're complaining about low volumes but won't sell the bloody things outside India.
This is India. The technology has to be cheap in order to sell. That means cheap memory as well. Besides it supports USB2, put your data on a flash drive.
I'll be importing them.
That's what really gets me. I hadn't heard of RealID until 3 days ago, and now it's been passed! Where was the debate on the establishment of a national ID card, which is what this is. You might as well not be living in a democracy.
well...
"Nobody but slashdot readers and "bloggers" even know it exists."
exactly...
I mean, WOW. Where's the debate? How can you have a democracy when there's no debate of any sort? It looks like a two party state isn't all that much more democratic than a one party state.
The lines as I see it are like roads, or like electricity wires. It's in the local/national interest that they are of a good quality and can handle the load but after that what services you run over them is up to commercial providers. Giving a commercial company a monopoly on the lines, or roads is, well, anti free market.