Because I don't want to take the time to learn the background behind every single little detail of proposed legislation. I want to pick somebody who seems to agree with me on the basic fundamental principles that I DO understand, who's willing to take the time to learn all the details, and will represent my interests when he votes on my behalf. That's why they're called representatives.
Of course the reality may be somewhat different, but I don't like your idea any better.
In theory, you can take that time in other states too, you just have to write your selections down on a piece of paper, then walk into a polling place and vote according to what you've written down. But Oregon's system encourages people to actually DO that, instead of just making a decision once they've already gotten there.
The first three digits being the exchange, and the last four being the local part of the number, is definitely standard in the US now, but I don't think it always has been. There was a time when people didn't even have a number. Read this and this.
A machine that takes user input and prints a readable ballot can take input from the voter in a variety of ways (e.g. by presenting the information in a variety of languages, and alternatives for the blind people and those with other disabilities), doing input validation to ensure the voter hasn't done something obviously dumb (e.g. voting for both Bush and Kerry). Also, it's very easy to randomize the order of the candidates for each voter, instead of randomizing the list the same way for everyone (as Oregon does) or randomizing the list in several different ways for random groups of voters (as California does).
You really don't think it's possible to make a computer that's easier to use than pencil and paper? And you call yourself a Slashdotter?
I'm perfectly happy with the way voting works in Oregon.
You get your ballot in the mail, and fill in the little bubbles with a pencil or pen, just like the standardized tests we're all familiar with. You fold it up and seal it in a "secrecy envelope" which does not have any personally identifying marks. Then you seal that in another envelope which has your name, mailing address, and a barcode on it; this envelope must be signed. You can either mail it, or drop it off in a secure ballot box somewhere (such as at a public library). You can do this at your convenience, it doesn't have to be on election day.
As ballots are received, they're scanned, unopened, and the signature is compared to what the state has on file from your voter registration. If the signature doesn't match, they'll contact you. If they receive two ballots from the same person, they'll contact you. If you don't receive your ballot, they'll send you another one with a different color outer envelope, so if they receive two, they know to discard the original one.
Finally, on election night, the outer envelopes are opened and the inner envelopes are mixed together, then the inner envelopes are opened and counted. It's done by machine, but could be done by hand just as well (it'd just take longer). They get the results very quickly.
Everything is done in the presence of observers from different political parties and members of the public (I haven't volunteered for this yet, but I think I'll look into it next year). All the machines involved are tested with a known quantity of sample ballots to make sure they're working properly. If somebody tried to rig the election, people would see it. Recounts are not a problem.
The only problem with our system is that it doesn't prevent vote buying, because someone could watch you fill out your ballot, seal it, sign the envelope, and drop it in the mail, then pay you for voting the way they wanted. But so far this hasn't been an issue, and in general, most Oregonians won't stand for that sort of thing. We'd much rather accept that risk in exchange for the convenience of being able to vote how we want when we want, without trying to get to a polling place on election day.
I meant the first three digits might be used for the mnemonic word in some regions, with the remaining four left as digits, while in other regions, they might have only used the first two digits for the mnemonic word and the remaining five left as digits.
You want to be the cool Mom? You don't have to let your kids do everything, just have reasons for stuff! Holy crap, that's the best piece of parenting advice I've heard in a long time.
The goal of parenting is, by the time the kids are 18, they're prepared to make responsible decisions in the real world without relying on Mom & Dad. That means not just teaching them to do things or not to do things, but teaching them how to decide for themselves whether to do things or not to do things, so that when they're in a new situation, they can figure out how to handle it.
One great thing about giving your kids reasons for stuff is, it helps you (as a parent) to consciously understand what your reasons are, instead of just relying on instinct. If you have a rule that your child isn't allowed to do something, and they ask why, you should be able to give them the reasons why. If you can't, then maybe it's not such a good rule! Also, if your child can figure out ways to address these issues, you can negotiate a reasonable solution that makes both of you happy, while at the same time teaching your child valuable negotiation and reasoning skills.
did access to computers increase us students math/language scores? of course not. No, because we had textbooks. That's the difference.
its books and teachers and basic infrastructure that matter but thats not sexy so gadgets are sold as miracle cures, and geek bazillionaires think they are saving the world. These laptops are intended as (among other things) a replacement for books. Consider the number of e-books that can fit on the XO's flash-based storage. Now consider the costs of buying that many textbooks, which the child has to lug around with them. As new editions are written, a laptop can be updated with a download over the Internet or a CD-ROM distribution, and you don't have to replace all those textbooks.
its fine if you give them away, slightly dodgy if you ask their poor governments to pay for this toy. This article is about the "Give One, Get One" program, half of which is about giving them away.
i mean seriously, you are asking them to spend money on a toy when they cant even get electricity to some of these people, as acknowledged by the olpc's hand generator and other such nonsense. Although it can also be used as a toy, that is not its primary purpose. This laptop is designed to be an educational tool. How effective it will be as an educational tool remains to be seen, and will depend largely on having qualified teachers that know how to effectively use this particular tool; I don't know how well this project will turn out, but it has a lot more potential than you're giving it credit for.
One of the potential problems with our system is that it does allow vote buying: in theory, someone could pay you to vote a certain way, and ask to see your ballot before you seal the envelope, or even fill it out for you. In other states, vote buying doesn't really work, because you have no reasonable way to prove which way you voted, so you could simply lie to the person who offered to pay you; everyone knows this so vote buying doesn't usually happen. In Oregon, we don't have that protection.
However, a bunch of friends gathering at someone's house, reading through the Voter's Pamphlet together and discussing the issues, then everyone marking their ballot according to their own opinions (which may or may not reflect the majority of the group)... that's a great tradition that more people ought to get into.
I think other states don't even have Voter's Pamphlets, or any equivalent. No wonder things are so screwey.
The word "Bridge" would have been a mnemonic for the first two digits of the number, BR (27), so the full number would be 271300. Apparently AT&T figured it was easier for people to remember a word and a few digits, rather than remember lots of digits. That's why there are letters next to each number. If your phone number was 654-3210, they'd list it as "Olive 43210".
As for what 271300 was, I haven't the faintest idea.
I've noticed that when you make kind of a deal with your kid(s) like "you can play X amount of time, OK" they tend to agree better. They know the rule, how long they can play and sometimes they are even capable of planning ahead of like what to do next. If on the other hand you go in the middle of the game and say "okay, time's up, shutdown the console" kids can get very offended because you lay abritrary rules on them. It always boggles my mind that so many parents fail to grasp this simple idea. As adults, we get to make these kinds of deals all the time: "if you show up to work on time and do your job, we'll give you a paycheck every two weeks, OK?" Children need opportunities to control some aspects of their own lives, even while they're not mature enough to control all of it. In order to be able to control these aspects of their own lives, they need to be given information about what their situation is and what the rules are, so that they can plan accordingly. The world would be a better place if more parents understood this.
But here I see a possible problem. Console enables parents to "offload" their responsibilities. Better that they offload their responsibilities than ignore their responsibilities altogether. In some situations, playing the XBox may be the only activity the child wants to do more than finish their homework, so when the XBox shuts off, homework is what they'll fall back to. Doesn't sound very likely, but it's certainly possible.
Sure, that's how you'd do it if you wanted to do the right thing without any appearance of impropriety.
Sadly, doing the right thing while avoiding the appearance of impropriety is so rare among politicians that when it happens, it's shocking. Your idea would require the Speaker of the House to put justice and the rule of law above her own political career; I'm not holding my breath.
Would this word have been added if we were talking about anybody other than Microsoft? Is there any evidence to suggest that this feature won't work as advertised, or are we just making that assumption because Windows sucks?
Either you have no idea what you're talking about, or you really don't get out much. There is no simple technical solution to the spam problem that doesn't render e-mail useless for communication. If you don't interact with other people, and therefore don't need to use e-mail for communication, then go ahead and stop using it, or set it to drop everything that isn't whitelisted. A lot of people are moving to message boards and social networking sites for this reason (sending messages on MySpace, instead of using e-mail).
But for those of us who actually need to use e-mail, no, whitelisting isn't a solution.
You're also under the false impression that if people stop buying stuff advertised in spam, the spam will stop coming. You're forgetting two things. First is Rule #1: spammers lie. Second is the fact that very often, the person sending out the spam advertising a particular product is NOT the same person who's actually SELLING the product. Spammers will approach a gullible and perhaps shady business, and say "hey, if you pay us $X, we'll promote your business on the Internet, using completely legitimate double-opt-in mailing lists of interested customers!" The company pays the spammer, the spammer sends the spam, the company gets so many complaints that they wind up going out of business, but the spammer has been paid.
If nobody ever bought anything from spam, spammers would still be able to convince gullible people otherwise.
Buffy was painful, but funny enough that I enjoyed it anyway, and the crazy stuff they did (an episode without dialog, an episode without music, an episode with the dialog in Swedish, an Rodgers & Hammerstein style over-the-top musical, a dream sequence where a character is walking between sets in ways that seem impossible, killing a regular character in the middle of a season, introducing a new character who "had always been there" with no explanation whatsoever until several episodes later, etc. etc.) is what made me a big fan.
Angel was just as painful, but tried to take itself way too seriously. Had good moments, but nothing that really hooked me. Firefly was brilliant.
AFAIK, he's still going to be on the Republican ballot, which will give him plenty of opportunities to insert himself into the process going forward. Nope, you missed that announcement: Wednesday night he officially withdrew his candidacy as a Republican, because 1) he doesn't have $35,000, 2) he can't spend more than $5,000 on his entire campaign without violating federal election law (because Comedy Central would be considered a campaign contributor, which is messy), and 3) he's not willing to hand a check for $35,000 to the Republican Party.
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Because I don't want to take the time to learn the background behind every single little detail of proposed legislation. I want to pick somebody who seems to agree with me on the basic fundamental principles that I DO understand, who's willing to take the time to learn all the details, and will represent my interests when he votes on my behalf. That's why they're called representatives.
Of course the reality may be somewhat different, but I don't like your idea any better.
In theory, you can take that time in other states too, you just have to write your selections down on a piece of paper, then walk into a polling place and vote according to what you've written down. But Oregon's system encourages people to actually DO that, instead of just making a decision once they've already gotten there.
The first three digits being the exchange, and the last four being the local part of the number, is definitely standard in the US now, but I don't think it always has been. There was a time when people didn't even have a number. Read this and this.
A machine that takes user input and prints a readable ballot can take input from the voter in a variety of ways (e.g. by presenting the information in a variety of languages, and alternatives for the blind people and those with other disabilities), doing input validation to ensure the voter hasn't done something obviously dumb (e.g. voting for both Bush and Kerry). Also, it's very easy to randomize the order of the candidates for each voter, instead of randomizing the list the same way for everyone (as Oregon does) or randomizing the list in several different ways for random groups of voters (as California does).
You really don't think it's possible to make a computer that's easier to use than pencil and paper? And you call yourself a Slashdotter?
I'm perfectly happy with the way voting works in Oregon.
You get your ballot in the mail, and fill in the little bubbles with a pencil or pen, just like the standardized tests we're all familiar with. You fold it up and seal it in a "secrecy envelope" which does not have any personally identifying marks. Then you seal that in another envelope which has your name, mailing address, and a barcode on it; this envelope must be signed. You can either mail it, or drop it off in a secure ballot box somewhere (such as at a public library). You can do this at your convenience, it doesn't have to be on election day.
As ballots are received, they're scanned, unopened, and the signature is compared to what the state has on file from your voter registration. If the signature doesn't match, they'll contact you. If they receive two ballots from the same person, they'll contact you. If you don't receive your ballot, they'll send you another one with a different color outer envelope, so if they receive two, they know to discard the original one.
Finally, on election night, the outer envelopes are opened and the inner envelopes are mixed together, then the inner envelopes are opened and counted. It's done by machine, but could be done by hand just as well (it'd just take longer). They get the results very quickly.
Everything is done in the presence of observers from different political parties and members of the public (I haven't volunteered for this yet, but I think I'll look into it next year). All the machines involved are tested with a known quantity of sample ballots to make sure they're working properly. If somebody tried to rig the election, people would see it. Recounts are not a problem.
The only problem with our system is that it doesn't prevent vote buying, because someone could watch you fill out your ballot, seal it, sign the envelope, and drop it in the mail, then pay you for voting the way they wanted. But so far this hasn't been an issue, and in general, most Oregonians won't stand for that sort of thing. We'd much rather accept that risk in exchange for the convenience of being able to vote how we want when we want, without trying to get to a polling place on election day.
I meant the first three digits might be used for the mnemonic word in some regions, with the remaining four left as digits, while in other regions, they might have only used the first two digits for the mnemonic word and the remaining five left as digits.
The goal of parenting is, by the time the kids are 18, they're prepared to make responsible decisions in the real world without relying on Mom & Dad. That means not just teaching them to do things or not to do things, but teaching them how to decide for themselves whether to do things or not to do things, so that when they're in a new situation, they can figure out how to handle it.
One great thing about giving your kids reasons for stuff is, it helps you (as a parent) to consciously understand what your reasons are, instead of just relying on instinct. If you have a rule that your child isn't allowed to do something, and they ask why, you should be able to give them the reasons why. If you can't, then maybe it's not such a good rule! Also, if your child can figure out ways to address these issues, you can negotiate a reasonable solution that makes both of you happy, while at the same time teaching your child valuable negotiation and reasoning skills.
"It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss with all these marbles in my mouth..."
One of the potential problems with our system is that it does allow vote buying: in theory, someone could pay you to vote a certain way, and ask to see your ballot before you seal the envelope, or even fill it out for you. In other states, vote buying doesn't really work, because you have no reasonable way to prove which way you voted, so you could simply lie to the person who offered to pay you; everyone knows this so vote buying doesn't usually happen. In Oregon, we don't have that protection.
However, a bunch of friends gathering at someone's house, reading through the Voter's Pamphlet together and discussing the issues, then everyone marking their ballot according to their own opinions (which may or may not reflect the majority of the group)... that's a great tradition that more people ought to get into.
I think other states don't even have Voter's Pamphlets, or any equivalent. No wonder things are so screwey.
Ah! That does make a bit more sense, since that would make for a seven-digit number. I suspect this may have varied by region?
The word "Bridge" would have been a mnemonic for the first two digits of the number, BR (27), so the full number would be 271300. Apparently AT&T figured it was easier for people to remember a word and a few digits, rather than remember lots of digits. That's why there are letters next to each number. If your phone number was 654-3210, they'd list it as "Olive 43210".
As for what 271300 was, I haven't the faintest idea.
Answer
Sure, that's how you'd do it if you wanted to do the right thing without any appearance of impropriety.
Sadly, doing the right thing while avoiding the appearance of impropriety is so rare among politicians that when it happens, it's shocking. Your idea would require the Speaker of the House to put justice and the rule of law above her own political career; I'm not holding my breath.
I completely agree, but this is the reality we're stuck with.
Would this word have been added if we were talking about anybody other than Microsoft? Is there any evidence to suggest that this feature won't work as advertised, or are we just making that assumption because Windows sucks?
If Bush is thrown out, then Cheney becomes president, and I think many of us would expect that situation to be worse than what we have now.
Pelosi is probably terrified of the prospect of Bush and Cheney both being thrown out.
Not sure what objection she has to impeaching Cheney though.
Either you have no idea what you're talking about, or you really don't get out much. There is no simple technical solution to the spam problem that doesn't render e-mail useless for communication. If you don't interact with other people, and therefore don't need to use e-mail for communication, then go ahead and stop using it, or set it to drop everything that isn't whitelisted. A lot of people are moving to message boards and social networking sites for this reason (sending messages on MySpace, instead of using e-mail).
But for those of us who actually need to use e-mail, no, whitelisting isn't a solution.
You're also under the false impression that if people stop buying stuff advertised in spam, the spam will stop coming. You're forgetting two things. First is Rule #1: spammers lie. Second is the fact that very often, the person sending out the spam advertising a particular product is NOT the same person who's actually SELLING the product. Spammers will approach a gullible and perhaps shady business, and say "hey, if you pay us $X, we'll promote your business on the Internet, using completely legitimate double-opt-in mailing lists of interested customers!" The company pays the spammer, the spammer sends the spam, the company gets so many complaints that they wind up going out of business, but the spammer has been paid.
If nobody ever bought anything from spam, spammers would still be able to convince gullible people otherwise.
Buffy was painful, but funny enough that I enjoyed it anyway, and the crazy stuff they did (an episode without dialog, an episode without music, an episode with the dialog in Swedish, an Rodgers & Hammerstein style over-the-top musical, a dream sequence where a character is walking between sets in ways that seem impossible, killing a regular character in the middle of a season, introducing a new character who "had always been there" with no explanation whatsoever until several episodes later, etc. etc.) is what made me a big fan.
Angel was just as painful, but tried to take itself way too seriously. Had good moments, but nothing that really hooked me. Firefly was brilliant.
Yes, it was Will Rogers in 1928.