A hash is made based on the votes selections, voting location, vote submittal time, etc. Basically everything but the voters name (one (wo)man, one vote doesn't mean traceable).
This hash is printed and/or emailed to a voter-defined email address (which could default to a 3rd party organization if the voter has no email). This email would contain a link that when clicked would query the central database of tallied votes. If the user-passed hash string is contained within the tallied votes, all is A-OK. If it's missing, then some impropriety has taken place.
The hash could be stored in the Db, but would be regenerated at each user-initiated check as a further check to ensure that what the voter entered was recorded correctly (this is by no means a perfect solution, so suggestions are welcome;). Then, each user that generates an error should start an investigation, etc, etc.
Now for that messy licensing thing - This idea is copyright Nick Campbeln, 2003, All Rights Reserved. Wanna use this idea? Cool! The license requires 5% of your annual profits off the system that utilizes this idea. Is your solution open source and given away freely to any government who wants it? Cool, 5% of $0 = $0.
Microsoft is never going to make these change, so our experiment of embarrassing them into patching hasn't worked, so we might as well give up so that we don't benefit hackers. I can't say I fault their logic...
What were the reasons against a monopoly that my economics teacher tested me on again?
This is the one key that I ALWAYS remove from my keyboards (which always thrills the crap out of my superiors - "What happened to your keyboard?!"). Anyway, the Insert is always gone from my keyboards, generally along with the capslock (though I do occasionally jab the sensor to turn it on and off, but I hate hitting it accidentally - stupid advanced hunt-n-peck method!;). I've always wondered about the Scroll Lock key... never had a reason to remove it (as it doesn't piss me off), but always wondered =)
Casinos can't legally dynamically change the odds on a machine period, let alone based on who you are!
Besides... moving from one machine to another does not improve your odds any better then those idiots who bet black when X number of reds have appeared in succession on a roulette table... The only ones who this will "help" are the casinos themselves (better tracking of prolific players), said prolific players (getting comps, etc.) and of course the tax man.
As for other services... really? Not that I'm a "stupid user" and have therefore not looked for such services, but save IE/MSN, there are none that I'm aware of that are built in. Oh, and in the future you could mention this as a response (as opposed to your rant) to my open question. Though I have enjoyed the flame (as well as your eloquence), kept me warm for the last 45min anyway!
1) The implementations I've seen are not nearly as useful as the SiteFinder site (MSN is and has never been a feature, a "feature" as in a bug maybe). Oh, also it's not that I really like SiteFinder, not that it's not already too late to mention, but I digress...
2)<Trollin>I must have been fucking my girlfriend, or some otherwise non-neard persuit</Trollin> (and just to head off the jokes, you should try fucking my girlfriend, she's GREAT, as is my mom, as is her mom...)
RMFP (Read My Fucking Post) - BUT... is there any way that this idea could be put to good use?.
Granted, this COULD be taken as "this" refers to wilding-carding.com/.net, but it does not. "this", in this case refers to the idea of redirecting a user when a typo is made, nutin else Sparky.
Looking at SiteFinder from the viewpoint of a "stupid user", it's pretty damned neat! I mean, it's kinda like calling the wrong 800 number and the person who answers says "Oh this happens all the time, the number you actually want is...". This is a nice feature!
Now looking at Sitefinder from the technical perspective, it's a scary ass "development". As once again, calling the wrong 800 number, the person could say "Oh this happens all the time, but I know a better place get (insert product/service here)! Try calling...", here in lies the devil!
It would be nice to have the feature in the first instance, but we all know that it will end up being served as in the second instance (besides all the anti-SPAM issues, et la). <rant>Since the CEOs of now are children of the 80's, everything always boils down to the all mighty $</rant>. BUT... is there any way that this idea could be put to good use?
The "law" is no longer about the "truth", but who can spin the best "half-truths" (read: lies). And the best "lawyers" (read: lairs) cost $$$, so in short, he with the most money gets "justice" (read: their way). So anything the "little guy" (read: not much $$$) can win is to come up with a nice "open-source" "half-truth", of which this seems to be. That and all that framing stuff others mentioned;)
Like I said, there are issues with the initial swipe of this solution, but...
1) SPAM would be identified by "them" and once "they" have flagged a financial account as collecting revenue from SPAM, it is frozen/etc. ("them"/"they" being one of the initial problems with this solution).
2) You are right, once this was in effect, a company could use it as a weapon against a competitor. This would have to be solved by:
a) Requiring that the ill-gotten gains from SPAM are refunded no matter what the circumstances (read: not all funds, per say just those generated from SPAM).
b) Even Joe Jobs are traceable, so any competitors that are proven to have caused the SPAM sales would be liable for damages of lost sales (read: the money they refunded because it was generated from SPAM) as well as any additional legal / technical / compensatory damages / etc on top of a fatty fine. Besides... I'm sure a law such as this would help "encourage" companies trading online to better watch their sales trends / figures / etc. So it's possible that some other fraudulent charges could be caught for fear of such a law For example: When my credit card number was stolen a few years ago, my billing address was in California while the products were being overnighted to Eastern Europe... Gee, anyone think this should have raised a red flag? Especially since the overnighting cost more then the product? But the important thing is that I'm not bitter about it now... nope, not bitter one @#$%@#$ bit... Not a #%^^#$ bit... no...;)
...Then we should get laws that attack the $$$ part of the equation!?
Although the logistics of such a plan are always complicated, why not author laws that would hit spammers where it really hurts: their financial institutions!? Since you can buy the shit from these bastards, you should be able to determine where the money is going. So make laws that would seize any such moneys that are a direct result of SPAM activity?
Hell even put the onus on Visa/MC/AmEx so that they are charged with dealing with the financial fallout! Do you think even the idiots who buy shit form SPAM would buy again if they were charged double for their purchase (once from the spammer and again from the credit card company for the penalty)? Sure there are bugs in the plan as is, but stopping SPAM from the technical side is difficult (if not impossible), so lets make it financially infeasible!
...you're looking to us to advise you on how to contribute to the watering down of Google's search results? The/. article you mentioned was exposing this practice as a bad thing, and yet you used the article as a how-to and are adding to the problem, and now are asking us how to help you add to the problem?
I've got 2 words for you, one guess on what they are...
Flaming Nurf Darts Are A No-No
on
Cubicle Etiquette?
·
· Score: 3, Funny
I once worked in an office where a developer thought it would be a good idea to return a volley of Nurf darts stuffed with flaming toilet paper... Needless to say management was not to pleased with this decision! So I guess this should be slotted in the "do not do this" section of cube etiquette;)
Lets see someone put together an app that flips bits here and there within MP3s to make each one it runs against unique enough to create a new MD5 hash!? (I would, but I can only program in a pseudo-language;) It could even be as simple as adding in a trailing byte to all of your MP3s, though that could be easily filtered. Hell, if you can hide messages within compressed JPEGs without noticeably affecting their quality, why not do something similar to MP3s just to jack up this sort of tracking!?
...A lot of state workers "retire" then shortly there after contract back with the state into their same or simular position (least in Cali). So there must be some way to sidestep the laws that are there to protect you =)
I've continued to contract for a company in California despite the fact that I moved to Canberra, Australia during my tenure (though I've always been a contractor for them). At times the logistics of the time difference are a bit of a pain (especially with daylight savings, as currently CA's work hours are during Canberra's sleeping hours) but aside from this all has gone well.
I even picked up another short term contract in CA while I was in Oz (which I found truly ironic, seeing as how I moved to Oz primarily because of the lack of jobs in CA). That contract ended up being shorter then expected because the logistics proved to be too much for that company to deal with.
So in conclusion... logistically telecommuting THAT far is possible if both you and your employer are willing to put up with the time differences. Also... look into VoIP telephones like Vonage. I'd had gotten a plan with them if Australia had decently priced unlimited broadband in my area (stupid Queanbeyan being in NSW while considered to be Canberra by Telstra, but I digress).
In any event, enjoy your time there! And definitely don't give up the opportunity just because your job can't be continued for one reason or another.
I originally compared PHP to ASP (I do ASP professionally and PHP personally for web-dev), I really don't have a app-dev replacement for VB on Linux, which is what I am looking for, hence the interest in this/. article for compiled VB on Linux;)
I've never used PHP for anything other then web-dev, but I love the fact that I can develop on a Win box and upload to a *nix and have it run in both places with 0 changes. I'd love to have that in app-dev! And since I'm a rare bread of VB developer (one who would rather roll his own then use a buggy library -cough- FSO -cough-) save some API replacements, most of my VB code should be portable to other platforms.
As for the debate on the exact size of the steps... heeheehee I've been playing with a few LiveCDs (Knoopix and SuSE) and I'm getting up the confidence! I've got an old box that's got nutin' better to do...
Java works in the same way, eh? Hummm... will have to take a look into that then! Now if the Swing UI crap has been improved in the last 3 years, and there is the minor issue of having to route the binaries thru the VM ("java.exe./somescript.java" or however it is), but that is almost a non-issue. How big is the JVM footprint now-a-days?
As for "installation required", "configuration required", and "nothing required"... definitions from a Windows user/developer perspective:
Installation Required: Application includes references to ActiveX/COM objects that require "registration" on the local system before they will function (ie- registry entries are required to run the DLL referenced objects). And/or registry entries are required by the program in order to run correctly. EXE will not function AT ALL without these entries.
IE: Any app that uses COM objects.
Configuration Required: Application requires configuration on the local system that resides outside of the system registry (generally within an INI, CONF or XML based configuration file). This configuration is localized (ie - absolute system paths are required, therefore requiring "custom configuration" on a per-system basis) and is required in order for the program to run correctly.
IE: Apache (specifically the DocumentRoot directive)
Nothing Required: The only thing that is necessary for a program to run is it's EXE and any referenced (Non-ActiveX/COM) DLLs within the system path (or otherwise accessible to the EXE). Basically any EXE that will run in a completely locked down environment where execute access is granted.
IE: MySQL, Perl, xFTP, PHP (kinda)
And yes, the *nix utils work better on *nix, but seeing as how I've grown up on Windows (yuck), baby steps;)
Nope, you do have to meet the min. system requirements (I'm sorry, made the assumption that that was understood, but when you "assume" you make an "ass" out of "u"...)
Anyway... You have PHP3/4's unzipped folder (including all of it's required DLLs) on a system that will run it (Win9x+) and that is all you need. Don't believe me? Go download my app and see for yourself - NanoWeb. It runs an Apache web server (which also doesn't need to be "installed" (read "installed", it does need to be "configured")) that is Perl and PHP3/4 enabled. Oddly enough, MySQL also does not require an install on a Win32 system... Agh I love *nix utils under Windows!
Note that the website does need to be updated... stupid real world work;)
Actually no, it doesn't. It's INI needs to be within the current system path (which includes the current directory "."), but even that is optional (it will run with it's default settings if it's not present). So all you need to do is to (optionally) copy "PHP.ini" into "\Windows\System" or even into "\Apache\bin" and you're 100% A-OK.
Agh Billy Joel... (even though the reference suggests I'm older then I am, but I digress). I take exception at "hateful", but everyone has a right to their own opinion.
Please re-read my response, namely the issue with the.NET implementation in general and the requirements in specific (no install [not necessarily no VM, just a VM that itself does not require an install, like PHP], memory management). There was and is bitterness about 40megs required to run.NET, but I'd think that would and should piss everyone off! Besides, try installing Visual Studio.NET, 2 hours and many many gigs later you're still watching a progress bar (and this was on a dual PIII 733 w/ 512 RAMBUS under the hood). I do indeed take issue with that, besides... <sarcasm>in the grand/. tradition, you need to flame anyone who touts M$ technology;)</sarcasm>
App-Dev - Applications Development environment, preferably an IDE (Integrated Development Environment, generally a GUI (Graphical...))
But seriously, VB is (one of the) most widely used programming environments for applications development because of the many features it possesses, namely the IDE/GUI and programming features (memory management, string manip., etc). Give me that on Linux and I'll migrate over to it ever quicker!
Slashdot Mirror
A hash is made based on the votes selections, voting location, vote submittal time, etc. Basically everything but the voters name (one (wo)man, one vote doesn't mean traceable).
This hash is printed and/or emailed to a voter-defined email address (which could default to a 3rd party organization if the voter has no email). This email would contain a link that when clicked would query the central database of tallied votes. If the user-passed hash string is contained within the tallied votes, all is A-OK. If it's missing, then some impropriety has taken place.
The hash could be stored in the Db, but would be regenerated at each user-initiated check as a further check to ensure that what the voter entered was recorded correctly (this is by no means a perfect solution, so suggestions are welcome ;). Then, each user that generates an error should start an investigation, etc, etc.
Now for that messy licensing thing - This idea is copyright Nick Campbeln, 2003, All Rights Reserved. Wanna use this idea? Cool! The license requires 5% of your annual profits off the system that utilizes this idea. Is your solution open source and given away freely to any government who wants it? Cool, 5% of $0 = $0.
What were the reasons against a monopoly that my economics teacher tested me on again?
What keys do you "liberate" from your keyboards?
Besides... moving from one machine to another does not improve your odds any better then those idiots who bet black when X number of reds have appeared in succession on a roulette table... The only ones who this will "help" are the casinos themselves (better tracking of prolific players), said prolific players (getting comps, etc.) and of course the tax man.
Well, you're half right ;)
As for other services... really? Not that I'm a "stupid user" and have therefore not looked for such services, but save IE/MSN, there are none that I'm aware of that are built in. Oh, and in the future you could mention this as a response (as opposed to your rant) to my open question. Though I have enjoyed the flame (as well as your eloquence), kept me warm for the last 45min anyway!
Nothing else to see here, please move along...
1) The implementations I've seen are not nearly as useful as the SiteFinder site (MSN is and has never been a feature, a "feature" as in a bug maybe). Oh, also it's not that I really like SiteFinder, not that it's not already too late to mention, but I digress...
2)<Trollin>I must have been fucking my girlfriend, or some otherwise non-neard persuit</Trollin> (and just to head off the jokes, you should try fucking my girlfriend, she's GREAT, as is my mom, as is her mom...)
Granted, this COULD be taken as "this" refers to wilding-carding .com/.net, but it does not. "this", in this case refers to the idea of redirecting a user when a typo is made, nutin else Sparky.
Now looking at Sitefinder from the technical perspective, it's a scary ass "development". As once again, calling the wrong 800 number, the person could say "Oh this happens all the time, but I know a better place get (insert product/service here)! Try calling...", here in lies the devil!
It would be nice to have the feature in the first instance, but we all know that it will end up being served as in the second instance (besides all the anti-SPAM issues, et la). <rant>Since the CEOs of now are children of the 80's, everything always boils down to the all mighty $</rant>. BUT... is there any way that this idea could be put to good use?
The "law" is no longer about the "truth", but who can spin the best "half-truths" (read: lies). And the best "lawyers" (read: lairs) cost $$$, so in short, he with the most money gets "justice" (read: their way). So anything the "little guy" (read: not much $$$) can win is to come up with a nice "open-source" "half-truth", of which this seems to be. That and all that framing stuff others mentioned ;)
1) SPAM would be identified by "them" and once "they" have flagged a financial account as collecting revenue from SPAM, it is frozen/etc. ("them"/"they" being one of the initial problems with this solution).
2) You are right, once this was in effect, a company could use it as a weapon against a competitor. This would have to be solved by:
a) Requiring that the ill-gotten gains from SPAM are refunded no matter what the circumstances (read: not all funds, per say just those generated from SPAM).
b) Even Joe Jobs are traceable, so any competitors that are proven to have caused the SPAM sales would be liable for damages of lost sales (read: the money they refunded because it was generated from SPAM) as well as any additional legal / technical / compensatory damages / etc on top of a fatty fine. Besides... I'm sure a law such as this would help "encourage" companies trading online to better watch their sales trends / figures / etc. So it's possible that some other fraudulent charges could be caught for fear of such a law ;)
For example: When my credit card number was stolen a few years ago, my billing address was in California while the products were being overnighted to Eastern Europe... Gee, anyone think this should have raised a red flag? Especially since the overnighting cost more then the product? But the important thing is that I'm not bitter about it now... nope, not bitter one @#$%@#$ bit... Not a #%^^#$ bit... no...
Although the logistics of such a plan are always complicated, why not author laws that would hit spammers where it really hurts: their financial institutions!? Since you can buy the shit from these bastards, you should be able to determine where the money is going. So make laws that would seize any such moneys that are a direct result of SPAM activity?
Hell even put the onus on Visa/MC/AmEx so that they are charged with dealing with the financial fallout! Do you think even the idiots who buy shit form SPAM would buy again if they were charged double for their purchase (once from the spammer and again from the credit card company for the penalty)? Sure there are bugs in the plan as is, but stopping SPAM from the technical side is difficult (if not impossible), so lets make it financially infeasible!
Where's "+1 Prophetic" when you need it?
Not that it'll do much good, but foe these bitch-asses up!
I've got 2 words for you, one guess on what they are...
I once worked in an office where a developer thought it would be a good idea to return a volley of Nurf darts stuffed with flaming toilet paper... Needless to say management was not to pleased with this decision! So I guess this should be slotted in the "do not do this" section of cube etiquette ;)
Lets see someone put together an app that flips bits here and there within MP3s to make each one it runs against unique enough to create a new MD5 hash!? (I would, but I can only program in a pseudo-language ;) It could even be as simple as adding in a trailing byte to all of your MP3s, though that could be easily filtered. Hell, if you can hide messages within compressed JPEGs without noticeably affecting their quality, why not do something similar to MP3s just to jack up this sort of tracking!?
...A lot of state workers "retire" then shortly there after contract back with the state into their same or simular position (least in Cali). So there must be some way to sidestep the laws that are there to protect you =)
I've continued to contract for a company in California despite the fact that I moved to Canberra, Australia during my tenure (though I've always been a contractor for them). At times the logistics of the time difference are a bit of a pain (especially with daylight savings, as currently CA's work hours are during Canberra's sleeping hours) but aside from this all has gone well.
I even picked up another short term contract in CA while I was in Oz (which I found truly ironic, seeing as how I moved to Oz primarily because of the lack of jobs in CA). That contract ended up being shorter then expected because the logistics proved to be too much for that company to deal with.
So in conclusion... logistically telecommuting THAT far is possible if both you and your employer are willing to put up with the time differences. Also... look into VoIP telephones like Vonage. I'd had gotten a plan with them if Australia had decently priced unlimited broadband in my area (stupid Queanbeyan being in NSW while considered to be Canberra by Telstra, but I digress).
In any event, enjoy your time there! And definitely don't give up the opportunity just because your job can't be continued for one reason or another.
...I wish there was a "Unnecessarily Bitter" option to moderate with =)
I've never used PHP for anything other then web-dev, but I love the fact that I can develop on a Win box and upload to a *nix and have it run in both places with 0 changes. I'd love to have that in app-dev! And since I'm a rare bread of VB developer (one who would rather roll his own then use a buggy library -cough- FSO -cough-) save some API replacements, most of my VB code should be portable to other platforms.
As for the debate on the exact size of the steps... heeheehee I've been playing with a few LiveCDs (Knoopix and SuSE) and I'm getting up the confidence! I've got an old box that's got nutin' better to do...
As for "installation required", "configuration required", and "nothing required"... definitions from a Windows user/developer perspective:
Installation Required: Application includes references to ActiveX/COM objects that require "registration" on the local system before they will function (ie- registry entries are required to run the DLL referenced objects). And/or registry entries are required by the program in order to run correctly. EXE will not function AT ALL without these entries.
IE: Any app that uses COM objects.
Configuration Required: Application requires configuration on the local system that resides outside of the system registry (generally within an INI, CONF or XML based configuration file). This configuration is localized (ie - absolute system paths are required, therefore requiring "custom configuration" on a per-system basis) and is required in order for the program to run correctly.
IE: Apache (specifically the DocumentRoot directive)
Nothing Required: The only thing that is necessary for a program to run is it's EXE and any referenced (Non-ActiveX/COM) DLLs within the system path (or otherwise accessible to the EXE). Basically any EXE that will run in a completely locked down environment where execute access is granted.
IE: MySQL, Perl, xFTP, PHP (kinda)
And yes, the *nix utils work better on *nix, but seeing as how I've grown up on Windows (yuck), baby steps ;)
Anyway... You have PHP3/4's unzipped folder (including all of it's required DLLs) on a system that will run it (Win9x+) and that is all you need. Don't believe me? Go download my app and see for yourself - NanoWeb. It runs an Apache web server (which also doesn't need to be "installed" (read "installed", it does need to be "configured")) that is Perl and PHP3/4 enabled. Oddly enough, MySQL also does not require an install on a Win32 system... Agh I love *nix utils under Windows!
Note that the website does need to be updated... stupid real world work ;)
Actually no, it doesn't. It's INI needs to be within the current system path (which includes the current directory "."), but even that is optional (it will run with it's default settings if it's not present). So all you need to do is to (optionally) copy "PHP.ini" into "\Windows\System" or even into "\Apache\bin" and you're 100% A-OK.
Please re-read my response, namely the issue with the .NET implementation in general and the requirements in specific (no install [not necessarily no VM, just a VM that itself does not require an install, like PHP], memory management). There was and is bitterness about 40megs required to run .NET, but I'd think that would and should piss everyone off! Besides, try installing Visual Studio.NET, 2 hours and many many gigs later you're still watching a progress bar (and this was on a dual PIII 733 w/ 512 RAMBUS under the hood). I do indeed take issue with that, besides... <sarcasm>in the grand /. tradition, you need to flame anyone who touts M$ technology ;)</sarcasm>
But seriously, VB is (one of the) most widely used programming environments for applications development because of the many features it possesses, namely the IDE/GUI and programming features (memory management, string manip., etc). Give me that on Linux and I'll migrate over to it ever quicker!