No official at Diebold or the Georgia Secretary of State's office has provided any explanation at all about the OTHER program patch files -- the ones contained in a folder called "rob-georgia" on Diebold's unprotected FTP site.
Inside "rob-georgia" were folders with instructions to "Replace what is in the GEMS folder with these" and "Run this program to the C-Program Files Winnt System32 Directory." GEMS is the Diebold voting program software.
Another quote:
- And assume that all 22,000 program patches did exactly what they said they did: Corrected a conflict between Windows CE and Diebold's firmware to prevent screens from freezing up.
Another article by Bev Harris: Diebold Voting Machine Fraud in Georgia. The Seattle Times article notes criticism of Harris for posting stories at web sites like Scoop and Conspiracy Planet, but says apparently her information is reliable.
Quote from the article: While seeking information last January about a voting-machine company for a book she was writing, she found a Web site "on about the 15th page of Google." The open, unprotected site held some 40,000 files that included user manuals, source code and executable files for voting machines made by Diebold, a corporation based in North Canton, Ohio.
The U.S. government seems to me to be becoming more and more corrupt. As David Letterman recently said, "When you make out your check for the Iraq war, there are two Ls in Halliburton."
Money seems to be everything, the health of the country nothing. McCain is right, we need campaign finance reform.
The point of both the Slashdot story and my grand-parent comment is that
Microsoft is killing future profits completely by being aggressive. Supposedly
the aggressive behavior is an attempt to get more profit, but in reality it is
a strong bid to get zero profits, and fast.
Once the German government switches entirely to Linux, Microsoft will not make
another penny from that source. The draconian, one-sided licensing changes
would not in themselves be enough to push customers away from Microsoft. It is
software death that is perhaps the aggression that is most disliked by
customers. The Microsoft license cost is small compared to buying 20,000 new
computers because Windows XP won't run on hardware that works well with
Windows 98. That's the sort of problem huge organizations face.
Of course, fundamentally, licensing and software death are not as important as
the fact that Microsoft's international government customers are under the
control of a foreign company controlled in part by a foreign government that
runs the biggest spy organizations that have ever existed. Who was using the
Microsoft security vulnerabilities before they became publicly known?
Microsoft has adopted an extremely powerful public relations method, but it is
a self-destructive one: Microsoft has declared that its software dies,
regardless of how many users it has.
Linux, in contrast, offers software that lives forever, if an organization
wants to support it. This makes a big difference to large organizations.
There are many, many situations where a 350 MHz Pentium I computer running
some data entry system is just fine, especially when it has been completely
debugged and is giving no trouble.
When Microsoft enforces software death, those organizations must disturb
something that is working well. As you can imagine, they are extremely
reluctant to do so. The issue is often not money. The issue is often
management capability. There is plenty of work to do without disturbing
something that is working well.
"The cost of licensing Microsoft products and the lack of support for
some of them, such as the NT operating system, which is still used widely in
many city administrations, are among the chief reasons for the nine German
cities to mull a switch from the U.S. software giant to providers of
open-source products, he said." [My emphasis, of course.]
Vonage is increasing the price, and trying to make people think they aren't.
Answer: Try BigZoo. 2.9 cents per minute in the United States. 2.8 cents per minute to France from the United States. 75 cents per month. That's all. I've used BigZoo for two years with no problems.
No disad-Vonages.
But, there is a question: Why is it cheaper to call France from the U.S. than someone in the United States? Is this to annoy George Bush? The U.S. is a nation with a lot of weird prices.
In the long term, this is true. In the short term, American companies go bankrupt. There is a place for out-sourcing, but not the way it is being done.
Vedanti, what you said is all true, but my underlying message is true, too. United
States companies will lose intellectual property to their out-sourcing
companies and the employees of out-sourcing companies. The intellectual
property will go who knows where. It will become part of someone else's
product, sometimes.
I know that there are 13 major languages in India. I know that most educated
people speak English. I didn't have time to write a thorough article; I only
had time for a comment. So, I brushed in the broad strokes.
Hiring lawyers in India is not the best way for U.S. companies to spend their
time, even if they win. Also, there is no winning. A company that gets into
legal battles in another country has already lost.
However, so am I. Maybe the programming company won't becoming a banking company. But the intellectual property will be put to other uses than for the company that paid for it. That is the intended broad meaning of what I said.
Here's an additional thought to go along with my parent and great grand-parent comments:
Managers should realize that non-disclosure agreements with Indian companies are worthless, 100% worthless. First, an American company will not get into an expensive legal battle in India and win. Second, just proving that there was a disclosure is likely to be impossible if you don't speak Hindi well.
Remember, the lab at Los Alamos hired Chinese who were U.S. citizens. Those Chinese worked only in the United States. The result: The Chinese government learned how to build hydrogen bombs.
There is nothing naive about it. Using the above example: Indian software companies will write software for an American global banking business, and when they learn enough, they will write software for an Indian company to be a global banking business.
Now multiply that by hundreds of fields. Remember, this is a world in which the companies that have the best software are the often most successful.
The Indian companies will hire Americans to do their marketing for them.
One hidden cost is you are paying Indian programmers to learn your business. After they learn well enough, Indians will certainly begin to compete against you.
They will cut out the middleman and the middleman is you. Indian global banking services, anyone?
I have a lot of experience fixing hardware failures. Before I started doing
computer work exclusively, I was an electronics design engineer. So, I'm able
to understand hardware issues, and have something to contribute in that area.
Perhaps Slashdot people don't have much experience with hardware problems, and
are skeptical of anyone who does, because answers to hardware problems are not
usually modded up, and are often attacked.
Linux has millions of technically knowledgeable users. Those users know that,
if they report a problem with crashing accurately, it will be fixed. I've
never reported a Linux crash because I've never seen one. However, I did
report a crash in Mozilla before breakfast one day, and the bug was fixed just
after breakfast. Linux developers are the same way. So, it is common that
users report literally years of uptime.
Now, what chance is there that the person who wrote the Slashdot story is
seeing multiple real crashes, due to badly written software in Linux itself,
instead of bad hardware or a poorly selected hardware driver? That chance is
very, very small, given the circumstances.
Slashdot Mirror
Quotes from the above article:
No official at Diebold or the Georgia Secretary of State's office has provided any explanation at all about the OTHER program patch files -- the ones contained in a folder called "rob-georgia" on Diebold's unprotected FTP site.
Inside "rob-georgia" were folders with instructions to "Replace what is in the GEMS folder with these" and "Run this program to the C-Program Files Winnt System32 Directory." GEMS is the Diebold voting program software.
Another quote:
- And assume that all 22,000 program patches did exactly what they said they did: Corrected a conflict between Windows CE and Diebold's firmware to prevent screens from freezing up.
Another article by Bev Harris: Diebold Voting Machine Fraud in Georgia. The Seattle Times article notes criticism of Harris for posting stories at web sites like Scoop and Conspiracy Planet, but says apparently her information is reliable.
I started to say, in the title of the parent comment, Diebold cannot keep its own documents secure.
Quote from the article: While seeking information last January about a voting-machine company for a book she was writing, she found a Web site "on about the 15th page of Google." The open, unprotected site held some 40,000 files that included user manuals, source code and executable files for voting machines made by Diebold, a corporation based in North Canton, Ohio.
She's at center of high-tech voting debate, about Bev Harris, who wrote the book about voting fraud.
Paper receipts make it easy for a corrupt party to pay for votes.
An open invitation to election fraud
The U.S. government seems to me to be becoming more and more corrupt. As David Letterman recently said, "When you make out your check for the Iraq war, there are two Ls in Halliburton."
Money seems to be everything, the health of the country nothing. McCain is right, we need campaign finance reform.
Okay. But what about BigZoo? Isn't that cheaper?
The point of both the Slashdot story and my grand-parent comment is that Microsoft is killing future profits completely by being aggressive. Supposedly the aggressive behavior is an attempt to get more profit, but in reality it is a strong bid to get zero profits, and fast.
Once the German government switches entirely to Linux, Microsoft will not make another penny from that source. The draconian, one-sided licensing changes would not in themselves be enough to push customers away from Microsoft. It is software death that is perhaps the aggression that is most disliked by customers. The Microsoft license cost is small compared to buying 20,000 new computers because Windows XP won't run on hardware that works well with Windows 98. That's the sort of problem huge organizations face.
Of course, fundamentally, licensing and software death are not as important as the fact that Microsoft's international government customers are under the control of a foreign company controlled in part by a foreign government that runs the biggest spy organizations that have ever existed. Who was using the Microsoft security vulnerabilities before they became publicly known?
Microsoft has adopted an extremely powerful public relations method, but it is a self-destructive one: Microsoft has declared that its software dies, regardless of how many users it has.
Linux, in contrast, offers software that lives forever, if an organization wants to support it. This makes a big difference to large organizations. There are many, many situations where a 350 MHz Pentium I computer running some data entry system is just fine, especially when it has been completely debugged and is giving no trouble.
When Microsoft enforces software death, those organizations must disturb something that is working well. As you can imagine, they are extremely reluctant to do so. The issue is often not money. The issue is often management capability. There is plenty of work to do without disturbing something that is working well.
From the IT World article:
"The cost of licensing Microsoft products and the lack of support for some of them, such as the NT operating system, which is still used widely in many city administrations, are among the chief reasons for the nine German cities to mull a switch from the U.S. software giant to providers of open-source products, he said." [My emphasis, of course.]
Not only do Microsoft's products regularly die, but Microsoft has a schedule of assisted suicide: Windows Desktop Product Life Cycle Support and Availability Policies for Businesses. Bill Gates has become the Dr. Jack Kevorkian of software. Mr. Gates has, for example, decreed the death of Windows 98, which is used by at least 50,000,000 people throughout the world.
I don't know why you need 64,000 of something. I have only one abacus.
Vonage is increasing the price, and trying to make people think they aren't.
Answer: Try BigZoo. 2.9 cents per minute in the United States. 2.8 cents per minute to France from the United States. 75 cents per month. That's all. I've used BigZoo for two years with no problems.
No disad-Vonages.
But, there is a question: Why is it cheaper to call France from the U.S. than someone in the United States? Is this to annoy George Bush? The U.S. is a nation with a lot of weird prices.
I've never been like "Damn! If I only I was using Word!"
You'll have to agree that the quirkiness of Word is character building. You don't have that in OO.
I agree with the FP.
20% of the people in the world do not have enough to eat. Want something interesting to do? Help feed one or more of the hungry.
If you care about being relevant, case mods, games, and broadband C64s are OFF TOPIC.
Don't mod this down just because you disagree. Look at the logic.
Thanks. I have some routines in Fortran I would like to convert.
Do you happen to know if the IBM Scientific Subroutine Package is available on the Internet? This was a collection of math routines.
Microsoft says Linux is hot: Get the Tools You Need to Compete with Linux
Microsoft is selling the CD: "Cost of CD is U.S. $3.50, plus shipping and handling."
Does this mean there should be a Linux "How to compete with Windows" CD, that you can download for free? I can see it now:
- Don't pay Microsoft to be aggressive toward you.
- Use Linux and don't worry about changes in the license agreement as part of a bug fix, after you have paid for the product.
- No forced upgrades:
Microsoft Bars Office 11 From Windows 9X
- Using Linux and Open Office means never having a software funeral.
The fact that there is no "How to compete with SCO" CD available from Microsoft speaks loudly and clearly.Why doesn't someone make a Fortran to C++ converter and help everyone out of their misery?
In the long term, this is true. In the short term, American companies go bankrupt. There is a place for out-sourcing, but not the way it is being done.
Vedanti, what you said is all true, but my underlying message is true, too. United States companies will lose intellectual property to their out-sourcing companies and the employees of out-sourcing companies. The intellectual property will go who knows where. It will become part of someone else's product, sometimes.
See the article referenced in the Slashdot story: The Hidden Costs of Offshore Outsourcing. Look at the comments at the bottom. Other people are discussing loss of intellectual property, not just me. Or, seen other Slashdot comments in this story, such as this one: I've seen this happen before my eyes.
I know that there are 13 major languages in India. I know that most educated people speak English. I didn't have time to write a thorough article; I only had time for a comment. So, I brushed in the broad strokes.
Hiring lawyers in India is not the best way for U.S. companies to spend their time, even if they win. Also, there is no winning. A company that gets into legal battles in another country has already lost.
Vedanti, you are making good points.
However, so am I. Maybe the programming company won't becoming a banking company. But the intellectual property will be put to other uses than for the company that paid for it. That is the intended broad meaning of what I said.
Here's an additional thought to go along with my parent and great grand-parent comments:
Managers should realize that non-disclosure agreements with Indian companies are worthless, 100% worthless. First, an American company will not get into an expensive legal battle in India and win. Second, just proving that there was a disclosure is likely to be impossible if you don't speak Hindi well.
Remember, the lab at Los Alamos hired Chinese who were U.S. citizens. Those Chinese worked only in the United States. The result: The Chinese government learned how to build hydrogen bombs.
There is nothing naive about it. Using the above example: Indian software companies will write software for an American global banking business, and when they learn enough, they will write software for an Indian company to be a global banking business.
Now multiply that by hundreds of fields. Remember, this is a world in which the companies that have the best software are the often most successful.
The Indian companies will hire Americans to do their marketing for them.
One hidden cost is you are paying Indian programmers to learn your business. After they learn well enough, Indians will certainly begin to compete against you.
They will cut out the middleman and the middleman is you. Indian global banking services, anyone?
"There's lots of wiring throughout the plane that acts like an antenna..."
This should not be so. All wires that carry signals, rather than power, should be shielded.
Nonsense.
I have a lot of experience fixing hardware failures. Before I started doing computer work exclusively, I was an electronics design engineer. So, I'm able to understand hardware issues, and have something to contribute in that area.
Perhaps Slashdot people don't have much experience with hardware problems, and are skeptical of anyone who does, because answers to hardware problems are not usually modded up, and are often attacked.
Linux has millions of technically knowledgeable users. Those users know that, if they report a problem with crashing accurately, it will be fixed. I've never reported a Linux crash because I've never seen one. However, I did report a crash in Mozilla before breakfast one day, and the bug was fixed just after breakfast. Linux developers are the same way. So, it is common that users report literally years of uptime.
Now, what chance is there that the person who wrote the Slashdot story is seeing multiple real crashes, due to badly written software in Linux itself, instead of bad hardware or a poorly selected hardware driver? That chance is very, very small, given the circumstances.