Having only half of the elegible voters voting is a huge democratic problem. If you can't even get a majority of the population to bother to vote, something must be wrong and radical changes are needed.
Or, it might also be a sign that half the population feels quite secure in their current form of government, and don't feel the need to. For instance, Switzerland @ 37.7%, according to your cite. Would you say that radical changes are needed there? I'd be willing to bet most Swiss don't.
Quite a few Western countries are in the 40-60% range of turnout.
Switzerland
Poland
Lichenstein
Japan
Canada
France
USA
Now look at countries where there is a lot of voter turnout. Places where there ahs been significant unrest as of late. Palestine
Sri Lanka
Germany (reconsolidation of East and West)
Tajikistan
Slovakia
South Africa
Israel
Czech Republic
If a large percentage came out and voted all the time, that could just as easily mean that the people are not secure in their current form of government, and do wish a radical change.
Agreed though that voting online at home is an idea that need to die a quick death.
Continued use after the conditions have changed is assumed to mean consent to the terms... and they don't proactively tell you of the change at all... just a change of the terms on their web page with no fanfare at all. It's up to you to check them regularly.
Actually, quite a lot of (most?) commercial sites do it this way. The first two I looked at, CompUSA and Barnes an Noble, do.
machines on his network redirected to an ad for Belkin's new parental control system, following a software update.
And Belkin can turn it on again just as easily.
From Belkins response: "I
know the manual could do a better job explaining it." Badly worded by design.
Amazon (eBay?) did the same sort of thing. "We rewrote the privacy policy recently" (Oh, and in doing so, we reset your privacy settings. You now will get spam from us. To change it, visit blahdeblah.com). They never proactively told anyone, until it was found out and published.
This is good for the 'dealer'. Pepsi, McD and Apple all make out like bandits. Pepsi & McD's sells more soda & fries, Apple gets a lot of new iTunes clients out there, with some to buy for more music later on.
What they should have done was come up with an inexpensive radar simulator device. It wouldn't be hard, and it would be something that cost maybe $10 to produce in quantity.
Already installed in a lot of places. A lot of mobile traffic info signs have radar emitters on them. My detector pings *exactly* like a police radar on approach to one of these.
did think that once Bush got in that would be the end the case. He ordered the justice department to settle on terms favorable to Microsoft. Big surprise - Microsoft contributed heavily to his campaign. This is like paying a boxer to take a dive in a fight.
sure there will be times when local POTS systems are unreachable.
Unacceptable. Why would I want worse service, even if it were 'free'? ('free' only after I have a PC and a broadband connection)
Local bandwidth saturation - I notice a difference in speed on my cable connection depending on time of day. 5-7PM Eastern seems to be bad. Cable co overselling the available bandwidth. I have *never* noticed a reduction in sound quality or availability in my landline phone service. Ok...maybe in times of extreme use (9/11 in NYC) you'd get an unavailable, or during a hurricane or tornado when the physical lines are down, but even on mother's day or xmas day....call anywhere, anytime.
What happens if the box runs out of ink, or the paper jams, or I fail to insert it all the way, or pull it out as the paper is printing...
or the paper jams,
Valid. Call an election official to unjam. Print again.
I fail to insert it all the way, or pull it out as the paper is printing...
Change the system slightly. Don't insert, just a rack of blank paper. When you're done, it prints the whole thing. Nothing to insert, nothing to pull out early.
What if I insert the paper a second time?
See above.
What about a power-failure during the printout?
Makes no difference. The 'voting' does not happen until the paper ballot runs through the optical scanner.
What about a power-failure during the printout?
That does not work well now. People would put an X or a checkmark instead of filling in the circle.
All this does is failsafe the printing process. Don't like what got printed on the paper, or it screwed up? Shred that one, and print it again. Each person only gets to put one and only one ballot through the optical scanner.
Filling in a circle or punching a hole is not rocket science. But people still screw it up, as witnessed with pregnant, hanging, multiple, dimpled chads. Take that screwup option away.
In case of a power failure...you can fill them in manually. But since there seems to be such a push to 'eVoting'...this might be an end run around that.
Because they don't have to punch the right dot. All they have to do is touch the screen. Maybe it even has a photo of each candidate. And if they touch the wrong one, just touch the other one. Nothing happens until you say "Done/Finito/Finis".
The system does the rest.
If a system (paper, touchscreen, whatever) lets you screw up, the designers screwed up. If hanging or multiple chads are possible, then it's not a good system. If the voter can mark an (unreadable) X or a checkmark instead of completely filling in the circle, it's not a good system.
Fine, here it is:
Registered voter gets handed a paper ballot. Completely human readable. Little circles next to each person/issue.
Voter enters the booth
Voter inserts paper ballot into the slot below the (oooh, shiny!) touchscreen.
Voter selects, each person issue they want to vote for. Change at any time.
At the bottom, the voter presses "Done". Maybe even a confirmation "Are you sure?"
Paper ballot is spit out of the slot, with the circles filled in for each item the person has voted for. The touchscreen is merely a printer.
Voter can verify the paper against what is on the screen.
Voter walks out, slides the paper ballot into a ScanTron. Said Scantron counts and tabulates as necessary.
The paper ballot goes into a locked box for future verification if necessary.
Sure, sometimes you might have to wait a few minutes to dial out on your voice line while its in use by the commons, but its a small price to pay if you get to dial anywhere in VoIP or POTS land.
So...going back to the old party line system? Where you have to wait for the other guy to finish? mmm...I don't think so.
How many of these legal downloads are from the big burst in emusic.com downloads before the (idiotic) change in policy? I know I have loaded up a lot in the last couple of weeks? A lot more than I would have normally.
Every army relies on communications. Be it landline, radio, cellphone, satellites, whatever.
North Korea relies on older comm equipment? Ok, that's relatively easy to blow up, jam, or compromise. Then they have to revert to the backup system. Maybe cell phones. And this *is* effective against that.
This is not a one shot weapon, but rather another part of the arsenal.
Take away the comms, and the individual units/tanks/soldiers flop around uselessly for a while before giving up.
This would be great for those of us in the intermountain west.
Our reservoirs lose tons of water over the long hot dry days of summer. Add that to the 5 year drought we're in....and it'd help enormously.
After all your local bodies of water have been treated, you can change that to: "... the 15 year drought we're in..."
Unless of course someone on the plane(s) had a gun, and used it to shoot the hijackers.
Dangerously incorrect, except, as you say, in the case of armed pilots.
Let's leave out the pilots for a moment, and consider potentially armed passengers. Which has been suggested many, many times.
If personal firearms were allowed in the cabin, then the hijackers would have also had them. The only used boxcutters, because those were legal. Sharp, small, fits in a pocket. And legal, at the time. They could just as easily have used a Swiss Army knife. They brought the maximum legal device that would accomplish the mission.
Now, we introduce firearms into the cabin. Legal and approved. How many people actually carry on a daily basis? 2%? Maybe 2 people on a hundred person flight. All the hijackers have to do is load up with 4 or 5 legally armed people.Immediately, they have an automatic 2-1 advantage. On top of that 2-1 numerical advantage, the hijackers would have the advantage of position, timing, and practice. Station one guy in the back of the cabin, and wait for those two armed passengers to show themselves when the fireworks start. Boom, shot in the back. No more threat from the passengers. They can then carry on their mission.
In a surprise attack, the attackers almost always have the advantage.
Armed pilots are a different situation. Many are ex-military, and also have the advantage of warning, and a very narrow entranceway.
And that would be good for you, bad for the store. They want you to wander. More impulse items end up in your cart.
And as far as quickest cashier line? Usually, it's the one with the fewest people. In case of a tie, look at the actual patrons in line and cart composition. Old lady? Add 1 minute, cell phone talkers are a + 1 minute, single guys are a -1 minute. Someone has an overflowing cart? Move to the next line.
"Mystery shoppers" are often chased out of stores.
Those who are employed by Store A (or a survey company), and go to Store B to check a range of prices.
Coming in with your own scanner would mark you as such.
Slashdot Mirror
Already done. X-10 filed for bankruptcy
Niagara Falls - August 2003, November 1965
Hoover Dam
World Trade Center - Sep 2001
Washington DC - Sep 2001
Having only half of the elegible voters voting is a huge democratic problem. If you can't even get a majority of the population to bother to vote, something must be wrong and radical changes are needed.
Or, it might also be a sign that half the population feels quite secure in their current form of government, and don't feel the need to. For instance, Switzerland @ 37.7%, according to your cite. Would you say that radical changes are needed there? I'd be willing to bet most Swiss don't.
Quite a few Western countries are in the 40-60% range of turnout.
Switzerland
Poland
Lichenstein
Japan
Canada
France
USA
Now look at countries where there is a lot of voter turnout. Places where there ahs been significant unrest as of late.
Palestine
Sri Lanka
Germany (reconsolidation of East and West)
Tajikistan
Slovakia
South Africa
Israel
Czech Republic
If a large percentage came out and voted all the time, that could just as easily mean that the people are not secure in their current form of government, and do wish a radical change.
Agreed though that voting online at home is an idea that need to die a quick death.
Continued use after the conditions have changed is assumed to mean consent to the terms... and they don't proactively tell you of the change at all... just a change of the terms on their web page with no fanfare at all. It's up to you to check them regularly.
Actually, quite a lot of (most?) commercial sites do it this way. The first two I looked at, CompUSA and Barnes an Noble, do.
machines on his network redirected to an ad for Belkin's new parental control system, following a software update.
And Belkin can turn it on again just as easily.
From Belkins response:
"I know the manual could do a better job explaining it."
Badly worded by design.
Amazon (eBay?) did the same sort of thing. "We rewrote the privacy policy recently"
(Oh, and in doing so, we reset your privacy settings. You now will get spam from us. To change it, visit blahdeblah.com). They never proactively told anyone, until it was found out and published.
This is good for the 'dealer'. Pepsi, McD and Apple all make out like bandits. Pepsi & McD's sells more soda & fries, Apple gets a lot of new iTunes clients out there, with some to buy for more music later on.
Get em hooked early.
What they should have done was come up with an inexpensive radar simulator device. It wouldn't be hard, and it would be something that cost maybe $10 to produce in quantity.
Already installed in a lot of places. A lot of mobile traffic info signs have radar emitters on them. My detector pings *exactly* like a police radar on approach to one of these.
damn fingers
did think that once Bush got in that would be the end the case. He ordered the justice department to settle on terms favorable to Microsoft. Big surprise - Microsoft contributed heavily to his campaign. This is like paying a boxer to take a dive in a fight.
Microsoft gave almost the same amount to Gore.
$5290,000 (D) vs $607,000 (R)
Buy both sides, assured to have friends on the winning side.
sure there will be times when local POTS systems are unreachable.
Unacceptable. Why would I want worse service, even if it were 'free'?
('free' only after I have a PC and a broadband connection)
Local bandwidth saturation - I notice a difference in speed on my cable connection depending on time of day. 5-7PM Eastern seems to be bad. Cable co overselling the available bandwidth. I have *never* noticed a reduction in sound quality or availability in my landline phone service. Ok...maybe in times of extreme use (9/11 in NYC) you'd get an unavailable, or during a hurricane or tornado when the physical lines are down, but even on mother's day or xmas day....call anywhere, anytime.
What happens if the box runs out of ink, or the paper jams, or I fail to insert it all the way, or pull it out as the paper is printing...
or the paper jams,
Valid. Call an election official to unjam. Print again.
I fail to insert it all the way, or pull it out as the paper is printing...
Change the system slightly. Don't insert, just a rack of blank paper. When you're done, it prints the whole thing. Nothing to insert, nothing to pull out early.
What if I insert the paper a second time?
See above.
What about a power-failure during the printout?
Makes no difference. The 'voting' does not happen until the paper ballot runs through the optical scanner.
What about a power-failure during the printout?
That does not work well now. People would put an X or a checkmark instead of filling in the circle.
All this does is failsafe the printing process. Don't like what got printed on the paper, or it screwed up? Shred that one, and print it again. Each person only gets to put one and only one ballot through the optical scanner.
Filling in a circle or punching a hole is not rocket science. But people still screw it up, as witnessed with pregnant, hanging, multiple, dimpled chads. Take that screwup option away.
In case of a power failure...you can fill them in manually. But since there seems to be such a push to 'eVoting'...this might be an end run around that.
Because they don't have to punch the right dot. All they have to do is touch the screen. Maybe it even has a photo of each candidate. And if they touch the wrong one, just touch the other one. Nothing happens until you say "Done/Finito/Finis".
The system does the rest.
If a system (paper, touchscreen, whatever) lets you screw up, the designers screwed up. If hanging or multiple chads are possible, then it's not a good system. If the voter can mark an (unreadable) X or a checkmark instead of completely filling in the circle, it's not a good system.
From their website:
"Helping Shape American history for Over One Hundred Years"
We don't want you to help shape history. We'll do that. You just count it.
On second thought, no, we don't want you. Wireless voting terminals? No thanks.
Answer:Yes, it's ture, Diebold isn't in anyone's pockets - they are simply incompetent.
The more cynical in here would say that Diebold screwed up the tampering to force a GOP victory, not the actual election.
But yes, they are incompetent. Criminally so. And should be prosecuted.
it's not that hard, people!
You want 'electronic voting'?
Fine, here it is:
Registered voter gets handed a paper ballot. Completely human readable. Little circles next to each person/issue.
Voter enters the booth
Voter inserts paper ballot into the slot below the (oooh, shiny!) touchscreen.
Voter selects, each person issue they want to vote for. Change at any time.
At the bottom, the voter presses "Done". Maybe even a confirmation "Are you sure?"
Paper ballot is spit out of the slot, with the circles filled in for each item the person has voted for. The touchscreen is merely a printer.
Voter can verify the paper against what is on the screen.
Voter walks out, slides the paper ballot into a ScanTron. Said Scantron counts and tabulates as necessary.
The paper ballot goes into a locked box for future verification if necessary.
Done.
Sure, sometimes you might have to wait a few minutes to dial out on your voice line while its in use by the commons, but its a small price to pay if you get to dial anywhere in VoIP or POTS land.
So...going back to the old party line system? Where you have to wait for the other guy to finish? mmm...I don't think so.
Since when did Londoners (or Englishmen for that matter) need a valid excuse to get drunk?
Blow up Parliament? Have a party.
Fail to blow up Parliament? Have a party.
It's all the same.
How many of these legal downloads are from the big burst in emusic.com downloads before the (idiotic) change in policy? I know I have loaded up a lot in the last couple of weeks? A lot more than I would have normally.
This 7 CD set, that 10 CD set, etc, etc.
Right. Fixed in place, no mobility. Not very useful in a fluid battlefield.
Every army relies on communications. Be it landline, radio, cellphone, satellites, whatever.
North Korea relies on older comm equipment? Ok, that's relatively easy to blow up, jam, or compromise. Then they have to revert to the backup system. Maybe cell phones. And this *is* effective against that.
This is not a one shot weapon, but rather another part of the arsenal.
Take away the comms, and the individual units/tanks/soldiers flop around uselessly for a while before giving up.
This would be great for those of us in the intermountain west.
Our reservoirs lose tons of water over the long hot dry days of summer. Add that to the 5 year drought we're in....and it'd help enormously.
After all your local bodies of water have been treated, you can change that to:
"... the 15 year drought we're in..."
Unless of course someone on the plane(s) had a gun, and used it to shoot the hijackers.
Dangerously incorrect, except, as you say, in the case of armed pilots.
Let's leave out the pilots for a moment, and consider potentially armed passengers. Which has been suggested many, many times.
If personal firearms were allowed in the cabin, then the hijackers would have also had them. The only used boxcutters, because those were legal. Sharp, small, fits in a pocket. And legal, at the time. They could just as easily have used a Swiss Army knife. They brought the maximum legal device that would accomplish the mission.
Now, we introduce firearms into the cabin. Legal and approved. How many people actually carry on a daily basis? 2%? Maybe 2 people on a hundred person flight. All the hijackers have to do is load up with 4 or 5 legally armed people.Immediately, they have an automatic 2-1 advantage. On top of that 2-1 numerical advantage, the hijackers would have the advantage of position, timing, and practice. Station one guy in the back of the cabin, and wait for those two armed passengers to show themselves when the fireworks start. Boom, shot in the back. No more threat from the passengers. They can then carry on their mission.
In a surprise attack, the attackers almost always have the advantage.
Armed pilots are a different situation. Many are ex-military, and also have the advantage of warning, and a very narrow entranceway.
And that would be good for you, bad for the store. They want you to wander. More impulse items end up in your cart.
And as far as quickest cashier line? Usually, it's the one with the fewest people. In case of a tie, look at the actual patrons in line and cart composition. Old lady? Add 1 minute, cell phone talkers are a + 1 minute, single guys are a -1 minute. Someone has an overflowing cart? Move to the next line.
"Mystery shoppers" are often chased out of stores.
Those who are employed by Store A (or a survey company), and go to Store B to check a range of prices. Coming in with your own scanner would mark you as such.
Anyone have something that Sir Welsh could hand over to his IT monkey?
Phrases like this are not likely to win over any converts.