To just digress for a moment.. interviewers, marketing "professionals" and other people involved in the task of asking questions and controlling conversations are usually taught the techniques of open and close ended questioning to control the flow of the (said) conversation..
An example of open ended questioning would be something like : "What do you think of e-voting?" There is no set answer to an open-ended question which is the reason why they are often used to open up the conversation or to coax an answer out of somebody or in other cases, to force the person to commit to one of many choices..
An example of a close-ended question would be more along the lines of : "Do you think e-voting will work?". The answer for these questions is usually a yes/no; i.e limits choice to a set number of answers which you control..
The paper-pencil voting system is much like an open-ended question - there are too many questions being posed to the voter -
-does this box belong to this party or that one.. -Should I put a cross in this box or a tick/check or shade the box? -Should I fold the piece of paper.. how many times am I supposed to do it? -Did I do it right? How do I know that..? [Usually the case for repeat errors in later elections]
This is besides the fact that
-he might not be comfortable using pen and paper -the paper might have printing errors (misalignment) etc. which really can't be easily verified/rectified.. -any problems will involve correcting 1000s of ballot sheets -there will be a large number of invalid votes due to errors
The reason why e-voting machines are better in pretty much every sense except in being old-fashioned is due to the fact that -
- The choice is pretty plain to see, and can be easily explained via simple ads on the telly - Voter usually is used to selecting buttons with corresponding options [think ATM] - Voter gets audible confirmation that his vote counts - The number of invalid votes is essentially Nil - Any fault with the machine will only require a backup box/ correction of labels or somesuch on the single box..
I'm not going to bother outlining the logistical/time/accuracy advantages:)
A friend of mine just told me that comparing the two systems is like comparing cheque books with atms, which is not a bad analogy;)
Well this was how my voting experience in India unfolded..
A couple of weeks before the elections each and every house in a particular sector received a number of ID slips - one for each voter in the house. The slips had the location of the voting "booth", gate number and an ID number for the voter..
On Election day, I walked down to a neighbourhood government school which had been taken over for the purpose, went to the appropriate gate, and walked straight into the voting room (no queue at that time of day..) I was greeted by an L-shaped row of desks leading to a partitioned-off voting area behind which the voting machine had been placed.
First person checked my voter slip, asked for some other form of ID - passport, ration card etc. He confirmed my authenticity using a big ledger he had on his desk. He then rattled off a number to the next person - a woman with another register.
I was asked to move along and sign where she pointed (next to my name and ID number..). I did so and was given a slip of paper and asked to move to the next table.
The next lady took the slip of paper and checked something in *her* register and filed the slip somewhere. She then marked my left index finger using some kinda indelible ink and asked me to move to the.. you get the idea..
last lady : pointed to the voting area and I guess she would have given me some information if I'd asked or looked like I needed it.. She pressed a button on her table which I presume, activated the voting machine..
I went over and found a little rectangular box with a number of buttons with corresponding labels next to them.. (about 12-14) Now the really stupid thing was that the labels only had the party symbols on them (no text) - I could personally only recognise about 4 of them..:S Luckily, one was the party I planned to vote for, so I hit the appropriate button and heard a nice loud buzzer that signified the end of the second voting experience of my life..
A lot of this is probably to do with the number of invalid votes witnessed in each election, which inevitably is because of the paper/pencil option.. Electronic voting involves the press of a button next to party name/candidate/symbol, which greatly simplifies things..
if it can work in a country with a billion people (India), it can work in a country with 200+ million people..:S I don't see what all the hullabaloo is all about.. We are talking about unconnected electronic voting machines with a battery back up... not thought-readers..
Voyager-I took only 9 hours to transmit it's signal from Neptune to Earth in 1998, and that is with 70's technology. So for a probe launched in 97 using superior compression algorithms, it kinda makes sense..
...in Cyberabad/Hyderabad, India. Ankit Fadia, who is India's pet hacker, started up a similar company named e2labs last year.. Not sure how progress has been though..
The company has priced these courses at Rs 25,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 1,50,000 for weekly, monthly and three monthly programs respectively
1USD ~= 45.7INR
The power of modern communication -/. hears about it 12 days after his death..:S
Here's a better write-up.. ---- Computer Developer Herman Goldstine Dies
By Adam Bernstein Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, June 22, 2004; Page B07
Herman H. Goldstine, 90, a mathematician who played a key role in early development of the electronic digital computer during World War II, died June 16 at a retirement community in Bryn Mawr, Pa. He had Parkinson's disease.
Dr. Goldstine, who later worked at IBM, wrote "The Computer From Pascal to von Neumann" (1972), a highly readable account of the history of mathematics and the way it influenced the development of computer science.
During World War II, Dr. Goldstine worked for the Army's Ordnance Department, which had an interest in developing faster and more accurate artillery and bombing tables.
Assigned to the Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Md., he began persuading Army officials to invest money in a computer project underway at the University of Pennsylvania engineering school. Dr. Goldstine became the Army's liaison to the project, which was being led by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert.
The result, presented Valentine's Day 1946, was ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
It was the first electronic digital computer and an unwieldy device -- 18,000 vacuum tubes, filling a room 30 feet by 50 feet and using 150 kilowatts of power. "It was like fighting the Battle of the Bulge to keep it running daily," Dr. Goldstine later said.
The ENIAC could store 20 numbers of 10 digits each in its electronic memory and was a milestone in general-purpose computing. It impressed many at the time by performing rapid digital processing.
Besides his supervisory role, Dr. Goldstine was credited with some of the mathematical underpinnings of the ENIAC. He also said he had a major role in bringing Johnny von Neumann to the ENIAC project after seeing him one day in 1944 at the Aberdeen train station and persuading the math giant to visit Penn.
At the time, von Neumann was attending a scientific advisory committee meeting at the Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory. He was intrigued by high-speed devices that would help with his work on the atom bomb at Los Alamos, N.M. Many of the difficult calculations for the first atom bomb were made with electronic calculators that were essentially office machines.
"Fortunately for me, von Neumann was a warm, friendly person who did his best to make people feel relaxed in his presence," Mr. Goldstine wrote in his 1972 book.
"The conversation soon turned to my work," he wrote. "When it became clear to von Neumann that I was concerned with the development of an electronic computer capable of 333 multiplications per second, the whole atmosphere of our conversation changed from one of relaxed good humor to one more like the oral examination of the doctor's degree in mathematics."
Herman Heine Goldstine was a Chicago native and received bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in mathematics from the University of Chicago.
Early in his career, he taught mathematics at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan.
In 1941, he married Adele Katz, who helped program the ENIAC and wrote an operating manual for it. She died in 1964.
Survivors include his wife, Ellen Watson Goldstine, whom he married in 1966, of Bryn Mawr; two children from his first marriage; and four grandchildren.
After his Army work, Dr. Goldstine worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., helping create a stored-program machine that became the model for the early IBM computers.
He worked at IBM from 1958 to 1984, serving as director of mathematical sciences in research, director of scientific development for the data processing division and consultant to the research director.
probably because there is no quantity of juice sufficient to get a female monkey to refrain from berating her mate for gawking at the hindquarters of another female in estrus..
I quite agree. But it needs to be an option/feature rather than a pre-requisite.
In other words, if I were MS I would not want to be required to do this BY LAW:S
It's my software product and I'll include anything that I want in it and vice versa. If the customer doesn't like it, he can try some other OS..
Once vendors start looking elsewhere for OS options to combat MS' marketing requirements, and OS drawbacks, and actively promote them, Microsoft will come back in line as it slowly loses market share.
It seems too good to be true - is there a catch? There is no catch - the software versions that we sell are OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) which means you will receive the installation CDs only (they do not come in their original retail packing and do not include the manual). We do guarantee that all programs are the 100% full working retail versions - no demos or academic versions! When you order, you will receive all materials required for a complete installation - or your money back! Why pay hundreds of dollars more when you can get exactly the same but OEM-CD? You don't have to pay that much for the fancy box and manuals.
If anyone is brave enough to test these guys out, please update this thread;)
So what does that mean? In germany, you can't be a research scientist if you are just hold an MS/equivalent or lower?
And doesn't the German University need to back this up with proof? His falsifications seem to have been reserved solely to the Bell labs, so it seems to be well out of the jursidiction of the German University:S
Now can he get another doctorate in Germany if necessary? What if he'd had two doctorates from the same University? Would both have been revoked?
I'm not condoning supporting a cheat in any way, but I'm sure that there are better ways to handle things like this. I'm still flabbergasted..:/
From what I understand, currently phones work when there's a power outage because the current copper line network always has a mild voltage in it.. Just wondering if that will change if the phones are connected via a fibre network..
Slashdot Mirror
Their site sucks eggs.. You're lucky you've got the BBC now rather than a sensationalist propaganda machine :S
;D
And your english is bound to improve
Most of them don't know that they've cast an invalid vote.. the rest probably don't care or are doing so intentionally..
None of them need to/should be allowed to do so. Casting an invalid vote because you dislike all the candidates is just plain stupid..
I hate anything linking to CNN.. so here's the Wired article : Paranoia Goes Better With Coke
Well this was how my voting experience in India unfolded..
.. you get the idea..
:S Luckily, one was the party I planned to vote for, so I hit the appropriate button and heard a nice loud buzzer that signified the end of the second voting experience of my life..
A couple of weeks before the elections each and every house in a particular sector received a number of ID slips - one for each voter in the house. The slips had the location of the voting "booth", gate number and an ID number for the voter..
On Election day, I walked down to a neighbourhood government school which had been taken over for the purpose, went to the appropriate gate, and walked straight into the voting room (no queue at that time of day..) I was greeted by an L-shaped row of desks leading to a partitioned-off voting area behind which the voting machine had been placed.
First person checked my voter slip, asked for some other form of ID - passport, ration card etc.
He confirmed my authenticity using a big ledger he had on his desk. He then rattled off a number to the next person - a woman with another register.
I was asked to move along and sign where she pointed (next to my name and ID number..). I did so and was given a slip of paper and asked to move to the next table.
The next lady took the slip of paper and checked something in *her* register and filed the slip somewhere. She then marked my left index finger using some kinda indelible ink and asked me to move to the
last lady : pointed to the voting area and I guess she would have given me some information if I'd asked or looked like I needed it.. She pressed a button on her table which I presume, activated the voting machine..
I went over and found a little rectangular box with a number of buttons with corresponding labels next to them.. (about 12-14) Now the really stupid thing was that the labels only had the party symbols on them (no text) - I could personally only recognise about 4 of them..
That was about it..
Bigbrother USA 2004
A lot of this is probably to do with the number of invalid votes witnessed in each election, which inevitably is because of the paper/pencil option.. Electronic voting involves the press of a button next to party name/candidate/symbol, which greatly simplifies things..
if it can work in a country with a billion people (India), it can work in a country with 200+ million people.. :S I don't see what all the hullabaloo is all about.. We are talking about unconnected electronic voting machines with a battery back up... not thought-readers..
heh.. well spotted.. I was talking about data transfers and got a touch mixed up (I blame the late hour :S)
Anyways.. My error might have had a minute grain of truth in it :P
No. It would be Saturn who is the Lord of the Rings..[I believe the article quotes somebody saying just that].
:D
Cassini is just an annoying gnat buzzing around..
Voyager-I took only 9 hours to transmit it's signal from Neptune to Earth in 1998, and that is with 70's technology. So for a probe launched in 97 using superior compression algorithms, it kinda makes sense..
The New York Observer [ugly site], also uses it extensively..
Anyways, check my other post detailing another program in progress in the same city..
The power of modern communication - /. hears about it 12 days after his death.. :S
Here's a better write-up..
----
Computer Developer Herman Goldstine Dies
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 22, 2004; Page B07
Herman H. Goldstine, 90, a mathematician who played a key role in early development of the electronic digital computer during World War II, died June 16 at a retirement community in Bryn Mawr, Pa. He had Parkinson's disease.
Dr. Goldstine, who later worked at IBM, wrote "The Computer From Pascal to von Neumann" (1972), a highly readable account of the history of mathematics and the way it influenced the development of computer science.
During World War II, Dr. Goldstine worked for the Army's Ordnance Department, which had an interest in developing faster and more accurate artillery and bombing tables.
Assigned to the Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Md., he began persuading Army officials to invest money in a computer project underway at the University of Pennsylvania engineering school. Dr. Goldstine became the Army's liaison to the project, which was being led by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert.
The result, presented Valentine's Day 1946, was ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
It was the first electronic digital computer and an unwieldy device -- 18,000 vacuum tubes, filling a room 30 feet by 50 feet and using 150 kilowatts of power. "It was like fighting the Battle of the Bulge to keep it running daily," Dr. Goldstine later said.
The ENIAC could store 20 numbers of 10 digits each in its electronic memory and was a milestone in general-purpose computing. It impressed many at the time by performing rapid digital processing.
Besides his supervisory role, Dr. Goldstine was credited with some of the mathematical underpinnings of the ENIAC. He also said he had a major role in bringing Johnny von Neumann to the ENIAC project after seeing him one day in 1944 at the Aberdeen train station and persuading the math giant to visit Penn.
At the time, von Neumann was attending a scientific advisory committee meeting at the Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory. He was intrigued by high-speed devices that would help with his work on the atom bomb at Los Alamos, N.M. Many of the difficult calculations for the first atom bomb were made with electronic calculators that were essentially office machines.
"Fortunately for me, von Neumann was a warm, friendly person who did his best to make people feel relaxed in his presence," Mr. Goldstine wrote in his 1972 book.
"The conversation soon turned to my work," he wrote. "When it became clear to von Neumann that I was concerned with the development of an electronic computer capable of 333 multiplications per second, the whole atmosphere of our conversation changed from one of relaxed good humor to one more like the oral examination of the doctor's degree in mathematics."
Herman Heine Goldstine was a Chicago native and received bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in mathematics from the University of Chicago.
Early in his career, he taught mathematics at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan.
In 1941, he married Adele Katz, who helped program the ENIAC and wrote an operating manual for it. She died in 1964.
Survivors include his wife, Ellen Watson Goldstine, whom he married in 1966, of Bryn Mawr; two children from his first marriage; and four grandchildren.
After his Army work, Dr. Goldstine worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., helping create a stored-program machine that became the model for the early IBM computers.
He worked at IBM from 1958 to 1984, serving as director of mathematical sciences in research, director of scientific development for the data processing division and consultant to the research director.
In retirement, he spent 13 years as execut
Some don't need that it be a female, leave alone in estrus.. (no.. not I :P)
I quite agree. But it needs to be an option/feature rather than a pre-requisite.
:S
In other words, if I were MS I would not want to be required to do this BY LAW
It's my software product and I'll include anything that I want in it and vice versa. If the customer doesn't like it, he can try some other OS..
Once vendors start looking elsewhere for OS options to combat MS' marketing requirements, and OS drawbacks, and actively promote them, Microsoft will come back in line as it slowly loses market share.
Just a thought..
I don't know how legitimate these guys are, but the prices sure catch your eye.. So while you aren't getting $38 Windows, 70-80 bucks isn't so bad :)
Their FAQ provides the following explanation:
If anyone is brave enough to test these guys out, please update this threadTook some digging but here they are : Seeking Riches From The Poor - Part 3 & Indian Villagers Pedal Wireless.
So what does that mean? In germany, you can't be a research scientist if you are just hold an MS/equivalent or lower?
:S
:/
And doesn't the German University need to back this up with proof? His falsifications seem to have been reserved solely to the Bell labs, so it seems to be well out of the jursidiction of the German University
Now can he get another doctorate in Germany if necessary? What if he'd had two doctorates from the same University? Would both have been revoked?
I'm not condoning supporting a cheat in any way, but I'm sure that there are better ways to handle things like this. I'm still flabbergasted..
Ever heard of phreaking? Besides this will be an isolated network..
That moon looks like one of my recent attempts at Photoshop :S
:)
mmm gradient shading
BPO :P
A slightly related (and interesting) article on the social ramifications of the BPO (Biz jargon for Business process outsourcing) can be read here.
From what I understand, currently phones work when there's a power outage because the current copper line network always has a mild voltage in it.. Just wondering if that will change if the phones are connected via a fibre network..