Google "hindenburg survivors" perhaps? I mean, come on, there are links on the first results page! They might not give you the number of survivors, but they definitely confirm that there were some.
I agree that it's very difficult to introduce non-technical people to the woes of electronic voting. Surprisingly, however, the Daily Show (from Comedy Central) did a very good spot on e-voting which covers many of the main introductory issues involved. Not only does it make one think, but it's funny and very believable. It has certainly made many people I know stop and think.
The video is available at Avi Rubin's site -- he's a security expert who wrote a report exposing the flaws of voting machines. The video clip is available here.
Re:It may very well be time to re-evaluate...
on
Cheating Made Easy
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· Score: 1
As a student who's majoring in both Computer Engineering and Philosophy, I have to take exception to your argument that liberal arts are easier than engineering classes. I'm a 4.0 student in my engineering major, but I struggle to keep above a B average in philosophy.
That having been said, I agree that in general, grade inflation is a huge problem. My own grades surprise me sometimes.
Fonts? While I agree with you that Linux's history of font management has never been stellar, things are and have changed. TrueType font support is easy nowadays.
Fonts are art, and unfortunately, with (many) notable exceptions, good fonts cost money. If you're a "professonal" who "needs those slick fonts", then why not buy them? Linux will support them.
I mean, goodness, it's not like the rest of the OS is costing you anything. And as a "professional", you ought to be making money off your work.
Ironically, except in a few situations, IBM is a very anti-MS Office shop. Those people who work for IBM have had to live with the Lotus Suite of tools for everything they do.
As a former IBMer, I find it hard to believe they would give any support at all to MS Office. Then again, it's a big corporation. This could be a case of some department breaking with company normality.
Hmm, that's funny. i'm sitting in front of two Cubes and there's one in the next room. I just kicked the rather large power supply unit under the desk for the cube I'm working at. Inside the computer you say?
That said, tese things are really sweet. And still smaller than any of the Shuttle machines I've seen in real life, and quieter.
You're misinformed, lying, or both. I am an Iraqi. I have a lot of family living in Iraq.
While it may be true that here and there in Iraq things are better off, on the whole the infrastructure is not yet restored to pre-Gulf War state, or even in most cases, pre-Operation Iraqi Freedom state.
I'm not going to argue that Iraqis are worse off than they were under Saddam -- freedom from despotic rulers is immeasurable. However, to argue that the infrastructure is better than it was before is a falsehood.
I second that. The only state with a motto even close to the is Delaware -- "The First State" (to sign the Declaration of Independence). I've never heard of "First in Freedom" having anything to do with NC.
For the sake of arguement though, if you wanted to, I'm sure you could figure out some (expensive?) physical way to guarantee that the receipt isn't tampered with even if it's handled. For instance, you print some kind of verifiable signature (which doesn't include the voters' ID) or you print on special paper...
Either way, to answer your question, I'd trust the paper. Why would someone modify their vote other than to be malicious? That would just be changing one's own vote (and being the idiot that causes the recount). However, to protect against such possibilities, you don't mandate a complete recount unless the differences between computer and paper are statistically significant (which depends on the total results).
(3) The reciept includes a timestamp (perhaps), and a output of results in human readable form. This gets deposited into a locked box on your way out (as paper ballots are now). It doesn't have any indication of who the person was who voted.
This method doesn't violate anonymity in any way, and it allows the voter to verify before he or she deposits the slip whether or not the vote was tallied correctly.
Later, you can take this locked box and count reciepts like you count ballots. Randomly audit a certain percentage of polling places and you can check for discrepancies.
While what you state is right for certain parts of the world, it's very wrong for others -- even very technologically advanced parts of world.
I'm a US citizen studying at NC State University. While there, I use the internet for anything and everything. Communicating with friends through email and IM; looking up stuff; reading slashdot; you name it.
Right now, I'm in France, studying here for the semester. I use the internet here to email people at home. Not much else. I happen to be reading slashdot for the first time in well over a month because I happen to be in a lab 20 minutes before class. People here don't use the internet as the common commodity that they do back home. It hasn't "changed society as we know it" like it has at home.
Just a thought. Your experience might not be like every other. Neither is mine. I suspect though, that in a few years, things here will be much more like things back home.
Seconded, and highly recommended. I love climbing. Just like most adventure and outdoor sports though, it's rather expensive. And you always need at least one other person.
As someone who spends most of his day sitting in front of the computer, and whose many hobbies include sitting in front of a computer, I can't stress how great it is to have hobbies that make me physically active. For me, those are rock climbing and ultimate frisbee.
Godeke, just out of curiosity, what part of the country are you in?
If you recall, Volvo was purchased by Ford. I don't have anything against Ford (my family has owned three Tauruses), but they don't have the same reputation that Volvo had. It was at that point that Volvo's styling began to change, going from a less boxy style to the more consumer-friendly styles of today.
Since then, Volvo has shut down it's Swedish offices and moved headquarters to California. They have always had the reputation as safe and conservative in design, but Volvo is not the same company as before -- they are a Ford-owned American car company that uses the Volvo name. I won't pass complete judgement, not having followed Volvo's production for the past couple years, but I would venture to guess these basic facts have something to do with your complaint.
I challenge you to try to name enough items to fit into 12 grocery bags that you need every day. Seriously, if you can do it, I'll believe you. How large is your family?
As to the big stuff, how often do you buy things like that? Sure, it would be annoying to have to get things like DVD players delivered, but in a big city, you can always find a friend with a car or take a cab for something like that. A fridge? How many automobiles can fit a fridge? How many can even fit a large television? How many of those do you go through in ten years?
Word up. Norton Commander was one of the most useful pieces of software I'd ever seen. It was so much more powerful than meets the eye, though. It had a built in menuing system, among other things. In the days when the more pipe was horrible, its file viewer was a Godsend to young kids like me who wanted to learn about every file in the system. Any DOS system without nc was not complete. My first (of very few) forays into piracy was giving copies of nc to anyeone I knew with a new computer.
When I converted over to Linux, Norton Commander was one of the few pieces of software I saved. When I saw Midnight Commander for Linux, I rejoiced. Unfortunately, it really wasn't the same. NC was powerful because of it's simplicity. Throwing the kitchen sink in just ruined it.
Fortunately, bash and the graphical tools on all OSes are good enough that I've all but forgotten norton commander. Thanks for bringing up the nostalgia.;-)
If you are running a well-designed X11 desktop, you can run applications on any machine, and they will behave as if run locally. You can also move individual windows between machines and displays. Of course, Gnome and KDE both break this behavior, but that's not X11's fault.
This is something I've struggled with for a couple years now, and I'ld love for you to point me in the right direction. I know to forward and X session and start programs on a different machine.
What I want to know is how do you "move individual windows between machines and displays"? Everywhere I look says I need to be running VNC, and I don't want to run VNC. I just want to be able to ssh into my machine and grab a couple of the running windows. I don't need a detailed explanation -- a URL or even a set of Google search terms that will give me an answer would be great.
As a philosophy major and a computer engineering major (yes, I'm strange), I can assure you that your rant isn't quite justified. Just because humanities courses don't have discrete answers to many problems does not mean make them any easier.
It varies from teacher to teacher, in any course, whether engineering or otherwise. I've had professors in philosophy classes who had no qualms giving out C's and D's on papers. I've had EE profs that curved grades so that the majority of the class easily broke 85%.
Sure, there are weed-out courses. Sure some classes are tough. However, I would agree that, on a general level, grade inflation is a problem. Maybe it's to make up for the complete lack in teaching skill that we students (who are paying big bucks for our education), are finally starting to complain about.
So I can understand how some of the more popular topics get posted more than once, but a topic like this isn't really big news.
Do the editors ever even bother to look at the front page? Are there people who resubmit stories time after time just so we can make fun of the editors posting dupes?
Slashdot Mirror
Google "hindenburg survivors" perhaps? I mean, come on, there are links on the first results page! They might not give you the number of survivors, but they definitely confirm that there were some.
For the lazy:
http://www.airships.net
http://www.vidicom-tv.com/hindenburg/making_of.htm
http://www.authentichistory.com/audio/1930s/histor y/19370506_Hindenberg_Disaster_Herb_Morrison-short .html
-Alex
I agree that it's very difficult to introduce non-technical people to the woes of electronic voting. Surprisingly, however, the Daily Show (from Comedy Central) did a very good spot on e-voting which covers many of the main introductory issues involved. Not only does it make one think, but it's funny and very believable. It has certainly made many people I know stop and think.
The video is available at Avi Rubin's site -- he's a security expert who wrote a report exposing the flaws of voting machines. The video clip is available here.
As a student who's majoring in both Computer Engineering and Philosophy, I have to take exception to your argument that liberal arts are easier than engineering classes. I'm a 4.0 student in my engineering major, but I struggle to keep above a B average in philosophy.
That having been said, I agree that in general, grade inflation is a huge problem. My own grades surprise me sometimes.
-Alex
Fonts? While I agree with you that Linux's history of font management has never been stellar, things are and have changed. TrueType font support is easy nowadays.
Fonts are art, and unfortunately, with (many) notable exceptions, good fonts cost money. If you're a "professonal" who "needs those slick fonts", then why not buy them? Linux will support them.
I mean, goodness, it's not like the rest of the OS is costing you anything. And as a "professional", you ought to be making money off your work.
-Alinux
Myth, perhaps....?
-ALinux
Ironically, except in a few situations, IBM is a very anti-MS Office shop. Those people who work for IBM have had to live with the Lotus Suite of tools for everything they do.
As a former IBMer, I find it hard to believe they would give any support at all to MS Office. Then again, it's a big corporation. This could be a case of some department breaking with company normality.
-ALinux
Hmm, that's funny. i'm sitting in front of two Cubes and there's one in the next room. I just kicked the rather large power supply unit under the desk for the cube I'm working at. Inside the computer you say?
That said, tese things are really sweet. And still smaller than any of the Shuttle machines I've seen in real life, and quieter.
-ALinux
You're misinformed, lying, or both. I am an Iraqi. I have a lot of family living in Iraq.
While it may be true that here and there in Iraq things are better off, on the whole the infrastructure is not yet restored to pre-Gulf War state, or even in most cases, pre-Operation Iraqi Freedom state.
I'm not going to argue that Iraqis are worse off than they were under Saddam -- freedom from despotic rulers is immeasurable. However, to argue that the infrastructure is better than it was before is a falsehood.
I second that. The only state with a motto even close to the is Delaware -- "The First State" (to sign the Declaration of Independence). I've never heard of "First in Freedom" having anything to do with NC.
Except for the fact that he's the 8th worst spammer in the world, according to Spamhaus.
Ugh, I can't believe I lived in the same city as this guy....
Well, serves me right for skimming the article.
For the sake of arguement though, if you wanted to, I'm sure you could figure out some (expensive?) physical way to guarantee that the receipt isn't tampered with even if it's handled. For instance, you print some kind of verifiable signature (which doesn't include the voters' ID) or you print on special paper...
Either way, to answer your question, I'd trust the paper. Why would someone modify their vote other than to be malicious? That would just be changing one's own vote (and being the idiot that causes the recount). However, to protect against such possibilities, you don't mandate a complete recount unless the differences between computer and paper are statistically significant (which depends on the total results).
-Alex
How about option 3?
(3) The reciept includes a timestamp (perhaps), and a output of results in human readable form. This gets deposited into a locked box on your way out (as paper ballots are now). It doesn't have any indication of who the person was who voted.
This method doesn't violate anonymity in any way, and it allows the voter to verify before he or she deposits the slip whether or not the vote was tallied correctly.
Later, you can take this locked box and count reciepts like you count ballots. Randomly audit a certain percentage of polling places and you can check for discrepancies.
Is there anything I missed?
-Alex
While what you state is right for certain parts of the world, it's very wrong for others -- even very technologically advanced parts of world.
I'm a US citizen studying at NC State University. While there, I use the internet for anything and everything. Communicating with friends through email and IM; looking up stuff; reading slashdot; you name it.
Right now, I'm in France, studying here for the semester. I use the internet here to email people at home. Not much else. I happen to be reading slashdot for the first time in well over a month because I happen to be in a lab 20 minutes before class. People here don't use the internet as the common commodity that they do back home. It hasn't "changed society as we know it" like it has at home.
Just a thought. Your experience might not be like every other. Neither is mine. I suspect though, that in a few years, things here will be much more like things back home.
But would anyone be interested in defining PAT so that the ignorant among us can decide if this story is interesting?
(Yeah yeah, rtfa. I will when I find out what PAT is, and then if I decide it's useful. ;-) )
Seconded, and highly recommended. I love climbing. Just like most adventure and outdoor sports though, it's rather expensive. And you always need at least one other person.
As someone who spends most of his day sitting in front of the computer, and whose many hobbies include sitting in front of a computer, I can't stress how great it is to have hobbies that make me physically active. For me, those are rock climbing and ultimate frisbee.
Godeke, just out of curiosity, what part of the country are you in?
For those of us not familiar with the idiom you're using, we would use the term "cut off".
If you recall, Volvo was purchased by Ford. I don't have anything against Ford (my family has owned three Tauruses), but they don't have the same reputation that Volvo had. It was at that point that Volvo's styling began to change, going from a less boxy style to the more consumer-friendly styles of today.
Since then, Volvo has shut down it's Swedish offices and moved headquarters to California. They have always had the reputation as safe and conservative in design, but Volvo is not the same company as before -- they are a Ford-owned American car company that uses the Volvo name. I won't pass complete judgement, not having followed Volvo's production for the past couple years, but I would venture to guess these basic facts have something to do with your complaint.
-ALinux
I challenge you to try to name enough items to fit into 12 grocery bags that you need every day. Seriously, if you can do it, I'll believe you. How large is your family?
As to the big stuff, how often do you buy things like that? Sure, it would be annoying to have to get things like DVD players delivered, but in a big city, you can always find a friend with a car or take a cab for something like that. A fridge? How many automobiles can fit a fridge? How many can even fit a large television? How many of those do you go through in ten years?
Word up. Norton Commander was one of the most useful pieces of software I'd ever seen. It was so much more powerful than meets the eye, though. It had a built in menuing system, among other things. In the days when the more pipe was horrible, its file viewer was a Godsend to young kids like me who wanted to learn about every file in the system. Any DOS system without nc was not complete. My first (of very few) forays into piracy was giving copies of nc to anyeone I knew with a new computer.
;-)
When I converted over to Linux, Norton Commander was one of the few pieces of software I saved. When I saw Midnight Commander for Linux, I rejoiced. Unfortunately, it really wasn't the same. NC was powerful because of it's simplicity. Throwing the kitchen sink in just ruined it.
Fortunately, bash and the graphical tools on all OSes are good enough that I've all but forgotten norton commander. Thanks for bringing up the nostalgia.
...is there to prevent posters from making glaring errors in their submissions.
Maybe the editors should get one of those too. It's pretty handy for us peons who make mistakes all the time...
This is something I've struggled with for a couple years now, and I'ld love for you to point me in the right direction. I know to forward and X session and start programs on a different machine.
What I want to know is how do you "move individual windows between machines and displays"? Everywhere I look says I need to be running VNC, and I don't want to run VNC. I just want to be able to ssh into my machine and grab a couple of the running windows. I don't need a detailed explanation -- a URL or even a set of Google search terms that will give me an answer would be great.
-ALinux
As a philosophy major and a computer engineering major (yes, I'm strange), I can assure you that your rant isn't quite justified. Just because humanities courses don't have discrete answers to many problems does not mean make them any easier.
It varies from teacher to teacher, in any course, whether engineering or otherwise. I've had professors in philosophy classes who had no qualms giving out C's and D's on papers. I've had EE profs that curved grades so that the majority of the class easily broke 85%.
Sure, there are weed-out courses. Sure some classes are tough. However, I would agree that, on a general level, grade inflation is a problem. Maybe it's to make up for the complete lack in teaching skill that we students (who are paying big bucks for our education), are finally starting to complain about.
So I can understand how some of the more popular topics get posted more than once, but a topic like this isn't really big news.
Do the editors ever even bother to look at the front page? Are there people who resubmit stories time after time just so we can make fun of the editors posting dupes?