The general public and opponents of electronic voting will use this as "proof" that e-voting can never be stable and reliable. I fear that any blunders we have now may severely cripple public perception to the point that the masses won't WANT to e-vote, despite the ease and efficiancy such a system could provide. I also fear that we won't be able to EVER make an unhackable e-voting system - humans are falable creatures, and with something so obvious a target, there will always be attacks launched against it to expose the inevitable weaknesses, with resulting bad press.
Every technological setback may end up as another knife in e-voting's back....then again, maybe the public will get used to crackable e-votes. I mean, what, 95% of them run Windows unpatched, right?
I'm sorry, but this analogy is perfectly legit. It's all still just entertainment. Perhaps some people would perfer to spend their $20 on a DVD that they will watch twice than on a CD that they can listen to over and over. Maybe some people like movies more than music.
Sure, Movies and TV aren't as convenient a medium as music is - it's rather expensive to pick up a laptop just to watch DVDs on the bus ride to work. But on the other hand, I can listen to internet (or even traditional) radio in my cube at work, and then go home and watch my Lord of the Rings.
So is the analogy apt? Sure. It's all a mater of your personal priorities. Don't go flaming up a guy because he'd rather watch a fansubbed anime than listen to the latest in Pop-Rap-Metal.
$5!!! Outrageous! Poor College Students can't afford Ramen anymore these days, and you want them to spend a week's food budget on music??
Seriously, though, CDs would probably cost, well, $5 if the money was going to the people that deserve it , like the Artists, Audiotechs, etc, instead of all those Lawyers sueing said college students...
I'm intrigued. Virtual Folders sound like just the kind of thing that could organize my office - unfortunately, a quick Google search uncovered nothing about setting up Virtual Folders for Files on a Windows PC. Any Slashdotters got some Linkage Love for me? If I find anything, I'll throw it up.
An interesting thing that many have yet to make note of is, quote:
"Information Rights Management (IRM) tools will be included in the professional versions of all Office applications, including the Word processor and Excel spreadsheet programs."
So, this seems to indicate that only Office 2003 Pro will have DRM tools. This means that Joe User with a new Gateway probably won't have DRM doc creation tools in his Office 2003 Standard; the question is, will Joe User with Standard be able to OPEN these docs?
Also, they mention a plug-in for IE that can view the DRM Docs:
"Leach said Microsoft will provide a free plug-in for its Internet Explorer Web browser that will let it display rights-protected Office documents."
So, if you want to send a document to Joe User with his Account Info, he has to open it in IE, and you have to be running a MS Web Server with DRM Authentication?
Perhaps more details on HOW this will all work are needed.
It's good to see that protests can have an effect on issues every now and then. My fear, however, is that even if this is thrown down this time, how long until it comes up again, and how long until it passes into law? In my experience, the decision-makers tend to be Greedy, Stupid, or both. Of course, I live in the US, so...
Actually, Scott McCloud's two jump to mind. "Understanding Comics" and "Reinventing Comics". Both are good, easy reads... since they're both comic book format. Quite entertaining and informative, too.
http://scottmccloud.com/
Hmm... I don't know about that, renehollan. While Linus claims he's "just an engineer", I think it's a very political movie to do nothing to stop DRM on Linux. He's inadvertently supporting a user's choice to add DRM when and if they desire it.
He's already stated that it will have to reside outside the kernel, so if a Distro wishes to include packages for DRM control, that is their choice.
It's a bit of a b*tch, but Freedom is the right to choose wrong. I have to agree with Linus just because I support Freedom of Choice, even if I personally feel DRM is eeeee-vil.;)
Actually, we in Seattle prefer to seperate outselves with those in Redmond, where the aforementioned company resides.
And on topic, yeah, I think Bruce is right on this one - best to take what we can get and work around it, then to shoot ourselves in the foot. There's always time later to fix things fully. It took hundreds of years to build the system we live in today - it'll probably take just as long to fix every flaw with it. But, hey, that's life.
Sure, we all know they are only against these laws because it hurts their bottom line, but I think it proves something that big Business seems to have forgotten:
You CAN make money by giving people products they WANT.
You know, instead of, like, shoving worthless redundant clones down our throats... *cough*moviesandmusic*cough*
In principle, I love the idea of something being easy to use. When you can pick up a device and be using it fluently with minimal effort, you've got a well-designed device in your hand.
However, it just doesn't always work that way.
People need to look things up in the manual every now and then. Once things start getting to the point where the Product Manufacturers are trying to make your decisions FOR you to keep you from having to learn anything new to solve a problem, well, you create a populace of lazy, dependant users. Too much "User Freindly" leads to an inability to even WANT to try to fix problems yourself. It's something akin to the old addage, "Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime." Sure, throw up a Wizard to help me configure my Inet settings - but TELL me what that wizard is doing, so that in the future, I can do it for myself.
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The general public and opponents of electronic voting will use this as "proof" that e-voting can never be stable and reliable. I fear that any blunders we have now may severely cripple public perception to the point that the masses won't WANT to e-vote, despite the ease and efficiancy such a system could provide. I also fear that we won't be able to EVER make an unhackable e-voting system - humans are falable creatures, and with something so obvious a target, there will always be attacks launched against it to expose the inevitable weaknesses, with resulting bad press.
...then again, maybe the public will get used to crackable e-votes. I mean, what, 95% of them run Windows unpatched, right?
Every technological setback may end up as another knife in e-voting's back.
I'm sorry, but this analogy is perfectly legit. It's all still just entertainment. Perhaps some people would perfer to spend their $20 on a DVD that they will watch twice than on a CD that they can listen to over and over. Maybe some people like movies more than music.
Sure, Movies and TV aren't as convenient a medium as music is - it's rather expensive to pick up a laptop just to watch DVDs on the bus ride to work. But on the other hand, I can listen to internet (or even traditional) radio in my cube at work, and then go home and watch my Lord of the Rings.
So is the analogy apt? Sure. It's all a mater of your personal priorities. Don't go flaming up a guy because he'd rather watch a fansubbed anime than listen to the latest in Pop-Rap-Metal.
$5!!! Outrageous! Poor College Students can't afford Ramen anymore these days, and you want them to spend a week's food budget on music??
Seriously, though, CDs would probably cost, well, $5 if the money was going to the people that deserve it , like the Artists, Audiotechs, etc, instead of all those Lawyers sueing said college students...
I'm intrigued. Virtual Folders sound like just the kind of thing that could organize my office - unfortunately, a quick Google search uncovered nothing about setting up Virtual Folders for Files on a Windows PC. Any Slashdotters got some Linkage Love for me? If I find anything, I'll throw it up.
An interesting thing that many have yet to make note of is, quote:
"Information Rights Management (IRM) tools will be included in the professional versions of all Office applications, including the Word processor and Excel spreadsheet programs."
So, this seems to indicate that only Office 2003 Pro will have DRM tools. This means that Joe User with a new Gateway probably won't have DRM doc creation tools in his Office 2003 Standard; the question is, will Joe User with Standard be able to OPEN these docs?
Also, they mention a plug-in for IE that can view the DRM Docs:
"Leach said Microsoft will provide a free plug-in for its Internet Explorer Web browser that will let it display rights-protected Office documents."
So, if you want to send a document to Joe User with his Account Info, he has to open it in IE, and you have to be running a MS Web Server with DRM Authentication?
Perhaps more details on HOW this will all work are needed.
It's good to see that protests can have an effect on issues every now and then. My fear, however, is that even if this is thrown down this time, how long until it comes up again, and how long until it passes into law? In my experience, the decision-makers tend to be Greedy, Stupid, or both. Of course, I live in the US, so...
Actually, Scott McCloud's two jump to mind. "Understanding Comics" and "Reinventing Comics". Both are good, easy reads... since they're both comic book format. Quite entertaining and informative, too. http://scottmccloud.com/
Hmm... I don't know about that, renehollan. While Linus claims he's "just an engineer", I think it's a very political movie to do nothing to stop DRM on Linux. He's inadvertently supporting a user's choice to add DRM when and if they desire it.
;)
He's already stated that it will have to reside outside the kernel, so if a Distro wishes to include packages for DRM control, that is their choice.
It's a bit of a b*tch, but Freedom is the right to choose wrong. I have to agree with Linus just because I support Freedom of Choice, even if I personally feel DRM is eeeee-vil.
Actually, we in Seattle prefer to seperate outselves with those in Redmond, where the aforementioned company resides.
And on topic, yeah, I think Bruce is right on this one - best to take what we can get and work around it, then to shoot ourselves in the foot. There's always time later to fix things fully. It took hundreds of years to build the system we live in today - it'll probably take just as long to fix every flaw with it. But, hey, that's life.
Sure, we all know they are only against these laws because it hurts their bottom line, but I think it proves something that big Business seems to have forgotten:
You CAN make money by giving people products they WANT.
You know, instead of, like, shoving worthless redundant clones down our throats... *cough*moviesandmusic*cough*
Here's my thoughts on User Friendly:
In principle, I love the idea of something being easy to use. When you can pick up a device and be using it fluently with minimal effort, you've got a well-designed device in your hand.
However, it just doesn't always work that way.
People need to look things up in the manual every now and then. Once things start getting to the point where the Product Manufacturers are trying to make your decisions FOR you to keep you from having to learn anything new to solve a problem, well, you create a populace of lazy, dependant users. Too much "User Freindly" leads to an inability to even WANT to try to fix problems yourself. It's something akin to the old addage, "Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish, he will eat for a lifetime." Sure, throw up a Wizard to help me configure my Inet settings - but TELL me what that wizard is doing, so that in the future, I can do it for myself.