Lacking a 4 year education involving OTHER TOPICS that were not job related or of interest, these people never took STATISTICS and therefore do not understand the strong evidence and correlation for college education and earnings power.
Reality is that college educated people were more desirable in the past and it was not merely because of college but ALSO the type of people who would go to college. Now, everybody goes to college and the benefits diminished, it no longer is a filter for an elite class of workers and the metrics provided by the system and the status are not as good as the simple old fashioned classification of having earned degree vs not ever going.
In a MBA-as-religion society: job related skills are more important and making money is all that really matters. You're a fool to get a PhD that was a waste of time and money because less educated people make more money than you. Degrees in sociology etc. should be banned because they are not productive. etc. If Bill Gates sacrificed animals in his backyard you should too because he got rich (there is a whole industry of self-help packages built on similar premises.) Many with such beliefs view college no differently than some get-rich-quick style program and will be the first ones to jump ship and scream "rip off!"
Pension plans are SALARY! Benefits come out from the salary, DUH!! FACT.
Pension plans are a technique for employers to pay LESS salary: they offer a higher net salary than they actually pay. If it helps, think of how the lottery can offer twice the winnings by spreading it out over 30 years using a pension-like fund.
I do not use the fire dept. I gladly pay for it because I MAY need them. I complain about their waste of funds but I also realize that we have minimal fire coverage and any disaster would require outside assistance... So I do not advocate cutting their funding. I know why they hold onto funds when they get them and never want it to go down... I've seen how money is stolen from budgets to play shell games...
The LOUDEST government waste people are usually the biggest problem! This is why we continually elect morons who make things worse and campaign on the complaints about the messes THEY CREATE. Yes, this means the voters get proper representation...that represents them, the moronic public. I'm not being partisan, but in recent years it is quite obvious with one side taking it so extreme that even their supporters notice it but instead of thinking they get emotionally defensive.
Commissioned Studies do not always take the side of the politicians that created them. Those politicians down play or bury studies they don't like; the ones that go their way are promoted. There are bad and good studies and you can find bad scientists to back creationism or smoking too. If their data is openly published one could investigate it... or if they have projections if those come out accurate (thinking of the recent election, where most the mainstream was dead wrong and none lost their jobs.)
Well, I don't think you are worth the time: The difference between deficit and debt is extremely important. If you do not realize this to the point of confusing them...
Government spending is a problem but that whole concept is loaded up with so much propaganda it is not worth addressing. Other factors are every bit as important. We've had a deficit since Bush and a depression and THAT causes a huge decrease in funds - a bigger problem then previous spending levels in social programs. The increases in wasteful spending can be manageable if you have enough revenue. WE PRIMARILY HAVE A REVENUE PROBLEM. The tax cuts created a larger revenue problem, with the same argument (presented differently) that cutting revenue would increase income and that would fix the debt long term if we can just accept a short term debt (decade+? naturally, it never was active long enough to show promise and many think it would never turn around.) This scheme created a bigger debt problem than our spending, both times it was tried. People who claim that the recent debt was achieved by spending are likely misinformed or spewing propaganda because when looking at the numbers the revenue is clearly the biggest factor.
Incorrect, Nintendo was put off schedule because Sony breached their contract on development which had a big impact on the n64. I remember the lawsuit and the outcome many years later, where Nintendo got some money - some of it is even mentioned on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_(console)#Development
I've read the n64 was difficult to program (required a high degree of optimization) admitted by Nintendo's OWN people which is why the gamecube designed to run well without tons of work. On a certain level, the n64 was well designed but on another it was not thinking of development (perhaps this would have been handled or at least a CD would have been included if not for SONY issues.) The PS3 CELL is a marvel and I'm still impressed but few can utilize it or want to. It isn't quite dead yet, but it is becoming common to use programmable GPUs which have been evolving towards CELL. So the CELL concept is winning out in the end so they were too ahead of their time; I still don't say the PS3 is well a designed SYSTEM. The gamecube design is to some degree copied by the other two when they went to IBM to help them design their customized next-gen EXPENSIVE gamecubes.
I have NGC and Wii and I know the differences; great 1st party games (creative too) that are not all racing and shooters at a reasonable PRICE. Classic games are still fun, I didn't need HD back in the 80s-90s to enjoy them and I don't today, I'll keep my $100s of bucks. WTF is it with parents buying their kids such expensive toys these days? guilt for not being around? being divorced? I think Nintendo pushed it but the others are crazy... $250 was the starting price of a system in the past; now it takes 5 years for the others to come down to that and it is viewed as "cheap."
One does have to remember the dollar is a farce and is inflating at high rates which they no longer report (but to be fair most the world is tracking along with it because we are their biggest consumers. ) So regular budget increases are necessary. While parent is generally correct, there is an impact just like a CUT but it is just not as big of a CUT in budget as it sounds. Ask anybody who understands their wage freeze knows it is actually a pay cut!
I want the crazies to drive us "off the cliff" and shutdown the government a few times. Obama needs to show some guts.... Gov shutdowns over budget fights have been going on more since the class war escalated in the 70s (and not coincidentally also the propaganda cover. A core issue in human history, now off limits.) Obama shouldn't fear having the 18-19th shutdown... and this "cliff" isn't as big of a deal but he can't even risk that... The echo chamber is making it a big deal; along with the unconstitutional debt ceiling fight (read the 14th and think how much more of a crisis that was.)
People are comparing apples to oranges. Nintendo is doing the same thing they've always did. Aside from the n64, Nintendo has always had the best designed console system. They do an exceptional job.
PC never was a good comparison, until Steam and scalable 3D engines it was ridiculous to compare. The system costs are quite high, new games often demand a lot.
Xbox and PS3 push hardware generations ahead at a HUGE $$$ loss just below the cost of a PC system. With cheaper PCs and Steam it makes sense to see Steam enter into the market without the high custom hardware dev costs.
Nintendo is always in the same price range (actually, lower if you consider inflation) and does amazingly within those limits. I wouldn't be surprised if the WiiU is slower than an iPhone-- those phones cost more than the WiiU and the GPU is probably the biggest expense.
MS used IE to harm the web, on purpose to protect their monopoly. Their only interest is their monopoly power. I don't care if they woke up and are investing millions to catch back up again and I don't care if IE 11 is the best browser in history.
MS will embrace and extend to attack the web as it threatens their interests; if they ever end up in a dominant position again they will resume the attack.
WYSIWYG is misunderstood and over hyped. It is only practical for editing presentation but for actual EDITING it is like forcing somebody who can run to use crutches!
Wikipedia in recent times is largely edited by frequent users and not newbs. They would be best served if they catered to their primary demographic's needs for a productive EDITOR and then maybe put a little effort onto a WYSIWYG version for newbs later (they could encourage userscripts.org to get involved in developing newb editors.) They can plug-in a newb editor later on, have a contest or something.
Keyboard shortcuts + "cheat sheet" its all javascript; program it open enough and people will write their own bindings.
Wikipedia thankfully lacks the formatting options of WYSIWYG editors and that keeps the site more like an encyclopedia. What could really be used is better quality table editors - I've not met a table editor I liked. If they want to innovate, create nice table and hierarchy content editors for structured text... it could lead to more interesting uses of the information beyond just sorting tables by row. One could specify related topics in a hierarchy - akin to breadcrumbs and that information could be interpreted differently than simply a list of links. Properly defined tables can be intelligently converted for better use/presentation. I don't think their markup goes much beyond presentation only so this would involve some changes. For example, typing in table information is easier done as an shallow outline then converting that into a table than it is to fuss with a table editor or even a spreadsheet (but it depends.) A newb would be confused how a table can go to and from an outline but newbs are slow anyhow and should stick to their mouse driven GUI table editor.
Disney pushed talent away then ended up buying it back. In this case, just like John Carter, they bought the story ideas but are not getting a team of talented people (FX does not make a story.)
Disney has to prove themselves with the purchase and their lousy reputation -- so bad they have to buy out companies like Pixar to produce anything decent... So Disney will spare no expense to bring in famious people and hope they can work together to make something worthwhile with Star Wars or risk turning people off and making less return on investment.
Lucas needed to be out of the prequels. His old notes and some novels should have been enough for some competent writer and director to handle. Lucas is not good enough to touch his previous work. Not to mention how his early work had limitations and less ego which allowed clearly better decisions to be made... When given unlimited total control without question + ego = Ep 1-3 and that embarrassing Indiana Jones.
MOST pedophiles (vast majority) abuse kids of friends or family.
So, a teenager who is "abused" by a relative and was or is friends online with the pervert will then end up profiled and guilty by automated association when the pervert is caught.
This extends to all sorts of things. As people become touchy wimps who tolerate less diversity among their friends (Americans are the worst as far as I know) the expectation that like minded people congregate will become stronger. This start with extremes like perverts and progress towards HR people skipping you over because of characteristics of your friends. You might not put your life open for the planet to judge you but your friends might--- so then you have to police them because they can indirectly harm you by exercising their freedom to be foolish.
Pundits are entertainers they need no skill or brainpower; when they fuck up they just have to be entertaining to keep their job. They are just another form of a reality TV "star" and things have been so bad for so long an airhead pundit type character ran for VP in 2008... and is now with her people, as an airhead pundit.
I know a dittohead and he is a master at rationalization either from being wrong all the time or because his talent allowed him to live in a bubble without knowing it.
Next time you plan to do anything dishonest dress it up in incompetence because pity is better than punishment.
Half the people on/. with the right connections and motives could steal computer-counted elections; the other half would make something so complex that it's bugs would either further disguise them (but give an undesired result) or give their tampering away. Well, a few Hans Reiser types would be easily caught but put in a good effort at a crazy explanation.
My contact had no reason to lie and he was not a techie but was well... ok not much of an expert (management; former chemist.) However, he was told that the hardware they had at that time had mic capability and was being deployed. They didn't figure out what to do with it but if they had, it might have been done without out much cost because the hardware supported it. He took this to mean there was a mic on the thing already, me, I figured it probably had the hardware but lacked the mic itself since that isn't typically installed directly on a circuit board. Somebody designed the ability in there and Comcast had some people trying to utilize all the features if they could; they may have picked that vendor because of a long feature list without really thinking about practicality of the features in the list... wouldn't be the 1st time that happened. Or it could be the maker listed all the hardware specs without saying their firmware doesn't enable them (for marketing more features, that also happens too often.)
Patents for every stupid thing are allowed. They could get the TV gesture ones; or some variation on the existing patents. These days you could just apply another patent to a new medium and patent that. (Nielsen but on digital cable = new patent!) You'd think nobody could patent a process of swinging on a playground swing sideways, but it happened.
I've seen 4 different machines up close when a state official was reviewing them for purchase; I was along working for a 3rd party and went around and used each. All of them were touch screens, none looked like the one in the video. I did this many years ago maybe around 2002 and they were all touch screen back then; one supported audio for use by the blind. Just how old would a machine be if it used a trackball??
The old laws in my state deal with corruption issues of the past and work because those techniques are not a problem today despite advances in technology making old scams more powerful.
We can't MARK ballots incorrectly or they are thrown out and during a recount a panel must review ALL such ballots. The law was created because of a scam where special marks were used to show how YOU voted so you could be compensated or not fired etc. The spirit of such laws is sound and most are broad/vague enough to cover new methods of doing the same old scam.
Ignorant people need to be made aware of why such things were stopped and how they could become a problem again. This is the problem with democracy in that successful solutions continue beyond recollection at which point the citizens are unaware of their benefits and fail to maintain them in the long term. At some point the history education is too burdensome and relying upon appeal to tradition is dangerous which is one of the reasons democracies always fail and history repeats itself.
Recounts are bad enough without having to read write in jokes. Especially when the other side has been told to purposely make life miserable and stall - they'll dispute the thing just to create more work at the next phase.
Comcast was working on this approximately 10 years ago; I knew an insider who was describing it. They had an audio experiment too which he said their cable boxes all had mics and were capable already but they hadn't got anything practical working for it. The other project was more promising and that was a video camera but the purpose was two fold) a) know demographics of viewers for advertizing stats (are they watching the ad?) b) no TV remote - consumers will OK being watched because gestures are cool.
I suspect the project involved contractors and went bust because I've not heard anything about it --- but somebody involved must have patented a bunch of it... Many such things fall apart and when projects die companies should put out enough information so prior art can prevent the concepts from winning a patent lawsuit (that is if the fight ever goes that far.)
You are way behind. But you should patent the idea and sue; just watch them try to use prior art... (only in the supreme court would that work.)
For those who forgot, the story hit the main media at the time but was dismissed because an IT guy was sent to "fix" the problem (which I suspect wouldn't have happened if the race wasn't scrutinized.)
In 2004, a consultant was hired to write testing code which shoved votes to make the result approach 51%. Clearly, things were getting more sophisticated.
Now, a touch screen calibration of a certain sequence could enter in the new approximation target... getting them all wouldn't matter; they could even pre-program them and trigger the bug; a million different things can be done. Even the Chinese hardware could get involved.
Slashdot Mirror
Lacking a 4 year education involving OTHER TOPICS that were not job related or of interest, these people never took STATISTICS and therefore do not understand the strong evidence and correlation for college education and earnings power.
Reality is that college educated people were more desirable in the past and it was not merely because of college but ALSO the type of people who would go to college. Now, everybody goes to college and the benefits diminished, it no longer is a filter for an elite class of workers and the metrics provided by the system and the status are not as good as the simple old fashioned classification of having earned degree vs not ever going.
In a MBA-as-religion society: job related skills are more important and making money is all that really matters. You're a fool to get a PhD that was a waste of time and money because less educated people make more money than you. Degrees in sociology etc. should be banned because they are not productive. etc. If Bill Gates sacrificed animals in his backyard you should too because he got rich (there is a whole industry of self-help packages built on similar premises.) Many with such beliefs view college no differently than some get-rich-quick style program and will be the first ones to jump ship and scream "rip off!"
Pension plans are SALARY! Benefits come out from the salary, DUH!! FACT.
Pension plans are a technique for employers to pay LESS salary: they offer a higher net salary than they actually pay. If it helps, think of how the lottery can offer twice the winnings by spreading it out over 30 years using a pension-like fund.
I do not use the fire dept. I gladly pay for it because I MAY need them. I complain about their waste of funds but I also realize that we have minimal fire coverage and any disaster would require outside assistance... So I do not advocate cutting their funding. I know why they hold onto funds when they get them and never want it to go down... I've seen how money is stolen from budgets to play shell games...
The LOUDEST government waste people are usually the biggest problem! This is why we continually elect morons who make things worse and campaign on the complaints about the messes THEY CREATE. Yes, this means the voters get proper representation...that represents them, the moronic public. I'm not being partisan, but in recent years it is quite obvious with one side taking it so extreme that even their supporters notice it but instead of thinking they get emotionally defensive.
Commissioned Studies do not always take the side of the politicians that created them. Those politicians down play or bury studies they don't like; the ones that go their way are promoted. There are bad and good studies and you can find bad scientists to back creationism or smoking too. If their data is openly published one could investigate it... or if they have projections if those come out accurate (thinking of the recent election, where most the mainstream was dead wrong and none lost their jobs.)
Well, I don't think you are worth the time: The difference between deficit and debt is extremely important. If you do not realize this to the point of confusing them...
Government spending is a problem but that whole concept is loaded up with so much propaganda it is not worth addressing. Other factors are every bit as important. We've had a deficit since Bush and a depression and THAT causes a huge decrease in funds - a bigger problem then previous spending levels in social programs. The increases in wasteful spending can be manageable if you have enough revenue. WE PRIMARILY HAVE A REVENUE PROBLEM. The tax cuts created a larger revenue problem, with the same argument (presented differently) that cutting revenue would increase income and that would fix the debt long term if we can just accept a short term debt (decade+? naturally, it never was active long enough to show promise and many think it would never turn around.) This scheme created a bigger debt problem than our spending, both times it was tried. People who claim that the recent debt was achieved by spending are likely misinformed or spewing propaganda because when looking at the numbers the revenue is clearly the biggest factor.
iPod touch is the price of the Wii U
iPod touch:
MUCH Weaker GPU.
No HD-DVD-like drive.
No SD slot.
Cheap low watt charger.
Has headphone port.
Choose colors! Aluminum.
Better touch screen.
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_touch
Incorrect, Nintendo was put off schedule because Sony breached their contract on development which had a big impact on the n64. I remember the lawsuit and the outcome many years later, where Nintendo got some money - some of it is even mentioned on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_(console)#Development
I've read the n64 was difficult to program (required a high degree of optimization) admitted by Nintendo's OWN people which is why the gamecube designed to run well without tons of work. On a certain level, the n64 was well designed but on another it was not thinking of development (perhaps this would have been handled or at least a CD would have been included if not for SONY issues.) The PS3 CELL is a marvel and I'm still impressed but few can utilize it or want to. It isn't quite dead yet, but it is becoming common to use programmable GPUs which have been evolving towards CELL. So the CELL concept is winning out in the end so they were too ahead of their time; I still don't say the PS3 is well a designed SYSTEM. The gamecube design is to some degree copied by the other two when they went to IBM to help them design their customized next-gen EXPENSIVE gamecubes.
I have NGC and Wii and I know the differences; great 1st party games (creative too) that are not all racing and shooters at a reasonable PRICE. Classic games are still fun, I didn't need HD back in the 80s-90s to enjoy them and I don't today, I'll keep my $100s of bucks. WTF is it with parents buying their kids such expensive toys these days? guilt for not being around? being divorced? I think Nintendo pushed it but the others are crazy... $250 was the starting price of a system in the past; now it takes 5 years for the others to come down to that and it is viewed as "cheap."
One does have to remember the dollar is a farce and is inflating at high rates which they no longer report (but to be fair most the world is tracking along with it because we are their biggest consumers. ) So regular budget increases are necessary. While parent is generally correct, there is an impact just like a CUT but it is just not as big of a CUT in budget as it sounds. Ask anybody who understands their wage freeze knows it is actually a pay cut!
I want the crazies to drive us "off the cliff" and shutdown the government a few times. Obama needs to show some guts.... Gov shutdowns over budget fights have been going on more since the class war escalated in the 70s (and not coincidentally also the propaganda cover. A core issue in human history, now off limits.) Obama shouldn't fear having the 18-19th shutdown... and this "cliff" isn't as big of a deal but he can't even risk that... The echo chamber is making it a big deal; along with the unconstitutional debt ceiling fight (read the 14th and think how much more of a crisis that was.)
People are comparing apples to oranges. Nintendo is doing the same thing they've always did. Aside from the n64, Nintendo has always had the best designed console system. They do an exceptional job.
PC never was a good comparison, until Steam and scalable 3D engines it was ridiculous to compare. The system costs are quite high, new games often demand a lot.
Xbox and PS3 push hardware generations ahead at a HUGE $$$ loss just below the cost of a PC system. With cheaper PCs and Steam it makes sense to see Steam enter into the market without the high custom hardware dev costs.
Nintendo is always in the same price range (actually, lower if you consider inflation) and does amazingly within those limits. I wouldn't be surprised if the WiiU is slower than an iPhone-- those phones cost more than the WiiU and the GPU is probably the biggest expense.
MS used IE to harm the web, on purpose to protect their monopoly. Their only interest is their monopoly power. I don't care if they woke up and are investing millions to catch back up again and I don't care if IE 11 is the best browser in history.
MS will embrace and extend to attack the web as it threatens their interests; if they ever end up in a dominant position again they will resume the attack.
WYSIWYG is misunderstood and over hyped. It is only practical for editing presentation but for actual EDITING it is like forcing somebody who can run to use crutches!
Wikipedia in recent times is largely edited by frequent users and not newbs. They would be best served if they catered to their primary demographic's needs for a productive EDITOR and then maybe put a little effort onto a WYSIWYG version for newbs later (they could encourage userscripts.org to get involved in developing newb editors.) They can plug-in a newb editor later on, have a contest or something.
Keyboard shortcuts + "cheat sheet" its all javascript; program it open enough and people will write their own bindings.
Wikipedia thankfully lacks the formatting options of WYSIWYG editors and that keeps the site more like an encyclopedia. What could really be used is better quality table editors - I've not met a table editor I liked. If they want to innovate, create nice table and hierarchy content editors for structured text... it could lead to more interesting uses of the information beyond just sorting tables by row. One could specify related topics in a hierarchy - akin to breadcrumbs and that information could be interpreted differently than simply a list of links. Properly defined tables can be intelligently converted for better use/presentation. I don't think their markup goes much beyond presentation only so this would involve some changes. For example, typing in table information is easier done as an shallow outline then converting that into a table than it is to fuss with a table editor or even a spreadsheet (but it depends.) A newb would be confused how a table can go to and from an outline but newbs are slow anyhow and should stick to their mouse driven GUI table editor.
Disney pushed talent away then ended up buying it back. In this case, just like John Carter, they bought the story ideas but are not getting a team of talented people (FX does not make a story.)
Disney has to prove themselves with the purchase and their lousy reputation -- so bad they have to buy out companies like Pixar to produce anything decent... So Disney will spare no expense to bring in famious people and hope they can work together to make something worthwhile with Star Wars or risk turning people off and making less return on investment.
Lucas needed to be out of the prequels. His old notes and some novels should have been enough for some competent writer and director to handle. Lucas is not good enough to touch his previous work. Not to mention how his early work had limitations and less ego which allowed clearly better decisions to be made... When given unlimited total control without question + ego = Ep 1-3 and that embarrassing Indiana Jones.
He should have been put in the FBI, where directors can dress like women and other activities...
This looks more like cover for something else.
MOST pedophiles (vast majority) abuse kids of friends or family.
So, a teenager who is "abused" by a relative and was or is friends online with the pervert will then end up profiled and guilty by automated association when the pervert is caught.
This extends to all sorts of things. As people become touchy wimps who tolerate less diversity among their friends (Americans are the worst as far as I know) the expectation that like minded people congregate will become stronger. This start with extremes like perverts and progress towards HR people skipping you over because of characteristics of your friends. You might not put your life open for the planet to judge you but your friends might--- so then you have to police them because they can indirectly harm you by exercising their freedom to be foolish.
Pundits are entertainers they need no skill or brainpower; when they fuck up they just have to be entertaining to keep their job. They are just another form of a reality TV "star" and things have been so bad for so long an airhead pundit type character ran for VP in 2008... and is now with her people, as an airhead pundit.
I know a dittohead and he is a master at rationalization either from being wrong all the time or because his talent allowed him to live in a bubble without knowing it.
Next time you plan to do anything dishonest dress it up in incompetence because pity is better than punishment.
Half the people on /. with the right connections and motives could steal computer-counted elections; the other half would make something so complex that it's bugs would either further disguise them (but give an undesired result) or give their tampering away. Well, a few Hans Reiser types would be easily caught but put in a good effort at a crazy explanation.
My contact had no reason to lie and he was not a techie but was well... ok not much of an expert (management; former chemist.) However, he was told that the hardware they had at that time had mic capability and was being deployed. They didn't figure out what to do with it but if they had, it might have been done without out much cost because the hardware supported it. He took this to mean there was a mic on the thing already, me, I figured it probably had the hardware but lacked the mic itself since that isn't typically installed directly on a circuit board. Somebody designed the ability in there and Comcast had some people trying to utilize all the features if they could; they may have picked that vendor because of a long feature list without really thinking about practicality of the features in the list... wouldn't be the 1st time that happened. Or it could be the maker listed all the hardware specs without saying their firmware doesn't enable them (for marketing more features, that also happens too often.)
Patents for every stupid thing are allowed. They could get the TV gesture ones; or some variation on the existing patents. These days you could just apply another patent to a new medium and patent that. (Nielsen but on digital cable = new patent!) You'd think nobody could patent a process of swinging on a playground swing sideways, but it happened.
I've seen 4 different machines up close when a state official was reviewing them for purchase; I was along working for a 3rd party and went around and used each. All of them were touch screens, none looked like the one in the video. I did this many years ago maybe around 2002 and they were all touch screen back then; one supported audio for use by the blind. Just how old would a machine be if it used a trackball??
The old laws in my state deal with corruption issues of the past and work because those techniques are not a problem today despite advances in technology making old scams more powerful.
We can't MARK ballots incorrectly or they are thrown out and during a recount a panel must review ALL such ballots. The law was created because of a scam where special marks were used to show how YOU voted so you could be compensated or not fired etc. The spirit of such laws is sound and most are broad/vague enough to cover new methods of doing the same old scam.
Ignorant people need to be made aware of why such things were stopped and how they could become a problem again. This is the problem with democracy in that successful solutions continue beyond recollection at which point the citizens are unaware of their benefits and fail to maintain them in the long term. At some point the history education is too burdensome and relying upon appeal to tradition is dangerous which is one of the reasons democracies always fail and history repeats itself.
Recounts are bad enough without having to read write in jokes. Especially when the other side has been told to purposely make life miserable and stall - they'll dispute the thing just to create more work at the next phase.
Comcast was working on this approximately 10 years ago; I knew an insider who was describing it. They had an audio experiment too which he said their cable boxes all had mics and were capable already but they hadn't got anything practical working for it. The other project was more promising and that was a video camera but the purpose was two fold)
a) know demographics of viewers for advertizing stats (are they watching the ad?)
b) no TV remote - consumers will OK being watched because gestures are cool.
I suspect the project involved contractors and went bust because I've not heard anything about it --- but somebody involved must have patented a bunch of it... Many such things fall apart and when projects die companies should put out enough information so prior art can prevent the concepts from winning a patent lawsuit (that is if the fight ever goes that far.)
If you think computer voting works then you do not really understand technology.
You are way behind. But you should patent the idea and sue; just watch them try to use prior art... (only in the supreme court would that work.)
For those who forgot, the story hit the main media at the time but was dismissed because an IT guy was sent to "fix" the problem (which I suspect wouldn't have happened if the race wasn't scrutinized.)
In 2004, a consultant was hired to write testing code which shoved votes to make the result approach 51%. Clearly, things were getting more sophisticated.
Now, a touch screen calibration of a certain sequence could enter in the new approximation target... getting them all wouldn't matter; they could even pre-program them and trigger the bug; a million different things can be done. Even the Chinese hardware could get involved.
An introduction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCvf8E7V1g
Somebody who understands technology, will not ever trust computer voting. period.