although the main issue that is brought up consistently on slashdot is the vulnerability of the system to hackers, i think the more frightening issue is the vulnerability of the election results. From what i can tell, it is unencrypted data just sitting in a table. It can be easily changed by just opening access... now that is the kind of thing that should make diebold go out of business, but it won't.
from the article "the surge is so large that it will arc across the circuit breaker's contacts, defeating its purpose."
From what i can tell, you can only allow so much power to go through circuit breakers, otherwise it could arc across the breaker. With these new superconducting switches, you can push more energy through the grid.
"Allowing larger electricity flows through substations without fear of overpowering the circuit breakers would let power companies move more energy through the grid."
its amazing how much reading an article makes talking about it easier...
Why not just get rid of the whole idea of using the voting booths to tally the votes... let the voting booths print out ballots that can be read in by a computer but also visually verified by a person, and use those to tally the votes. Then, the ballots are anonimous, every person can verify their own ballot, and we don't introduce any new security issues. The main issue with paper ballots, as i understand it, is that tallying the votes was not precise (with hanging chads and the like). The secondary problem with paper ballots is that the user-interface is sometimes a problem (as seen in the FL elections). I think this would solve both problems while allowing for increased tallying speed, allowing for recounts, and not introducing any new security concerns.
oh, and by the way, who in the hell would build a secure scalable system on MS Access? I think that diebold should be put out of business for that alone.
hey, i have worked with SQL Server almost every day for the past 3 years, and while it is easy to use, i would gladly go back to using Oracle in a heartbeat, on windows, unix, linux, whatever... it is just better!
IANAL, but the problem is if you start giving artists a percentage of the profits from downloading AND you are using the cd-shareholders-fair-use loophole, then you are acknowledging that the artist has a right to the copy and make your business model implicitly illegal (unless you set up some kind of different licensing agreement than what is normally given to a cd owner).
the Snapster Exclusives would work, though, b/c you would set up some other kind of licensing agreement with the artist, and not rely on the fair-use argument...
but it is considered fair use to lend a friend a cd?? what is the difference between lending someone a cd and letting them download an mp3 in a p2p?? Is there a logical difference? What about playing a CD at a party, is that illegally distributing copyrighted material? Will i soon have to purchase a license for each person at my party when i want to play a song?? watch a movie?? play a video game?? Just because you have a song available for download in a p2p network does not necessarily mean that you are distributing copyrighted materials, does it?? When VCRs and tapes first became available, this exact fight went on, and guess what... it is now considered fair use to make a tape from a cd or movie.
1.) no power conversion is ever 100% efficient, you would lose much of the electricty when converting to hydrogen.
2.) there is still no acceptably safe way to transport hydrogen. sure, people are working on storing it within heavy metals, etc, but that is not even close to a commercial reality yet...
it seems like a lot of slashdot readers don't realize some major things...so here's a reality check.
1. the tech boom gave a lot of under-qualified people complex jobs with high salaries (my friends in IT who were smart still have great jobs and competitive salaries, those that weren't don't have jobs anymore or switched fields).
2. this over-paying under-qualified people led to a shortage of real talent, hyper-inflated salaries for the really talented, and crappy productivity.
the market is balancing itself.
there will always be a need for creative and innovative software/web/etc development, and that is not the kind of thing that gets shipped overseas... the kind of thing that goes overseas is large corporate projects spec'ed out down to the last member declaration, and honestly that is not the kind of thing i think US developers should work on building anyways, we should be architecting the system and sending it off, our time is more valuable
this is the same business model that gaming systems have used for years.
it makes perfect sense for video games...
the hardware is expensive, but if you can sell it for cheaper you can triple or quadruple your game sales revenue...
don't think this is some new business strategy that MS through the years, this is standard practice, and it works for gaming systems (otherwise all of the gaming companies would be out of business by now)
it might not make sense for printers, but i'm not sure that i agree with your comment about the ink cartridges, b/c why couldn't you buy generic cartridges and circumvent giving the manufacturer any money back????
Slashdot Mirror
i'm not sure that a mult-function iPod is a "super-product." It is a portable media device, to play digital media (movies and music)
that is a pretty specialized device.
If they added palm-like functionality and cell-phone compatibility, etc... then it might be a "super-product."
although the main issue that is brought up consistently on slashdot is the vulnerability of the system to hackers, i think the more frightening issue is the vulnerability of the election results. From what i can tell, it is unencrypted data just sitting in a table. It can be easily changed by just opening access... now that is the kind of thing that should make diebold go out of business, but it won't.
i think 5-10% might be a little high...
Georgia has about 8.5 million people. [http://www.areaconnect.com/population.htm?s=GA]
Do you really think that there are 850,000 capable of cracking a system like this in Georgia?????
well, if you would just RTFA.
from the article "the surge is so large that it will arc across the circuit breaker's contacts, defeating its purpose."
From what i can tell, you can only allow so much power to go through circuit breakers, otherwise it could arc across the breaker. With these new superconducting switches, you can push more energy through the grid.
"Allowing larger electricity flows through substations without fear of overpowering the circuit breakers would let power companies move more energy through the grid."
its amazing how much reading an article makes talking about it easier...
Why not just get rid of the whole idea of using the voting booths to tally the votes... let the voting booths print out ballots that can be read in by a computer but also visually verified by a person, and use those to tally the votes. Then, the ballots are anonimous, every person can verify their own ballot, and we don't introduce any new security issues. The main issue with paper ballots, as i understand it, is that tallying the votes was not precise (with hanging chads and the like). The secondary problem with paper ballots is that the user-interface is sometimes a problem (as seen in the FL elections). I think this would solve both problems while allowing for increased tallying speed, allowing for recounts, and not introducing any new security concerns.
oh, and by the way, who in the hell would build a secure scalable system on MS Access? I think that diebold should be put out of business for that alone.
hey, i have worked with SQL Server almost every day for the past 3 years, and while it is easy to use, i would gladly go back to using Oracle in a heartbeat, on windows, unix, linux, whatever... it is just better!
because microsoft is so innovative??
pr0n?
good call dude.
IANAL, but the problem is if you start giving artists a percentage of the profits from downloading AND you are using the cd-shareholders-fair-use loophole, then you are acknowledging that the artist has a right to the copy and make your business model implicitly illegal (unless you set up some kind of different licensing agreement than what is normally given to a cd owner).
the Snapster Exclusives would work, though, b/c you would set up some other kind of licensing agreement with the artist, and not rely on the fair-use argument...
but it is considered fair use to lend a friend a cd?? what is the difference between lending someone a cd and letting them download an mp3 in a p2p?? Is there a logical difference? What about playing a CD at a party, is that illegally distributing copyrighted material? Will i soon have to purchase a license for each person at my party when i want to play a song?? watch a movie?? play a video game?? Just because you have a song available for download in a p2p network does not necessarily mean that you are distributing copyrighted materials, does it?? When VCRs and tapes first became available, this exact fight went on, and guess what... it is now considered fair use to make a tape from a cd or movie.
two things.
1.) no power conversion is ever 100% efficient, you would lose much of the electricty when converting to hydrogen.
2.) there is still no acceptably safe way to transport hydrogen. sure, people are working on storing it within heavy metals, etc, but that is not even close to a commercial reality yet...
you must not be american either, its conversating, not conversing in modern english (at least thats what mtv says)
right on!
aww, maybe next time.
:(
guess i'm too slow...
Finally, my first first post!
it seems like a lot of slashdot readers don't realize some major things...so here's a reality check.
1. the tech boom gave a lot of under-qualified people complex jobs with high salaries (my friends in IT who were smart still have great jobs and competitive salaries, those that weren't don't have jobs anymore or switched fields).
2. this over-paying under-qualified people led to a shortage of real talent, hyper-inflated salaries for the really talented, and crappy productivity.
the market is balancing itself.
there will always be a need for creative and innovative software/web/etc development, and that is not the kind of thing that gets shipped overseas... the kind of thing that goes overseas is large corporate projects spec'ed out down to the last member declaration, and honestly that is not the kind of thing i think US developers should work on building anyways, we should be architecting the system and sending it off, our time is more valuable
are you kidding?
this is the same business model that gaming systems have used for years.
it makes perfect sense for video games...
the hardware is expensive, but if you can sell it for cheaper you can triple or quadruple your game sales revenue...
don't think this is some new business strategy that MS through the years, this is standard practice, and it works for gaming systems (otherwise all of the gaming companies would be out of business by now)
it might not make sense for printers, but i'm not sure that i agree with your comment about the ink cartridges, b/c why couldn't you buy generic cartridges and circumvent giving the manufacturer any money back????
this is so stupid.
by definition, Correct & Proper is always the way to go.
Thats what "Correct & Proper" means.
Quick & Dirty == HACK
are you just trying to get a rise out of people, or what??
grow a brain.