The article says the vest "can stop a 9mm bullet traveling at 1777 feet per second."
1777fps is very fast for a typical 9mm load. You'd have to use a very light bullet with a large charge to push it that fast. Even the hot 9mm+P Corbon loads only get about 1500fps out of a 90 grain bullet.
This sounds a little suspicious to me. The 9mm cartridges I shoot range from around 1190fps for a 115 grain bullet to about 1120 for the 124 grain bullet.
This is true. Planetside, like the Tribes/Tribes2 games, are a bit more complex than most FPSes. Plan on spending some time in the VR training, and asking questions. Many outfit leaders are looking to swell their ranks and bringing in someone new who is willing to learn can be a great thing.
Personally, compared to the other MMO games I've tried, I like the way Planetside is set up. I am not worried about reaching Level 60 so I can get epic weapons and gear, I don't need to grind away before being able to use a B-wing, and I'm not outclassed by players a few levels higher than I am.
Does veteran experience make you a better fighter. Yes, but are you invincible? Certainly not. For those who learn the game, they can get a lot out of it.
It's amazing how many people around here take the idea that a paper trail is a non-negotiable requirement for voting. It's true that some systems produce a chit during the vote process (butterfly ballot or scan-tron ballot for example) but many systems don't provide any type of physical chit representing a ballot.
Some of you may have remembered the mechanical vote counting machines, the one where you stand in a curtained area and drop levers against a candidate's name. When finished, you physically throw a larger lever to advance the counters and reset the machine for the next voter. They never produced a chit recording your preferences onto a ballot.
Moreover, I can remember being confused standing in one of those mechanical machines. I spent time carefully reading the instructions because I was not clear on which switch to drop for my candidate, the one in the row above the printed name or the one below.
The point is that there is no foolproof method of voting. Even with written ballots, there is the threat (not so much in the USA, but not ouside the realm of possibility) of ballots being "misplaced" or destroyed intentionally. Or a bunch of ballots turning up when you least expect them.
The new electronic voting machines are here to stay for the most part. One reason driving the push to electronic machines is the recent Federal law passed after the 2000 election that stipulates new accessibility guidelines for voting machines. Now they have to be accessible to the disabled, but they also have the means to provide an audio ballot or large-type ballot to voters with special needs, typically visual impairment.
I work as an Election Officer for Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. Last election in 2002 we had our first rollout of the WinVote voting machines.
Did some people have a problem? Yes. I distinctly remember one older gentleman who became so fustrated that he left the premises and instructed us to cancel his ballot. On the other hand, I saw octogenerians use the machine with no problems and even remark that it was "neat". For those elderly or disabled, we were able to physically move the machine to them, either in the car where they could vote "curbside" as provided by law or directly to their wheelchair or bench if they had a problem standing.
While there will be growing pains with any new voting system used, it is a temporary condition. The solution I've found for making the act of voting go smoothly really comes down to making sure the election officers get proper training on the equipment, have well documented procedures for handling any contingencies and have the good people skills to make the voter feel at ease and help them through the process.
A previous poster mentioned that the majority of poll workers are older Americans, and I've found that to be true. If you really want to help make sure the system works well, then you should volunteer to work in the polls. With the technical savvy that/. users have, I'm sure many county governments would jump at the chance to have fresh faces working the polls, especially those who have a comfort-factor with regard to technology, and don't mind helping people.
But posting here and whining about the evils of electronic voting or putting forth tinfoil-hat-black-helicopter conspiracy theories about how Diebold and the Bush Administration will be "stealing" the elction doesn't solve the problem.
Whether you work the polling place, represent your party as a designated poll watcher, or stand outside and champion your candidate, good citizenship and a sense of civic duty/responsibilty are necessary for our Republic to remain healthy.
As an election officer for Fairfax County, Virginia, this sounds much more like a training issue than a problem with the machines.
I can't speak for Orange County, but in Fairfax County we have fairly a sophisticated training program that allows our officers to have time with the machine.
We learn to set it up, activate the machine, give voters access, close the polls, and generate the final results.
I don't know about Orange County's machines, but ours are preprogrammed with all the ballots for the precincts and the initialization of the machine with our precinct location smartcard determines that we have the correct ballot.
Our instructions even instruct us to check the ballot against what we were given in our kits to verify that the machine is correct.
It's possible if these machine work in similar fashion that the Orange County Registrar sent out the wrong precinct location cards, and that resulted in the numbers getting skewed.
In all honesty, any voting machine will work properly, but training deficiencies are where the problems arise. You don't need a paper trail, you don't need old fashioned paper ballots, but you do need poll workers that have been trained and familiarized with the equipment and contingencies for when things go wrong.
Fairfax County has been working without a paper trail for years now. Our old Shouptronic 1242 machines recorded the results in a large memory cartridge and only printed out a final tape at the end of polling.
Even the old lever action mechnical machines didn't create a paper trail. I think many in the slashdot crowd are a little deluded in thinking that a paper chit will solve all of voter ills.
In Flordia, one report I read pointed out that the chad trays filled up and prevented the punch from fully extending through the machine. Emptying the chad tray would have solved the issue. But that goes back to training for the poll workers and election officers.
But this last election was only a primary, and as such was a good testing area for the general election coming up. Most jurisdictions know what is at stake, and I'm positive they will be ironing out procedural bugs which will be the correct way to solve the issue.
But regardless, everyone needs to realize that there are always going to be a percentage of spoiled ballots in any system, whether it's written, circle filled, butterfly or electronic. Yes, you can minimize the chance, but in the end it comes down to how your set up your methods and procedures.
But as I can personally attest, I've seen people successfuly use and have trouble with the touch screen voting systems, and it doesn't matter if you 18 or 80. Some people get it, some will be confused. Training and procedures are what get you over that hurdle.
I've been working as a Chief Election Officer since 2001 in Fairfax County and I have worked a precinct with the new electronic voting machines as of last November.
The new machines take some getting used to but they do have their advantages.
The machines we use are WinVote machines. I can't remember the manufacturer but it is not Diebold. While I can't speak for other states and counties where voting takes place, I can speak for Fairfax county's methods.
There are a number of checks and verifications that take place before the polls open in the morning with the machines that we receive. We first have to verify that the correct machines have been sent to our princinct, as they all have serial numbers on them. The use of metal sealing bands with an imprinted number on them guarantee that we have received the voting units intact, and without tampering.
We have two types of smart cards that are used for voting. Two precinct smart cards are kept by the Chief and Assitant Chief of the princinct. Session smart cards are assigned to the precinct, one for each machine we're issued.
These smart cards are programed to only function for the election held on that particular day. Also, once the machines are initialized by the precinct smart card, the machine goes through a configuration that certifies it to our precinct and loads the appropriate ballot.
The machines are touch screen accessible, and use a form of embedded Windows XP. There is the ability to present ballots in large type for the visually impaired, as well as an audio ballot (where the computer instructs you to touch one of the four corners to make selections) for the hearing impaired. The entire unit has a battery backup like a notebook and can be detached to assist elderly and the disabled by bringing the machine to them, allowing us to satisify our mandate to provide curbside voting.
Internally, the machines have an access cover that requires a key to protect the sensitive areas of the voting unit. There is a thermal printer, which records the machine stats at the start of the day: a protected counter that shows how many votes the machine has cast in its lifetime, a session counter that identifies the number of votes on that machine for that polling session (0 at the start of the day), and the current memory counts for every candidate or issue (also 0 at the start of the day). A USB flash disk also is connected which actually stores the data. It is protected by a seal that must physically be cut before removal.
One interesting thing I learned is that when the polls are opening, the units switch on a wi-fi connection to communicate with each other. One machine is designated the master, and the others become slaves. We set which machines we have been assigned and that is set in memory until the polls close. I asked the question about security issues but was assured that the wireless link only activates for a short time when opening or closing polls and is deactivated the rest of the time.
If a voter is ready to vote, one of our Election Officers will use a session card to activate one instance of voting (a ballot). We not only instruct the voter, stand by the machine and answer any questions, but the county was nice enough to provice a video tape that loops so that people when they come in can see directly a demonstration of how the machines work.
If someone would like to start over, or decides they require the large type ballot, the session card can be used to cancel the current ballot. In this case protected and session counters do not advance.
We had one case last election day where a guy got fed up and left in disgust with the system, and we asked him if he would like to restart the ballot process. He declined and asserted that he wanted his ballot cancelled, which we did, as is his right.
Some success stories are that a few senior citizens, probably in their 80s, tried the new machines and actually were very pleased at these new "high-tech contraption
It may cause problems in other ways. I believe that one method that vending machine bill readers use to verify authenticity and denomination of an inserted bill is by reading the magnetic ink signature of the bill. If you wipe that, the bill may be come unusable in bill reader mechanisms.
Other methods include conductivity testing and optical and flourescent recognition.
This link describes some of the methods that modern bill readers may use to authenticate paper money:
I've actually had a similar discussion with a friend regarding the junk that gets packed into cell phones these days.
My take is that the phones are being marketed toward the wrong audience, generally speaking.
In Europe and Asian countries, the per capita use of public transportation is much higher than the usage in the United States. So it makes more sense to pack features into phones that will help the average person in those countries stay in touch or be entertained -- while making money for the service provider.
Since the United States has a much higher per capita use of private transportation (cars) it makes more sense for a company to offer more talk time, as playing games and sending IMs to friends is problematic while driving.
If a wireless company in the USA offered a $30 service plan that included 500 anytime minutes, nights and weekends free starting at 7pm and long distance included, with a basic phone that performed those functions, I think they would make a killing. Add the industry standard voicemail and caller ID and you'll be set.
Right now, I'm on SprintPCS and have a $29.99 plan with 300 minutes anytime, long distance, and nights and weekends free starting at 9pm along with the usual voicemail and caller ID. Not bad, but I'd upgrade in a minute (no pun intended) if a company offered a basic package similar to the one I described.
Funding is not the solution to the education crisis in the United States. There is already plenty of money being thrown at the problem.
The real problem is the layers of bureaucracy that the money has to filter through and the inane regulations that suppress out-of-the-box thinking and innovative solutions to educational problems.
The way you fix that is to completely divest the Federal Government from the education business. Dissolve the Department of Education, and reduce the taxes collected on the people at the federal level. That means dramatic reductions in income and payroll taxes.
The States would then have the ability to create and administrate an education system tailored to the specific needs of their socio-economic geography. And the liberated tax revenue of their citizens can be tapped to solve their issues.
You wouldn't need to set particular academic standards because private interests will rate the performance of states against each other, much like J.D. Power and Associates or Consumer Reports and other auditing firms compare companies and product lines.
The result is that the States will be forced to innovate to compete with fellow states, the the educational effectiveness of their programs will entice businesses and people to relocate.
This approach could be used for health care, education, welfare, social security, and pretty much anything that the federal government has a habit of screwing up.
Let the states compete for tax base, and let them have the responsibility and the authority to act.
Land mines are a highly effective defensive tool. They delay enemy forces, and allow the defender to canalize enemy within well defended areas.
The United States militery, upon laying a mine field, properly marks and maps the location of each mine. When a field needs to be decommissioned, we can go back and recover all of the munitions.
Other countries do not properly mark minefields (Soviet Union in Afganistan for example) or decommission them when hostilites are ended.
Also, the Constitution of the United States will not technically allow us to sign a treaty that weakens the ability of us to defend ourselves if needed. This is why we withdrew from the obsolete ABM treaty with the non-existant Soviet Union.
The restrictions against building an missile defense system cannot remain when set against our law that requires our number one priority to be the defense of the United States.
The stories you hear of children and adults being maimed or killed by land mines are tragic, I agree, and I'd be supportive of eliminating the export/sale of landmines from the US, but most of the issue isn't with US minefields.
Not to mention the fact that many of the signatories to this "treaty" will break their word as soon as it is in their interest to do so. Nor does it stop certain countries that have signed up from selling munitions (France, etc.)
Let me get this straight. The British Empire, known in history to have forcibly assimilated cultures in the ambition to be the largest colonial empire, robbing them of their wealth and dignity, impressing them into service and ruling with an iron fist.
Bill Gates, head of the Microsoft empire, known in modern history for assimilating the intellectual work of others, hijacking independent development and ambitiously expanding to control the technology industry with an iron fist.
I can see why the Monarchy holds Mr. G in such high regard.
I had more fun with the basic themed sets (although I never had any castle sets, just town and space) because there were enough generic pieces that you could be really creative.
The merchandise tie-ins and specialty sets really tarnished the company's sterling reputation for making simple toys that really inspired kids to create.
The sad commentary on our time is that given a choice, kids today would rather have a video game than a Lego set.
Lego should go back to basics...perhaps reissue old but favorite sets for those who wish to recapture the past.
I still remember the little spaceship my parents bought me when we visited Legoland in Denmark. As I recall it was set number 918: Space Transport. I still have the 4x1 bricks that have "LL 918" printed on the side.
I have worked for several years running elections as a Chief Election Officer for Fairfax County, VA. There are occasions where the number of people processed into the voting queue is greater than the votes tallied on the machines.
In my precincts over the years, it didn't happen but once, but we are advised that it is well within the voter's rights to register a no-vote for a particular race, or even to not vote at all. This is called "undervoting" by those who help administrate elections.
Now in our last election we switched to touch-screen voting and for the most part things went well. There were a few cases where people were intimidated by the technology, or downright nasty about the process (many suburban folks are quite impatient about their routine changing). One person even got fed up and left, which was unfortunate but was his right. I won't say the technology is perfect, but then there is no requirement for a perfect election, just one that is run to the best abilites of those involved.
In contrast, two gentlemen in their 80s I can guess were enamored by the technology. They both had a physical disability that made it difficult to walk quickly (one had lost part of his foot and the other could walk but extremely slowly). They really were grateful and impressed that I could physically bring the voting machine to them. Those experiences really made my day.
I see a lot of skeptcism on/. with regard to electronic voting, and I'm sure some of that is earned by the way the public has been informed about the technology. I, personally, liked our old Shouptronic 1242 systems. They didn't produce a chit or receipt either and no one complained. In fact, the reviled butterfly ballot is no more error prone than electronic voting, and unfamiliarity with the system can even make electronic touch screen systems more prone to errors until people become familiar with their design and methods.
I think people need to take a step back and take a deep breath. No system of voting is perfect but we try to do the best we can. If you are so concerned about ensuring people's right to vote, then you should consider signing up with your local Office of Elections to work the polling place. When you spend time operating the machines, and talking and guiding voters through the process, you realize that most people are capable of learning the technology, and many of the complainers are those who perpetually live with a bad attitude.
I got to use a Tenba case for a while when I was issued a laptop. I was very impressed with the quality and designmanship of the case. Their website is a little clunky, but I'd recommend their c416 Tenba Computer Traveller.
They have a history of making high quality cases for transporting professional camera equipment in the field, so they know a thing or two about protecting sensitive equipment.
I had the chance to have dinner with someone in the satellite industry. His take was that Sirius had an edge over XM in technology. Additionally, the polar orbits of Sirius satellites are much higher than XM's geostationary birds and are less suceptable to being blocked by terrain features which certain areas of the country have in abundance.
I have actually listened to XM though (it was on an Avis rental car) and the sound quality I think suffered from the radio itself. As for content, I can't say I was really impressed. XM had some interesting channels, but the majority I wouldn't listen to.
I'm a big music and talk radio buff -- I listen at least 24-34 hours per week -- but I didn't see myself really taking advantage of XM. I'm planning on taking a good look at Sirius to see what they have to offer though. Especially since many of the/. people seem to favor that service over XM.
When I go on road trips though, it's sometimes nice to pick up a local host just to get a flavor of the region I'm in. But something like Sirius would really increase my choice of selections, which isn't a bad thing at all. It beats listening to an hour of the weather band.
What I'm waiting for is a car radio that has built into it's circuitry the ability to tune to AM, FM, Satellite Radio, TV, Weather Band, Shortwave, CB, and police/fire/ambulance and aviation bands.
On long trips, it will be nice to browse *all* the airwaves. Of course I'll need about 100 presets.
...and not to be out done, North Korean President Kim Jong Il has asserted that his country can compete with the decadent capitalist South by establishing the Socialist Communication Organization (SCO) to provide tin cans and string to 1 out of every 100 loyal members to the party.
They use a very modern form of packaging. A small white box with a little wire handle and some nice red printing on the side. Oh and you get one rice and fortune cookie with your order of General SCOs Chicken.
It looks great compared to that yo-yo with a stick Segway.
At least it comes across as something that you'd see in anime, although the anime version would probably have heat seeking mini-missiles and could transform into a jet pack.
I have to agree completely. When DVDs first came out I had to scratch my head on the reason why they didn't enclose them in caddies as part of the packaging.
Considering how many DVD rentals are scratched or scuffed when you rent them from the local Blockbuster/Hollywood/Mom-n-Pop I can't imagine why they didn't go for this design choice.
You could still have used recordable DVDs that were inserted in a caddy, but the store bought would would come in a sealed caddy. Seems like that's a better way to protect a 20-30 dollar investment in a movie from the natural wear and tear of being used.
I recently attended a training class for the new WinVote machines from Advanced Votin Solutions we're using to replace our obsolete Shouptronic 1242 machines in Fairfax County, VA.
This next election in November will be the first test of these machines (it's an off-year unexciting election so turnout will be low).
I was a little concerned when the WindowsXP screen showed up after booting this device, and even more concerned that these machines communicate among each other using Wi-Fi (802.11b).
I would prefer any company producing voting machines would release their specification to the public for review so that everyone can be assured of the security of their methods. I think a case might be made to require the opening of standards when it comes to the public interest -- the trustability of the voting process.
Current numbers I've seen in the news seem to indicate that punch-card, optical counting and the new touch screen ballots have comparable error rates of around 2%-3% and that no method is inherantly unfair.
The only argument for upgrading the machines then is to provide better accessability for handicapped voters. In my county's case, we don't have to bring a special paper ballot to meet our legal obligation to allow voting for mobility-impaired voters (curbside voting). Now we can bring the entire machine to them. New options for the visually impaired include audio ballots and that's a big improvement.
This talk by some in the media and in the current ACLU case in California about the high error rates in punch card systems is pretty much unfounded. The Flordia 2000 debacle was blown out of proportion by a desperate Democrat party. Pretty much every newspaper/organization that has conducted independent review of the ballots has concurred with the final result. My opinion is that punch cards are not any more inaccurate than other voting methods.
Fairfax County Voting Machine Vendor: http://clients.enfocom.com/avs/products_w invote.ht ml
Pretty soon your company will have subsidized corporate uniforms. IT gurus will of course get more well known advertisers and will have NASCAR like uniforms and sticker studded PCs.
-Crolis
It's getting harder to find well written science-fiction (or at the very least entertaining science-fiction) on network TV these days. It seems that the same tired cookie-cutter sitcoms (produced by clones of the same three writers) or cheap reality shows dominate the airwaves. One network has a crime or medical drama, we see it in tripicate on different networks.
Looking back about 20 years, science fiction actually had a chance in network prime time. Some shows were a bit silly, but they did have a following (Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Greatest American Hero, V and V:The Final Battle mini-series).
These days any science-fiction is either dumped into the death-slot (9pm on Friday -- they must think geeks have no social life) or are under-publicized, preempted or shuffled around to the point that no one knows when they're airing anymore.
I feel bad for the current TV generation. They have no idea what they are missing. For that matter afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons are a in a similar predicament -- a wasteland.
A competent teacher can teach give a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a textbook and an eraser. Money for education should be used to support a highly trained teacher profession who has excellent grasp of the subject matter to be taught.
Most primary and elementary school students need to be educated in the basics before they are able to tackle the literate medium of the Internet.
We used to produce many engineers and scientists and put men on the moon when we weren't falling into this PC trendy educational experiement. I seem to recall that those scientists and engineers did well with the phonics, sentence diagramming, and long division worked out on paper, not a calculator.
The reason why our kids can't read and perform math without a calculator is that the modern educational system hand-holds them through the things that they need to learn.
I believe that the generation of a physical chit representing a vote is something that introduces irregularities into the process. That's what we saw in Florida in 2000 when all these punch cards were being hauled around the state and counted.
The existance of a physical chit for each vote coupled with human error or malice could result in misplaced, sabotaged, improperly counted or machine mangled ballots.
In Fairfax County, VA, our old system never produced a chit for each vote, but recorded a tally on a machine with a good track record. Were there errors? Yeah, there is no perfect system (count discrepancies, people pressing the commit button before they make all choices, etc.) but recording electronically along with certification at the precinct level rather than the county level really helps to reduce errors.
-Crolis
I have worked as an Chief Election Officer for the past several years and have a few thoughts on our transistion to the new machines.
For those who don't vote in Fairfax county, the machines we have been using in most precincts is the Shouptronic 1242, which was phased out last recently due to new voting regulations that stipulated minimum accessibility requirements (for the visually impaired) that the Shouptronic couldn't meet as well as maintenance issues for the aging machines.
I am certainly wary of the new machines we have coming down for the next election in November, which use the WinVote software and appear physically as large laptops.
The initial checking in of voters won't change the next time around. They will still have to state their name and current address, be assigned a number (for counting purposes, not associative purposes) and be issued a colored state sealed "machine enterance index card" which is relinquished to the officer supervising the machines themselves before they are allowed access to the machine.
The new machines use a phone line (modem) to remit results to the registrar and are portable enough to allow us to physically move the machine to the curb to assist physically-challenged voters (curbside voting law).
The number of conditional paper ballots we'll have to use will be lessened -- a good thing and I see that for the most part it will help in accuracy.
I see problems in a couple of areas however. Most people vote maybe once every one or two years, so their familiarity with the machines wanes over time. Completely change the machine and there will be a lot of people with a bunch of questions and uncertainty, which will initially present an appearance of confusion (and may be enough to get some lawyers on the case if they see an opportinuity). Secondly, with untested technology, it will be difficult to gauge the number of problems with the machine -- misaligned touch screens, software crashes, static discharge, space aliens, seasoned citizens, ingenious fools, etc.
In a month or two I'm going to be going back for training on the new equipment. I also believe for those citizens voting in Fairfax county, the Government Center has a sample machine available for those who want to become familiar with it.
A system for securly transmitting certified results to the county should work well, but I am really concerned with any kind of Internet voting. That's where I believe the greatest potential for fraud exists.
-Crolis
P.S. I got a heck of a lot of comments after 2000, since my first name is "Chad".:)
Slashdot Mirror
The article says the vest "can stop a 9mm bullet traveling at 1777 feet per second."
1777fps is very fast for a typical 9mm load. You'd have to use a very light bullet with a large charge to push it that fast. Even the hot 9mm+P Corbon loads only get about 1500fps out of a 90 grain bullet.
This sounds a little suspicious to me. The 9mm cartridges I shoot range from around 1190fps for a 115 grain bullet to about 1120 for the 124 grain bullet.
This is true. Planetside, like the Tribes/Tribes2 games, are a bit more complex than most FPSes. Plan on spending some time in the VR training, and asking questions. Many outfit leaders are looking to swell their ranks and bringing in someone new who is willing to learn can be a great thing.
Personally, compared to the other MMO games I've tried, I like the way Planetside is set up. I am not worried about reaching Level 60 so I can get epic weapons and gear, I don't need to grind away before being able to use a B-wing, and I'm not outclassed by players a few levels higher than I am.
Does veteran experience make you a better fighter. Yes, but are you invincible? Certainly not. For those who learn the game, they can get a lot out of it.
It's amazing how many people around here take the idea that a paper trail is a non-negotiable requirement for voting. It's true that some systems produce a chit during the vote process (butterfly ballot or scan-tron ballot for example) but many systems don't provide any type of physical chit representing a ballot.
/. users have, I'm sure many county governments would jump at the chance to have fresh faces working the polls, especially those who have a comfort-factor with regard to technology, and don't mind helping people.
Some of you may have remembered the mechanical vote counting machines, the one where you stand in a curtained area and drop levers against a candidate's name. When finished, you physically throw a larger lever to advance the counters and reset the machine for the next voter. They never produced a chit recording your preferences onto a ballot.
Moreover, I can remember being confused standing in one of those mechanical machines. I spent time carefully reading the instructions because I was not clear on which switch to drop for my candidate, the one in the row above the printed name or the one below.
The point is that there is no foolproof method of voting. Even with written ballots, there is the threat (not so much in the USA, but not ouside the realm of possibility) of ballots being "misplaced" or destroyed intentionally. Or a bunch of ballots turning up when you least expect them.
The new electronic voting machines are here to stay for the most part. One reason driving the push to electronic machines is the recent Federal law passed after the 2000 election that stipulates new accessibility guidelines for voting machines. Now they have to be accessible to the disabled, but they also have the means to provide an audio ballot or large-type ballot to voters with special needs, typically visual impairment.
I work as an Election Officer for Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. Last election in 2002 we had our first rollout of the WinVote voting machines.
Did some people have a problem? Yes. I distinctly remember one older gentleman who became so fustrated that he left the premises and instructed us to cancel his ballot. On the other hand, I saw octogenerians use the machine with no problems and even remark that it was "neat". For those elderly or disabled, we were able to physically move the machine to them, either in the car where they could vote "curbside" as provided by law or directly to their wheelchair or bench if they had a problem standing.
While there will be growing pains with any new voting system used, it is a temporary condition. The solution I've found for making the act of voting go smoothly really comes down to making sure the election officers get proper training on the equipment, have well documented procedures for handling any contingencies and have the good people skills to make the voter feel at ease and help them through the process.
A previous poster mentioned that the majority of poll workers are older Americans, and I've found that to be true. If you really want to help make sure the system works well, then you should volunteer to work in the polls. With the technical savvy that
But posting here and whining about the evils of electronic voting or putting forth tinfoil-hat-black-helicopter conspiracy theories about how Diebold and the Bush Administration will be "stealing" the elction doesn't solve the problem.
Whether you work the polling place, represent your party as a designated poll watcher, or stand outside and champion your candidate, good citizenship and a sense of civic duty/responsibilty are necessary for our Republic to remain healthy.
-Crolis
As an election officer for Fairfax County, Virginia, this sounds much more like a training issue than a problem with the machines.
I can't speak for Orange County, but in Fairfax County we have fairly a sophisticated training program that allows our officers to have time with the machine.
We learn to set it up, activate the machine, give voters access, close the polls, and generate the final results.
I don't know about Orange County's machines, but ours are preprogrammed with all the ballots for the precincts and the initialization of the machine with our precinct location smartcard determines that we have the correct ballot.
Our instructions even instruct us to check the ballot against what we were given in our kits to verify that the machine is correct.
It's possible if these machine work in similar fashion that the Orange County Registrar sent out the wrong precinct location cards, and that resulted in the numbers getting skewed.
In all honesty, any voting machine will work properly, but training deficiencies are where the problems arise. You don't need a paper trail, you don't need old fashioned paper ballots, but you do need poll workers that have been trained and familiarized with the equipment and contingencies for when things go wrong.
Fairfax County has been working without a paper trail for years now. Our old Shouptronic 1242 machines recorded the results in a large memory cartridge and only printed out a final tape at the end of polling.
Even the old lever action mechnical machines didn't create a paper trail. I think many in the slashdot crowd are a little deluded in thinking that a paper chit will solve all of voter ills.
In Flordia, one report I read pointed out that the chad trays filled up and prevented the punch from fully extending through the machine. Emptying the chad tray would have solved the issue. But that goes back to training for the poll workers and election officers.
But this last election was only a primary, and as such was a good testing area for the general election coming up. Most jurisdictions know what is at stake, and I'm positive they will be ironing out procedural bugs which will be the correct way to solve the issue.
But regardless, everyone needs to realize that there are always going to be a percentage of spoiled ballots in any system, whether it's written, circle filled, butterfly or electronic. Yes, you can minimize the chance, but in the end it comes down to how your set up your methods and procedures.
But as I can personally attest, I've seen people successfuly use and have trouble with the touch screen voting systems, and it doesn't matter if you 18 or 80. Some people get it, some will be confused. Training and procedures are what get you over that hurdle.
-Crolis
I've been working as a Chief Election Officer since 2001 in Fairfax County and I have worked a precinct with the new electronic voting machines as of last November.
The new machines take some getting used to but they do have their advantages.
The machines we use are WinVote machines. I can't remember the manufacturer but it is not Diebold. While I can't speak for other states and counties where voting takes place, I can speak for Fairfax county's methods.
There are a number of checks and verifications that take place before the polls open in the morning with the machines that we receive. We first have to verify that the correct machines have been sent to our princinct, as they all have serial numbers on them. The use of metal sealing bands with an imprinted number on them guarantee that we have received the voting units intact, and without tampering.
We have two types of smart cards that are used for voting. Two precinct smart cards are kept by the Chief and Assitant Chief of the princinct. Session smart cards are assigned to the precinct, one for each machine we're issued.
These smart cards are programed to only function for the election held on that particular day. Also, once the machines are initialized by the precinct smart card, the machine goes through a configuration that certifies it to our precinct and loads the appropriate ballot.
The machines are touch screen accessible, and use a form of embedded Windows XP. There is the ability to present ballots in large type for the visually impaired, as well as an audio ballot (where the computer instructs you to touch one of the four corners to make selections) for the hearing impaired. The entire unit has a battery backup like a notebook and can be detached to assist elderly and the disabled by bringing the machine to them, allowing us to satisify our mandate to provide curbside voting.
Internally, the machines have an access cover that requires a key to protect the sensitive areas of the voting unit. There is a thermal printer, which records the machine stats at the start of the day: a protected counter that shows how many votes the machine has cast in its lifetime, a session counter that identifies the number of votes on that machine for that polling session (0 at the start of the day), and the current memory counts for every candidate or issue (also 0 at the start of the day). A USB flash disk also is connected which actually stores the data. It is protected by a seal that must physically be cut before removal.
One interesting thing I learned is that when the polls are opening, the units switch on a wi-fi connection to communicate with each other. One machine is designated the master, and the others become slaves. We set which machines we have been assigned and that is set in memory until the polls close. I asked the question about security issues but was assured that the wireless link only activates for a short time when opening or closing polls and is deactivated the rest of the time.
If a voter is ready to vote, one of our Election Officers will use a session card to activate one instance of voting (a ballot). We not only instruct the voter, stand by the machine and answer any questions, but the county was nice enough to provice a video tape that loops so that people when they come in can see directly a demonstration of how the machines work.
If someone would like to start over, or decides they require the large type ballot, the session card can be used to cancel the current ballot. In this case protected and session counters do not advance.
We had one case last election day where a guy got fed up and left in disgust with the system, and we asked him if he would like to restart the ballot process. He declined and asserted that he wanted his ballot cancelled, which we did, as is his right.
Some success stories are that a few senior citizens, probably in their 80s, tried the new machines and actually were very pleased at these new "high-tech contraption
It may cause problems in other ways. I believe that one method that vending machine bill readers use to verify authenticity and denomination of an inserted bill is by reading the magnetic ink signature of the bill. If you wipe that, the bill may be come unusable in bill reader mechanisms.
Other methods include conductivity testing and optical and flourescent recognition.
This link describes some of the methods that modern bill readers may use to authenticate paper money:
http://money.howstuffworks.com/question269.htm
-Crolis
I've actually had a similar discussion with a friend regarding the junk that gets packed into cell phones these days.
My take is that the phones are being marketed toward the wrong audience, generally speaking.
In Europe and Asian countries, the per capita use of public transportation is much higher than the usage in the United States. So it makes more sense to pack features into phones that will help the average person in those countries stay in touch or be entertained -- while making money for the service provider.
Since the United States has a much higher per capita use of private transportation (cars) it makes more sense for a company to offer more talk time, as playing games and sending IMs to friends is problematic while driving.
If a wireless company in the USA offered a $30 service plan that included 500 anytime minutes, nights and weekends free starting at 7pm and long distance included, with a basic phone that performed those functions, I think they would make a killing. Add the industry standard voicemail and caller ID and you'll be set.
Right now, I'm on SprintPCS and have a $29.99 plan with 300 minutes anytime, long distance, and nights and weekends free starting at 9pm along with the usual voicemail and caller ID. Not bad, but I'd upgrade in a minute (no pun intended) if a company offered a basic package similar to the one I described.
-Crolis
Funding is not the solution to the education crisis in the United States. There is already plenty of money being thrown at the problem.
The real problem is the layers of bureaucracy that the money has to filter through and the inane regulations that suppress out-of-the-box thinking and innovative solutions to educational problems.
The way you fix that is to completely divest the Federal Government from the education business. Dissolve the Department of Education, and reduce the taxes collected on the people at the federal level. That means dramatic reductions in income and payroll taxes.
The States would then have the ability to create and administrate an education system tailored to the specific needs of their socio-economic geography. And the liberated tax revenue of their citizens can be tapped to solve their issues.
You wouldn't need to set particular academic standards because private interests will rate the performance of states against each other, much like J.D. Power and Associates or Consumer Reports and other auditing firms compare companies and product lines.
The result is that the States will be forced to innovate to compete with fellow states, the the educational effectiveness of their programs will entice businesses and people to relocate.
This approach could be used for health care, education, welfare, social security, and pretty much anything that the federal government has a habit of screwing up.
Let the states compete for tax base, and let them have the responsibility and the authority to act.
-Crolis
Land mines are a highly effective defensive tool. They delay enemy forces, and allow the defender to canalize enemy within well defended areas.
The United States militery, upon laying a mine field, properly marks and maps the location of each mine. When a field needs to be decommissioned, we can go back and recover all of the munitions.
Other countries do not properly mark minefields (Soviet Union in Afganistan for example) or decommission them when hostilites are ended.
Also, the Constitution of the United States will not technically allow us to sign a treaty that weakens the ability of us to defend ourselves if needed. This is why we withdrew from the obsolete ABM treaty with the non-existant Soviet Union.
The restrictions against building an missile defense system cannot remain when set against our law that requires our number one priority to be the defense of the United States.
The stories you hear of children and adults being maimed or killed by land mines are tragic, I agree, and I'd be supportive of eliminating the export/sale of landmines from the US, but most of the issue isn't with US minefields.
Not to mention the fact that many of the signatories to this "treaty" will break their word as soon as it is in their interest to do so. Nor does it stop certain countries that have signed up from selling munitions (France, etc.)
-Crolis
Let me get this straight. The British Empire, known in history to have forcibly assimilated cultures in the ambition to be the largest colonial empire, robbing them of their wealth and dignity, impressing them into service and ruling with an iron fist.
Bill Gates, head of the Microsoft empire, known in modern history for assimilating the intellectual work of others, hijacking independent development and ambitiously expanding to control the technology industry with an iron fist.
I can see why the Monarchy holds Mr. G in such high regard.
Does that make Linux users patriots?
-Crolis
Town, Space, Castle.
I had more fun with the basic themed sets (although I never had any castle sets, just town and space) because there were enough generic pieces that you could be really creative.
The merchandise tie-ins and specialty sets really tarnished the company's sterling reputation for making simple toys that really inspired kids to create.
The sad commentary on our time is that given a choice, kids today would rather have a video game than a Lego set.
Lego should go back to basics...perhaps reissue old but favorite sets for those who wish to recapture the past.
I still remember the little spaceship my parents bought me when we visited Legoland in Denmark. As I recall it was set number 918: Space Transport. I still have the 4x1 bricks that have "LL 918" printed on the side.
-Crolis
I have worked for several years running elections as a Chief Election Officer for Fairfax County, VA. There are occasions where the number of people processed into the voting queue is greater than the votes tallied on the machines.
/. with regard to electronic voting, and I'm sure some of that is earned by the way the public has been informed about the technology. I, personally, liked our old Shouptronic 1242 systems. They didn't produce a chit or receipt either and no one complained. In fact, the reviled butterfly ballot is no more error prone than electronic voting, and unfamiliarity with the system can even make electronic touch screen systems more prone to errors until people become familiar with their design and methods.
In my precincts over the years, it didn't happen but once, but we are advised that it is well within the voter's rights to register a no-vote for a particular race, or even to not vote at all. This is called "undervoting" by those who help administrate elections.
Now in our last election we switched to touch-screen voting and for the most part things went well. There were a few cases where people were intimidated by the technology, or downright nasty about the process (many suburban folks are quite impatient about their routine changing). One person even got fed up and left, which was unfortunate but was his right. I won't say the technology is perfect, but then there is no requirement for a perfect election, just one that is run to the best abilites of those involved.
In contrast, two gentlemen in their 80s I can guess were enamored by the technology. They both had a physical disability that made it difficult to walk quickly (one had lost part of his foot and the other could walk but extremely slowly).
They really were grateful and impressed that I could physically bring the voting machine to them. Those experiences really made my day.
I see a lot of skeptcism on
I think people need to take a step back and take a deep breath. No system of voting is perfect but we try to do the best we can. If you are so concerned about ensuring people's right to vote, then you should consider signing up with your local Office of Elections to work the polling place. When you spend time operating the machines, and talking and guiding voters through the process, you realize that most people are capable of learning the technology, and many of the complainers are those who perpetually live with a bad attitude.
-Crolis
I got to use a Tenba case for a while when I was issued a laptop. I was very impressed with the quality and designmanship of the case. Their website is a little clunky, but I'd recommend their c416 Tenba Computer Traveller.
They have a history of making high quality cases for transporting professional camera equipment in the field, so they know a thing or two about protecting sensitive equipment.
-Crolis
I had the chance to have dinner with someone in the satellite industry. His take was that Sirius had an edge over XM in technology. Additionally, the polar orbits of Sirius satellites are much higher than XM's geostationary birds and are less suceptable to being blocked by terrain features which certain areas of the country have in abundance.
/. people seem to favor that service over XM.
I have actually listened to XM though (it was on an Avis rental car) and the sound quality I think suffered from the radio itself. As for content, I can't say I was really impressed. XM had some interesting channels, but the majority I wouldn't listen to.
I'm a big music and talk radio buff -- I listen at least 24-34 hours per week -- but I didn't see myself really taking advantage of XM. I'm planning on taking a good look at Sirius to see what they have to offer though. Especially since many of the
When I go on road trips though, it's sometimes nice to pick up a local host just to get a flavor of the region I'm in. But something like Sirius would really increase my choice of selections, which isn't a bad thing at all. It beats listening to an hour of the weather band.
What I'm waiting for is a car radio that has built into it's circuitry the ability to tune to AM, FM, Satellite Radio, TV, Weather Band, Shortwave, CB, and police/fire/ambulance and aviation bands.
On long trips, it will be nice to browse *all* the airwaves. Of course I'll need about 100 presets.
-Crolis
...and not to be out done, North Korean President Kim Jong Il has asserted that his country can compete with the decadent capitalist South by establishing the Socialist Communication Organization (SCO) to provide tin cans and string to 1 out of every 100 loyal members to the party.
-Crolis
They use a very modern form of packaging. A small white box with a little wire handle and some nice red printing on the side. Oh and you get one rice and fortune cookie with your order of General SCOs Chicken.
-Crolis
It looks great compared to that yo-yo with a stick Segway.
At least it comes across as something that you'd see in anime, although the anime version would probably have heat seeking mini-missiles and could transform into a jet pack.
-Crolis
I have to agree completely. When DVDs first came out I had to scratch my head on the reason why they didn't enclose them in caddies as part of the packaging.
Considering how many DVD rentals are scratched or scuffed when you rent them from the local Blockbuster/Hollywood/Mom-n-Pop I can't imagine why they didn't go for this design choice.
You could still have used recordable DVDs that were inserted in a caddy, but the store bought would would come in a sealed caddy. Seems like that's a better way to protect a 20-30 dollar investment in a movie from the natural wear and tear of being used.
-Crolis
The news article says they are planning a single orbit, but you know how it goes: one hour later and they will feel like they need to orbit again.
-Crolis
I recently attended a training class for the new WinVote machines from Advanced Votin Solutions we're using to replace our obsolete Shouptronic 1242 machines in Fairfax County, VA.
w invote.ht ml
This next election in November will be the first test of these machines (it's an off-year unexciting election so turnout will be low).
I was a little concerned when the WindowsXP screen showed up after booting this device, and even more concerned that these machines communicate among each other using Wi-Fi (802.11b).
I would prefer any company producing voting machines would release their specification to the public for review so that everyone can be assured of the security of their methods. I think a case might be made to require the opening of standards when it comes to the public interest -- the trustability of the voting process.
Current numbers I've seen in the news seem to indicate that punch-card, optical counting and the new touch screen ballots have comparable error rates of around 2%-3% and that no method is inherantly unfair.
The only argument for upgrading the machines then is to provide better accessability for handicapped voters. In my county's case, we don't have to bring a special paper ballot to meet our legal obligation to allow voting for mobility-impaired voters (curbside voting). Now we can bring the entire machine to them. New options for the visually impaired include audio ballots and that's a big improvement.
This talk by some in the media and in the current ACLU case in California about the high error rates in punch card systems is pretty much unfounded. The Flordia 2000 debacle was blown out of proportion by a desperate Democrat party. Pretty much every newspaper/organization that has conducted independent review of the ballots has concurred with the final result. My opinion is that punch cards are not any more inaccurate than other voting methods.
Fairfax County Voting Machine Vendor:
http://clients.enfocom.com/avs/products_
-Crolis
Pretty soon your company will have subsidized corporate uniforms. IT gurus will of course get more well known advertisers and will have NASCAR like uniforms and sticker studded PCs. -Crolis
It's getting harder to find well written science-fiction (or at the very least entertaining science-fiction) on network TV these days. It seems that the same tired cookie-cutter sitcoms (produced by clones of the same three writers) or cheap reality shows dominate the airwaves. One network has a crime or medical drama, we see it in tripicate on different networks.
Looking back about 20 years, science fiction actually had a chance in network prime time. Some shows were a bit silly, but they did have a following (Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Greatest American Hero, V and V:The Final Battle mini-series).
These days any science-fiction is either dumped into the death-slot (9pm on Friday -- they must think geeks have no social life) or are under-publicized, preempted or shuffled around to the point that no one knows when they're airing anymore.
I feel bad for the current TV generation. They have no idea what they are missing. For that matter afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons are a in a similar predicament -- a wasteland.
-Crolis
A competent teacher can teach give a piece of chalk, a blackboard, a textbook and an eraser. Money for education should be used to support a highly trained teacher profession who has excellent grasp of the subject matter to be taught.
Most primary and elementary school students need to be educated in the basics before they are able to
tackle the literate medium of the Internet.
We used to produce many engineers and scientists and put men on the moon when we weren't falling into this PC trendy educational experiement. I seem to recall that those scientists and engineers did well with the phonics, sentence diagramming, and long division worked out on paper, not a calculator.
The reason why our kids can't read and perform math without a calculator is that the modern educational system hand-holds them through the things that they need to learn.
My 2 cents,
-Crolis
I believe that the generation of a physical chit representing a vote is something that introduces irregularities into the process. That's what we saw in Florida in 2000 when all these punch cards were being hauled around the state and counted. The existance of a physical chit for each vote coupled with human error or malice could result in misplaced, sabotaged, improperly counted or machine mangled ballots. In Fairfax County, VA, our old system never produced a chit for each vote, but recorded a tally on a machine with a good track record. Were there errors? Yeah, there is no perfect system (count discrepancies, people pressing the commit button before they make all choices, etc.) but recording electronically along with certification at the precinct level rather than the county level really helps to reduce errors. -Crolis
I have worked as an Chief Election Officer for the past several years and have a few thoughts on our transistion to the new machines.
:)
For those who don't vote in Fairfax county, the machines we have been using in most precincts is the Shouptronic 1242, which was phased out last recently due to new voting regulations that stipulated minimum accessibility requirements (for the visually impaired) that the Shouptronic couldn't meet as well as maintenance issues for the aging machines.
I am certainly wary of the new machines we have coming down for the next election in November, which use the WinVote software and appear physically as large laptops.
The initial checking in of voters won't change the next time around. They will still have to state their name and current address, be assigned a number (for counting purposes, not associative purposes) and be issued a colored state sealed "machine enterance index card" which is relinquished to the officer supervising the machines themselves before they are allowed access to the machine.
The new machines use a phone line (modem) to remit results to the registrar and are portable enough to allow us to physically move the machine to the curb to assist physically-challenged voters (curbside voting law).
The number of conditional paper ballots we'll have to use will be lessened -- a good thing and I see that for the most part it will help in accuracy.
I see problems in a couple of areas however. Most people vote maybe once every one or two years, so their familiarity with the machines wanes over time. Completely change the machine and there will be a lot of people with a bunch of questions and uncertainty, which will initially present an appearance of confusion (and may be enough to get some lawyers on the case if they see an opportinuity). Secondly, with untested technology, it will be difficult to gauge the number of problems with the machine -- misaligned touch screens, software crashes, static discharge, space aliens, seasoned citizens, ingenious fools, etc.
In a month or two I'm going to be going back for training on the new equipment. I also believe for those citizens voting in Fairfax county, the Government Center has a sample machine available for those who want to become familiar with it.
A system for securly transmitting certified results to the county should work well, but I am really concerned with any kind of Internet voting. That's where I believe the greatest potential for fraud exists.
-Crolis
P.S. I got a heck of a lot of comments after 2000, since my first name is "Chad".