Given the common source (or limited sources) for the printing plus the very small number of possible choices (write-ins can be handled separately), OCR could easily be done just as fast as a barcodeon this sample.
That would never fly... the receipt id may have nothing to do with you, but it can be retreived through a simple search warrant, and whether or not that's paranoia isn't my point, my point is it's enough to keep it from ever being implemented in this country.
What is so difficult with counting nominal data these days?
It's not difficult to count nominal data these days, it's difficult to verify (to yourself and outsiders) that no one along the way has been able to modify the count. In the paper ballot days, a simple recount is what was offered, this addresses mistakes, and malicious counters who lie about what they tallied. But it doesn't help with ballot stuffing or tossing the box into the river... so then you could have the ballots inspected, and a committee would check for comparisons between vote totals and vote sign ins, and so and so forth.
One of the major difficulties with electronic tabulation is that if you keep it super simple, there's no great way to go back and verify. Everything is at the word of the computer.
As far as your scantron solution, that's great for a single ballot initiative, but last time I voted we had well over a hundred... do I fill out a hundred cards?
I couldn't agree more... but the trend is moving towards portable over quality the last couple years, my post was simply attempting to express my displeasure at that motion... personally I'm a big fan of CDs because *I* can't hear a loss in them, DVD-A's don't sound any better to my ear... some non-tech friends of mine much prefer MP3s because they can just put it right on the MP3 player, and some audiophile friends swear by DVD-A... All I'm saying is, I hope this doesn't become the only way to get music in the future, because I prefer the old to the new.
FYI, nitpicking here, but CD audio, like any other digital format, is compressed. 16-bit PCM. When sampling analog recordings, there'll always be some loss of data.
Hence the reason I said CD Quality and not "uncompressed"... I'm aware of the differences, and my whole point was that I don't like this trend of MP3's as the new delivery method, simple as that... I have an MP3 player, it's where I listen to most of my music... I have a 500 dollar stereo at home, so I also use it as my primary source at home because it's near impossible to hear the difference... but when I got to my parent's house and the stereo is of much superior quality, it's noticeable... even with my relatively tin ear.
I still agree this concept is neat, I just personally want a higher quality audio delivered if I'm going to pay for it... then I can rip my own MP3's and listen to those portably.
Re:If I had a million dollars...
on
Barenaked USB Drive
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· Score: 5, Insightful
But they're compressed... what a bummer, the reason I don't use iTunes is because I don't want compressed music... now they're not even offering CD Quality music with their new release?
How much for the 1gigabyte version with the flac songs?
I concur... I want one, and I'll buy it when I can walk into best buy, not wait in line, and walk out with one for the MSRP, not some ridiculous pack of games I don't want.
It all depends how the shelf is organized... right now it doesn't work with music because the shelf is organized by genre->artist->album... all of the KMFDM albums are next to eachother regardless of price.
Unless an album finds its way into the bargain bin, where it is mostly ignored.
But online you can put albums in multiple places with no difficulty... so it can stay on the shelf next to the other albums, and be placed in the bargain bin.
Who says installing linux is playing? If I'm more productive in linux, isn't that the bottom line?
I'm so glad I don't work with anyone who has this mentallity anymore... no it's not the bottom line, there are all sorts of issues of IT support, automated backups, being able to work with your coworkers source control, being able to pick up and continue your work if you're hit by a bus on your way in and so and so on.
Few businesses (tho some) put those barriers up for the hell of it, they're usually there for a reason and you're screwing with someone else and their job by just thinking you're above all those rules.
In my experience, there is only one app that makes it impossible for the companies I've worked at to switch over to an alternative OS: Microsoft Access.
I think the more you look around the more you'll see it's one app per business... I have no need for Access, but I have to run Quickbooks, and the current versions just don't work in Linux, and there's no vendor interest in making them work there, and the Crossover stuff is always about 2-3 versions behind in regards to which will run.
and testing... don't forget testing... one was a case of a perfectly cromulent program which triggered a bug in the underlying OS... another was the case of a passable program when used properly, but which allowed users to "hack the system" to get a desired result, which then revealed an unexpected bug.
That job would never be worth 65 cents to me, but if I were a mechanic and the additional research could be labelled as my common knowledge, and I was IM'ing with my girlfriend at midnight and she was a slow typer...
Let me translate... If it were write a product description for the pictured computer parts and you were waiting for your kernel to compile while twiddling your thumbs, why not make 65 cents?
Your fee is subsidized by those commercials you still watch on that service, and further subsidized by the free viewers watching those commercials.
The "I pay a fee so no adverts" is a naive philosophy... you have to figure what that fee is... basic cable runs what, $20 a month for 70 channels, lots of commercials... premium cable runs more like $9 per channel with no commercials (except those stupid behind the scenes of some movie which is really just a big advertisement).
I won't pretend it's not... but the X Series has always had slightly slower chips because it shoots for the extreme battery life in a small package... but do keep in mind that this is much much faster than a P4 1.5GHz, the Pentium M's MHz #'s don't translate directly, also, this is the new Pentium M which has the 2MB of on board cache.
I have the 2GHz version of the M right now, and it blazes compred to my desktop with a 3.2 GHz in it.
Yeah, I have the T43 with a fingerprint reader... I was a little concerned, not so much about losing my fingers, but what if the reader got cracked or otherwise disabled... so I'm quite pleased to know there's a backup password... and sense I never have to type it, I put in a ridiculously secure password which I can keep under lock and key in a secure physical location.
Norton Internet Security and Antivirus 2005 running in the system tray
I also find that line suspect... I've had many a capable machine brought to its knees by Norton AV... there's something about that program that works great most of the time, but just destroys performance on certain machines.
I agreed... until about two months ago... then I found a problem... but it was better solved by slates than convertibles.
Namely, my problem was the medical industry (non-hospital)... doctors want to be able to walk around with their computer and review the patient's information before going into the room with the patient. Then they just dock it when it's time to work with the patient, and keying is faster.
In other words, the problem solved is easy read-only portability... the input still sucks, but plenty of people use their computer for display purposes only in many situations.
Perhaps it will become as irritating as norton, that revalidates itself every other day accross the internet telling me the key I bought last month expired... or having ccapp go crazy burning cpu even when I've disabled virus checking.
Seriously, does anyone run Norton and not bitch about it? I just bought a brand new 3GHz computer to replace an old 800 MHz machine. It primarly runs Quickbooks... it was unusably slow by my definitions. Turned off Norton completely, now it runs great.
There are alot of reasons everyone's using it.... I'd offer the following
Easiest to use for the longest amount of time, sure maybe OSX is better, but it wasn't 15 years ago, and we all got hooked.
Pre installed, you can't short the credit of this, it's huge.. plus it removes alot of the "linux is free" arguments because it's not, it costs one copy of windows for most people who don't know how to build their own systems.
Off the shelf software... sure linux has tons of free apps which are mostly really great, but until the relatively recent advent of broadband to homes, this didn't mean alot to alot of people... apt-get upgrade needs to get 100 megs of programs on my 28.8 dialup? I think not.
Installers... one of the great things about linux is how we get to share libraries and not duplicate work, but damn do I like clicking "setup.exe" and having a program installed and just being done with it. Yes, linux has these, but they are rarely used.
Visual Studio... You can make real apps do real things quickly and easily... hence the better off the shelf software options
These are all "on the desktop arguments"... I'm of the opinion that the server market is another discussion entirely, and one where things are much closer together.
So what you're saying is that for you the price point matches the convenience factor of being able to what... watch it on your laptop without putting the DVD in? Or are you actually going to get a video IPod and watch it on the 2 inch screen?
See to me that's the kicker. I don't actually need the compressed format, in fact, I'd prefer the better format... but if I buy the better one, I can always just compress it later should that need arise, however the opposite isn't true.
I guess to me, the only thing I see is a noticeable increase in convenience of delivery and a noticeable decrease in quality, but those aren't equal commodities in my world, especially considering that the current delivery methods are pretty convenient in my area.
In case you're serious, it's because of airtime laws and public elections. If they put this person on TV and their a political candidate, then they must also allow equal airtime to their opponents.
Help me out, because I'm genuinelly curious. For four more dollars you get the DVD with no DRM, which you can rip with free software down to a portable format, which comes on its own physical media in case you ever have to free up some harddrive space, which has all the extras (if you care). So in other words, you spend an extra 4 dollars and you get both versions.
I don't get why you'd even consider the download. I see the value added in buying tonights episode of Lost if you missed it and want to watch it on the train tomorrow, but once it's out on DVD I'd need a much better price break than 11%... personally I would've expected pay per view kind of prices, 3-5 bucks for a movie, maybe 10 bucks for a season of Lost, I dunno if that would even cover cost of bandwidth, but it's about what it's worth IMO.
Now, the real nice gadget is the Tivo (or whatever DVR) to IPod dock, so people who already have a DVR can take their TV shows on public transit and airplanes and such without paying again.
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Given the common source (or limited sources) for the printing plus the very small number of possible choices (write-ins can be handled separately), OCR could easily be done just as fast as a barcodeon this sample.
That would never fly... the receipt id may have nothing to do with you, but it can be retreived through a simple search warrant, and whether or not that's paranoia isn't my point, my point is it's enough to keep it from ever being implemented in this country.
What is so difficult with counting nominal data these days?
It's not difficult to count nominal data these days, it's difficult to verify (to yourself and outsiders) that no one along the way has been able to modify the count. In the paper ballot days, a simple recount is what was offered, this addresses mistakes, and malicious counters who lie about what they tallied. But it doesn't help with ballot stuffing or tossing the box into the river... so then you could have the ballots inspected, and a committee would check for comparisons between vote totals and vote sign ins, and so and so forth.
One of the major difficulties with electronic tabulation is that if you keep it super simple, there's no great way to go back and verify. Everything is at the word of the computer.
As far as your scantron solution, that's great for a single ballot initiative, but last time I voted we had well over a hundred... do I fill out a hundred cards?
So the point of the joke is that babtists are bad at logical proofs?
I couldn't agree more... but the trend is moving towards portable over quality the last couple years, my post was simply attempting to express my displeasure at that motion... personally I'm a big fan of CDs because *I* can't hear a loss in them, DVD-A's don't sound any better to my ear... some non-tech friends of mine much prefer MP3s because they can just put it right on the MP3 player, and some audiophile friends swear by DVD-A... All I'm saying is, I hope this doesn't become the only way to get music in the future, because I prefer the old to the new.
Seriously, 30 songs + videos compressed to 128megs and you're going to claim that most people can't hear the difference?
FYI, nitpicking here, but CD audio, like any other digital format, is compressed. 16-bit PCM. When sampling analog recordings, there'll always be some loss of data.
Hence the reason I said CD Quality and not "uncompressed"... I'm aware of the differences, and my whole point was that I don't like this trend of MP3's as the new delivery method, simple as that... I have an MP3 player, it's where I listen to most of my music... I have a 500 dollar stereo at home, so I also use it as my primary source at home because it's near impossible to hear the difference... but when I got to my parent's house and the stereo is of much superior quality, it's noticeable... even with my relatively tin ear.
I still agree this concept is neat, I just personally want a higher quality audio delivered if I'm going to pay for it... then I can rip my own MP3's and listen to those portably.
But they're compressed... what a bummer, the reason I don't use iTunes is because I don't want compressed music... now they're not even offering CD Quality music with their new release?
How much for the 1gigabyte version with the flac songs?
I concur... I want one, and I'll buy it when I can walk into best buy, not wait in line, and walk out with one for the MSRP, not some ridiculous pack of games I don't want.
It all depends how the shelf is organized... right now it doesn't work with music because the shelf is organized by genre->artist->album... all of the KMFDM albums are next to eachother regardless of price.
Unless an album finds its way into the bargain bin, where it is mostly ignored.
But online you can put albums in multiple places with no difficulty... so it can stay on the shelf next to the other albums, and be placed in the bargain bin.
Who says installing linux is playing? If I'm more productive in linux, isn't that the bottom line?
I'm so glad I don't work with anyone who has this mentallity anymore... no it's not the bottom line, there are all sorts of issues of IT support, automated backups, being able to work with your coworkers source control, being able to pick up and continue your work if you're hit by a bus on your way in and so and so on.
Few businesses (tho some) put those barriers up for the hell of it, they're usually there for a reason and you're screwing with someone else and their job by just thinking you're above all those rules.
In my experience, there is only one app that makes it impossible for the companies I've worked at to switch over to an alternative OS: Microsoft Access.
I think the more you look around the more you'll see it's one app per business... I have no need for Access, but I have to run Quickbooks, and the current versions just don't work in Linux, and there's no vendor interest in making them work there, and the Crossover stuff is always about 2-3 versions behind in regards to which will run.
and testing... don't forget testing... one was a case of a perfectly cromulent program which triggered a bug in the underlying OS... another was the case of a passable program when used properly, but which allowed users to "hack the system" to get a desired result, which then revealed an unexpected bug.
That job would never be worth 65 cents to me, but if I were a mechanic and the additional research could be labelled as my common knowledge, and I was IM'ing with my girlfriend at midnight and she was a slow typer...
Let me translate... If it were write a product description for the pictured computer parts and you were waiting for your kernel to compile while twiddling your thumbs, why not make 65 cents?
except maybe tracking info they would get from someone visiting their site directly - which may be fairly significant in some cases
What about ad revenue? I would've pegged that as the biggest objection for commercial sites towards google cache.
Your fee is subsidized by those commercials you still watch on that service, and further subsidized by the free viewers watching those commercials.
The "I pay a fee so no adverts" is a naive philosophy... you have to figure what that fee is... basic cable runs what, $20 a month for 70 channels, lots of commercials... premium cable runs more like $9 per channel with no commercials (except those stupid behind the scenes of some movie which is really just a big advertisement).
1.5 ghz is pretty slow
I won't pretend it's not... but the X Series has always had slightly slower chips because it shoots for the extreme battery life in a small package... but do keep in mind that this is much much faster than a P4 1.5GHz, the Pentium M's MHz #'s don't translate directly, also, this is the new Pentium M which has the 2MB of on board cache.
I have the 2GHz version of the M right now, and it blazes compred to my desktop with a 3.2 GHz in it.
Yeah, I have the T43 with a fingerprint reader ... I was a little concerned, not so much about losing my fingers, but what if the reader got cracked or otherwise disabled... so I'm quite pleased to know there's a backup password... and sense I never have to type it, I put in a ridiculously secure password which I can keep under lock and key in a secure physical location.
Norton Internet Security and Antivirus 2005 running in the system tray
I also find that line suspect... I've had many a capable machine brought to its knees by Norton AV... there's something about that program that works great most of the time, but just destroys performance on certain machines.
I agreed... until about two months ago... then I found a problem... but it was better solved by slates than convertibles.
Namely, my problem was the medical industry (non-hospital)... doctors want to be able to walk around with their computer and review the patient's information before going into the room with the patient. Then they just dock it when it's time to work with the patient, and keying is faster.
In other words, the problem solved is easy read-only portability... the input still sucks, but plenty of people use their computer for display purposes only in many situations.
Perhaps it will become as irritating as norton, that revalidates itself every other day accross the internet telling me the key I bought last month expired... or having ccapp go crazy burning cpu even when I've disabled virus checking.
Seriously, does anyone run Norton and not bitch about it? I just bought a brand new 3GHz computer to replace an old 800 MHz machine. It primarly runs Quickbooks... it was unusably slow by my definitions. Turned off Norton completely, now it runs great.
These are all "on the desktop arguments"
So what you're saying is that for you the price point matches the convenience factor of being able to what... watch it on your laptop without putting the DVD in? Or are you actually going to get a video IPod and watch it on the 2 inch screen?
See to me that's the kicker. I don't actually need the compressed format, in fact, I'd prefer the better format... but if I buy the better one, I can always just compress it later should that need arise, however the opposite isn't true.
I guess to me, the only thing I see is a noticeable increase in convenience of delivery and a noticeable decrease in quality, but those aren't equal commodities in my world, especially considering that the current delivery methods are pretty convenient in my area.
In case you're serious, it's because of airtime laws and public elections. If they put this person on TV and their a political candidate, then they must also allow equal airtime to their opponents.
I like your idea better though.
Help me out, because I'm genuinelly curious. For four more dollars you get the DVD with no DRM, which you can rip with free software down to a portable format, which comes on its own physical media in case you ever have to free up some harddrive space, which has all the extras (if you care). So in other words, you spend an extra 4 dollars and you get both versions.
I don't get why you'd even consider the download. I see the value added in buying tonights episode of Lost if you missed it and want to watch it on the train tomorrow, but once it's out on DVD I'd need a much better price break than 11%... personally I would've expected pay per view kind of prices, 3-5 bucks for a movie, maybe 10 bucks for a season of Lost, I dunno if that would even cover cost of bandwidth, but it's about what it's worth IMO.
Now, the real nice gadget is the Tivo (or whatever DVR) to IPod dock, so people who already have a DVR can take their TV shows on public transit and airplanes and such without paying again.