I've been an Elections Inspector in New York State since 2004. You are seriously underestimating the logistical difficulties in counting the votes by hand. My precinct has more than 800 registered voters in it. In the last two Presidential elections we've seen 65%+ turnout. The last two Gubernatorial elections both exceeded 50%. The polls are open from 6am to 9pm; we are mandated by law to be there 45 minutes before and after these times. There is no way that we can physically count hundreds of votes in 45 minutes. It would take several hours; now multiply this by our collective $41/hr salary ($11 for the chairman, $10 for each of the other three) and multiply that by the tens of thousands of election districts across New York State. Where is that money going to come from?
The current optical scanning technology is a fair balance. Paper ballots are retained for seven years after an election and are available for inspection by any interested party. The canvassing and certification process is watched by election officials from all major political parties, representatives of the candidates and the media. Elections officials count the votes by hand from randomly selected precincts the very the machine count. All the machines do is speed up the tabulation process.
You'll brook no argument from me on the downfalls of direct electronic record machines where no paper backup is available. Arguing that the election should be run on pen and paper is equally insane though. I can't think of any compelling reason to do so; it opens the door for arguments back and forth on "voter intent" (whereas the machine rejects ballots for ambiguous marks and gives the voter another chance), turns the process of canvassing the votes into a logistical headache and would cost a lot more money.
At one point we’ve all done it – spilt a drink over a laptop, gotten our tablets soaked in the rain, or even dropped our phone in the toilet.
I've never done any of those things with my expensive tools/toys. It baffles me how badly people treat expensive and hard to replace tools. It's not limited to technology either; a friend of mine has a collection of rusted saws, screwdrivers and other tools because he's too lazy to bring them in out of the rain after a big home improvement project. Pathetic.
That's one, but around here it's increasingly common for cars to be stolen and then returned hours later after having completed a drug run in the stolen vehicle.
The last time I parked my car in a New York City dirt lot it was returned to me with 30 extra miles on odometer. It was also washed, detailed and had a full tank of gas. I don't want to think about what they did with my car but at least they were polite about it....
Historically doing such things has only served to provide more converts for the opposition/rebellion. In any case, members of the US military swear an oath to defend the Constitution. Asking the US Military to "take out" American citizens would likely incite a civil war; some of the military would "follow orders" while other portions would side with the population. You should also take into account the fact that the American population is well armed; rifles may not be a match for a tank or jet aircraft in a conventional conflict but they do make the prospect of imposing martial law upon the United States very expensive in terms of blood and treasure.
Copyright laws are to preserve the right of copying the work for the copyright holder.
The point of copyrights (and patents) is to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for a limited time the exclusive right to use the work(s) to the person(s) who created them as they see fit.
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
And yes, I know our Constitution doesn't apply in Canada but that line embodies the reasoning behind copyrights; the promote the progress of science and the arts. Not to ensure decades worth of revenue for a fucking publishing company that didn't even create the work in the first place.
The 1st amendment already covers this. There is no need to further clutter up our founding documents with some "right" to access the internet. The Constitution is vaguely silent on your "right" to access the library yet I don't hear you calling us backwards for that.
Brevity is your friend when you are drafting a Constitution. For much the same reason I think the equal rights amendment is a waste of time and ink. The 14th amendment's equal protection clause already covers it.
China not a threat? I would call BS. They have been a major threat to the US since they found they are good at wars by proxy. The Korean war was a stalemate. The Vietnam conflict was an easy victory for them.
I don't think the Korean War qualifies as a "war by proxy". The Chinese sent hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers into Korea. By their own admission they suffered >100,000 KIAs (UN estimates put the KIA number at 400,000). I'm not sure why you lump Vietnam in there either; Vietnam got most of it's support from the Soviet Union. Relations between Vietnam and China weren't exactly cozy in those days. Hell, the Vietnamese are currently working on establishing better relations with the United States because of China's aggressive moves in the South China Sea.
in fact, that same magazine also suggested that child porn be legalized so the real pervs can get their fix and stay in the shadows without victimizing real children
Unless they think that 12 year old children are actually capable of giving informed consent to engage in sexual activities while having those activities recorded.
No freedom to practice your religion without interference from the state. Muslim women can't wear the burqa in public. Jewish schoolboys can't wear the yarmulke in public schools while Christians are prohibited from wearing "large" crosses. In the name of secularism French society has crossed the line into intolerance and forced compliance with the tyranny of the majority.
The crisis we find ourselves in was partly created by projects like these
NASA's budget represents less than 1% of the Federal budget. It peaked at around 5% during the Apollo years and has declined almost every year for the last two decades. If every Federal agency worked like that we wouldn't be worrying about turning into Greece.
That's a marketing term that means absolutely nothing. Digital OTA is broadcast on the same frequencies that analog TV has been using for decades. You can pick up perfect digital reception with an antenna from the 1950s if it's installed properly and in good shape.
Some of the GPs complaints are quite legitimate. Analog was better in marginal areas than digital; digital suffers from the cliff effect. Analog would provide a usable (albeit not perfect) picture in marginal areas. I'm not so sure on his complaints about multipath interference though; I've noticed severe multipath issues with the OTA tuner in my TiVo (it dies entirely on some channels when it's particularly windy outside) but if I hook the exact same antenna up to my TV directly I have no such issues. I can only surmise that the tuner in the TiVo is not quite as good as the one in my TV.
but it would seem to me that you would be stretching the 4th Amendment to an absurd degree to claim that the government has the right to conduct a search whenever, wherever and however they want so long as they don't actually attempt to prosecute you based on the information they obtain.
Just said that's the way it is, for better or worse.
Food for thought: The 5th Amendment says you can't be compelled to be a witness against yourself but the Government can still compel you to testify in a criminal proceeding by offering you immunity against any crimes laid bare as a result of your testimony.
Where's your cause of action though? Presuming your rights were violated by the Government collecting the meta-data of your phone calls; did the Government use this data in any criminal prosecutions? If it did then you'd be able to raise the 4th amendment as a defense; it might not be successful but you could raise it. I'm not so sure you can just sue the Government and/or telecoms after the fact when the data was never used against you though.
Understand that I'm not saying I agree with any of this. For better or worse this is the way it is though.
Once again, thank you President (then Senator) "I will filibuster any bill containing telecom immunity" Obama. Meet the new boss; same as the old!
The question I'd like to ask is why don't they just hand out a static IP by default? The vast majority of broadband connections are always on; they aren't saving IPs by handing out dynamic assignments.
Of course I already know the answer to my question. It can be located above the '4' key on most keyboards...
Having grown up in Scandinavia without any air conditioners or even fans, and moving to the US as an adult
One of the statistics that I find horrifying is that nearly fifteen thousand people died in France alone during the 2003 heatwave. The death toll was attributed to the widespread lack of air conditioning in that country. A First World country wherein thousands of people die simply because it was hot outside? What's wrong with this picture?
And what is it with Europeans and turning the A/C off anyway? Both times I've visited Europe I paid extra for the privilege of having A/C in my hotel room. Both times the hotel staff let themselves into my room and turned the A/C off whenever I left the room. This annoyed the hell out of me, particularly given the fact that the A/C was woefully undersized for the square footage of my room and the only way to make it halfway decent was to leave the unit running all the time. In the United States A/C is a standard feature even in budget motels.
New York State General Business Law Section 518: Credit card surcharge prohibited.
No seller in any sales transaction may impose a surcharge on a holder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means.
Any seller who violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars or a term of imprisonment up to one year, or both.
It's whether or not you give Verizon the ability to take money from you every month with blanket consent.
I don't care if they have "blanket consent" to charge my credit card because I still retain the advantages of using a credit card:
1) 25 more days before I actually have to fork over the money (float)
2) Rewards points/cash back
3) Chargeback protection if Verizon screws me and refuses to make it right
They can however, go fuck themselves if they ask for blanket consent to ACH the monies out of my checking account. I hand over my ACH information to nobody. Much better to push the payments out with a billpayer service (offered for free by my credit union) than to let them pull the payments themselves, particularly with Verizon's history of billing mistakes.
.... I do however think that you are woefully naive of the realities of the business world.
I'm a moderate PHP and MySQL programmer on the side and am easily capable of writing something to meet their needs, but do not believe I should be A) asked to or B) required to, as my job description and employment terms are not based upon this skill set.
So you don't believe that you should be asked to do something outside of your job description even if you are completely capable of doing it?
I like a challenge, and since all of my goals outlined since my hire date have been met and exceeded, I have a lot of down time.
What are you doing with this "down time"? If this is an hourly position are you putting this "down time" on your time sheet and not being paid for it? If it's a salary position are you finding something else to do or going home early? Why didn't you use this "down time" to code this project instead of doing it on your own time for nothing?
However, it's been mentioned that, if I do the project, it is all but guaranteed that I will see no compensation.
Your salary isn't compensation enough? I'm confused here; are you a contract worker who just did something for free hoping to sell it to your client? Or are you an employee who is upset that he isn't being paid extra because he stepped outside of his job description to do something valuable for the company?
I'm a firm believer in not getting 'something for nothing,' especially when the skills are above my pay grade.
Has it occurred to you that doing this project would look good on your resume? Has it occurred to you that doing something "above your pay grade" looks good when reviews come around? Has it occurred to you that doing this will increase your value to your employer thus ensuring both job security and perhaps even increased remuneration?
Go ahead and take this "I deserve it" attitude to your supervisor though. Nothing guarantees success in the business world faster than nitpicking your compensation because you can contribute something to the company that isn't part of your job description. Extra bonus points for whining about your "pay grade" during the worst economy in a generation. I wonder how many unemployed IT folks are screaming at their monitor while reading this article?
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I've been an Elections Inspector in New York State since 2004. You are seriously underestimating the logistical difficulties in counting the votes by hand. My precinct has more than 800 registered voters in it. In the last two Presidential elections we've seen 65%+ turnout. The last two Gubernatorial elections both exceeded 50%. The polls are open from 6am to 9pm; we are mandated by law to be there 45 minutes before and after these times. There is no way that we can physically count hundreds of votes in 45 minutes. It would take several hours; now multiply this by our collective $41/hr salary ($11 for the chairman, $10 for each of the other three) and multiply that by the tens of thousands of election districts across New York State. Where is that money going to come from?
The current optical scanning technology is a fair balance. Paper ballots are retained for seven years after an election and are available for inspection by any interested party. The canvassing and certification process is watched by election officials from all major political parties, representatives of the candidates and the media. Elections officials count the votes by hand from randomly selected precincts the very the machine count. All the machines do is speed up the tabulation process.
You'll brook no argument from me on the downfalls of direct electronic record machines where no paper backup is available. Arguing that the election should be run on pen and paper is equally insane though. I can't think of any compelling reason to do so; it opens the door for arguments back and forth on "voter intent" (whereas the machine rejects ballots for ambiguous marks and gives the voter another chance), turns the process of canvassing the votes into a logistical headache and would cost a lot more money.
At one point we’ve all done it – spilt a drink over a laptop, gotten our tablets soaked in the rain, or even dropped our phone in the toilet.
I've never done any of those things with my expensive tools/toys. It baffles me how badly people treat expensive and hard to replace tools. It's not limited to technology either; a friend of mine has a collection of rusted saws, screwdrivers and other tools because he's too lazy to bring them in out of the rain after a big home improvement project. Pathetic.
That's one, but around here it's increasingly common for cars to be stolen and then returned hours later after having completed a drug run in the stolen vehicle.
The last time I parked my car in a New York City dirt lot it was returned to me with 30 extra miles on odometer. It was also washed, detailed and had a full tank of gas. I don't want to think about what they did with my car but at least they were polite about it....
Take away food and water
Historically doing such things has only served to provide more converts for the opposition/rebellion. In any case, members of the US military swear an oath to defend the Constitution. Asking the US Military to "take out" American citizens would likely incite a civil war; some of the military would "follow orders" while other portions would side with the population. You should also take into account the fact that the American population is well armed; rifles may not be a match for a tank or jet aircraft in a conventional conflict but they do make the prospect of imposing martial law upon the United States very expensive in terms of blood and treasure.
Copyright laws are to preserve the right of copying the work for the copyright holder.
The point of copyrights (and patents) is to promote the progress of science and the useful arts by securing for a limited time the exclusive right to use the work(s) to the person(s) who created them as they see fit.
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
And yes, I know our Constitution doesn't apply in Canada but that line embodies the reasoning behind copyrights; the promote the progress of science and the arts. Not to ensure decades worth of revenue for a fucking publishing company that didn't even create the work in the first place.
The 1st amendment already covers this. There is no need to further clutter up our founding documents with some "right" to access the internet. The Constitution is vaguely silent on your "right" to access the library yet I don't hear you calling us backwards for that.
Brevity is your friend when you are drafting a Constitution. For much the same reason I think the equal rights amendment is a waste of time and ink. The 14th amendment's equal protection clause already covers it.
China not a threat? I would call BS. They have been a major threat to the US since they found they are good at wars by proxy. The Korean war was a stalemate. The Vietnam conflict was an easy victory for them.
I don't think the Korean War qualifies as a "war by proxy". The Chinese sent hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers into Korea. By their own admission they suffered >100,000 KIAs (UN estimates put the KIA number at 400,000). I'm not sure why you lump Vietnam in there either; Vietnam got most of it's support from the Soviet Union. Relations between Vietnam and China weren't exactly cozy in those days. Hell, the Vietnamese are currently working on establishing better relations with the United States because of China's aggressive moves in the South China Sea.
from the legislation-starts-as-gibberish dept.
Fixed it for you. :)
in fact, that same magazine also suggested that child porn be legalized so the real pervs can get their fix and stay in the shadows without victimizing real children
Unless they think that 12 year old children are actually capable of giving informed consent to engage in sexual activities while having those activities recorded.
No freedom to practice your religion without interference from the state. Muslim women can't wear the burqa in public. Jewish schoolboys can't wear the yarmulke in public schools while Christians are prohibited from wearing "large" crosses. In the name of secularism French society has crossed the line into intolerance and forced compliance with the tyranny of the majority.
The crisis we find ourselves in was partly created by projects like these
NASA's budget represents less than 1% of the Federal budget. It peaked at around 5% during the Apollo years and has declined almost every year for the last two decades. If every Federal agency worked like that we wouldn't be worrying about turning into Greece.
Have you tried buying an HDTV-specific antenna?
That's a marketing term that means absolutely nothing. Digital OTA is broadcast on the same frequencies that analog TV has been using for decades. You can pick up perfect digital reception with an antenna from the 1950s if it's installed properly and in good shape.
Some of the GPs complaints are quite legitimate. Analog was better in marginal areas than digital; digital suffers from the cliff effect. Analog would provide a usable (albeit not perfect) picture in marginal areas. I'm not so sure on his complaints about multipath interference though; I've noticed severe multipath issues with the OTA tuner in my TiVo (it dies entirely on some channels when it's particularly windy outside) but if I hook the exact same antenna up to my TV directly I have no such issues. I can only surmise that the tuner in the TiVo is not quite as good as the one in my TV.
If you can just keep opening new lines of credit to pay off old ones
I'm confused; isn't this what the Federal Government does?
Now have them file that number again against Comcast, Verizon et cetera. Bam. We just fought evil with evil.
Verizon and Comcast have in house attorneys and the ability to fight back. John Q. my-kid-ran-bittorrent-on-the-pc Public does not.
You can say no
And you'll go to jail for contempt of court until you change your mind.
but it would seem to me that you would be stretching the 4th Amendment to an absurd degree to claim that the government has the right to conduct a search whenever, wherever and however they want so long as they don't actually attempt to prosecute you based on the information they obtain.
Just said that's the way it is, for better or worse.
Food for thought: The 5th Amendment says you can't be compelled to be a witness against yourself but the Government can still compel you to testify in a criminal proceeding by offering you immunity against any crimes laid bare as a result of your testimony.
So if your fourth amendment rights were violated
Where's your cause of action though? Presuming your rights were violated by the Government collecting the meta-data of your phone calls; did the Government use this data in any criminal prosecutions? If it did then you'd be able to raise the 4th amendment as a defense; it might not be successful but you could raise it. I'm not so sure you can just sue the Government and/or telecoms after the fact when the data was never used against you though.
Understand that I'm not saying I agree with any of this. For better or worse this is the way it is though.
Once again, thank you President (then Senator) "I will filibuster any bill containing telecom immunity" Obama. Meet the new boss; same as the old!
why do you even need a static IP for your home?
The question I'd like to ask is why don't they just hand out a static IP by default? The vast majority of broadband connections are always on; they aren't saving IPs by handing out dynamic assignments.
Of course I already know the answer to my question. It can be located above the '4' key on most keyboards...
Having grown up in Scandinavia without any air conditioners or even fans, and moving to the US as an adult
One of the statistics that I find horrifying is that nearly fifteen thousand people died in France alone during the 2003 heatwave. The death toll was attributed to the widespread lack of air conditioning in that country. A First World country wherein thousands of people die simply because it was hot outside? What's wrong with this picture?
And what is it with Europeans and turning the A/C off anyway? Both times I've visited Europe I paid extra for the privilege of having A/C in my hotel room. Both times the hotel staff let themselves into my room and turned the A/C off whenever I left the room. This annoyed the hell out of me, particularly given the fact that the A/C was woefully undersized for the square footage of my room and the only way to make it halfway decent was to leave the unit running all the time. In the United States A/C is a standard feature even in budget motels.
New York State General Business Law Section 518: Credit card surcharge prohibited.
No seller in any sales transaction may impose a surcharge on a holder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means.
Any seller who violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars or a term of imprisonment up to one year, or both.
It's whether or not you give Verizon the ability to take money from you every month with blanket consent.
I don't care if they have "blanket consent" to charge my credit card because I still retain the advantages of using a credit card:
1) 25 more days before I actually have to fork over the money (float)
2) Rewards points/cash back
3) Chargeback protection if Verizon screws me and refuses to make it right
They can however, go fuck themselves if they ask for blanket consent to ACH the monies out of my checking account. I hand over my ACH information to nobody. Much better to push the payments out with a billpayer service (offered for free by my credit union) than to let them pull the payments themselves, particularly with Verizon's history of billing mistakes.
.... I do however think that you are woefully naive of the realities of the business world.
I'm a moderate PHP and MySQL programmer on the side and am easily capable of writing something to meet their needs, but do not believe I should be A) asked to or B) required to, as my job description and employment terms are not based upon this skill set.
So you don't believe that you should be asked to do something outside of your job description even if you are completely capable of doing it?
I like a challenge, and since all of my goals outlined since my hire date have been met and exceeded, I have a lot of down time.
What are you doing with this "down time"? If this is an hourly position are you putting this "down time" on your time sheet and not being paid for it? If it's a salary position are you finding something else to do or going home early? Why didn't you use this "down time" to code this project instead of doing it on your own time for nothing?
However, it's been mentioned that, if I do the project, it is all but guaranteed that I will see no compensation.
Your salary isn't compensation enough? I'm confused here; are you a contract worker who just did something for free hoping to sell it to your client? Or are you an employee who is upset that he isn't being paid extra because he stepped outside of his job description to do something valuable for the company?
WTF is with his entitlement mentality anyway?
I'm a firm believer in not getting 'something for nothing,' especially when the skills are above my pay grade.
Has it occurred to you that doing this project would look good on your resume? Has it occurred to you that doing something "above your pay grade" looks good when reviews come around? Has it occurred to you that doing this will increase your value to your employer thus ensuring both job security and perhaps even increased remuneration?
Go ahead and take this "I deserve it" attitude to your supervisor though. Nothing guarantees success in the business world faster than nitpicking your compensation because you can contribute something to the company that isn't part of your job description. Extra bonus points for whining about your "pay grade" during the worst economy in a generation. I wonder how many unemployed IT folks are screaming at their monitor while reading this article?
That's an indirect contribution, which would be ineligible for government funds.
JK Rowling received £8,000 from the Scottish Arts Council to tide her over financially until she could complete the second Harry Potter book.