> You aren't paying the postage for those CDs unlike spam. Junk mail is paid for by whoever is sending it.
In Ireland and many other countries, you have to pay for refuse collection. In fact, we even pay by weight in many places now, and have to segregate our waste too.
Extra unwanted items are becoming distinctly unpopular here.
Yeah, yeah, a CD is nothing weight-wise and refuse-wise, but what is the overall cost in waste - both monetarily and environmentally?
There's a whole lot of hullaballo by people who don't quite get the picture here. It's an E.U. DIRECTIVE. Not the same as a law. It's a bunch of orders which should be implemented in State law as the governments see fit. (They only have to follow the broad thrust of the directive, and not clash with it).
If a government decides to implement this in a draconian way - then it is that government who should be lambasted, NOT the E.U. This is the usual E.U. bashing from Euroskeptics who are having the wool pulled in front of their eyes by their own national government. Governments all over the E.U. tend to blame the E.U. for unpopular decisions the GOVERNMENT have made.
Don't expect to see national governments implementing powers of search and destroy for anything other than suspected mass counterfeiters. They'll be out on their ear sooner than you can say "general election".
Piracy here in Ireland is CERTAINLY financing terrorists in Northern Ireland. It HAS to go. These measures outlined in the directive ARE badly needed on an E.U.-wide basis to counter-act mass counterfeiters.
I remember here in Ireland we were advised to stay inside on some particular day because of slightly radioactive rain.
Chernobyl is something that the Ukraine and Belorus in particular will have with them for a long time. From May, the European Union will have a border with both. Eventually the E.U. will have to start paying a lot more money to help clean-up contaminated areas in Eastern Europe, and fix up nuclear reactors.
To put it in perspective, for us in Ireland (the E.U. state furthest to the west), it's the same distance away as the Arizona desert is from New York. If this happened in Arizona - I think you East Coast folks would be, well, worried. And similarly, the U.S. would have much more upset people in Texas and California.
I sincerely hope that this results in a serious rethink of the Euratom treaty. (Officially at least, the E.U. still promotes and supports nuclear power).
Is there any kind of International treaties governing use of the Moon? I'm thinking particularly of the situation with the Antarctic here. There certainly should be some kind of International agreement that it's "common ground".
If not, I suggest ESA had better at least mount some similar type of mission to NASA, making sure that there is more than one "presence" on the moon.
Yeah, OK, it's just a ball of rock - but it's a tad upsetting to think someone else might single-handedly "claim" the entirity of that pretty disc in the sky.
Be nice to have something kind of the opposite to this for your mobile. You DON'T hear ANY ambient noise. In fact, it'd be nice if your mobile emitted some kind of field like the Babylon 5 "private conversation booths". No more hearing people shout "I'm on the bus". Even better, no more having to shout "I'm on the bus".
Just saw this link on TV this evening. It's the "information" website about electronic voting - they've chosen to do this only now that it's already a fait accomplit.
Another link - the Irish Labour party's policy document on e-voting. Quite nicely sums up a lot of the worries about e-voting here.
The plan is to use these e-voting machines, installed at a cost of 43 million, in all constituencies for the upcoming local council and European parliament elections in June. The machines have only been testing in a few count centres during the last general election.
The government just recently set up an independant commission to review the system - despite the advanced stage of things! This in fact is the main bone of contention - that not enough thought and planning has gone into it all!
The govt. are behaving extremely arrogantly as usual. Responding to criticism of the system by academics and experts around the world, our Taoiseach (prime minister) Bertie Ahern stated that we didn't need them telling us how to do things because we supply so much of the world's software. Ho hum. Go figure.
The minister responsible for bringing in the system is insistent that it can be checked up on. You can print out the stored results and manually count them no bother. Woo hoo - THAT'S reassuring.
I'm not a happy camper - I've been emailing our TDs (Members of parliament) left right and centre.
It's important to note that all the parties support e-voting done right. We have a complicated preferencial voting system, PR-STV, involving a "Single Transferable Vote". Counting often takes days, accuracy is dubious (close counts come down to scrutinising squiggles that might be a 2 or 7, 1 or 2, 5 or 8, etc.) E-voting done properly would be of tremendous benefit.
But there's STILL no voter-verifiable paper audit trail planned. Grrr.
Hmmm... Quite remarkable performance - I wouldn't be too impressed either - with Firefox OR more importantly, WinXP.
The only issue I've had is closed Firefox whilst it's loading Java/Javascript is a surefire way to crash it - though considering I'm closing it anyways - this is only slightly annoying. Generally any time I've had it screw up, it's involving some form of Java.
Then again - I've had other problems with Java. The latest version doesn't support some old applets on a piece of industrial hardware we have here in our lab. Quite a nasty problem. (One shouldn't be forced to run an older ver!)
I wouldn't recommend Firefox or anything other than MSIE for a commercial environment using Windows. Reason? IE IS integral to the OS - it needs to be supported and updated ANYWAY even if not used. SO - most commercial companies can't have the extra effort of supporting a second browser.
For personal preference, at home or work (if permitted) Firefox is nice though. Mostly because it is faster and less troublesome than IE - but also cause of tabs, pop-up blocking, extensions (adblock?), cookie blocking, it's not MSIE:o) Nice general tin-foiliness.
Print screen is STILL very useful. Why on earth would you do anything else than hit print screen to put a screen grab in Windows onto the clipboard?
For anyone using Windows for development, particularly GUI apps, it's a function taken for granted. All you have to do is Print screen, and paste into whatever report you're doing. Or save even just using MSPaint.
> I can't remember the last time, if ever, I saw a French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Dutch language spam
Ummm... I can. I started to receive some spam in Portuguese (poss. Brazilian Portuguese) as soon as I was in contact with someone from Portugal who uses hotmail.
Evidently something leaked out from hotmail... The timing was far too co-incidental...
I've managed to keep Windows stable on all installations I've used since 1998.
This involves a DOS/Win95/WinNT4/Linux station (4 partitions, 3 formats) which is still going since 1998 without re-install. I have studiously avoided a re-install because I have better things to do. (Especially as getting things set up perfectly takes a while). I wouldn't have bothered with DOS/Win95 except for my old DOS games and later DirectX games.
A Win2K station which has been very nice, I guess I prefer it to NT4 or XP.
A WinXP station. I had some initial hardware probs - an old CD-writer was a no-go with it and made it crash - some of the worst behaviour I had from Windows ever. (You wouldn't believe how seldom I've had complete OS crashes - not since an earlier Win95 installation than the one listed)
But this happy existence is due to knowing what I'm doing, using good hardware, and "fixing" Windows after the default install. A co-worker nicely screwed up his 2K box after, Oh, 1 week! (Yeah, OK, I help him. Mostly by running Spybot S&D and suggesting a hammer) My only problem has been a worry about the amount of patches 2K needs... It's like something held together with Sellotape. From that point of view XP is perhaps better once you remove the chrome. After all, it's v5.1 of the same thing!
Oh, prior to '98 was the fun realms of DOS, Win3.x, etc... Oh, fond memories of fiddling with autoexec.bat and config.sys, win.ini, etc. etc. Hitting my head off a brick wall. You know the story.
And not to mention the computer consoles running on 20,000 Volts! Slightest bit of damage to the ship and they explode in a shower of sparks, killing another redshirt.
I mean, even using PCs with Windows I've only twice had any type of explosion. Kids, don't use a monitor right after its been stored in a damp garage for a few months... Incident no. 2 was also monitor related, an old monitor gave up the ghost with enough "poof" to fry the graphics card. But of course, CRT monitors DO have whopping great voltages:o)
To be honest, I think the whole browser war thing, and MSIE's grasp for world domination is about control. Thereafter, perhaps there's potential to make money out of it. But first and foremost in the mind of Microsoft with their IE and Media Player "shove-it-down-your-throat"ness is control I am sure.
I don't know about in the U.S. but here in the E.U. (Ireland) the Authorities view it as entirely their business to restrict business practices that are not beneficial to consumers and suppliers in the long run.
I for one am delighted that there is someone (Brussels) who makes SOME attempt to stop the "big bad corporations" getting out of hand. It's not like they don't strive to encourage business too. Just that it's with an aim of "good" business and not "bad" business.
Hence the whole Ryanair saga. Despite the cheap prices, it's moving into the realm of "bad" business.
It's no good letting someone get the violet, green, yellow and red streets plus the railway stations. They'll bankrupt you in no time.
I hope I'm making sense, after midnight it's hard!
Does anyone else here not find it somewhat amazing that "feet" are being used in relation to such a scientific endeavour?
SI units anyone? Why am I reminded of that probe that had problems because NASA mixed up Imperial and Metric measurements?!
I mean, it's one thing using Imperial for everyday stuff (not that I like that - seeing as we weren't even taught it in school!) - but scientific purposes? Argh!
> Beter yet whenever we travel abroad (to another EU country) we end up paying calls for about 1.2$ per minute.
I really hope that the European Commission cracks down on the operators over this. They need to get their act together. The whole mobile roaming thing is a serious impediment to the principle of freedom of movement in the E.U. In fact, I suspect that because of this it's only a matter of time before they do force the operators' hands.
I mean for crying out loud, I have to roam even whilst travelling elsewhere in Ireland. (N.I. is U.K. networks). Yet Vodafone and O2 are two major networks both sides of the border. Can ANY valid reason be offered for higher roaming (heck, ANY roaming) charges in the case of ROI/NI cross-over?
Even if there is higher costs involved, they could have roaming charges DOUBLE the normal charges and STILL be a fraction of what current roaming charges are.
GRRRR. Gnarg. BLEAH. Rant, rave, etc... Just don't get me started on BANKING whilst in other E.U. States - it's mental (and expensive) DESPITE the Eurozone!
> It a perfect world, a utopian dream if you will, you would vote for who you think is the best man/woman for the job. However this is a pipe dream and won't produce the results you want.
Umm... here in Ireland that is exactly what you do. Preferential voting using the PR-STV system. Your vote ALWAYS counts. If your higher preferences are no-hopers or get elected without your help, your vote is transferred down your list.
Works reasonably well - but unfortunately politicians are politicians. Plus we have the cons of some radicals/extremists elected and the major parties still being same old same old.
Oh yes, and without being too repetitive (see my earlier posts) our govt. is going to screw us all with e-voting and neither the public nor the powers that be in Brussels give two hoots.
Unfortunately, it is probably a VERY bad idea to be running Win2K without a later version of IE.
Because regardless of what Microsoft pretend or what others accuse or don't accuse, the fact is that IE has been MADE an integral part of the OS.
I don't use IE anymore, (Firebirdyfoxchicken has served me well for months now with no hitches) but I STILL keep it up to date. Unfortunately it's essential for sensible operation of Windows.
> thanks to some Windows screw up when I was forced to re-install it, thankfully for the last six months, C was read-only on my PC, having been accidently assigned by Windows to my CD-ROM drive.
Heh heh, yup, that's pretty impressive even for Windows. You gotta love it. (brushing your teeth with Coca-cola style loving it)
For real fun though, you can beat putting a Win9x installed HDD into a different machine and booting it up. It's like a brain transplant as far as the OS is concerned - watch it go NUTS. (Hey looky, I've found 3 PCI bridges, 10 processors and 50 other motherboard components!)
Here in Ireland, as I mentioned last time this subject came up, we are due to be subjected to country-wide electronic voting. This will happen for the upcoming Presidential and European Parliament elections.
The suggestions made by the parent poster, re: a paper audit trail/receipts is exactly what the opposition political parties and campaigners are asking for. It's essential for an e-voting system. Not only can you manually count from actual ballot boxes in case of close result, suspiscion of tampering or soft record fault, but it is vital to have random voting locations chosen for manual audit.
Here in Ireland we have Proportional Representation with Single Transferable Vote. (PR-STV) I won't explain in-depth, but it is a complicated system (to count at least) whereby we vote our preferences. Candidates are eliminated in an iterative process (lowest acheivers first) whilst those reaching a (3rd/4th/5th = no. of seats + one) of the total vote (reaching the quota) are voted in. BOTH these types iterations mean extra votes are redistributed (the next preference the voter made) - those who reach the quota have extra votes they don't need redistributed.
It's one of the fairest democratic systems around - but don't tell me electronic voting isn't needed when general election results can be final sometimes only after a week or more! (imagine a recount in a constituency with 12+ iterations (counts))
But I want a e-voting system I CAN TRUST!!!
Re:No action taken
on
Cell-Phone Wars
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
A cinema in Dublin (Ireland), the Savoy, mass installed these devices. Needless to say, the regulatory authorities were rather swift to force them to turn the system off.
It's a matter of principle really. In this instance, one could argue that there's no need for calls to be made in the theatres and that there's no automatic "right" for someone to do so. However, the State regulatory bodies quite rightly take the view that no interference with regulated signals should be created - illegal signals can have wide/unforeseen reprecussions.
It doesn't matter really how convincing the perpetrator of a survey is, you still have to take it with a pinch of salt and avoid relying on them too heavily. (Unfortunately govt.s often ignore this).
Because yes, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
> Or a pro-mugging measure. Why bother accosting people at random when your RFID gun tells you the little old lady on the corner is toting around $5,000 in cash?
Ah sure, we could just track who each banknote "belongs" to, thieves can then be tracked, as can defrauders/moneylaunderers. Unless they ACTUALLY "launder" the money.
Yeah, OK, I'm kidding here.
Still, I could see govt's (US, EU, particularly) being silly enough to introduce these RFID tags on currency.
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> You aren't paying the postage for those CDs unlike spam. Junk mail is paid for by whoever is sending it.
In Ireland and many other countries, you have to pay for refuse collection. In fact, we even pay by weight in many places now, and have to segregate our waste too.
Extra unwanted items are becoming distinctly unpopular here.
Yeah, yeah, a CD is nothing weight-wise and refuse-wise, but what is the overall cost in waste - both monetarily and environmentally?
There's a whole lot of hullaballo by people who don't quite get the picture here. It's an E.U. DIRECTIVE. Not the same as a law. It's a bunch of orders which should be implemented in State law as the governments see fit. (They only have to follow the broad thrust of the directive, and not clash with it).
If a government decides to implement this in a draconian way - then it is that government who should be lambasted, NOT the E.U. This is the usual E.U. bashing from Euroskeptics who are having the wool pulled in front of their eyes by their own national government. Governments all over the E.U. tend to blame the E.U. for unpopular decisions the GOVERNMENT have made.
Don't expect to see national governments implementing powers of search and destroy for anything other than suspected mass counterfeiters. They'll be out on their ear sooner than you can say "general election".
Piracy here in Ireland is CERTAINLY financing terrorists in Northern Ireland. It HAS to go. These measures outlined in the directive ARE badly needed on an E.U.-wide basis to counter-act mass counterfeiters.
I remember here in Ireland we were advised to stay inside on some particular day because of slightly radioactive rain.
Chernobyl is something that the Ukraine and Belorus in particular will have with them for a long time. From May, the European Union will have a border with both. Eventually the E.U. will have to start paying a lot more money to help clean-up contaminated areas in Eastern Europe, and fix up nuclear reactors.
To put it in perspective, for us in Ireland (the E.U. state furthest to the west), it's the same distance away as the Arizona desert is from New York. If this happened in Arizona - I think you East Coast folks would be, well, worried. And similarly, the U.S. would have much more upset people in Texas and California.
I sincerely hope that this results in a serious rethink of the Euratom treaty. (Officially at least, the E.U. still promotes and supports nuclear power).
Is there any kind of International treaties governing use of the Moon? I'm thinking particularly of the situation with the Antarctic here. There certainly should be some kind of International agreement that it's "common ground".
If not, I suggest ESA had better at least mount some similar type of mission to NASA, making sure that there is more than one "presence" on the moon.
Yeah, OK, it's just a ball of rock - but it's a tad upsetting to think someone else might single-handedly "claim" the entirity of that pretty disc in the sky.
Be nice to have something kind of the opposite to this for your mobile. You DON'T hear ANY ambient noise. In fact, it'd be nice if your mobile emitted some kind of field like the Babylon 5 "private conversation booths". No more hearing people shout "I'm on the bus". Even better, no more having to shout "I'm on the bus".
Just saw this link on TV this evening. It's the "information" website about electronic voting - they've chosen to do this only now that it's already a fait accomplit.
Another link - the Irish Labour party's policy document on e-voting. Quite nicely sums up a lot of the worries about e-voting here.
The plan is to use these e-voting machines, installed at a cost of 43 million, in all constituencies for the upcoming local council and European parliament elections in June. The machines have only been testing in a few count centres during the last general election.
The government just recently set up an independant commission to review the system - despite the advanced stage of things! This in fact is the main bone of contention - that not enough thought and planning has gone into it all!
The govt. are behaving extremely arrogantly as usual. Responding to criticism of the system by academics and experts around the world, our Taoiseach (prime minister) Bertie Ahern stated that we didn't need them telling us how to do things because we supply so much of the world's software. Ho hum. Go figure.
The minister responsible for bringing in the system is insistent that it can be checked up on. You can print out the stored results and manually count them no bother. Woo hoo - THAT'S reassuring.
I'm not a happy camper - I've been emailing our TDs (Members of parliament) left right and centre.
It's important to note that all the parties support e-voting done right. We have a complicated preferencial voting system, PR-STV, involving a "Single Transferable Vote". Counting often takes days, accuracy is dubious (close counts come down to scrutinising squiggles that might be a 2 or 7, 1 or 2, 5 or 8, etc.) E-voting done properly would be of tremendous benefit.
But there's STILL no voter-verifiable paper audit trail planned. Grrr.
Hmmm... Quite remarkable performance - I wouldn't be too impressed either - with Firefox OR more importantly, WinXP.
:o) Nice general tin-foiliness.
The only issue I've had is closed Firefox whilst it's loading Java/Javascript is a surefire way to crash it - though considering I'm closing it anyways - this is only slightly annoying. Generally any time I've had it screw up, it's involving some form of Java.
Then again - I've had other problems with Java. The latest version doesn't support some old applets on a piece of industrial hardware we have here in our lab. Quite a nasty problem. (One shouldn't be forced to run an older ver!)
I wouldn't recommend Firefox or anything other than MSIE for a commercial environment using Windows. Reason? IE IS integral to the OS - it needs to be supported and updated ANYWAY even if not used. SO - most commercial companies can't have the extra effort of supporting a second browser.
For personal preference, at home or work (if permitted) Firefox is nice though. Mostly because it is faster and less troublesome than IE - but also cause of tabs, pop-up blocking, extensions (adblock?), cookie blocking, it's not MSIE
> Print Screen was pretty useful
Print screen is STILL very useful. Why on earth would you do anything else than hit print screen to put a screen grab in Windows onto the clipboard?
For anyone using Windows for development, particularly GUI apps, it's a function taken for granted. All you have to do is Print screen, and paste into whatever report you're doing. Or save even just using MSPaint.
Heh heh, the probe landing on Titan is European... I'm sure it won't find any hydro-carbons... the US won't hear of any being found at any rate... :o)
I'm just kidding around. Some folks are way too uptight. Modding down the parent post? Come on, it's funny and had to be said!
> I can't remember the last time, if ever, I saw a French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Dutch language spam
Ummm... I can. I started to receive some spam in Portuguese (poss. Brazilian Portuguese) as soon as I was in contact with someone from Portugal who uses hotmail.
Evidently something leaked out from hotmail... The timing was far too co-incidental...
I've managed to keep Windows stable on all installations I've used since 1998.
This involves a DOS/Win95/WinNT4/Linux station (4 partitions, 3 formats) which is still going since 1998 without re-install. I have studiously avoided a re-install because I have better things to do. (Especially as getting things set up perfectly takes a while). I wouldn't have bothered with DOS/Win95 except for my old DOS games and later DirectX games.
A Win2K station which has been very nice, I guess I prefer it to NT4 or XP.
A WinXP station. I had some initial hardware probs - an old CD-writer was a no-go with it and made it crash - some of the worst behaviour I had from Windows ever. (You wouldn't believe how seldom I've had complete OS crashes - not since an earlier Win95 installation than the one listed)
But this happy existence is due to knowing what I'm doing, using good hardware, and "fixing" Windows after the default install. A co-worker nicely screwed up his 2K box after, Oh, 1 week! (Yeah, OK, I help him. Mostly by running Spybot S&D and suggesting a hammer) My only problem has been a worry about the amount of patches 2K needs... It's like something held together with Sellotape. From that point of view XP is perhaps better once you remove the chrome. After all, it's v5.1 of the same thing!
Oh, prior to '98 was the fun realms of DOS, Win3.x, etc... Oh, fond memories of fiddling with autoexec.bat and config.sys, win.ini, etc. etc. Hitting my head off a brick wall. You know the story.
And not to mention the computer consoles running on 20,000 Volts! Slightest bit of damage to the ship and they explode in a shower of sparks, killing another redshirt.
:o)
I mean, even using PCs with Windows I've only twice had any type of explosion. Kids, don't use a monitor right after its been stored in a damp garage for a few months... Incident no. 2 was also monitor related, an old monitor gave up the ghost with enough "poof" to fry the graphics card. But of course, CRT monitors DO have whopping great voltages
To be honest, I think the whole browser war thing, and MSIE's grasp for world domination is about control. Thereafter, perhaps there's potential to make money out of it. But first and foremost in the mind of Microsoft with their IE and Media Player "shove-it-down-your-throat"ness is control I am sure.
I don't know about in the U.S. but here in the E.U. (Ireland) the Authorities view it as entirely their business to restrict business practices that are not beneficial to consumers and suppliers in the long run.
I for one am delighted that there is someone (Brussels) who makes SOME attempt to stop the "big bad corporations" getting out of hand. It's not like they don't strive to encourage business too. Just that it's with an aim of "good" business and not "bad" business.
Hence the whole Ryanair saga. Despite the cheap prices, it's moving into the realm of "bad" business.
It's no good letting someone get the violet, green, yellow and red streets plus the railway stations. They'll bankrupt you in no time.
I hope I'm making sense, after midnight it's hard!
Does anyone else here not find it somewhat amazing that "feet" are being used in relation to such a scientific endeavour?
SI units anyone? Why am I reminded of that probe that had problems because NASA mixed up Imperial and Metric measurements?!
I mean, it's one thing using Imperial for everyday stuff (not that I like that - seeing as we weren't even taught it in school!) - but scientific purposes? Argh!
> Beter yet whenever we travel abroad (to another EU country) we end up paying calls for about 1.2$ per minute.
I really hope that the European Commission cracks down on the operators over this. They need to get their act together. The whole mobile roaming thing is a serious impediment to the principle of freedom of movement in the E.U. In fact, I suspect that because of this it's only a matter of time before they do force the operators' hands.
I mean for crying out loud, I have to roam even whilst travelling elsewhere in Ireland. (N.I. is U.K. networks). Yet Vodafone and O2 are two major networks both sides of the border. Can ANY valid reason be offered for higher roaming (heck, ANY roaming) charges in the case of ROI/NI cross-over?
Even if there is higher costs involved, they could have roaming charges DOUBLE the normal charges and STILL be a fraction of what current roaming charges are.
GRRRR. Gnarg. BLEAH. Rant, rave, etc... Just don't get me started on BANKING whilst in other E.U. States - it's mental (and expensive) DESPITE the Eurozone!
> It a perfect world, a utopian dream if you will, you would vote for who you think is the best man/woman for the job. However this is a pipe dream and won't produce the results you want.
Umm... here in Ireland that is exactly what you do. Preferential voting using the PR-STV system. Your vote ALWAYS counts. If your higher preferences are no-hopers or get elected without your help, your vote is transferred down your list.
Works reasonably well - but unfortunately politicians are politicians. Plus we have the cons of some radicals/extremists elected and the major parties still being same old same old.
Oh yes, and without being too repetitive (see my earlier posts) our govt. is going to screw us all with e-voting and neither the public nor the powers that be in Brussels give two hoots.
Remember folks, vote early, vote often.
Unfortunately, it is probably a VERY bad idea to be running Win2K without a later version of IE.
Because regardless of what Microsoft pretend or what others accuse or don't accuse, the fact is that IE has been MADE an integral part of the OS.
I don't use IE anymore, (Firebirdyfoxchicken has served me well for months now with no hitches) but I STILL keep it up to date. Unfortunately it's essential for sensible operation of Windows.
IMHO.
Nope, I can assure you that is one phrase I have not heard anywhere else but in the ramblings of my imagination!
I must remember it though, tis quite good.
> thanks to some Windows screw up when I was forced to re-install it, thankfully for the last six months, C was read-only on my PC, having been accidently assigned by Windows to my CD-ROM drive.
Heh heh, yup, that's pretty impressive even for Windows. You gotta love it. (brushing your teeth with Coca-cola style loving it)
For real fun though, you can beat putting a Win9x installed HDD into a different machine and booting it up. It's like a brain transplant as far as the OS is concerned - watch it go NUTS. (Hey looky, I've found 3 PCI bridges, 10 processors and 50 other motherboard components!)
Here in Ireland, as I mentioned last time this subject came up, we are due to be subjected to country-wide electronic voting. This will happen for the upcoming Presidential and European Parliament elections.
The suggestions made by the parent poster, re: a paper audit trail/receipts is exactly what the opposition political parties and campaigners are asking for. It's essential for an e-voting system. Not only can you manually count from actual ballot boxes in case of close result, suspiscion of tampering or soft record fault, but it is vital to have random voting locations chosen for manual audit.
Here in Ireland we have Proportional Representation with Single Transferable Vote. (PR-STV) I won't explain in-depth, but it is a complicated system (to count at least) whereby we vote our preferences. Candidates are eliminated in an iterative process (lowest acheivers first) whilst those reaching a (3rd/4th/5th = no. of seats + one) of the total vote (reaching the quota) are voted in. BOTH these types iterations mean extra votes are redistributed (the next preference the voter made) - those who reach the quota have extra votes they don't need redistributed.
It's one of the fairest democratic systems around - but don't tell me electronic voting isn't needed when general election results can be final sometimes only after a week or more! (imagine a recount in a constituency with 12+ iterations (counts))
But I want a e-voting system I CAN TRUST!!!
A cinema in Dublin (Ireland), the Savoy, mass installed these devices. Needless to say, the regulatory authorities were rather swift to force them to turn the system off.
It's a matter of principle really. In this instance, one could argue that there's no need for calls to be made in the theatres and that there's no automatic "right" for someone to do so. However, the State regulatory bodies quite rightly take the view that no interference with regulated signals should be created - illegal signals can have wide/unforeseen reprecussions.
It doesn't matter really how convincing the perpetrator of a survey is, you still have to take it with a pinch of salt and avoid relying on them too heavily. (Unfortunately govt.s often ignore this).
Because yes, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
> Or a pro-mugging measure. Why bother accosting people at random when your RFID gun tells you the little old lady on the corner is toting around $5,000 in cash?
Ah sure, we could just track who each banknote "belongs" to, thieves can then be tracked, as can defrauders/moneylaunderers. Unless they ACTUALLY "launder" the money.
Yeah, OK, I'm kidding here.
Still, I could see govt's (US, EU, particularly) being silly enough to introduce these RFID tags on currency.