I would contend that Diebold does not, in fact, care about providing accurate results. The article somewhat hints on this:
The law firm's memos reflect a corporate defense firm on a $500,000-a-month campaign to protect Diebold.
Regardless of purpose, this establishes that Diebold's primary intention was NOT to make the voting system more accurate or practical, but to make a buck on a cheaper system and hope to play the legal game to get out of trouble if it needed to.
While I agree with you in that most school security is sub-par (and it could be broken with moderate effort), what you are suggesting is (typically) well beyond the grasp of most high school students. IMO, it is at least beyond the grasp of the majority of HS students who would use a program such as Kazaa at school.
By raiding school systems, they have no proof of who downloaded the copyright infringed files
This is not entirely true, and it depends on the school system. If the network is done correctly, you could at least trace network activity to a certain computer on the network. Even if they didn't have user id's, almost every school I know of has security cameras and could pinpoint who was at that computer at that time.
Does anybody really benefit from it, though? That is a tough call.
In reality, I suppose it depends on how you define "innovation." Many things Microsoft has done aren't exactly 100% innovative, either. A lot of their big money makers were brain childs of another company that MS either bought and took over, or started their own and improved on what was laid before them.
I think that if one were to compare which has brought about more innovation (of MS and Linux), Linux would still be at the forefront.
Slashdot Mirror
I would contend that Diebold does not, in fact, care about providing accurate results. The article somewhat hints on this:
The law firm's memos reflect a corporate defense firm on a $500,000-a-month campaign to protect Diebold.
Regardless of purpose, this establishes that Diebold's primary intention was NOT to make the voting system more accurate or practical, but to make a buck on a cheaper system and hope to play the legal game to get out of trouble if it needed to.
1) Use rocketbelt to propel nearly 12 stories into the air
2) ?????????
3) Profit
Am I the only one who immediately thought of Lars from Metallica when reading this post?
While I agree with you in that most school security is sub-par (and it could be broken with moderate effort), what you are suggesting is (typically) well beyond the grasp of most high school students. IMO, it is at least beyond the grasp of the majority of HS students who would use a program such as Kazaa at school.
By raiding school systems, they have no proof of who downloaded the copyright infringed files
This is not entirely true, and it depends on the school system. If the network is done correctly, you could at least trace network activity to a certain computer on the network. Even if they didn't have user id's, almost every school I know of has security cameras and could pinpoint who was at that computer at that time.
Does anybody really benefit from it, though? That is a tough call.
Yes, but... what will I now need to decode my bank statements?
You are able to decode them now??
Now I can transfer my life savings from my bank in LA to my private Swiss bank account in .00000000001 seconds!
Next item on the palm pilot....
In reality, I suppose it depends on how you define "innovation." Many things Microsoft has done aren't exactly 100% innovative, either. A lot of their big money makers were brain childs of another company that MS either bought and took over, or started their own and improved on what was laid before them.
I think that if one were to compare which has brought about more innovation (of MS and Linux), Linux would still be at the forefront.