This would actually be a really good use for it: I currently use mine as a hard drive to store movies so I don't have to have them on my laptop's drive. It would be kind of like the iPod Photo, but with video instead.
How can they call it a "fully-loaded" computer? It doesn't even come with speakers! Everyone knows that a fully loaded computer needs to have speakers. It's just not really functional without them.
I think I was unclear. Yes, I totally agree that the point of having an election is to count the vote the way to voter intended. However, my statement was that the point of using machines is so that people are not counting the ballot, reducing the risk of human error, and thus making it more likely to show what the voters want. The problem is exactly what you mention, that there is an unauditable black box in the way. Personally, I think the best compromise is a scantron, clearly made, and held to a single, national design. The votes are tallied electronically, but all the ballots are kept, and counted manually in the event of a close or contested election. The only downside to this is that it IS a little bit slower, both to tally, and to vote.
The words we need to use are "Voter-verifiable paper BALLOT." You don't want the electronic record on the machine to be the official vote, and a little piece of paper for a souvenier; you want the goddamn piece of paper to be the official vote, so that you can COUNT THEM BY HAND if there are any questions. This is the only way to make sure that some invisible bits aren't being stolen/moved/dropped, people: THE ONLY WAY.
5. at the end of the day, people open the boxes, and count the votes.
The problem with this is that it completely goes back against the entire purpose of electronic voting machines. The whole point is that you don't have to have anyone counting the ballots, hopefully removing at least some human error from the process (losing count, miscounting, ballots getting stuck together, etc). Automated talliers that read scantron or punch cards do the same thing: they try to make it faster, with less chance of human error.
In a perfect world, the only human involvement would be the voters. But, the world isn't perfect, so there needs to be some balance between the two. However, using completely automated and electronic voting machines, then having the machine print out a ballot that is then counted by hand, is rediculous. You might as well just get rid of the machines and accomplish the exact same thing. Paper trails are good, ballots are good, and I personally think we should forget about electronic voting and go back to only using paper ballots that are then hand counted.
I'd love to be able to pass all of this off as just a bunch of FUD, because that's what it seems like on the surface. The problem is that if you go deeper, something is actually there./. search is down, so I can't find the articles quickly, but in the wake of the last election, there were numerous stories about problems without a lack of paper trail, including one man who claimed to have been commissioned to, and did, build a prototype of a machine that would say on the screen that a vote for one candidate had been registered, but then tally a vote for a different one. IARC, the software behind it would calculate what percentage of votes it would change based on real-time voting data. The problem with a paper trail from an electronic machine is that the same thing could happen, and the machine would print out a reciept verifying the message on the screen, but still mark the vote the other way.
However you look at it, and however many problems there are with machines, having no paper trail makes these problems infinitely worse. So the question is, FUD or not?
I had the chance to use one of these things about five years ago. As part of a class, one thing we did was to take light intensity and temperature data. The really nice thing about the Newton was that, well before any of the Palm devices, you were able to take data, and then manipulate it right on the spot.
AFAIK, the Newton got discontinued because there was no demand for it. They weren't selling well, so Apple decided that it wouldn't make them anymore. Had it come around several years later, just as Palms, etc, were exploding into the market, the current tablet PC market would be a lot different.
FTA: the motor provides enough torque at one revolution per minute to put a vehicle into motion - and it spins at up to 2,500rpm. That's a lot of freaking torque. "Serious juice" is an understatement. I'm not really sure exactly how much, but I'm sure that even one of these things would take more power than currently available in most electric car batteries. To run four of them at once, not just at once, but in sync, you'd probably have to hook it up to more power than would be worthwhile to use: you'd either have so much weight from batteries, or it would have to have a really long power cord.
Unfortunately, you're right. This is how a lot of bills pass. It's also how a lot of pork barrel expenses get passed. They take either pork or bills that would never pass, and attach them to then end of some really long bill that can't get failed. Unfortunately, this is how our government works. Horse trading, pork, riders...I hate Congress sometimes.
Yeah, but how will we ever find out? For all we know, the notice will be posted in the basement of a Magrathean worker's barracks, buried in a pile of porno mags, and we'll only have one hour to register our complaint.
Thank you for clearing up that yours was a joke. It's just that, while there is a great opportunity for jokes, there are just as many, if not more, people that say things like that, without joking. It wasn't that the joke offended me; I'll laugh at pretty much any joke, ever, because I realize that it's all just in fun, and it's mostly the case that I don't agree with the opinion in the joke, I just think that it's funny.
I felt motivated to say something, because to me, it felt that it wasn't actually a joke, which is too often the case on/., and I have a really low tolerance for the stupidity of things like that. I deal with enough stupid people on a daily basis that I just can't take it after a while. Especially on a forum, where it's often impossible to tell if a post is meant in jest or seriously, the line between joke and troll is very blurry. To me, by explaining your point, it makes it even more clear that it was a joke; if it hadn't been, I wouldn't expect a reply. So, thank you for clarifying.
This is exactly the kind of thing the guy is talking about. He wrote the article because he, like many, myself included, is fed up with people namecalling and bashing based on broad generalizations. Can we PLEASE be done with that? There are too many people making ignorant attacks on people from the other "side" of the arguement.
For the record, I am not a diehard Mac fan. I like Macs, because that's what I was brought up on, but I can definitely see where Windows can have its advantages.
The article is a wonderful break, and hopefully people will listen. My only problem with the article was its example of how on a Mac you can't rename or delete a file from the open or save dialoge. True, you can't delete from either dialogue, or rename in the open dialogue, but you can rename from the save dialogue. Other than that, the article was very intelligently written.
Maybe I have a misconception of how zombies work, but couldn't whoever's controlling them just call up the IP and get them to unblock that port for that computer?
About 75 percent of a group of CEOs interviewed by IBM's Business Consulting Services said education and a lack of qualified candidates are the two issues with the greatest impact on their business
I live in a pretty small town, so the movie wasn't going to sell out sixteen screens or anything, but the local theater opened up three rooms out of their four (see?), and people were standing in line all afternoon, including in costume. One kid I know showed up at 11:30, got two tickets, and watched. I feel sorry for all the poor suckers who waited in line for 9 hours or more...
Somehow I think the technical difficulties will be solved. Even if it means a database of IP address to geographic location mappings.
Another possible solution is to put a GPS or some other sort of tracking device in the phone that is activated when a 911 call is made. Just like the current system where a little light goes off on a board, but it will be a light based off of some sort of global coordinates rather than a street address. They have devices that are accurate to within 50 feet or so, definitely close enough to pinpoint one house.
Claiming that post-it notes are ancestors of hyper-links is like saying that the red pen used by teachers is the ancestor of versioning systems...
It's not quite that far out of line. It is possible to see the connection they've tried to make, between directly linking an idea to another idea without interfereing with the first and HTML, because that is kind of how HTML works, but I understand what you're saying. It's quite a bit of a stretch, but the items are related more closely than red pens and versioning systems. I can't come up with an example right now, but I'm sure some fellow/.er will help me out.
Are they forgetting that these 11Mbps or 54Mbps speeds are the aggregate total for an access point? I hope not.
Also, if you get a powerful enough microwave or something else that transmits in that 2.4Ghz wavelength it should be fairly easy to bring down the entire campus "phone, cable TV, and Internet services."
I live near Dartmouth, and have often used their internet. This isn't a problem: almost everywhere you go, the internet is fast and reliable. Even the wireless is great. Everywhere. You can even get wireless at the college-run ski area!
About the microwave, it would take a lot of power to get that much interference. Even if you were in the middle of campus, it's a long way to stretch to get to some of the places, so it would take enough power to fry everything in its path...Not to say that that wouldn't be just as amusing.
It's a joke. The story refers to Alfred NobLE, not NobEL. I don't know anything about Wink, or whether or not the "Alfred Noble" referenced is real, made up, or irrelevant. It's just that people have run out of stories to post, so they came up with something like this.
The problem is, there are already things that do this. For the search, there are already two programs that I know of that do this: LaunchBar (http://www.obdev.at/) and Quicksilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/).
As for the info display panel, from what I've seen, it seems a lot like Konfabulator (http://www.konfabulator.com/). So, while it's nice to have these things built in, neither one of them are original ideas from either corporation.
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This would actually be a really good use for it: I currently use mine as a hard drive to store movies so I don't have to have them on my laptop's drive. It would be kind of like the iPod Photo, but with video instead.
I once ordered a ninja burger, but it never came, so I guess that the delivery person committed seppuku.
*Ducks*
I think I was unclear. Yes, I totally agree that the point of having an election is to count the vote the way to voter intended. However, my statement was that the point of using machines is so that people are not counting the ballot, reducing the risk of human error, and thus making it more likely to show what the voters want. The problem is exactly what you mention, that there is an unauditable black box in the way. Personally, I think the best compromise is a scantron, clearly made, and held to a single, national design. The votes are tallied electronically, but all the ballots are kept, and counted manually in the event of a close or contested election. The only downside to this is that it IS a little bit slower, both to tally, and to vote.
5. at the end of the day, people open the boxes, and count the votes.
The problem with this is that it completely goes back against the entire purpose of electronic voting machines. The whole point is that you don't have to have anyone counting the ballots, hopefully removing at least some human error from the process (losing count, miscounting, ballots getting stuck together, etc). Automated talliers that read scantron or punch cards do the same thing: they try to make it faster, with less chance of human error.
In a perfect world, the only human involvement would be the voters. But, the world isn't perfect, so there needs to be some balance between the two. However, using completely automated and electronic voting machines, then having the machine print out a ballot that is then counted by hand, is rediculous. You might as well just get rid of the machines and accomplish the exact same thing. Paper trails are good, ballots are good, and I personally think we should forget about electronic voting and go back to only using paper ballots that are then hand counted.
However you look at it, and however many problems there are with machines, having no paper trail makes these problems infinitely worse. So the question is, FUD or not?
There's a mirror at MirrorDot, for all you people having problems with the original and the Coral (as I did).
AFAIK, the Newton got discontinued because there was no demand for it. They weren't selling well, so Apple decided that it wouldn't make them anymore. Had it come around several years later, just as Palms, etc, were exploding into the market, the current tablet PC market would be a lot different.
FTA: the motor provides enough torque at one revolution per minute to put a vehicle into motion - and it spins at up to 2,500rpm. That's a lot of freaking torque. "Serious juice" is an understatement. I'm not really sure exactly how much, but I'm sure that even one of these things would take more power than currently available in most electric car batteries. To run four of them at once, not just at once, but in sync, you'd probably have to hook it up to more power than would be worthwhile to use: you'd either have so much weight from batteries, or it would have to have a really long power cord.
Unfortunately, you're right. This is how a lot of bills pass. It's also how a lot of pork barrel expenses get passed. They take either pork or bills that would never pass, and attach them to then end of some really long bill that can't get failed. Unfortunately, this is how our government works. Horse trading, pork, riders...I hate Congress sometimes.
How exactly would one become a direct blood relative of Genghis Khan if one is not already? Seriously, though, how?
Yeah, but how will we ever find out? For all we know, the notice will be posted in the basement of a Magrathean worker's barracks, buried in a pile of porno mags, and we'll only have one hour to register our complaint.
I felt motivated to say something, because to me, it felt that it wasn't actually a joke, which is too often the case on /., and I have a really low tolerance for the stupidity of things like that. I deal with enough stupid people on a daily basis that I just can't take it after a while. Especially on a forum, where it's often impossible to tell if a post is meant in jest or seriously, the line between joke and troll is very blurry. To me, by explaining your point, it makes it even more clear that it was a joke; if it hadn't been, I wouldn't expect a reply. So, thank you for clarifying.
For the record, I am not a diehard Mac fan. I like Macs, because that's what I was brought up on, but I can definitely see where Windows can have its advantages.
The article is a wonderful break, and hopefully people will listen. My only problem with the article was its example of how on a Mac you can't rename or delete a file from the open or save dialoge. True, you can't delete from either dialogue, or rename in the open dialogue, but you can rename from the save dialogue. Other than that, the article was very intelligently written.
Maybe I have a misconception of how zombies work, but couldn't whoever's controlling them just call up the IP and get them to unblock that port for that computer?
Isnt this just the same issue stated twice?
See? They're right.
I live in a pretty small town, so the movie wasn't going to sell out sixteen screens or anything, but the local theater opened up three rooms out of their four (see?), and people were standing in line all afternoon, including in costume. One kid I know showed up at 11:30, got two tickets, and watched. I feel sorry for all the poor suckers who waited in line for 9 hours or more...
Another possible solution is to put a GPS or some other sort of tracking device in the phone that is activated when a 911 call is made. Just like the current system where a little light goes off on a board, but it will be a light based off of some sort of global coordinates rather than a street address. They have devices that are accurate to within 50 feet or so, definitely close enough to pinpoint one house.
No, no you haven't. It's all just the vast liberal conspiracy. They just want you to hate America. Now move along and go collect your tax refund.
It's not quite that far out of line. It is possible to see the connection they've tried to make, between directly linking an idea to another idea without interfereing with the first and HTML, because that is kind of how HTML works, but I understand what you're saying. It's quite a bit of a stretch, but the items are related more closely than red pens and versioning systems. I can't come up with an example right now, but I'm sure some fellow /.er will help me out.
I live near Dartmouth, and have often used their internet. This isn't a problem: almost everywhere you go, the internet is fast and reliable. Even the wireless is great. Everywhere. You can even get wireless at the college-run ski area!
About the microwave, it would take a lot of power to get that much interference. Even if you were in the middle of campus, it's a long way to stretch to get to some of the places, so it would take enough power to fry everything in its path...Not to say that that wouldn't be just as amusing.
It's a joke. The story refers to Alfred NobLE, not NobEL. I don't know anything about Wink, or whether or not the "Alfred Noble" referenced is real, made up, or irrelevant. It's just that people have run out of stories to post, so they came up with something like this.
So does anyone else start seeing Gary Larson cartoons floating through their heads? Sheep standing on their hind legs and talking, eating people, ect?
Is that an African giant snail or a European giant snail?
The answer may have deep implications on the future of snail-mail.
As for the info display panel, from what I've seen, it seems a lot like Konfabulator (http://www.konfabulator.com/). So, while it's nice to have these things built in, neither one of them are original ideas from either corporation.