I didn't say I was "worried" about it, but it would be intresting to know. I am not in the military, but I do remember the bar code from when I was a dependent and had a military I.D.
BTW, I am a contractor and we use the same types of cards you are talking about. Not in the office I work at, but at other offices we have. In one office I can think of the doors actually authenticate you _and_ open the door automatically as you walk towards it. Pretty neat stuff.
You bring up an intresting point. A thief could use a hand held size credit card reader. All he would have to do is "borrow" your card for a second and he has all your card information. You wouldn't even know your information was stolen until they made a bunch of charges on your card.
Psst. Maybe we can sacrifice having the elections results 30 seconds after it happens, and guarantee accurate results. Just because there's not suspicion of fraud doesn't mean there isn't fraud.
But what I don't understand is this. If we are having machines print paper ballots why not just use paper balloting to begin with? Leave the machine out of the equation and just go back to trusty old pen and paper. No source code and no machines printing reciepts.
This technology, in addition to radio, television, cellular, CB, satellite, and microwaves, we should be able to drastically reduce the cancer rate in this country.
Sharing of information has proven very beneficial in science and there is no mention of this in the article. You'd think that this would be one of the first things that would come to mind when one thinks about innovation in ideas.
From the article:
"By some measures, the world's most powerful supercomputer is not owned by NEC or IBM, but is a volunteer project called SETI@home that aggregates the spare processing power of around 4m computers. When an individual's PC is idle, a screen-saver application that users have downloaded kicks in and harnesses the computer's processor to decode radio signals in search of extra-terrestrial life."
Oh really? What is going on in Iraq? We have far superior technology than they do, and they are still able to keep an insurgency going.
And I can tell you have never been to the southern U.S. I live in N.C. and I could tell you without a doubt the rednecks around here would not give in without a fight. Hell, if we were even invaded by another country they wouldn't make it past the Outer Banks let alone places like Georgia and Alabama. Dude, I'm talking _serious_ rednecks.
Remember how the British were crushed by the Americans in the War of 1812 in Louisiana? Andrew Jackson was able to assemble a militia from common men who used their personal rifles.
I'm not sure exactly how this will be implemented, but there is one thing that concerns me about the "terminal" approach to computing.
You are now much more dependent on your connection to the mainframe. If you had an Internet/ISDN/whatever connection to a mainframe server, and that link went down, your employees don't have anything to do.
Here is an example. At my work there is much communication/work completed via e-mail. All sites for my company had their own MS Exchange servers for e-mail. If our Internet link went out our local e-mail worked just fine (although, we obviously couldn't send anything over the Internet).
However, once our company was bought out, our new masters implemented a centralized e-mail system. Can you guess what happened? *ding ding ding* You're right! Router went down and all 100+ employees at our site were worthless.
Maybe one day Internet connectivity will be dependable enough for this to work. I just don't think we are there yet.
It would seem to me that having local application servers and dumb terminals _would_ work.
I work near a military base (Cherry Point) in NC. Out in town it is OK, but once you go on the base, you are not allowed to drive while talking on a cell phone, and the MPs _will_ pull you over if you do. You are allowed to use the hands free system though.
You bring up a really good point. People seem to forget that you are not going to be downloading at 8Mb/s from _anywhere_ unless you have at least 8Mb/s bandwidth from your home, through the Internet, to the destination you are downloading from.
For example, if I host my website on a T-1 line from the phone company (1.5Mb/s Up/down), it is not possible for you to download from me any faster than 1.5Mb/s period. We use a single T-1 to host a couple of different websites at my work, and I imagine this is the case for several companies.
Initially the company plans to release three add ons: a weather information plug in, an RSS reader and a game.
Does anybody really want an RSS reader or a game on their Tivo? Seriously, who is going to play a game on the Tivo, or purchase a Tivo because of these features?
A cool feature would be a network interface you could use to access your saved shows via the computer.
And how long have we been collecting this weather data? It can't be more than a few hundred years. The planet is much older than that. I would imagine it's hard to analyze trends when we are looking at such a small portion of Earth's existance.
Slashdot Mirror
BTW, I am a contractor and we use the same types of cards you are talking about. Not in the office I work at, but at other offices we have. In one office I can think of the doors actually authenticate you _and_ open the door automatically as you walk towards it. Pretty neat stuff.
You bring up an intresting point. A thief could use a hand held size credit card reader. All he would have to do is "borrow" your card for a second and he has all your card information. You wouldn't even know your information was stolen until they made a bunch of charges on your card.
Now we just need to find out what's encoded on the back of our driver's license and military I.D. cards since they don't use a magstripe.
Well you are not decoding encryption you are just reading what is contained on the card. Is that still violating DMCA?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say credit card number? Your name perhaps?
That will even work without the RFID. Just wrap a piece of paper around the potato and bombs away.
The outside walls of the building I work in are metal. No cell phone or radio frequencies getting in here. It's almost like a giant tin foil hat.
Psst. Maybe we can sacrifice having the elections results 30 seconds after it happens, and guarantee accurate results. Just because there's not suspicion of fraud doesn't mean there isn't fraud.
But what I don't understand is this. If we are having machines print paper ballots why not just use paper balloting to begin with? Leave the machine out of the equation and just go back to trusty old pen and paper. No source code and no machines printing reciepts.
You just have to keep the voting boxes secure.
Doomed? Congrats, you just solved the social security crisis.
What?
Microsoft Spyware to Be Free of Charge
This technology, in addition to radio, television, cellular, CB, satellite, and microwaves, we should be able to drastically reduce the cancer rate in this country.
From the article:
"By some measures, the world's most powerful supercomputer is not owned by NEC or IBM, but is a volunteer project called SETI@home that aggregates the spare processing power of around 4m computers. When an individual's PC is idle, a screen-saver application that users have downloaded kicks in and harnesses the computer's processor to decode radio signals in search of extra-terrestrial life."
Maybe he said it in the intrest of full disclosure.
And I can tell you have never been to the southern U.S. I live in N.C. and I could tell you without a doubt the rednecks around here would not give in without a fight. Hell, if we were even invaded by another country they wouldn't make it past the Outer Banks let alone places like Georgia and Alabama. Dude, I'm talking _serious_ rednecks.
Remember how the British were crushed by the Americans in the War of 1812 in Louisiana? Andrew Jackson was able to assemble a militia from common men who used their personal rifles.
An armed populous is not such a bad thing.
...and the FAA was worried about laser pointers? I see ads in the sky as a greater risk to pilots.
You are now much more dependent on your connection to the mainframe. If you had an Internet/ISDN/whatever connection to a mainframe server, and that link went down, your employees don't have anything to do.
Here is an example. At my work there is much communication/work completed via e-mail. All sites for my company had their own MS Exchange servers for e-mail. If our Internet link went out our local e-mail worked just fine (although, we obviously couldn't send anything over the Internet).
However, once our company was bought out, our new masters implemented a centralized e-mail system. Can you guess what happened? *ding ding ding* You're right! Router went down and all 100+ employees at our site were worthless.
Maybe one day Internet connectivity will be dependable enough for this to work. I just don't think we are there yet.
It would seem to me that having local application servers and dumb terminals _would_ work.
I am shocked you would suggest such a thing!
I work near a military base (Cherry Point) in NC. Out in town it is OK, but once you go on the base, you are not allowed to drive while talking on a cell phone, and the MPs _will_ pull you over if you do. You are allowed to use the hands free system though.
I recommend you don't try chewing bubble gum and walking at the same time...
For example, if I host my website on a T-1 line from the phone company (1.5Mb/s Up/down), it is not possible for you to download from me any faster than 1.5Mb/s period. We use a single T-1 to host a couple of different websites at my work, and I imagine this is the case for several companies.
Does anybody really want an RSS reader or a game on their Tivo? Seriously, who is going to play a game on the Tivo, or purchase a Tivo because of these features?
A cool feature would be a network interface you could use to access your saved shows via the computer.
Downloads of Adaware and SpyBot are at an all time high.
And how long have we been collecting this weather data? It can't be more than a few hundred years. The planet is much older than that. I would imagine it's hard to analyze trends when we are looking at such a small portion of Earth's existance.