This is meaningless FUD. The supposed paper that this think tank has written isn't even published on the website so there is no way to even see why they think that a physical record that can be audited is a problem. Come on/. this is weak. It is a 1/2 page summary with no backing. It's kind of like paperless voting, we're supposed to just accept that what they say is true without knowing what they are actually saying. What crap.
How the hell can we debate an assertion when we don't know what it is.
Here are some of this think tanks other gems:
A 'Third Way' on Network Neutrality..."They then propose a three-part, "third-way" solution that allows incumbent broadband providers to offer managed broadband services, provided that they also offer a basic and growing open, non-discriminatory "best-efforts" Internet pipe to broadband consumers." --- This shows a lack of understanding of net. They seem to think that neutrality is only a factor in the ISP to home part of the net. Duh.
"RFID: There's Nothing To Fear Except Fear Itself" --- Until your employer wants to put one in you.
Please call your congresscritter and beg them to Vote YES on HR 811 and NO on an unfunded
mandate amendment to the bill (which would essentially gut the 2008 deadline in the bill.)
I wonder how the results might be different if this study had been done 30 or 40 years ago. Since the early 1980s the Republican party has consistently use cultural hot button issues to recruit "social conservatives" into voting for their candidates.
A typical mayor, governor, representative, or even president has limited (but not zero) ability to influence things like teaching of evolution, abortion, or prayer in schools. They do however have significant practical influence on economic or "pocketbook" issues. For a middle or lower class person to vote for republicans they must ignore their own economic interests and vote for emotional or non-rational issues. Since the republicans have been very successful in exploiting this dynamic in the last 30 years the party has gone from getting votes primarily from the affluent to getting votes from a wide economic cross section of people, but primarily from people who make decisions on a "gut" basis.
I suspect that the critical thinking bias has probably moved from one party to the other in the last 30 years but that the relative willingness to accept social change has been a consistent hallmark of the democrats.
If they want him to "save the record business", the first thing they better do is lose the RIAA, and stop manufacturing that huge steaming pile of bad will.
Actually they could have done worse. At least they put a music guy in charge instead of a bean counter. There is no question that Rick is a music guy!
from wikipedia...
* 1985: Radio - LL Cool J
* 1986: Licensed to Ill - Beastie Boys
* 1986: Raising Hell - Run-DMC
* 1986: Reign in Blood - Slayer
* 1987: Electric - The Cult
* 1988: Danzig - Danzig
* 1988: Tougher Than Leather - Run-DMC
* 1988: South of Heaven - Slayer
* 1988: Masters of Reality - Masters of Reality
* 1989: Dice - Andrew Dice Clay
* 1989: Live Fast, Die Fast - Wolfsbane
* 1990: Same - Geto Boys
* 1990: Trouble - Trouble
* 1990: Danzig II: Lucifuge - Danzig
* 1990: Seasons in the Abyss - Slayer
* 1991: Nobody Said It Was Easy - The Four Horsemen
* 1991: Manic Frustration - Trouble
* 1991: Decade of Aggression - Slayer
* 1991: Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers
* 1992: Danzig III: How the Gods Kill - Danzig
* 1992: King King - Red Devils
* 1993: Thrall: Demonsweatlive - Danzig
* 1993: Wandering Spirit - Mick Jagger
* 1993: 21st Century Jesus - Messiah
* 1994: Danzig 4 - Danzig
* 1994: American Recordings - Johnny Cash
* 1994: Divine Intervention - Slayer
* 1994: Wildflowers - Tom Petty
* 1995: One Hot Minute - Red Hot Chili Peppers
* 1995: Ballbreaker - AC/DC
* 1995: God Lives Underwater - God Lives Underwater
* 1995: Empty - God Lives Underwater
* 1996: Songs and Music from "She's the One" - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
* 1996: Unchained - Johnny Cash
* 1996: Undisputed Attitude - Slayer
* 1996: Sutras - Donovan
* 1998: "Let Me Give the World to You" - The Smashing Pumpkins (an unreleased song)
* 1998: VH1 Storytellers - Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson
* 1998: Diabolus in Musica - Slayer
* 1998: System of a Down - System of a Down
* 1998: Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts - Kula Shaker ("Sound of Drums")
* 1998: Chef Aid: The South Park Album - South Park
* 1999: Northern Star - Melanie C ("Suddenly Monday" and "Ga Ga")
* 1999: Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
* 1999: Echo - Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
* 1999: Loud Rocks - V/A ("Shame" by System of a Down and Wu-Tang Clan, "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing Ta Fuck Wit" Tom Morello, Chad Smith and Wu-Tang Clan)
* 1999: The Globe Sessions - Sheryl Crow ("Sweet Child O'Mine")
* 2000: American III: Solitary Man - Johnny Cash
* 2000: Paloalto - Paloalto
* 2000: Renegades - Rage Against the Machine
* 2001: Amethyst Rock Star - Saul Williams
* 2001: The War of Art - American Head Charge
* 2001: Breath of the Heart - Krishna Das
* 2001: The Final Studio Recordings - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
* 2001: Toxicity - System of a Down
* 2002: American IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash
* 2002: By the Way - Red Hot Chili Peppers
* 2002: Audioslave - Audioslave
* 2002: Steal This Album! - System of a Down
* 2003: Results May Vary - Limp Bizkit (with Terry Date and Jordan Schur)
* 2003: Unearthed - Johnny Cash
* 2003: Door of Faith - Krishna Das
* 2003: De-Loused in the Comatorium - The Mars Volta (with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez)
* 2003: The Black Album - Jay-Z ("99 Problems")
* 2003: Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium - Rage Against the Machine
* 2003: Heroes and Villains - Paloalto
* 2004: Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses) - Slipknot
* 2004: Armed Love - The (International) Noise Conspiracy
* 2004: Crunk Juice - Lil' Jon and the East Side Boyz ("Stop Fuckin' Wit Me")
* 2005: Make Believe - Weezer
* 2005: Fijación Oral Vol. 1 - Shakira
* 2005: Oral Fixation Vol. 2 - Shakira
* 2005: Out of Exile - Audioslave
* 2005: Mezmerize - System of a Down
* 2005: Hypnotize - System of a Down
* 2005: 12 Songs - N
Managers don't really do much of anything. If you have minimal people skills then you should have no trouble acting as a manager. A conductor for a symphony orchestra doesn't do anything, he just waves a little stick around.
Everyone is asking "why?" as in "Why are they aligned." My first thought was, "What the hell are they all pointing at?" Is it God? Is it the Restaurant at the End of the Universe? Is it Mecca? Maybe it is just a REALLY big magnet. The answer to the 'what' question might go a long way toward answering the 'why' question.
Anyway since I don't think that galaxies are likely to change their orientation, and remain tidy spiral galaxies, this suggests that there was a common influence on the creation of all of these galaxies!
And yes, Sony had a role in VHS vs. Beta - Beta was Sony's format. Actually both VHS and Beta were Sony creations. Sony licensed the lower quality VHS to give them $$ to get Beta out there in the market. That was a bit of a mistake.
Not illegal anymore. Instead of impeaching the bastards for blatant illegal spying, our traitorous congress just made the whole thing legal. I'd suggest that you kiss your freedom goodbye but it's been gone for far too long at this point.
The follow is a list of attacks or hacks which the Diebold machines are known to be vulerable to:
Sneezing in their vicinity,
Looking at them cross eyed,
Armpit farts,
Dancing counterclockwise around them,
Voting,
Sarcastic comments,
Pixie dust,
My mother-in-law's meatloaf, and
Bad Bob Dylan cover songs.
Seriously, several years ago three or four different versions of the GEMS software (that's the name of the Diebold voting software) were available for download in a few places on the internet. Accessing the voting database was a simple as creating a new database and copying the password you created over to the voting database. The security log didn't have sequentially numbered entries so deleting your tracks was as simple as opening the log and deleting the pertinent lines. With ZERO experience with Access, and a single page of written instructions I was able to break in, alter voting data (on my PC not a real election PC!), and cover my tracks within just a few hours of installing the software. These machines are set to autorun anything that is inserted in the PC card slot!!! PC cards are what are used to carry vote data from the precincts to the central tabulator so dozens of cards are typically inserted in the central tabulator on election night. Fixing an election is as simple as writing a script on a PC card and inserting it in the PC card of the central tabulator. It's not far fetched either. Unidentified people have been seen fiddling with the central tabulators in several counties in elections when there were surprising results. My conclusion was not that these machines were badly designed, but that they were well designed for the purpose of enabling election fixing.
Automatix *isn't* needed. The truth is that until the most recent version it was needed for many of us. When I first installed ubuntu on a PC I was rescuing from Win98 (early 2006) all I wanted it to do was play DVDs. I spent hours on the forums trying to understand the directions for installing the various codecs. I tried hard to do what I was told was needed, editing various files, cutting and pasting scripts into the terminal, etc. None of it worked. Then I found Automatix, and on the first try, bingo I was watching DVDs. With the newest version I had read (here I believe) about the hazards of Automatix, and about the ease with which the various codecs could be installed now. It worked and I have been very pleased. I should make it very clear though... if it hadn't been for Automatix I would have given up on linux.
the title of TFA
Certain Degrees Now Cost More at Public Universities These Universities are NOT businesses. TFA is talking about PUBLIC universities! These are our public institutions adding barriers to something that our nation sorely needs.
Here's another thing I just saw from TFA, "The University of Nebraska last year began charging engineering students a $40 premium for each hour of class credit."
That means that while the engineering student is sitting in the 4 credit hour American History class, he/she is paying $160 more than sociology major on his/her left of the football player on his/her right.
Under this new pricing philosophy pre-med would probably be charged a premium just like engineers. So comparing engineering's benefit to society to medicine's is beside the point.
Some of the sites, including Craigslist, remained down even after power was restored, as administrators ensured that data in the server hadn't been damaged, among other checks.
from the article...
"Some of the sites, including Craigslist, remained down even after power was restored, as administrators ensured that data in the server hadn't been damaged, among other checks."
It's well after 10pm and craigslist is still only intermittently working. I wonder why they're having such trouble?
So if a hypothetical someone flamed out, "RTFA!" Which of the 8 linked articles would they be referring to? At a mere 5 minutes a piece, it would require 40 minutes just to get the background needed to comment. There was another post today about chasing a virus writer that had 4 linked articles. Maybe that's a bit much?
Up through the point where we have good documentation we know for a fact that the FBI always abuses whatever powers it has. Martin Luther King Jr. was surveilled and harassed. Later that approach was formalized in the COINTELPRO program. COINTELPRO was directed against the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement, the Vietnam era peace movement. After COINTELPRO was officially stopped, the same tactics were used against people who protested/organized against Reagan's Central American Policies in the '80s. In the late '80s and early '90s the same tactics were used against the environmental movement. Now we have evidence that the FBI abused their National Security Letter powers.
So is this NEW? No.
Is it NEWS? Absolutely!
This time we are learning about the abuses as they are happening instead of 20 years after the fact when the government is forced to declassify old documents. The excuse has always been, "well that was unfortunate, but we don't do that anymore." They can't use that excuse this time.
All you ditto heads missed the point. You can use gmail, but this is about the receiving side not the sending side. It does you no good to have a nice mail client if your outgoing emails are getting blocked by hotmail and you cannot reach your customers or the members of your web-based political organization. So you say that hotmail wouldn't block the whole gmail domain, well they might (it could potentially be a HUGE income stream!). Regardless if you are emailing on behalf of an organization you're gonna want a domain, which gmail could handle for you. But when they start blocking info@society_for_prevention_of_cruelty_to_first_po sters.org until you pony up $1400 to hotmail, and $1400 to AOL, and $1000 to Lycos, and $1800 to bigfreeemailwebsite.com, then you are effectively censored.
so next time a spam article comes up instead of being the first person to say "Use gmail!" or the fourth person to say "ditto!" Try something new and novel. RTFA!!!
Personally I have this radical belief... I believe that I have these inalienable rights. I don't care if the censor is in Washington DC or Redmond, WA it's still censorship.
A pardon would have prevented Libby from using the 5th amendment to avoid testifying. This is just a get out of jail free card. Now the "government" (the part not controlled by the bushies) has no bargaining chips to get Libby to testify against the people who were actually behind the crime that started all of this. I wonder who that might be? Maybe Bush? Maybe Cheney? An otherwise perfectly legal act, that is done to prevent the proper functioning of the legal system, is obstruction of justice.
Just one more crime to add to a very long list.
let's see...
Several million counts of violating the 4th amendment (by wiretapping americans w/out warrant)
Assassination (bragged about in the 2003 state of the union address)
Violating the Geneva Convention re: classification of prisoners of war
Violating the Geneva Convention re: torture, inhumane, or degrading treatment
Violating the Geneva Convention re: collective punishment (both "battles" of Fallujah)
Violating the UN Charter (aggressive invasion of a sovereign state)
Denying American citizens their right to Habeas Corpus
Non-lethal doesn't mean harmless. Non-lethal doesn't always mean non-lethal either.
from the wikipedia entry for "less-lethal weapons"
"As different parts of the body differ in vulnerability, and because people vary in weight and fitness, any weapon powerful enough to incapacitate is likely to be capable of killing under certain circumstances. Less lethal ammunition can cause contusions, abrasions, broken ribs, concussions, loss of eyes, superficial organ damage, serious skin lacerations, massive skull fractures, rupture of the heart or kidney, fragmentation of the liver, hemorrhages, and death."
and
"Weapons not designed as lethal instruments can, nevertheless, prove fatal. An estimate by the International Association of Chiefs of Police suggested at least 113 pepper spray related fatalities had occurred in the United States, mostly from positional asphyxia, which is caused by airway-restrictive immobilizing holds that can be exacerbated by pepper spray, which irritates the airway."
Khan... Khan, you've got Genesis, but you don't have me. You were going to kill me, Khan. You're gonna have to come down here. You're gonna have to come down here.
I've done far worse than kill you, Admiral. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her: marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet, buried alive. Buried alive.
right, like you have a wall big enough for this to matter!?!?! Most people don't have enough wall space to use 1 projector!
The Midair Mouse
================
now I can look forward to people drinking coffee, putting on makeup, talking on the cellphone, AND surfing the net with their midair mouse while tailgating me on the way to work. WooHoo!
Where's the bit where computing will be reinvented? I missed that. All I saw were some gadgets of questionable coolness.
Next we're gonna hear, "Republican presidential candidates prefer Hanes briefs, while democratic candidates prefer Fruit Of The Loom boxers, except Hilary who reportedly wears a black PVC bondage body stocking."
Blade Runner with the voice over was my all time favorite movie, until the Director's Cut came out. There is nothing in the voice over that you can't learn by observing the movie, so it is extra, superfluous, repetitive, AND redundant. If you want insight into Deckard's mind, Gaff's origami figures speak volumes.
What so many people can't seem to get is that movies AREN'T TV. You don't need to fill every second with dialog. Movies work better when the story is told visually. Voice overs can work but usually they are used to make up for poor directing. Just like flash-backs are often used to cover up for poor script writing.
What is this "unreported contact with foreign governement, military, or intelligence officials", or "unreported contact with foreign nationals"? Who the f#c% are people supposed to report this kind of harmless stuff to?
OH NO! a bunch of Mexicans work for the company that cleans our office space, gotta call the FBI!
OH NO! my neighbor works at the French Consulate, gotta report our argument about the hedge to the CIA!
OH NO! that student in class next to me is from another country, gotta call the NSA!!
OH NO! a fleeting wave of curiosity just passed over me, gotta report myself to Alberto Gonzales!!
As far as the unusual work hours for academics, maybe they mean that 8-5 is suspicious?
I don't mind lazy typists all that much. When I see excessive use of 133t, "u r kewl," etc. I know that I can safely ignore whatever that person is writing. It's makes a whole class of idiots easy to filter, like spam that uses the word "viagra." What bugs me is when I waste my time reading something with good spelling and grammar only to find that the author had nothing to say, though I suppose that doesn't happen often.
I have been following the issue of election theft and computerized voting very closely for years, and I say that this bill is our best hope of fixing the elections system. It isn't perfect but compared to what we have now it is an incredible improvement. I'm also not claiming that this will fix any of the other ills of our political system, but this is a critical element to saving our democracy. PLEASE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE call or write your representative and beg, plead, implore them to support this bill.
What does it do?
Requires voter verified paper ballots. The physical paper ballot is the official legal record of the vote instead of some bits in a Windoze PC.
Requires manual audits of 3-10% of randomly selected precincts. This is by far the most important part of the bill because this is the tool that can be used to detect fraud. Note, audits are currently extremely uncommon even in the cases of recounts or close elections. In many cases audits are impossible because the data needed is lost in the electronic counting process.
Would require release of source code of some portions of the voting software to certain people. Okay obviously this is a compromise between opening the source, trade secret concerns, and the practical fact that MS isn't gonna release the source to Windows or Access, which many of these systems are based upon. Still if Slashdot readers don't get that this is a step in the right direction then no one will.
Slashdot Mirror
This is meaningless FUD. The supposed paper that this think tank has written isn't even published on the website so there is no way to even see why they think that a physical record that can be audited is a problem. Come on /. this is weak. It is a 1/2 page summary with no backing. It's kind of like paperless voting, we're supposed to just accept that what they say is true without knowing what they are actually saying. What crap.
How the hell can we debate an assertion when we don't know what it is.
Here are some of this think tanks other gems:
A 'Third Way' on Network Neutrality..."They then propose a three-part, "third-way" solution that allows incumbent broadband providers to offer managed broadband services, provided that they also offer a basic and growing open, non-discriminatory "best-efforts" Internet pipe to broadband consumers." --- This shows a lack of understanding of net. They seem to think that neutrality is only a factor in the ISP to home part of the net. Duh.
"RFID: There's Nothing To Fear Except Fear Itself" --- Until your employer wants to put one in you.
Please call your congresscritter and beg them to Vote YES on HR 811 and NO on an unfunded mandate amendment to the bill (which would essentially gut the 2008 deadline in the bill.)
I wonder how the results might be different if this study had been done 30 or 40 years ago. Since the early 1980s the Republican party has consistently use cultural hot button issues to recruit "social conservatives" into voting for their candidates.
A typical mayor, governor, representative, or even president has limited (but not zero) ability to influence things like teaching of evolution, abortion, or prayer in schools. They do however have significant practical influence on economic or "pocketbook" issues. For a middle or lower class person to vote for republicans they must ignore their own economic interests and vote for emotional or non-rational issues. Since the republicans have been very successful in exploiting this dynamic in the last 30 years the party has gone from getting votes primarily from the affluent to getting votes from a wide economic cross section of people, but primarily from people who make decisions on a "gut" basis.
I suspect that the critical thinking bias has probably moved from one party to the other in the last 30 years but that the relative willingness to accept social change has been a consistent hallmark of the democrats.
If they want him to "save the record business", the first thing they better do is lose the RIAA, and stop manufacturing that huge steaming pile of bad will.
Actually they could have done worse. At least they put a music guy in charge instead of a bean counter. There is no question that Rick is a music guy!
from wikipedia...
* 1985: Radio - LL Cool J * 1986: Licensed to Ill - Beastie Boys * 1986: Raising Hell - Run-DMC * 1986: Reign in Blood - Slayer * 1987: Electric - The Cult * 1988: Danzig - Danzig * 1988: Tougher Than Leather - Run-DMC * 1988: South of Heaven - Slayer * 1988: Masters of Reality - Masters of Reality * 1989: Dice - Andrew Dice Clay * 1989: Live Fast, Die Fast - Wolfsbane * 1990: Same - Geto Boys * 1990: Trouble - Trouble * 1990: Danzig II: Lucifuge - Danzig * 1990: Seasons in the Abyss - Slayer * 1991: Nobody Said It Was Easy - The Four Horsemen * 1991: Manic Frustration - Trouble * 1991: Decade of Aggression - Slayer * 1991: Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers * 1992: Danzig III: How the Gods Kill - Danzig * 1992: King King - Red Devils * 1993: Thrall: Demonsweatlive - Danzig * 1993: Wandering Spirit - Mick Jagger * 1993: 21st Century Jesus - Messiah * 1994: Danzig 4 - Danzig * 1994: American Recordings - Johnny Cash * 1994: Divine Intervention - Slayer * 1994: Wildflowers - Tom Petty * 1995: One Hot Minute - Red Hot Chili Peppers * 1995: Ballbreaker - AC/DC * 1995: God Lives Underwater - God Lives Underwater * 1995: Empty - God Lives Underwater * 1996: Songs and Music from "She's the One" - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers * 1996: Unchained - Johnny Cash * 1996: Undisputed Attitude - Slayer * 1996: Sutras - Donovan * 1998: "Let Me Give the World to You" - The Smashing Pumpkins (an unreleased song) * 1998: VH1 Storytellers - Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson * 1998: Diabolus in Musica - Slayer * 1998: System of a Down - System of a Down * 1998: Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts - Kula Shaker ("Sound of Drums") * 1998: Chef Aid: The South Park Album - South Park * 1999: Northern Star - Melanie C ("Suddenly Monday" and "Ga Ga") * 1999: Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers * 1999: Echo - Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers * 1999: Loud Rocks - V/A ("Shame" by System of a Down and Wu-Tang Clan, "Wu-Tang Clan Ain't Nothing Ta Fuck Wit" Tom Morello, Chad Smith and Wu-Tang Clan) * 1999: The Globe Sessions - Sheryl Crow ("Sweet Child O'Mine") * 2000: American III: Solitary Man - Johnny Cash * 2000: Paloalto - Paloalto * 2000: Renegades - Rage Against the Machine * 2001: Amethyst Rock Star - Saul Williams * 2001: The War of Art - American Head Charge * 2001: Breath of the Heart - Krishna Das * 2001: The Final Studio Recordings - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan * 2001: Toxicity - System of a Down * 2002: American IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash * 2002: By the Way - Red Hot Chili Peppers * 2002: Audioslave - Audioslave * 2002: Steal This Album! - System of a Down * 2003: Results May Vary - Limp Bizkit (with Terry Date and Jordan Schur) * 2003: Unearthed - Johnny Cash * 2003: Door of Faith - Krishna Das * 2003: De-Loused in the Comatorium - The Mars Volta (with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez) * 2003: The Black Album - Jay-Z ("99 Problems") * 2003: Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium - Rage Against the Machine * 2003: Heroes and Villains - Paloalto * 2004: Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses) - Slipknot * 2004: Armed Love - The (International) Noise Conspiracy * 2004: Crunk Juice - Lil' Jon and the East Side Boyz ("Stop Fuckin' Wit Me") * 2005: Make Believe - Weezer * 2005: Fijación Oral Vol. 1 - Shakira * 2005: Oral Fixation Vol. 2 - Shakira * 2005: Out of Exile - Audioslave * 2005: Mezmerize - System of a Down * 2005: Hypnotize - System of a Down * 2005: 12 Songs - N
Everyone is asking "why?" as in "Why are they aligned." My first thought was, "What the hell are they all pointing at?" Is it God? Is it the Restaurant at the End of the Universe? Is it Mecca? Maybe it is just a REALLY big magnet. The answer to the 'what' question might go a long way toward answering the 'why' question.
Anyway since I don't think that galaxies are likely to change their orientation, and remain tidy spiral galaxies, this suggests that there was a common influence on the creation of all of these galaxies!
What about when they hurt someone else?
Not illegal anymore. Instead of impeaching the bastards for blatant illegal spying, our traitorous congress just made the whole thing legal. I'd suggest that you kiss your freedom goodbye but it's been gone for far too long at this point.
The follow is a list of attacks or hacks which the Diebold machines are known to be vulerable to:
Sneezing in their vicinity,
Looking at them cross eyed,
Armpit farts,
Dancing counterclockwise around them,
Voting,
Sarcastic comments,
Pixie dust,
My mother-in-law's meatloaf, and
Bad Bob Dylan cover songs.
Seriously, several years ago three or four different versions of the GEMS software (that's the name of the Diebold voting software) were available for download in a few places on the internet. Accessing the voting database was a simple as creating a new database and copying the password you created over to the voting database. The security log didn't have sequentially numbered entries so deleting your tracks was as simple as opening the log and deleting the pertinent lines. With ZERO experience with Access, and a single page of written instructions I was able to break in, alter voting data (on my PC not a real election PC!), and cover my tracks within just a few hours of installing the software. These machines are set to autorun anything that is inserted in the PC card slot!!! PC cards are what are used to carry vote data from the precincts to the central tabulator so dozens of cards are typically inserted in the central tabulator on election night. Fixing an election is as simple as writing a script on a PC card and inserting it in the PC card of the central tabulator. It's not far fetched either. Unidentified people have been seen fiddling with the central tabulators in several counties in elections when there were surprising results. My conclusion was not that these machines were badly designed, but that they were well designed for the purpose of enabling election fixing.
Here's another thing I just saw from TFA, "The University of Nebraska last year began charging engineering students a $40 premium for each hour of class credit."
That means that while the engineering student is sitting in the 4 credit hour American History class, he/she is paying $160 more than sociology major on his/her left of the football player on his/her right.
Under this new pricing philosophy pre-med would probably be charged a premium just like engineers. So comparing engineering's benefit to society to medicine's is beside the point.
Supposedly the power has been back on for some time but craigslist is still down./ 07/24/BAG9NR67253.DTL
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007
Some of the sites, including Craigslist, remained down even after power was restored, as administrators ensured that data in the server hadn't been damaged, among other checks.
from the article... "Some of the sites, including Craigslist, remained down even after power was restored, as administrators ensured that data in the server hadn't been damaged, among other checks."
It's well after 10pm and craigslist is still only intermittently working. I wonder why they're having such trouble?
So if a hypothetical someone flamed out, "RTFA!" Which of the 8 linked articles would they be referring to? At a mere 5 minutes a piece, it would require 40 minutes just to get the background needed to comment. There was another post today about chasing a virus writer that had 4 linked articles. Maybe that's a bit much?
Up through the point where we have good documentation we know for a fact that the FBI always abuses whatever powers it has. Martin Luther King Jr. was surveilled and harassed. Later that approach was formalized in the COINTELPRO program. COINTELPRO was directed against the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement, the Vietnam era peace movement. After COINTELPRO was officially stopped, the same tactics were used against people who protested/organized against Reagan's Central American Policies in the '80s. In the late '80s and early '90s the same tactics were used against the environmental movement. Now we have evidence that the FBI abused their National Security Letter powers.
So is this NEW? No.
Is it NEWS? Absolutely!
This time we are learning about the abuses as they are happening instead of 20 years after the fact when the government is forced to declassify old documents. The excuse has always been, "well that was unfortunate, but we don't do that anymore." They can't use that excuse this time.
All you ditto heads missed the point. You can use gmail, but this is about the receiving side not the sending side. It does you no good to have a nice mail client if your outgoing emails are getting blocked by hotmail and you cannot reach your customers or the members of your web-based political organization. So you say that hotmail wouldn't block the whole gmail domain, well they might (it could potentially be a HUGE income stream!). Regardless if you are emailing on behalf of an organization you're gonna want a domain, which gmail could handle for you. But when they start blocking info@society_for_prevention_of_cruelty_to_first_po sters.org until you pony up $1400 to hotmail, and $1400 to AOL, and $1000 to Lycos, and $1800 to bigfreeemailwebsite.com, then you are effectively censored.
so next time a spam article comes up instead of being the first person to say "Use gmail!" or the fourth person to say "ditto!" Try something new and novel. RTFA!!!
Personally I have this radical belief... I believe that I have these inalienable rights. I don't care if the censor is in Washington DC or Redmond, WA it's still censorship.
A pardon would have prevented Libby from using the 5th amendment to avoid testifying. This is just a get out of jail free card. Now the "government" (the part not controlled by the bushies) has no bargaining chips to get Libby to testify against the people who were actually behind the crime that started all of this. I wonder who that might be? Maybe Bush? Maybe Cheney? An otherwise perfectly legal act, that is done to prevent the proper functioning of the legal system, is obstruction of justice.
Just one more crime to add to a very long list.
let's see...
Several million counts of violating the 4th amendment (by wiretapping americans w/out warrant)
Assassination (bragged about in the 2003 state of the union address)
Violating the Geneva Convention re: classification of prisoners of war
Violating the Geneva Convention re: torture, inhumane, or degrading treatment
Violating the Geneva Convention re: collective punishment (both "battles" of Fallujah)
Violating the UN Charter (aggressive invasion of a sovereign state)
Denying American citizens their right to Habeas Corpus
from the wikipedia entry for "less-lethal weapons"
"As different parts of the body differ in vulnerability, and because people vary in weight and fitness, any weapon powerful enough to incapacitate is likely to be capable of killing under certain circumstances. Less lethal ammunition can cause contusions, abrasions, broken ribs, concussions, loss of eyes, superficial organ damage, serious skin lacerations, massive skull fractures, rupture of the heart or kidney, fragmentation of the liver, hemorrhages, and death."
and
"Weapons not designed as lethal instruments can, nevertheless, prove fatal. An estimate by the International Association of Chiefs of Police suggested at least 113 pepper spray related fatalities had occurred in the United States, mostly from positional asphyxia, which is caused by airway-restrictive immobilizing holds that can be exacerbated by pepper spray, which irritates the airway."
Genesis in space? wha?
Khan... Khan, you've got Genesis, but you don't have me. You were going to kill me, Khan. You're gonna have to come down here. You're gonna have to come down here.
I've done far worse than kill you, Admiral. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her: marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet, buried alive. Buried alive.
KHAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!
IMAX at Home
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right, like you have a wall big enough for this to matter!?!?! Most people don't have enough wall space to use 1 projector!
The Midair Mouse
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now I can look forward to people drinking coffee, putting on makeup, talking on the cellphone, AND surfing the net with their midair mouse while tailgating me on the way to work. WooHoo!
Where's the bit where computing will be reinvented? I missed that. All I saw were some gadgets of questionable coolness.
Next we're gonna hear, "Republican presidential candidates prefer Hanes briefs, while democratic candidates prefer Fruit Of The Loom boxers, except Hilary who reportedly wears a black PVC bondage body stocking."
Blade Runner with the voice over was my all time favorite movie, until the Director's Cut came out. There is nothing in the voice over that you can't learn by observing the movie, so it is extra, superfluous, repetitive, AND redundant. If you want insight into Deckard's mind, Gaff's origami figures speak volumes.
What so many people can't seem to get is that movies AREN'T TV. You don't need to fill every second with dialog. Movies work better when the story is told visually. Voice overs can work but usually they are used to make up for poor directing. Just like flash-backs are often used to cover up for poor script writing.
What is this "unreported contact with foreign governement, military, or intelligence officials", or "unreported contact with foreign nationals"? Who the f#c% are people supposed to report this kind of harmless stuff to?
OH NO! a bunch of Mexicans work for the company that cleans our office space, gotta call the FBI!
OH NO! my neighbor works at the French Consulate, gotta report our argument about the hedge to the CIA!
OH NO! that student in class next to me is from another country, gotta call the NSA!!
OH NO! a fleeting wave of curiosity just passed over me, gotta report myself to Alberto Gonzales!!
As far as the unusual work hours for academics, maybe they mean that 8-5 is suspicious?
I don't mind lazy typists all that much. When I see excessive use of 133t, "u r kewl," etc. I know that I can safely ignore whatever that person is writing. It's makes a whole class of idiots easy to filter, like spam that uses the word "viagra." What bugs me is when I waste my time reading something with good spelling and grammar only to find that the author had nothing to say, though I suppose that doesn't happen often.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has written an analysis of this bill that is very useful, quick to read, and well... correct.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005308.php
I have been following the issue of election theft and computerized voting very closely for years, and I say that this bill is our best hope of fixing the elections system. It isn't perfect but compared to what we have now it is an incredible improvement. I'm also not claiming that this will fix any of the other ills of our political system, but this is a critical element to saving our democracy. PLEASE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE call or write your representative and beg, plead, implore them to support this bill.
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
What does it do?
Requires voter verified paper ballots. The physical paper ballot is the official legal record of the vote instead of some bits in a Windoze PC.
Requires manual audits of 3-10% of randomly selected precincts. This is by far the most important part of the bill because this is the tool that can be used to detect fraud. Note, audits are currently extremely uncommon even in the cases of recounts or close elections. In many cases audits are impossible because the data needed is lost in the electronic counting process.
Would require release of source code of some portions of the voting software to certain people. Okay obviously this is a compromise between opening the source, trade secret concerns, and the practical fact that MS isn't gonna release the source to Windows or Access, which many of these systems are based upon. Still if Slashdot readers don't get that this is a step in the right direction then no one will.