Thanks to you and GP for the links. I have a friend who got involved in this and tried to suck us in. Now she's disassociated herself with anyone in her life that doesn't walk the Landmark walk. It's sad really as it's taken over her life and probably a good portion of her retirement funds.
That is *strange* though that only Democrats seem to be having problems with the voting machines.
I lost the link, but there was a report I saw on Tuesday of the same exact thing happening in Texas. And it was also a Dem's vote that was changed to Republican. I haven't seen a single report yet of the opposite happening. Nor have I seen any good explanation of why it doesn't happen both ways. I also don't know if I'm buying the 'screen shift' explanation as it sounds a little, well (excuse the pun) shifty.
I'll probably be early voting in the next day or so and I'll be yelling pretty loud and calling everyone I know if this happens to me. Loved the Python quote BTW, and as many times as I've seen the movie, I never thought of applying it to us. Maybe I'll walk into the polls whistling "Always look on the bright side of life"...
I feel you pain, man. I have friends that used to say that "The nice thing about living in Miami is that it's so close to the United States". They're only half kidding. My wife was born in Colombia so since I've been married, I had a lot of opportunities to travel there. And driving around sometimes especially in Miami-Dade you can close your eyes, then open them and it's not hard to imagine that you really are in a 3rd world country somewhere.
I have several friends that voted absentee for the same reason and I've wavered on that so it's probably too late to apply for a ballot now. I don't know if you've been here long enough, but when Oliphant was our contentious Elections Supervisor in Broward, there were a bunch of absentee ballots found in her office that had never been counted (think this was in 2002 mid-term elections). And this happened late enough that the votes were disqualified. So I don't know that trust in the absentee system is well placed either.
Regardless, it's a pretty sad state of affairs when there's a fundamental mistrust in the voting system across the country. I'm actually hoping that some of these early reports may make things better, but I'm cynical to believe that they probably won't. Good luck to us...we're going to need it.
As a matter of fact, I do as I work for one and have for many years. Not-for-profit means that they're not publicly owned or traded. Therefore whatever 'profit' (which is really just the surplus after expenses) that is made gets reinvested in the company mostly for improving services or upgrading infrastructure.
This is markedly different from publicly held broadcasting companies who have obligations to their boards, shareholders, and corporate sponsers. So who would I rather get my news from? A private organization or a bunch of corporate shills with a political axe to grind? I'm not naive enough to believe that any news source is completely unbiased but NPR is about as close as you can get, especially in this country. BTW - This is coming from a political and fiscal conservative and I'm not the only one. I know a lot of people on both sides of the aisle that listen to NPR. So it's not just for tree-huggers and hippies anymore.
And would you please explain to me how NPR is working with government to reduce our freedoms again? Seriously, WTF?
Seriously though, these reports have been around locally for a couple of days. What I find interesting though, is that they invariably are from Democrats saying their votes were changed when they checked the summary prior to submitting. There's not one report of a Republican having the same problem that I've heard of yet. So should I take my tin foil hat with me to the polls this year, or not? I'm really, really hoping we're not going to be the laughing stock of the entire world again this year, but I have serious doubts. This used to be a great place to live.
Not sure if the above is meant as a troll, but last time I checked, NPR is a not-for-profit....checking... Yep. From Wikipedia: "National Public Radio (NPR) is an independent, private, non-profit membership organization of public radio stations in the United States". So, I'd say your profit argument is off-base. And I think the point of TFA is that XM is violating FCC regulations. Does it really matter if NPR is the one that brought this to light?
Agreed, more FUD. Anyone remember West Nile? That was the panic du jour before bird flu, but it didn't really do much and is now off the media radar. It's a perfect example of another media generated crisis that's not really panning out.
The article does make some good points about antibiotic misuse and this has been a pet peeve of mine for a while that I think is a cause for genuine concern. Diseases like MRSA can be devastating (I have a friend with it who has not been able to work since May, and is lucky to be alive) and are pretty much a direct result of the over/misuse of human antibiotics. Overuse of antibiotics in livestock where they're excreted back into the environment is a recipe for breeding lots more antibiotic resistant and much nastier bugs. It's basically using natural selection to breed bugs that are better equiped to harm us. Yet no one in the mass media really talks about this as it's not as sexy as a gloom and doom pandemic scenario.
Thank you for choosing to download Hubble SP2. Before we can continue, Hubble Genuine Advantage needs to confirm that your copy of Hubble SP1 is a valid one. Do you wish to continue?
If you're doing a good job, nobody knows you exist.
We have an employee recognition program where I work, but it's very rare for Sys Admins, developers and the like to ever get even a nomination. The people who usually get the awards are either instructors or the field service techs (who usually call one of us when they get stuck) who have their faces out there in the public eye. The people getting the votes are the people who showed them how to play a CD on their PC, not the guys behind the scenes protecting their servers and data.
You know I'm glad you mentioned that, because I seem to be getting the same results. I left my old two blade razor somewhere and decided to pick up one of the three blade models when I was at the store. After about 2 shaves, it's already dull and I have to cover the same area multiple times. I wonder if the quality of the blade is just that much worse, or of the third blade actually interferes with shaving. I think I'll be sticking with the disposables as well.
On the lighter side, we had a local talk show host who used to talk about the ridiculous amount of money they were spending marketing and advertising the new (at the time) 3 blade models. And he used to quip that 'pretty soon, we'll just have a whole pack of cartridges on a handle that we shave with. And we'll only have to move the razor like a half an inch to shave our whole face.' Life imitates comedy, I guess.
I'm really hoping they verify that you're an elections official before they actually ship the stuff to you
I dunno. The shopping cart button seems to indicate that all you need is a valid CC#. Ooh and look! You can even buy the security tape so you can replace it after you put your own hacked card in. So here we go...
Hospital bar key - $0 (but spent $69 for Hotel 6 reservation to nab said key) CompactFlash 256MB Memory card - $20
Stealing an election - Priceless!
Developers later found that they were unable to open the box containing the cake. When attempting to do so, they kept getting a message from WGA telling them that it was attempting to verify that theirs was in fact a Genuine Windows Cake, then their connection to the server would time out.
I tend to agree with parent. I'm from South Florida so I'm more familiar than I'd like to be with voting debacles. In an effort to alleviate these and to encourage increased voter turnout (we had appallingly low numbers of voters in the most recent primary) our county and others around the state have instituted vote early systems. As early as this Monday you can place your votes that will (allegedly) be counted in November.
Although I'd like to vote early and avoid the lines in November, I am cynical enough to believe that the longer my vote stays on an electronic system with no audits and safeguards in place, the higher the chance that my vote won't count. Some here have suggested filing absentee ballots so there's a written record. Problem is that in a previous election, about 75,000 absentee ballots suddenly 'went missing' and were disqualified from the final tally. The election supervisor has since been replaced, but fundamentally I still just don't trust the system.
Well, you got modded off-topic (and I probably will as well) but as a fellow Floridian I wish you and your candidate Godspeed. It looks like from our paper today that Davis is gaining somewhat in the Gov's race. It will be interesting to what happens after the debates tonight (statewide on all PBS channels if you haven't heard).
BTW - I am a third generation, lifelong Republican and there is one single local Republican candidate that I am supporting this year. Other than him, I'm voting Blue across the board. I am so sick to death of this government being hi-jacked by the whatever-cons. I'm not saying the Dems are much better, but I hope that I'm among a ton of disenfranchised voters that are sick of this crap want our country back. I sincerely hope the message is loud and clear this year.
Well, after all this is/. You should be happy that I at least even read part of TFA. Now you expect me to actually go and look up the applications before getting all up in arms? I mean knee-jerking and jumping to conclusions is the closest thing to excercise some of us get here.:oP Thanks for the chuckle. Now, I'm off to the library to get my smart on...
If IBM holds a patent for 'Posting messages to an interactive service' there may well be. I mean, some of these are pretty broad:
US 5,796,967 - Presenting Applications in an Interactive Service.
US 5,442,771 - Storing Data in an Interactive Network.
US 7,072,849 - Presenting Advertising in an Interactive Service.
US 5,446,891 - Adjusting Hypertext Links with Weighted User Goals and Activities.
US 5,319,542 - Ordering Items Using an Electronic Catalogue.
Without reading the actual applications, it sounds to me like that covers like 99% of anyone selling or storing anything on-line. I mean, WTF? Storing data in an interactive network? How broad is that net?
"an eye over a tusk -- which appear frequently among the neat rows of symbols decorating the tombs. He said those hieroglyphs identify the men as dentists."
Given this, I have to wonder what the hieroglyphs for the Pharoh's proctologist looked like. Maybe an eye over a donkey?
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Thanks to you and GP for the links. I have a friend who got involved in this and tried to suck us in. Now she's disassociated herself with anyone in her life that doesn't walk the Landmark walk. It's sad really as it's taken over her life and probably a good portion of her retirement funds.
You're absolutely right. I 'just said No' to electrons years ago, I'd I've enjoyed a very positive life since then.
I'll probably be early voting in the next day or so and I'll be yelling pretty loud and calling everyone I know if this happens to me. Loved the Python quote BTW, and as many times as I've seen the movie, I never thought of applying it to us. Maybe I'll walk into the polls whistling "Always look on the bright side of life"...
I feel you pain, man. I have friends that used to say that "The nice thing about living in Miami is that it's so close to the United States". They're only half kidding. My wife was born in Colombia so since I've been married, I had a lot of opportunities to travel there. And driving around sometimes especially in Miami-Dade you can close your eyes, then open them and it's not hard to imagine that you really are in a 3rd world country somewhere.
I have several friends that voted absentee for the same reason and I've wavered on that so it's probably too late to apply for a ballot now. I don't know if you've been here long enough, but when Oliphant was our contentious Elections Supervisor in Broward, there were a bunch of absentee ballots found in her office that had never been counted (think this was in 2002 mid-term elections). And this happened late enough that the votes were disqualified. So I don't know that trust in the absentee system is well placed either.
Regardless, it's a pretty sad state of affairs when there's a fundamental mistrust in the voting system across the country. I'm actually hoping that some of these early reports may make things better, but I'm cynical to believe that they probably won't. Good luck to us...we're going to need it.
As a matter of fact, I do as I work for one and have for many years. Not-for-profit means that they're not publicly owned or traded. Therefore whatever 'profit' (which is really just the surplus after expenses) that is made gets reinvested in the company mostly for improving services or upgrading infrastructure.
This is markedly different from publicly held broadcasting companies who have obligations to their boards, shareholders, and corporate sponsers. So who would I rather get my news from? A private organization or a bunch of corporate shills with a political axe to grind? I'm not naive enough to believe that any news source is completely unbiased but NPR is about as close as you can get, especially in this country. BTW - This is coming from a political and fiscal conservative and I'm not the only one. I know a lot of people on both sides of the aisle that listen to NPR. So it's not just for tree-huggers and hippies anymore.
And would you please explain to me how NPR is working with government to reduce our freedoms again? Seriously, WTF?
That I live in Florida, you insensitive clods.
Seriously though, these reports have been around locally for a couple of days. What I find interesting though, is that they invariably are from Democrats saying their votes were changed when they checked the summary prior to submitting. There's not one report of a Republican having the same problem that I've heard of yet. So should I take my tin foil hat with me to the polls this year, or not? I'm really, really hoping we're not going to be the laughing stock of the entire world again this year, but I have serious doubts. This used to be a great place to live.
Not sure if the above is meant as a troll, but last time I checked, NPR is a not-for-profit. ...checking... Yep. From Wikipedia: "National Public Radio (NPR) is an independent, private, non-profit membership organization of public radio stations in the United States". So, I'd say your profit argument is off-base. And I think the point of TFA is that XM is violating FCC regulations. Does it really matter if NPR is the one that brought this to light?
Agreed, more FUD. Anyone remember West Nile? That was the panic du jour before bird flu, but it didn't really do much and is now off the media radar. It's a perfect example of another media generated crisis that's not really panning out.
The article does make some good points about antibiotic misuse and this has been a pet peeve of mine for a while that I think is a cause for genuine concern. Diseases like MRSA can be devastating (I have a friend with it who has not been able to work since May, and is lucky to be alive) and are pretty much a direct result of the over/misuse of human antibiotics. Overuse of antibiotics in livestock where they're excreted back into the environment is a recipe for breeding lots more antibiotic resistant and much nastier bugs. It's basically using natural selection to breed bugs that are better equiped to harm us. Yet no one in the mass media really talks about this as it's not as sexy as a gloom and doom pandemic scenario.
Thank you for choosing to download Hubble SP2. Before we can continue, Hubble Genuine Advantage needs to confirm that your copy of Hubble SP1 is a valid one. Do you wish to continue?
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If you're doing a good job, nobody knows you exist.
We have an employee recognition program where I work, but it's very rare for Sys Admins, developers and the like to ever get even a nomination. The people who usually get the awards are either instructors or the field service techs (who usually call one of us when they get stuck) who have their faces out there in the public eye. The people getting the votes are the people who showed them how to play a CD on their PC, not the guys behind the scenes protecting their servers and data.
The only chance I have at winning this is if they're using Diebold machines to count the votes.
You know I'm glad you mentioned that, because I seem to be getting the same results. I left my old two blade razor somewhere and decided to pick up one of the three blade models when I was at the store. After about 2 shaves, it's already dull and I have to cover the same area multiple times. I wonder if the quality of the blade is just that much worse, or of the third blade actually interferes with shaving. I think I'll be sticking with the disposables as well.
On the lighter side, we had a local talk show host who used to talk about the ridiculous amount of money they were spending marketing and advertising the new (at the time) 3 blade models. And he used to quip that 'pretty soon, we'll just have a whole pack of cartridges on a handle that we shave with. And we'll only have to move the razor like a half an inch to shave our whole face.' Life imitates comedy, I guess.
So here we go...
Hospital bar key - $0 (but spent $69 for Hotel 6 reservation to nab said key)
CompactFlash 256MB Memory card - $20
Stealing an election - Priceless!
Hotels across the United States reported an alarming shortage of hotel bar keys.
Amuzingly, it seems to be in grey scale. I guess the baker didn't have a 256 color option. See the Flikr link someone posted below.
Developers later found that they were unable to open the box containing the cake. When attempting to do so, they kept getting a message from WGA telling them that it was attempting to verify that theirs was in fact a Genuine Windows Cake, then their connection to the server would time out.
If tobaccanists get these, all requests to buy cigarrettes will translate as "My hovercraft is full of eels."
I've got a RAZR in mine! Oh, wait...
I tend to agree with parent. I'm from South Florida so I'm more familiar than I'd like to be with voting debacles. In an effort to alleviate these and to encourage increased voter turnout (we had appallingly low numbers of voters in the most recent primary) our county and others around the state have instituted vote early systems. As early as this Monday you can place your votes that will (allegedly) be counted in November.
Although I'd like to vote early and avoid the lines in November, I am cynical enough to believe that the longer my vote stays on an electronic system with no audits and safeguards in place, the higher the chance that my vote won't count. Some here have suggested filing absentee ballots so there's a written record. Problem is that in a previous election, about 75,000 absentee ballots suddenly 'went missing' and were disqualified from the final tally. The election supervisor has since been replaced, but fundamentally I still just don't trust the system.
Well, you got modded off-topic (and I probably will as well) but as a fellow Floridian I wish you and your candidate Godspeed. It looks like from our paper today that Davis is gaining somewhat in the Gov's race. It will be interesting to what happens after the debates tonight (statewide on all PBS channels if you haven't heard). BTW - I am a third generation, lifelong Republican and there is one single local Republican candidate that I am supporting this year. Other than him, I'm voting Blue across the board. I am so sick to death of this government being hi-jacked by the whatever-cons. I'm not saying the Dems are much better, but I hope that I'm among a ton of disenfranchised voters that are sick of this crap want our country back. I sincerely hope the message is loud and clear this year.
Well, after all this is /. You should be happy that I at least even read part of TFA. Now you expect me to actually go and look up the applications before getting all up in arms? I mean knee-jerking and jumping to conclusions is the closest thing to excercise some of us get here. :oP Thanks for the chuckle. Now, I'm off to the library to get my smart on...
If IBM holds a patent for 'Posting messages to an interactive service' there may well be. I mean, some of these are pretty broad:
US 5,796,967 - Presenting Applications in an Interactive Service.
US 5,442,771 - Storing Data in an Interactive Network.
US 7,072,849 - Presenting Advertising in an Interactive Service.
US 5,446,891 - Adjusting Hypertext Links with Weighted User Goals and Activities.
US 5,319,542 - Ordering Items Using an Electronic Catalogue.
Without reading the actual applications, it sounds to me like that covers like 99% of anyone selling or storing anything on-line. I mean, WTF? Storing data in an interactive network? How broad is that net?
I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.