You'd have to be a complete idiot not to challenge this election. Think of this a e-Chad?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20061121/121243.shtml
Florida Candidate Demands New Election In County Where E-Voting Machines Ate The Vote
from the do-over! dept
Two days after the election, despite claims in the press that there were "no major problems" with e-voting systems, it became clear that Sarasota County in Florida had a pretty serious problem to deal with as somewhere between 8,000 and 18,000 votes on e-voting machines appeared to have gone missing. There were various explanations, but it seems like the machines just didn't record the votes when people hit the touchscreen. levi stein writes in to let us know that the Congressional candidate who lost that election by a mere 369 votes, Christine Jennings, is challenging the election and demanding a new election. She's pointing out that there was clearly something wrong with the machine as the missing votes don't fit statistically with votes from any other county in the district, and that this particularly county had the majority voting in her favor (suggesting those missing votes very likely would have tipped the election). It will certainly be interesting to see what happens in the lawsuit she's filed, as it could open up plenty of similar lawsuits in other areas. Hopefully, the risk of such lawsuits will be just one more thing that elections officials will take into account when deciding whether or not to trust their elections to these problematic machines.
...and here I was looking forward to a great legal battle. Oh well, no doubt the non-existent tape will leak eventually.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6172380.stm
Federline denies Britney sex tape
Britney Spears' estranged husband Kevin Federline has denied possessing a video tape of the couple having sex.
After Spears filed for divorce earlier this month, some tabloid papers claimed Federline would make the film public.
But his lawyers say it does not exist and "stories of Kevin attempting to sell such a video are patently false".
Microsoft realizing that complementary products will be a benefit? Brilliant!
Microsoft licenses Office UI for free
Developers may use Office 2007 as a platform but Redmond gets to protect its investment
By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service November 21, 2006
Microsoft Corp. is licensing the new UI (user interface) in Office 2007 for free so developers can build applications that look similar to the programs in the suite, the company said Tuesday.
Microsoft is licensing both design and functionality of Office 2007's RibbonX UI, as well as offering guidelines for implementing it, through a new program, said Takeshi Numoto, Microsoft general manager for Office Client. Developers and ISVs (independent software vendors) can sign up with Microsoft on the Web and register products that will use the UI.
More information about the new licensing program can be found here .
http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_11.php#005018
EFF Files Suit for Answers About New International Air Passenger Data Deal
Department of Homeland Security Dodges Records' Disclosure
Washington DC - The FLAG Project at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today, demanding information about a new agreement on the handling of air passenger data from flights between the European Union (EU) and the United States.
Two years ago, the U.S. and EU made a controversial deal requiring airlines to give DHS access to detailed passenger information from EU flights to and from the U.S. In May, the European Court of Justice struck down the agreement, finding it at odds with EU law. But the U.S. and EU reached a new agreement last month that will give U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies greater access to the data than the previous deal did. EFF filed its suit after DHS failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records about the handling of data under the new agreement, including how they are maintained, used, disclosed, and secured.
... For the FOIA complaint filed against the Department of Homeland Security: http://www.eff.org/flag/dhs/dhs_complaint.pdf
For more on the FLAG Project: http://www.eff.org/flag
Contact: Marcia Hofmann Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation marcia@eff.org
Anything for money... but there was a large market waiting
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Q/QURAN_RINGTONES?SITE=VALYD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Clerics in India Dismiss Quran Ringtones
By BISWAJEET BANERJEE Associated Press Writer Nov 21, 6:44 PM EST
LUCKNOW, India (AP) -- Muslim clerics at a leading seminary in India have asked people to refrain from using verses from the Quran as ringtones for their mobile phones, saying the practice was un-Islamic.
... "One should hear the complete verse of the Quran with a pious mind and in silence. If it is used as a ringtone, a person is bound to switch on the mobile, thus truncating the verse halfway," he said. "This is an un-Islamic act."
Would this make the Bobbys look like Dr. Who's Daleks? (If the cops turned off the videos, would that be evidence they were doing something naughty?)
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/21/2024242&from=rss
London Police Equipped With 360-Degree Cams
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday November 21, @04:09PM from the you-couldn't-make-it-up dept. Privacy
OriginalArlen writes, "In a story so surreal I had to check the primary source, the Register reports that the (London, UK) Metropolitan Police are trying out the use of eight tiny cams, mounted in the police helmet, to provide 360-degree evidence gathering in the event that an officer witnesses a crime. The press release also gives more evidence of the stealth spread of ubiquitous ANPR [Automatic number plate recognition Bob]systems across the country as a spin-off 'benefit' to the London car congestion-charging scheme, which is likely to be rolled out across the country in the next few years. Are we already living in a Panopticon Society?"
According to this report from the information commissioner for Great Britain, yep.
...if that wasn't enough..
http://techdirt.com/articles/20061121/182333.shtml
Forget ID Cards, UK Police To Begin Scanning Your Fingerprints On The Street
from the papers...-er...-fingerprints-please dept
While there's been plenty of uproar about national ID cards and passports with RFID chips, it seems that police in the UK are taking things one step further, giving police portable fingerprint scanners, in order to identify suspects quickly. They say this will help them identify people who give false identities... but they also say that the person will need to give permission before their fingerprints are scanned. Still, it's not hard to see how this works -- if you don't agree to having your fingerprint scanned, you're suddenly a lot more suspicious looking. Also, there are always questions about how far this eventually goes. The police claim that the device has "safeguards" against misuse, but safeguards don't often stay safe very long, but a bigger issue may simply be others deciding they want to make use of the devices as well. Want to buy something? Rather than presenting ID, why not just have your fingerprints checked against the national database? We've already seen some grocery stores experiment with fingerprint scanners to replace shopper cards, so why not just connect that into a federal database? And, even better, if someone else figures out how to figures out how to copy your fingerprint it's not like you can just go out and get a new finger. [Oh? Bob]
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/21/2154251&from=rss
Drivers License Swipes Raise Privacy Concerns
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday November 22, @02:33AM from the step-away-from-the-card-reader dept.
Clubs in New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere are requiring patrons to give up their drivers licenses for a swipe through a card reader. Some bars do this too. The card reader displays their birth date and the establishments let it be assumed that the only purpose of the swipe is to check the customer's age. They rarely if ever disclose that the personal data stored on the license — the customer's name, address, license number, perhaps even height, weight, and eye color — go into a database and are retained, perhaps indefinitely. While a federal law forbids selling or sharing data from drivers licenses, there is no prohibition against collecting it. A few states have enacted such prohibitions — New Hampshire, Texas, and Nebraska. Privacy advocates warn that such personal data, once in a database, is bound to be misused. From the article: "'I don't see no problem,' said [a club-goer], 22. 'That happens every day on the Internet. Any hacker can get the information anyway.' [A Web media executive] said such reactions aren't surprising from a generation accustomed to sharing personal information on Web sites such as Facebook.com and Myspace.com. 'The kids don't care,' [he] said, 'because only old people like you and me suffer from the illusion of privacy these days.'"
How will they convert this to cash? No reputable manufacturer will buy these chips (will they?) Do you think the underworld is getting into the computer manufacturing business? Keep an eye on eBay!
Thieves steal chips worth millions
Raid on an air cargo terminal in Malaysia nets gang of thieves nearly $13M in computer chips
By Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service November 22, 2006
... The gang of 20 thieves subdued 17 security guards using weapons and chloroform before stealing 585 cartons and 18 pallets of microchips and motherboards manufactured by a multinational company in Bayan Lepas, Malaysia, The Star newspaper reported Tuesday on its Web site. The stolen goods were estimated to be worth $12.7 million, making the theft the largest ever in Malaysia, it said.
News reports in Malaysia have not named the multinational company that produced the chips. Several large companies, including Dell, Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices, have operations in Bayan Lepas, which is near Penang.
Great unasked questions: “What will be the consequences of my actions...”
http://techdirt.com/articles/20061121/103919.shtml
Streisand Effect For Make Benefit Alcohol Vaporizers, Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
from the will-they-ever-learn dept
The Streisand Effect -- when efforts to shut down or ban something merely call more attention to it and make it far more popular -- is alive and well: The Wall Street Journal has the story of a company that makes alcohol inhalers, some sort of device that lets people breathe in alcoholic drinks rather than, uh, drink them. The devices weren't selling at all, and the company had no money to market them -- until a Kentucky legislator tried to get the devices banned, sending sales through the roof. [Smart marketer sends angry letter to ignorant politician – free advertising results. Bob] There's little evidence that the machines are any more harmful than just drinking alcoholic beverages, nor is there any evidence that anybody in Kentucky had actually bought one, but no matter. The legislator somehow determined these things were a threat to public health and safety, causing a firestorm of media attention, which led to efforts by people in other states to have them banned, resulting in... more sales of the device. The kicker is that nobody really seems to like the machines: one of the people in the company making them even says "Most people try it once and then go back to drinking." But thanks to the one legislator's overreaction, they're selling pretty well. However, in a slight twist on the other side of the world, it looks like one government is starting to understand, and even leverage, the Streisand Effect. After getting their collective panties in a wad for what they saw as the fictional character Borat making fun of Kazakhstan (even when it seemed pretty clear the joke was on people that believed his representation of the country could be true) and yanking his web domain, the government there is singing a new tune. Its prime minister says the film has made people more curious about the country, and he hopes they'll come visit -- and searches for Kazakh hotels on one travel site have jumped 300%.
I hadn't thought of that... (and no, I didn't copy that from the previous article...)
http://techdirt.com/articles/20061121/140728.shtml
Another Reason For Authors To Fear Google Book Search: It Will Reveal Plenty Of Plagiarists
from the ah,-technology-at-work dept
While some book authors and publishers have come to embrace Google's book search, many are still fighting it. While the reason, for many, is fear that their own copyrights are violated in not being compensated by Google for the project, perhaps others are worried about a different copyright infringement issue. Paul Collins at Slate is predicting that Google's book search will help turn up plenty of plagiarists, including (he expects) some well known authors. He comes to this conclusion after a science writer was accused of plagiarism recently, and immediately accused his accuser of simply putting every sentence in his book into Google and finding some close matches. Collins, however, also notes that plagiarism has a long history among book authors, pointing out that Herman Melville apparently plagiarized sections of other books for his famous novel, Moby Dick. He also points to a friend who accidentally discovered a plagiarized passage using Google's book search... and then discovered that the "original" author of the piece he was looking for had plagiarized texts himself. We recently wondered why plagiarists often seemed so blatant in copying content that was easily findable online -- but just imagine how many others may have copied from various books assuming the same searching capabilities would never be present to call out their misdeeds? Once again, though, perhaps it will renew the debate over whether or not plagiarism is always such a bad thing.
Here's a video that will be “banned in Boston”
http://digg.com/videos_comedy/How_Pregnancy_Happens
How Pregnancy Happens
psokarovski submitted by psokarovski 15 hours 34 minutes ago (via http://websrvr40nj.audiovideoweb.com/avwebdsnjwebsrvr4501/portal/media/media-050516-pregnancy.html )
Well if your kids ask you: How Pregnancy Happens??? You can just show this video to them, and avoid humiliation. [??? Bob]
http://www.economist.com/theworldin/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=8133511&d=2007
Don’t bet against the internet
From The World in 2007 print edition
It’s simply the best, argues Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google
... First, most new applications can be created using existing software and protocols.
... Second, competition has increased and intensified.
... Third, the creation, consumption and communication of content have increased exponentially.
... The fastest-growing parts of the internet all involve direct human interaction.
http://www.mstechtoday.com/2006/11/20/microsoft-windows-is-21-years-old-today/
Microsoft Windows is 21 Years Old Today
Published by Brandon LeBlanc November 20th, 2006
Website Connected Internet has a great article on today’s birthday for Microsoft Windows - celebrating 21 years. Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released on November 20th, 1985. [and it was terrible Bob]
Not funny. It should be obvious that many government agencies are praying that their security is adequate, while others haven't got a prayer...
http://duggmirror.com/offbeat_news/Bush_Proposes_Faith-Based_Firewalls_for_Government_Computers/
Bush Proposes Faith-Based Firewalls for Government Computers
By Brian Briggs Wednesday, November 2 12:00 AM ET
Washington D.C. – President Bush announced that by 2008 all government computers should be protected from outside attacks by the faith-based firewall called Protection From Above (PFA) from Houston-based software developer Christisoft.
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