] U.K.-based BTG Plc has sued Microsoft Corp. and Apple
] Computer Inc. for allegedly infringing a patent that
] covers Web-enabled software update technologies, the
] company announced Wednesday.

[ Fun for all. -k]

InfoWorld: Microsoft, Apple sued for offering online updates: July 21, 2004: By : APPLICATION_DEVELOPMENT : APPLICATIONS : WEB_SERVICES

Well, I voted today. A few impressions.

[ My feelings echo Tom's somewhat. I think the most dangerous aspect of these machines is the certification process, pre-election access to the devices, malicious or shitty code, and hardware failure.

If you could pull smartcard shenanigans, as Decius says, it'd be all over... no one pays attention once you walk up there and pop in the card. I did notice that the cards were yellow today, but were white the last time i voted. Perhaps you'd need to take the step to match the color if you were gonna swap.

The machines plainly indicate how many votes it's taken for the day. When i went at about 10 am, my machine had already processed about 30 votes. That's only 10 an hour, so maybe each machine registers 100-250 votes... Even if somehow you could get 2 minutes per person average, you could only cram in 360 for the day. As Decius says, this substantially mitigates the effect of a single machine compromise... the election would have to very close.

I'm still not happy with these things, overall, but it could be worse. -k]

Diebold Machines

] The turmoil in the Palestinian leadership continued today
] as Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei insisted in front of the
] cabinet that he had sincerely resigned and was running
] only "a caretaker government" while Yasir Arafat told the
] same cabinet that Mr. Qurei was still in charge since the
] resignation had no legal force.

[ Seriously, what the fuck? -k]
]
]
] Advertisement
]
]
] The two men seemed to be playing a poker game. Mr. Qurei
] is apparently hoping that Mr. Arafat will be so
] embarrassed by the second resignation of a prime minister
] in little over a year that he will cede to him genuine
] authority over security in the West Bank and the recently
] unruly Gaza Strip. But Mr. Arafat is continuing to call
] what he sees as Mr. Qurei's bluff, with his advisers
] telling the press that Mr. Qurei already can do what he
] wants about security since he runs the cabinet.

Palestinian Premier Says He Is Running 'Caretaker Government'

] Russell E. Train, who headed the EPA from September 1973
] to January 1977 - part of the Nixon and Ford
] administrations - said Bush's record on the environment
] was so dismal that he would cast his vote for Democrat
] John Kerry.

[ Excellent. -k]

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Republican Ex-EPA Chief Criticizes Bush

Too many universities have become professionalized information-transmission systems, when teaching should instead be this sort of relationship between the experienced and the young, on whom little now is lost.

[ A short but intresting article apropo of the recent spate of articles building an educational philosophy meme. It draws similar conclusions to Papert, and while it offers no proposals in the limited space available, it compels an evaluation of the goals educators ought to set. -k]

Learning to Think, and Live

] Hmmm. There is argument which says that your musical
] tastes adapt to your job, rather than dictate your choice
] of career. We know of at least one Reg hack who came to
] Vulture Central with a fine ear and an profound
] appreciation of Baroque choral works, but was one month
] later found in a London pub, drunk, and dancing on a
] table to the Sex Pistols while police officers moved in
] with dogs and nets.
]
]
] Sadly, the Training Camp survey does not note what IT
] journalists prefer on their playlist. Neither,
] scandalously, does it recognise what is taken as absolute
] fact among the IT community: that adsales boys, marketing
] directors and Strategy Boutiques in general prefer to
] brainstorm to the sound of whalesong.

[ Nice. -k]

Developers play air guitar to Megadeth | The Register

] All the high-minded rhetoric and outward symbolism ... had
] apparently been erased by the dirty business of litigation.
]
] Befitting the clashes around the design, the Freedom
] Tower itself is now in doubt: it might not reach its
] symbolic height and, if it does, it will probably do so
] with the help of antennae. Likewise the centrepiece
] memorial is being designed by Michael Arad, who won the
] commission in a contest, and it will not be sunk into the
] ground, part of Libeskind's plan that had been praised by
] Pataki.

[ I can think of no more accurate memorial to America than this. Unfortunately.

Great idealism mired by greed, commercialism, pride and legal contest... how unbelievably, terribly apropo. -k]

Freedom tower design in doubt

] "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional
] right to vote for electors for the President of the
] United States," the court said, "unless and until the
] state legislature chooses a statewide election as the
] means to implement its power to appoint members of the
] Electoral College."

[ Well, that's a scary article, even if i put the odds of such outright disenfranchisement right around the death-by-falling-space-debris level. The fact that it's possible is completely absurd. -k]

Usurping the Voters (washingtonpost.com)

] After analyzing the video, you must gather more clues by
] cracking word puzzles, analyzing video clips, scouring
] more than 300 actual and fictitious Web sites and by
] following instructions sent in e-mail messages from
] virtual characters, including The Phoenix himself.
]
] Receiving and reading e-mail and surfing the Net takes
] place outside of the game, using your own e-mail address
] and Web browser. While this helps immerse you in the
] game, it also means you'll need an Internet connection to
] play.

This sounds really damn cool, considering many Memestreams range from casual code crackers and puzzle solvers, to CIA-briefing Crypologists. A friend of mine (who hopefully will start using Memestreams, [elbows JR]) beta-tested EA's Majestic back in Summer 2001. It was this same kind of thing, an interactive game that used Instant Messaging and email to involve you in a "game" with other players. I know he thought it kicked ass. Think of a real life version of the movie "The Game."

I'd love to see how the technology has advanced in the last 3 years.

Games moving into 'real world'

Ordering a pizza in a surveillance society.

[ Well played. -k]

ACLU - Pizza Flash