Re: They spelt it wrong
Eye sea watt ewe did they're
Posts by Adam 1
2545 publicly visible posts • joined 7 May 2012
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E-vote won't happen for next Oz election
Saturday 22nd November 2014 21:25 GMT
Re: what's the need for this ?
There are some good reasons for electronic voting done right (most aren't).
* Detection of vote tampering
* removal of accidental donkey voting where someone changed their mind and started crossing things out rather than getting a new paper making their intention unclear
* immediate results where the numbers are close.
* sensible sized ballot paper. Our legislation limits the size and therefore with enough candidates you have real accessibility problems with readable font size.
* random order per vote so column 1 isn't hugely advantaged by donkey vote.
* Logistics in producing, transporting, storing, counting those papers.
These are not theoretical problems. In the recent election, Western Australia's senate race was very close. Last and second last at specific points were within automatic recount thresholds at numerous points and preference flows varies the overall winner. During the recount they could not find from memory about 1000 votes from one polling station. They did simulations of both possible flows and demonstrated that the result could change which in the end cost many millions of dollars in a state wide revote.
In answer to your other question. Poll booth attendance is compulsory. What you do our don't write on your ballot paper is up to you but it will be considered informal if you don't fill it out correctly (wink wink nudge nudge). Compulsory attendance is actually a good thing (hasn't always been my view). But it achieves some useful effects.
* providing a mandate to the parliament (note parliament != government).
* much harder for anyone to use stand over tactics to keep opposing populations away.
* moderates the nuts that exist at the frays of all ends of the spectrum. I know that a number of places where politics doesn't seem to be contesting ideas but rather trying to motivate half interested parties to bother to turn up. If everyone is already there, you need to focus on how your policies affect the whole constituency or you won't get a large sway.
The real amazing part is that for once the parliament seems to have thought through the problems that such a change opens up, where good intentions have unintended bad consequences. If only they now apply their newfound wisdom to the slippery slopes of days retention and media reporting of special operations,I, for one would be much happier.
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Wednesday 5th November 2014 10:19 GMT
Re: Wrong Target?
It is in Google's interest to return the results that their users were looking for, irrespective of whether you now regret the night you embarassed yourself. If they are simply a bunch of viagra link farms then people will change searh engines. I have used probably a dozen search engines over the past decade or so. I switched to google when its results were consistently aligned with what I was looking for. If tomorrow morning Bing does it better then I will switch again.
Even taking at face value that the information is inaccurate; it is only an assumption that the user was expecting accurate information. Would you expect reliable information from the onion? Of course not (at least I hope). The point is that you want a search engine to decide based on a short phrase and possibly some additional data (location / google+ / search history etc if available) the relevance of the possible returned results. If information is truly out of data and Google doesn't return the more up to date information then Google will lose out to its competitors; but there would surely have to be much better reasons to not go after the information source in the first place. They are going after Google for the PR. If they wanted the information gone, they would go after the hosting website(s).
It is with great curiousity that I ponder whether these guys think that China should have the right to suppress "out of date" links on Google.com?
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Saturday 1st November 2014 07:45 GMT
Re: Google goes into Kevin the Teenager Mode
Here's the thing.
The search result is already correct.
Correctness of a search engine relates to the ability to locate URLs that relate to the phrase you are searching for. They do not offer an opinion on the fitness for purpose or correctness of that information. If you search for a review of a car, the results may contain links to reviews by people who clearly have no clue, are biased towards or against a particular model or get specifications or prices wrong. That is where adults are expected to engage their brain and evaluate for themselves. If the information on this site is so bad that poor little Europe couldn't be trusted with it, then block it at the site itself.
Censoring of search results is the realm of Beijing or Moscow rather than somewhere that values free media.
Friday 31st October 2014 13:16 GMT
Re: Geo-location?
No offence but I would much prefer them to spend those few milliseconds figuring out the most applicable links that correlate to my search query, not figuring out locations of IP addresses to crosscheck umpteen blacklists and to exclude such results.
If I was Google I would drop all connections from ECJ offices in protest. Or pummel them with random massive streams of data through JavaScript to fill their pipe.
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Friday 31st October 2014 12:16 GMT
it gets worse
Their web portal has a password policy that restricts citizens to just 8 characters/digits.
Why does it matter about the maximum password length ; they all SHA256 down to the same size irrespective of length right guys? Er, guys, you aren't storing those passwords in plain text or reversible encryption are you?
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Tim Cook: The classic iPod HAD TO DIE, and this is WHY
Wednesday 29th October 2014 23:39 GMT
Re: Apple killed the competition then deliberately dumped the market...
OK, so I have checked.
The first generation iPod (now called classic) had 5GB storage. Even most of the 3rd gen were 20GB.
The money of one of these "classics" could just about buy you two XPerias (not the Zs obviously), but even the cheap ones have a microSD slot. A 32GB card can easily be had for under US$20. Same with Samsungs. Amazingly, some manufacturers have discovered a way that users can swap out both storage and batteries. They figured out that if you don't glue them to the board, you can just take one out when it is flat and put another in. Likewise, they discovered these cards which can be removed and replaced with either higher capacities or just additional media. It is not quite as innovative as rounded edges but not bad eh?
The battery life of your smart phone is mostly your screen. If you are using it as a media player, your screen is off and it will easily last a day.
Sorry, what was I supposed to discover?
Most people can live with just 16 - 32GB of music with them at a time. Those that cant do not form a big enough market to make the product line profitable. The writing is on the wall for them as microSD cost/GB drops and 4G makes streaming services technically possible. If the exorbitant costs for data over 4G drop over the next few years, then many will need even less storage on the phone itself. Apple don't want to be selling the iPod, they want to invent and sell iSpotify (or Beats or whatever they branded it).
Tuesday 28th October 2014 22:55 GMT
Re: Apple killed the competition then deliberately dumped the market...
No. Sales dwindled because you now carry a portable computer the same size that can play music, movies, ebooks, apps and games, browse the net and take photos which often have similar capacities to the original iPod classic. It dwindled for the same reason as compact digital cameras have; there is no need to get two things when one thing does everything you need with only compromises you find acceptable.
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Just don't blame Bono! Apple iTunes music sales PLUMMET
Sunday 26th October 2014 21:27 GMT
@werdsmith
Buying a physical CD also requires putting on pants then driving to a Westfield somewhere and flicking through the shelves hoping to find the one you are after. Good luck if it isn't on the top 50; all of that pant wearing could be for naught. Contrast this to digital sales, where if you know what you want then you can have it purchased and downloading within seconds; no calling around different stores to see who has it in stock.
ITunes (the software) is still an awful offence against humanity, but I can see how it is convenient to those locked into that ecosystem.
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Thursday 16th October 2014 21:35 GMT
Re: Something to be aware of...
>The other issue I have with this is that Australia was crawling with massive carnivores at the time, and getting away from them was (presumably) a priority for prey animals.
Possibly, but another possibility is if it was also a common ancestor to the common drop bear then perhaps it had no need to get away from anything. Would also explain how they got so fat.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
