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Comment Re:Convicted for "posession" ? (Score 1) 383

For example, I say to you "Hey dude! How about a free pound of coke!" You jokingly say something like "LOL sure dude, bring a big straw." And we both laugh it off. But you're neighbor overhears and calls the cops/DEA.You just conspired to buy a pound of cocaine. And you'd lose in court, like 97% of fed trial defendants.

I regularly do a pound of coke
Occaisionally even with a straw...

Comment Re:The USA does not put intelligence sources at ri (Score 1) 919

Lets turn that around then. You think it's wrong for an individual to put lives at risk on a few occaisions while claiming to do it for the greater good, but you think it's okay for a governement to kill innocent bystanders and call it 'unavoidable collateral damage'?

I'll take Julian over the US governement any time.

Comment Re:Sad yankee system (Score 1) 170

1) I'm not a 'yankee'. I'm European.
2) http://politics.slashdot.org/story/10/10/09/1750214/DC-Internet-Voting-Trial-Attacked-2-Different-Ways
3) The problems with the 2000 presidential elections were exactly what I was refering to, as the problems were with votes that were to be counted electronically. The fact that they were paper ballots makes no difference whatsoever.
4) Are you mad? Paper voting is more secure than electronic voting according to all people that have studied the subject in depth (see point 2). The only real proponents are manufacturers of electronic voting systems and lazy politicians and government employees who only look at the glossy folders made by said manufacturers. In the Netherlands they've reverted back to paper voting exactly because people in-the-know were able to fully convince the government electronic voting is unsafe.
5) What has the current government in Venezuela to do with this topic?
6) I agree completely that the US political system is a mess. They have to fix that for themselves. Making sure at least the voting results reflect reality is a different issue and needs to be taken seriously no matter what political system is in use.
7) With 'STFU' I meant to say: if you keep pushing electronic voting, don't come back and complain once it blows up in your face. You deserve all the negative fallout you get and then some for being too lazy to read up on the subject on your own and unwilling to look further than 'oooh, fast results'.
8) Sorry to hear about your annoying cousin. On the plus side, he might grow out of it. :)

Comment Re:Sad yankee system (Score 1) 170

It's always nice to hear from citizens of budding democracies. Brasil has had a democratic government since 1985. A full 25 years. Take it from a citizen from an 'old' democracy, now over 160 years old: democracy needs defending. Always. Even if an electronic process works now, if people start to trust it someone can still take advantage of the flaws at a later moment. Lets do a small mental excercise:

- 2010, electronic elections are a complete succes. No fraud whatsoever.
- 2014, people welcome a new democratically elected leader only two hours after the close of polls.
- 2018, even though the democratically elected leader seems to have less support, he or she wins again, this time by a narrow margin
- 2022, the elected leader, now less popular than ever cannot run for president again. He, however, has a protege that is 'acceptable' to many Brasilians. Polls are uncertain if he will take the lead on election day. The president has managed to influence the electronic voting process in an unexpected and mostly covert way to get his protege into office. The president and the protege assure everyone the elections were democratic and honest, even though the difference with the nearest opponent was less than 2%... Are you sure your new president is truly the man the people wanted?

The funny thing? The US has demonstrated that even a small amount of 'automation' might lead to such results and we all know how that ended.

To summarize: STFU and go insist on paper ballots all the way or don't come and complain that your rights have been 'eroded' come next elections. The chance that Brasil reverts to some form of dictatorship is quite a bit greater than the same thing happening in the US, or most western european states.

Comment Re:Obligatory xkcd reference (Score 1) 462

'At least Adobe provided a work-around by adding a "play on youtube" option in the right click context menu.'

*Head assplodes.*

These benevolent people at Adobe at least provide a bloody workaround?!

Why don't they fix the Linux flash player altogether? They're the ones, making it this crappy on Linux in the first place, aren't they?

Comment Re:This is why science rocks. (Score 2, Interesting) 311

"What if the person/people who started our universe were just a bunch of scientists in their universe?"

Worse, what if our universe is one of a bunch of test-tubes in the drawer of some spotty-faced alien kid? Part of last years science project, now long forgotten about?

What if her mother walks in in a few minutes, finds it and cleanes it out... Will we even realise that our universe ends, never mind how or why?

(The kicker: religious people objecting to the fact that I had to make the alien kid female :P)

Comment Re:Great! (Score 1) 255

"No."

Your comment seems to end rather abruptly. Did you lose carrier while submitting? I was sure you were going to say:

"No one can be told what Wave is. You have to see it for yourself."

*sigh* I guess we'll never know for sure, now.

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