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Comment It's funny (Score 1) 526

Prior to 2003, Orin Hatch was frequently heralded here on /. as a great defender of consumer rights because he was always bashing on Hilary Rosen.

Then suddenly when they replaced Rosen with Mitch Bainwol, Hatch changed his tune. Now he was the greatest champion of everything the RIAA asked for.

One only needs to look up the political affiliations of Rosen and Bainwol to understand why. :-)

The Internet

Using the Internet To Subvert Democracy 202

david_adams writes "All the recent talk about various polls and elections being pranked or hijacked, serious and silly alike, prompted me to write an article about the technical realities behind online polling, and the political fallout of ever becoming subject to online voting for serious elections. Even if we were to be able to limit voting to legitimate, legal voters, the realities of social networking and the rise of Internet-based movements would dramatically alter the political landscape if online voting were to become commonplace."

Comment I don't find this to be true (Score 1) 858

I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 that is three years old, it was loaded with the fastest processor, most memory, 7200 rpm harddrive, x1300 video card, best LCD screen(15" 1680x1050). I love the machine.

Looking on ebay, it appears I could get around $400 selling it now.

Ok, so I looked up similar vintage MacBook Pro, looks like they sell for $1000.

But here's the thing. I looked at the MBP, and at the time for the same configuration it was $2400. My Dell was $1200.

$2400-1000 = $1400
$1200-400 = 800.

Yeah, my Dell wasn't quite comparable to the Mac... not as fast of video, heavier, etc. But it did what I needed. So I agree with the original point that if you price out what you need you can get a cheaper machine and I don't think resale makes up for the difference.

The Courts

Kentucky Officials "Changed Votes At Voting Machines" 494

The indispensible jamie found a report out of Kentucky of exactly the kind of shenanigans that voting-transparency advocates have been warning about: a circuit court judge, a county clerk, and election officials are among eight people indicted for gaming elections in 2002, 2004, and 2006. As described in the indictment (PDF), the election officials divvied up money intended to buy votes and then changed votes on the county's (popular, unverifiable) ES&S touch-screen voting systems, affecting the outcome of elections at the local, state, and federal levels.
The Internet

Wolfram Promises Computing That Answers Questions 369

An anonymous reader writes "Computer scientist Stephen Wolfram feels that he has put together at least the initial version of a computer that actually answers factual questions, a la Star Trek's ship computers. His version will be found on their Web-based application, Wolfram Alpha. What does this mean? Well, instead of returning links to pages that may (or may not) contain the answer to your questions, Wolfram will respond with the actual answer. Just imagine typing in 'How many bones are in the human body?' and getting the answer." Right now, though the search entry field is in place, Alpha is not yet generally available -- only "to a few select individuals."

Comment Re:Offer citizenship to H1B holders (Score 1) 612

Indeed, I don't see any difference between H1B holders and local talent. For every great one there's a really horrible one. There are lots of mediocre ones too.

agreed. H1B has become the new tech bubble. It's attracting a lot of really bad people who just want to get rich quick.

A long term strategy would be to use H1B for quality people, as well as developing quality talent within the US. Right now the H1B use for filling entry level positions appears to be distorting our ability to create local talent.

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