I voted 2 weeks ago as well. I hear WA is expected to have a voter turnout exceeding 85%. I hope other states adopt this approach, it is certainly the most democratic and fair approach to elections I've seen so far, since every voter has weeks to go through the literature sent about all the candidates. And no one has to skip work to vote, so it doesn't disenfranchise the poor.

There's still the option of going to an actual polling place, like I did 4 years when voting for president, but I much prefer voting by mail.

Why use a touch screen at all? They should have just made the screens have bezel keys along the sides like an ATM.

Also not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure defend it or lose it just applies to trademarks.

There are still fixed costs to maintaining a server even if the software is free. A git or SVN server won't store it's own backups offsite. Our Engineering department still gets charged by our IT department for hosting for wikis, source control, etc, even though the software running on the server is 'free', it doesn't deploy and maintain itself.

Seems like this might make a better gun than a reprap.

I'm quite happy with my Bachelor of Science in Applied Sciences. Basically a CS degree from the college of Engineering at my University. I now do real time embedded programming for vehicle control systems. Lots of physics at the system level, keeps me engaged. All the V&V work gets tedious, but I wouldn't want to be the cause of someone dying because it was too tedious to write unit tests.

FYI, the National Society of Professional Engineers is adding a Software Engineering classification for 2013. Not for the feint of heart, as a professional, you assume a good deal of liability for the projects you're involved with.

Yes, they know that the plaques impair brain function by inference, they don't understand how, because no one knows what a memory is. Face it, we know a lot about the physical structure of the brain, but we don't really know how it works. Asserting that we understand the process of memory because we know a few things about a disease linked to memory is false equivalence. It's equally disingenuous to suggest that knowing more about how memories are formed, stored, and accessed would have no practical benefit when trying to understand and treat diseases which affect memory.

Understanding the mechanics of memory may lead to breakthroughs which could cure diseases like Alzheimer's.

Fourthly, a virus on a smart meter? Good luck with that. They're nowhere near that smart...

What an incredibly naive assumption. A friend of mine audits smart meter security and occasionally speaks at Black Hat about them. Viruses can target embedded systems and can be written if the flash/update mechanism over the network is secured with "childishly simple" methods. Once compromised firmware has been distributed across the network of meters, if they happen to have a remote disconnect feature, hundreds of thousands of houses could be potentially disconnected from the grid simultaneously at the command of a malicious hacker.

If that much of the load was removed from the grid at once, permanent damage to the power infrastructure can occur, about as devastating as an EMP attack to a city. All this because the utilities are too greedy and don't want to remove the remote disconnect feature from the meters.

Remember, anyone can get a meter and perform all sorts of reverse engineering. Is it really secure when you think about stopping a persistent threat with the skill and resources of the stuxnet authors. Some technology professionals see "childishly simple" security to be professional malpractice, like failing to perform basic load calculations when designing a bridge.

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They should look at integrating with blue tooth shoes too. Funny to see more than one story about smart phone technology for the visually impaired in the same day.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/07/footwear-blind?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/bluetoothshoes
The shoes have an actuator in the heel which can vibrate to signal when to turn or alert the presence of an obstacle, a sensor in the toe for detecting obstacles, and blue tooth for phone app integration.

Just remember 1 really strong password. Then change your password 9 times every 90 days to keep using it. There's no policy rule that forbids a password that was used in the last 90 days, so obviously IT is okay with this approach to security.

The case against them is based on negligence. By not considering the worst case scenario and preparing for it, they've been failing the public trust. The expert is testifying that post earthquake 2009, the building codes still are inadequate since they do not consider the worst case scenario if it is an infrequent event. The fact the model they are currently using, was developed in California, and is now recognized by the scientific community as a whole as flawed, to the point where it is no longer taught to students, could be considered negligence.

I am not an Italian lawyer, nor any other type of lawyer for that matter.

Sounds like an intranet only sort of in house application. To get an attack surface on it, you first have to break the VPN connection needed to access it. Unless he's providing remote access, it's not a security risk. From the summary, it sounded like merely centralized access, not remote access to systems using public facing web services.

I've been a programmer for 10 years now and usually its in the employment contract that anything you write related to the company's business while employed unless specifically excluded belongs to the company. In this case, it's directly related to their business operations and something they would greatly benefit from, so the copyright would obviously belong to them if he had an IP section in his new hire docs. I think he approached the company initially and they pointed to the employment contract which stated they own the copyright to his work and wouldn't pay extra for that since it wasn't something in their budget and not something they really want, regardless of how much he thinks they need it. The fact that he was paid to work for a lesser role, has no bearing on ownership of the IP if he signed a document granting his employer the copyright (and it's very likely he did).

If he didn't sign something explicitly, then varying on the state, his employer may own it depending on the conditions of his employment. The fact it's outside of his job description usually does not come into the equation since it is accepted that you have privileged access to trade secrets, etc.