ealex292 - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Smart move (Score 1) 846

by ealex292 on Monday April 28, 2008 @08:08PM (#23231682) Attached to: Usability Testing Hardy Heron With a Girlfriend

Some of the issues logged here are not that easy to solve - e.g. making Firefox pop up an Ubuntu-specific Flash installation prompt, rather than executing the YouTube JavaScript logic that pushes people towards an Adobe plugin site that actually does have a Linux plugin for Flash, but one that's much harder to install than an Ubuntu-packaged Flash plugin.

It probably wouldn't be too hard to write an extension to bring up a custom message (like the pop up blocked one) when you visit a URL matching some regular expression. If Ubuntu shipped with that extension and some preset messages, such as one giving flash installation instructions when visiting Adobe's page, this problem could be alleviated. (And, IMHO, in a not hugely hacky way.)

TR Picks 10 Emerging Technologies of 08 76

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 19, 2008 @11:50PM from the what-will-be dept.

arktemplar suggests Technology Review for their annual list of 10 emerging technologies that the editors believe will be particularly important over the next few years. Quoting: "This is work ready to emerge from the lab, in a broad range of areas: energy, computer hardware and software, biological imaging, social interactions. Two of the technologies — cellulolytic enzymes and atomic magnetometers — are efforts by leading scientists to solve critical problems, while five — surprise modeling, connectomics, probabilistic CMOS, reality mining, and offline Web applications — represent whole new ways of looking at problems. And three — graphene transistors, nanoradio, and wireless power — are amazing feats of engineering that have created something entirely new."

Submission + - NY rejects e-voting, DOJ trying to force it anyway

Submitted by CompaniaHill on Thursday November 08, 2007 @07:41PM

CompaniaHill writes: Hastily passed in the wake of the 2000 election mess, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) supposedly offered funding to help states "update" their voting systems, while in reality using short deadlines to push the sale of untested and uncertified new e-voting systems. Many states continue to demonstrate that the new e-voting machines are not reliable. The New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE) took the time to pass their own voting legislation with additional testing and certification standards including a voter verified paper trail, then more time to craft agency rules and procedures, all of which far exceed the HAVA standards. Of course they missed the HAVA deadlines. In March 2006, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued New York to comply with HAVA. Now, the DOJ is serving a motion to try to take away New York's right to select and acquire their own voting machine systems — in effect, to force e-voting machines on New York anyway. Too soon to say how the NYSBOE will respond yet. Hard to find good links on this developing story, but there are bits more on the DOJ motion here here and here, civil group responses here here and here.

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