E-voting firms aren't having a particularly good week. Just days after research commissioned by the state of California showed vulnerabilities in many e-voting systems, a study commissioned by the state of Florida found serious security issues with Diebold's optical scan technology. While the article suggests that this is one of the first times the security has been questioned on optical scan machines (where there is still a paper trail, but these machines are used for counting the votes), there have actually been numerous studies pointing out the problems with Diebold's optical scanners, and how they can easily be hacked. Of course, what's amusing here is that some of the first tests that found the problems with Diebold's optical scanners were done two years ago by a "rogue" elections official in Florida. Of course, back then, the state of Florida didn't launch an immediate investigation. The state hung the elections official, Ion Sancho, out to dry, as the e-voting companies cracked jokes about the vulnerability and teamed up to conspire against him. So, now, years later, we find out that the security vulnerabilities he pointed out then are actually there is anyone apologizing? Doesn't sound like it. In fact, it sounds like Florida politicians are downplaying the security problems with these machines.

The KDE team is shipping its first beta for the next-generation KDE desktop. The 4.0 beta is the starting point for the integration process to start bringing new technologies in KDE 4 libraries to applications.

Filed under: Features, Portable Audio

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

When Lala.com launched just last year, the company raised eyebrows looking to build a business around trading of compact discs for a dollar per trade while expecting most of its revenue to come from sales of new CDs. The company claims that it actually reached profitability in its core business, but it realized that exposing members to lists of each others' CDs wasn't enough. Soon it added Internet radio by acquiring terrestrial-turned-Internet broadcaster WOXY.com.

Lala has dismissed concerns that it would facilitate piracy as members ripped and flipped with the argument that the real problem that music faces today is the war for time and money versus other media. Consumers are inundated with cable channels, YouTube, RSS, DVDs, video games, Web sites and those clever Engadget columns that you know you should really submit to Digg more often.

To this war, Lala is bringing two major weapons which brings the site determined to disrupt squarely into the realm of digital music. Not only will the company offer free music library hosting and downloading directly to one's iPod, but it is moving to offer free streaming of on-demand libraries from all four major labels, starting with Warner Music.

Lala will enable any members to store their entire digital music collection on its site to stream on demand. Of course, Lala is not the first to have this idea -- MP3.com tried it in 1998 and earned the scorn of the RIAA, which forced the startup to nix the idea. Nowadays, several sites provide music locker services (often for a fee) for those wiling to upload their music files, which can be a lengthy proposition for those with large libraries.

Continue reading Switched On: Lala makes the Web the latest iPod accessory

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!