Funny enough, when I was in my CS program and living in the dorms, I got a call from the network admins asking me why I was hacking the residential network. I was taking a Network Protocols class at the time, and it was near the end of the semester. We were preparing for the final, and I kept reading the textbook past where we left off to find a section on network security. So I had a Linux server running in my room and started playing with the tools the book talked about, like portscanning my other computer to see what I could find. Well, turns out that I missed a flag or something, because instead of scanning my other desktop (inside the room network), it was scanning any machine it could find on the residential network. I didn't realize anything was wrong until I got that call. Incidentally, I still remember that conversation. It was really hard to justify with my pretty reasonable explanation. "Why are you portscanning?" "Oh, I was trying out some things in my textbook on my own machine." "What class is this for? I'm not aware of any class at this school that teaches portscanning." "No, it's not in the class, it's... it's in the book. The class is over." "So you're hacking on your own, then?" "I... was trying to see how it worked on my own computer." "No, you were using it on the whole network." "What?"

But... the Windows guy on TV implied Jerry Seinfeld would be coming to have dinner with me! And buy shoes!

This package is available in Java 6 for Mac. My major issue is that, at least for me, Java 6 was not the default Java. Individual applications can specify it (pretty easily) and take advantage of smartcardio, but it's not immediately straightforward. Of course, Java 6 isn't available for all versions, like has been said before. (Besides the annoyances I've had with configuring it to use 6 and their silence on when they'll update the versions, I actually have found it to be very stable. I use it every day professionally using a lot of different kinds of apps. There's weirdness sometimes, but I've never found it to be particularly unstable.)

The state appoints the electors to the electoral college as representatives of the state. There is no federal law mandating this; however, every state (and Washington, DC) currently has a law specifying that the electors are selected through a popular vote. Of those, 24 states have laws to punish electors who do not vote as determined by the popular vote (faithless electors). Historically, no faithless elector has ever been prosecuted, and the constitutionality of the laws to punish faithless electors has not yet been challenged in the Supreme Court. So yes, in practice, individual voters elect the electoral college, but constitutionally, they're only guides.