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Comment Norway (Score 2) 190

by lynet (#47589845) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Should I Fight Against Online Voting In Our Municipality?

I recommend reading some of the reports produced after the E-voting trials in Norway:
http://www.ifes.org/Content/Publications/News-in-Brief/2012/June/Speed-Efficiency-and-Compliance-an-Evaluation-of-E-Voting-in-Norway.aspx

As for my point of view (as a former sceptic), I was convinced during the process that the trials were held at a necessary level both with regards to voter and ballot security. The reason for not continuing the trials was "political" - not based on the results from the trials. We had a general election in Norway two years later, and the parties that are "against" E-voting in the first place won that election...

The source code and documentation from the trials are available (the web page is in Norwegian):
http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/kmd/prosjekter/e-valg-2011-prosjektet/kildekode/tilgang-pa-kildekode.html?id=646007
Software

Norwegian Standards Body Members Resign Over OOXML 208

Posted by Soulskill from the take-this-job-and-shove-it dept.
tsa writes "Ars Technica reports that 13 of the 23 members from the technical committee of the Norwegian standards body, the organization that manages technical standards for the country, have resigned because of the way the OOXML standardization was handled. We've previously discussed Norway's protest and ISO's rejection of other appeals. From the article: 'The standardization process for Microsoft's office format has been plagued with controversy. Critics have challenged the validity of its ISO approval and allege that procedural irregularities and outright misconduct marred the voting process in national standards bodies around the world. Norway has faced particularly close scrutiny because the country reversed its vote against approval despite strong opposition to the format by a majority of the members who participated in the technical committee.'"
Movies

Explaining the Special Effects Behind Transformers 208

Posted by CmdrTaco from the robots-in-disguise dept.
ntmokey writes "Popular Mechanics has an in-depth look at the special effects behind the Transformers movie, including some exclusive shots from Paramount Pictures. Apparently, using real cars as models presented some interesting problems for the folks at Industrial Light and Magic, who had to figure out how a recognizable chunk of steel can fold into robot. In the end, the solution was the development team getting hands-on in the auto shop. And lots of grease."

Free the iPhone from AT&T 314

Posted by CmdrTaco from the well-it-is-the-fourth-of-july dept.
Acererak was one of several readers who noted that DVD Jon has released information on unbricking an iPhone. You sacrifice all cel phone functionality of course, but you have an iPDA that will work on your WiFi. Currently the hack is windows only but it doesn't look very complicated.
Patents

Submission + - A simple plan to defeat dumb patents (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
Steve Jones
Steve Jones writes: "With the EU being rumoured to look at software patents again I thought I'd have a look at the root of the problem — the US Patent Office — and work out if there is a simple way to defeat dumb patents, and I think there is... The big thing, as everyone knows, that defeats a patent is prior art, at the Patent Office they have the definition of Prior Art which includes the phrase

"known or used by others in this country, or was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country"


Which made me think. If every time we have an idea that we think is "obvious" but not done before, or something we think would be interesting (e.g. Using a PVR for targeted ads) but don't have the money to create, then we should always blog about that idea, tag it as "prior art" via Technorati thus giving people an RSS feed.

My argument is that by doing this we can, rightly claim, that the ideas have been described in the 21st Century version of a printed publication, and even if that is challenged, it is undeniable that by using the RSS feed it can be proven that people in a given country could have "known" about it.

I'm fed up thinking "bloody hell I did that ten years ago" or "I thought about doing that, its a bit obvious" when companies with as little intention as I had in developing the idea up start putting the squeeze on businesses and developers. What I've always lacked is the visible proof to submit against a claim. This is a simple suggestion about using the power of the web to create a massive prior art database. IANAL, but surely it can't be this simple?"
Microsoft

Submission + - National Archive File Format Time Bomb (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by
geordie_loz
geordie_loz writes: "The BBC is reporting on the UK National Archive warning of old formats being a "ticking time-bomb" where data is going to be lost because of incompatability in newer versions of software, and software not existing at all.

More surprisingly, in a cheeky move Microsoft have offered a solution.. Buy some more software from us in the form of virtualisation so you can read these files.

So microsoft software was responsible for this tie in an dependence on them to read the data which is in essence the crux of the problem. Now the solution is to further enter into that dependence and make matters worse.

For a national archive they sure do seem to have short memories."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Whirling Twirling Propeller Trike (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by
hankmt
hankmt writes: "A student at MIT has built a tricycle that applies force to a giant rear fan, instead of directly to the wheels. The effect...well, it's best to look for yourself, but it would be pretty useful on the post-apocalyptic roads of the Australian Outback. The blades of the trike even have built in LED lights which display colored patterns...and also warn pedestrians of their impending deaths."

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