For US people: Canadian ballots are not at all like those that we see here. Because we have regular elections (notwithstanding special elections to fill unexpected vacancies and local-gov't elections in many states) we tend to have many, many items on the ballot including people in all three branches of state and local gov'ts in addition to federal (one or two every two years, one to three every four) not to mention ballot initiatives and tax increases. In Canada, there is usually a single race on a ballot. IOW, the problem spec is very different from that of the US.

And this is different from NSA, et al ... how?

Why? What in what passes for modern journalism would cause you to be astonished?

You're thinking of 'deus ex machina', which is a plot device along the lines of "and suddenly a god-like being appeared and fixed everything". It's the fate of all lazy fiction and, sadly, it's not restricted to sci-fi

You mean like BSG's "ending"?

From TFA:

You could strip out the 25th century tech in Star Trek and replace it with 18th century tech -- make the Enterprise a man o'war (with a particularly eccentric crew) at large upon the seven seas during the age of sail -- without changing the scripts significantly.

Um, yeah ... there's a reason why Roddenberry pitched it as "Wagon Train to the Stars".

But geeks ultimately represent a loss of control. Geeks love to tinker...

Which is why only one Steve is still at the top of the Apple org chart ...

Don't forget Kubuntu [kubuntu.org]! It's got KDE 4.2 now!

Really? I was all excited when 8.10 came out, installed it ... then had to go back to 8.04 after a few days. Why? Simple. My existing desktop environment was unavailable in the "new" KDE (Keramic? Crystal? Which actually tells you the name?)

Sure, KDE 4 is all new, super-duper coding, but if I can't get my desktop to behave the way it has for years it's useless to me. I can't afford to spend a day or three learning a totally new desktop environment and customizing it to my needs. And when I say years, I mean back to the first release SuSE under the then-not-evil Novell bought it.

I don't care what the devs do behind the scenes as long as I can work.

/bleah

The code requirement for license to operate on radio bands that are considered long distance is mandatory by the treaties that setup a global radiospace for ham radio.

Until a few years ago. The International Radio Regulations were changed by consensus in 2003 and the US FCC finally dropped all Morse Code telegraphy testing in February of 2007. Now it's only the hard-core whiners that carry on about Morse. :-)

Where US testing is lacking is in the theory. I have no issue with the Q&A pool being public domain (as it has been since 1984), but we really need more than a 35-question to get in, and 35- and 50-question tests to upgrade. Make them all at least 50. At one time, there was a Morse telegraphy test to pass as well, however ... :-)

And for goodness' sake, make them at least as hard as when I too the tests in 1991! Yes, that's a bit of "I had to do it so you should too"ism, but so?

73,
Peter