Presidential
RamblingsPresidential
Ramblings
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Have you seen what $50 buys today? An ad from Tiger Direct arrived in my email a couple weeks ago. Would you believe a dual format DVD-RW drive for 50 bucks? How about a complete wireless network? They have a US Robotics 802.11G router AND a wireless PC Card for your notebook BOTH for $50. There is no excuse not to network your computers anymore. How about 256M of RAM? And it’s not slow RAM either, but 266Mhz DDR RAM for $40. Or how about a 512M (as in half a Gigabyte!) compact flash card for your camera? When I joined DOG (Danbury Osborn Group), one of the clubs that became DACS, my computer was a genuine IBM XT. When I purchased that machine in 1984, with its spacious 10M hard drive and 256K of RAM, I went to the credit union for a loan because I didn’t have the $4800 plus a couple hundred more for a monitor. In case you haven’t noticed, the values in computing today are incredible. Where do you think we’ll be in another twenty? No, I’m not endorsing Tiger Direct here nor do I mean to imply that they have the best prices; and you can do even better than these examples If you look around. The Hacker AbovegroundA couple of weeks ago I was shopping at Barnes and Noble and noticed a new (to me) hacker magazine. It’s called Blacklisted! 411 (“censored information” in hacker- speak). The issue I bought is volume 6, issue 5, so it’s been around for a while, but this is the first time I’ve seen it. The magazine’s subtitle is “The official hackers magazine”, so there is no question about intent. I’ve mentioned 2600, The Hacker Quarterly, in this column before. 2600 is the seminal hacker magazine that has been published for more than 20 years and is frequently in the news defending your digital civil liberties. Like 2600, Blacklisted! 411 is printed in a “Readers Digest” size format, and, unfortunately like 2600, does not edit the articles for grammar or punctuation. I suspect that many of the authors are fairly intelligent but this sure doesn’t show thru their writing styles. If you’re paranoid that the FBI will start tracking your movements if you appear to be part of the hacker subculture, just pay cash in the checkout line, like I do, so Admiral Poindexter can’t find you in his supercomputer database matching project that Congress banned (yea, sure) last year. DACS Elections are comingIn December we elect people to serve on the DACS Board of Directors. Board members serve two years. Would you like to help determine how DACS meets the future? Believe it or not, but our meetings are actually fun! Please contact me or any board member by phone or email and tell us that you would like to run. The ‘copy’ command is criminalOK, I’m exaggerating a little here, but not by much. There is a bill pending in Congress that would give a copyright holder the right to sue anyone who creates a product that “induces” copyright infringement. Introduced by Senator Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah, the bill is aimed at the technology underlying peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Regardless of the target, the bill will have a chilling effect on technological development. The old DOS ‘copy’ command, while it clearly has legitimate uses, can be used to create illegal copies of copyrighted materials. Will this bill make Bill Gates a criminal? Before you jump in with a smart answer that, consider all the other things we use every day that might become targets of law suits under this bill, like FTP or any program that makes “backups” like, well, the Windows backup program! Voting Machines in ConnecticutSince last month I’ve been trying to contact the office of the Secretary of State in Hartford to get the latest poop on new voting machines in Connecticut. Moments ago a ‘staff attorney’ finally returned my call with answers to many questions. Last year several towns participated in a study of electronic touch screen voting machines. The test involved voting machines from several manufacturers. [You can read the reports issued on this test on the Secretary of State web site, www.sots.state.ct.us.] All of the machines tested print a paper report that details how each voter cast his ballot. This report is printed in a “random” manner so that a particular ballot cannot be linked to any particular voter to preserve the anonymity of a secret ballot. However, only one of the machines in the test printed a ballot that the voter could confirm as correct. None of these machines will be used in the coming election, even in the towns that participated in the test. That means that Connecticut voters will use the same voting equipment we have used for decades. In New Milford that means the old mechanical voting machines that can no longer be repaired except by cannibalizing other machines. A few towns use paper ballots that are scanned and recorded electronically. This is the same technology used for the SAT and other “machine scored” tests. It’s most important that all new voting machines purchased in Connecticut provide a voter-verified paper audit trail. Presently there is no law or regulation requiring that new machines meet this standard. In fact, current law only requires that one touch screen voting machine be available in each polling place for the 2006 general elections. Federal tax-payer funds are available to help towns meet this requirement. Legislation setting voting machine standards was introduced in Connecticut General Assembly during the last session but failed to reach a vote. Bills in Congress appear headed to a similar fate. Connecticut may have only five electoral votes, but we must be certain that we do not become another Florida. You can help. Make sure the people we elect at all levels of government this November support legislation that will ensure that all elections – local, state and national – are fair and accurate for all offices. We can’t afford to have another President elected by a vote of 5 to 4. Jim Scheef |
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