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Friday, June 29, 2007

Good (technology) news

Current music: BassJunkees

Two news stories put a smile on my face this week. Quality journalism, as always, from The Register.

California, one of the more technologically-savvy states, has demanded that voting machine manufacturers submit the source code to their machines for a top-to-bottom review. ES&S whined mightily about it, and they were three months past the due date, but they finally coughed up the goods.

I hope the Secretary of State’s office was smart enough to insist that what they furnish could be used to generate software that they can compare with what’s already on the machines. Of course, ES&S would claim something like “oh, we accidentally shipped a debug load.”

***


The RIAA, being the scum of the earth that they are, tried shaking down a 10-year-old girl in 2005 — even going so far as to try contacting her at her school by claiming to be her grandmother. Her mom had the spine and brains to countersue the SOBs, and the RIAA (like any bully when stood up to) finally backed down. But mom? She’s upping the ante.

Good for her!

You keep siccing your dog on people, and eventually you’re going to run into someone with a meaner dog. Or lawyer.

5 comments:

  1. Hiya FARfetched and Boran.

    What Boran said about CA, and good for Ms. Andersen. I hope she wins her countersuit.

    Hope you get some slacking time in this w/e FAR.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's great news on the voting machine front. While it's acceptable that the government might favor proprietary technology in some cases, voting machines are an major exception. They play such an important role that we can't afford to take the risk that the manufacturer might try to pull any stunts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The RIAA really are the kind of bottom-feeders who exemplify everything that's fucked up about this country, aren't they?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi folks…

    I couldn't have said it better. If only Planet Georgia would show the kind of skepticism that California does. The comments to that article were pretty funny; some suggested that ES&S didn't want to reveal just how simple the code actually is.

    As for the RIAA: it's no wonder that CD sales are down 40% this year, is it? People are tired of overpaying for the same old crap, and there are other ways for artists to get their music out nowadays.

    ReplyDelete

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