Posted 8:55 AM (0) comments

Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right

The San Jose Mercury News reports that a Campaign has been launched to ban digital ballots by both a Republican and a Democrat state legislator. State Senators Don Perata (D-Oakland) and Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) are quoted as saying "The number of California voters who were disenfranchised during the March 2 statewide direct primary election as a result of failures related to touch-screen voting were both unprecedented and unacceptable..." But the failures weren't machine failures! Almost all were human failures either of the people running the polling precincts or the folks who trained them. The same problems could have appeared no matter what voting method was used. But, for garnering as much attention as they did, I proclaim senators Perata and Johnson as co-Chicken Luddles for the week.

Posted 8:29 AM (0) comments

Do you know where I am?

The US Senate will soon take up bills that require outsourced helpdesks to identify their location when called according to this story in The Register. The House of Representatives is looking at bills to deny government incentives to companies who move major functions offshore.

Predictably, industry is upset claiming that all this focus on offshoring and outsourcing will give them a bad name in consumers' eyes. Well, duh! Take away my job, my relatives' jobs, my neighbors' jobs but still expect me to say how wonderful you are because you've kept the price down? What good is a lower price if no one can buy the product? What good is the lower price if your stock goes through the floor because American's are losing jobs in the midst of an "economic recovery"? Maybe its time US industry realized that every silver lining has a dark cloud attached!

Posted 9:16 AM (0) comments

Google: A "dangerous" website says El Reg

The Register today carries an article on "The perils of Googling" from Scott Granneman of SecurityFocus. Only its not Googling that's perilous, but dumb web site administrators who allow Google's (and others) spiders to find information which might be of interest to the nefarious.

Once again its the messenger who is being blamed for the stupidity of those who should know better.

Posted 8:29 PM (0) comments

Why I don't trust lawyers

Forbes reports on Computer Associates (CA) signing a Linux license from SCO Group that "...lawyers said each licensee SCO signs helps bolster its case" that it owns the intellectual property. But since CA and the law have only a nodding acquaintance, I find it hard to imagine how dumb a judge and/or jury would have to be to accept their testimony that SCO does own the Unix IP.