WiredPen

California’s Secretary of State has ruled that all electronic voting machines used in the Golden State must be able to print a paper ballot. The crux? The requirement doesn’t kick in until 2006. And it is “must be able to” … not just “must.”

Some analysts suggest that this means counties will buy the less-expensive optical scanners. Given that just about every county/state in the country is swimming in red ink, how can this be a bad decision? Oh. Right. It disenfranchises disabled people.

I’m all for creating universal access. That does not equate, in my mind at least, to having touch-screen terminals for every voter. Some of us still use stairs, instead of ramps. The same could be true for voting.

In fact, I propose that every citizen who is concerned about accountability (paper audit trail) in the 2004 election vow today to vote absentee.

Links: Fox (25 Nov); The Columbian (24 Nov); Capital Times (Madison, WI - 22 Nov); SJ Mercury News (22 Nov); Seattle Times (22 Nov); Wired (21 Nov); WiredPen (19 Nov)

While reading about Microsoft’s current court dealings, I couldn’t help but recall Shakespeare’s words. I’ll leave the judgment as to whether he was endorsing or cursing the legal profession for the reader to Google; to me, it is the later.

First, there is Burst.com — a firm that worked with Microsoft for two years (will people ever learn?) before being tossed aside like a dirty shirt. Soon thereafter, surprise!, Microsoft’s Media Player wouldn’t read their broadcasts (v7) and, later, seemed to incorporate their patents (v9).

In the most recent development in that 18-month-old case, a judge ordered Microsoft to find missing e-mails which could substantiate Burst.com’s claims, according to the Seattle PI (this is the most widely reported of the three cases).
Read the rest of this entry »

In a move that runs 180-degrees counter to U.S. trends, Dell is moving some technical supports jobs back to the U.S.

The Austin American-Statesman reported Saturday that Dell was responding to corporate customer complaints; business customers account for most of the firm’s revenue.

Dell moved these jobs offshore three years ago. Some analysts may suggest this is another sign that the economy is improving, but I think that it is a stronger indication that customer support — not price — is where firms are competing in today’s homogenous hardware market.

This action reinforces the UN report on technology (Wiredpen, 21 Nov), which suggested that firms “don’t fully understand the costs and benefits” of those actions.

The Statesman noted that

A recent Stanford University study estimates that Indian call centers have picked up 200,000 jobs since March 2002. Gartner Inc., the tech research firm, estimates that U.S. information technology companies will move one in 10 jobs offshore by the end of the year.

On the eve of the first World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the United Nations (UN) has issued its third E-Commerce and Development Report, which focuses on information and communications technologies (ICT).

Media have focused on the report’s observations on offshore outsourcing. However, there are other interesting bits in the report.

For instance, the report gives a positive nod to open source software:

This development [free and open source software (FOSS)] challenges preconceptions about how software should be produced and distributed and has important development implications….

it allows collaborative development in software production, easier integration with other programmes that can be produced by independent programmers, and customization of software to meet the commercial, regulatory, cultural and linguistic requirements of users…

Experience so far has shown that open-source environments often produce reliable, secure and upgradable software at a comparably low cost to users….

The use of FOSS can have an anti-monopolistic effect on the IT market and industry in a country and globally….

To take advantage of these benefits, the report recommends that developing countries consider adopting FOSS as a means of bridging the digital divide.

Read the rest of this entry »

MSNBC is featuring an online survey to test your digital IQ. Questions (62 total) range from basic knowledge to connectivity and broadband to new technologies. About 60K people (well, instances) had completed it when I finished. Made me smile!

A recently released Congressional Research Service (CRS) report suggests eVoting isn’t quite ready for primetime, despite its rapid embrace, which has been partially funded (to the tune of almost $4 billion) by The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA, P.L. 107-252).

… there appears to be an emerging consensus that in general, current DREs [direct recording electronic systems] do not adhere sufficiently to currently accepted security principles for computer systems, especially given the central importance of voting systems to the functioning of democratic government.

Concurrent with this announcement, one of the major equipment manufacturers is in federal court this week, battling the release of internal documents which, on the surface, support the CRS security caution.

Using the mantle of intellectual property, Diebold has sent cease-and-desist orders to ISPs and students who have published links to internal documents which raise security concerns about America’s wholesale rush to eVoting.
Read the rest of this entry »

Sprint has announced cellphone TV, courtesy of technology developed at Berkeley. Called MobiTV, this effort by Idetic Inc is the latest attempt to convince us that we really want our phones to be “Swiss Army Knife-like” gadgets.

The video is displayed at one-two frames per second, considerably slower than the 30 frames per second we are accustomed to for TV broadcasts.

The $10 per month service is touted as (yet another) source for late-breaking news such as sports scores.

Links: San Francisco Chronicle; Seattle PI - AP; Cellular News

The Seattle Times reported today that Nathan Hale High School’s radio station has received the Village Voice award for best high-school radio station in New York.

A Seattle station wins a New York award? How can that be, you might ask. Web-broadcast is the answer.

Station manager Gregg Neilson said, “… with 40,000 listeners each month by Internet, this is the future and the present in broadcasting.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Update (11 Nov). The Associated Press reports that Microsoft’s testimony involved a “stultifying” Powerpoint presentation as it defended itself today against charges of anticompetive behavior in both server and media player markets.

In addition, the European Union is reportedly exploring possible violations associated with other bundling issues: instant-messaging, e-mail and hand-held devices such as mobile phones. The EU first investigated Microsoft in 1993.

It’s important to note that in April 2000, US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found Microsoft guilty of violating US antitrust law.

The European Union began its investigation into the firm shortly thereafter.
Read the rest of this entry »

If the issues raised by my media partners story hit your hot button, you need to check out Mark Cooper’s new book, Media Ownership and Democracy in the Digital Information Age, which is available as a 313-page PDF (free! under a Creative Commons license).

Lawrence Lessig noted today that the book is now available from Amazon for $20.

No one has yet reviewed the book at Amazon. It links economic analysis and the First Amendment to demonstrate the need for media ownership limits. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tried to relax ownershp rules earlier this year. The action was met by unprecedented grassroots protest.