Bonds That Make Us Free %5

283155

Can change your outlook on life, February 22, 2005
Reviewer "Pete" (Houston, TX )
This book can change your outlook on life if you will let it. It is a wonderful book full of stories and examples that will help you understand how you can be a better person. Some related books that are produced by people or companies associated with Terry Warner:

1. The Peacemaker: this book preaches the same philosophy but bases the learning on scriptures and the atonement of Christ - excellent read, highly recommended.

2. Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute: Same story format as the Peacemaker but from a business perspective.

All are great reads, but Bonds That Make Us Free is the masterpiece.

Other books that have changed my life:

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck - great insights on how to improve yourself

Approaching Zion by Hugh Nibley - a classic that will have you questioning modern society's basic premises.
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...I was thoroughly pleased with the book. The most powerful concept I learned was about self-deception, and how it can define who we are and the decisions we make. The book is filled with many, many short examples to help understand the principles being taught which I found extremely helpful.
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...The book explains why our relationships fail. It helped me understand why I treated people the way I did. Do you ever wonder "Why did I treat her so badly, when I really do love her?" This book will help you answer that question.... Most importantly it gave me a way to change, to have a change of heart. For the first time in a decade, I feel the person I am on the outside is the same as the person I am at my core... This book gave me a map to find myself and I decided to give a copy to everyone one in my life.

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Diebold threatens to pull out of North Carolina

(Score:5, Funny)

by ErikTheRed (162431) on Tuesday November 29, @03:03PM (#14141113)
(http://www.renaughty.com/)

I sense a great disturbance in the electorate... as if millions of voices cried out in... No wait, I'm confusing that with millions of voices not giving a rat's ass. See ya, Diebold.
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questionable code

(Score:5, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 29, @03:13PM (#14141236)

it's quite obvious that a company like diebold, with rather vast resources, simply doesnt want the code verified for it voting and manipulation abilities. it is well documented that a variety of backdoors exist within the system including simple ftp access to raw data, and the ability to change it at will by any user. couple that with a nonexistant paper trail or the ability to verify the code does what they say it does. anyone actually recall the huge difference in exit polls and actual count? it was so off that cnn stopped reporting on exit polls, which have a high measure of historical accuracy. so much so that exit polls are used in new voting democracies to determine vote fraud.
i for one do not welcome our new data enabled overlords.
=================

Background info

(Score:5, Informative)

by OWJones (11633) on Tuesday November 29, @03:30PM (#14141437)
(http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin)

Note: I have been working on voting integrity issues in North Carolina for a little while now, and advised the committees that drafted the bill in question.

The state passed a pretty comprehensive election reform bill, which included the provision that all vendors must hand over all code that runs, is installed on, or is otherwised used in the operation of the voting machines. No if, ands, or buts.

Our State Board of Elections did not like this. They want paperless voting machines, and badly. Like a six-year-old that's been told to clean up its room, they're dragging their feet on enforcing these (and other provisions). When writing the Request For Purchase (bid requirements), some staffer added a "clarification" that the vendors only had to hand over "available" software, and simply explain why they couldn't hand over the rest. In other words, "Here's why I'm going to be breaking the law today."

Lawmakers were not happy. The SBOE, however, didn't particularly care. They didn't see a problem with only handing over a portion of the code, and wanted to interpret the law as loosely as possible.

Diebold pointed out that "available" was different than "everything", and actually got a restraining order that prevented the state from suing them for not complying with any of the new provisions of the law. This case essentially overturned that ruling, saying "Uh, no, you actually have to comply with the law." Technically it says, "Ask your lawyers for legal advice, not the court, we're not going to pre-judge the law before there's an actual conflict (i.e., you actually get sued for violating these provisions."

So Diebold is going to take their ball and go home, since they would actually have to play by the rules. Oh well.

On a side note, I didn't see any evidence that Diebold actually tried to get a Shared Source [microsoft.com] license from Microsoft, which would actually let them escrow the code. Maybe Diebold didn't actually want to escrow, well, anything?

Imagine that.

-jdm
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http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=05/11/29/1336223

Kool!

(Score:5, Interesting)

by suso (153703) * on Tuesday November 29, @08:18AM (#14137269)
(http://suso.org/ | Last Journal: Monday March 08, @11:03PM)

Way to go KDE folks and supporters. Even though I'm a Gnome user (actually, I'm a closet FVWM user), KDE never ceases to impress me and I do try it for periods of time. The last 8 years I've been using Open Source Software and Linux have been amazing. The amount of progress that all of us have made. There is still more to go, but its not hard to see that the gap is really closing in now. All the hard work and patience has paid off. Everyone give yourself a pat on the back.
========================

Notable changes

(Score:5, Informative)

by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 29, @08:42AM (#14137449)

• Konqueror is the second major web browser to pass the Acid2 CSS test, ahead of Firefox and Internet Explorer
• Konqueror can also free webpages from adverts with its new ad-block feature
• SuperKaramba is included in KDE, providing well-integrated and easy-to-install widgets for the user's desktop
• Kopete has support for MSN and Yahoo! webcams
• The edutainment module has three new applications (KGeography, Kanagram and blinKen), and has seen huge improvements in Kalzium
• 
  

===============
=== This Is Just Ass Backwards

(Score:5, Insightful)

by Kozar_The_Malignant (738483) on Tuesday November 29, @03:57PM (#14141782)

[Rant]
I am a Citizen and an Elector (member of the Electorate) in the US. That puts me at the TOP of the pyramid in the election process. In the US, the Electorate is Sovereign. Where does Diebold or any other corporate entity get off trying to dictate how elections are held? They act like they have some god-given right to make money off of the process. Fuck that! They have a right to come grovelling, hat in hand, and ASK if maybe, just maybe, we might want to use some equipment they want to sell. We get to set the rules about how elections are held, not them.

My county uses optical scan ballots and ballot box readers. If a precinct shows some sort of wierd result, the elections commissioner, in the company of plenty of witnesses, pops that sucker open and looks at the ballots. End of problem.

I frankly don't give a damn if results aren't available until Wednesday morning, or even Friday. They aren't certified official for weeks, anyway. The only difference early results make is who gets hammered for what reason at what post-election party.

There is nothing more important than the election process. All legitimacy of the government flows directly from it. Diebold has no fucking place dictating any damn thing about that. Paper ballots work. If they are slow and more costly, that is a small fucking price to pay for legitimacy.
[/Rant]
===============

e:*Who* threatens?

(Score:5, Informative)

by killjoe (766577) on Tuesday November 29, @03:19PM (#14141309)

That's what happens in a free economy. Alas when dealing with govt purchases there is a tremendous amount of corruption and backroom dealing. Chances are the spec was written to make sure only diebold machines qualified. This is a common tactic when the bribes have already been received, hands have already been shaken, winks and nudges have already been traded.

If Diebold pulls out and somebody else steps in Diebold will sue the state for choosing a vendor which did not qualify under the original bid.

Most often laws and bids are written to benefit just one company like when a law gets passed exempting "any aluminum processing company which employs more then 300 people in a designated enterprise zone" meaning the alcoa plant down the street.

Procurement is the same. The specs are written so that only product complies
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Re:The headline should read:

(Score:5, Interesting)

by SpaceLifeForm (228190) on Tuesday November 29, @03:27PM (#14141405)

How about:

"Under pressure to comply with State Law, Diebold comes up with great excuse".

There is no way they will meet the law, because once it becomes apparent that the software has holes that allow vote manipulation, the remaining states will do the same.

Of course, the darkside is still trying to keep the public in the dark [bbvforums.org], at least in California.

Here's the rules that BlackBoxVoting must meet.

California protocols sent to Black Box Voting when they invited us to do the test Nov. 30:

- The media cannot attend
- The public cannot attend
- The number of people we can bring is so small that we cannot bring our attorney or a court reporter
- We cannot videotape, record, or keep explicit notes on it
- We cannot retain our own work product
- We cannot tell anyone what happened in the test
=================

HWIL = Hardware In the Loop

(Score:5, Informative)

by everphilski (877346) on Tuesday November 29, @07:16AM (#14136892)

Hardware In the Loop testing is where a missile is put basically in a 3 axis gyroscope mount so it is able to maneuver freely. In front of it is put a projection screen where RADAR images are being projected. The seeker on the missile then sends a signal to the fins to move but instead of moving fins that signal is hijacked and an algorithm figures out how the missile would have rotated in space and instead rotates the gimbal (the gyro mount) instead. A computer program tracks how the missile would have really moved in space. A RTOS comes in handy for these kinds of simulations. HWIL testing is an important step between pure software simulation and firing the actual beast because you can start to see lags in the system and test indvidual subsystems non-destructively without ever firing a missile.

-everphilski-
=======================

• ==============
  

Re:w00t!

(Score:5, Informative)

by wde (781445) on Tuesday November 29, @07:18AM (#14136907)
(http://www.microplexus.net/)

Our group has one of the Concurrent "iHawk" systems on order. They're pretty sweet. Essentially, RedHawk is a Concurrent-licensed version of Montevista's HardHat Linux modified to have its scheduler driven by a Concurrent-custom hardware interrupt card (the "RCIM"). You program your interrupt frequency, tie your task to be driven by the card, and determinism goes through the roof. The computer itself is COTS server-grade stuff. Presently Concurrent is using Dells I believe.
========

Re:HWIL = Hardware In the Loop

(Score:5, Interesting)

by florescent_beige (608235) on Tuesday November 29, @08:57AM (#14137584)

Gosh.

...a missile is put basically in a 3 axis gyroscope mount...

The THAAD missile it 20 ft long and weights a ton, putting it in a gymbal would be expensive and pointless because...

...projection screen where RADAR images are being projected...

This is wrong on so many levels. First of all, how does one "project" a radar "image"? Second of all, the THAAD radar is ground-based, not part of the missile. The vehicle is steered to the projected intercept point by commands from the ground. The kill vehicle steers itself to the intercept with an IR seeker.

Maybe the KV hardware test article is gymbal mounted but again, how does one "project" an IR "image" on a "screen"?

...sends a signal to the fins...

THAAD is exoatmospheric. Fins would be useless. It uses vectored thrust.

...A computer program tracks how the missile would have really moved in space...

See now, if you are modeling the dynamics of the vehicle, why bother actually physically moving it? In this case, you aren't testing the vehicle dymanics, you are imposing them, the only purpose of which would be to exersize the seeker mechanisms (of which the missile has none.) Why not simply vary the seeker's simulated target signal (what you call an "image" projected on a "screen" but which is probaby purely electronic)?

Modded +5. Lordy.

--

Am I the only one who thinks Schrodenger was a sicko? Signed, the cat.
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