DC Police Chief Says It's 'Cowardly' To Monitor Speed Traps With Your iPhone

from the real-men-prefer-ignorance dept

Jeff Nolan points us to the news that Washington DC's police chief is denouncing users of an iPhone app to monitor speed traps/speed cameras/red light cameras as being "cowardly." Apparently, real men prefer ignorance about where the police are hiding to give them tickets for driving a couple miles per hour over the speed limit. The app actually sounds pretty useful, alerting users if they're near one of the cameras or a known speed trap. The creator of the software makes the most salient point:

"If police come against us, it's going to make them look like they are only [after] revenue"

Indeed. Shouldn't the police be happy that a software product is helping people slow down or avoid running red lights? How could that possibly be seen as a bad thing... or "cowardly"?

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Washington DC's Primary E-Votes Still Not Adding Up Properly

from the it's-not-like-we've-got-computers-that-can-count dept

You know, the one thing that computers are supposed to be good at is counting things accurately. So why is it so hard to do so when it comes to counting votes? We recently wrote about the case in Washington DC's primaries where election officials were struggling to figure out the source of an awful lot of votes for a non-existent write-in candidate. Sequoia, the makers of the e-voting machines in question, were quick to deny any and all responsibility with the hilariously "thou dost protest too much" statement: "There's absolutely no problem with the machines in the polling places. No. No."

Either way, it appears that officials in DC still can't properly add up the votes properly, and are noting that 13 separate races all show the exact same number of overvotes: 1,542, though no one can explain why. Sequoia continues to stand by its original statement that the problem must be one of human error -- though it fails to explain how simple human error would create 1,542 extra votes in 13 entirely separate races -- and why it didn't design a system that would prevent the ability for "human error" to create such votes.

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