The problem is that all the money collected by the PTO for those patents goes into the Federal general fund - they only get the maintenance fees, and they don't even consistently get that. They didn't actually move away from paper in shoeboxes until they were allowed to actually keep some of the money to fund an electronic modernization program (that was in this century). The crappy scanning system is because Congress stepped in and took the money away again. This is simply political smoke and mirrors, because he knows where the problem is, and it's not the PTO. They can only do what the President lets them do.
I don't think anyone here realizes it isn't easy. Try writing software that always keeps a 100% accurate total in the presence of hardware errors, operator errors, and outright malicious intent. We've been writing operating systems for 60 years, and can't them to work with malicious system admins, why would voting systems be able to? As previous posters pointed out, ATM's *do* get defrauded, banks just write it off - I *KNOW* I've done ATM withdrawals that never appeared on my bank statement (I have the receipt). And they have it easy - they're counting bills - physical pieces of paper that *often* get counted multiple times just as a doublecheck. It's not a matter of incrementing a counter - that's the trivial part - it's the cross checks, the secure once and only once data transfers, the verifications that someone loaded all the machines *exactly once in the presence of errors*, no matter what the intent or skill of the election judges. The problem is counting individual human anything to +-.05% accuracy (200 votes in 400,000) is actually hard.
That's called the "we need more organ donors" law. It's about making sure there's a steady supply of organs from motorcyclists for all the old people in Florida (who don't generally ride motorcycles without a helmet).
ISPs currently do not have legal liability for the content on their networks because they are common carriers - they don't care what the data is. The second they start patrolling *anything* for the RIAA or MPAA or *anyone*, they are no longer common carriers, and they can and *will* be sued for *EVERYTHING* that pisses someone off and will spend the prodigious profits they make on lawyers. It's to their financial interest to go out of business fighting this because they'll go out of business anyway once they lose that protection.
You got it right. Wholesale theft of congressional privacy data. Let a few senators, congressmen, and their aides spend a few months getting their financial lives back *then* we'll see some real action.
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Once again, the problem is the President and Congress, not the agency
The problem is that all the money collected by the PTO for those patents goes into the Federal general fund - they only get the maintenance fees, and they don't even consistently get that. They didn't actually move away from paper in shoeboxes until they were allowed to actually keep some of the money to fund an electronic modernization program (that was in this century). The crappy scanning system is because Congress stepped in and took the money away again. This is simply political smoke and mirrors, because he knows where the problem is, and it's not the PTO. They can only do what the President lets them do.
No, it's *not* that easy
I don't think anyone here realizes it isn't easy. Try writing software that always keeps a 100% accurate total in the presence of hardware errors, operator errors, and outright malicious intent. We've been writing operating systems for 60 years, and can't them to work with malicious system admins, why would voting systems be able to? As previous posters pointed out, ATM's *do* get defrauded, banks just write it off - I *KNOW* I've done ATM withdrawals that never appeared on my bank statement (I have the receipt). And they have it easy - they're counting bills - physical pieces of paper that *often* get counted multiple times just as a doublecheck. It's not a matter of incrementing a counter - that's the trivial part - it's the cross checks, the secure once and only once data transfers, the verifications that someone loaded all the machines *exactly once in the presence of errors*, no matter what the intent or skill of the election judges. The problem is counting individual human anything to +-.05% accuracy (200 votes in 400,000) is actually hard.
Re: Florida
That's called the "we need more organ donors" law. It's about making sure there's a steady supply of organs from motorcyclists for all the old people in Florida (who don't generally ride motorcycles without a helmet).
ISPs will lose their 'safe harbor' protection if t
ISPs currently do not have legal liability for the content on their networks because they are common carriers - they don't care what the data is. The second they start patrolling *anything* for the RIAA or MPAA or *anyone*, they are no longer common carriers, and they can and *will* be sued for *EVERYTHING* that pisses someone off and will spend the prodigious profits they make on lawyers. It's to their financial interest to go out of business fighting this because they'll go out of business anyway once they lose that protection.
Re: Exxon Valdez
You got it right. Wholesale theft of congressional privacy data. Let a few senators, congressmen, and their aides spend a few months getting their financial lives back *then* we'll see some real action.