Month: October 2005

voting

Why won’t the e-voting story get coverage? An editorial plea

Post author By Jason Kitcat
Post date October 7, 2005

My Google alerts sent this extraordinary column from the US into my inbox…

Why isn't the national media all over ‘e-voting fraud’ like stink on a monkey?

I personally e-mailed the Associated Press offices in New York and San Francisco about the volumes of feedback I received from readers since I first wrote about electronic voting fraud … I also called our local NBC affiliate, KCRA Channel 3. All I hear is crickets. Nobody wants to touch this with a 10-foot pole.

I don't know the specifics of why the US media aren't giving e-voting problems the amount of coverage they deserve but certainly part of the problem is the technical nature of the issue – not that many journalists really get it and few editors feel that readers will understand. But in my experience most people do get it when given just the simple facts.

Full article

e-democ / e-gov

Holland shows why ID cards are a no-no

Post author By Jason Kitcat
Post date October 6, 2005

An extraordinary report in the latest EDRI-gram newsletter shows how disastrously ID cards are doing in the Netherlands.

Since the introduction of compulsory identification in the Netherlands on January 1st 2005, the police have fined 50.000 people that could or would not present a valid ID. Almost 4.000 of those who were fined were children aged 14 and 15. The statistics are provided by the Central Judicial Collection office.

Some real-world examples of e-voting problems

Post author By Jason Kitcat
Post date October 6, 2005

Joseph Hall documents some excellent examples of problems encountered with Diebold systems and the often shoddy ways in which the company tried to deal with them.

In one city, Dallas, NC, a bug appears to have prevented the downloading of 11,945 votes which wasn't caught for seven days…

Feeding time at the zoo

Post author By Jason Kitcat
Post date October 5, 2005

I've added feeds for each category in the blog – you can also navigate those categories in the left-hand menu now.

I've also done some category tidying – when you see them actually 'out there' on your menu you realise you maybe had rather too many. I'm still tempted to whittle it down some more but with things like postal voting and e-voting it's tough to decide to merge them or not. Yes they're related but they ain't the same thing buddy boy.

I've also ironed out some general date weirdness in all my feeds. Rolling your own software can have it's quirky moments sometimes – feed date formats is definitely one of those times!

I also altered things so that all feeds from this site are full-text.

Let me know if any weirdness ensues.

technology

You know mobile roaming rates are too much when…

Post author By Jason Kitcat
Post date October 5, 2005

the flipping EU gets heavy with a dedicated website to help consumers find the best rates.

The site isn't going to win any design awards but it's a serious move by the EU to try and normalise the rates. A fundamental key to the EU's economic success is ease of movement for citizens, this is hampered by the extraordinarily high fees mobile operators currently hit us when out of our home turf.

I've been hammered by T-Mobile on many an occasion, no so much in the EU was when in Dubai. Outside of the EU they even charge you for missed calls redirected to voicemail – so even if your phone is off you pay (mine was dead due to a large wave splashing in and soaking the darn thing).

Whilst the EU's site is helpful it's tough as a consumer to balance things out: T-Mobile is the cheapest in the UK for my needs (Blackberry and any network minutes) but O2 is much cheaper in the EU. Hmmm…

current affairs

Chirac the smooth operator

Post author By Jason Kitcat
Post date October 5, 2005

Say what you want about Chirac, but these comments on Turkey show him to be the ultimate smooth operator… link

current affairs

Blackmail over Turkey

Post author By Jason Kitcat
Post date October 3, 2005

Watching the lunch time news I had the feeling of being blackmailed by those pushing hard for Turkish membership… The core of their argument was that if the talks weren't allowed to continue then a 'clash of civilisations' would occur so basically Islamic extremists will continue to harry us. er what?

Turkey's being a member or not is going to have little or no impact on Islamic terrorism.

How on earth the EU can accept Turkey with Cyprus unresolved, no constitution in place and uncertainty over future adoption of the Euro?

As the opinion poll shows (taken from the BBC) most Europeans are not in favour of the Turks joining. On what democratic basis can these talks be pushed ahead?

It was the Austrians and Poles who defeated the Turks at Vienna – I find it extraordinary to see history sort of repeating itself. I understand it's a very difficult time for Turkey politically, and from their perspective they would be mad to accept negotiations for 2nd class citizenship in the Union. Still the EU doesn't know what it is at the moment so Turks should not be so willing to jump into the mess. Of course the EU has been behaving like an inexperienced girl, surprised to see a man expect more when she has been teasing him for years. Turkey has tired of the flirting and wants more, but us Europeans had no intention of giving any more…