Vendors say no, but critics say e-voting devices aren't designed for most voters
October 30, 2008 (Computerworld) Are some touch-screen voting machines really "flipping" votes from one candidate to another, or are the voters who claim their votes are being changed just wrong?

With the U.S elections just days away, some voters in some states, including West Virginia, Texas and Tennessee, have reported that electronic touch-screen voting machines are "flipping" their votes to another candidate on the screen.

When those allegations are made, e-voting hardware vendors and local election officials usually blame errant fingers, overhanging jewelry or clothing -- or they argue that the touch screens weren't properly calibrated. But continuing reports about flipping -- sporadic though they may be -- raise questions about the machines themselves, such as when they were designed and what kind of usability testing was done.

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The What, Why, and How of the 1988 Internet Worm

There may be a virus loose on the internet.
Andy Sudduth of Harvard, 34 minutes after midnight, Nov. 3, 1988

The above may be the computer understatement of the year. As of the time that Sudduth posted his message, the internet was coming apart. VAX and Sun machines across the country were being overloaded by invisible tasks, preventing users from being able to use the machines effectively, if at all, and eventually forcing system administrators to cut off many of their machines from the internet entirely in an attempt to cut off the source of infection. The culprit of all this chaos is a small (99 line, not including object files) program written by Robert Tappan Morris who was, at the time, a 23 year old doctoral student at Cornell University. This code, or this type of code, has since been given then name, worm.

There has been a great deal of discussion as to whether or not the name "worm" is appropriate. Many still refer to the program which paralyzed the internet in late 1988 as a virus. However, there is a major difference between the average viral program, and the program in question, and for this reason, we will use the term "worm" to describe programs of the type in question, capitalizing when describing the specific Internet Worm launched in November of 1988.

The primary difference between worms and other illicit computer programs (often referred to as viruses) is the method of operation the programs use in order to reproduce and spread. When a standard computer virus enters a computer (almost always via an infected disk) it alters a system file, or some other convenient file which is likely to be used sometime in the near future. The alteration to this file usually is the addition of commands that will activate the virus wherever it is on the computer. The virus will then perform its nefarious deeds. The first major distinction here, at least in comparison with worms, is that, until the user (inadvertently) activates the virus, the virus is dormant on the computer. Moreover, until the altered file is called, the virus is unable to do any activity. The second distinction here is that a virus needs to be carried from one computer to another via shared diskettes. If the owner of a computer is careful to use only disks that they know are safe, the chance of viral infection is virtually nil.

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Three million copies of open-source office suite downloaded, group says
OpenOffice.org 3.0 was downloaded 3 million times in its first week, with about 80% of the downloads by Windows users, an official with the group said in a blog post on Monday.

The successful introduction of the open-source office suite came despite the group's download servers being temporarily overwhelmed by demand for the new software last week.

Only 221,000 downloads by Linux users were recorded, leading John McCreesh, head of marketing at OpenOffice.org, to suggest a massive undercount. McCreesh said 90% of Linux users traditionally receive OpenOffice.org updates straight from their Linux distribution's vendor, which would explain the relatively low Linux count.

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A colleague today showed me a cool, new browser that he's been using to browse the web at blisteringly fast speeds. The browser? Minefield. The author of the code?

Mozilla.

Yes, that same Mozilla that makes the Firefox browser. Minefield is, in fact, a way to glimpse into the future of Firefox, as it's a pre-release/alpha version of the Firefox browser.

After spending some time with Minefield, one thing is clear: the future of Firefox is fast. Lightning fast.

How fast? Some claim that it has the fastest javascript engine on the planet, which means it leaves Google's Chrome browser in the dust. In my own unscientific tests, I'd say that this assertion is correct. Ars Technica pegs Minefield as 10 percent faster than Chrome.

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Like Firefox, OpenOffice also comes with extensions that you can use to improve its functionality. Here, we have tested all the extensions and sorted out those that are useful for everyday use. Some of them are for general use while some are only meant for Writer, Calc or Impress. (For those who haven’t heard about OpenOffice before, it’s a popular free alternative to Microsoft Office)

Before you carry on reading, here are some things that you need to do/know:

Obviously, the extensions require OpenOffice to work. If you have not installed OpenOffice, grab the latest version here.

To install the extension, you have to go to Tools -> Extension Manager in any of the OpenOffice applications. Click ‘Add’ to install the extension that you have downloaded.

Let’s proceed onto the 9 must-have extensions for your OpenOffice.

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Broadband junkies in the northeastern US got some good news Wednesday in the form of an announcement from Comcast that it is extending its DOCSIS 3.0 rollout to that part of the country. The company's 50Mbps "Extreme" (can we please retire the Extreme branding already?) speed tier will be launched in the Boston area (including southern New Hampshire), as well as parts of Philadelphia and New Jersey over the next few weeks.

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