Zappini

Did everyone see the article Dependable Software by Design in the June 2006 Scientific American?

Howdy-

I thought I'd share my latest revelation. I'm kind of slow to figure
some things out. So everyone else probably already knows this.

I've been maintaining DesignGridLayout on dev.java.net. They use CVS.
Whatever you put into your project's 'www' subdirectory (e.g. ./
project/www/*) appears as your project's web pages. I was dubious at
first. But now I love it.

Also, now that one of my projects is moving from "prototyping" to
"shippable" status, it's time to get serious about project
management, docs, etc. I've tried that wiki thing in the past. Hate
it. (Just through the browser, I'm cool with editing wiki docs via my
normal editor (Eclipse), if someone figures out how to do that.)

When Stan set up our Subversion host, he added the Apache mod,
allowing us to browse via HTTP.

So I just created a ./www directory in my project's Subversion
repository. Then added some html documents. The kicker, which Stan
figured out, is I had to set the svn:mimetype using the TortoiseSVN
client.

Voila! Now I can point my boss and coworkers to http://hostname/svn/
project/trunk/www/index.html and they can see what's what. Next step
is to create an alias to make the URL a bit more sane. Something like
http://hostname/projects/myproject.

Cheers, Jason Osgood / Seattle WA

---

http://zappini.blogspot.com

[Email received from Raincity Calling.]
As reported at Brad Blog, the US Election “Assistance” Commission
(EAC) commissioned a report to determine whether or not polling place
voter fraud (as opposed to election fraud and other legitimate voter
suppression issues) is a significant issue justifying highly
restrictive photo ID and proof of citizenship requirements, among
others. The report concluded that there is little evidence that
voter fraud is rampant as professed by advocates of these restrictive
laws. The report came out 4 months ago, but was not released to the
public.

The EAC is a HAVA created body of political appointees. The original
chair of the Commission, Rev. Deforest Soaries resigned citing lack
of support for true electoral reform.

Below are two USA articles covering this issue and a URL for the
actual report commissioned by the EAC.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-10-poll-fraud-
report_x.htm

Article in USA Today states the following: At a time when many states
are instituting new requirements for voter registration and
identification, a preliminary report to the U.S. Election Assistance
Commission has found little evidence of the type of polling-place
fraud those measures seek to stop.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-10-10-voter-registration-
laws_x.htm

Across the country, new laws restricting who can register and vote
have reduced the number of people who are eligible. Some of those
laws have been blocked in court. Even so, critics say, the damage has
been done: •In Arizona, about 21,000 voter registration applications
were rejected because of inadequate proof of citizenship, required
under a 2004 law. Most who were affected lacked up-to-date driver's
licenses, birth certificates or passports

http://www.usatoday.com/news/pdf/2006-10-11-election-report.pdf

EAC commissioned report on polling place voter fraud

The report cites the American Center for Voting Rights a “non-
partisan” group which asserts polling place voting fraud is
widespread. However, those who readwww.bradblog.com on a regular
basis know that the ACVR is not “non-partisan” nor is it a grassroots
organization.

Yours Truly,

[Raincity Calling]

I almost missed a plane flight this last Monday. I didn't realize my
Powerbook's clock was off by one time zone.

I was camping in the Glacier Park International Airport. My early
flight had been canceled. I had time to kill waiting for my next
flight. Fortunately, I was able to work using the airport's wi-fi.
Unfortunately, I sunk into my work and didn't look at the wall clock
until it was almost too late.

What I'd like is for my Powerbook to always sync its system clock
with the local time whenever I connect. (I'm sure someone's got a
script that does this. Ideas?)

I love my Powerbook. But there are some annoyances.

The Mac OS X Backup utility attempts to run the scheduled backups
(to .Mac/iDisk) when I'm not connected to a network.

I'd much rather Backup sensed if was connected to a network before
starting.

Even better, I'd like Backup to sense if my laptop was at home or
work before starting. I definitely don't want to do a backup while
I'm sitting in an espresso shack.

This is incredible. There were plenty of problems during the primary
(e.g. misprinted ballots, overloading the database, miscounted or
missing ballots, votes not counted, touchscreen printers jamming,
dead memory cards, etc.). I expect even more during the general.

The department is already short staffed. (Something like 36 of 45
positions filled.) Now is not the time to take vacation. I understand
having prior plans. But one should not accept a commitment they
knowingly cannot fulfill.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003300502_buck12m.html

With the benefit of hindsight, it's a mighty good thing we didn't
have that distracting proposal for an elected county auditor on this
November's ballot. Something disruptive like that could have
negatively impacted the smooth operations of our award winning
elections department.

(Hat tip to Julie Goldberg.)

Without irony, last week John O'Conner blogged about the joy he discovered playing with NetBeans' Matisse GUI Builder: 

Hi Cleta Mitchell-


I just saw this:

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_atrios_archive.html#115980728436414019

You did a good job. No one likes to be made an apologist for criminals, incompetents, and sexual predators. All things considered, you did pretty well with the hand you were dealt. You've earned a raise.


Cheers, Jason Osgood / Seattle WA


--
zappini.blogspot.com

Quick Reminder...

We're meeting at University Heights (http://www.uhcca.org/) tonight.
Room 108. Mingle at 6:00pm. Bring food, if you wish. Discussion at
7:00pm. Lights out at 9:00pm

I've refined the list of topics I hope to cover tonight. Please
review, comment, and add as needed. As you can see, there's a lot
going on and we'll have to blow through quickly.

- Recap the recent primary

• Problems with AccuVote TSx touchscreens
  
  
  
  • Results not integrated with GEMS
  
  
  • Party preference not recorded? Voters disenfranchised?
  
  
  • Inspector's List + Poll Book + VVPAT = Loss of secret ballot
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Problems tabulating (Access database too small)
  
  
  • Problems with the ballot description database
    
    
    
    • Reprint and resend corrected mail ballots
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • High number of duplicated ballots (20,000+?)
  
  
  • Signature verification notifications 2 weeks late
  
  
  • The partial recount (see below)
  
  
  
  


• Reports from poll workers and observers


• Encourage more poll workers and observers



• Forced Mail Voting Update
  
  
  
  • No replacement for Dean Logan
  
  
  
  
  • Was Bob Ferguson "played"?
  
  
  
  
  
  • Charter proposal not appearing on this November's ballot
  
  
  • KCE's "Ambassador" program
    
    
    
    • Goal: Administratively declare precincts as forced mail voting
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Public service announcements
  
  
  
  


• Secretary of State




• Proposed rule changes
  
  
  
  • Provisional ballots on DREs?
  
  
  • Others?
  
  
  
  
• Public hearing Oct 11th





• Public demonstration of VoteRemote
  
  
  
  • "Authorized" vs "Certified" -- no word back from KCE or OSOS
  
  
  • King County is using it today
  
  
  
  


• Other News
  
  
  
  • Emergency Ballot Initiative
  
  
  • HR 550 Status
  
  
  • Senate hearings on electronic voting
  
  
  • 2nd RFK Jr article in Rolling Stone
  
  
  • Etc...?
  
  
  
  

King County: Potential Recount Public Notice
http://metrokc.gov/elections/news/2006_09_27b.asp

Public Hearing to Receive Comments on Proposed Rules
Wednesday, October 11, 2006, at 1:30 pm
Office of the Secretary of State
Elections Division
520 Union Ave. S.E.
Olympia, WA
(360) 902-4180
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/public_hearings.aspx
http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/rulemaking.aspx