Somebody does not seem to understand, or want to understand, why computer activity gets logged. Computers used in California elections did not log deletions, operator changes, or have correct timestamps.
Here is the state of California’s report on the its findings about lost ballots on election day, November 2008 (PDF). The introductory paragraph:
This report describes how a serious software programming error in GEMS version 1.18.19 caused the loss of 197 tallied ballots in the November 4, 2008, General Election. The report also describes several deficiencies in the audit trail logs in GEMS version 1.18.19.
February 8 is International Septuagint Day for those in the know. And now the rest of us.
Ish, an excellent mouser, reigned supreme in the art of comfort, be it napping, eating (his or the dog’s food), or being petted. He was a hefty brown tabby when I met him at an adoption fair (Four Paws rescued him from a Delaware shelter). His selling point, all fur and purr.
While reputed to get along with other animals, in truth, Ish didn’t give a damn about other animals, zealously focusing on humans in the vicinity. (Hey they provided the food and the attention, no fool he).
His desire to sleep on and about humans was nearly absurd, like the time he tried to get his then significant avoirdupois to fall evenly around his four paws so he could sleep on my hip. Of course, he just kept falling off, and climbing up to try again, and falling off, and climbing up and falling off. Not one to give up an idea easily.
Later, his major complaint was my insistence on rising daily, which he fought back with cute snuggling or face-batting. Since he did not see the point of rising until after noon, we never did agree: Rising after another difficult day (or not):
Talkative and social, he would enthusiastically greet all-comers at the door if the dog were out (that loud creature was always a little off-putting). If not, he would sneak around to see people, assuming it wasn’t naptime.
Illness and time took their toll. Ish stopped chatting some time back. He managed a fierce pirate imitation when his right eye failed and his right front leg stiffened, but he purred on. Last night he breathed his last.
February 6th,2009
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Multilingualism is coming to the web in many ways, reflecting its users:
Asia already has twice as many Internet users as North America, and by 2012 it will have three times as many. Already, more than half of the search queries on Google come from outside the United States.
From Writing the Web’s Future in Numerous Languages
Via kottke.org, a reprise of Consider the Lobster.
If history and taste had gone a bit differently, we all could be thankful for lobster, instead of turkey on Thanksgiving. Some of us would be more fervent in our thanks, too.
Facebook ignored a nasty security hole for four-months, one of those that permits code-injection.
Another day, another data breach: RBS WorldPay systems reporting a hack into its systems November 10 exposing a million and a half social security records and a million or so pre-pay payroll and gift cards. RBS made public the breach on December 23.
It looks like another oops in the internets: low-assurance certificates for one domain can be easily snagged by another to, for instance, use in a man-in-the-middle attack.
Dogs demand fair play: dogs in the test refused to play if they received less valuable treats (or none) than other dogs. Theorizing, some scientists think fair play or social justice may underpin the evolutionary development of cooperation among social animals.
Another version of the news
December 9th,2008
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Ridding Vista of wireless connectivity, a sysadmin’s saga. Of course, running as a limited user is much simpler under Vista. The digital tv access is pretty sweet too. But as for the rest? Bah.
Some people have happy, joyful Thanksgivings. Others have sedentary, indoor cats who mysteriously manage to injure themselves — startling both host and guests — thereby requiring the purchase of controlled substances at an ungodly hour (and yes, acquisition of the meds took longer than the entire exam + X-rays). Thank goodness, though, for 24-hour vet ERs.
All’s well is mending well, as the injury (soft tissue damage to the 4th metacarpal for the curious) is healing nicely, although said cat was miffed to discover said paw was still sore after having enjoyed 3 days of morphine-like loopiness.
The Codex Sinaiticus is digitized. (The less said about the BBC announcement the better.) It is believed argued to be the oldest extant version of the BIble, dating from about the 4th century.
See the WIkipedia description for more, such as the books contained within this BIble do vary considerably from most accepted canons, and some of the important textual variations.
In other news, the Catholic Church barred uttering G-d’s name (the Tetragrammaton) aloud. A potentially unnecessary step as it happens: the original pronunciation seems uncertain.
No, not the year, but the number of over votes (a vote for more than one candidate in a given race) that appeared in the tallies for 13 separate District of Columbia primary races. Per the Washington Post
The number 1,542 showed up as over votes in the five contests in which only Ward 2 voters could cast ballots, in the four Republican citywide contests and in the four Statehood Green citywide races. The skewed results for write-ins and other tallies also were inflated by about 1,500 votes.
The article’s statement from board of elections officials does not inspire confidence: they either repeated the defective cartridge story or were unavailable for comment.
The DC Board of Elections and Ethics blamed the overcounting of write-ins on a defective cartridge, while the manufacturer, Sequoia, said its equipment was not responsible to the Washington Post. The article reports experts question the defective cartridge theory as ghost write-ins and extra votes affected more than one party’s primary.
Also worth noting:
Jeff Coudriet, committee clerk for Evans, volunteered on Evans’s campaign Tuesday and conducted a periodic check of ballots at some precincts, including Precinct 141.
At 10 a.m., 110 voters had trickled in, and by 6 p.m., 256 voters had cast ballots, according to the notes he took on his iPhone.
According to the election results that the board is maintaining, 326 ballots were cast by the close of the polls at 8 p.m., which would correspond with Coudriet’s accounting.
So something happened after the polls closed. But what?
The problem: a “bad memory cartridge” which counted a surprising number of write-ins In one precinct. At least it doesn’t appear to have affected the outcome.
So an installation of OpenLDAP depends on Cyrus-SASL already being installed. So far so good. But Cyrus-SASL is looking to have an LDAP feature installed so it will work. What the ???
Seems like the solution is to build Cyrus-SASL without the LDAP dependency, then install OpenLDAP and then go back and modify the Cyrus installation, adding in the LDAP feature. And people wonder why server builds take so bloody long.
