Category Archives: government, law, and politics

Money-back Guarantee?

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This was allegedly posted, (very briefly), on the McDonnell Douglas Website by an employee there who obviously has a sense of humor. The company, of course, does not have a sense of humor, and made the web department take it down immediately (for once, the IMPORTANT’ note at the end is worth a read too…).

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Military Intelligence is an Oxymoron

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Satellite Enthusiast Watches NATO Spy Pix
By Paul Majendie

A British satellite enthusiast has discovered that anyone can tune in live to U.S. spy plane photo transmissions over the Balkans. John Locker said the freely available pictures by both manned spy planes and drones can pinpoint a location to within two meters (six feet).

War On Error: Live Pictures Taken by U.S. Planes Were Freely Available
By Duncan Campbell

The war on terrorism in Europe is being undermined by a military communications system that makes it easier for terrorists to tune in to live video of U.S. intelligence operations than to watch Disney cartoons or new-release movies. For more than six months, live pictures from U.S. aerial spy missions have been broadcast in real time to viewers throughout Europe and the Balkans. The broadcasts are not encrypted, meaning that anyone in the region with a normal satellite TV receiver can spy on U.S. surveillance operations as they happen.

Not a New Problem

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This article speaks of careless use of XML and of how the government wants a standard. This is not a new problem. Once upon a time, the Department of Defense wanted to standardize the way contract proposals were submitted. Thus VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language – VHSIC means Very Speed Integrated Circuit) was born. Schematics were described using this standard. These days the reverse is true – hardware is "written" in VHDL first, then fabricated. Nowadays hardware can be synthesized much like how code is compiled. This is particularly useful when designing for FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays). Do a search on Google for any of these terms to learn more.

Government seeks accord on XML
Margaret Kane

"The federal government isn't known as a pioneering early adopter. But growing support within U.S. agencies for the popular XML data exchange format has raised concerns that, for once, things might be moving too fast."

Election Morons at it Again

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This is the same stupid county that couldn’t figure out how to vote in the last
TWO elections. We’re not talking MENSA members, here. I don’t care who you voted
for in the last two presidential election, ya gotta admit that there’s something
fishy with these people.

Fla.
County Makes ’23’ a Passing Grade

You can get three-quarters of the answers wrong and still pass this test.

Palm Beach County high school students taking a new history exam this week need to answer just 23 of 100 multiple-choice questions correctly to pass.

To get an A, they need to get just over half the answers right. A B grade requires only 39 correct answers.

The new final exam for American and world history classes was developed by school district officials to ensure students learn state- required lessons that include history about women, Africans, African-Americans and the Holocaust.

The 100-question test, specific to Palm Beach County, replaces individual final exams that teachers create themselves. The district, which recommended the grading scale, sent letters to schools giving them the option to use it on the new test.

Go Ralph!

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Ralph Nader to the rescue again…

Hitting
Microsoft where it hurts

Ralph Nader and the Consumer Project on Technology are asking the federal government to take on Microsoft via the pocketbook instead of the courts, by using its purchasing power to solve “security and competition” issues in the software market. In a letter sent to Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell Daniels on Tuesday, consumer activists Nader and James Love of the CPT ask the government office to spell out exactly how much money the government spends on Microsoft technology.

“If you look at antitrust cases, they take a lot of money and they’re time consuming. Our way of thinking is it might be more efficient for the government to use its procurement policy,” Love said. “Almost nothing they’re trying to achieve in the current set of remedies is something that you couldn’t accomplish through procurement remedies.”