Computers versus Paper

We often hear about the dangers of using electronic voting machines due to the possibility of someone hacking the machines. But what about the possibilities of bugs messing up the vote?

Here is an example of a bug that caused voting machines to crash and potentially lose votes: Voting Machine Bugs.

Having worked in the computer industry for over 20 years I am very leery of allowing computerized voting machines. I've seen "perfect" software put into production, only to find out later that some missed requirement or bug that was missed during testing appears during actual use and causes havoc.

Out voting process is too precious to endanger it with electronic voting.

The End of an Era

Remember a web browser called "Netscape Navigator"? It was the browser to use back in the "good old days" of the Internet. In the mid-90s it was THE browser. Internet Explorer didn't exist when Netscape came out and Netscape ruled the roost.

The big anti-trust brouhaha of the late-90s against Microsoft was largely based on Microsoft's attempts to gain market share from Netscape for its Internet Explorer.

Well, all that is ancient history now. The MS Mammals have won over the Netscape Dinosaur and Netscape is no more. Netscape Navigator was officially made extinct (or perhaps put out of its misery) last Friday. (AOL Finally Kills Netscape Browser)

So let's have a moment of silence to show our respects and then ... well, er, umm, I don't know. Get on with something more important I guess.