Suffire.com | Geek Stuffs, Technology Related

pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/valleywag/2008/10/sf.1030.bartwifi6.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”497″ height=”312″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /The latest casualty of the credit crunch: a href=”http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/BART_Wi-Fi_plan_hits_funding_skid.html”BART’s in-progress rollout of Wi-Fi/a on its trains. “a href=”http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/BART_Wi-Fi_plan_hits_funding_skid.html”People won’t loan risk capital until you have a contract/a,” says an executive for Wi-Fi Rail, the startup tagged with the job. Commuters were promised “ten times faster than DSL” access on BART trains within the next two to three years. A test program had already wired four stations in downtown SF, and 13,000 riders had registered for the service. But BART’s schedule was contingent on Wi-Fi Rail raising $20 million, which in itself was contingent on BART signing a contract. Now, of course, even a signed contract won’t unlock the big bucks. For BART riders, that means no Internet access during your commute, not for years. Good thing you’re getting laid off. em(Photo by The Examiner/a href=”http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/BART_Wi-Fi_plan_hits_funding_skid.html”Cindy Chew/a)/em/p br style=”clear: both;”/
img alt=”" style=”border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;” border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=cd1615809106f0c6695c7e30e61a1324″ height=”1″ width=”1″/
img src=”http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=cd1615809106f0c6695c7e30e61a1324″ style=”display: none;” border=”0″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”"/div class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=pIh1GEbA”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=120″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=O2qy9Ikc”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=41″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=reYios2w”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=reYios2w” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=5Cua9bG5″img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=5Cua9bG5″ border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/valleywag/full/~4/R7rJTzC9XAA” height=”1″ width=”1″/

pobject width=”494″ height=”399″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/k6iqYg8Nd4Ehl=enfs=1″/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/k6iqYg8Nd4Ehl=enfs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”494″ height=”399″/embed/objectSure, Obama may have had a href=”http://gizmodo.com/5058149/obama-08-iphone-app-is-grassroots-gadgety-perfection”his official iPhone app/a out a while ago, allowing supporters to easily make calls on his behalf and do all sorts of other things, but don’t think there isn’t a John McCain app out there as well. Sure, it might not be official, and it might only work on jailbroken iPhones, but I can honestly say that I’d use the Unofficial John McCain iPhone App way more than the Official Barack Obama iPhone App. [a href="http://www.alexloveseverything.com/senator"Unofficial John McCain iPhone App/a via a href="http://blog.justinpurnell.com/post/56974259/the-unofficial-john-mccain-iphone-app"Justin Purnell/a]/p br style=”clear: both;”/
a href=”http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=camp;i=e769df083c2380b69e57cd97e5b6a659″img src=”http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=vamp;i=e769df083c2380b69e57cd97e5b6a659″ border=”0″ //a
img src=”http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=e769df083c2380b69e57cd97e5b6a659″ style=”display: none;” border=”0″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”"/div class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=sdtxqDNm”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=8fJSB2KN”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=GXWTWk26″img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=GXWTWk26″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=KOTLU48v”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=KOTLU48v” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/7YRmNTu8Kh8″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

pYahoo’s deal to outsource some of its search advertising to Google a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10078022-93.html?part=rsssubj=newstag=2547-1_3-0-20″continues to face scrutiny on Capitol Hill/a. Google CEO Eric Schmidt had said he’d carry out the deal whether or not regulators had finished their review. Regulators called his bluff, and America’s CTO has now lost face, not to mention credibility. Why not just bow out and move on? That seems easier./p br style=”clear: both;”/
img alt=”" style=”border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;” border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=90037f51adf5636763562bf75b9c5a76″ height=”1″ width=”1″/
img src=”http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=90037f51adf5636763562bf75b9c5a76″ style=”display: none;” border=”0″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”"/div class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=lxkcRpRk”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=120″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=kzSDcSZJ”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=41″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=Ztw9Kzza”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=Ztw9Kzza” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=QvAqNoxL”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=QvAqNoxL” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/valleywag/full/~4/rLYrZ5HuEWw” height=”1″ width=”1″/

pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/valleywag/2008/10/tedstevens.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”438″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /Alaska Senator Ted Stevens will be remembered for his a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cZC67wXUTs”babbling attempt to explain the Internet/a on Capitol Hill. Also, for being a crook who used his position to get his house remodeled for free. “Ted Stevens was found guilty of corruption,” says a prepared statement from McCain’s team. “This verdict is also a sign of the corruption and insider-dealing that has become so pervasive in our nation’s capital.” a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five”Keating Five/a! Sorry, Mr. Future President, I just blurted that out. It’s the layoffs. em(Photo by AP/Gerald Herbert)/em/p br style=”clear: both;”/
img alt=”" style=”border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;” border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=9ed5a2e01c070356fc992bb33c75f646″ height=”1″ width=”1″/
img src=”http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=9ed5a2e01c070356fc992bb33c75f646″ style=”display: none;” border=”0″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”"/div class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=saeibJEQ”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=120″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=G8ZmcuBF”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=41″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=lBfSmlxA”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=lBfSmlxA” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=gJU3vCOT”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=gJU3vCOT” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/valleywag/full/~4/SKcgeoSBfto” height=”1″ width=”1″/

pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/2008/10/custom_1225218131584_allingtonfullove.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”329″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /A coalition of book publishers and authors have a href=”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122520482616076055.html”extracted $125 million from Google/a in settling a copyright lawsuit they filed in 2005. The agreement should make Google Book Search vastly more useful, as millions of books get added to Google’s index. The team at Google which deals with publishers should be busier than ever. Too bad it’s run by a sexist tyrant who’s seen 7 of his 13-person team mdash; all women mdash; leave in a year’s time. Googlers who formerly worked under Ramsey Allington, the head of Google’s book operations, say he’s a terrible manager who has actively discriminated against women in his employ./p pBad managers are everywhere in corporate America. But Google’s supposed to be different mdash; a new model of management, driven from the bottom up, where ideas, not rank or hierarchy, are what matter./p pRamsey Allington never got that memo, according to his employees. Google’s famous for its 360-degree reviews, where ratings from underlings matter as much as bosses. But Allington’s employees say they were never asked to review him until very recently this year mdash; and the negative results of that lone review process were ignored./p pHis job was not easy. Online sales and operations, the area in which Allington worked, was a href=”http://valleywag.com/5037645/mistakes-were-made”famously called a “toilet”/a by top Google executive Shona Brown when Sheryl Sandberg, now Facebook’s COO, ran it. Sandberg, Brown suggested, flushed people through the system. Eager young graduates from top schools who wanted to add Google to their resume signed up to answer email and field phone calls, in the hopes that they’d be able to transfer to other departments. Allington’s job, more or less, was to keep them down on the farm, doing customer support./p pBut Allington went too far, his employees say, in blocking their efforts to move up or transfer within Google. He may even have broken the law: He’s said to have demoted one woman after a pregnancy leave, moving her from an account-management job into an entry-level position answering email mdash; an allegation which may be a violation of the a href=”http://eeoc.gov/policy/docs/fmlaada.html”Family Medical Leave Act/a, which generally requires that employees who take leave be allowed to return to their same job./p pSeveral employees under Allington have taken medical leave for stress because of the hostile work environment they say he has created. They also say he demonstrated a pattern of retaliating against employees for expressing their concerns about the workplace, punishing them in employment reviews as showing a negative attitude./p pAllington is what they call an “IPO lottery winner”; he joined Google in 2002, two years before it went public, allowing him to make a tidy profit on stock options. Though he only holds the title of manager, he’s well-connected in the company. He’s said to have the favor of top executive Jonathan Rosenberg mdash; who’s a href=”http://valleywag.com/5035798/google-svp-jonathan-rosenberg”something of a tyrant himself/a. Allington is also married to Shaluinn Fullove, a high-profile Googler a href=”http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0801/gallery.BestCo_Googlers.fortune/8.html”recently written up in emFortune/em/a./p pConnections in the tight-knit Googleplex may well have let him escape scrutiny for years. He was close friends with his immediate supervisor, a href=”http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/ldebonis”Laura DeBonis/a. By the time his employees raised concerns about Allington with her, DeBonis had a foot out the door; she left in early 2008. Her replacement, Doug Cook, responded to the complaints by ordering, for the first time, reviews from Allington’s employees mdash; but ended up backing him./p pEmployees finally complained to David Fischer, the a href=”http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#fischer”online sales and operation executive/a who oversees Book Search, who started a formal investigation. Turnover in HR slowed the process. One HR staffer told an employee that Google’s human-resources department was ill-equipped to deal with complaints of discrimination because it was “such a young department.”/p pGoogle recently celebrated its 10th anniversary./p pBut it’s understandable that Google’s management is ill equipped to deal with bad Googlers. People at the Googleplex take it as a matter of faith that their coworkers and superiors share the company’s “Don’t be evil” values; if you’re a Googler, you’re good by definition. There are processes in place that, in theory, route around dysfunctional managers like Allington. In practice, those processes are easy to game./p pAnd why not game them? Those in the tight-knit coterie of IPO lottery winners, like Allington, have convinced themselves not just of its goodness, but of its superiority; Googlers who joined the company too late to make a fortune must just not be as smart as them. Their bank accounts prove it. Why not discriminate against them? the market already has./p pAt any well-run company, Allington would have been long gone, I believe. But the question isn’t whether Allington should have been fired for sexual discrimination. It’s how many Ramsey Allingtons there are at the Googleplex. And how long it will take us to find them./p br style=”clear: both;”/
img alt=”" style=”border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;” border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=e0cb5dc8fe94abd3a5d89629e8b40bc4″ height=”1″ width=”1″/
img src=”http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=e0cb5dc8fe94abd3a5d89629e8b40bc4″ style=”display: none;” border=”0″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”"/div class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=s9mC36t0″img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=120″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=hB6wcPvz”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=41″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=fvjo2MYU”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=fvjo2MYU” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=QZzsmxlE”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=QZzsmxlE” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/valleywag/full/~4/TjDORwuhDlg” height=”1″ width=”1″/

pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/valleywag/2008/10/fruit-roll-ups-16894.jpg” width=”210″ height=”265″ align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ /Online ad networks are a href=”http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/10/28/ad-networks-for-sale/”set to consolidate/a, reports the emWall Street Journal/em. There are 400-some networks, which act as middlemen between advertisers and publishers to broker space on websites, modeled after Google’s successful AdSense business. But the big deals in this space have already taken place mdash; aQuantive to Microsoft, Right Media to Yahoo, DoubleClick to Google. The remainders are starting to realize that, like bad leftovers, they’re about to be thrown out. So the bigger players are starting to snap up the smaller ones, at bargain prices./p pOr what seems like a bargain. But even the bigger online ad networks are troubled. Take Glam Media, for example, the splashy ad network founded by Samir Arora, which he has pitched as “the future of all media.” A dismal future indeed, if so. Glam grew quickly by promising publishers rich ad-rate guarantees, and then ran into trouble selling the inventory it had acquired at those rates. In the third quarter, according to two sources familiar with Glam’s finances, Glam took in $14 million mdash; $11 million short of the $25 million forecast Arora gave investors when he was peddling a stake in the company. Layoffs ensued. It’s not clear how much of the $85 million Glam raised in February is left to buy up competitors./p pAnd if the advertising market is due for a deep downturn, as many in the industry fear, then the more successful ad networks would be wise to husband their cash, rather than spend it on weaker rivals. Darwinian market forces will do away with the lesser ad networks soon enough. Roll up, or roll over? The latter seems wiser./p br style=”clear: both;”/
img alt=”" style=”border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;” border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=824221f5a9ecb11f5f3c38abe6510983″ height=”1″ width=”1″/
img src=”http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=824221f5a9ecb11f5f3c38abe6510983″ style=”display: none;” border=”0″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”"/div class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=ZJqp9iUH”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=120″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=cHdEGroG”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?d=41″ border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=6Oe1LLLF”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=6Oe1LLLF” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/valleywag/full?a=d4FLKZZg”img src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/valleywag/full?i=d4FLKZZg” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/valleywag/full/~4/jBmylCukolA” height=”1″ width=”1″/

pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/4/2008/10/airforce.jpg” class=”center image1024″ width=”1024″Death and Taxes 2009 is a detailed graphical account showing where your tax dollars will go next year in the most detailed and fascinating way: Everything is set to scale according to the amount of money spent on it, showing the amazing weight that military-related spending has in the total Federal budget. It’s just mindblowing to see it all with one look. It’s easy to get a href=”http://gizmodo.com/5062451/awesome-f+35b-video-shows-us-marines-already-have-transformers”amazed with military technology/a and, like with a href=”http://gizmodo.com/5062693/the-misery-behind-dubais-architectural-splendor”Dubai’s architecture and its slaves/a, I keep forgetting how much money really gots into developing a href=”http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hypersonic-flight/x+51as-hypersonic-engine-firing-test-looks-like-pits-of-hell-or-doom-3-scenario-266758.php”hypersonic missiles/a, a href=”http://gizmodo.com/391636/boeing-begins-firing-airborne-high+energy-laser-nearby-planets-run-away”airborne lasers/a, a href=”http://gizmodo.com/5051610/next-generation-stealth-bombers-jump-out-of-hyperspace”invisible bombers/a, a href=”http://gizmodo.com/5021998/build-your-own-f+35-lightning-ii-fighter-jet”next generation fighters/a, a href=”http://gizmodo.com/5059031/slow-motion-tank-shot-shows-how-its-destructive-power-works”body piercing tanks/a, a href=”http://gizmodo.com/5030589/megatorpedo-sinks-destroyer-in-one-hit”torpedoes capable of splitting a huge ship in two/a, a href=”http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/notag/air-drones-to-invade-the-planet-now-325163.php”ever-vigilant drones/a, a href=”http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/combat-helmet/f+35-helmet-display-system-to-scare-the-bejeezus-out-of-enemies-260482.php”scary helmets/a, and other deadly gadgets. When you zoom in the interactive map, the numbers are just staggering./p pobject classid=”clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0″ align=”middle” id=”ZoomazineBrowser” width=”890″ height=”400″param name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”sameDomain” param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true” param name=”movie” value=”http://www.zoomorama.com/swf/ZoomazineBrowser.swf” param name=”play” value=”true” param name=”loop” value=”true” param name=”menu” value=”true” param name=”quality” value=”high” param name=”bgcolor” value=”#000000″ param name=”flashvars” value=”indexUrl=http://www.zoomorama.com/content/3/37/37a65081f8cfdfdab285d2141c135bf7/929f9f7efd4b50dd34a159fe23ac88c9/xml/index.php?zmparam=YTozOntzOjM6InNJZCI7czozMjoiNDIwN2M1ZjNmMzMzNTBlZjE4MTUwY2U1MDk3ZjBmNmQiO3M6OToiem9vbW9yYW1hIjtpOjE7czo1OiJzY2VuZSI7aToxO30=scrollStep=0.6″ embed play=”true” loop=”true” menu=”true” quality=”high” bgcolor=”#000000″ swliveconnect=”true” align=”middle” allowscriptaccess=”sameDomain” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” src=”http://www.zoomorama.com/swf/ZoomazineBrowser.swf” allowfullscreen=”true” id=”emb_ZoomazineBrowser” name=”ZoomazineBrowser” width=”890″ height=”400″ flashvars=”indexUrl=http://www.zoomorama.com/content/3/37/37a65081f8cfdfdab285d2141c135bf7/929f9f7efd4b50dd34a159fe23ac88c9/xml/index.php?zmparam=YTozOntzOjM6InNJZCI7czozMjoiNDIwN2M1ZjNmMzMzNTBlZjE4MTUwY2U1MDk3ZjBmNmQiO3M6OToiem9vbW9yYW1hIjtpOjE7czo1OiJzY2VuZSI7aToxO30=scrollStep=0.6″/object/p pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/4/2008/10/total.jpg” class=”center image1024″ width=”1024″/p pFor sure, the military research and manufacturing that Darpa or companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin do not only push the scientific and industrial envelope—with long term benefits for everyone—and some may argue that it provides with work and fuels the economy—although this is kind of a fallacy and a vicious circle—but seriously, is ithis/i the only way to achieve it? What about the rest of the stuff?/p pHopefully, this will all change. Someday. [a href="http://www.wallstats.com/deathandtaxes/"Wall Stats/a via a href="http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/10/film-film-film.html"Dark Roasted Blend/a]/p br style=”clear: both;”/
img alt=”" style=”border: 0; height:1px; width:1px;” border=”0″ src=”http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?i=d274a2497e573de05b15876b16576036″ height=”1″ width=”1″/
img src=”http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=d274a2497e573de05b15876b16576036″ style=”display: none;” border=”0″ height=”1″ width=”1″ alt=”"/
pa href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/gizmodo/full?a=2m4bxK”img src=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~a/gizmodo/full?i=2m4bxK” border=”0″/img/a/pdiv class=”feedflare”
a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=BJf4M”img src=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=BJf4M” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=Vm2HM”img src=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=Vm2HM” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=4CI3m”img src=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=4CI3m” border=”0″/img/a a href=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=NBscm”img src=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=NBscm” border=”0″/img/a
/divimg src=”http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/431486523″ height=”1″ width=”1″/

Voting from home, over the internet. That’s the dream. It’s when the vast majority of people will finally vote. Hell, even I might register to vote if you could online. But this year, fittingly in the election that the internet has mattered more than ever before, we’re taking a solid (baby) step in that direction. Starting Friday, a pilot program will let about 700 U.S. citizens in Germany, Japan and the UK vote for the president over the internet using hardened PCs.

Besides being ironically hard drive-less, they have most of the parts turned off for extra security. Even with essentially iron-clad dumb terminals, security remains a huge issue like it was when internet voting was considered in 2004, so we’re still a couple elections away from voting while pre-ordering our next Nintendo system just one tab over. But at least we’re getting there. [Pop Mechanics via Dvice]

There are ways to kill projects you don’t want to work on without saying no. You can give the project “death by price tag,” as did Alaska’s state IT guys when ordered to produce evidence that could only hurt their home state’s image. Examining one state employee’s inbox for emails sent to Sarah Palin’s husband, Todd, would take six hours, they claimed; multiply that by 16,000 employees, at $73.87 an hour, and you get a $15,364,960. (It’s math that will only fool a journalist, not an IT guy who’s familiar with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, SMTP logs, and journaling file systems.) But think twice, guys. Billionaire George Soros once pledged to use his wealth to get Bush out of office.

Yeah, we knew he’d bail early. But what happens if the Obama-struck news media decides to foot the bill? If you’re right that there’s nothing to see, you’ll be searching her mails until you retire. Wrong, and you’ll need another excuse soon. (Photo by AP/David Zalubowski)