[geeks] I just saw...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Sridhar Ayengar <ploopster at gmail.com>
>Date: 2006/11/07 Tue PM 03:03:24 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: [geeks] I just saw...

>... "Hacking Democracy".
>
>Horrifying.

I watched it last night (HBO On Demand thanks to Comcast Digital Cable), and parts of it were interesting (I just finished Avi Rubin's book - it was much better than this "docu-tainment" movie).

I had serious problems with her attempts at "Michael Moore-esque" confrontations with line-level workers. Some valid point, sure, but she seemed to be celebrating her ignorance on technical matters, and I personally have doubts that she was just sitting onthe sofa one day and heard on the news that her state was adopting electronic voting machnes, and decided to google "electronic voting glitch" and she was shocked, "SHOCKED", and then one day, a few weeks later, she stumbled across the source code for Diebold's machines...

I also loved "invisible" updates to the (I assume) MS Access database that were "undetectable" in the reports... Duh.

Loading their own software on a machine also altered the results - AMAZING.

The movie left me with the belief thatif Diebold would simply:

a) Migrate to a "real" database (MS SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, DB2, etc.) instead of MS Access

b) Make the case out of a solid piece of metal, not plastic, with a small, screw-secured "door" over the memory card

c) Not support execution of code on the removable data card

and all will be fine.

Yeah, right.

Avi Rubin's book makes the case for a single, paper trail (no electronic counting in the machine) - that makes sense. Her wailing on about problems got annoying to me (after a while).

Lionel