Voting Machines Vs. Slot Machines 299
dmh20002 writes "Being a Nevada resident and knowing people who write code for slot machines, I was aware of the stringent measures the state of Nevada uses to vet the security of slot machines. The Nevada Gaming Control Board audits everything about them, both physical and soft, for unintentional and intentional security holes. Hearing the hoopla on voting machines, the contrast was obvious. Slot machines are about money, which is more important than votes, apparently. Now the state of Nevada is looking at electronic voting machines and plan to apply some of the same safeguards. Just applying the Nevada technical standards for gaming machines and vendors to voting machines would be a start, since there don't seem to be any standards for voting machines. A funny/sad sideline is that in Nevada, every year or two a programmer or engineer goes to jail for exploiting slot machines."
No new technology is required (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, you might even get to vote for three different candidates, or WIN a triple vote.
The question is... (Score:0, Funny)
And will I have to pay three quarters to vote?
Re:No new technology is required (Score:5, Funny)
Never happen (Score:5, Funny)
Which would remove nearly half the politicians & lobbyists
voting machines much like slot machines (Score:5, Funny)
no matter how valuable your point (Score:5, Funny)
you've permanently fixed in my mind an image of going into the voting booth, pulling the big lever, and seeing three bars with the faces of gw bush, howard dean, al sharpton, etc. spinning before my eyes
Re:I've actually programmed slot machines (Score:4, Funny)
Hmm... (Score:4, Funny)
They have a lot in common.
Gambling Addicts (Score:3, Funny)
It's Broke, Buy It Anyway (Score:5, Funny)
From the article:
That study also found the system had a "high risk of compromise."
The state [Maryland] decided to buy the system anyway and Diebold is working on fixes for the security problems identified in that report.
Yea! Way to go Maryland! You know, if I went to buy a new car, and the windshield was broken, the locks didn't work, the engine was hanging by two mounts, and it stalled every 100 miles, I don't think I'd say "oh what the heck" and buy it just because it looked real snazzy and drive it around while the company worked on the problems after the fact.
How idiotically negligent do you have to be to look at a MACHINE THAT WILL HELP IN THE PROCESS OF DECIDING OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT POSITIONS and say "well, it's broken, but we'll buy it anyway"!? People like this need to be jailed immediately. That's absolutely innexcusable.
Casinos should run all elections. (Score:3, Funny)
offtopic (Score:2, Funny)
Unable to resolve life.liberty.pursuit-of-happiness
No wonder with Larry, Moe, and Currly running for office next year...
Re:Engineers Exploiting Machines (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Heh... (Score:5, Funny)
No, but I'll check the sex shop next time I'm in the area, they sound fun.
Everyone needs to be involved (Score:4, Funny)
Slot machine integrity is not verified solely by government oversight. Individual members of the community also make an invaluable contribution. People like William Bennett, who selflessly use their own funds to check, recheck and check yet again the accuracy of these machines' odds. Here is someone who has a real passion for testing these machines, who has the guts to trust his own resources to the integrity of the system, who is willing to invest the time it takes to make huge random samples, and who has the clout to make sure that any irregularities would be duly addressed.
Without people like this who provide major resources to help the gaming industry and the Nevada economy in general, we would all be worse off. The next time you walk down the Las Vegas strip enjoying the stunning display of neon lights, take a moment to think about the dedicated people that provide the funds to pay for them, and be thankful.
vice versa (Score:5, Funny)
New voting machines... (Score:3, Funny)
Of course Nevada has good security... (Score:3, Funny)
It's called "The Soprano Security Management Program", and can be summed up in the following simple decision-diagram:
1) Build a system
2) Make money
3) In case of a situation arises in step 2 which is proving to be detrimental to the main objective of Making Money, two things can be done :
*) Fix bug in system. This is by experience detrimental to the Making Money objective since there will always be bugs, and so this is the wrong decision to make.
*) Find offending individual(s). Apply excessive and lethal violence. Loop to 2.
Re:No new technology is required (Score:2, Funny)
Two years, four years.... what's the big whoop? (Score:2, Funny)
OTOH, every four years a president gets elected for exploiting voting machines.
Re:No new technology is required (Score:4, Funny)
Not much difference... (Score:3, Funny)
...they're pretty much both designed so that you lose no matter what.
Re:Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No new technology is required (Score:5, Funny)
By contrast, explioting voters will get you elected president.
Moral of the story... (Score:2, Funny)
Life's a beach and then you die.