Entries Tagged 'Information Technology' ↓

Much has been made about electronic voting machines and their reliability. Election officials and the makers of these machines claim they are completely reliable, yet security and computer experts insist that problems exist.

The security and computer experts are right. Think about Windows and how Microsoft releases several patches and security fixes every month. This means Windows which has been out and in development for years still has security problems. Why would anyone believe that a voting machine which has been in development for a lot less time does not have security problems?

I work in the computer industry and I can guarantee that security holes or bugs exist in Windows, in the computer that runs your car, in this website, in your DVR, at your credit card company, and in voting machines. With complex software there are always bugs and security issues.

So if e-voting machines have problems how should we count our votes? Well, there is no 100% accurate way to count votes. People will make mistakes hand counting, scanning machines may misread or have a bug, mechanical counters may break, and e-voting machines may have bugs. The most accurate of these four is the mechanical machine; however, this is hard for the voter to use because once they press a lever they cannot change the vote. Hand counting would be the next best, but is very slow and requires a lot of people. Scanning machines and e-voting both have the same security and bug issues.

The right solution in my opinion is to use the e-voting machines with a paper trail that is also audited. This does not mean every paper ballot should be hand counted, but 10% of the votes cast on the machine should be hand counted and a statistical analysis done to ensure that the voting machine most likely reported correctly. If this shows potential issues, then a full hand count for the voting machine should occur.

The problem is most states do not require a paper trail, so if the voting machine reports incorrectly, too bad the results are still treated as gold because there is no proof or possible indication of a problem. Encourage your legislators to require a paper trail for all voting so the machines can be audited and the general public have confidence in the results.

I hate being in IT. Everyone expects their friend the computer geek to fix all of their problems, yet no one repays their local computer geek for spending your nights at their house troubleshooting their problem. The problem they have because they forward every chain letter, click on every phishing email, do not have anti-virus software, and think they know it all. They expect you to spend 4 hours of your Saturday at their house, troubleshooting their computer. You then get to ruin their day, by telling them you have to reformat because they never listen despite how often and how loudly you tell them.

You do all of this with a smile on your face because that is what they expect. Yet inside you are wishing how you could be out on your bike. You are on call 24/7 and if you do not answer your phone the calls keep coming. You are always in front of a computer, no matter how much you want to get away. It is always work, work for your friends, work on your own pet projects, eat, sleep, and repeat.

You give $30,000 worth of free IT support and advice to your friends and relatives a year, but do not expect anything in return. You could fix your tax accountant friend’s computer, but he will not do your taxes for free. You could fix your mechanic friend’s computer, but he will not fix your car for free. You could fix your bosses computer, but do not expect any favors.

Why is it that the entire world takes IT for granted?