one person, one vote

Sunday 15 November 2009 at 8:21 pm Sent this in reply to a thread that strayed into promises not kept [yeah, the gov't again...]. Since it is now public, I might as well post it here. Maybe someone will read it... ;-]

I have been a lurker and sometimes commenter on funsec. I have got a crazy notion and do not know how to find out if it is doable. It has to do with frustration at 'having no voice'. Well, lots of us have voices, the problem is in authentication.

The idea: A national, government verifiable way to register internet users as 'voters', with anonymity resting with an open source organization, much like nanog [north american networks operators group], or the Gnu foundation [is it a foundation?].

As voting citizens, we prove to the gov't who we are to be able to vote, but when we vote, it is private, anonymous, except for polling location.

What if you could go and re-register to 'vote' in person at your local polling place, and once verified, the gov't official hands the person at the next table a scan code or printed number. The next group is a representative of this open source organization that uses the gov't code to create a secure-id two factor otp [one time password] token that anonymously ties that token to 'a registered voter in this precinct - anonymous". It does not id you personally, it just guarantees that you proved to the voter registration people you are who you say you are.

The voter then registers with a secure web site that is also the web site where they can be polled. We are not talking about voting, this is opinion polls. "Should the US pull out of Afghanistan?" Extremely good accuracy of the count and verification of "one person, one vote". Heck, they even get the accuracy down to zip codes if the user allows that [ok, maybe that is a condition of having the right to cast your certified opinion].

Do I talk to tech people? Do I pass this one to an official? [heck no! ;-]. Being a tech writer, I thought you would be the best choice. You can quickly see big holes in it, and might have ideas on how to spread the idea. Open source all the way. I just think it is time we do something like this.

Thought of nanog for this intro, but I did not know if it would be appropriate there. This is security related, and man, could it be fun... ;-]

losing 40 lbs? definitely worth it...

Thursday 03 September 2009 at 03:45 am

• the idea...

  free. Hey, what are brains for if you do not listen to them?

  
  
• trying to pitch the idea...

  3 years of hell

  
  
• running the gauntlet....

  hella fun! Try it sometime.

  
  
• losing 40 lbs to be able to run the gauntlet...

  worth it, believe me

  
  
• thoroughly enjoying pitching the idea in a 30 minute one-on-one with the CIO of your company..?

  priceless...

  
  

San Carlos Los Cabos, Sonoma Mexico - evacuated... yikes!

Wednesday 02 September 2009 at 08:06 am (wow, my first real correction/retraction...)
Apparently, the hurricane will make landfall tonight (right at the entrance to the sea of Cortez. All low lying commnities in the area are on alert, and I thought I heard that they had evacuated my second home, the city of San Carlos on Monday Sept. 1st 2009. I hope all families get out safe and their homes are still there once the storm passes. Jim is up in Colorado helping Becky get everything tied up before they move back down to San Carlos this October. I think Jim's boat is in dry dock, so it should be ok...? Need to ask Jim today if they are all set.

My big worry is for the Soggy Peso Bar, an awesome home-built shanty/restaurant/bar located at 27 degrees 58 minutes north and111 degrees 06 minutes west. The Peso has a unique simple explanation, and is probably the most unique, interesting place to find yourself on a lazy San Carlos afternoon. The Peso is owned and run by Lisa, the woman I hope to convince I just might be worth keeping around when I get down there in October. We will see...

My biggest fear is that she decided to stay and ride it out. The place means that much to her. If she and the Soggy Peso survive, I am sure she is going to need lots of help putting it back together once the smoke clears.

Hey, i just think I found an excuse to get down there early. As of yesterday, I really cannot wait until October to find out. Hey, everyone at work says I am skating the ragged edge and need a serious vacation. I think I just solved 3 problems at once... Gotta call sis and Jim now... later kids, I have breakfast to eat, a presentation to make, and then a town to go help rebuild. refiamerica's first gig, and I get to not feel so helpless anymore.

priceless. sometimes life can be soooo cool.
-egrep

Coersion or education. Which works best?

Wednesday 02 September 2009 at 06:08 am Sunday night, after I had settled in to the hotel, I stopped by one of my favorite watering holes in Glendale CA; a place called Jax. If there was ever a '60's piano/jazz place that survived intact into the 21st century, it is Jax. A lot of things are still the same here in Glendale since I moved up to Washington 2 years ago, and except for 2 new-to-me, interesting bartenders, the place is just as I remembered it. Last night, I got to talking to April (the Sunday night 'tender), and I strayed into what I am trying to get going in the pac nw (what we call the Pacific Northwest), and April looks at me and says "oh, you want to talk to my sister Kristine.

So, on a whim, after I had explored all of the parts of Glendale that _have_ changed (nice job on the Americana guys... cross between an awesome "Universal City Walk" and and Celebration off Disney World). I stopped by Jax Monday night, and finally asked if this interesting person I was talking to was indeed Kristine. Turns out it was and I eventually figured out the connection, a concerned person who was looking to live somewhere where things could be better.

More on why I told her it was time to leave LA in a future post, but where this ties into my question posed in this topic rests with two Apache tribesmen who had just finished up with a cattle auction. Hearing some of the things they talked about made me _really_ want to go over and get into a good spirited discussion on questions about tribal life that have been in my head since the last time I attended an Indian powwow. It was probably the summer of '69, we were in Colorado, probably within a day's drive of Denver and the images and memories I see now, show a great, proud people who just flowed with self assurance as they all danced as one people. I still remember how when I thought no one was looking I used to dance right along with them. Memories sure are a funny thing...

The 'funny thing' is where there is this click, and the pieces making up the players and in the "now" just seem to fall into place. Never having tried to really understand the best way to approach situations where my main thirst is for knowledge, and to share something of what I know in return, I decided about a week before I headed on this trip to try and find out how to pull this off. I have never been good a sales... Don't ask... ;-]

I thought about all the people I have admired up to now in my life, and using pieces of each as needed, I created this simple formula:
Toss an innocuous aside within earshot of someone you want to interact with, but make it related in a positive way to the "now" (where "now" is the moment in space/time you are interacting with). If the person responds in a manner saying "I heard something interesting, please continue", then you follow with an intelligent question, comment, or observation germane to what you are trying to learn (or fix; this works well in preparation for a good compromise too - more later? yeah...). In no time you will either find yourself in a spirited discussion related to that which you seek, or within a few polite comments, you will both agree to let things dissolve as you paths diverge.

So far, I'm batting a thousand. this is so cool! I tossed a comment that allowed the current speaker to hear it; finish what he was saying or speaking to at the time; respond in a positive manner and then pause while I was invited to present an opening statement. Best damn half hour talk I have had in a long time. I really hope the gentlemen email me, because I have even more questions now that I have digested our first talk.

Where is the connection to coercion you ask? Well, most of my life people/companies have been telling me to do these 'things', buy these things, and generally toe the line in conforming to others' wishes. I _know_ I have been guilty of this also, so do not think I am just playing victim here. What I am saying is that you can coerce someone into the end result you seek, but all you gain in the process is a situation where you have bullied someone, and they have learned only resentment in the exchange.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of my encounters, and feel education is _still_ the best path... Always. You may even end up teaching yourself something good... Just like I did... I'll never go back.

Good to meet you, let's exchange some knowledge.
-steve

R.I.P. RIAA - the people are giving back.

Friday 28 August 2009 at 09:20 am You know? Now that I have discovered kexp.org, and the heavy focus on local music, I see the new model for at least smaller bands; encourage free downloads of their songs, and depend on fan base and loyalty to make it locally in their community. The good ones will eventually fan out and tour in ever widening circles. Nice way to get used to touring.

Heck, ask the fans for their support; fans or others who have enjoyed their music will be happy, maybe even anxious to support the band by coming to shows (hey, the fans are local, remember?), especially when they see all the profit going to the band and the road crew instead of the pockets of the record companies. Sorry, guys, new kid in town..

There is an artist (who's name escapes me) hat recently asked for donations to help pay for the production of her upcoming album, because she was having trouble getting money from the record labels, and hated to give all the record profits to said labels anyway. Got plenty from the fan base, and she included contributors in the album in various ways once they pledged over certain amounts. She will never look back}. Bands and artists are going to do fine, and probably make a lot more money in the process. Ever notice how often the record labels tout how profits and sales are down when they are trying to win court cases? Ever hear the artists complain much about it? Well, look at the ones that do, and I bet their concert take is not that high, and they depend on record sales to make it by. The artists that are kickin' butt out there are keeping their mouths shut, because they know free music passed around is much better advertising than to fight for air-time on the record label controlled commercial radio stations.

3d moving real-time camera?

Friday 17 July 2009 at 12:40 pm Heard a Science Friday npr broadcast, where an associate professor at MIT 11 years ago was on talking about a "perfect mirror". This turned into a flexible mirror lined tube that does an awesome job of bending and controlling a laser beam that is perfect for specialized surgeries. This allows for many new, innovative types of of endoscopic surgery (no/minimal invasion/incision).

New developments described in a recent MIT paper detail how they developed a fiber based on the same principals that can detect and measure 8 different parameters of 2 wavelengths of light hitting it's surface. Lots of applications. One I dreamed up:
Imagine a fabric that could record all light hitting it. Imagine this being incorporated into a one piece body suit. Imagine a person wearing this suit in a crowd during a demonstration. Since the suit records all light hitting it, and can convert that light into images, this person waring this suit becomes a real-time 3d recording device, and could probably broadcast this data real-time.. Talk about citizen journalism...

Cap 'n Tax? In a way, yes. Will it really cost more?

Thursday 16 July 2009 at 03:06 am Everyone, even dems and the White House agree that the energy bill, with it's inclusion of the Cap and Trade provisions will cost America more money for energy. Since producers will be charged for the amount of carbon their energy production produces (be it generating electricity or burning gasoline in your car), the energy production method that produces the most carbon will pay the highest carbon rates. The production methods that produce the least carbon will pay the least. I suppose that consumers can sit back and blame the government for adding carbon costs when the utilities and others charge us for the difference, but why should we pay it? It is not our fault they burn coal to produce electricity. It's not our fault that gasoline engines average 25 mpg. Is there a silver lining? I think there is. Guess what? A utility that uses solar or wind pays less of a carbon penalty because those methods of producing electricity produce very little carbon. Same with hydroelectric. Ever wonder why some utilities offer the option for you to request that your electricity come from renewable resources. like wind or solar? Bet you can opt to request 100% green sources and not have to pay carbon penalties for your electricity. How long before utilities invest in green technologies if none of their customers are wiling to pay for power that has a high carbon price tag.

So, we can bend over and let the coal and oil companies continue to cut the tops off our eastern mountains, and drill into the arctic preserves to suck out a bit more of our precious petroleum, or we can tell the utilities that we want green, low carbon power now. Utilities usually need Public Utilities Commission approval to raise rates or to apply surcharges to your electric rates. If people go to these meeting and tell the PUC members that they will not pay higher rates because the utility will not convert from coal, then maybe the PUC will deny the rate hike. All of the sudden, the coal burning utility will have to pay the carbon surcharge themselves. hmmmm...

Gee, think this might increase the lagging demand for green energy? Stand up people! Let your legislators know you want low carbon choices. -egrep

"ya pays me now, or ya pays me later"

Saturday 27 June 2009 at 1:51 pm Hearing the voices against a climate control bill rant how "cap and trade will destroy the economy" and "cap and tax will be the biggest job killer ever voted on by congress", makes me just want to puke. A great quote in a recent renesys blog post sums up where America is right now in the global warming fight, "don't wait until the tanks are in the streets to figure this out, because by that point, you may have already lost the war". Of course reducing carbon is going to increase energy costs to consumers, but hey, "ya pays me now, or ya pays me later"... We can pay the up-front costs now, and the continued higher cost for energy that is so cheap to us now, or we can pay enormous sums of money and watch thousands die when droughts hit and the rising seas shrink coastlines. How secure will America be when unfriendly governments, seeing that their land is being destroyed and their economies are being ruined, decide to lash out at whomever has more resources or whom they think got them into this mess to start with. Yeah, not so secure. You think times are bad now...

Ok, I digress. Bottom line is that we are already way past stopping CO2 from screwing things up, and can only reduce what we can now and in the future and then adapt to the changes that will continue to plague the world for decades to come. NASA GISS recently released a study oh projections of peak oil's effect on the future climate. To quote that article:

"Previously published research shows that a dangerous level of global warming will occur if carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeds a concentration of about 450 parts per million. That's equivalent to about a 61 percent increase from the pre-industrial level of 280 parts per million, but only 17 percent more than the current level of 385 parts per million. The carbon dioxide cap is related to a global temperature rise of about 1.8°F above the 2000 global temperature, at or beyond which point the disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet and Arctic sea ice could set in motion feedbacks and lead to accelerated melting."

Other NASA studies show that the number at which we start seeing bad effects (the level past which life as evolved on earth starts being affected) is with a CO2 concentration of 350 ppm. Guess what? We have already past that number and are rising at a rate of 2 ppm/year. Not good. So not good that big Large Scale Integrators (LSI) like GE and other multinationals are now shifting resources and money from Carbon reduction research and planning to "Adaptation technologies" to allow regions to deal with rising seas and other climate related changes to their environments. So, the big 20+ year projecting producers in the world are already admitting that it is too late for parts of the world and are developing tech to help countries deal with rising seas. not good.

People of the world - a shout out to Iran

Saturday 27 June 2009 at 10:46 am

• We are a world of people. We are the people of the earth
  
• As people of the earth, we are all equal in our individual rights
  
• As people of the earth, we want an earth we can live in harmony with
  
• As people of the earth, we are all responsible for nurturing the earth
  
• Governments and business will listen to what the people say about the earth
  
• We are a world of people, we are not a world of governments
  
• Governments should represent the people and their wishes
  
• Governments do not control the people, the people live in harmony with each other
  
• Governments: Stop repressing and trying to control the people and start listening to the people
  

Why we should want Iran to succeed in their re-vote effort

Thursday 18 June 2009 at 01:08 am This is going to be a slow start, but I just wanted to say a bit about the demonstrations going on all over Iran. I lived in Teheran between 1964 and 1966, only a 3rd grader at the time, but it still played a big role in shaping my ideas of humanity. During those years, the Shah of Iran ran the country. At that time, there was only the very rich, and the very poor. Only middle class that I was aware of were military and professional people (technicians and gov't employees). No matter how poor people were, they were always extremely friendly, helpful, and yes, even tolerant of a "little kid" who speaks atrocious Farsi and had the manners of a donkey :-)

My father worked for caterpillar Tractor company representing them during the boom years when oil and US aid money was pouring in. What I did not learn until much later in life, was that the CIA played a big role in the coup d' ta that put him in power. In 1978-79, the Iranian people got fed up and overthrew the Shah and wrote their own democratic constitution. I think they are seeing now that it became too easy for a single person or small part of the gov't to have total control over the people. This is not good. I think the Iranian people want to hit the figurative reset button just like the US and Russia did when Hillary messed up her Russian :-)
So, they probably want either a) a re-vote, with external monitors to try and keep it honest, or b) get rid of the current Supreme Leader, the current president and then sit down rewrite their constitution so that they reduce the chance of Tyranny again. All they want is their freedom, their vote to count, a gov't that listens and does what the people say, and relax the dress code for women a bit, will ya? They used to really like wearing what they wanted when I lived there.

And hey, if they pull this off, just think what a shot in the arm that would be for American citizens! Can you imagine us marching like that because Congress won't implement CO2 regulations, won't push for green energy, dragging their feet on health care reform, won't do a lot of things they are supposed to be doing for their constituents (us, remember?). The president can't do all this by himself. If you think congress and the senate are not doing the right thing, then start talking out about it. Post on forums and blogs. We have the same internet access as Iran did up until last Friday. So get up and let's fix this country. Times 'a wastin'!