WTF Bites
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Did you know that Germany had secret ballot ever since 19th century? Did you know that it didn't do jack shit to prevent Nazis from doing what Nazis do?
The Commies didn't, and they got this super satisfied population where >95% voted for the party.
The modern Russia does, and Putin still got 76%.
And what is up with the idea that bad things are only bad when they happen on national level? "Hey, take a selfie of you voting for [or, alternatively, "show me the receipt"] Trump / Clinton or I will unfriend you / kick your ass / some other trivial threat" is not a problem?
It has nothing to do with national level. It's just getting unfriended IS not a problem. You'd get unfriended anyway when they'd first see your true party colors (and they'd do very fast if you drink alcohol). Getting beaten up is an assault, and the best methods to fight it are the same methods used to fight other kinds of assault. "Other trivial things" is too wide to comment upon if two examples you gave are some social microdrama and criminal offense with potential bad consequences to your health.
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@gąska You omitted buying votes.
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And yet "Take a selfie with your ballot where you vote on X or you die" works with today's technology.
Now, I am not at all sure of how votes done in any other country than my own work, but it is entirely possible to take the selfies of a vote you just throw away around here. You generally pick several votes anyway to further hide what you vote for around these parts, so taking a selfie with one you don't use as a vote wouldn't be hard.
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And where exactly would you meet this thug? Why would there be no police around?
There's never police around.
I never heard about it happening in USA. And USA had over 100 years of non-secret ballots.
Then you don't read enough history books.
Did you know that Germany had secret ballot ever since 19th century? Did you know that it didn't do jack shit to prevent Nazis from doing what Nazis do?
Yes.
I was just showing that physical intimidation is a legit threat while voting. It's good that the brownshirts could only intimidate and not force votes, not that that changed the outcome, since the intimidation worked.
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The modern Russia does, and Putin still got 76%.
Aren't there quite substantial amounts of evidence of the votes in Russia being rigged? Not that Putin isn't popular, he is.
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It also opens up the system to other kinds of election fraud. All in all, I believe anonymous votes do more harm to than good on election fraud front, even though it might make things better in other ways (to which I'm not entirely convinced either).
I could not disagree more.
And your solution is "police"? From people buying votes, peer pressure, any other kind of strong or not quite so strong incentives, the police are going to enforce all of that?No. The police would only make sure no thugs would appear close to election office. If thugs get to you through other channels - well, sounds like you have much bigger problems than who you vote for. As of peer pressure - it's the basic building block of a democratic society. You can't have a democratic society without peer pressure making us accept things we'd never otherwise accept, like gay rights or abortion. Fighting peer pressure is both largely impossible (without police state making sure all social circles are all-inclusive and people don't dislike each other for anything) and counterproductive.
The ways to abuse non-anonymous votes are endless and range from obvious to subtle.
The ways to abuse a hammer are also endless, but few people do, and of those who do, we have most of them under control in various forms.
Do you have the same objections to this system as the one I proposed earlier?
Yes, because it's still not anonymous, so it gives up a useful feature in search of a problem.
Are you saying voter fraud is not a problem, or what? As I see it, the problem is right there, and it's entirely solvable, and the only thing blocking the way is people being a bit too sensitive about their ballots.
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@gąska You omitted buying votes.
PiS has bought votes by implementing social welfare program that pays out parents 500zł for every child they have except the first one, eligible for literally everyone with kids. All completely legal.
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The modern Russia does, and Putin still got 76%.
Aren't there quite substantial amounts of evidence of the votes in Russia being rigged?
A country with secret ballots has elections rigged. Ding ding ding!
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My system assumes a society that's not that scared.
Somebody has probably already said this, but this is a bad assumption. In non-shithole countries the society may not be afraid of the government, but at least a portion is afraid of a spouse, father, neighbor, or Facebook shaming.
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If thugs get to you through other channels - well, sounds like you have much bigger problems than who you vote for.
What is that supposed to mean? You don't care if the democratic process is being subverted in a way that can easily be prevented?
You can't have a democratic society without peer pressure making us accept things we'd never otherwise accept,
I can have an election system where I'm free to vote without any outside pressure. If you don't count that as a win, I'm not sure how to convince you.
Are you saying voter fraud is not a problem, or what?
I'm saying we have a system that both prevents voter fraud and is anonymous and you're proposing to replace it with one that's not anonymous.
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@gąska That's not buying votes, that's politics.
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The modern Russia does, and Putin still got 76%.
Aren't there quite substantial amounts of evidence of the votes in Russia being rigged?
A country with secret ballots has elections rigged. Ding ding ding!
Well, obviously. If you control the counting of the votes, and the control of the counting, rigging the result isn't very hard now is it?
The secret ballot is not a be all end all of election rigging. It goes part ways, but mostly it's there to protect the individual, and by extension the election, from coercion.
Putin doesn't rig his elections from that angle, so it's not relevant.
Turkey is a whole lot more relevant of an example for that point. And they are actively looking for dissidents and threatening them to vote the correct way.
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@blakeyrat said in WTF Bites:
@hardwaregeek That happens in the US too, which really fucks over western States due to time zones.
Exactly. What did you think I was referring to?
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@blakeyrat said in WTF Bites:
And where exactly would you meet this thug? Why would there be no police around?
There's never police around.
Oh, you live in shithole country. That explains a few things.
I never heard about it happening in USA. And USA had over 100 years of non-secret ballots.
Yes, I don't. Polish books are mostly about Poland, and I have no time to read about all the history of the entire world (because otherwise how would I know which parts I want/need to read?) Thank you for an actual link to an actual article; at least one person around here is actually committed to discussion and isn't here just to point fingers and laugh.
Did you know that Germany had secret ballot ever since 19th century? Did you know that it didn't do jack shit to prevent Nazis from doing what Nazis do?
Yes.
I was just showing that physical intimidation is a legit threat while voting.
I know it is a legit threat while voting. With or without anonymous ballots.
It's good that the brownshirts could only intimidate and not force votes
Forcing votes is legally also election fraud. A documented instance of forcing a vote would (or at least should) invalidate elections. Which would go against the intimidators' goals.
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@hardwaregeek said in WTF Bites:
Exactly. What did you think I was referring to?
The 1977 dog whistle shortage in Portland, Maine.
It was a tragic time.
But keep in mind if you're praising all those with-it eastern European countries, they don't have time zone issues to deal with. In fact, the US might have that the worst since like 40% of our population is literally 3 hours behind another 40% of our population-- other countries with lots of timezones (except perhaps Mexico and Canada, for the same reason as the US) have the majority of their population in one (or two an hour apart). Sure Russia has like 6 time zones, but pretty much everybody lives in the western-most ones.
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And where exactly would you meet this thug? Why would there be no police around?
What are the police going to do about more subtle coercion? "My wife said I wouldn't get laid for a year if I voted for Trump." You want the police in your bedroom when you talk about politics?
And what about the (very non-hypothetical in shithole countries) case that the police are the ones doing the coercion?
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@gąska That's not buying votes, that's politics.
That's not A; that's A.
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@hardwaregeek You know the difference between one and the other.
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@blakeyrat said in WTF Bites:
But keep in mind if you're praising all those with-it eastern European countries
Why in the world would I do that?
At least the US media have (mostly?) stopped announcing winners before the west coast polls close, but Alaska and Hawaii still get screwed.
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WTF of the last 5 days: So, I got this new processor & new motherboard last Thursday.
Naturally, Windows 10 decided on Friday that this wasn't my PC anymore and didn't want to reactivate. So, I clicked on "Try activation again" and when that failed, clicked on "I changed a major hardware component". The next window then told me that the activation server was down and I should try it again some other time. Tried it twice more one hour apart each time and then gave up for the day.
So I tried it again on Saturday, only to be told that, while the server was up now, the system couldn't activate my copy regardless. So I clicked myself through the help page and found a number which costs 60 cents per call.
First I was told at length that this call might be recorded if I said yes. After saying "yes" I was told that this call might be recorded due to me saying yes.
Then 2 for it not being a parental permissions issue. Then I had to press 1 for activation issues. Then I had to press 1 for Windows.
Then I was told at length again that this call might be recorded if I said yes. After saying "yes" I was told that this call might be recorded due to me saying yes.No, the record didn't scratch there.
Then press 1 for activation of Windows. 1 for Windows 10. 1 for "I've got an error code". 4(yes, four! a different number!) because my code wasn't listed. And 1 again because my version is 1609+. "Please hold the line" music.
Finally get a human agent. I explain my issue to him. He has me recite the original key I still have. Clears that one as valid but tells me that I need to send him a receipt that I indeed bought a new motherboard.
When I bought the new components through Amazon, I received a receipt for all of them except the motherboard, naturally. I tell him that and he goes: "Well, there's nothing I can do without that!" So I end the call and place a request with the trader that he should send me the receipt.Said receipt actually arrives but after 18:00h at which point the call center closes. Not that they tell you that right away, no, you only hear that after going through that 10-point menu I detailed above.
Wait until Monday, try again at 10:00h. 10-point menu passed. Get an agent: "Did he give you an issue number?" Of course not. "Okay, no worries". Give him my original key. Comes back cleared. He then has me activate some activation UI which yields a 54 (yes, 54!) digit number I then have to recite to him.
Then we both wait until he states that the servers are down. I should call back in an hour. But at least I get an issue number.You'll note that the topic of a motherboard receipt does not pop up.
One hour later, it's the 10-point menu again. I state my issue but the agent tells me that the servers are down due to maintenance. I'm annoyed now. But maintenance should be done in the afternoon!
Call back at 17:00h. 10-point menu again, followed by 10 minutes of "hold the line" music. Yep, you guessed it: Maintenance still. I may have been a bit unfriendly at that point.
Of course there's no status page anywhere, there's no way to tell you about this at the beginning of the call or is there some way for them to call me back.
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I'm annoyed now.
There's this joke, the details of which elude me right now, about a man in court for killing his annoying wife...
Anyways, I would have started shooting people 3 steps earlier than that.
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- There were millions of Americans openly campaigning for their preferred candidates in last election (and every other election, too). Anonymous voting doesn't protect them - and yet you don't hear (too often) about bad things happening to them.
- Those who don't campaign openly, often still have political preferences, and often mention them in casual conversations at home, with friends, at workplace, etc. Anonymous voting doesn't protect them either - and yet you don't hear (too often) about bad things happening to them.
- If you never talk about politics ever, then yes, a non-anonymous ballot would expose you. But you'd get no worse treatment than the two groups above - and they don't have it too bad at the moment.
I have heard of people getting fired for off-duty political activities. Are you saying that's okay as long as it doesn't happen "too often"? How often is too often?
(it's entirely legal in most of the US, FWIW.)
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And yet "Take a selfie with your ballot where you vote on X or you die" works with today's technology.
Taking a photograph of a ballot or generally while you're inside a polling place is prohibited in some places, for exactly this reason.
And like @Carnage said, you can just spoil the ballot and get another after you've taken the photo.
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PHP asserts that everything's "working as intended" again:
TL;DR: Like most other languages, PHP has an
assert(). Like most other languages, it allows you to omit those assertions for raisins. Like any other demented bear trap, if you define a namespaced function namedassert, (unqualified) calls to it get omitted as well.Resolved "Not a Bug". In the near future, defining a namespaced function named
assertwill trigger a deprecation warning or, later, a full-on compile error.
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@hardwaregeek You know the difference between one and the other.
Not when I
.
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which costs 60 cents per call
That's where I would stop. Customer service call charges are unacceptable in 2018.
I wish it was legal to do everything you want with legally owned software. Then I would just fire up activator and be done with it.
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I wish it was legal to do everything you want with legally owned software.
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@timebandit but that requires cooperation of the corporate entities. And you cannot get corporate entities to cooperate against their best interest without making laws.
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What's the point of inheritance in OOP if you don't inherit the private class members?
To follow a classic example, if you have
class Animal { private: double weight; } class Cat : Animal { ... }Why shouldn't my cat also have its own weight? It's not an external entity to animals that doesn't have to know about their private things, it is an animal.
Or more realistically: if you make a
class Hashmapthat stores some data in a private array, and I make a subclass, does my subclass gain anything at all other than a simple interface?
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@anonymous234 Which language is that? C# derived classes inherit private members from the base class, you just can't access them (that's what
protectedis for), AFAIK.
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@rhywden What does it mean to inherit a member if you can't access it?
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@anonymous234 said in WTF Bites:
@rhywden What does it mean to inherit a member if you can't access it?
Well, why do you make a member
privatein the first place? So you can't mess with it in the wrong place. Same principle.And if you do need to mess with it in a derived class, there's always
protected, remember?
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@anonymous234 It means any instances of that inherited class have the data, so inherited functions can access it, too.
If the class was actually meant to be inheritable, that field should probably be protected. Or private, with a protected property/setter, if you want the superclass to maintain some control over it.
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@anonymous234 said in WTF Bites:
What's the point of inheritance in OOP if you don't inherit the private class members?
To follow a classic example, if you have
class Animal { private: double weight; } class Cat : Animal { ... }Why shouldn't my cat also have its own weight? It's not an external entity to animals that doesn't have to know about their private things, it is an animal.
One valid use is to prevent private interface leak. You make a library. There are some types you intent the user to use. There are also some types that are internal to your library that you use everywhere, but you don't want the user to ever deal with or even be aware of their existence. So you make the public ones public and the private ones private. But you cannot have private types anywhere in the public API. And if user code can derive library class, everything accessible from a subclass becomes part of public API. The only option is private members, which are inherited but inaccessible, which is very different from not inherited (they take space in object's memory, and they affect the inherited code because even though overriding code cannot access them, inherited code still can).
But it's only ever an issue if you use inheritance where you should have used function object as argument.
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Why is this on the list of "Best Operating Systems?"
Most people should not install RISC OS. You can’t really use it as a primary operating system, it doesn’t have much in the way of modern software support, and it doesn’t work like any other operating system available right now.
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http://www.binaryemotions.com/digital-signage/raspberry-digital-signage/
It is a hacker-proof secure operating system [...] A WordPress installation is embedded by default
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@pie_flavor said in WTF Bites:
keep posting about stuff where you intentionally tried to break it.
Well there's a lot to break.
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You can’t really use it as a primary operating system, it doesn’t have much in the way of modern software support, and it doesn’t work like any other operating system available right now.
So it's like Linux?
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@loopback0 said in WTF Bites:
You can’t really use it as a primary operating system, it doesn’t have much in the way of modern software support, and it doesn’t work like any other operating system available right now.
So it's like Linux?
Nope.
RISC OS doesn’t have a lot in common with other operating systems like Linux, OS X, or even Windows. It was initially designed in 1987 and has roots in the BBC Micro.
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@mott555 Facts
cheap jokes.
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@hardwaregeek said in WTF Bites:
@blakeyrat said in WTF Bites:
@hardwaregeek That happens in the US too, which really fucks over western States due to time zones.
Exactly. What did you think I was referring to?
I think a more dramatic example was the Florida panhandle in 2000. That area leans Republican pretty heavily, and it's an hour behind the rest of the state. Turnout was much lower than other areas, likely due to networks incorrectly (as subsequent recounts showed) calling the race for the Democrat.
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@blakeyrat said in WTF Bites:
verify your ballet
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@blakeyrat said in WTF Bites:
The 1977 dog whistle shortage in Portland, Maine.
It was a tragic time.
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@bb36e My buddy and I always used to set Visual Studio up as a Steam "game".
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@blakeyrat said in WTF Bites:
@bb36e My buddy and I always used to set Visual Studio up as a Steam "game".
I remember trying that at one point but it got fucked up by the Steam overlay.
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@ben_lubar Oh yeah if you don't turn off overlay and hit space-tab you get VS real fucked up, IIRC.
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So, there's an old diffraction grating lying around in the lab and we need to look up some of its specs. Not a problem, we find the website of its maker pretty quickly - just to realise that it always redirects us to a page with CAPTCHA and an e-mail address form asking us to verify our humanity.
We do exactly that, and a few tens of minutes later a new e-mail arrives, consisting of just:
NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently there's a solipsist on the other end who utterly rejects the problem of other minds.
PHP :: Bug #75445 :: User-defined assert function is optimized away with zend.assertions=-1
BSD licenses - Wikipedia
The Best Operating Systems for Your Raspberry Pi Projects
