I'm a bit of a tech nerd, but for various reasons, I've always felt that "electronic voting" was a very bad idea.   Mainly, I've always felt that it's too easy to manipulate software (--to help your own candidacy or to hurt your opponent's).  To that end, here's some news on our country's premier electronic polling company and their products. 

link

 "For years, Diebold has embarrassed itself by claiming that obvious faults were actually not faults at all, and during the past decade or so, it mastered the act of pointing the finger. Now that it has ironically renamed itself Premier Election Solutions, it's finally coming clean. According to spokesman Chris Riggall, a "critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point" has been part of the software for ten years. The flaw is on both optical scan and touchscreen machines, and while Mr. Riggall asserts that the logic error probably didn't ruin any elections (speaking of logic error...), the outfit's president has confessed to being "distressed" about the ordeal. More like "distressed" about the increasingly bleak future of his company."

another link:

"It's no secret that Diebold's electronic voting gear is, um, a little lax in the security department, and now a non-profit group known as the Open Voting Foundation has found "what may be the worst security flaw we have [ever] seen in touch screen voting machines" in the company's older TS model. Apparently these devices -- which produce no paper record of voters' choices -- contain a switch on the internal motherboard (pictured above, with handy onboard instructions) that would allow nefarious hackers to toggle between the two pre-installed boot profiles and "change literally everything regarding how the machine works and counts votes." Even worse, the board also sports a slot for external flash memory from which a third profile could be "field-added in minutes," allowing unsavory characters to overwrite certified files with their own data before switching the machine back to its unaltered state -- with no one the wiser. It looks like Diebold has two options for addressing this nagging problem: either they can open up their machines and source code to a thorough external audit and adopt the resulting suggestions (unlikely), or they can take the simpler route and just get their friends in Washington make it illegal for rabble-rousers like the Open Voting Foundation to play with their toys." 

Want to see more Diebold screwups?  Try, here, here, here, or here.

I've actually voted on electronic voting machines for  local elections, and they work fine enough, but for national elections, I just trust the old fashioned methods better, especially those that leave a physical footprint.  I know the old methods aren't practical, especially with huge populations, but still, I've always felt like it was only a matter of time before some hacker tries to manipulate an election.   

Although a few of those links are from 2007/2008, to be fair, most of them are from 2006.  Also, if memory serves correct, Diebold was talking about selling their voting machine unit in late 2007 because it was not profitable.

Don't know alot about the Diebolds voting machine. Definitly should spin off the vote machine.

seems nyse is getting some attention these days.

the problem with dbd, that I have, is there is no stock scooter rating :)

Good take two 

analysts says sales will be falling off on ttwo by end of the year, true or not don't know or for what reason.

I just know when interest rates fall and currency goes up, bonds are good. I know I can go into my regional bank and get them or online from the fort. but if only an institution could sell those online for the "ya know" extra revenue. The problem is currency goes down then watch out, end up dissappointed. I used to get $50 bonds for christmas. Maybe that is what I should ask for this christmas. I cashed them all in when they came due and played video games while in college. Tell Buffet, I want my money back, if you see him.

Have a good monday.

PEACE

k-man, you speak with words of wisdom.  However, I still wouldn't completely trust software based voting national elections.  I've just seen too much "secure" software get hacked.

wallstreetking - I've got some TTWO right now... I think ERTS has really bungled the deal, or else are trying some weird strategy.

Bush did not have any voice in picking voting machines!  The decision to use touch screen with out paper back ups was made by many local governments.  Touch screen was probably driven by the idea that it was easier for handicaped people and easier for multilingual ballots
 and of course salesmanship by the vendors (and maybe a little $$$ changing hands).  Out here is Arizona most (maybe all) voting is done on paper ballots that are scaned for counting.  Why everybody did not go that way is beyond me.  Hint see $$$ above.

The machine count is still open to rigging.  The use of test batches for final test just means that the rigger does not start until the count is above the size of the test batch.

PS the old fashioned hand count was and is fixable also.  A distant relation years ago was a congressman from Cook county ILL  and used to regale us with tales of his "victories".

...maybe cuneiform on red clay tablets. 

Then each voter could bake his/her clay tablet in an oven, delivering the vote the next day.  In the time it would take to tally the votes, everyone will have forgotten who was running, who said what about whom, and why they were making marks in clay to start with (and we'd be better off?)

does anyone really have time to read many of these rambling, non trading related diatribes (otherwise known as blogs) ?  I don't think (who cares right?) many of these topics belong on a trading website.  my opinion only.  besides, its boring.

Peaceman,

      Well, if it's boring, then don't waste your time posting.  So far as the blogs go, I like blogging, and like reading other people's blogs, whether they're about stocks or not.  If I wanted to read nothing but trading blogs, there's hundreds of those already on the web.  If my internet-friends on tradeking want to blog about stocks or something else every so often, that's cool with me.  It's not like the blog section is totally non-stock related.  We go through phases of having lots of stock talk, and phases of having more personal blogs, but still, that's all fine with me.

      So far as the voting discussion goes, and even the Bush/Diebold discussion goes, I would say that it is stock related to some degree.  Diebold are a publically traded company (DBD) and faulty products hurt their business.  Like I said in my post, they're selling their voting machine unit.  Also, as politicians influence economic policy, I would think that whether or not our system of voting is reliable would be a relevant discussion to stock traders.  I didn't think I would have to spell that out.

but anyways, that's my two cents.

No offense man, but if you don't dig the blogs, then ok, that's cool.  Just don't come in here complaining about blogs on a "community" side of the site when there are plenty of hardcore market blogging sites out there already.  If you'd rather read that stuff, go do it.  Also, I would argue that the blogs are the place for an occasional personal story or tangent, because the trade notes and forums are more strictly in line with TK issues and trading discussion.   Anyways, I just don't see the point in calling the blogs "rambling, non trading related diatribes" because most of them are trading related.  And the personal/nontrading ones, those are ok too.  It adds to the "community" feel of the TK site, which is the very point of having such features - not so we can all sit around and see who's the more hardcore trader and who can write the best article on why the Q is going up.  There's already many, many sites dedicated to stuff like that.  Again, just my two cents.  Also, I like knowing who my fellow traders are, and I like hearing there thoughts and trades and other stuff sometimes, whether I agree with it or not.  It's just kinda cool to me.  Sure, sometimes a blog post or two might get a bit silly, but that's fine by me. 

Overall, the blog posts remind me of a workplace.  We're all sitting here trying to make a living, or some extra cash by trading.  We talk about work (our trades and trading) most of the time, but every now and then someone makes a joke or throws something fun or personal out to spice things up a bit.  That's fine by me.  If I wanted hardcore trading blogs, I'd just sit on seekingalpha marketwatch, thestreet.com, etc all day. 

Anyways, Peaceman, I didn't say any of that stuff to bash your or aggravate you, but that's the way I see things.  If you don't have time to read the "rambling non-trading diatribes" my advice would be to not visit in here, much less post responses to such blogs, and stick around the trade notes and "serious" blogging sites.  There are other TK users that feel the same way that you do, and I can see ya'lls point in a way, but I often feel like ya'll are missing the point of having a *community* site.  There are plenty of places to get RSS feeds of stock talk. I think the point of the blog posts is to get a little stock talk, and maybe just get to know your fellow traders a bit...aybe even trash talk or share about the vacation every now and then (again, like I would with buddies at work). 

re: Peaceman

 . . . and the markets exist in a vacuum?

I'm a novice, and when I make a couple hundred dollars, I'm going to blog about it.  If I lose a couple hundred, I might blog about that too.  If my gains/losses help out a few other newbies, then I'm pretty happy about that.  -A lot of TK traders aren't daytraders using $25,000+.  They're small-fries like me trading with $1,000-$10,000.  I know some of those other traders appreciate my blogs because they sometimes message me asking questions.   --I also like seeing my fellow traders blog about their losses, gains, and the stuff that's on their mind.  It's not like the CEO himself hasn't set the precedent for blogging on non-strictly stock related topics, so I don't feel like I'm out of order with my blogs (most of which, ARE stock/trading related). 

Also, In regards to "I just love the people that think they got it all figured out.  Then they bore you to tears with their opinions.....What a joke."  -The beauty of TK is that you can display your ROI and trades and show how well you do "have it all figured out" for others to judge.  Also, I would say that no one claims to have it "all figured out," especially me, but that's what blogs are for, right?  Throwing your opinion out there and seeing if the community responds.  Like I said, if you want strictly fact based anlysis, there are plenty of pro-sites for that stuff (or on TK, you've got Doc Mayer, The Options Guy, etc).  If you want to see a newbie flying by the seat of his pants (and clearing 20%+ profit so far this year) and rambling every so often, you visit my blog.  Granted, I blog about non-stock trading stuff sometimes, but if you look at my overall blog, I do keep trading and relevant-to-trading topics (like voting) involved most of the time.  ...Finally, as I said above, I don't think that I or my trading is a "big deal" (as you seemed to imply).  I just enjoy writing.  I routinely write 10-20 pages of text per week for my job, my mba classes, and a few web sites that I help manage or blog on.  So, when I write, I just lay it all out.  There really isn't much "ego" involved in publishing on my blog.  In fact, I wish more of the TK community would blog so I would have more stuff to read and respond to. 

Now, let's talk about the "real opinion" for a while.  --If you don't like my blogs, then simply avoid them.  You barely blog (one blog in four months), you don't show your trades, and you don't show your ROI.  You criticize my blog, but give no constructive feedback other than "hey, why don't you quit blogging for a while."  If you'll review all my blog posts, you'll see that since I joined TK, I've had plenty of stock/trading based blogs, many times with charts and analysis.  Your single blog basically says "Hey, get into small caps while they are cheap.  Small caps recover first!".  -No crap.  It's not like I haven't heard that one before. (Of course, you point that out too.  But, why blog about something that you admit "everybody" knows? )  However, I will admit that you often make good comments on other people's blogs.  --My point in all that wasn't to criticize or make you mad, but you gave your "real opinion" of my blog, so I thought I'd give my "real opinion" on how I feel about your criticism.   If you're going to complain about my "excruiciating" contribution, it would help if you had something of your own to set as an example.   -If we're talking "real opinion" here, there it is. 

--Also, if you don't know, a software glitch (apparently) pushed three of my old blogs to the top this month when I corrected some off the grammar.  They weren't new publications.  Usually, I only blog about 4-6 times per month, which I hardly consider "not giving other people a chance". 

Anyway, I hope our little talk here hasn't kept you from wanting to comment on my blogs, write your own blogs, etc.  No hard feelings.  I can't help it if the rest of the TK community doesn't blog as often as I do.  I'm not keeping them from writing.