Tag Archive for: decides

Georgia’s Brian Kemp Decides To Dox Absentee Voters, Revealing Why They All Voted Absentee

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Kind of a key part of the American election setup is the concept of a secret ballot for hopefully obvious reasons. We haven’t gone quite so far as eliminating that, but down in Georgia, Secretary of State Brian Kemp (who was running for governor at the same time as he was overseeing the integrity of the election and also putting in place a bunch of attempts at voter suppression) has doxxed hundreds of thousands (291,164 to be exact) of absentee voters by posting an Excel file on the state’s website listing out the names, addresses and reasons why they voted absentee.

In typical spokesperson Candice Broce fashion (see her previous nonsensical quotes defending her boss), Broce/Kemp denied that there’s anything wrong with this at all. The systems, they are all working perfectly:

When reached, Georgia secretary of state’s press secretary Candice Broce told TechCrunch that all of the data “is clearly designated as public information under state law,” and denied that the data was “confidential or sensitive.”

“State law requires the public availability of voter lists, including names and address of registered voters,” she said in an email.

While it is true that voter name and address info is required to be made available, it is usually not made available in aggregate for anyone to just download without restrictions. And, it’s especially concerning that they released the reasons for voting absentee just a day or so after the election — as people pointed out that this could be quite useful info for criminals looking for who might be away from their homes.

More concerning, of course, is the idea that this could scare off future voters as well who don’t want such info being released in such a manner.

Either way, the idea that the Secretary of State, who kept insisting how wonderful his electronic voting systems were, would then release a giant Excel spreadsheet should again raise questions about the technological skills of whoever set up the system, let alone Kemp for overseeing such a system.

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Techdirt.

Sony Decides That It Too Can Compete With Free With Its Own Retro Console

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Remember that quaint mantra from a few years back, “You can’t compete with free!” The misguided idea behind the quip was that if the public could get your product for free, typically in digital form via the internet, then you were sunk. Dunzo. Kaput. The problem with this thinking is that selling a product has always had to be about more than an infinitely reproducable digital file, making any claim that “you can’t compete with free” exactly two words too long. And, of course, we’ve seen so many counterexamples in which people and companies very much compete with free, and in fact make a killing at it, so as to make this theory essentially dead. We recently touted the fact that Nintendo is barely able to keep its Nintendo NES Mini in stock as perhaps the ultimate example of this, given how pretty much every computer and smartphone can get all those same games and functions via emulators.

Well, it looks like others noticed this success Nintendo has had competing with free and have decided that they can do so as well. Sony has decided to jump into the retro console market with its Playstation Classic console, despite that it too has emulators available roughly everywhere.

It’ll be out on December 3 in the US, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia, and includes games like Final Fantasy VII, Jumping Flash, Ridge Racer Type 4, Tekken 3, and Wild Arms. There’ll be 20 bundled titles in total, but those five are the only ones announced at the moment.

The PlayStation Classic will include two original PS1 controllers and a HDMI cable, and cost US$ 99.99 (€99.99 in Europe, AUD$ 150 in Australia).

And guess what? It’s going to sell like crazy. And that’s because the reason for buying one goes beyond simply wanting to play a Playstation game. Anyone wanting to do that could simply download one of many emulators and game files and have at it. You know, “free.” But this console will compete with free the exact same way Nintendo did: by having a small, slick console that reeks of nostalgia and serves as a conversation piece, all while having the available ports and cords for a modern day television on which to play it.

Frankly, that’s not exactly a ton of work to do to compete with free. There’s no secret sauce. No magic formula. Just make what people want, don’t make it laughably expensive, and reap the rewards.

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U.S. decides against publicly blaming China for data hack – The Washington Post – Washington Post

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War on the Rocks

U.S. decides against publicly blaming China for data hack – The Washington Post
Washington Post
The official cited factors including concern that making a public case against China could require exposing details of the United States' own espionage and cyberspace capabilities. The official was among several who spoke on the condition of anonymity …
China's New Intelligence War Against the United States – War on the RocksWar on the Rocks
US won't publicly blame China for massive government hacks – reports — RT USA …RT
Team Obama Knows China Is Behind the OPM Hack. Why Wont They Say So?Daily Beast
Ars Technica
all 41 news articles »

Espionage China – read more