Via Financial Cryptograph comes news of “a seminal paper on the subject” of global names in which “all [is] resolved”:
Global Names Considered Harmful by Mark Miller, Mark Miller, and Mark Miller
As reported by Bill Frantz, that's the paper.
I await the sequel on global distinguished names with bated breath.
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz today announced that Ed Felten, one of the best technology & society people I know, will be the FTC's first ever Chief Technologist.
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz today announced the appointment of Edward W. Felten as the agency’s first Chief Technologist. In his new position, Dr. Felten will advise the agency on evolving technology and policy issues.
Dr. Felten is a professor of computer science and public affairs and founding director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. He has served as a consultant to federal agencies, including the FTC, and departments of Justice and Defense, and has testified before Congress on a range of technology, computer security, and privacy issues. He is a fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery and recipient of the Scientific American 50 Award. Felten holds a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of Washington.
Dr. Felten’s research has focused on areas including computer security and privacy, especially relating to consumer products; technology law and policy; Internet software; intellectual property policy; and using technology to improve government.
“Ed is extraordinarily respected in the technology community, and his background and knowledge make him an outstanding choice to serve as the agency’s first Chief Technologist,” Leibowitz said. “He’s going to add unparalleled expertise on high-technology markets and computer security. And he also will provide invaluable input into the recommendations we’ll be making soon for online privacy, as well as the enforcement actions we’ll soon bring to protect consumer privacy. We’re thrilled to have him on board.”
Dr. Felten currently is a part-time consultant for the FTC. He will start full time as Chief Technologist in January.
This is good. Congratulations to the FTC, and thank you to Ed for doing this.
Amendments Five and Six look like they will pass (and Amendment Two is a shoo-in). The other ones either fail to get 60% or in the case of Amendment Four fail miserably.
I was a huge fan of Amendments Five and Six, which hold out the hope of fixing a pretty broken state districting system currently based on pervasive gerrymandering.
Other than that….ouch.
Florida allows you take a crib sheet into the polls. I published a full-length voting guide a few days ago, but here's the summary version:
Senator: Meek, or Crist if you think it will stop Rubio. At this writing I'm leaning Crist, but I change my mind five times a day.
Congress: FL-25, vote for Joe Garcia, FL-22 vote for Ron Klein. In other districts your vote for a Democrat is a vote against the Tea Party and its fellow travelers.
Governor: Alex Sink. Stopping Rick Scott is important.
Attorney General: Dan Gelber. The GOP's Pam Bondi is a particularly horrible candidate.
[UPDATE: Florida CFO: Loranne Ausley. Any vote against Jeff Atwater is a good vote. Plus Ausley, currently the chair of Florida Healthy Kids Corporation, likely would do a fine job.]
Commissioner of Agriculture & Consumer Services: Scott Maddox.
State Representative District 111: Christina Albright.
(I don't live in Miami-Dade County Commission District 8, but if I did I would vote for Eugene Flinn; he's great and the other candidate is awful, just awful.
Non-partisan Judicial Retention Elections: Vote to retain the Justices and Judges.
State Constitutional Amendments (pay attention here, these matter)
Amendment One: NO.
Amendment Two: No recommendation, although I'll vote no.
Amendment Four: Yes.
Amendment Five: YES!
Amendment Six: YES!
Amendment Eight: NO!
Non-binding Resolution on Balancing the Federal Budget: No.
Miami-Dade Home Rule Charter Amendment: No.
Again, fuller explanations for these suggestions are here.
All these guys are going to vote — shouldn't you?
After all, you've been warned about will happen if you don't vote.
And don't forget to consult my utterly unbiased totally rational unimpeachable Voting Guide for Miami-Dade voters. Live elsewhere? Find a Local Progressive Voter Guide
Not convinced? Here's a group of people from SAVE Dade with some reasons not to vote:
Update: A Bonus video: Hi, I'm a Tea-Partier. (Warning: swearing & Tea Party rhetoric.)
Seth Godin, Voting, misunderstood:
This year, fewer than 40% of voting age Americans will actually vote.
A serious glitch in self-marketing, I think.
If you don't vote because you're trying to teach politicians a lesson, you're tragically misguided in your strategy. The very politicians you're trying to send a message to don't want you to vote. Since 1960, voting turnouts in mid-term elections are down significantly, and there's one reason: because of TV advertising.
Political TV advertising is designed to do only one thing: suppress the turnout of the opponent's supporters. If the TV ads can turn you off enough not to vote (“they're all bums”) then their strategy has succeeded.
The astonishing thing is that voters haven't figured this out. As the scumminess and nastiness of campaigning and governing has escalated and the flakiness of candidates appears to have escalated as well, we've largely abdicated the high ground and permitted selfish partisans on both sides to hijack the system.
Voting is free. It's fairly fast. It doesn't make you responsible for the outcome, but it sure has an impact on what we have to live with going forward. The only thing that would make it better is free snacks.
Even if you're disgusted, vote. Vote for your least unfavorite choice. But go vote.
I'm not sure that negative advertising is intended simply to suppress the other side's vote. I think the people who do it believe that they can make their candidate the lesser of two evils by defining the other gal/guy as evil incarnate, and that this does translate into votes.
But it's interesting to see an outsider's perspective.
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