Pup Biru

i think that’s very valid re cloudflare… i’d probably consider them “core internet infrastructure” at this point unfortunately

same with google: gsuite is just too easy and has a load of data (same arguments as o365)

there are staff everywhere ensuring that nobody takes photos for exactly this reason

there are signs and staff everywhere ensuring that nobody takes photos of anything

and even if you could, you can request another ballot paper

Are a certain point you can’t create policy defined by a tiny minority.

and that is why we run elections like we do: because this system is secure and you don’t need to validate your ballot paper… when you introduce machines like the US has, that exposes huge flaws that poke holes in a very robust system for little gain

the tiny minority is validating your individual vote; not abuse and coercion

yes but there’s still a EULA you agree to about redistribution and how you’re allowed to use the software etc…even FOSS software has licenses. if there’s terms in there about being able to back out of the agreement, i’d imagine there would be a clause about destroying copies of the software

that all seems very reasonable

nobody can say that for sure… republicans still support him, people protest voted, kamala was unexciting… there are so many reasons that probably contributed

i’d guess his campaign probably got some people to vote when they otherwise wouldn’t have, but i’m not sure it would’ve changed anyone’s vote

there is no way for anyone to prove how they voted, so there can be no possible retaliation

think about like… a mafia wanting to control a city government

if there’s no possible way to validate how you voted, they can tell a huge group of people how to vote and you can vote however you like and just say you voted like they wanted: they have no way of knowing either way (same goes for paid votes: they have no way of knowing how you voted so you can vote however you like)

if there’s a way to validate your vote, they can demand your voting slip (or number, or that you show them your validation record) and say they’ll break your legs if you don’t show it… so you vote and say the printer was broken, they’ll probably break your legs regardless (also they’d likely have a way of checking these things… in the case of an abusive relationship, they’d probably accompany you to vote so they’d likely know the status of any hardware like a printer - this isn’t something you can just lie about)

truly nasty organisations and individuals using violence as coercion aren’t likely to just “aw shucks guess i’ll let it go then”. they’re not particularly trusting

now in the current system with no way to validate directly, it doesn’t matter who it is: even the poll workers don’t see your ballot paper… nobody except you sees it. there are no cameras, no people watching over your shoulder, no proof either way after you drop your ballot into the box: you can say whatever you want, and because that’s the standard and known for everyone there no point to anyone saying “prove it”… there’s simply no way, thus there is no way of coercing someone

yeah i certainly thought about linux in there, but im just not sure it’s viable for company-wide use… again, users are not all technical and “forcing” a platform on them that has a kinda hodge-podge of user experiences and isn’t something they’re used to think wouldn’t end well

i do think however that the EU has the resources to invest into a really great linux workstation platform to compete with windows: an easy SSO system to replace AD (heck perhaps some cool AF system that uses OAuth so you can use existing web SSO?!), management like group policy, easy interfaces for things like network file sharing, fleet management, etc and design a really slick user experience

it could be amazing, but users are stubborn so it would have to be amazing i think

for creative cloud, my default is to say the affinity suite (no idea where they’re based, but they’re at least pay once and get a download: subscriptions can’t cut them off so less risk), but it’s mac and windows only… perhaps the EU could do an apple and have them onboard as a “launch partner” with their new cool linux-based distribution

gimp is getting better, but really i don’t think it’s there yet - especially the UI. inkscape is the same but further behind, and i don’t event know of an alternative to indesign

davinci resolve is a great alternative to premiere and after effects, but afaik blackmagic is US-based… it does run in linux though so supports this EU-OS. the free version also has just a download and AFAIK no dial-home, and their paid version is pay once and download a package and you’re good to go … can’t remember how the license works? it might dial home to validate, or it might just be an algorithmic key… even most professionals wouldn’t need the pro version though TBH (unless you’re exporting 8K or doing some intense effects and AI filtering/fixes etc)

i think in general my critique of a lot of the FOSS alternatives are all kinda the same: they lack polish and ease of use, which isn’t super difficult to fix… they have great bones, and with a concerted effort from entities not looking solely for direct profit i think they could really get off the ground as real alternatives… i’m just not sure for regular users they’d accept them as they are right now (but wouldn’t it be so cool for the EU to spin off a whole distro with clean branding, management, interfaces, and a FOSS productivity and creative suite that was branded, skinned, and followed well thought out design patterns)

worth noting here that this is verification that your vote was submitted as you want it. from here, the system protects the integrity of the vote. interested parties (usually the major political parties) can organise scrutineers to follow the boxes from polling places to counting centres to ensure the boxes aren’t tampered with (along with seals and other physical security features). from there, people - multiple per vote - read and tally the big pile of votes… scrutineers here validate that the count is being conducted correctly (again, these are usually from any major party so anyone with something to gain or loose all agree on every single ballot that is counted). generally, if scrutineers disagree about a ballot it gets held for further processing of some kind

in these systems, it ensures integrity because the individual can ensure their vote is for sure cast how they want, and then anyone is able to validate the integrity of the count and process itself. there’s no place where this system can be measurably subverted (small scale fraud is pretty rare because it’s really not worth doing. large scale fraud is basically impossible to achieve without completely subverting an entire step in the process across the entire country, which is absolutely going to be noticed)

we can’t really know that… musk paid people to vote, but we and he have no idea if people actually voted how he wanted

i’d say selection bias (people willing to engage) played more of a part than actually telling people how to vote

and then you get hurt regardless… you think abusive partners or criminal organisations care of the printer ran out of paper?

and then the coercion is simply you give me your number or i hurt you

there is no way that you can make a system where you are able to validate your vote after the fact, and also is safe from coercion

the point of anonymous voting is coercion. if you can validate your vote outside of a safe polling place then someone else is able to validate how you voted and force you to vote a particular way

voting systems you need to be able to validate that your vote is submitted as you wanted (imo only paper based voting allows for this), and then that the system for counting the votes is inviolable (that’s where scrutineers come in)… again, imo that’s not something you can do electronically - or at least practically

at its core you’re still recording a number from 0% to 100% brightness in the image… if an image is more yellow, you’re adding some extra brightness to those channels, which potentially loses you information. it might not be noticeable most of the time, but especially around clipping there’s going to be information lost

all that said, i’m not a professional - i’m just an amateur with a blackmagic camera and a decent understanding of the data format it uses filling in some blanks

about 30% of eligible american voters voted against it

to a degree, but it’s much better to get it right when you’re shooting… you lose dynamic range if it’s off

if you do it often, i have a great little pack of credit card sized white and grey cards… they are an absolute life saver for fixing white balance in post

i’d say microsoft is the biggest threat because they hold a lot of critical data… if oracle snuffs out of existence, companies can probably migrate reasonably easily (don’t get me wrong there would be gnashing of teeth but alternatives exist), CRM there are EU alternatives (ERP, whilst different, is i think a superset of this and yall have SAP which is german) which tend to throw money at companies wanting to switch, adobe… i mean, they don’t really hold business critical data - it’d be disruptive, but not catastrophic if they disappeared

microsoft however hosts huge amounts of business critical data - email, one drive, sharepoint, office, and of course windows: it’s easy to say that email migration is easy, foss alternatives exist for all of this, but the data is particularly problematic and getting users to embrace a whole suite of new systems is pretty difficult

slightly more info: when people say “dark web” they probably mean TOR. TOR has more users (privacy advocates, investigative journalists, whistle blowers, etc) outside of just “the dark web”, but this is the most prominent pop culture representation of it

this also means that some .onion URLs may be very nefarious… be careful with logins, payments, etc

as an outsider, i literally don’t care about the countries involved… the EU is a model that works quite well (it has its flaws, but most other things have much bigger flaws)… if it’s all german, i mean, and…? if it works it works… i don’t know which parts are german and which are… french i guess? vs everything else… it’s a good model, and if countries willingly want to join in on a fun little cultural moment thennnnn where’s the harm in that?

because they’re part of the EBU… but also we aussies are part of it… eurovision isn’t about geographic area. it seems most “euro” things are kinda more “with ties to europe” these days. i think arguing on the basis of geography is a losing strategy in a heavily globalised world