Former Polish prime minister opposes online voting, says Internet users are all watching porn
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Posted Mar 12th 2008 1:43PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
Sure, electronic voting has had its fair share of troubles, but there’s not denying that it’s the wave of the future — and we’re always intrigued by plans like the one being floated in Poland right now that would allow citizens to vote online from their homes, since that seems like a great way to increase participation. Of course, some people are just never going to get it, and it looks like former Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski is the latest Luddite curmudgeon to risk your ire, saying that he’s not exactly thrilled with the idea of a “young person sitting in front of a computer, watching video clips and pornography while sipping a bottle of beer and voting when he feels like it.” Kacynski went on to say that as a whole, Internet users are “the easiest group to manipulate, to suggest who to vote for” — which probably means that in addition to not using a cell phone or having a bank account (true!), he’s never actually been on the Internet either. Tell you what, Minister: you come in here and successfully manipulate a Mac vs. PC flamewar, maybe we’ll talk. Deal?
Uh-oh, Indian Blackberry users — better get ready for some major disconnection anxiety. Apparently the Indian government is demanding that RIM either allow it to snoop on its encrypted email service (or worse, drop down to 40-bit encryption), or shut down the entire Indian blackberry network at the end of the month. That’ll cut off an estimated 400,000 subscribers, so the carriers, RIM, and government officials are due to meet and try and hammer out a solution on the 14th, but the issue probably won’t be easy to solve — ISPs are now concerned that if RIM complies, all encrypted wireless data will be open to spying, which would make things like ecommerce virtually impossible. Furthermore, since Blackberry traffic gets routed to Canadian NOCs first, there are some thorny international issues at play as well — just to put things in perspective, RIM doesn’t even allow the Chinese government to snoop in this way, although we’re certain there’s another backdoor in place. Honestly, though, we’d suffer through a little CrackBerry withdrawal if it kept the G-men out of our hair — let’s hope RIM’s got some fight in ‘em.
While it should hardly come as a surprise given the near constant stream of hacking fears we hear about these days, researchers are now warning about a possible vulnerability to an especially important bit of technology: medical devices that control the human heart. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the concerns are mostly centered around so-called “programmers,” which are devices used to wirelessly communicate with the implanted defibrillator or pacemaker. Those devices are obviously only sold directly to physicians by a select group of companies but, as the researchers warn, it is at least conceivable that hackers could transmit the same radio signals using another device, allowing them to shut down the defibrillator or deliver a shock, or possibly even obtain a patient’s medical information. The researchers are quick to point out, however, that this is “theoretical risk, not an actual risk,” and they’re not recommending that anyone consider deferring an implantation or removing a defibrillator. 
I’m coming off the Death Flu 2008. During my time of holding my bed down, I watched a lot of my Season One box set of Star Trek (the Original Series). Classic, buff Captain Kirk swaggering all over the galaxy with his ever-present Science Officer Spock and his impudent eyebrow cocking. Great stuff. The gadgets were awesome too.
