The Votemaster Is...Andrew Tanenbaum 978
A reader writes: " www.electoral-vote.com, a site of daily updated maps of the US electoral college based on a number of polls is probably a site that the policially inclined check daily. Well, it has been revealed that the person behind the site, AKA the votemaster, is none other than Andrew Tanenbaum, noted author of numerous CS books." He's also known for a little discussion with someone named Linus Torvalds.
Dammit!! (Score:2, Funny)
/.ed already (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Amazing (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Turnabout is hardly fair play. (Score:5, Funny)
If you had the same question in the United States, you'd be shocked to find that most Americans think he's the King.
Hey Linus - you won! (Score:5, Funny)
Electoral College is Obsolete (Score:5, Funny)
As a result of my occupation, I think I know a bit about where politics are going in the next decade or so. Two aspects stand out:
1. MICROPOLITICS VS MONOLITHIC ELECTORAL SYSTEM
Most states are Monolithic Electoral Systems. Votes are tallied in each state and the winner of each state recieves all of the electoral votes for that state. Even if 49.9% of voters are for candidate #2, the 50.1% for candidate #1 means he gets all of the state's electoral votes.
While I could go into a long story here about the relative merits of the two designs, suffice it to say that among the people who actually are in politics, the debate is essentially over. Micropolitics have won.
The only real argument for monolithic electoral systems was performance, and there is now enough evidence showing that micropolitics systems can be just as fast as monolithic electoral systems systems (e.g., Florida 2000 never would have happened if we would have just counted up every American's vote and the candidate with the greatest percent over 40% would win) that it is now all over but the shoutin'.
2. Portability
The Micropolitical Voting system was made to be portable to other future democracies such as Iraq, Afghanistan and has proven that it is scalable to nation states as large as China and India, the Monolithic electoral system would involve much more work in creating districts, states, commonwealths, etc. to the point that it is really not worth porting and would need to be started from scratch.
Don't get me wrong, I am not unhappy with the Electoral System. It will get all the people who want to turn Micropolitics into a true democracy off my back. But in all honesty, I would suggest that people who want a **MODERN** "free" nation look around for a micropolitical-based, portable political system.
Re:And unfortunately, a site that won't load today (Score:2, Funny)
Mwa Haa Haa Ha Ha Ha
Re:Turnabout is hardly fair play. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:If anything, that crap is counterproductive (Score:1, Funny)
You need to go to that site and look at the map. The four states you mention are coastal states. Heartland statees by definition aren't on the coast and as a group, they represent a lot of electorial votes.
Ob AST (Score:5, Funny)
- Andrew S. Tanenbaum, 2004.
Re:Worldwide results (Score:5, Funny)
"Ich bin ein Berliner!" JFK 1963
"I'm a Napoleon!" GWB, USS Lincoln, 2003
Both Berliners and Napoleons are tasty, delicate pastries.
It looks like Kerry is gonna win (Score:2, Funny)
Polling (Score:5, Funny)
Ha, but how about interrupts!? :-)
Re:Worldwide results (Score:3, Funny)
Absolutely! Most of the Kerry votes came from confused Cowboy Neal supporters.
Karma-whoring (Score:3, Funny)
"Nader is going to win. In a landslide. A really big landslide. Really."
Yeah, I was surprised too.
Re:High turnout (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Turnabout is hardly fair play. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Worldwide results (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If anything, that crap is counterproductive (Score:5, Funny)
4 more years! We love Bush! All Europeans think Kerry is a lame-Americain! Boo Kerry!
Really!
"/Dread"
Re:No wonder it is so slow this morning! (Score:3, Funny)
The world might be a better place with more Andy's, but please, let them go to a different university! We need our bandwidth!
Re:Vote Osama Bin Laden for president. (Score:1, Funny)
You Commie Terrorist! I reject all you say and will vote NOT for Osama, Not for Bush, Not for Kerry!
HA!
Offtopic but... (Score:5, Funny)
Am I the one who can't wait for the George W. Bush presidential library? What a laugh that place is going to be.
Re:Converse is not true (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Worldwide results (Score:5, Funny)
Oddly enough, Jacques Chirac is still in office.
hmmm... (Score:3, Funny)
Remember what happened [wikipedia.org] the year after the 1860 election.
Re:Offtopic but... (Score:5, Funny)
G.W. Bush Library Contents (Score:3, Funny)
(I know, it's actually a story called The Pet Goat in a reading textbook [google.com]).
Somehow fitting nonetheless.