Links for "The Profession," 2001
The links here supplement or repeat the links given from time to time
in the column "The Profession", which appears in
IEEE Computer.
Where there is more than one list for an essay, the first list
is of links cited in the column, others are, in particular,
of links provided by readers.
Comments and additions can be sent here.
This list was started on 2001 October 11, and is not complete.
Here is a footnote to the question of whether people or technology should be blamed for electoral problems:
Vote System Chaos Triumphs Again inFlorida Election New York Times, 2002 September 11 (Dana Canedy: Florida held its first statewide election on Tuesday since spending $30 million to upgrade its voting system, but the result was a striking echo of the botched 2000 presidential election, with malfunctioning voting machines, closed or short-staffed polling places and frustrated voters across the state unable to cast ballots)
There was some discussion of
chads
and chips.
The origin of the word chad has been speculated about, by the
BBC
(again),
the
Sydney Morning Herald
(again), and
Merriam-Webster.
One of the points I made was that, to my memory, only the ejecta from paper tape were called chad, those from cards being always called chips, but this might just have been for IBM, as suggested by
Michael Quinion,
though I remember it being in wider use.
I also commented that chad tape had flaps but no confetti but I have always been confused on that, and had it the wrong way around, as borne out by
dictionary.com.
My comment that the Florida problem was not the technology but the failure of people to keep the chips cleared away is borne out by a
Web page by Douglas W. Jones, who also has excellent Web pages on
punched cards and
voting systems.
The Great Term Robbery, 2001 May
Jason Burke, What isal-Qaeda?, The Observer, 2003 July 13 (an extract from The Observer's chief reporter's new book Casting a shadow of terror, looking at the true nature of bin Laden's organisation and why the west's misunderstanding undermines its response to terrorism)