The paper chase
Robert X. Cringely's technology commentary on the PBS Web site is always entertaining, sometimes off-the-wall, occasionally unreliable, and every now and then so right-on it's frightening. His piece on the voting machine mess falls into that last category:
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Diebold makes a lot of ATM machines. They make machines that sell tickets for trains and subways. They make store checkout scanners, including self-service scanners. They make machines that allow access to buildings for people with magnetic cards. They make machines that use magnetic cards for payment in closed systems like university dining rooms. All of these are machines that involve data input that results in a transaction, just like a voting machine. But unlike a voting machine, every one of these other kinds of Diebold machines -- EVERY ONE -- creates a paper trail and can be audited. Would Citibank have it any other way? Would Home Depot? Would the CIA? Of course not. |
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