bugfox blog

If you try to debug a web application and get the message

You are not authorized to view this page
HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden

It probably just means that you forgot to set a startup page. Earlier versions of Visual Studio gave a more helpful error message.

California is one of the few jurisdictions that is belatedly starting to do the right thing with electronic voting machines: subject them to rigorous testing by qualified computer security experts. Ars Technica describes the latest results here: California’s testing cracks ES&S evoting system wide open.

The bottom line seems to be that all of the electronic voting machines currently in use can easily be subverted using simple techniques available to any teenage hacker.

Most of the attention so far has focused on touch-screen voting machines, but the popular optical-scan ballot systems are also made by the same companies and have many of the same security flaws. The advantage of the optical-scan systems is that you have the paper ballots and can use them for a manual recount which should reveal any fraud. The fraud can still go undetected if you don’t suspect it and don’t order a recount.

Update to previous post: Starting with Vista Service Pack 1 (available in early 2008) Microsoft will no longer disable your computer if “Windows Genuine Advantage” decides that your copy of Vista isn’t genuine.

Instead it will bombard you with messages telling you what a wicked pirate you are and urging you to pay up at once. No doubt this will still continue to catch a lot of innocent people, but at least they won’t be locked out of their computers.

via Ars Technica.