Duane Gran’s log of thoughts

This week I had the opportunity to learn more about three charities in the Central Virginia area. Sometimes I hear people express doubt about philanthropy trustworthiness, which often culminates in an excuse to not contribute. An ounce of graft in one charity tarnishes the many but there are so many worthwhile endeavors that desperately need support. The following three are about as genuine as they come and I’m glad to have learned more about them.

1. Habitat for Humanity — I had the opportunity to hear Tim Bowring, the Director of Resource Development, speak to the Charlottesville Rotary Club on Tuesday. They work with donors and volunteers to create affordable housing so that firefighters, teachers and other professionals can live in the communities they serve. It is simply intractable for someone who earns 45k per year to own a 300k home, but they are able to keep the costs under 200k. Of note, in their ten year history in the Charlottesville area they have not had one person default on a home loan.
2. Boys and Girls Club — On several occasions I’ve spoken with Tim Sinatra, the Director, about the good work they are doing for over 900 youth in the area. Juvinile related crimes are double between the hours of 3pm and 8pm. Their four facilities provide a constructive alternative for troubled youth and may well represent the soundest investment you can make in the community.
3. Bridge Ministry — I attended a benefit banquet on Thursday evening and was touched by the compassion of this ministry. They provide a year-long program for men who are incarcerated and want to rebuild their lives. They form partnerships with the private sector for job placement. Their recidivism rate is 15%, which is a remarkable achievement. A Daily Progress article summarizes some key points from the banquet.

It’s easy to become cynical about service organizations but there are too many people hurting and suffering for this to be an excuse to stay on the sidelines. Whether you commit time, talent or treasure I hope that people in our community get involved.

No, it isn’t April 1st. A company is selling “business bibs”, which are a faux suit that a man can wear during a video conference. At a cost of $150 it makes me wonder why someone wouldn’t just buy a suit instead, but I’m strange that way — I like my pants with a suit jacket.

Princeton researchers have made public some troubling facts about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines. The lack of any secondary record, such as a printed ballot, gives license to a hacker to manage the internal state of the device and alter the vote tally.

Technology itself isn’t the problem, but rather the process whereby these devices have been deployed live is faulty. Diebold is a private company that keeps the the design and software closed to outsiders. The Princeton researchers acquired a machine and conducted their experiments in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prohibits reverse engineering and a variety of tinkering with closed systems. Rest assured that malicious persons with talent wouldn’t obey the law, so it is simply a matter of time for before the wrong people would expose the vulnerability. We are lucky today to read about it in a research paper, but tomorrow we may be dealing with untraceable vote fraud.

A better model would be for the government to develop electronic voting internally or to contract it to the private sector, concluding with an open system. Set up a generous prize for researchers and the lay-hacker to find and fix vulnerabilities. When such a system is refined it could be given to burgeoning democracies worldwide.

Instead, the intellectual property is locked away and held by Diebold for profit and the only external oversight comes by way of skirting the law. The integrity of our election process is at stake, and we will have sold it out if our government doesn’t reign this in.

I recently played around with an avatar tool from Yahoo and was able to create the following likeness to myself in the “real world.”

It is rather fun and fairly versatile. It effectively captures me, dressing more formally than required (or probably expected) in a Library environment. I would choose some better shoes and I would wear a pocket square, but on the whole it is pretty accurate looking.

It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they did. –Al Gore

While not wishing to exude a 10th September mindset, I feel compelled to state that I don’t feel terror on this day like I might have before. Gradually I’ve come to accept terrorism as one of a variety of dangers in life that don’t warrant sleepless nights, hand wringing or long war. The prescient writing of John Mueller speaks my mind well on the matter.

Update (18 Sept 2006): A cheeky article in Wired News make a compelling case about the real threats that abound.