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Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

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Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#51

Out of context, this may sound like mildly cheerful news. It is not. Bulgaria is a doomed shithole, which has for many decades been ran by a murderous communist mafia, controlling every aspect of the economy and the legal system, while licking many foreign asses with equal dexterity (US / NATO, Russian, European, Ukrainian, Saudi, Israeli, Turkish - everyone whose ass is worth licking, Bulgarian "politicians" do it i…

This is super offending way of speech and this is not the place for it, if you have nothing meaningful to say just don't say anything.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#52

Out of context, this may sound like mildly cheerful news. It is not. Bulgaria is a doomed shithole, which has for many decades been ran by a murderous communist mafia, controlling every aspect of the economy and the legal system, while licking many foreign asses with equal dexterity (US / NATO, Russian, European, Ukrainian, Saudi, Israeli, Turkish - everyone whose ass is worth licking, Bulgarian "politicians" do it i…

I think this is a matter of perspective. I don't live in Bulgaria but my company has a pretty big lab in Sofia and I work with the engineers there constantly. They are excellent. I have had nothing but good experiences working with them. There are talented people around, and Sofia is pleasant and safe. The country itself is quite beautiful.

Bulgaria is not free of problems (see the corruption perceptions index [1]) but it's also far from doomed.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index#2...

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#53
I've personally seen the Dutch government spend millions implementing open source software. This was something that could've been fixed for a fraction using a closed source solution. After a couple of years, the project was canceled and the closed source solution was implemented anyway.

I'm not saying that using OSS is a bad thing. I don't, however, think that 'OSS only' is the solution to the problem at hand.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#54

I remember the CEO of Information Services JSC (the de-facto Bulgarian monopolist in governement software procurement), prof. Mihail Konstantinov, making the ridiculous claim on TV that "We can't release the source code of the elections counting software. Anyone who has the source can hack into the system, even children know that. If you don't understand that, you should tear your diploma". Glad to see that morons su…

The quote was slightly off, apologies. I was quoting from memory, this was 3 years ago, and I can no longer edit the parent post. What he actually said was more like (translation): "Only someone who does not know how to turn on the computer, can suggest that the election counting software's source should be made public" [1].

[1] http://www.mediapool.bg/mihail-konstantinov-podade-ostavka-k...

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#55
post #2

It mentions "OpenOffice", which is now defunct. In any case it is good. Future procurements will show how well the law is applied.

OpenOffice isn't defunct, it is still in development: https://www.openoffice.org .

It's nothing, compared with LibreOffice development pace.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#56
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This video is a highly cited source on the issue, admittedly aimed at less educated viewers, but quite accurate. There have been no rebuttals since it was posted and there are serious computer scientists putting their name on it. If you want to write a substantial rebuttal, I am sure it will be huge news in the community. Even the simplest verifiable voting system is so complicated normal people will be confused how…

http://techblog.bozho.net/why-all-the-fear-in-electronic-vot...

Well this article throws a bunch of different things out there suggesting that, first, Bulgaria will adopt verified electronic voting, and second, that electronic voting is sound enough and ready for deployment. Both of these points are false or unclear at best. Then the blog seems to suggest there is some sort of middle ground between verified voting and non-verified voting and it's OK to make some half-assed step in this direction, which is exactly what the video warns against.

When people talk about electronic voting, typically this means the US-type of voting. And when someone talks about verifiable electronic voting, then they should start by making it clear that this is orders of magnitude more ambitious, it hasn't been deployed anywhere and Bulgaria will be the first country in the world to do it. This is a project of historical scale including the known practical difficulties with the current methods. It should not be advertised like a proven system working in EU and US like it is now. And like I said even if Bulgaria really adopts any sort of verifiable voting there will be so many confused people due to the nature of the process it will skew the results.

Finally, again as the video explains paper vote counting may not be perfect, but it does require more people to involved in the fraud. This is a very important point. Results are available per area and each party makes sure the sum makes sense at least from a small sample.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#57

Out of context, this may sound like mildly cheerful news. It is not. Bulgaria is a doomed shithole, which has for many decades been ran by a murderous communist mafia, controlling every aspect of the economy and the legal system, while licking many foreign asses with equal dexterity (US / NATO, Russian, European, Ukrainian, Saudi, Israeli, Turkish - everyone whose ass is worth licking, Bulgarian "politicians" do it i…

No national putdowns on HN, please.

(Even if you're a member of that group—as is often the case with outbursts this vehement, which come not from prejudice but more complex and intense emotions. We get that. But you still can't post like this here.)

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#58
post #51

Out of context, this may sound like mildly cheerful news. It is not. Bulgaria is a doomed shithole, which has for many decades been ran by a murderous communist mafia, controlling every aspect of the economy and the legal system, while licking many foreign asses with equal dexterity (US / NATO, Russian, European, Ukrainian, Saudi, Israeli, Turkish - everyone whose ass is worth licking, Bulgarian "politicians" do it i…

This is super offending way of speech and this is not the place for it, if you have nothing meaningful to say just don't say anything.

This is the most meaningful thing I have said since I was born (in Bulgaria). If you feel offended, deal with it. I've dealt with far worse there and nothing bad that I can say about the communists running this country is bad enough.

Mind you, it's not the country itself that I dislike. I used to love that country, and somewhere deep inside I probably still do, or else I wouldn't care enough to say these things.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#59
post #53

I've personally seen the Dutch government spend millions implementing open source software. This was something that could've been fixed for a fraction using a closed source solution. After a couple of years, the project was canceled and the closed source solution was implemented anyway. I'm not saying that using OSS is a bad thing. I don't, however, think that 'OSS only' is the solution to the problem at hand.

All this means is that new implementations of software created by contractors will required to be licensed differently than before (with an OSS license), so that contracted work is able to be audited by the public.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#60

I remember the CEO of Information Services JSC (the de-facto Bulgarian monopolist in governement software procurement), prof. Mihail Konstantinov, making the ridiculous claim on TV that "We can't release the source code of the elections counting software. Anyone who has the source can hack into the system, even children know that. If you don't understand that, you should tear your diploma". Glad to see that morons su…

Unlike private companies, the CEO of Information Services is a political position rather than an actual management position. The decision-making power within the company rests in the hands of the regional chapter executives, who devise and negotiate the projects their chapter will take on. Coordination between the chapters is usually done by the Sofia head chapter's executive(who is not the CEO). The likelihood of prof Konstantinov actually being involved in a decision made by the company is pretty low.

The election counting software is as open as it can be, without having open source. There is a clear specification that is published online on the actual mechanics of the voting process(e.g. how votes are translated into representatives). Records detailing the actual paper vote tallies, signed off by regional vote organizers and managers, are accessible in electronic and paper format. The committee handling the voting process encourages independent verification of the software's calculations.

It's far more likely(and often documented by journalists) that a party would commit voting fraud by purchasing votes or bribing vote organizers, rather than hacking the election software.

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