Relax--- this isn't an item about politics. Rather, it's about a technology that can *completely prevent* ridiculous problems such as those that plagued South Florida's controversial election counts.

The method at the heart of the recent problems--- data-tabulation punch cards---  were famously first put to use fully 120 years ago in the 1880 US census. It's a fairly primitive technology that in normal use provides only a fast, reliable, close approximation of a final result. Because of the punch card systems' small but real inherent error margin, you simply cannot get a fully precise answer, especially with very large data sets. Every time you count, you'll get a slightly different result, all within the small error margin.

Worse, there are user-interface issues caused by the cards' limited size and fixed layout: The cards are optimized for machine processing, not for human voter or human vote-counter processing.

In short, this 19th century technology is woefully inadequate for 21st-century voting--- especially when better, faster, clearer and more accurate means are available.

In this month's Monitor column at Byte.Com ( http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20001117S0010 ), I'll show you two major approaches to high-tech voting and discuss how they work; and the three major drawbacks that must be resolved before computerized ballots become commonplace.

I've also pulled together the best informational links I could find, as well as a selection of sites that will let you explore---in some cases, in real-time and for free--- a number of polling technologies that are available right now.

The column was posted a few days ago, and it's already generating some interesting reader input--- some from readers in parts of the world where large-scale computerized voting is in use or has already been tried.

Check it out ( http://www.byte.com/column/BYT20001117S0010 ) then join in the discussion: If you're in one of the areas that has experimented with electronic voting, what were your personal experiences? If you live elsewhere, and if electronic voting were offered, would you use it? In general, do you think e- or i-voting has a future? What would it take to reassure you that a computerized or electronic vote was secure and tamper-proof? What other alternatives are there that would allow us to discard the 100-year-old technologies that currently impede the democratic process? Please share your thoughts. Join the discussion in the Byte Newsgroups either by clicking to http://www.byte.com/nntp/monitor  or by using your newsreader to news.cmpnet.com, and from there to cmpnet.byte.monitor. Join in!

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2) More On Password Tools

Readers are still pouring in their suggestions for tools and techniques to let you easily--- and safely--- generate, store, and use passwords.

For example, Julian Rickards writes:

Hi Fred. What I do is to type an email to myself with the username and password in it and encrypt it with PGP. When it comes back to me, it is encrypted. I have my email software set to ask for the PGP passphrase so it can't simply be opened with a simple click. I then store all passwords in a folder within my email software so I can simply open the message (after typing in the passphrase) and read the username/password.

There's lots more information--- including tons of free and low-cost tools to automate your password chores--- at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/explorer/2000/24.htm and the subsite at http://www.browsertune.com/passwords.htm .

Check it out!

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3) Tons Of Networking Help