Political psychology, looking at the way people make decisions about voting, and how politicians can manipulate them is a fascinating subject. This is an essay I wrote on the subject which gives some idea of the theory and practice of the discipline. It’s a little long (5000 words) but I like to think it’s well worth the trouble.
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May 2003
Opening the veil on the IE Domain Registry
University College, Dublin is the body responsible for operating the IE Domain Registry. However, the registry is run in a very untransparent fashion.
I wanted to break the veil of secrecy, so I put in a request under Ireland’s Freedom of Information Act to see files relating to the IE Domain Registry. Despite a lot of objections from UCD and the Registry, I’ve just received this ruling from the Information Commissioner confirming that I am entitled to see these files.
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Authentication through blogs
One of the really annoying things about the Internet is authenticating yourself – that is, having to remember lots of different userids and passwords. Why can’t there be some way of just logging on once, having one userid and password that will work just about anywhere?
In a recent discussion on Joi’s webblog, I suggested a way that it might be done, using the same principles that have made weblogs so straightforward and so great.
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