More than 50% of the polling stations were audited after they closed, double-checking their machine-printed tally reports by comparing them with the printed votes placed in the ballot boxes.

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Effectively, the machine is checking for news of an incoming call or message briefly once every 15 milliseconds before powering back down, rather than keeping connections to the user's peers constantly open.

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Authorities said they were checking whether an air pressure machine used to clean mail sorters may have spread anthrax spores.

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They will build applications for checking on raw material levels, calculating machine runs and logging in man-hours.

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The new protocol also offers enhanced security, by providing a cryptographic means of checking that a particular packet really does come from the machine it claims to.

ECONOMIST: Internet protocol