Silicon Valley, President Obama just can’t quit you. In the Bay Area and free this weekend? Got 35K to toss around? Well if you’ve ever wanted to meet an in-office President now’s your chance to attend an Obama fundraiser dinner, going down at Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s house in Atherton on Sunday the 25th.
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Thanks to the revolutions happening in the Middle East, our leaders have been touting social media as the new force for democracy. President Obama went out of his way to schmooze Facebook employees this week. He told them that when it comes to solving the challenges our country faces and to precipitating changes in the rest of the world, they were “at the cutting edge of what’s happening”.
It’s great that Silicon Valley is getting all this love and affection. But could this attention end up killing the golden goose? Think about it: if you are an evil dictator, looking for an excuse to block Facebook and Twitter, what better propaganda weapon than a picture of President Obama getting chummy with Mark Zuckerberg? Yes, I know that the U.S. government didn’t invent Facebook or even figure out how to use it until recently; and that it doesn’t control Facebook’s policies. But don’t those pictures and video clips tell a different story? → Read More
There’s a good chance that your office or home is more tricked out, tech-wise, than the Oval Office. President Obama complained yesterday, in what the AP calls “off-the-cuff remarks,” that what the Oval Office lacks is a “really cool phone.” Can someone get the president a Droid or something? → Read More
President Obama spoke to Univision yesterday at one of those town hall meetings the TV networks like to organize. What’s pertinent to us here is that our president, the man who’s famous for carrying a BlackBerry wherever he goes, does, in fact, own his own computer. → Read More
On Friday, President Obama appointed General Electric’s chief executive, Jeff Immelt — an advocate for carbon cap-and-trade — chairman of his panel of outside economic advisors, the newly branded Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
GE is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of clean energy and related technologies. The company makes everything from large wind turbines, to electric vehicle charging stations, to good old lights and appliances.
Could the rising political influence of Jeff Immelt be a good thing for green innovators in the U.S.? Could clean tech newcomers, small businesses and competitors suffer from policy endorsed by the CEO of the established giant? → Read More
The APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) 2010 summit, which high-ranking politicians of 21 countries attended (and which ended yesterday), isn’t normally something of interest for CrunchGear. But this time, the event was held in Japan, which used the opportunity to show off its dominant position in robotics. → Read More
Our very own White House is going green. Well, trying to go green. Solar panels will be installed on the roof of the White House by next spring, ending all of our nation’s problems in one fell swoop. → Read More
Consuming more calories than you use makes you fat. That’s a fact, Jack. Figuring out where these calories come from, OK, that’s a noble endeavor, but let’s not pretend there’s anything secret going on here. Like, you see this graphic here? It’s the winner of some Michelle Obama-headed design contest to help folks figure out how to best fight childhood obesity. And you’ll see the PlayStation completely demonized, as if Sony itself is somehow responsible for little kids packing on the pounds. → Read More
“We were working 24/7, working in very, very rapid cycles, with very, very short deadlines and milestones. We were working in a very, very nimble hyper consumer focused way…all fused in this kind of maelstrom of pizza, Mountain Dew, and all nighters, and you know idealism.”
That may sound like the caffeine-fueled, sleep-deprived rant of a typical Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Except it’s not— try Todd Park, the buttoned-up CTO of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
He’s talking about his latest project, Healthcare.gov, a consumer-friendly site that helps users find and compare private and public insurance options and learn about the new health reform law. According to Park, it’s the single largest online repository for public and private insurance information. If the site’s story and design seems more akin to a tech startup than the product of legislation, it’s no coincidence, Park and Macon Phillips, the White House Director of New Media drew inspiration from the companies of Silicon Valley and even used Twitter to find talent. Video ahead. → Read More
In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama announced the Department of Energy will loan almost $2 billion to two solar energy companies: Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing. The loans will go towards developing solar energy plants.
With the funding, Abengoa will build a solar plant in Arizona that can power 70,000 homes. When completed in 2013, the plant will be one of the largest in the world. It will also store part of the energy it produces, becoming the first plant in the U.S. to do so. → Read More
Part of me wishes President Obama would flip that so-called “Internet kill switch.” Imagine: a world without the Internet! That would be grand, indeed. But let’s not indulge in fantasies: there is no such kill switch. Well, there is, but it’s not as if the president is going to say, “I disagree with Nicholas’ opinion of anti-virus protection, I’m going to shut down CrunchGear.” → Read More
Apparently there was some sort of media summit in Abu Dhabi recently, and a big topic of discussion was copyright infringement. (I think we need to reserve the word “piracy” for actual, sea-faring piracy, not kids grabbing the random Sublime song off LimeWire.) Rupert Murdoch called on governments to stop copyright infringers, asking them to punish them as they would shoplifters. I guess Murdoch doesn’t understand the different between theft and copyright infringement. And Ari Emmanuel, Rahm Emmanuel’s brother (and the inspiration for the Entourage character Ari), has been lobbying President Obama to implement some sort of three-strikes policy, like they have in France. France! → Read More
Remember those guys who made those nifty Google Wave movie mash-up videos? You know, the ones with Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting? Well, they’re at it again, with the new hot ticket in town: the iPad.
Whirled Creative has made a mash-up of yesterday’s iPad announcement and President Obama’s first State of the Union Address from last night. Those who were concerned that the Apple announcement was getting more buzz than the President’s speech can now have the best of both worlds. → Read More
Way to go, President Obama! Thanks to your bold and forward-thinking policies, the Doomsday Clock has been moved back by one minute! That means Planet Earth is “one minute” further away from utter destruction! Well, destruction brought about by man himself; an asteroid can still smash into the planet and we’d all be doomed. Or, as we’ve seen in Haiti this week, some other cataclysm can strike and we’d have zero control over it. → Read More
Right now, if I could play a round of Multiplayer Game 2: The Sequel with anyone in the whole world, it’d probably be either Manuel Zelaya or The Situation from Jersey Shore. Zelaya because I’d could ask, “So what’s it like to be the first South American leader in a really long time to be illegally ousted in a coup?” Then I’d tell The Situation, “Hey, you’re terrific. Let’s do 800 sit-ups then pump our fists in the air to the latest episode of A State of Trance.” → Read More
The market for video and computer games featuring erotic content, the so-called eroge, is huge in Japan. As a lot of smaller and independent software companies are battling it out in a highly competitive field, you often come across a lot of bizarre stuff (I’ve heard). School girl- or tentacle-themed games, for example, are especially popular (although the bulk of the latter are being shipped to a person called Bohn Jiggs who lives in Brooklyn/New York, as my industry contacts told me recently).
Another of those strange erotic games, called “My Boyfriend Is the President”, hit Japanese stores on October 30. The plot: Aliens brainwash the entire human population into thinking their leaders are in fact cute girls. I’m not sure what the developers were smoking, but I’m sure this game will become as big as the next Final Fantasy. → Read More
Editor’s note: Below is an open letter to our President from guest author Edo Segal, a concerned web geek who cares about the future of our democracy. It is followed by a proposal and a new website for anyone who thinks they know what #obamashould do (cynics please skip post).
Mr President,
On the night of your acceptance speech, just before you walked on stage, “you” sent out an email saying “i will be in touch soon”—but you disappeared and all we were left with was the strange feeling you get when your older brother ditches you for his cooler friends. Does it take you winning a Nobel prize to get another direct letter from you?
Where’s the attention? The yes-we-can attitude, making us feel we can be good again? It seems that since you made it to the Oval Office you have been too busy at work, and our relationship has really suffered. → Read More
You guys gotta hear this. There’s a 78-year-old woman who, for whatever reason, hates the president so much that she has decided to sell her two TVs! (What’s more impressive is that the woman even has a working TV post-digital transition.) → Read More
Are you into our President? Prove it by carrying this Obama 2GB flash drive from Active Media Products. You’d be pretty hard-pressed to say that this was anything other than a cynical marketing ploy, but whatevs, it’s the POTUS! → Read More
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/6555681001?isVid=1&publisherID=769341148 John Hodgman, of The Daily Show and Mac vs PC commercial fame, recently spoke at the 65th annual Radio & Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner. That’s all you need to know. Just watch the video. It’s great. → Read More
