Let’s not dwell on this for too long, since it’s largely a non-issue. President Obama, speaking to the American Medical Association (mostly about health care, such as it is), listed “video games” as a potential bad guy… for your health. You know, sitting on a couch all day long trying to rack up Achievements. → Read More
Good for Microsoft, kicking the American worker when he’s down. President Obama means to close a loophole in the taxcode that allows corporations to “deduct… cost at a high tax rate and report… profits at a low tax rate.” In other words, win-win for the corporation at the expense of the United State Treasury. You know how Microsoft’s Steve Balmer said he’s deal with the closing of this loophole? “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.” Neat. → Read More
Google’s head of public policy, Andrew McLaughlin, will join the Obama administration as deputy chief technology officer, according to a report by the New York Times. McLaughlin will assist former Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra, who President Obama appointed as CTO in April.
McLaughlin has been leading Google’s public policy efforts for quite some time now. According to this blog post, he was the first member of Google’s policy team in 2005. → Read More
The somewhat depressing and controversial possibility of a newspaper bailout turned into a stone-cold reality in the past few months as politicians, including Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Ben Cardin and President Obama, have hinted at giving the newspaper industry a life vest to save a sinking industry.
Kerry, in his dire remarks at the Senate hearing on “Future of Journalism” a few weeks ago, made a call to action to save newspapers and prevent future harm to democracy. Regardless of where direction of this policy is headed, the idea of a government bailout of the news industry, which is supposed to be the “watchdog” of the government, raises a few ethical flags. → Read More
Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, and Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, have been named to President’s Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). According to a statement released by the White House, PCAST is an advisory group of the the country’s foremost scientists and engineers who will help the President and Vice President form policy related to science, technology, and innovation.
The council includes a who’s who in the science and technology fields, with leaders in climate change, medicine, physics, chemistry, and computer science all holding positions on the council. The group is co-chaired by John Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Eric Lander, Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project; and Harold Varmus, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, former head of the National Institutes of Health and a Nobel laureate. → Read More
Looks like President Obama wants to see some change in our Cuba policy, and not merely change affecting only Cuban-Americans and their relationship with the country. American telecommunication companies will now be allowed to, among other things, establish satellite links between the two countries and—Opie and Anthony may soon be heard in Havana! → Read More
President Obama incorporated technology into his election campaign in an unprecedented way, became known as the YouTube president within the first week of being elected, and seems to be forward thinking in his views on innovation and technology, which is why we endorsed him last year. But now we are almost four months into his tenure as President and leader of the free world, and the Obama administration has yet to name a Chief Technology Officer. They have, I should note, appointed a Chief Information Officer, Vivek Kundra, the former CTO of Washington D.C., whose office is being investigated by the FBI for bribery and money laundering (which apparently occurred when he was the boss).
Still, it’s confusing as to why the President is taking his sweet time to appoint a CTO, when there are clear issues that a CTO could be working on. For starters, there are tech-centric issues like the FCC’s National Broadband Plan to give all American’s high speed internet access, and the DTV Delay Act, which was signed into law in early February. There’s the Open Government initiative, through Change.gov, which seems to be in a stalemate. And certainly a CTO could lend his or her expertise and leadership in incorporating technology into the President’s health-care, education and energy initiatives. Take a look at the technology issues page of the White House’s website for a more extensive to-do list awaiting our future CTO. → Read More
So, Obama? What’s going on here? The Senate and The House of Representatives both passed the DTV Delay Act that made the analog switch-off optional until June 12, 2009. But Obama hasn’t signed the damn bill yet! What’s he doing? There is nothing more important than American television. Forget the economy, sign this bill into law and lets confuse millions of American’s when some analog signals stay lit on February 17. → Read More
President Obama’s inauguration last month has brought cellphone jamming technology into the limelight, if that’s the word to use, once again. The Washington Post reports that Federal authorities were jamming cellphones left and right for the duration of the event, and now state and local authorities want to be grated the same leeway. As you probably know, cellphone jamming is highly illegal unless you’re the Feds with a special waiver. → Read More
Directgov.com, the UK government’s one-stop supersite for citizens, has opened up idea generation by allowing developers around the country to share ideas on how to build a word-class online hub for all national government services. The Directgov site, which launched in 2004, reportedly receives more than 11 million visits a month.
Unlike President Obama’s digital initiative Change.gov (now Whitehouse.gov), which solicits ideas from citizens of all backgrounds on a range of topics, Directgov is recruiting ideas from the developer community for a specific challenge: how to make Directgov itself more innovative. → Read More
Have no fear, the Obama administration is here! Today, the Senate voted to postpone the digital switch from February 17th to June 12th. → Read More
Really? This is getting out of hand, no? The onslaught of Obama clad doodads has begun. This stuff is going to sell like hotcakes! → Read More
Editor’s Note: The following guest post was written by Kevin Merritt, the CEO and founder of blist, a Web-based list manager and spreadsheet that was used on the Obama Administration’s transition Website, Change.gov.
President Barack Obama was sworn into office this week as our nation’s 44th president. Despite running into a few technical challenges in the first few days at the White House, the Obama Administration will embrace technology in unprecedented ways. Led by forward thinking, web savvy technologists, President Obama’s new media team looks poised and ready to fulfill President Obama’s vision of open-source democracy. → Read More
This enormous picture, taken by David Bergman, was stitched together from 220 images taken on a Canon G10 mounted on a Gigapan panoramic imager system.
Easter eggs inside! → Read More
President Obama will hold onto his Blackberry for personal communication but anything government related that is considered classified will probably be handled on the Sectera Edge. We published some pictures of the General Dynamics device when we broke the news ’bout Obama’s Blackberry plans last week, but CNN got a short video demo explaining the devices capabilities; yes, they do demo the classified button. Only time will tell if Obama actually carries both devices though. Video after the break. → Read More
You’ve likely seen Photosynth in action before, but reader KSA sent this in and we thought we’d share. Look at all those people! → Read More
Obama wears a Jorg Gray 6500 Series Chrono and now you, too, can own the same watch. How much is this piece of presidential ephemera? $325, babies, and worth every penny. Here’s the story: → Read More
In just a few hours Barack Obama will place his hand on the Bible, look into John G. Roberts’ eyes, and take the oath of office. So I hear. With so many people expected to cram into Washington, what are the cellphone companies doing to ensure that your photos, texts and, oh yeah, phone calls go through while Washington celebrates? And how can you experience the thrill of the inauguration from the comfort of your own home? → Read More
Whether you are headed to Washington for the Obama Inauguration or simply want to follow along online, there is no shortage of sites and applications dedicated to the national party on Tuesday, January 20. Of course, every major news site will have videos, photos, and reporting from the event. But the people lining the parade route will also be Twittering, uploading photos, and capturing video moments with their cell phones and video cameras. General information about the inauguration can be found at the sites for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and Presidential Inaugural Committee.
Below is the TechCrunch Guide to the Inauguration, a collection of links and apps that will help you make the most out of the inauguration. → Read More
