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President-Elect Barack Obama has pledged to deliver weekly "fireside chats" a la FDR via YouTube, and today he posted his first. The content of the video isn't unexpected: he calls for immediate help from Congress to aid unemployment insurance, and calls for all Americans to come together to weather the hard economic road ahead. What's remarkable is how right it feels.
Artifex, makers of the Linux Ghostscript Postscript interpreter, is suing Diebold for breaking the fair use terms of its software. Diebold used the freely-available software, which is fine, but when they authored some changes to Ghostscript Postscript, they neglected to follow the very reasonable rules such use requires. Biggies like HP, Xerox, and IBM all use Ghostscript legally and honestly, so why can't Diebold?
I only wish the highly coveted "nerd vote" was analysed by the fancy computer technology that all of the major news networks were using during the election because I'm sure that demographic was key to Obama's victory. After last year's visit to Google HQ, it was clear that he would make the advancement of technology a top priority in his administration. If you are looking for more insight into his plans, Junauza.com has compiled a list of 12 Obama quotes on technology made throughout his campaign.
If you tuned into CNN's election coverage last night, you probably saw their new fangled hologram technology being used to pull up data and conduct interviews. Sure, it was a gimmick-and-a-half—but it was interesting at least. Plus, as far as I could tell, the complicated system was pretty much glitch-free (Fox News, on the other hand, seemed to have problems with their basic touchscreen system all night). But my question is: was was it stupid or cool?
It's amazing that you can fall asleep with the polls showing one thing and wake up to a world you don't even recognise. Despite who I may have supported as of November 4th, as a fervent supporter of both democracy and touchscreen technology, I accept DRE 700:259 as the 44th President of the United States. But I'm totally using a paper ballet in 2012. [The Onion Thanks Mr. Ponies!]
The ObamaBot has been a patient contributor to the Obama presidential campaign. After being assembled for $US250, the 6-foot metal and wooden robot took to the streets of Florida waving signs to promote early voting and now President-elect Barack Obama. From a technical standpoint, the robot is apparently "powered by hope," which seems like a...unique...approach to constantly fluctuating energy prices. Bonus shot:
Well, the election is over! Luckily, it was pretty clear from about two hours in who would be the winner this time around , so even if there were a couple of iffy voting hijinks, it wouldn't be anything to take up to the Supreme Court. Still, some post-election voting humour never hurt anybody - check out this Rube Goldberg machine by some kids over at the University of California Berkeley and feel relieved that, unlike in 2000, it's easy this year to laugh about this kind of stuff. [Thanks Roland!]
Those of you who watch CNN have probably noticed the neat multitouch screen the anchors have been playing with since the beginning of the election season. Now that all the votes are coming in and we're literally counting down to the big reveal, the news network has given a shout out to the man behind the Magic Wall--Jeff Han of Perceptive Pixel.
If you are like most Americans tonight, you are probably tuned in to CNN, analysing everything you see—even those television screens about the Magic Wall. And if you're looking over the wall, you might catch Family Guy running on screens above all that red and blue. It wouldn't be the first time we'd catch these guys goofing off during politics. I wonder if this episode is the one that Peter becomes the president his own nation? If so, it's certainly fitting. [Thanks Joe!]
CNN's holographic election coverage is fancy pantsy, but how did they manage to send 3D 360 degree footage of virtual correspondent Jessica Yellin from Chicago all the way to the station's election centre in NY? As Arthur C. Clarke says, Magic. A magic made possible from technology Vizrt and SportVu with the help of forty-four HD cameras and twenty computers. Here are the details.
