Reportedly, Senator John McCain wants Predators to provide with uncensored Wi-Fi coverage to the people of Iran. I don’t know if this is even technically possible, but its so preposterous and fantastically cool that I love the idea: More »
In order to get back some of the money spent on the McCain-Palin campaign, items from the campaign were sold today at a yard sale, including a $US20 BlackBerry, fully loaded with confidential information.
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.
Gizmodo is not endorsing a presidential candidate. Nearly everyone on staff agreed that it would be a bad idea, for a lot of valid reasons. Besides the fact that Gizmodo is seen by many as a means of escape from the the real world, we simply don’t cover politics. Many on our staff felt that, even if we weighed our selection using just the candidates’ statements on technology, we’d just be trivialising the truly pressing issues—the economy, the wars, national security, America’s cultural divide and our standing in the international community, to toss out a handful. But I think you guys should know where at least one of us is coming from: Technology is political, because it’s tightly intertwined with every major issue. If you don’t grasp technology, you no longer understand the world. I’m voting for the guy who gets that.
After weeks of wrangling, Wired had finally gotten commitments from high-level surrogates from both the Obama and McCain campaigns to participate in a debate about technology yesterday afternoon. So how did it go? It didn’t. The McCain campaign cancelled a few hours before the event, with no plans to reschedule. While McCain’s personal indifference to technology , difficult-to-defend tech policies, personal vendettas and general oldness all come to mind as reasons for this decision, more likely than not they just didn’t see this as the most effective way to, you know, win. Oh well. [Wired Epicenter — Thanks, Nick and JosephGerardi1]
Sure, Obama may have had his official iPhone app out a while ago, allowing supporters to easily make calls on his behalf and do all sorts of other things, but don’t think there isn’t a John McCain app out there as well. Sure, it might not be official, and it might only work on jailbroken iPhones, but I can honestly say that I’d use the Unofficial John McCain iPhone App way more than the Official Barack Obama iPhone App. [Unofficial John McCain iPhone App via Justin Purnell]
When you go to the polls next Tuesday, no matter who you vote for, you will be motivated by words, images and videos you picked up online. There are some voters who don’t use the internet to gather information about candidates, but that number is dwindling, while the number of ways candidates can reach you online is growing. Sometimes 2004 is referred to as the first “internet” presidential election, but back then, social networking was in its infancy, YouTube was just a glimmer in some kids’ eyes, and Live Xboxes were few and far between. This year, candidates used text messages, videogames, satellite broadcasting and a highly contagious amount of viral video to broadcast platforms, hear from constituents and raise cash. This year we got the first real look at how races will run in the net age, titans clashing bit for bit over your very soul.
Remember the voting machines in West Virginia that just couldn’t bring themselves to let people vote Obama? Jackson County Clerk Jeff Waybright, who “hates stories like this” was good enough to show Video the Vote how a mis-calibrated voting machine would take a vote for Obama (or anyone) and turn it into a vote for another candidate—and not necessarily John McCain, either, though that’s what would happen if you picked a straight Democratic ticket. So yeah, this could definitely happen to you.
Voting from home, over the internet. That’s the dream. It’s when the vast majority of people will finally vote. Hell, even I might register to vote if you could online. But this year, fittingly in the election that the internet has mattered more than ever before, we’re taking a solid (baby) step in that direction. Starting Friday, a pilot program will let about 700 U.S. citizens in Germany, Japan and the UK vote over the internet using hardened PCs.
Even though the great state of West Virginia is only at threat level orange for having the closest thing the average American has to a voice tampered with, in at least three counties, voters have complained that when they tried to vote for Barack Obama, the touchscreen voting machine cast their vote for John McCain. One voter reported that all of their Democratic votes, for every level of government, were magically transformed into real American Republican ones.
