obama

A correction was made to this story. See below for details.

Calling venture capitalist Tim Draper an ardent Republican is something of an understatement. In 1999, he was enough of a fan of then-candidate George W. Bush that he chaired three fundraisers over a year before the actual election.

Salon once dubbed him "George W.'s point man in Silicon Valley." The Draper, Fisher Jurvetson managing partner is a longtime proponent of limited government, free markets, and libertarian concepts like school vouchers, making him a natural fit for a political party whose platform lauds "lower taxes, reasonable … Read more

On the occasion of Barack Obama’s nationwide TV prime time infomercials last night, Fast Company’s Ellen McGirt reviewed the campaign’s media strategy and in particular its innovative use of amateur (or “professional” amateur a.k.a. "promateur") video. While the Obama camp has heaped millions of dollars on traditional TV broadcasters, setting a new record for ad spending ($250 million), McGirt believes that the true winners in this campaign are amateurs and democracy

To get an insider’s perspective, McGirt interviewed Obama’s director of field video, Arun Chaudhary, at an event in July in New York. … Read more

I have to admit, I didn't see the point of Sonic Lighter. I mean, it was cool to see real-time mapping of people using it, but there was no real point. With the latest version, however, that's changed.

Smule has released Sonic Lighter 1.2.1 Special Campaign 2008 Edition for the iPhone. Instead of just lighting a normal orange flame, with the new version you now get to express yourself politically (somewhat), by choosing either the red (McCain) or blue (Obama) flame.

The coolest thing about this is the ability to see, in real-time, which flame is … Read more

(Credit: Plan Spark)

Now that the exhaustively inspirational Pop!Tech 2008  is over, it’s worthwhile taking a look at what’s next, in other words, at the conference's theme for 2009. The organizers’ choice is pretty telling and may be indicative of a larger shift among not only the elite thinkers gathering at Pop!Tech, but also broader public opinion. Succeeding this year’s theme “Scarcity and Abundance” will be “America Reimagined,” a “top-to-bottom look at America’s opportunities, its challenges, and its future” that promises to explore what it means to be a “superpower in the … Read more

Still don't know who you're voting for for president? If the debates, media coverage, and attempted persuasiveness of friends, family, and passersby haven't helped you decide, maybe a game could sway you--or at least teach you a little trivia about the candidates. (Do you know which basketball player was Obama's childhood idol? I didn't yesterday, but I do now).

7.TV, a new broadband TV game show company, has launched the POTUS44 Experience, a fun little pair of online game shows that test players' knowledge about John McCain, Barack Obama, and presidential history in general (… Read more

You've seen her in the chat room, you've heard her voicemails, now get a chance to catch long time 404 listener Debbie from Toronto's guest appearance on the show. Besides being living proof that at least one attractive women listens to us, Debbie brings a certain je ne sais quoi to the regular morning banter. She gives us the skinny on the Great White North, talks about action movies and does some killer impressions.

Dan the Mantern here. Debbie certainly does The 404 today. Check out our Flickr set for Deb's visit. We think you'll appreciate how she keeps up with the guys and offers her own little Canadian charm to the mix. We nominate Debbie for the official president of "Women for the 404." Considering we're only aware of about five female listeners, she's got her work cut out for her. Thanks, Deb, for the ketchup flavored potato chips, the laughs and enabling us to make "eating poutin" jokes for a long time to come! And to all you 404 listeners, make our day, come to NYC and be a guest on the show!

The next time you're tempted to pull out your copy of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention or your local LUG (Linux User Group), don't bother. While the open-source world often gets credited with Libertarian leanings, recent poll results from SourceForge, which it provided to me yesterday, don't support this view.

In fact, the poll of US-based Slashdot and SourceForge visitors has 56 percent of this largely open-source crowd voting for big-government Obama, with only 30 percent voting for McCain.

Outside the US, the poll found that 93 percent of international … Read more

A company run by Hillary Clinton's fine people-knower, Mark Penn, got together with the highly-regarded Landor Associates, an organization that once came to the enlightening conclusion that "green is the color of reading," to research the relationship between presidential candidates and brands.

It makes for very colorful reading. Purple, to my eyes.

It seems that the respondents, who came from all political shades and who intended to vote, were asked to choose which brand best characterized Barack Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Joe Biden.

The brands were from most of the essential categories--cars, coffee, Internet search … Read more

I understand that some people might be upset that Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, has decided to personally endorse Barack Obama for President.

I have heard echoes that this taints the Google brand, that McCain-supporting Google employees (yes, both of them) are upset and that Mr. Schmidt just might be using this endorsement to foster his company's, or even his own, ambitions in the event of an Obama victory (Gosh, no. Really?).

Here is the news. Every CEO is political. Being CEO is, in its very essence, something of a political position. With a small 'p' and sometimes with a … Read more