Obama posts

Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0, Microblogging

The White House wants you to tweet health insurance reform into law

by Adam Maras Jul 28th 2009

The Obama administration has taken a fresh, new approach to lobbying federal legislators about health insurance laws, and it comes in the form of the Twitter hashtag #hc09.

Obama's new Tweet your Senator page provides a pre-built health insurance-related tweet directed toward one of your Senators, based on your ZIP code. Each time you hit the big blue Tweet button, a Senator will be randomly selected, as will a message telling them to help pass the health insurance laws being pushed by the President.

These items, along with a link to the Tweet your Senator page and the aforementioned hashtags, will be provided for you in a brand new Twitter window, ready for you to tweet on the spot. Also, if your randomly-selected Senator is a Twitterer themselves, their Twitter handle will be used instead of their full name in your tweet.

Tags: health care reform, HealthCareReform, obama, senate, twitter, white house, WhiteHouse

Filed under: Internet, Security, web 2.0

Fake Obama news sites, emails being used to spread malware

by Lee Mathews Jan 21st 2009

While it's not news that malware developers are opportunistic, their latest deception isn't at all what I expected.

Fake P2P sites? Sure. Fake celeb porn sites? Ok. But bogus presidential news blogs?

Trend Micro researchers have discovered a number of sites built using Obama's name and related keywords to ensnare unwary browsers. The sites try to push ActiveX controls and .exe files on visitors like barack.exe or baracknews.exe. Spam is now appearing in inboxes as well in an attempt to drive users to the suspicious sites.

As is the norm in these cases, the sites and emails are poorly written and would probably only look believable after six or seven beers.

Subject : What will be with our country?
Message: Barack Obama is not ready to be a president [link]. Yours sincerely, [name]

Keeping yourself infection-free shouldn't be a big deal, as long as you exercise common sense. Don't run .exe files from sites you don't trust. Don't authorize ActiveX installs in Internet Explorer on sites you don't trust (through the gold bar at the top of the browser window).

Dear god, man!!! What will be with our country?!?!

We'll all be in a lot more trouble the day malware hooligans decide to employ someone that knows how to write compelling bs.

Tags: malware, obama, scam, spam, virus

Filed under: Internet, Video, Social Software

Barack Obama plans to post weekly YouTube address

by Brad Linder Nov 14th 2008

For years, the president of the United States has delivered a weekly radio address to the nation. President-elect Barack Obama plans to be the first to videotape that weekly address and post it on YouTube.

The move shouldn't come as a huge surprise. The Obama campaign used new media tools like Twitter, YouTube, and text messaging as a key part of its effort over the past two years. But it's a bit silly to point out that Obama will be the first president to use YouTube in this way, as Obama's transition team is trying to do. The video sharing site didn't exist when President George W. Bush was running for office. So all it really means is that President Bush didn't use YouTube.

While Obama won't be sworn in as president until January, he has started to deliver the weekly Democratic Party radio address, which will also be videotaped and uploaded to YouTube and to Change.gov.

[via Mashable]

Tags: barack-obama, obama, president, radio, weekly-radio-address, youtube

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Photo

Barack Obama - President 2.0?

by Christina Clark Nov 7th 2008

First the Obama campaign was sending out text messages to the masses and that whole thing came up about John McCain not using email. Obama was campaigning for those of us who are into the web. He appealed to our technology.

It appears he is going to keep it up. There are Presidential baby photos on the web. And, the President-elect is on flickr. He has released an entire set of election night photos of his family awaiting results in their hotel room. I wonder what will be next.

The Obamas certainly seem willing to let us have glimpses of their world. And they understand how to reach out on the web. No wonder someone took the time to make a flash game for Obama. Let's hope it continues. Maybe there will be a presidential blog.

[Via Lifehacker]

Tags: flickr, obama, web-2.0

Filed under: Time-Wasters

Presidential Street Fight - Time Waster

by Christina Clark Nov 4th 2008

While McCain and Obama battle it out at the polls, you can create your own election results with the Presidential Street Fight.

You can play as either McCain or Obama and shoot it out in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Each candidate comes with a basketball launching gun and a pile of boxes to use for cover. Shoot up and over the boxes to hit the other candidate or shoot straight at them to knock out the protective boxes.

Items like bags of money, Uncle Sam style hats and one ton weights will pop up occasionally, if you can hit them they will become your ammunition. I tried playing as both candidates and they seem to have equal skills and abilities.

The faces both make while aiming and shooting are great and the music is okay, though it does get a bit tedious after awhile.

Tags: election, election 2008, Election2008, mccain, mccain vs. obama, MccainVs.Obama, obama, time-waster

Filed under: Fun, Games, Internet, Time-Wasters

Super Obama World - Election Day Time Waster

by Jay Hathaway Nov 4th 2008

If you loved the old Super Mario World, and you like Barack Obama, you'll love Super Obama World. It's exactly what it sounds like: an old-school style hop n' bop game, where you play as a Senator from the state of Illinois. Instead of little mushrooms with fangs, you bounce on pigs (maybe they're supposed to be pigs with lipstick?). Instead of Mario's coins, there are little American flags.

Currently, you can play an ice level with a very interesting boss (hint: she can see Russia from her house). More levels are planned after the election, "including Arizona, Illinois, and D.C. levels. Just because the campaign is over doesn't mean the excitement has to be!" Whoever you plan to vote for, or regardless of whether you're even eligible to vote, this is a fun little platformer.

Editor's note: In an effort to be as ~~non~~ bi ~~omni~~ ~~partisan~~ in our time waster coverage as possible, we will be bringing you several election-related time wasters over the next few hours. If you find yourself offended, annoyed, or pleased with this one, just wait.

Tags: games, Mario, Obama, Super Mario World, Super Obama World, SuperMarioWorld, SuperObamaWorld

Filed under: Fun, Photo, Time-Wasters

PhotoFunia makes it easy to create funny photos

by Christina Clark Nov 4th 2008

Looking for some good photos of McCain, Palin, Obama and Biden on this Election Day 2008? Thanks to PhotoFunia I was able to create something a little more interesting than what you will be seeing on CNN.

I have yet to master the skills in Photoshop to be able to make convincing fake photos. I usually fix colors, crop and reduce red eye but I rarely change any photos. PhotoFunia gave me the opportunity to make some pretty cool stuff today in just a few simple clicks. If you have a good head shot of anyone, you can make convincing photos.

Check out the gallery to see the variety of candidate photos I have assembled.

Gallery: PhotoFunia

[Via Lifehacker]

Tags: biden, mccain, mccain vs. obama, MccainVs.Obama, obama, palin

Filed under: Design, Fun, Internet, News, Web

Vote the site - vote for your favorite political website

by Dolores Parker Oct 30th 2008

If you're not sick of the campaign open season yet, and need some way to show some love for your candidate's website, VotetheSite might be for you. Okay, officially you're supposed to vote on which political candidate's website you think is the best. But c'mon, I doubt most people will go to the trouble of analyzing the candidates' sites for usability and features. You're going to vote for your candidate, right?

The site lets' you vote for the presidential site you like the best as well as US Congressional sites by state. If you register, you can add all the commentary you want. The site was developed by New Media Campaigns, a North Carolina website development firm. From what I can tell, they do work for both Republicans and Democrats so it appears you're entering neutral election territory.

Here at Download Squad, we're definitely non partisan. Let us know which "site" you think is better, strictly from a geek perspective - McCain's or Obama's.

Tags: mccain, new media campaigns, NewMediaCampaigns, obama, political websites, PoliticalWebsites, vote for your favorite political website, VoteForYourFavoritePoliticalWebsite

Filed under: Features, News, Lists

With two weeks to go, the 5 best places to follow presidential polls

by Jay Hathaway Oct 21st 2008

If you haven't been following the U.S. presidential election, now is a good time to start. With two weeks to go, pundits everywhere are wondering whether Barack Obama's lead over John McCain will hold up. Whether you're a Democrat, a Republican, or none of the above, there are plenty of sites you can bookmark to keep up with the latest polling data. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Electoral-Vote.com

Electoral-Vote.com follows the current state polls and uses them to calculate the overall result of the election. It might not be the prettiest site design out there, but it updates regularly and makes it easy to see the states at a glance. You can also put in your own state-by-state prediction and let it calculate the result for you.

Tags: election, mccain, mccainvs.obama, obama, politics, president2008

Filed under: Design

Love Obama's slideshow? Here's how to copy it yourself.

by Jay Hathaway Jul 2nd 2008

Barack Obama's design team has garnered a lot of praise for their work on his campaign materials, including the official website. Heck, there have been entire articles devoted to praising their choice of typefaces. One of the cooler elements the Obama team has cooked up for their website is a slideshow-like animated list for front page navigation.

If you're a fan of this slideshow, and you want to create a similar effect on your own site, look no further than the aptly-named BarackSlideshow script. DevThought has come up with a bit of CSS and JavaScript that loads images and animation effects almost identical to the originals. Some users in the comment thread are reporting browser or plug-in specific issues with the script, so your mileage may vary.

Tags: BarackSlideshow, CSS, JavaScript, menu, navigation, Obama, slideshow

Election 08: candidates face off in social media

by Gordon Finlayson Jun 20th 2008

As the 2008 US presidential election campaign finally approaches full steam, presumtive nominees Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama are facing off in the media to win hearts and minds. But which candidate is making the most of the of online social media services?

A visit to www.barackobama.com shows that the Obama campaign has established itself firmly in the social media world with an offical presence on major services such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn and more specialist sites such as Glee, Eons, MyBatanga, AsianAve and Faithbase.

On the Republican side, John McCain's presidential campaign has developed its basic Web presence with a mult-faceted Web site but McCain lags far behind Obama in terms of presence and supporters in the key online social media battlegrounds.

Tags: election, facebook, linkedin, mccain, myspace, obama, technology, twitter

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software

Can the internet predict the Democratic nominee for President?

by Grant Robertson Mar 3rd 2008

Presidential elections are tough. It's a long process fraught with uncertainty, pitfalls and heartbreak; just ask Ross Perot. In this last push towards the Democratic convention, and with a race that many are saying is too close to call, we figured it was perfect time to put some crowdsourcing to work and see how accurate it might be.

So, what do the Interwebs tell us about Tuesday's primary to end all primaries? Frankly, a lot. The first place we decided to hit on our prognostication panoply pursuit was prediction purveyor Intrade.

Tags: barack-obama, democrats, hrc, obama, prediction-markets, presidential-primary, presidential-race, trends

Filed under: Video, News, Web services

Colbert, Pelosi help convince C-SPAN to loosen up copyright

by Brad Linder Mar 8th 2007

C-SPAN officials say the cable channel is "liberalizing" its copyright policy. Viewers will be able to copy and distribute C-SPAN's coverage of Congress and any federal agency, as long as its for non-commercial use. That represents about half the programming available on C-SPAN.

Of course, if you search for "C-SPAN" on YouTube today you'll find an awful lot of material that would fall under this new policy, and a lot of programming that would not, including an interview with Jimmy Carter, and a compilation of prank calls to C-SPAN shows.

In other words, C-SPAN's never enforced its copyright as firmly as say, Viacom.

So what's prompted the policy change? Well, first Republicans go and blast House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for posting a C-SPAN clip on her website. The network seemed a bit confused as to whether she was violating copyright law or not, first claiming she did, then that she didn't.

And then there was last year's video of Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner. While the video could have been a great promotional tool for C-SPAN, but the network hadn't distributed it and insisted it be removed from YouTube.

Tags: c-span, colbert, obama, pelosi, youtube

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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