Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

pennsylvania posts

Filed under: Internet, E-mail

PA governor is about as tech literate as John McCain

Ed RendellJohn McCain has gotten a lot of flack recently for his lack of tech savvy. McCain doesn't use email, the web, or a computer. But it turns out he's not the only high ranking politician who prefers a fax machine to email. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has a cellphone and recently learned to send text messages - but has never sent an email.

The article raises an interesting point - does the guy at the top really need to be CCed on every single email his underlings send around? Some of Rendell's staffers say the answer is not only no, but that this frees the governor up to think about other things. He can make the decisions when it's time to do so, but he doesn't have to get bogged down in all the back and forth emails sent while hammering out the details.

On the other hand, Rendell has probably been responsible for the destruction of a small forest during his time in office, since every single document he needs to read has to be printed out in advance.

What do you think? Is it OK for politicians to be technologically illiterate, or would you like your elected officials to at least know how to look themselves up on Wikipedia even if they still prefer to write out their speeches by hand?

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services

Selling on eBay without an auctioneer's license?

Ebayers in Pennsylvania, watch outIf you're outside of Pennsylvania, you have nothing to worry about, probably. But one Pennsylvanian woman who started selling goods on eBay to stay at home with her daughter who was diagnosed with a brain tumor, is being prosecuted by the state of Pennsylvania for not having an auctioneer's license.

The story essentially boils down to the idea that people who are doing well on eBay in Pennsylvania need to be regulated, and at this point it looks like suing them for not having a costly auctioneer's license is the way it's going to happen. So far, only two people have been hit, apparently to make a legal point.

Correct us if we're wrong, but isn't eBay technically the auctioneer, while sellers are just people/businesses putting items up for auction? Now whether this is just a case of misguided bureaucracy or a way to create some commotion in order to get online auction related legislation in place, this seems rather wrong.

If she was dodging taxes on her at-home business, that is one thing, but from the looks of it, she's getting sued over a point which technically doesn't even apply to her. But then again, there are those who think the Internet is a "series of tubes."

[via Techdirt]

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Livescribe Store
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio