obama

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Few Silicon Valley companies have ever embraced a political party as passionately as Google has. Its executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, has been described as a "kind of guru" to President Obama's campaign manager, and Google employees emerged as the No. 2 donor to the Democratic National Committee in the last election.

That love affair has now become a bit one-sided. Obama's pick to run the Federal Trade Commission, Jon Leibowitz, a Democrat and former aide to Democratic senators, has been carefully preparing a legal assault on the search company.

Leibowitz took the unusual … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- BlackBerry becomes a source of shame for users.

- Mental Floss asks: How did the Game Genie work?

- Schools across the country ban Flaming Hot Cheetos.

- Speaking of: 10 things you never knew about Flamin' Hots.

- Newsweek to shut down print edition and go all digital.

- Extra Life: Play games to raise money for local kids.

Bathroom break video: Gold-plated Canon copy machine.

In the waning moments of the second presidential debate, CNN moderator Candy Crowley asked how Apple could bring manufacturing jobs to the U.S.

Crowley prefaced the question by saying that Apple makes the iPhone and iPad in China. Then asked how to get a company like Apple to make more products in the U.S., citing the iPhone and iPad as products made by Apple exclusively in China.

Mitt Romney was the first to respond. "First, we'll have to have [China] play on a fair basis...Second, we have to make America the most attractive place for … Read more

Although there were no Big Bird or JFK moments during tonight's second showdown between President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Twitter users still sent more than 7.2 million tweets during the debate, peaking at either 110,000 per minute or 108,000 per minute, depending on which official tweet you believe.

And there was, of course, at least one popular new meme and the resulting Twitter account, @RomneysBinder.

According to Twitter, there were just more than 7.2 million tweets sent during the debate, down substantially from 10.3 million tweets sent during the first … Read more

In another example of what's fast becoming an American tradition of instant and amusing political-debate memes, a Web site called Binders Full of Women popped up before tonight's presidential face-off had even wrapped up.

The site surfaced following Mitt Romney's response to an audience member at the town hall-style debate who asked about gender inequality in the workplace. Romney said he had received "binders full of women" from colleagues while seeking to fill cabinet posts during his tenure as Massachusetts governor.

And thus, the Tumblr site Binders Full of Women was born. It features a fast-accumulating array of amusing images -- from pictures of binders with the word "women" on the cover to a photo of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton typing away on a BlackBerry with superimposed text reading "Romney still uses binders? LOL." … Read more

The goal of technology companies is to stuff their pockets with money, said Robert Levine.

"Venture capitalists may -- I haven't confirmed this -- also want to make money," Levine told snickering audience members, who were mostly from book publishing, during a panel discussion last March at the On Copyright conference.

What Levine wants to know is why everyone in tech gets upset when musicians and filmmakers try to earn a living. Levine has become a notable proponent of copyright and a defender of protecting the work of artists.

Since the publication last year of his book, … Read more

With more than 400 million daily tweets to draw data from, the trending topics that Twitter constantly identifies are one of the best ways for everyone from marketers to news organizers to determine in real time what people are talking about the most.

Those that are able to most quickly make decisions -- buying promoted tweets, or covering a news story, for example -- based on those topics can see a distinct advantage over their slower competitors. But even the fastest have had few tools designed to help them spot trending terms in advance. Until now.

Today, Topsy, a San … Read more

Is he one of us?

That's the question both the Romney and Obama campaigns will be asking as election time rolls near.

Every last vote will count. Every last nuance will matter in determining which candidate will steer America through the next four joyous years.

So how are the campaigns trying to identify those who might be on their side? Why, cookies.

According to the New York Times, many, many voters can look forward to calls from campaign workers who will, for once, be armed with very personal details about their targets' predilections.

The Times boldly declares that these … Read more

With the U.S. presidential election drawing nearer, a New York-based tech group sent both President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney a letter asking how his policies would benefit tech startups, and both candidates have provided outlines in response.

Among other things, Romney mentions raising visa caps for highly skilled foreign workers; lowering the corporate tax rate to 25 percent and strengthening the R&D tax credit; and requiring that all major regulations receive congressional approval.

President Obama mentions having created the position of U.S. Chief Technology Officer and pursuing open data initiatives (an unlocking of data … Read more