president obama

Breaking: White House Tumblr says it's GIF, with a 'hard G'

The first post on the White House's official new Tumblr boldly tackles a topic sure to inspire as much debate in certain circles as immigration reform, tax cuts, and gun control -- the pronunciation of "GIF."

I, being the softie that I am, have always pronounced the acronym for Graphical Interchange Format "jif" (it sounds more French), but the White House informs me I am wrong and may be declared an enemy of the state. "Hard G," it declares on a graphic (or is that jraffic?) previewing the kinds of content we should expect to see on the new Tumblr -- everything from behind-the-scenes photos to updates on policy and First Dog Bo (and, presumably, Bo's take on policy updates).

And because a Tumblr without them wouldn't be worth its weight in dancing cats, "yes, of course there will be GIFs," it says. … Read more

Bill Gates: I wish Obama had more power

One of the many lovely things about engineers is that they like to get things done.

Bill Gates is an excellent example. You might not always like how he gets things done -- or even what gets done -- but done it gets.

The lack of ability to get things done is one of the Microsoft chairman's greatest frustrations.

He expressed this quite eloquently yesterday when being interviewed at Politico's "Playbook Cocktails" event.

Indeed, as the Daily Caller reports, he said he sympathized with President Obama for having to work with some of the halfwits in … Read more

Obama hosts meeting on cybersecurity with CEOs

President Barack Obama met with 13 chief executives yesterday to dig deeper into cybersecurity.

According to The New York Times, which first reported on the meeting, the discussion took place in the White House Situation Room and was a "two-way" exchange of information between the president and the chief executives.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, along with chief executives at Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase, were all in attendance, according to the Times.

Over the last several weeks, a slew of companies has been hit with cyberattacks. Online banking sites have also been targeted. … Read more

President Obama is not the Jedi you're looking for

As just about everyone knows by now, President Obama got the entire Internet in a tizzy this morning by seemingly mixing up "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" references and trying to pass them off as a clever "Star Wars" line.

It's been much reported that, speaking about his negotiations with Republicans over budget reform, he complained that he can't perform a "Jedi mind meld." Cue a million anguished Twitter users in outrage, jokingly insisting on impeaching the president over his inability to remember that the line is actually "Jedi … Read more

Obama signs long-awaited cybersecurity executive order

President Obama invoked the pageantry of his State of the Union address this evening to announce a long-anticipated executive order on cybersecurity, a move that caps months of discussions with technology companies and could reduce pressure on Congress to move forward with controversial new legislation.

The order will "strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy," Obama said.

Obama's executive order doesn't propose new and potentially onerous regulations targeting private businesses, which Democrats had proposed in their unsuccessful legislation last year. It also … Read more

Gigapixel shot shows a whole lotta inauguration

When it comes to yesterday's inauguration, forget about high-def videos, transcripts, images from space, and all that jazz. The best glimpse of the ceremony resides in a gargantuan panorama that lets you zoom around the action that took place on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C.

The image, captured while Obama gave his inaugural speech, required 13 minutes of straight shooting using a dSLR and the Gigapan Epic Pro panorama-capturing device. To create the stunning mosaic, the Gigapan shot 305 high-resolution photographs of different areas in the scene, which were then stitched together to make the zoomable picture. … Read more

Clouds ruin GeoEye's satellite image of inauguration

Aw, shucks: imaging company GeoEye could not capture a super high-resolution image of Obama's inauguration today from space.

Using its GeoEye-1 and IKONOS satellites positioned 423 miles above the Earth, the company tried and failed -- due to clouds -- on two separate attempts to capture the image of the inauguration, a GeoEye representative told CNET. GeoEye planned to release an interactive map of the ceremony with a built-in zoom and a slider that would have let the user compare this year's image to the one captured four years ago. Feel free to zoom around in the 2009 Inauguration image embedded below.… Read more

Friday Poll: Did stances on tech issues sway your vote?

Some major technology-related political hot potatoes have been tossed around this past year. The Stop Online Piracy Act may have gotten the most attention.

CNET broke down the presidential candidates' stances on a variety of tech issues before the election. For example, when it came to SOPA, Romney spoke out against it, while Obama danced a little more delicately around the issue.

The election will be shaping the direction of tech-related legislation for several years to come. It has already had an impact by weeding out three SOPA-sponsoring congressmen.

As an informed geek voter, how much did tech issues sway … Read more

Google has customized results for Obama, but not Romney

Google isn't treating searches related to presidential candidates fairly, a new report charges.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that it commissioned a study on the way in which search results related to President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are displayed on Google. The study found that when users search for "Obama" or "Romney," Google displays standard results. Other related searches, however, are treated differently.

For example, the Journal tried to search for topics ranging from Iran to Medicare. Those who had already searched for "Obama" found that their results were customized to … Read more

Re daughter, Obama worries about Facebook, not dating

Facebook has been spending more time touting its privacy controls recently.

But here's the news: they're not good enough for the president.

In an interview with MTV on Friday (hey, we have to get those kids to vote somehow), the president explained that for his daughter Malia, Facebook was not a safe place to hang out.

As Yahoo News reports, the president was asked whether dating, driving, or social networking represented his biggest fear for his 14-year-old daughter.

He replied:

I'd worry about Facebook right now. I know the folks at Facebook -- obviously they've revolutionized, … Read more