Politics – Techcitement*

Motorola And Apple Look To Texas For Made In U.S.A. Tech

Mordechai Osdoby — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 19:00:50 +0000

Pop quiz: What was the last smartphone to be built in the United State of America? If you gave any answer other than “none,” you’re wrong. Back at the start of 2012, the New York Times detailed why so much tech manufacturing is based out of China, which basically boils down to infrastructure. Odds are […]

President Obama Is On Pinterest, With Cupcakes

Dina Ehrenburg — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:00:24 +0000

This week, President Obama’s campaign staff opened a Pinterest account. So far, the eight boards up feature typical Pinterest fare,with a political twist: Obama-themed cupcakes, clothing, someone’s decorated fingernails. The “Pet Lovers for Obama” board, featuring adorable animals (another Pinterest must), may or may not be a dig at Mitt Romney, who strapped the family […]

Bender Beats Skynet In School Board Election

Tom Wyrick — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 19:30:45 +0000

After the Washington D.C. election board announced a new e-voting system for absentee ballots in 2010, they invited the computer security community and general public to try hacking it, several weeks before using it in a real election. Professor Alex Halderman of the University of Michigan felt “It was too good an opportunity to pass […]

Search Engine ChaCha Embarrasses Android App Developer With Hate-Group-Approved Results

Matt Algren — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:35:40 +0000

It’s only been four months since Iris, the leading imitator of Apple’s Siri, was released to the Android Market, and Dexetra, the app’s developer, has a lot to crow about. The company claims to serve up to a million answers every day, and the number only seems to be increasing. Fortunately, the fledgling company and […]

Free Speech In The Internet Age: Fact Or Fantasy?

Matt Algren — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:45:47 +0000

Topeka, Kansas high school senior Emma Sullivan found herself in uncharted territory last week when she posted a tweet to her fifty-odd followers during a visit from Kansas Governor Sam Brownback to her school. “Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person,” she tweeted, adding, “#heblowsalot.” The governor’s communications […]

Facebook Bans Good Content Due To Bad Reporting

Matt Algren — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:00:56 +0000

In what has become an ongoing problem, a blogger has come forward with reports of troublesome information suppression on Facebook. Jeremy Ryan, of the site Addicting Info, recently reported continued reprimands he’s been getting from Facebook due to people submitting false abuse reports. Trolls are now having activists removed by filing fake Facebook complaints. That […]

Kenneth Cole’s New Website — Social Conscience Or Cynical Marketing?

Matt Algren — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:15:13 +0000

Fashion designer and marketing provocateur Kenneth Cole has opened a new website that he says is aimed at raising social and political issues to foster discussion. Long known for socially conscious advertisements, Cole’s Where Do You Stand continues that tradition online. Or does it? Cole’s team has worked hard to give the website a slick, […]

Obama Brings Down Congress (AKA Techcitement Gets Political)

Mordechai Osdoby — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:11:46 +0000

It’s not uncommon for sites to be slammed when a major aggregation site like Digg links to them. On Twitter, there’s even a specific hashtag when popular author Neil Gaiman brings down a site. This week, we saw the same sort of thing happen in the political arena when President Barack Obama addressed the nation […]