Halderman offers Free Course on Electronic Voting

Jim Cook 4/24/2012
[3] comments

By September 3 2012, the apparently abortive online nominating voting via Americans Elect will have concluded. With hidden votes already happening and the secret ballot done away with, it will be a time for reflection on the future of internet …

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Posted in Alternative Parties, Americans Elect, Election 2012, Media, Politics, Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Instagram? What’s The Big Deal?

jclifford 4/10/2012
[2] comments

Help me, please, because I’m feeling pretty clueless about this. Instagram has gotten into the news, bigtime, because it was just bought by Facebook. As a result, people are worried that Instagram is going to change, or be destroyed, and …

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Posted in Tech | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Are Cute Cats the Bulwark of Democracy?

Jim Cook 2/27/2012
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Does the popularity of picture-heavy, word-light Pinterest drive you to despair? Click here to hear MIT’s Ethan Zuckerman make a surprisingly compelling case for the idea that meaningful, participatory activism relies on the fostering of spaces where people share pictures …

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Googlegeddon Approaches – How To Protect Yourself

Peregrin Wood 2/27/2012
[3] comments
http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/googlewatching.jpg

On March 1, Google will integrate data mining from all its services. It’s a moment of clarity: Google has gotten too big for its britches, and like Microsoft before it, is abusing its power. It’s time to walk away.

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Posted in Media, Tech | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

After Presidential Draft Candidate System Debuts, Who’s Talking About Americans Elect and How?

Jim Cook 2/6/2012
[6] comments
http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/americanselect0131to02052012.png

On the last day of January 2012, Americans Elect rolled out its online voting system by which identity-verified delegates could draft candidates to appear on the ballot for the Americans Elect presidential nomination. Americans Elect has indirectly referred to the …

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Posted in Alternative Parties, Americans Elect, Election 2012, Media, Politics, Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

What the CafePress Merch Meter Didn’t Predict for the 2012 Elections… And Why

Jim Cook 1/6/2012
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http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/gopshirtsales2011.png

Direct-to-Garment printer CafePress has a “Cultural Barometer” of sales records it’s been using to track trends of support for 2012 Republican presidential contenders. Here are the CafePress Barometer’s readings from November 14 through December 31 of 2011. Just a few …

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Posted in Election 2012, Politics, Republicans, Shirts, Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Americans Elect Voting System Still Broken with <5 months to the First Ballot

Jim Cook 11/23/2011
[1] comment

Americans Elect is a corporation that wants to run its very own national online vote to nominate a president in less than five months. Is the Americans Elect online voting system ready to perform as any voting system must? Is …

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Posted in Alternative Parties, Americans Elect, Election 2012, Politics, Tech, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Americans Elect Holds its First Vote… and it’s Broken

Jim Cook 11/19/2011
[5] comments

Visit Americans Elect’s home page at americanselect.org and you’ll see the 501c4 corporation’s countdown to its first ballot. According to Americans Elect, the nation’s first-ever 50-state online election to nominate a presidential candidate will be held in just 150 days. …

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Posted in Alternative Parties, Americans Elect, Election 2012, Politics, Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Why Do So Many People Hate Computers?

Rowan 11/11/2011
[11] comments

Recently, in many separate arenas of my life, I have run into people who have expressed and extreme hatred and fear of the use of computers. I’ve even run into this emotion in my interactions with people on the Internet …

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Posted in Questions, Tech | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Governments Request More User Data from Google in 2011. Which Countries are the Biggest Culprits?

Jim Cook 10/28/2011
[1] comment
http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/requestsforuserdatafromgoogle.png

Earlier this month, I shared with you a map showing results from Google’s report on the number of requests for user data from the governments of the world, current through December 2010: Google has just updated its report to include …

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Posted in Homeland Insecurity, Liberty, Media, Outside the USA, Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Freedom Plaza And The Battle Of The Drones

jclifford 10/8/2011
[3] comments
http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/whendronesflybabiesdie.jpg

Occupy DC protesters closed down the offices of General Anomics, manufacturer of military attack drones, just as Wired magazine reported that a computer virus has infected the software used to control the drones.

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Posted in Activism, Tech, War and Peace | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Occupy Together Movement Snapshot: 218,098 Participants in 147 Movement Centers (USA)

Jim Cook 10/4/2011
[9] comments
http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/occupationmovementsnapshot.png

This map is a snapshot in time, capturing the extent of participation (tallied via Facebook) in 147 Occupy Together movement centers across the United States of America. There is no one organizer of this movement — just 147 communities that …

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Posted in Activism, State and Local, Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

For a Frozen Windows Boot, msconfig is Your Friend

Jim Cook 9/16/2011
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30 years ago, I wouldn’t have known what a “frozen windows boot” was. I’d have suspected it was this thing you used to get out of a car during a snowstorm, maybe. Since then, I’ve come to know all too …

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Americans Elect Internet Vote for President? Consider how it worked in DC 2010

Jim Cook 7/25/2011
[11] comments

Apart from the various considerations of political ideology, influence and process regarding Americans Elect, there’s the simple matter of technology. Americans Elect plans to use all-internet-voting to nominate a presidential candidate and to broker the selection of the actual president …

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Posted in Alternative Parties, Americans Elect, Election 2012, Politics, Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

The Rise of Dragonfly Surveillance

Jim Cook 7/17/2011
[2] comments

In 2007, people reported dragonfly-like machines hovering in the air near protests in Washington DC and New York City. In the same year, the U.S. government reported success creating living moth cyborgs fully steerable with brain implants. In 2008, the …

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Posted in Homeland Insecurity, Tech | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Aviary Chrome App can Access all the Data and Programs on your Computer

Jim Cook 7/16/2011
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http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/aviaryroc.png

The Aviary music creator named “Roc” lets you create little techno-loops of music. If you install Aviary “Roc” as an extension to your Chrome browser, you have to agree to this: Access to the programs and data on your computer. …

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Where the Hoaxes Live: the overlapping Geography of Obama Urban Legends

Jim Cook 6/19/2011
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http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/sociogramofurbanmythsinpolitics.png

Google Correlate is a new research tool used to find out where in the United States the entry of certain search terms is concentrated, and which search terms’ levels of popularity are correlated with one another across the 50 states. …

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Posted in Barack Obama, Legislation, Media, Mysteries, Politics, Religion, State and Local, Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2012 Republican Correlates: Palin=Stealth Banjo, Gingrich=Office Rug

Jim Cook 6/15/2011
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http://irregulartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/googlecorrelatenewtgingrichofficerug1.png

In which states are searches for “Ron Paul 2012″ running hot? Where are people looking up “Mitt Romney 2012″? Google Correlate lets us find out where the interest in various 2012 presidential candidates is high or low (see here for …

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Posted in Election 2012, Politics, Republicans, Tech | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment