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There is nothing more interesting than a raw political campaign, the addition of web 2.0 elements to change people’s minds is something that we saw early in 2004, the use of YouTube videos, fact checking, and the rest of it. This year, 2008, we are seeing an increase in the use of Web 2.0 technology, like the use of blogs and wiki’s to help form people’s opinions about the candidates.

The McCainpedia is just one example of this phenomenon, another one is Hillary Clinton’s direct appeal to Bloggers to support her, by having her first blogger call in Q&A. Expanding the broad base of ways that people can comment, the need for systems like archive.org to capture all this information is important, so let’s hope that they are busy following all the political flotsam that is out there for campaign 2008. What is interesting is the notation out at Jamaicaobserver.com about the use of Web 2.0 technology amongst the democrats.

What is ironic is that Barack Obama has proven himself to be more adept at using the web-based technology for political purposes than is Hillary, whose husband championed investments in what was dubbed the dotcom boom. If ever one needed an example of the law of unintended consequences at work, one need to look no further than to Hillary’s demise in the recent presidential primaries due in no small measure to Obama’s ability to mobilise funds at the grassroots level on the Internet. Source: Jamaica Observer

There is a lot to be said about the use of Digg, and other systems to see some interaction from the candidates. What is obvious though is that political managers are going to be watching how the web was used to drive people to support candidates. They will also be watching what tools were used effectively in taking down candidates. While this election might be more of an issue of choice about what technology is effective, the next election in 2012 will take all the lessons from 2004 and 2008, to turn the campaigns into a hyper linked, Web 2.0/3.0 driven effort to grab people’s attention, and sway their votes.

Tags: Clinton, obama, mccain, web 2.0, web 3.0, election, technology, wiki, blog, campaign elements, interesting

Wired reports that Anton Ellis, the former system administrator for Oink has had his bail date extended to May 6th 2008. The point that grabs someone’s attention in an otherwise 3 paragraph article is that they state that:

This significantly longer extension could indicate that British and Dutch authorities have realized that the OiNK picture is more nuanced than they had been led to believe by the IFPI and BPI, the anti-piracy organizations who instigated the raid. Source: Wired Listening Post

This could be significant in the process of how bittorrent trackers are perceived in the longer run. If the prosecutor’s office needs more time, then that means the case is not necessarily a slam dunk. The pirate bay has had their own case delayed because of the prosecutor’s office, and no matter how you spin it, even if the Oink admin needs more time to build their defense, the courts are not necessarily there to make it easier on the accused.

The prosecutor might just be happy to grant the extension because they also need more time to develop a case. While the site “TV-Links” has been fairly quiet on the case front, the idea that prosecutors are needing more time, or granting more time to the defendants means that there might be a problem in the system.

This will either drive the IFPI and its counterparts in the USA, RIAA and MPAA to try to get more draconian laws like the Pro-IP act passed, or signal a radical shift between the act and the state of the law. Law has usually been slow to catch up, and deterrents usually do not work as well as they should, as long as there is a reason to do a thing regardless of the state of law they will do it anyways.

More time in this case means that the case is going to be hard won for the prosecutor, and that so far the actual cost of a case is going to far outweigh the cost of what was actually downloaded. Much like the cost break out for the pirate bay.

We have gotten used to the continuing shortage of Wii consoles (and if anything is going to peak demand, it is keep the supply chain short and tight) for Christmas. Meaning not only more disappointed kids in 45 days, but families that will burn in shame because they can’t get junior, or grandma the Wii that they have been asking for.

The great thing about the Wii is that it appeals to all ages, and house found uses in places from old folks homes, to helping out with rehab in the VA. The demand for Wii has been huge, and with the continuing shortage of devices, it looks almost contrived at this point. No company would intentionally short change itself, but by keeping the supply side tight and short, Nintendo keeps the buzz going with the continual claims of a shortage of the devices, meaning interest, news, bloggers, and everyone else wants one of the cherished systems just for the gloating power alone.

A chronic shortage of Nintendo’s popular Wii console could mean disappointment for those putting it at the top of their Christmas list. The BBC has learned that high street retailers are struggling to keep up with demand for the console, which has been in short supply for months. Source: BBC

This makes for an interesting way of keeping buzz in the news, intentional or not, Wii and Nintendo are keeping the buzz alive by keeping up on the shortages. It is a popular console, with a lot of uses for all age groups, the shortages just keeps the buzz going, and parents on the street trying to find the kit for the kids and family.

Shopping, technology folks really are not the best shoppers around. So we need a little help along the way at times. And just about everyone likes a bargain to boot, so we took a look at some of the more interesting technical shopping stores around, to see if we could find a gadget or database, or something that would satisfy at least one family member and remove that permanent geek black sheep status at least for the day.

While there are a lot of sites out there, techbargains.com looked like a viable alternative, the RSS feed on “what is happening now” can be handy if you are stuck for a gift idea and want to see what is coming up. Coupons are good too, one of the thing we have noticed is that as talk of recession spreads, coupons and other kinds of discounts are going to be a major issue this holiday season. We think that a lot of companies are going to be giving away solid discounts in order to increase volume, while people sit on their checkbooks. Getting people to buy will be important, and folks are going to be pulling out many of the stops this year.

The more interesting part is that they have a mobile web site as well, which makes it easier if you are visiting, you can bring up the mobile page and let them help you find the gift, all without having to touch their PC in their house, so they have no idea what you are doing, meaning there will be at least some sort of surprise at the end of the gift giving.

If you are a blitzkrieg shopper, you can search for your stuff on every page, or just wander around the site by category, which is fairly common for many shopping sites. What makes this interesting is the “similar deals” link, click that and all the deals, with or without coupons, free stuff, take an extra 10% off shows up, meaning saves you time. Didn’t want to pay 9.99 for that USB stick? Here is a deal for you.

Oh and if you really hate shopping, they have e-mail, they will e-mail you deals every week, with links, so if you shop by digest, this is one way of approaching it. Just a simple weekly update with the things you are interested in. So if you are holding out for that gadget, this almost becomes a stock ticker in terms of pricing for the device. The site is worth checking out, they even carry dell coupons which can be really hard to find. But really good to have as well.

For those of us who using a computer is not just a job. A lot of computer users are just that. Computer users. They only use the computer to do the job at hand and have no inclination or interest in any other aspect of computing. Then there are the power users. Those are the people who have an intellectual curiosity about what makes their computer tick. There are many sites out on the web that are dedicated to power users and how they can tweak their computer to achieve maximum performance. These are much like the car enthusiasts that are out working on their cars every weekend. Tightening this and adjusting that, maybe trying out hotter spark plugs or a new carb. The PC power users are always trying out different programs to tune and clean their PC. Like the car enthusiasts the power PC user will not have the standard default user interface but will have it tricked out with eye candy galore.

Of course ninety percent (but falling) of those users do all of their tweaking in the windows operating system. The reason I put in brackets the term “but falling” is that more and more power users are finding out about the joy of Linux. They are finding an operating system that more than satisfies their intellectual curiosity. Whereas windows is a closed operating system the insides of it, what makes it tick, are closed and in accessable. The power users can not go into the guts of it and really tweak it where it counts. This is the equivalent to a car enthusiast with a welded shut hood. All the power user can do is play around with the accessories. Even the programs they download to tweak windows are closed and only present a flash GUI to the power user.

This of course leaves the power user feeling frustrated and constrained. Nobody wants to feel that way. Then, when they discover Linux, they feel as if a whole new world has opened up. Which in effect a whole new world has opened up for them. For Linux is open to inspection through and through. Any and every single part of the whole operating system can be changed according to the power users desires. There are no constraints to their intellectual curiosity and a world of help and support is instantly available. Even the programmers themselves can be directly contacted and asked why this widget does so and so.

If the power user wants to change their file system they have a choice of many. If the power user wants to have a different window manager they have a choice of many. If the power user wants to modify the window manager they are using there is no reason why they cannot. Everything, absolutely everything can be changed in Linux.

That is why Linux is a joy to install, use, explore and play with. Linux is a Ferrari to window’s Renault. The big difference is, windows has a Ferrari price and Linux costs….well it costs nothing

Yes this is one of those dumb introduction postings that you always see whenever a new blogger decides to make a splash on the blogosphere. Whatever. I am still going to write this thing because it seems to be some sort of right of passage or something. What? Oh yea, the actual introduction. Sigh, ok, enough of the rambling and on to the introduction.

I am Locutus! A borg. Your life as you know it, is over……. Sorry I got a bit carried away there Yes, I am Locutus. A borg….Damn I did it again! Force of habit I guess. Lets try again. I go by the name of Locutus and I am a blogger. There! Now that I have confessed I feel much better. I tend to blog on whatever takes my fancy but you can bet that it will be related with Linux (It ROCKS!!!) or computers or something technobabblish.

I also have some sort of twisted thing that you could call humor and others would call bad taste. It’s your call on that one. Still I write what I write and you don’t have to read it. I mean you really don’t. You can stop now. Stop I said! No don’t stop because I love to hear what you think about my rambling thoughts. So feel free to comment and/or flame to your hearts content. I have asbestos underpants and my wings are like a shield of steel! If you can get that reference then you must be at least as old as I am

So that’s from me for now. I won’t torture you much longer. Until the next time Muahahaha!

In an increasingly crowded market of on line booking systems, like Travelocity, Expedia, what ever that company that William Shatner plugs, and the one with the traveling gnome (Am I going to die yet is funny), differentiating new hotel or booking systems faces a long hard up road battle. Smaller sites are not going to be seen as often, nor do they get the blog buzz time either. Hotel Reservations dot Com is just one of those sites.

You can access the site here at Hotel Reservations.

Going through the site, and taking a look at just how diverse we could get, and how good the deals are, from Seattle, Boston, London to Bombay, the site did really well in presenting what hotels were available about three weeks from today.

Of course, it is not just hotels, but the standard flight, rental car, and the lot of it. One unique thing we found was the ability to do vacation rentals. That is something that we have not seen at any of the other sites that we have used, so if you wanted to book that working holiday, then this would be one way to find out. The cool part is that you can see a difference between how much it is going to cost, and allow the consumer to take a look at the differences between staying in a hotel or renting an apartment. The only draw back is that there is a 30-day limit on the vacation rentals bit, but then that is probably something that could be negotiated once the vacation rental is set up.

Not too bad a site, in a crowded market the main differentiator is that it is very quick, no “searching for your flights” routine, easy name to remember, and the vacation rentals is definitely something we have not seen at other sites.

This is a sponsored review via PPP.