A Political Glimpse from Ireland

Some Predictions I Made for 2008 in 2007

I don’t know how many people have heard about this site but it is useful for sending yourself reminders in the future. It is called futureme.org and I often use it when there are things I would like my older self to remember. Here goes:

Dear Crian

Here are the predictions you made in 2007 for 2008, lets see if they are right:

1. Open Source will continue to grow as stated in IBM’s future predictions but I think more average people will come to know the term as lets face it, 50,000 brains are better than one or even 50.

2. Gaming Sales will increase steadily with more and more average people playing games. The PS3’s sales with catch up with the XBOX360 but Nintendo will stain reign supreme.

3. A private equity firm will inject billions of dollars into AMD to help them compete with Intel a bit better in the CPU and GPU market.

4. More people will sign up to Gmail as I have done with Microsoft realizing that Windows Live and Hotmail are a dying product which they will slowly reduce their efforts in respectively.

5. The Big 4 Accounting firms will continue to be hit with scandals this year as more people realize that they are too large for their own good and they go with the small-medium sized firms.

6. The increasing inflation in China reaches a breaking point and the Chinese stock market crashes with millions of people losing money around the world. The government does not have an explanation and the people of China become angry, companies start pulling out of China and move to more stable democractic economies.

7. Vietnam and South Korea prove to be what investors need, stable fast growing economies with a talented population. Both of these countries will prosper as the Chinese economy falters.

8. Hillary Clinton is elected the first female president of the United States along with Barrack Obama her vice-president. Many of the political initiatives started by the Bush Administration are reversed however the Supreme Court still fights for the conservative view of life.

9. The American economy makes a resurgence in the 4th quarter of 2008 with many analysts optimistic about the new change in presidency. Growth rate of 2% predicted for November and December.

10. People around the world continue to automate with the ideas of the “internet fridge” and other such devices not so foreign anymore. The automated home networked computer system becomes more common place.

Obama’s Technology Edge

I watched an interesting clip on CNN today talking about the difference between Senator Obama and Senator McCain as far as technology goes. I had written an earlier post about Senator Obama’s heavy investment in technology and concluded that this was because a significant portion of his base was younger and more technologically literate, therefore more likely to use services like Twitter, Myspace, Facebook and YouTube.

Twitter is an amazing tool; living in Ireland one of my biggest dislikes is that the time difference screws up me watching certain political events that occur in America. A great function of twitter until a few weeks ago was that you could follow certain people like Barack Obama on your mobile phone and twitter would send you an SMS:

politifact Joe Biden: Says McCain “supported George Bush’s policies 95 percent of the time.” http://tinyurl.com/5c4bxe about 19 hours ago from twitterfeed

The problem for international users like myself is that it was costing Twitter $1,000 a person so they don’t offer that service anymore unless you live in America. Regardless, Twitter is an example of a social service Senator Obama’s media team has used to keep his supporters informed when he makes speeches and on other events like his choice of a VP.  Senator McCain does not need to use technology because his focus is on the seasoned voter, the older voter etc… however does this lack of technology use reduce involvement with his campaign?

Senator Obama can maintain a level of involvement with his supporters through social media that allows him to keep up donations while reminding his supporters to spread the word, get their neighbors involved or make people aware about any nasty smear by right-wing organizations.Senator McCain on the other hand has to rely on TV and the radio which is not as fast, or personal as spreading issue awareness compared to a simple SMS to a cellphone or a post on Senator Obama’s  Facebook group.

Will this new method of involvement make the difference, only the next two months will tell the whole story but I believe the McCain camp is at a distinct disadvantage:

The Technocratic Age

Bill Gates has been credited with saying the following:

Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.

That statement coincides with my beliefs when it comes to technology, I believe it can provide the solution to many of mankind’s problems if we allow the relevant research. The world’s greatest invention came from America in the form of the first microprocessor created by Intel and technology will play an even more pivotal role in the future of America for generations to come. The government and the leadership of the United States has a role to play in this process by doing everything possible to foster the growth of the science and technology industry to hopefully maintain America’s domination online and offline.

The problem as noted by Mother Jones is that on Senator McCain’s website, his policies with regards to technology vary from general to non-existent:

John McCain, as of yet, has few such fans in the tech sector. His campaign website does not have a section about technology. Sprinkled throughout the site are a handful of references to tech issues

Senator Obama’s website on the other hand has a specific section of his site designated as a place for people to inform themselves about his stance on issues of Technology:

The two points that Senator Obama stresses that I feel are quite significant are the lack of emphasis on math and science in schools today. If America is to remain competitive in the technological environment, it needs to source its future engineers, scientists, and programmers from within the country rather than importing people from India and China . Federal funding should be increased for schools to provide more comprehensive education in the sciences and mathematics fields and maybe even financial incentives for students to enter these fields after high school.

For America to truly succeed in the 21st century, it needs a leader who is in touch with the way technology influences our lives. This influence is only going to grow and being able to effeciently intergrate technology into all levels of society will create a new kind of America, a better America where the United States continues to lead the world in innovation, invention and intellect for centuries to come.

I Am So Green

Well I am not really, the one thing I really dislike about Ireland is that I have to pay for plastic bags every time I go to the grocery store. I remember the good old days of PriceChopper where not a penny in my pocket went to pay to carry my own groceries out of the store. That being said I have come to accept the fact that everyone on this planet must become more environmentally progressive to ensure that future generations have a planet to live on and won’t have to live on the moon with me when I retire ( A childhood fantasy).

This recent debate on the price of oil is pointless and typical short-term thinking of the GOP. America needs to think in the long term and make a plan to embrace renewable energy. I want you to imagine a scenario where America is the leader in the world in terms of renewable energy, that can be a reality if America catches up to Europe and surpasses the EU in embracing green technology. When burgeoning economies like China and Russia exhaust their oil supplies, the majority of Americans will be using renewable energy therefore preventing the economy from suffering any impact from such a energy disaster.

The key is to start planning now and invest money in a green infrastructure that will be malleable to the changes within American society as more people adopt environmentally friendly ways of living. In that future, every American family owns a hydrogen powered car or electric car, where 50% of American households have solar panels attached to their houses making use of the abundant sunlight that we lack here in Ireland. This may sound like a pipe dream but it is something I hope for as I would not want any other country to be an example for environmental leadership than the good old U.S.A.

The Obama Money Trail

As promised, I have taken a screenshot of Senator Obama’s finances through opensecrets.org to contrast his top contributors with those of Senator McCain. Let me make the disclaimer that I will look at this in a positive context so feel free to disagree with me at any point. Senator Obama has received the lion’s share of political contributions compared to Senator McCain but the majority has come from his strong white-collar base with small donations at periodic intervals. Senator Obama’s money gives him significant advantages over Senator McCain but I found it intriguing to examine his list of top contributors. I highlighted the two segments that were significant, the first was the Education sector and the last was the Technology sector. Opensecrets.org does all the hard work by tabulating the data available from the Federal Election Commission:

This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2008 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate , rather the money came from the organization’s PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

I don’t encourage people to vote for a candidate based on who supports them but this should show the American people who the biggest technology companies in the world want to win, i.e. Google and Microsoft. I am just guessing…but Senator McCain is not the most technologically literate person and has actually admitted not knowing how to use a computer.

The second trend focuses on the Education sector which if we compared Senator McCain’s top contributors, we see that he has received no donations from some of the top educational institutions in this country, I wonder why that is? Maybe because these institutions know Senator McCain is not going to be good for this country.

Lastly the only organization I don’t like out of that list is Time Warner who are noted as being “big bad” business. They are currently facing a string of lawsuits with regards to their practices without a care in the world according to dmnews.com:

Time Warner Cable is facing lawsuits for alleged failures in customer service, but the company appears to not be making any specific moves to address litigious consumers.

Beyond this Time Warner issue, the majority of the top Contributors indicate to me that Senator Obama is the right person to lead the United States into a technologically competitive world where education is the key.

The Ron Paul Effect

Well I saw this story on Digg last night but I could not get the video to show up because the blog in question was using a relatively new video search engine called Redlasso. This morning was another story because as I was doing my daily blog walk around the internet lanes, the folks over at Liberty Maven had found the relevant  clip on YouTube. Now let me clarify a few things:  I don’t know too much about Ron Paul or what he stands for but I do know he has a fairly strong following on one of my favorite Geek Pages also known as Slashdot. They even ran a poll at one stage as to who would best represent the nerds out there and Mr.Paul won with 52% of the vote. Congressman Paul is hugely popular online and has some good ideas however he has alot of fundamental republican philosophies that I disagree with but the fact that he has somewhat endorsed Senator Obama makes me a fair bit happy on this Sunny Sunday. Hopefully Ron Paul’s success online can help Senator Obama in the general election.