Is Obama using hypnosis?

Some claim so.

Or how about the Obama Code?

Obama TIME Person of the Year

Barack Obama has been named the TIME person of the year. This, perhaps, nicely caps off his achievements this year. But his ascendancy to the world's most powerful office comes with high expectations and high hopes, especially in such uncertain economic times. If all that he said is to be realized, a "brighter day will come".

Henry Paulson, Nicholas Sarkozy, Sarah Palin and Zhang Yimou are the runner-ups.


On the tech front, Apple has announced that it is pulling out of MacWorld.

It's hard to believe 2009 is almost here.

The week in recap

President-Elect Barack Obama
The recent democratic election of an Afican-American to the world's most powerful office has resulted in optimists around the world asking if a country's top office can be headed by a person from a minority racial group.

"I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible." -- Barack Obama, NDC 2004

Firefox
2 days ago, Mozilla Firefox turned 4. The next milestone will be the release of Mozilla Minefield, which comes with a new JS JIT engine called tracemonkey.


Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton, one of my favorite authors, passed away last week. Fans may remember Crichton for Jurrasic Park and E.R. drama series. Crichton introduced me to the fast-paced genre of thrillers. His novels had the courage to deal with controversies that often leave the reader pondering over the realism that one associates with life. I will always remember reading "The Andromeda Strain" through the silence of the night into the wee hours of the morning.

Obama Wins

Barack Hussein Obama II is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and President-elect of the United States of America.

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain to become the 44th President of the United States and the first Black President in U.S. history. He will take the oath of office and become the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009.

Source: Wikipedia

Change is coming

Obama '08 - Vote For Hope from MC Yogi on Vimeo.

Draft Lessig for Congress

Stanford Law Professor, Lawrence Lessig, is considering whether to run for Congress. Lessig is better know as the founder and CEO of Creative Commons and also the founder of the Free Culture movement.

In the above video, notes how Lessig rapidly displays short phrases to make his point. Some call his presentation style the "Lessig Method".

I will support Lessig if he chooses to run for Congress.

Update: Lessig has decided not to run for Congress.

Web Politics

(Click to enlarge the image above.) This is modern-day web politics (1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc)... and its for real. (I checked it myself, but I don't know if it has been removed.) For the record, Magneto befriended Charles Xavier. Maybe these are the "bad things" on the web.

However, to quote one of my previous posts...

Moreover, the ease with which the internet spreads wrong-headedness–to say nothing of lies and slander–is offset by the ease with which it spreads insights and ideas. To regret the glorious fecundity of new media is to choose the hushed reverence of the cathedral over the din of the bazaar. (The Economist)

Web 2.0 Update: Microsoft's Photosyth has been hailed as a killer app. (The Technology Preview is out!)

Politics 2.0

Web 2.0 is about participation. And now Wikipedia founder, Jimbo Wales (user page), wants to change the way politics is run. He has started a political wiki, called Central Campaign Wikia on Wikia to user in a new era of web-based "participatory politics". Indubitably, if he succeeds, the Internet will see Politics 2.0.

Blog and wiki authors are now inventing a new era of media, and it is my belief that this new media is going to invent a new era of politics. If broadcast media brought us broadcast politics, then participatory media will bring us participatory politics.

To add on to Web 2.0 observations...

With regards to Wikipedia, Emigh & Herring argued in 2005 that "a few active users, when acting in concert with established norms within an open editing system, can achieve ultimate control over the content produced within the system, literally erasing diversity, controversy, and inconsistency, and homogenizing contributors' voices."

In the same vein, somone has finally found out that the top 100 Digg users control 56% of Digg's homepage content. Looking at the latest Ajax Aiki startup, called Wetpaint, its easy to notice that there are always a few people who are doing the work. In addition, look at 43things, and you will realise that after so many months since it was founded, the number of users seem to be stuck at below 500,000 - rather, the nummber of users have more or less reached a plateau.