IRC for Election Day 

We've had IRC for every major event of the 2008 election dating back to the first caucuses and primaries, and through the presidential and vice-presidential debates.

So it seems fitting that we have one final IRC chat for this season, as we share information, points of view, scandals and touching moments of the last day of this election -- hopefully with a happy ending, for as many of us as possible.

irc://irc.freenode.net/#electionDay

See you in the chatroom!

$99 netbooks 

Watch out iPhone, here come the netbooks.

For some people, even today's relatively bulky netbook computers are replacements for iPhones. That's what happened for me. The day I got my Eee PC 901 in July was when I more or less stopped using my iPhone as a computer.

But a netbook with Skype and a service plan is a lot like a cell phone, but unlike Apple's offering, it runs an OS with a wealth of software and developer know-how that is wide open. There's no gatekeeper who gets to say who can and can't put whatever software they want on a netbook.

And watch out Google, it beats Android too -- again so many more people know how to program Windows, it runs everything. For that reason I'm not running out to buy an Android phone, but I already own two netbooks.

Another bet I'd make -- the netbooks are going to shrink to phone size. You can see the space being made in the Asus product line. They're dropping the 7-inch screens in favor of the 10-inch ones, the keyboards on the 7-inch models aren't very usable, but they'll surely have a netbook form factor the size of a cell phone that plugs into a USB port on my laptop-like netbook. And each will cost $99 with a service plan, and they've lovely computers.

This is the future.

Heard on MSNBC 

"The first 16 presidents could have owned Barack Obama as property." -- Jonathan Alter, on MSNBC this morning.

Never thought of it that way, but it's true.

Opting-out of political smears 

I don't think reporters should pass on misleading stories. It would be better to act as a firewall, a defense against obvious campaign lies. It should be especially easy when they charges are aimed at the media itself.

Example. Sarah Palin, in the last days of the campaign, is saying that the SF Chronicle withheld comments from Obama saying he would "bankrupt the coal industry."

CNN: Palin knocks Obama over months-old coal comments.

The statement she's referring to was made in January, when Obama was still pretty green, and spoke perhaps a little too directly, with too much of truth. I don't think he said he would or wanted to bankrupt the coal industry, rather that he wanted to do something to reverse global warming. Almost anything we do to keep this planet habitable by our species will make it harder for the coal industry, which by definition pumps carbon to the atmosphere. Coal is carbon, pure and simple, and when you burn it, it goes into the atmosphere. That should be expensive. We should encourage development of technology that generates electricity without doing that.

Anyway, the Chronicle says it published the comments in print and as full video. I think MSNBC should check that out before passing through the Palin charge without comment. You don't have to call her a liar, you could just ignore the statement.

SF Chronicle: Palin suggests Chronicle withheld Obama remarks.

In any case, it's gratifying in the final days of the campaign to see the media not getting totally obsessed with other obvious smears. It's just the extremes in the blogosphere that are focusing on the crazy stuff. Maybe that could be the norm in political coverage.

Olbermann on SNL