On Computers » government

PARKING IN BASES

Bob and Joy Schwabach — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:02:31 +0000

“Bases” is a new 99-cent iPhone app that connects you to 160 military bases throughout the U.S. Tap to phone a base, get its address, link to its website or find out what facilities it has like a recreational-vehicle campsite, gym, commissary, and so on. (The RV campsites are handy for military retirees on long drives. Any former Armed Forces personnel can use them.) The iPhone app also works with the iPad or iPod Touch. More info at BasesApp.com.

MONEY AND POLITICS

Bob and Joy Schwabach — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:44:53 +0000

Maplight.com follows the money in politics. Recent example: Oil and gas interest groups gave 7.7 times as much money ($6,097 each), to House members who voted “yes” on speeding up construction of a new oil and gas pipeline as they gave to House members who voted “no.” The measure passed the House on July 27.

CHILE’S GRAND TECH EXPERIMENT

Bob and Joy Schwabach — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 19:04:14 +0000

Chile is trying to become the next Silicon Valley. The government is offering $40,000 to each potential entrepreneur plus a visa, free office space, assistance with networking, mentoring, and fundraising.

The program, called Start-Up Chile, is still in the pilot stage. It will officially launch in mid-January. You can read about some of the teams here. Some of them are tackling water problems, others have tracking systems for solar panels, another is a travel planner.

Vivek Wadhwa, who helped conceive the program, says this will work where government-run technology centers tend not to.

THE NEW GOLD RUSH

Bob and Joy Schwabach — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:58:40 +0000

There’s a new gold rush. But it’s not for gold, it’s for data. Get your hands on the right data and you can build an important new website. Recently- available U.S. government data has resulted in these sites and apps:

MedWatcher.org, a free app for staying up to date on government warnings about prescriptions.

CountyHealthRankings.org, provides a lot of statistics on each U.S. county, including the percentage of binge drinkers, teen birth rate, the violent crime rate, the pollution level and so on.

Popular Science magazine has an app for finding about the latest earthquakes. The data comes from Data.gov/raw/34/ which has earthquake info for the last seven days.

The data that powers these sites did not come easily. It all started when the guys who founded BrightScope.com, a retirement-plan comparison site, lobbied the U.S. government for more data. The government responded that they could deliver it in paper form: it would come in 1,400 large boxes. (Oh, boy. That’s handy.) The guys from BrightScope said forget that, we need it in electronic form. After much pushing and shoving, the result was Data.gov, which began with 47 categories of U.S. government data online about a year ago and now has 2,326 data sets.

Earthquake data is the most popular (whole lot of shaking going on), with 122,888 downloads. In second place are the latest ten volumes of the U.S. historical record on foreign relations. Third most popular is info on U.S. overseas loans and grants. For more info, search on “data.gov” at Radar.Oreilly.com.

NET NEUTRALITY FIGHT

Bob and Joy Schwabach — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:46:25 +0000

Groups left and right are fighting Google’s decision to support “net neutrality” for wired but not wireless communications.

Wikipedia defines net neutrality in a way that makes it sound like the main issue is allowing companies to charge heavy users of the Internet more than light users.

But Gene, one of our faithful readers, points out:

“The bigger issue is that the providers could slow to a crawl any group they don’t like for political or religious issues. They could and can slow traffic from their competitors.”

WEBSITES FOR COMPLAINING AND VIDEO EDITING

Bob and Joy Schwabach — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:37:42 +0000

SeeClickFix.com is designed to help people submit complaints about their city to their city. Of course it helps if city workers actually monitor the site. Our town actually does, and recently responded to a woman’s complaint about an alley near her home almost before her fingers left the keys.
Animoto.com lets you create professional looking videos in a few seconds, by dragging and dropping the clips you’ve uploaded, and using an easy interface to trim your segments. It’s free to use if your video is less than 30 seconds long. Otherwise, it’s $3 a video or $30 a year for an unlimited number.

NEWS YOU CAN USE AND GREEN BY DESIGN

Bob and Joy Schwabach — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:07:01 +0000

Buuuz.com is a news and information sharing service with a really pleasant interface. The site shows a cartoon sea with small islands. You click on a menu to put a new island in your sea, and then type in the words that describe your special interest. News items and messages from friends and colleagues that fit that category appear in a bottle floating next to the island. Gamers might have an island for their favorite game, for example. Joy created a recipe island and just got a new potato pancake recipe from Betty Crocker. We also have a gadget island that brings in gadget and gizmo news. It’s a very relaxing setting.
PolicyNewslinks.com is a site aimed at reporters and editors. It sends a daily email with news gathered from over 2,300 websites maintained by the federal government, U.S. Congress and approximately 1,000 advocacy groups. The first day we signed on we learned about a drug bust yielding 4,000 pounds of marijuana, and 43 companies dumping waste in South Gate, California. There were hundreds of stories. The service is free for the first 30 days.
GreenByDesign.com has environmentally friendly stuff for sale. We liked the biodegradable trash bags and bamboo utensil holders. They also have hand-cranked radios, and chaise lounge chairs made of cork – these last are expensive, but they float.

WE’RE FROM THE GOVERNMENT

Bob and Joy Schwabach — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:37:57 +0000

One of more familiar joke lines of dark comedy is: “We’re from the government and we’re here to help you.” Sure you are.

It should therefore come as no surprise that a University of Michigan study of 230,000 citizens found they were more satisfied in their dealings with private companies’ websites than in trying to get information or action from the websites of government agencies. The web is helping, however. When looking for information or assistance from the government, the vast majority of respondents in the study said they got better results by going to an agency’s web site than calling directly. (Of course. Have you ever tried to call anyone at a government agency?)

The highest satisfaction was with the government’s site for information about Medicare Prescription Drug Plans. Go to SocialSecurity.gov and click on “Medicare.”