Meet the Man Behind CNN's Multitouch Magic Wall

Those of you who watch CNN have probably noticed the neat multitouch screen the anchors have been playing with since the beginning of the election season. Now that all the votes are coming in and we're literally counting down to the big reveal, the news network has given a shout out to the man behind the Magic Wall—Jeff Han of Perceptive Pixel. More »

Why is Family Guy Playing Above CNN’s Magic Wall on Election Night?

If you are like most Americans tonight, you are probably tuned in to CNN, analyzing everything you see—even those television screens about the Magic Wall. And if you're looking over the wall, you might catch Family Guy running on screens above all that red and blue. It wouldn't be the first time we'd catch these guys goofing off during politics. I wonder if this episode is the one where Peter becomes the president of his own nation? If so, it’s certainly fitting. [Thanks Joe!] More »

Astronauts Cast Votes From Space, But It's Only One Regular Vote For Mankind

Astronauts Michael Fincke and Gregory Chamitoff did what only four other Astronauts have done in NASA's 50 years when they voted today—from space. Thanks to a Texas bill passed in 1997, NASA space cases are able to legally vote while they're out of the planet on business. But how did they cast their ballot from space, you ask? Here's the answer that Space.com got. More »

I Vote For Technology

Gizmodo is not endorsing a presidential candidate. Nearly everyone on staff agreed that it would be a bad idea, for a lot of valid reasons. Besides the fact that Gizmodo is seen by many as a means of escape from the the real world, we simply don't cover politics. Many on our staff felt that, even if we weighted our selection using just the candidates' statements on technology, we'd just be trivializing the truly pressing issues—the economy, the wars, national security, America's cultural divide and our standing in the international community, to toss out a handful. But I think you guys should know where at least one of us is coming from: Technology is political, because it's tightly intertwined with every major issue. If you don't grasp technology, you no longer understand the world. I'm voting for the guy who gets that. More »

DIY SpokePOV System Lights Up Your Bike in Support for Obama

Past generations decked out their bike spokes with playing cards, this generation is doing it with LEDs. One of the best examples so far comes from a Flickr user that utilized six SpokePOV kits to turn his bicycle wheel into a stunning, illuminated Obama logo. If you would like to do a little campaigning of your own, all of the .dat files necessary to reproduce the effect are available on Aneel's Flickr site. Naturally, you can customize it to endorse whichever candidate you choose. Either way, it definitely makes a statement. [Aneel's Flickr Page via Make via Likecool]

How to Hack Voting Machines for Fun and Profit

Voting is great and everything, but wouldn't it be awesome if you could make your vote count more than once? Or, even better, change other people's votes to be for your candidate of choice? Well, good news, America! Now that we're using poorly-designed and insecure electronic voting machines, you can do just that with some simple hacking! And thanks to some researchers at Princeton, anyone can be a voting machine hacker. Here, we'll show you how! More »