Google 101: Hypocrisy at its Finest

Let us rewind back to a little over a month ago. Nortel, who filed for bankruptcy back in 2009, put its remaining patents portfolio up on the auction block.¹ A number of big named companies bid for the patents, including Google and Intel among others, with the final bid awarded to an alliance of tech companies consisting of Apple, Microsoft, RIM, Sony Ericsson, and EMC. The portfolio sold for about $4.5 billion in cash, which is far more than the patents were actually worth. But hey, that's what an auction is for, right?

Though Google was not a winner in the bid for Nortel's patents, they did get a series of press mentions for the manner in which they placed their bids.² Initial confusion arose over the figures Google chose, such as $1,902,160,5400, $2,614,972,128, and $3,141,592,653. You may recognize the last figure as being the first 7 digits of Pi, though it turns out that all of Google's bids were references to mathematical constants. While such behavior is no surprise to anyone who is familiar with Google's geeky culture, some analysts wondered if Google was not taking the auction serious, and thus making a mockery with their bids.

Fast forward to a month later, when Senior VP and CLO of Google, David Drummond, published a post on Google's official blog, chastising Apple and Microsoft for their participation in the auction.³ Drummond made a claim that Google's Android mobile operating system is a victim of a hostile, organized campaign [...] waged through bogus patents. Evidence of such exists in the fact that Microsoft is now demanding that Samsung⁴ and Barnes & Noble⁵ among others, pay royalties for each Android smartphone that it sells, due to patent infringement. A similar demand was awarded to Microsoft last year, after striking a deal with HTC, ensuring that Microsoft receives royalties for every unit sold.⁶ As irony would have it, Microsoft now makes more money from the sales of Android phones than from mobile handsets running the Windows Phone OS.⁷

Gaming PC Build: 2011 Edition

If you ask me, right now is a great time to build a PC. Even if you have no intention of breaking the bank, you can still configure a respectable gaming tower. There are some great technologies to take advantage of, such as Intel's Sandy Bridge¹ and Nvidia's Cuda² architectures, that will ensure you will be able to run any game on the market today without compromise. Just recently, I configured what I consider to be a high-end mid-range gaming PC utilizing these technologies. Without further adieu, here is what I put in my PC build:

• Intel Core i5-2500K³ - Not a top of the line Core i7, but easily over-clockable and more than sufficient to handle any tasks thrown at it. If building a PC today, I would not go any lower than quad-core.

• Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD⁴ - The Z68 motherboards are the first to take full advantage of the Sandy Bridge's potential. While there are more inexpensive alternatives on the market, this mobo in particular includes a 20 GB mSata SSD, ripe for the SRT picking.

• EVGA Geforce GTX 560 TI⁵ - The first Nvidia graphics card with all cores of the Fermi architecture unlocked. A significant performance boost can be achieved by adding a second card i SLI. However, even one card can adequately handle anything thrown at it today.

The Kill Screens: Science Fiction Movie Album Review

The wait is over. The demand for this album has been building ever since The Kill Screens¹ provided the soundtrack for an iOS game, Tomato Interactive’s² Blokzilla³. It is no coincidence that they were introduced in such a fashion, as the music in this album is heavily influenced from video games. Some of the instrumentals sound like they were plucked out of a 16-bit role playing game, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. As a child of the late 80’s/early 90’s, the album’s backdrop certainly provided a sense of nostalgia for me. Don’t get me wrong, the music is not simple by any means, it is clear that Matt McCarthy and John Jacobson took their time to perfect every second of the album. The melodies are entrancing, the timing is impeccable, and the lyrics are just deep enough. It is not often that I can play an album from front to back without skipping a track, but this album fits the bill. Each individual track stands out on its own, yet the entire album flows together quite nicely. It’s difficult to choose my favorite track, probably a tie between Runaway, Breathe, and Spacewalk. Either way, you owe it yourself to purchase this album, put on a good pair of headphones, and drift away to another world.

Ten Ways to Tell If Your Neighbor is Osama bin Laden

10. The wifi access point next door reads: "Al Qaeda 4 Lyfe"
9. As a welcoming gift, your neighbor brought you an apple pie with wires and a cell phone attached to it.
8. When you refused to eat the pie, you were called an infidel.
7. You caught a glimpse of yourself mowing the lawn in the background of his latest video.
6. He introduced his son to you as his 21st child from his 7th marriage.
5. You keep accidentally receiving mail addressed to Guy Incognito.
4. A sniper took out your TV while you were watching President Obama's state of the union address.
3. When the paperboy tossed him a newspaper, his wife dove to protect him.
2. Repeated Craigslist personal ads seeking 72 virgins.

And the number one way to tell if your neighbor is Osama bin Laden...

1. The helicopters landing on your roof at 1 AM.