Archive for September, 2008

Giant Realm and Google Android

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

**Note: Technical difficulties are delaying the Economics of the Candidates series. I’m doing my best to hurry the process.**

Expanding beyond the world of Escapist writing, I have landed a position as an occasional editorialist for Giant Realm, a site for “Stuff That Doesn’t Suck.”

With such a descriptive caption, one might not understand that it’s a growing editorial portal with plenty of entertaining articles about music, movies, technology and gaming, all interests of ours. I joined Giant Realm to work for my former Escapist editor Joe Blancato, who left to become this site’s Editor-in-Chief. Joe’s an entertaining guy, promising some great content and making this site worth visiting.

My first story is details Google’s Android project, an open-source phone operating system that will debut with T-Mobile this year. I could explain more on my site, but I figure I’ll pimp Giant Realm and ask you to read the blurb below and then go read the full article:

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Logging Out

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

No phones, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury, like Robinson Crusoe, it’s primitive as can be….

I was profusely salivating, drool flinging from my mouth with every angered snap at the computer. My eyes were enraged. All because I had been blocked.

When you’re a computer nerd who doubles as a writer for an online media company, Internet access is kinda important. Nowadays we pay for it like a commodity anyway. It’s a standby in our monthly bills. Much like our utilities, when we pay for it, we expect it to work.

If only I was so lucky. For nearly two days, I have been browser-less.

It happened at the beginning of the summer too. My computer’s network connection was broken by a Windows update, leaving me without work or a connection to the outside world beyond all the old technologies like cell phones, television, or the often feared “face-to-face” get together. Who does that anymore?

But now is an even more dire situation. Not only am I Internet-less, but without power entirely.

A little time away from the eye-bleaching screens that are pasted everywhere in my life hasn’t been all bad. I’ve returned to die-hard reading, finishing the Blackwater book and starting Free Lunch. Managed to find a newfound appreciation for batteries, specifically the rechargable lithium kind. You’d think it’d fix my sleep schedule too, maybe do a nocturnal-to-normal sleep swap. Not even a violent nature can change my one-meal-a-day diet.

In those times when the lights begin to fade, then sun starts setting, and the last chapter of the paperback in your lap begins to thin, you also get to think. In this hectic world of constant technology and talking, thinking is good. Some do it in the shower, some in the car. When you have no water and nowhere to drive, your day becomes a massive think tank. Relationships and careers are all up for reconsideration.

Does this mean any of my opinions of my lovely girlfriend or finance future change?

God no, why would I give up a life as a wealthy baron with a bombastic Asian wife? The power went out, not my senses.

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Economics of the Candidates

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008


It’s time to cut through the crap. There hasn’t been enough publicly written that rebuffs the blatantly liberal bias of the internet and media and isn’t purchased by the conservative corporations. With only two parties able to win the presidency, the options are solidly placed on separate sides of the political spectrum with no truly beneficial middle ground.

In order to inform the uneducated or undecided, I will be starting on my first series of blog posts titled “Economics of the Candidates”. Every other day until the end of the series, I will examine the following policies for both parties:

  • Taxes
  • Business Regulation
  • Housing
  • Alternative Energy
  • Health-Care
  • Trade
  • Economic Advisors
  • War

While no one is truly without bias, I will present the facts and analyze how they will actually act in office with some of my own editorializing. What should come of this examination is a broad, encompassing guide to the platforms of both major US Presidential candidates.

*Note: Congress, the real legislative powers, will be addressed in future posts, but have thus far been pretty passive, so they’re a slight non-issue for now.

**Note: To reveal my own bias before we begin this series, I’m currently leaning 60% McCain, 40% Obama for various reasons that I will explain after this feature is finished. If only Ron Paul hadn’t tried to return to the gold standard and abolish the Reserve, we might’ve had a libertarian candidate we could vote for, but alas, we’re stuck with the same tired parties.

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US Government Bails Out Top Two Mortgage Giants and Brief Comments on the Housing Fiasco

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the two largest mortgage companies in America with their roots stemming back to the Great Depression when FDR formed them as part of his New Deal to handle the majority of America’s mortgages and mortgage repackaging. Ever since, these two government-sponsored institutions have monopolized the mortgage market. This means easy money when people are buying homes.

And it means a colossal public failure when the economy spirals out of control.

In January, the combined companies were valued at approximately $60 billion. Yesterday, they stood at $10 billion. Today, little is left except some pocket change.

A government bailout is more humble and face-saving than a bankruptcy. It also implies that the government sees the business as too vital to fail. However, these events will force some $5 trillion in guaranteed mortgage securities held banks and funds (China’s central bank alone holds $340 billion in mortgage-backed securities) around the world to be the responsibility of the government. This “conservatorship” agreement could force taxpayers to support any losses related to collapsed mortgages from Freddie and Fannie.

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Google Chrome

Friday, September 5th, 2008


Google, the icon of Internet companies, recently released Chrome, an open source browser set to compete with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8, as well as Firefox, for which Google is its largest customer.

The browser itself is still in beta, like GMail and every other Google service, and I expect it’ll stay that way for some time. The appearance is slick but goofy, something that Google has become increasingly good at designing for its products. Toolbars and menus are at a minimum; all screen space is efficiently compacted to provide room for more web page. Launching Chrome opens up a “Most Visited” pages dashboard.

Specific features aren’t really the story surrounding Chrome, as those, such as a noticeable absent Bookmark Manager, will be taken care of by the development community due to the free-to-download code. What’s more fascinating is this is the next move in the great Chess battle between Microsoft and Google, with Google putting the King in check.

“Think of Chrome as more than a simple Web browser,” Google declares. “It’s a platform for running Web applications.”

When Google says “platform”, they mean two things: A foundation to run their web applications and a place to display their advertisements. Microsoft’s online tools are lacking in polish and popularity compared to Google’s, which means more and more web users will be viewing Google ads. It’s no longer a matter of Microsoft being unable to crack the online advertising market; now Google is invading Microsoft’s oldest and most secure businesses. Someone in Redmond has to be worried.

Every time I open Google Chrome I might be adding money to its already bulging $12 billion pocketbook. But heck, their code sure does load Youtube videos faster than Firefox.

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