Two-Face: Will Google Become The New Patent Villain?

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MG Siegler, writing for Pandodaily:

This also presumably means they’ll be suing Microsoft and trying to bring down the H.264 video codec — which, by the way, Google created a competitor to (WebM) out of fear that someone would come along one day and try to enforce patents that would kill the H.264 video codec. How’s that for a mind fuck? Indeed. Make sure you read his whole piece. Good read.

Google, What Were You Thinking?

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Google got caught with its hand in the cookie jar. Stefan Magdalinski, writing for Mocality:

Since October, Google’s GKBO appears to have been systematically accessing Mocality’s database and attempting to sell their competing product to our business owners. They have been telling untruths about their relationship with us, and about our business practices, in order to do so. As of January 11th, nearly 30% of our database has apparently been contacted. ... I did not expect to find a human-powered, systematic, months-long, fraudulent (falsely claiming to be collaborating with us, and worse) attempt to undermine our business, being perpetrated from call centres on 2 continents. The news coming out these days about Google is all sunshine and peaches, huh? Make sure you read Stefan's entire post.

Gina Trapani ports Todo.txt from Android to iOS, 40% More Sales On First Day

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Co-host of the TWiT network's This Week in Google podcast and highly regarded Android proponent, Gina Tapani, has ported her Todo.txt Android app to iOS:

I announced the app went on sale yesterday morning on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, then Lifehacker ran a post on it. It got no other press coverage. I announced the Android app release in exactly the same way on January 24th of last year (minus Google+, which didn't exist then). If my Googling skills serve me right, Lifehacker did not run a post the day the Android app went on sale, though they did the week before when I was beta-testing it. The first day of iOS app sales was solid: just around 365 apps sold, compared to the 215 I sold on the first day of Todo.txt Touch's availability in the Android Market. That means the iOS app sold 40% more units under somewhat similar conditions as the Android app on release day. Her whole post is worth the read as she discusses how the project came together (it's open source) and some of her thoughts on working on an iOS app in comparison to an Android app.

There Is But One Constant In The Universe

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There is but one constant in the universe: No matter how many times via phone, in person, or over email that you tell a sales person that you will get back in touch with them once you hear something… Whether, yes we will buy your product, or no we will not… Especially when it is not up to you to make a decision, but your boss for whom you've done the research for, turned over the information and are waiting to hear back from… The sales person will incessantly call and or email you every 2-3 days non-stop to "just check in" with "how things are going". Constantly. UHG.

Why Best Buy is Going out of Business...Gradually

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Larry Downes, writing for Forbes:

First comes the strategic bankruptcy, well in progress at Best Buy, where management’s sole focus is improving some arbitrary metric from last quarter, even when doing so actually interferes with customers trying to buy something else. The financial collapse comes later. But if history is any guide, the second part, once it starts, will be quick. Downes puts in writing what I've thought for several years now but never really thought enough about to put into words myself. Best Buy's customer service is horrible. Most store employees behave as if they were used car salesmen who try to peddle one or another bad product on their customers depending on which ever product management is trying to push that day. Whatever you buy they try to sell you an "extended warranty", which is how Best Buy makes a lot of their profits. When doing so, they promise (and sometimes lying to do so) that it will cover any possible circumstance. If you ever actually need to use the warranty however, there will be complete reversal from the sales pitch and instead find every reason that whatever circumstance you have encountered, is not actually covered under the warranty. Their entire business is predicated on scamming their customers. How is anyone surprised that they're now on a downward trend that will lead to their bankruptcy in the next 5-10 years?

Just Wow!

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Mike Krahulik (Gabe), writing at Penny Arcade:

I got an incredible email today from a Penny Arcade reader. Dave shared with me an email chain between him and Ocean Marketing (the folks behind the Avenger controller) Trust me when I tell you that this is one wild ride. I’m serious, Mr. Toad would look at this ride and just give a slow clap while shaking his head. I have tried to arrange this as best I can in chronological order. I’ve also removed email addresses and other private information. So let’s just jump right in, here is Dave’s first mail to Ocean Marketing: See the entire email exchange. John Siracusa, Will Shipley, and Dave Nanian summed up the entire ordeal nicely on Twitter:

Another Statement From Louis C.K. (December 21, 2011)

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Louis C.K, writing on his website:

hi. So it's been about 12 days since the thing started and yesterday we hit the crazy number. One million dollars. That's a lot of money. Really too much money. I've never had a million dollars all of a sudden. and since we're all sharing this experience and since it's really your money, I wanted to let you know what I'm doing with it. People are paying attention to what's going on with this thing. So I guess I want to set an example of what you can do if you all of a sudden have a million dollars that people just gave to you directly because you told jokes. So I'm breaking the million into four pieces. The rest of his post outlines exactly what he plans to do with the money. Spoiler alert: he's a generous man. Andy Baio made a good observation on Twitter:

I do hope Louis C.K. moves that pile out of Paypal to a safer location, and soon.