SKIRMISHER

Geeks still have some more weeks to win $5000 in cold hard Google cash. If you’re great with code and dismal with things like chopping wood, milking cows, and talking back to your draconian grandmother, this is your shot. Google has extended its Desktop Gadget Contest to August 14, which gives you a chance to show the world how, under the right conditions, you can also kick ass.

And why would you want to win? Aside from the cash, the Official Google t-shirt, Google firmly assures, can give you the kind of aphrodisiacal aura that comedy has infused in Eddie Murphy; it’s a way of saying that if you win this, the next day you’re walking down the road picking up pussies like they’re dandelions. Girls just begin falling in your path. And for a geek, that’s the equivalent of this kind of thing is simply unprecedented for dork anybody who’s normally stuck hovering over a PC.

Google Desktop Gadgets are interactive mini-applications that can be anything from games to media players. You can find a list of custom gadgets for your desktop at http://desktop.google.com/plugins. Please note that you may need to download the latest version of Google Desktop from http://desktop.google.com/ to use these gadgets.

Google Desktop Gadgets are also easy to create. Our gadget API and new Gadget Designer let you easily use a WYSIWYG design and testing process, along with common scripting languages, to create gadgets. Submit your gadget to Google and, if it’s approved, we’ll make it available to millions of Google Desktop users. For more details about creating your own gadget, please visit http://desktop.google.com/developer.html.

But not everybody’s allowed to be happy, though; if you’re one of the hapless multitudes living in Iran, Sudan, Cuba, Syria, North Korea, and Burma, and no matter how great a code whiz your Uncle Abdul says you are, Google says you can’t join this party. It’s probably a way of telling you guys that Google has you under siege, you just don’t know it, yet.

Stumble it!