Oracle may depose Google CEO Larry Page and two others in connection with its lawsuit accusing Google of patent infringement in its Android operating system, a magistrate in California ordered on Thursday.

Oracle may depose Page for a maximum of two hours, excluding breaks, solely on topics relevant to the willfulness of the defendant's alleged patent infringement, and the value of Android to the defendant, Judge Donna M. Ryu of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said in her order.

Oracle seeks to depose Page regarding his knowledge of the negotiations between Sun Microsystems and Google between 2005 and 2010 to obtain a Java license for Android, as well as his decision to purchase the start-up Android, she added.

In a letter of July 14, Oracle said it was seeking to depose Page, former Google employees Dipchand Nishar and Bob Lee, and Tim Lindholm, a former Sun employee who has worked for Google since around 2004. The court conducted a telephonic hearing on July 21.

The court denied Oracle's request to depose Nishar. Google had countered that while Nishar was a senior director for products in the Asia Pacific region, he was "not a major player" with regard to Android or Google's mobile business.

Oracle sued Google last August, saying its Android OS violates Java copyrights and seven Java-related patents that Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems. The extent to which Android is important to Google, and its advertising revenue from the operating system, are likely to be key to determining the large damages that Oracle is expecting from the suit.

These depositions supplement the ten that Oracle has already taken.

Oracle asserted that Lindholm was involved in negotiations between Sun and Google for a Java license in the 2005 to 2006 time period as a technical advisor in a position to evaluate the necessity of licensing. Lee's name is tied to a significant number of documents, including some that indicate awareness of the need for licenses, which may be relevant to Oracle's claims for willful infringement, the judge noted.

In a separate hearing before Judge William Alsup , in a bid to poke holes in Oracle's claim for billions in damages a Google attorney said Sun Microsystems offered to license its Java technology to Google for US$100 million.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com

Recently, I saw something online that struck me as a little funny: Someone was advertising a service to take portraits for Facebook profile photos. Why, I wondered, would anyone pay money to have their face snapped for a little 100-pixel thumbnail? Then I really started to notice... Forums are filled with people asking for advice on taking profile pictures. Folks seem to change their profile photo frequently rather than choosing a portrait and sticking with it, like you keep a driver's license photo. (My daughter changes her Facebook profile photo weekly.) I've already talked about general tips for taking portraits, but this seems like a great time to dive into tips specifically for taking great profile photos.

Think Square

Traditional portrait photos usually have a vertical orientation, more tall than wide. It's the very origin of the term "portrait orientation," in fact. That's not true about the photos used by most, if not all, social networking and sharing sites, though. Whether you're taking a picture for Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Windows Live, or some other site, the little frame that your photo sits in is probably going to be perfectly square, or very nearly so.

That can pose a challenge, since we tend to think about portraits as rectangular. You'll want to be sure that the camera is zoomed in (or you are physically close enough). When you compose the shot, put the emphasis on your face, not the rest of your body, or the square cropping will tend to make you appear miniscule, or show way too much of the background.

Use a Simple Background

Speaking of the background, you might want to keep it really simple. Remember that your profile photo will be very small. At Facebook, for example, most people see a profile photo that's just 50 pixels square. That's like looking at a postage stamp from 3 feet away, so any details in the background will end up looking like noise. You might know what you're looking at, but that's only because you saw the photo when it had 10 million pixels in it. Facebook visitors probably won't have any idea what's going on.

Some people like to use props or a representative setting, but I think the best profile photos have a plain background. Recently, my wife decided she wanted a new profile photo and asked me to take a picture with her camera phone. Unfortunately, we were at a club waiting for a concert to start, and that is rarely the sort of place that's conducive to good photography. Luckily, I found a wall that was solid red and the lighting wasn't abysmal--so I took this shot, which she was quite happy with.

Fill the Frame

You already know we're shooting a picture for an oddball square frame, and a noisy background can be a major distraction (I hope my daughter is reading this--her profile pictures are often an indiscriminate jumble of colored pixels, in which I can barely make her out from the background).

So the logical next step? Fill the frame as much as possible. I think that tight, close-up face shots work best for profile photos. That reduces the clutter and lets visitors easily identify you. Here's the picture I currently use on Facebook, which is mostly me, but has just a single background element--a computer monitor.

Don't go overboard, though. Some folks zoom in so far that you only see a part of their face. It's not a flattering look--I call this the "help, let me out" pose.

Another thing that rarely works well is profile photos containing multiple people. Frequently, I see photos of two or three people, or even an entire family portrait, wedged into that tiny frame. It becomes challenging to identify anyone or anything in a space that small. My advice: Save the family portrait for the photo section of the site, and keep the profile focused on you.

Use Enough Light

Lighting is always important when taking any kind of photo, and doubly so if you're using a camera phone. Certainly, your camera's flash is the enemy. Close-up face shots are easily blown out by camera flash, and in the dark you're likely to get red eye. When I shot that profile photo of my wife that I showed you earlier, I knew we were in a relatively dark place. But instead of using the flash, which would look horrible, I turned on her camera phone's HDR mode, which tries to make the best of available light. The result wasn't something I'd submit in a photo contest, but it was acceptable for Facebook.

Consider the Angle

Finally, one last bit of portrait wisdom: Consider your angle. You can take portraits straight on, for example, from below, or above. Folks are generally somewhat more photogenic when shot from an elevated position, which is why you see a lot of photos of people looking up into the camera on Facebook. It might be a cliché, but it actually works. You can easily get that shot yourself by holding your camera phone at arm's length, just about at forehead or hair level, or someone can get the shot for you. Shots from below, though, are generally not that attractive.

Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality, and technique.

Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.

This week's Hot Pic: "Denver Street Life" by Leo Burkey, Denver, Colorado

Leo says that he processed this photo in Photoshop using a filter called Pixel Bender, which he thinks lends the photo a Norman Rockwell sort of feel.

This week's runner-up: "Cloudy Day" by Nic Jaworski, Charlotte, North Carolina

Nic says that he shot this photo with his LG enV Touch camera phone on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

To see last month's winners, visit our May Hot Pics slide show. Visit the Hot Pics Flickr gallery to browse past winners.

Have a digital photo question? E-mail me your comments, questions, and suggestions about the newsletter itself. And be sure to sign up to have Digital Focus e-mailed to you each week.

By Praveen R. Kambam, Vasilis K. Pozios and H. Eric Bender of Broadcast Thought

Serial killers simultaneously frighten and fascinate. Whether following media coverage of the Long Island Serial Killer or watching Dexter, the public possesses a seemingly insatiable appetite for the macabre.

Comic book fans are no strangers to stranglers and other killers. Batman?s notorious rogues? gallery boasts multiple serial murderers among its members. While some of these fictional characters reflect real-life aspects of serial murder, others perpetuate long-standing misconceptions.

The FBI defines serial murder as ?the unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s) in separate events.? Specific motives for murder are commonly seen in the offender: sexual gratification, anger, thrill, attention and the alleviation of anxious urges, among others. Serial killers may also demonstrate a modus operandi, ritualized behaviors or signature aspects; for example, a killer may manipulate or mutilate the body after a murder.

Sometimes comics characters mimic the hideous acts of real-world serial killers. In the story arc ?The Last Arkham,? by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle (from Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Issues No. 1 to 4), Mr. Zsasz positions his victims? bodies in lifelike poses. In real life, one victim of Gary Leon Ridgway, aka the Green River Killer, was found fully clothed, with two fish placed on her chest, a wine bottle on her stomach and sausages in her hands.

Some serial murderers keep trophies of their kills. In Batman: Cacophony, by Kevin Smith and Walt Flanagan, Onomatopoeia displays in his ?man cave? masks of the heroes he has killed. Real-life serial killer Ed Gein fashioned trophies from the remains of his victims; a mounted human head was discovered in Gein?s possession, ready to be hung.

Scientific and legal jargon can contribute to confusion about serial murderers, their methods and their motives. By analyzing fictional characters, we at Broadcast Thought passionately educate audiences about mental health topics and excite them to learn more about mental illness. We?ll be discussing these ideas Thursday during ?Detecting Deviants in the Dark Night: Profiling Gotham City?s Serial Killers,? our panel at Comic-Con International.

How do we fit into the entertainment world? With our expertise as physicians specializing in forensic psychiatry, we offer a unique opportunity for collaboration with writers and other creators to add nuance and realism to characters and storylines that can make them even more compelling. This is our attempt to cast these fascinating characters in a new light, reinvigorate them, and help keep these beloved characters fresh to both old fans and new readers alike.

In real life, serial killers ? which commit less than 1 percent of murders in any given year ? commonly exhibit characteristics of psychopathy, a collection of behaviors and personality traits that often reflect a callous, uncaring nature. However, Batman villains depicted as psychopathic serial murderers are often incorrectly referred to as ?psychotic? rather than ?psychopathic.?

?Psychosis,? or experiencing a ?psychotic? disorder, refers to a break from reality and is often characterized by disorganized thinking and behavior, hallucinations and/or delusions. Such psychotic symptoms are not commonly seen in the majority of real-life serial murderers and are also not typically depicted in the Batman comics.

An exception is the depiction of the villain Mr. Zsasz in Smith?s Batman: Cacophony. Here, Mr. Zsasz experiences symptoms consistent with psychosis, such as racing, jumbled thoughts and the apparent delusion that he is able to both ?free? his victims from their current life of misery and send them to a better existence by murdering them. Although such a depiction of a psychotically derived motive is plausible, it is not representative of the majority of serial murderers in the real world.

In fact, many assume that if someone commits murder serially or in a particularly bizarre or gruesome manner, then the perpetrator must be ?crazy? or ?insane.? While it is not considered normal ? or acceptable ? human behavior to engage in acts of serial murder, this behavior, in itself, does not mean that mental disorders, such as mood disorders or psychotic disorders, either directly cause serial murders or contribute considerably to the development of serial murderers.

So, if serial murderers are not, by and large, mentally ill, then why are they so frequently labeled ?insane? in the Batman comic books? Many people use ?insane? colloquially, but ?insanity? is not a psychiatric diagnosis. Rather, ?insanity? is a legal term of art, whose specific definition is determined by federal and state statutes.

Generally, criminal defendants found not guilty by reason of insanity did not know or understand, because of mental illness, the nature and quality of their acts or that their acts were wrong. The majority of serial murderers, both in the real world and the Batman universe, would not qualify for a not guilty by reason of insanity defense because they do not have a mental disorder that causes them not to know or understand the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of their acts at the time those acts were committed.

While it is extremely rare for a real-life serial murderer to be found insane (an estimated 4 percent of serial killers attempted to plead insanity as their legal defense; of that group, only 1 percent was actually found to be not guilty by reason of insanity), serial murderers in Gotham City seem almost by default to be (inaccurately) labeled as ?insane.?

The Joker has been called both ?psychotic? and ?insane? but in real life be considered neither.

This may be due, in part, to a misunderstanding of the legal definition of insanity. For example, the Joker, who in numerous depictions has been called both ?psychotic? and ?insane,? would in real life be considered neither. His psychopathic traits would likely lead him to a prison cell and not a forensic hospital bed.

For individuals who are found legally insane, psychiatric medication is often prescribed to treat the underlying mental disorder. For example, Maxie Zeus might be prescribed medication to treat his psychotic belief that he is a direct descendant of the Greek god Zeus. Other medications or psychotherapies may also be helpful for ?non-insane? characters. The Mad Hatter might be prescribed anti-androgen treatment for his pedophilic tendencies, while Harley Quinn might benefit from dialectical behavior therapy. However, medications are not generally prescribed for psychopathic traits; therefore, psychiatric medications would likely not be indicated for the Joker.

And what about the Batman? Well, that?s another story for another time?.

The forensic psychiatrists of Broadcast Thought ? H. Eric Bender, M.D., Praveen R. Kambam, M.D., and Vasilis K. Pozios, M.D. ? will present the panel ?Detecting Deviants in the Dark Night: Profiling Gotham City?s Serial Killers? at 7:30 p.m. Thursday during Comic-Con International. Special guest Mark E. Safarik, a retired FBI agent and former profiler with the bureau?s famed Behavioral Analysis Unit will join them for the panel in Room 8 of the San Diego Convention Center.