CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-22 15:05:21 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 15 +1s)

There's huge business advantage to be seized by doing this: "Today I read the best magazine on Earth" http://getlittlebird.com/2013/05/today-i-read-the-best-magazine-on-earth/ by @xolotl

I too have been reading a new Little Bird-powered Feedly reading list and holy cow has it been awesome.

2013-05-19 18:17:59 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 15 +1s)

Experiment in the Feynman Method of learning, let me see if I can explain what I just read and see which parts of it require I go back to the book:

The difference between building something that works and building something anyone can use, extend and that's a part of a larger system.

Building a thing which anyone can use and extend and which is a part of a larger system, is the highest type of sysytems programming, says Frederick Brooks in the Mythical Man Month, but it costs 9X as much as just building something simple that works for you.

Building something that anyone can use and extend requires that it be built in very generalized terms, that it be tested with the widest range of possible inputs and that it be documented well. Brooks says this costs at least 3X as much as building something that simply works.

Building something that's part of a... more »

2013-05-19 17:43:54 (2 comments, 5 reshares, 32 +1s)

Data viz programming language Processing has a new release with JSON, CoffeeScript, a new UI & more http://processing.org/about/ via +Jer Thorp on Twitter

2013-05-19 16:22:53 (3 comments, 10 reshares, 36 +1s)

Using wireless sensors to solve water distribution problems in India - super cool! 
http://thealternative.in/social-business/using-wireless-networks-to-solve-water-problems

2013-05-18 18:36:19 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 23 +1s)

Great product managers and their relationship to customer demand, according to Ben Horowitz and David Weiden:

"Good product managers listen to customers but they probe deeper into the underlying problems to get at the compelling value proposition for the customer.  

If you had a noisy car you might ask for a louder stereo, but you would probably be a lot happier with a quieter car.  A good product manager gets at that difference.  Good product managers also know what customers can & will pay for (sometimes that's slightly different than what they want). 

Good product managers do quantitative research. 

Good product managers are certain that if they build a certain product, customers will buy it.  Good product managers understand that if they screw this up, they might as well pack it in so they go the extra mile to make sure they get thisright... more »

2013-05-18 04:09:59 (21 comments, 0 reshares, 69 +1s)

Looking at a 30 under 30 slideshow, and wanting to rip all those peoples' heads off their necks, I thought I'd post a picture of what one 36 year old tech exec looks like.  Also, I am going to eat. your. lunch - kiddos. 

2013-05-17 19:34:12 (9 comments, 2 reshares, 27 +1s)

Whoa!  Auto assignment of hashtags?!?  what would +Chris Messina say?

2013-05-17 19:28:58 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 18 +1s)

And now there's Twitter for Google Glass.  This will probably be epic in its awesomeness - or just the opposite.  Short-form real-time global communication via wearable computing - is this the future? We'll see! https://blog.twitter.com/2013/announcing-twitter-google-glass via +Elizabeth Weil on Twitter.

2013-05-17 06:57:44 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 24 +1s)

Sometimes life is an overwhelming tidal wave of adventure, friendship, opportunity, learning, love, accolades and beer. For an extended period of time.

2013-05-13 21:21:31 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 13 +1s)

Actor Forrest Whiteaker on bringing tech into war-torn communities in Africa and some really interesting discussion about his research for his roles in movies, their distribution in Africa, and more.  Cool stuff, via +Todd Watson  http://turbotodd.com/live-ibm-impact-2013-a-qa-with-forest-whitaker-on-acting-technology-in-africa-and-building-lasting-skills-for-peace/ 

2013-05-13 21:18:26 (4 comments, 10 reshares, 24 +1s)

Video from weekend: "Newt Gingrich Meets the Smartphone (Annotated Edition)" - http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001030.html

2013-05-12 20:14:09 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 17 +1s)

Ok how about this - mom says it's a cottonwood tree and it IS Mother's Day.

2013-05-12 19:21:06 (14 comments, 1 reshares, 40 +1s)

Anybody know what kind of tree this might be?

2013-05-11 05:37:19 (14 comments, 5 reshares, 127 +1s)

Look at this great picture my dad took of my dog Sammy!

2013-05-06 14:52:54 (80 comments, 104 reshares, 332 +1s)

Artist makes portraits from DNA found in chewing gum and cigarettes

http://io9.com/artist-makes-portraits-from-dna-found-in-chewing-gum-an-489736699 Incredible.

2013-05-06 14:39:10 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 15 +1s)

Time to fire up the http://calm.com meditation app, to make sure Monday morning gets kicked off right.

2013-05-04 06:36:35 (11 comments, 6 reshares, 33 +1s)

Sergey Brin made a regrettable statement for the ages when he called cell phones emasculating.  

"Cell phones were symbols of masculine power when only wealthy businessmen had them, but now that literally billions of people own them, the cell phone’s ability to signify status has given three beeps and vanished like a dropped call."

http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2013/05/03/status-flight-and-the-gendering-of-google-glass/ via +whitney erin boesel whois awesome

2013-05-04 02:10:02 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 11 +1s)

Tour of our first office to-be!

2013-05-03 21:53:13 (51 comments, 2 reshares, 11 +1s)

UI question: If presented with this screen - what's the first thing you'd do?

Thanks for your feedback! Last time I asked about a different version, the responses I got were awesome!

Update: lots of good feedback, much appreciated.  I wish we'd asked you all here before the previous version of our UI.  Thanks!

2013-05-03 14:56:44 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 17 +1s)

Review: "Google Glass does not yet deliver more value than pain" says an ultimately optimistic +Luke Wroblewski, one of the most respected mobile software developers in the world, after using Glass for a week in rainouts places (airports, Starbucks, a casino!)

2013-05-03 06:31:28 (24 comments, 95 reshares, 187 +1s)

I am presently amazed

2013-05-03 06:08:40 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

Hackathons are typically associated with computer developers or those with a deep knowledge of software who gather together to collaborate on usable software. The Communications Hackathon (#CommHacks) plays off of this, but encourages virtual collaboration to improve the communications industry (and, of course, there are prizes for top honors).

2013-05-01 17:42:16 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Want to learn about the ultimate social media research tool suite? Intro to @getlittlebird webinar in 15 mins! Come check it out!

http://getlittlebird.com/tour/webinars/webinar-registration/?utm_campaign=Webinar+20130501&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=1ad7e080-6fdb-46af-940c-f49d5f197048

2013-05-01 03:30:10 (2 comments, 5 reshares, 21 +1s)

I Found the Leaders in My Field, Now What? http://hub.am/12SGrdT (5 quick wins from influencer engagement)

2013-04-27 17:45:55 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

2013-04-27 17:40:08 (12 comments, 7 reshares, 49 +1s)

Whenever I come across an idea I like, I put it on a mind map titled Lessons I'm learning. Here's a section of that map, which is getting quite large over the past few weeks. Why let all this stuff slip away?

+Chuck Frey says that learning consists of 4 steps: gathering knowledge and information, discerning which of it is worth keeping, assimilating it into your worldview and finally utilizing it in a real way. This mind map touches a number of those steps, I think. I thought you might like it.

2013-04-25 14:33:52 (6 comments, 3 reshares, 17 +1s)

I must confess: I'd never stayed at an http://airbnb.com before last night.  We're at one now in San Francsico and damn, is it nice.  I kind of wish it was my house - so charming!  If it was my house, I wouldn't decorate it the same way (hunting trophies on the wall, sunglasses sculpture in bedroom, funky hipster stuff everywhere) but it really is a great place to stay.  And there are three of us here for $180/night!  Pretty awesome.

2013-04-24 08:07:25 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 15 +1s)

Bitcoin: HTML5 advocate +Michael Mahemoff  points to doc saying the HTML5 spec just put Bitcoin in the same whitelist as mailto: http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=7849&to=7850 … whoa.  Also, IRC.  

"Top that, PayPal!" said one person on Twitter.

2013-04-24 06:58:55 (46 comments, 2 reshares, 20 +1s)

UI question: faced with the following screen, what would you do first? 2nd?

2013-04-23 02:21:30 (9 comments, 26 reshares, 178 +1s)

Star Wars Epicnessnessnessnessness :)

2013-04-23 02:12:08 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

+Richard Binhammer kicks off his own consultancy after years as a social business trailblazer at Dell.  His kick-off post is pretty awesome: http://richardbinhammer.com/2013/04/jeffjarvis-welcomes-richardbinhammer-com/ 

2013-04-20 23:31:54 (6 comments, 11 reshares, 53 +1s)

What's beautiful? What's terrible? Check out this trippy, beautiful animation
http://vimeo.com/63823593 Via +Ryan Summers on Twitter

2013-04-20 03:05:08 (7 comments, 10 reshares, 79 +1s)

I didn't add my self to this, but it is pretty awesome to see! http://www.biggerplate.com/mind-mappers-around-the-world

2013-04-19 21:36:29 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

Once you know who the most innovative, influential, awesome experts in a particular field online are - what do you do with that knowledge?  Researchers say that the most powerful way to build influence and relationships with powerful people...is by asking for their advice.  Double win - you get their advice, too!  http://hub.am/13xzr9B 

2013-04-19 05:08:02 (1 comments, 6 reshares, 27 +1s)

Tell your kids someday: you remember the day the DIgital Public Library of America launched (with an API & responsive design!) http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/digital-library-launches-without-boston-celebration via +Matt Novak 

2013-04-18 22:01:34 (6 comments, 5 reshares, 12 +1s)

3 hot dev stories that have come through my http://getlittlebird.com pipe in the past hour:

1. Github releases new feature called Pulse that visualizes commit history for repos. https://github.com/blog/1476-get-up-to-speed-with-pulse

2. JQuery 2.0 was just released, creator John Resig blogs, and is now 12% smaller http://blog.jquery.com/2013/04/18/jquery-2-0-released/

3.@DHH says that there have now been 8507 commits pushed to to Rails in the past year, from 1,056 authors, closing 1763 issues.  "This community be cooking, yo!" the creator of Rails tweeted.

Those just popped up while I was working on other things: Little Bird helps you stay on top of the hottest news in any sector by watching the most trusted experts and influencers online.  Check it out!

2013-04-18 05:28:49 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

How to foster innovation in your organization: 10 practices widely found in effective, profitable companies

2013-04-16 00:23:04 (18 comments, 49 reshares, 167 +1s)

"In 1967, Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston marathon. After realizing that a woman was running, race organizer Jock Semple went after Switzer shouting, ‘Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers.’ However, Switzer’s boyfriend and other male runners provided a protective shield during the entire marathon.The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines, and Kathrine later won the NYC marathon with a time of 3:07:29."

Via +Alex Leo one year ago, thanks to Timehop
http://alexleo.tumblr.com/post/20009402836/amazing-photo-story-via-cait-morth-yoga-in

2013-04-15 05:54:06 (7 comments, 5 reshares, 40 +1s)

Interesting news: Google's +Meredith Hoffer,  who was a Director of Marketing at Chrome for 3 years, has now accepted a position as Director of Marketing at the secret projects lab Google X, according to her LinkedIn profile.  She describes her new position as "Getting a moonshot ready for contact with the real world."  That means that some of the key marketing brains behind Chrome's growth from 0 to 1 out of every 6.5 people online using it are now moving over to market Glass.  Bopping around LinkedIn, the number of Chrome or GMail people now working on Glass is pretty remarkable.  If I was a journalist, I'd write about that.  Go get 'em Meredith and team!  Looking forward to seeing what the Glass team can do!

2013-04-14 15:50:56 (2 comments, 13 reshares, 39 +1s)

The human brain is a remarkably efficient engine of visual processing. Even short 1-second shots can reveal an incredible amount of information, and recall one of the most extraordinary voyages of exploration in human history.

Presented here is the first manned mission to the Moon, July 1969, in 100 one-second increments.

Take a minute and a half and enjoy the voyage once again.
via Spacecraft Films on bit.ly/apollo11in100

#sciencesunday  +ScienceSunday 

2013-04-14 15:37:28 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 11 +1s)

Asking myself "what would my best self do in this situation?" - and then trusting my intuition on the answer.   Seems to be working well for making good, fast decisions and ending up in a place I like. #selfhacks  

2013-04-12 19:16:51 (8 comments, 2 reshares, 18 +1s)

Making videos of yourself in public: now tech easy, still culture hard

2013-04-12 18:33:13 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

If you don't mind me quoting myself...
"the lack of uptake of RSS reading software by consumers and businesses is among the turns of events in recent technology history that's most disparaging of the state of humanity. That a personalized, centralized repository for updates from dynamic streams of information delivered by free trusted sources of democratic publishing all over the world has had its tech-lunch eaten by mind-rotting casual Flash games on Facebook is as depressing as the way that public education dreams were dashed when the promise of television became its reality. It's like the psychedelic dreams of Harvard's Dr. Timothy Leary becoming the wretched, heartbreaking narcotic drama of the TV show The Wire. It's terrible. It's reason to pack it all up and go home." http://readwrite.com/2011/06/07/glassboard_rock_star_team_regroups_from_rss-land_t

2013-04-12 17:51:33 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Waking up early, drinking lots of coffee, listening to fast music, flipping between mindmaps and my dashboard on the iPad, having an awesome staff I can trust to do kick ass work - these are my super powers today.  They feel like good super powers to have.

2013-04-10 22:44:51 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 10 +1s)

Listening to And So I Watch You From Afar and reading about Recoverable vs Non-Recoverable Draws in sales commission planning.  I pretty much knew my life was going to come to this.  just kidding.  it's cool though
And So I Watch You From Afar - Set Guitars To Kill

2013-04-09 17:59:13 (1 comments, 4 reshares, 20 +1s)

Using Apps and Checklists to Learn More, Faster, Deeper http://marshallk.com/using-apps-and-checklists-to-learn-more-faster-deeper A multi-step learning process I've been building out, thought I'd share.

2013-04-09 01:03:53 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 20 +1s)

You know what's beautiful?  This song, and all the songs I've heard from this artist who passed away last month: "Being in Love" -- Songs: Ohia RIP Jason Molina

2013-04-08 22:14:08 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 12 +1s)

Just launched visual search engine http://camfindapp.com (iOS only) is pretty awesome. Claims to be 4X as effective as Google Goggles.  I'm impressed with its performance.

2013-04-08 18:00:29 (6 comments, 22 reshares, 41 +1s)

Cool chart highlighting the benefits of using visual tools to organize your thinking. Via http://fluentbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Comparison-Chart.png and +Hans Terhurne on Twitter.

2013-04-07 17:47:14 (7 comments, 22 reshares, 59 +1s)

This Blueprint for Success, one of many mind maps with accompanying blog posts for life and work available on this site, is really inspiring. I'm making my own map for life now and am excited to check out the others available.

http://blog.iqmatrix.com/blueprint-to-success

Even though I love mind maps, I was a little hesitant to engage with this one because of the cartoonishness, the complexity and the unfamiliarity. I suspended my disbelief to explore through it and am very glad I did. I'd recommend you do so too. Enjoy!