CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-21 20:24:59 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

"Tea, Earl Grey, hot."

NASA is funding a 3D food printer!  Star Trek replicators at home could have seriously amazing implications!

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/21/4350948/nasa-funding-3d-food-printer-pizza

2013-05-21 18:21:51 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Xbox One Launch: Just a round of iterative improvements?

Is this really the best we could hope for after 8 years of the old Xbox? The original Wii was the last time I thought "Wow, that's innovative" in the console space.

2013-05-15 07:52:05 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 9 +1s)

This morning's time waster is brought to you by a simple search for Atari Breakout using Google Images.

http://images.google.com/?q=atari%20breakout

I tried doing a similar search for Crysis, but I don't think Google have implemented that yet :-)

2013-05-13 19:24:37 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

+Chris Hadfield Legend.

#commanderhadfield

2013-05-12 10:59:58 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 10 +1s)

An interesting live map of Wikipedia updates - At the moment we're getting an update every 30 seconds to the English-language Wikipedia (on a Sunday when most of America is still asleep).

It'd be interesting to see what happens when a major (or controversial) event takes place...

http://rcmap.hatnote.com/

2013-05-11 08:26:19 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 12 +1s)

I'm so pleased to see that +Allie Brosh is still with us.  

She hadn't posted anything on her fantastic blog "Hyperbole and a Half" for 18 months, since the insightful "Adventures in depression" in 2011: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html

This has now, thankfully, been followed up: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/depression-part-two.html

For anyone that's suffered with depression, I'm sure a lot of what she's been through rings true.  For those who have been lucky enough to maintain a positive (or neutral) outlook through their lives, I'm sure it all seems a bit hard to believe and self-centered.

One thing it does make you realise is that for all the cheery personas you encounter online and IRL, you can never be 100% certain that's the way they honestlyfeel ... more »

2013-05-06 17:04:22 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

JS1K competition 2013 spring champions! 

The top 10 entries for one of the geekiest competitions on the web - JS1k, have just been announced. Interested in finding out what kind of crazy JavaScript experiments one can stuff into 1024 bytes of code? Despair no longer and check out the winners (http://bit.ly/15qMpHf).

My favorite is Strange crystals II (http://bit.ly/12bg69B) from Philippe Deschaseaux - the crazy mine cart animation running below (BTW Philippe also has a making of series of blog posts http://bit.ly/10gLI05).

But I also adore the Synth Sphere (http://bit.ly/11bsL0x) from Noah Weninger, which just might be the smallest music synthesizer with real time FFT ever made. You can even create your own music with it.

#html5   #javascript   #webdevelopment   #competition   #js1k

2013-05-04 13:37:40 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 8 +1s)

I don't want my stream to become one big Oculus-Rift-a-thon, but just watch this video and tell me it doesn't fill you with that same sense of joy you get when encountering something truly awe-inspiring.

via +Henk Poley

2013-05-04 11:35:50 (12 comments, 4 reshares, 16 +1s)

Victorian gender stereotypes are apparently still alive and kicking.  Perhaps I should write a letter to Tesco explaining how my daughters are top of their class in chemistry, and that their aspirations go beyond household chores.  Or perhaps that would only confuse them.

The saddest thing is when I notice my daughters repeating these stereotypes themselves.  They certainly have an uphill struggle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype_threat

via +David Jones via https://twitter.com/LetToysBeToys

2013-05-03 15:51:49 (4 comments, 3 reshares, 11 +1s)

Words cannot describe how much I'm looking forward to Oculus Rift maturing into a consumer technology.

http://kotaku.com/kotaku-takes-the-oculus-rift-for-a-spin-486679107

So everyone's already clocked onto the possibilities for immersive gaming, but there are opportunities for other things as well:

* Multiple monitor arrays.  Why surround yourself with lots of physical monitors?  When Rift (or similar) matures and becomes 'Retina' resolution - you can see as much virtual monitor space as you desire.
 * Teleconferencing / social networking / hangouts can be immersive.  There must be a better 'online meeting' experience in there somewhere.  Meeting in a virtual world?  Why on earth not!  (And I'm talking much, much better than Second Life!)

Can't wait.

2013-05-01 08:15:21 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Could advert algorithms be taught to feel a sense of irony or exploitation when they make placements like this?

Bagram airfield crash 29 apr 2013

2013-04-28 10:38:04 (10 comments, 3 reshares, 18 +1s)

A prime opportunity to ensure you've got a working handbrake.  What's the worst that could happen?

"Here’s a lone excavator hard at work on top of the 12-story Shanxi Science and Technology Hotel in the Chinese city of Taiyuan. The slender, triangular building has a very limited amount of roof space in which the excavator’s driver can manoeuvre, yet manoeuvre he must if the building is going to be eaten away down to ground level."

Amazing!

http://weburbanist.com/2012/01/08/high-anxiety-rooftop-excavators-tear-down-from-up-top/

2013-04-27 11:42:25 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

My two-week review of Google Glass: it all depends on the price

This week I gave five speeches while wearing it.
I passed through airports four times (two more in a couple of hours).
I let hundreds of people try my Google Glass.
I have barely taken it off since getting it other than to sleep.

Here's my review after having Google Glass for two weeks:

1. I will never live a day of my life from now on without it (or a competitor). It's that significant. 
2. The success of this totally depends on price. Each audience I asked at the end of my presentations "who would buy this?" As the price got down to $200 literally every hand went up. At $500 a few hands went up. This was consistent, whether talking with students, or more mainstream, older audiences.
3. Nearly everyone had an emotional outburst of "wow" or... more »

2013-04-19 20:52:19 (0 comments, 10 reshares, 6 +1s)

Great little idea of a crowd-generated music video: your cursor position is added to everyone else's.  

http://donottouch.org/

An interesting social experiment in conformity.  Oooh, check out the rebellious (or hard-of-thinking) people breaking the rules :-)

2013-04-16 22:36:44 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Who says Twitter Bootstrap sites all have to look the same?  You need this theme!  http://divshot.github.io/geo-bootstrap/

2013-04-14 17:57:36 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Never judge a movie by its cover.  Especially when its cover is shared by a billion other movies!  http://www.demilked.com/popular-movie-poster-cliches/

2013-04-13 09:22:03 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Concorde Prototype 002 - first flew in 1969 and made 196 supersonic flights.  It ushered in the fastest age in passenger transport which is now, sadly, well behind us.

This was taken at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton, UK, yesterday.

2013-04-12 19:15:39 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

I think MyPaint might just be the best natural painting application since Corel Painter. It's just lovely, cross-platform, and free:

http://mypaint.intilinux.com/

Oh, and I think I've regressed to my younger years and become slightly obsessed with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots...  Have a quick doodle from this evening.

2013-04-10 18:51:36 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

D'oh! I've been doing it all wrong!  No wonder none of my air-dropped pigeon messages have been getting through.

http://www.retronaut.com/2010/09/method-of-wrapping-carrier-pigeons/

2013-04-10 17:24:41 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

RIP Bob Edwards, pioneer of IVF. There aren't many people responsible for creating so much human life!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-22091873

2013-04-10 09:35:10 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

Google Streetview Hyperlapse

Ever wanted to automatically take a trip using Google Streetview, without having to constantly click on the road ahead?  Well now you can!

http://hyperlapse.tllabs.io/

Tech stuff: It's all in Javascript so you can download the source code to play with the framerate, camera movement or other shenanigans here:
http://www.teehanlax.com/labs/hyperlapse/

2013-04-09 20:21:47 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 9 +1s)

LEGO Star Destroyer Destroyed By LEGO Kraken!

So LEGO makes an impressively large model of the Star Destroyer from Star Wars. But like the original, it's a little on the... dull grey side.

Iain Heath came up with a way to spice things up.

Why not have your LEGO Star Destroyer attacked and torn appart by a giant LEGO space Kraken... or KR-KN since this is Star Wars?

Works for me!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ochre_jelly/

2013-04-06 09:57:47 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

32 bit open source ARM system with Bluetooth v4. Fully Arduino IDE compatible. Size of a fingernail. Single-unit cost in the $20 range.

We're getting to the point where even tiny embedded applications are no longer limited by CPU or cost — this thing is plenty powerful enough for real-time vision processing for example. Instead we're limited by our knowledge; we don't yet know how to do many of the things we want.

2013-04-06 08:49:24 (6 comments, 8 reshares, 14 +1s)

Could this spell the end of #caturday  for our intrepid feline?  Tune in next week to find out!

via reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/1brn30/oh_god_no/

2013-04-01 08:25:50 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Guardian Goggles: with proprietary anti-bigotry technology!

(Funny, but I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of thing became reality one day). #googleglass   via +Ian Watson

2013-03-31 15:48:20 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Today is World Backup Day - a good opportunity to make sure your website is backed up!

To celebrate Backup Machine are offering a 25% discount on any of their website backup packages, for the lifetime of the package!

2013-03-31 13:49:51 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

Easter chick of considerable magnitude!

2013-03-31 09:09:09 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

64 Kilobricks.

Flickr link: http://flickr.com/powerpig/8589312881
Storenvy: http://powerpig.storenvy.com

2013-03-30 10:59:25 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Hack the mainframe!  Well, it always works in Hollywood...

2013-03-30 10:58:18 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

When it comes to graphics im mostly interested in the motion. Take a look at this! Uncanny valley? Whats that?

2013-03-30 10:36:36 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Fukushima's nuclear ghost towns - A virtual tour, courtesy of Google Street View.  Don't forget your hazmat suit.

http://goo.gl/maps/VTvlJ

2013-03-29 14:46:53 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 15 +1s)

Take you cat to work day - it was never going to work.

via +George Takei's "other" feed.

2013-03-29 10:19:04 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 4 +1s)

If tech companies made Easter candy...

http://tapastic.com/episode/3104

2013-05-17 12:29:26 (8 comments, 119 reshares, 31 +1s)

Very cool JavaScript physics demo.  It's in codepen, so you can also hack around with the source code if the mood takes you!

http://codepen.io/stuffit/pen/KrAwx

2013-03-26 18:10:04 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Facebook status updates on my watch?  Whatever next?!

#pebblewatch  

2013-03-26 08:34:19 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

France in the year 2000

http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/06/30/france-in-the-year-2000-1899-1910/
via
https://medium.com/we-live-in-the-future/cbd6bdc6b283

2013-03-25 11:25:38 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

"There are four thirty lights!"

Is there anything you can't do with a tame fleet of quadrocopters?

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/25/quadrocopter-london-star-trek-promo/

Not sure about the tie-in with Earth Hour, but it's a neat stunt anyway.

2013-03-25 10:21:25 (8 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Flapjack: The New Shuriken

Although it pains me to share a story from the Daily Mail, this is just too funny to pass-up.  "Triangular flapjacks banned from secondary school over health and safety fears"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2298715/Castle-View-School-Canvey-Island-Essex-bans-triangular-flapjacks-health-safety-grounds.html

2013-03-24 17:27:11 (14 comments, 2 reshares, 19 +1s)

The future is finally here!  Flying cars are now coming to a home near you.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-21916129

2013-03-22 14:34:02 (15 comments, 2 reshares, 0 +1s)

This might just be the most incredible website I've seen all week. Heck, maybe even all year!

You will need sound.  Bonus points for having the patience to wait for the awesome guitar riff on the main page!

http://evangelcathedral.net/

2013-03-22 11:00:45 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

Google+ Now Allows Full Rez Photos!  
See full article and how-to with screenshots at http://goo.gl/WeLWr 

Hitherto, both Facebook and Google+ limited your photos to 2048 pixels across. This was depressing to me and other photographers that take HUGE photos, many of mine over 7000 pixels across. I share a new, original-sized photo here every day on the blog, and all my work is Creative Commons Noncommercial.

Basically, I want people to have the original-sized photo to enjoy! I know many other photographers disagree with me and they only want to share tiny images with huge watermarks using horrible fonts. That’s okay. This isn’t for them.

But if you’re like me, and you want to upload the original size images to Google and also share on Google+, well now you can!

Steady Progress of Google Photos

I notice many various productsare star... more »

2013-03-18 21:08:46 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Really excited to have tickets for Bill Bailey later this year.  He's a legend.

2013-03-15 14:51:59 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 24 +1s)

New UPS battery fits perfectly :-)

2013-03-15 08:00:58 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Disney Princesses After Ever After - The whole truth laid bare.

One-man barber-shop quartet sings of the fates of Disney's princesses... About time some realism was injected into the franchise :-)

2013-03-14 08:07:07 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

So the fine folks at Google are retiring Google Reader ...  What are people planning to use instead?  

Dropping RSS use altogether isn't possible unless I can find a way to:

1) Consume web comics without having to visit each site individually (as they're often published sporadically)
2) Read Google Alerts for search terms I'm interested in
3) Read blogs that are infrequently updated, but contain fantastic content.
4) Skip through content on popular blogs really quickly 

Social media doesn't provide all this to me, yet.

http://mashable.com/2013/03/13/google-kills-google-reader/

2013-03-08 13:35:35 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Finding interesting people and sites by using the "Google Sets" functionality which is now baked into Google Docs Spreadsheets.

Simply add +Robert Scoble and +Guy Kawasaki to a spreadsheet, highlight them and CTRL-drag to reveal a host of other technology-related people and places!

I can't help but feel that this could be a more effective driver for the "Fun and interesting" panel in G+...

2013-03-08 13:04:27 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Coffitivity - for those who work better with a bit of ambient noise.  

http://coffitivity.com/

Research suggests that most of us work better with a bit of background noise - http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1086/665048?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21101787638721

2013-03-08 09:32:02 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

I'm not sure I could afford to ban myself from working from home!

http://tapastic.com/episode/2391

2013-03-07 22:26:47 (1 comments, 5 reshares, 9 +1s)

The Matrix in 60 seconds. "There is no spooooon!"

2013-03-07 21:03:19 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I couldn't agree more with this article. If you don't think you enjoy board games - you're probably thinking about one of these offenders...

There are some good alternative suggestions in there, for those that are willing to try :-)