CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-16 20:01:45 (14 comments, 40 reshares, 117 +1s)

Audrey thinks #Google  +Project Glass is the camera she's been waiting for all her life. She takes a photo every three seconds and throws her arms in the air and does a dance when she gets a coveted one, like, erem, our dog's butt. (Click through for more)

2013-05-14 20:14:06 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

About 14 years ago, I got a bad cold, and my voice became hoarse.  At the time I didn’t think much about it.  But my voice never fully recovered.  So I went to a doctor and was diagnosed with left vocal cord paralysis.  This is a nerve problem that causes your left vocal cord to not move properly.  Despite extensive examination, the doctors never identified a cause — though there was speculation of virus-based damage from my cold.  It is quite common in cases like these that a definitive cause is not found.

While this condition never really affected me — other than having a slightly weaker voice than normal which some people think sounded a little funny — it naturally raised questions in my mind about my second vocal cord.  But I was told that sequential paralysis of one vocal cord following another is extremely rare.  

Fast forward to last summer, when the same patternrepeated itself... more »

2013-05-14 18:48:22 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

This is what happens when you leave your #Google  +Project Glass out where the dogs can find it...  :)

2013-05-14 17:58:50 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Have lots of opinions already about #Google  +Project Glass, which I'm sure I'll get around to posting, but I thought I'd talk about a very important non-issue:  *battery life*.

Prior to having #Glass , I thought the 3-5 hour battery life was going to be a deal-killer, since that'd never cut it for a phone.  But the thing you realize once you've had these for a few hours is that you don't wear them all day, and they don't need to be on all day.  Unlike a phone, which is your primary communications device, Glass is more like a very useful add-on.

When you're sitting in front of a computer, Glass is basically useless, so you just take it off.  When you get up to go somewhere, you put them back on.  Unlike a phone, you don't feel naked without them (or when it's not juiced up) - they just help you do some interesting new things whenyou&#... more »

2013-05-13 23:31:14 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

Only had our #GoogleGlass  for a few minutes, but it's pretty remarkable. Excited to hack some stuff together for it. I can really see how I'd want this, or something like it, on me most of the time.  I'm sure all the crazy news coverage has way more answers to questions than I do, but I'm happy to answer any...

(The office is ringing with people shouting 'ok glass' :)

2013-03-18 19:48:18 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Does anyone know how to get OpenVPN working on #ChromebookPixel ? Apparently there's support, but no-one seems to know how to do it.  Would really love to get that working.

2013-03-13 19:50:07 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Most frustrating thing about the #ChromebookPixel  so far? The multiple-Google-accounts problem we've all been complaining about for awhile.  +Sundar Pichai promised me last May (see ~35:35 in the video linked) that a fix was coming soon.  Can't wait.  

(Of course, Sundar is a whole lot busier as of today... :)

Otherwise, still loving it.  Forward progress!

2013-03-08 04:27:31 (18 comments, 10 reshares, 87 +1s)

Wow. Blown away by how much I'm liking my #ChromebookPixel . I even had momentary frustration when I went back to my #MacBookProRetina . That's a first.

Summary:  Screen gorgeous. Touch awesome (finally!). Great trackpad (a first on a Chromebook!). Very fast. Solid & well-machined.

There are things I won't be able to do on it (my IDE comes to mind, as does git) but this is a major leap in the right direction.

This is the single #Apple  competitive laptop on the market.  I wonder what the gang over in Cupertino thinks about it?

2013-02-12 23:04:54 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

Google Fails the Turing Test

I waited in virtual line for hours. The Nexus 4 webstore wasn’t exactly down, but it wasn’t exactly working either. The phones had gone on sale that day, and the rush of traffic was overloading, of all companies, Google. The Google Play Store kept saying the phones were sold out, but every couple of page refreshes it would correctly say the phones were available. You could then add the phones to your shopping cart, but then your shopping cart would promptly empty itself when you proceeded to checkout. I persisted for 90 minutes trying simultaneously in 3 browsers and finally got my order through. I should have instead heeded the warning of what was to come.

Ever since Google released the Android operating system, they’ve created flagship phones to show off the best of what Android has to offer. I was an early adopter - I got the G1 when Android wasfirst... more »

2013-02-04 19:35:25 (14 comments, 17 reshares, 25 +1s)

Ok, these guys are just brilliant. Well-engineered product, seriously useful, action photographers who are into their own sports are going to love it.  Reminds me of the first time I saw a +GoPro.  Check them out here:  http://bit.ly/YP8bRG

2013-01-23 21:56:04 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 15 +1s)

Some more details on why we chose +Amazon Web Services CloudSearch as the back-end of our search.

Technical details on what we're doing on the front-end here:  http://smu.gs/QlQ4Zc

2013-01-16 03:14:47 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Hmm. Paid our $1500 for #Google  +Project Glass  developer kit, but haven't received invite to developer event in two weeks.  Anyone else missing theirs?  Am I just dumb?  Want +SmugMug to have great #ProjectGlass  support right out of the gate... 

2013-01-12 04:04:25 (6 comments, 4 reshares, 32 +1s)

SmugMug Pro Gets National Geographic's Highest Photography Honor

Huge congratulations to SmugMug Pro Ashley Vincent, the Grand-Prize and Nature Winner of +National Geographic's 2012 Photo Contest! What an amazing photo.

Ashley's Site: http://smu.gs/UWQcra

Photo Caption:
The subject's name is Busaba, a well cared for Indochinese Tigress whose home is at Khao Kheow Open Zoo, Thailand. I had taken many portraits of Busaba previously and it was becoming more and more difficult to come up with an image that appeared any different to the others. Which is why I took to observing her more carefully during my visits in the hope of capturing something of a behavioural shot. The opportunity finally presented itself while watching Busaba enjoying her private pool then shaking herself dry. In all humility I have to say that Mother... more »

2013-01-11 21:48:25 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 19 +1s)

A late frost just before Christmas.
I didn't realize I'd be able to see the crystals so well (looks best large) until I got back to the computer.  When I realized what was possible, I had lots of different composition thoughts, but by then the frost had melted and I'd missed my chance.

2013-01-11 21:45:47 (4 comments, 3 reshares, 11 +1s)

SmugMug brings you a "Behind The Scenes" look at how the masters get amazing shots of the Golden Gate Bridge during last weekend's "A Slice Of Time" Long Exposure Weekend led by +Nathan Wirth.

This particular walk was hosted by the one of the best Golden Gate photographers we have ever seen, no other than +Joe Azure. Who else was brave enough to join on a cold Sunday morning at 5:30AM? +Athena Carey +Amy Heiden +Thomas Hawk +Scott Jarvie +Karen Hutton +Cameron Siguenza +Rob Dweck +Jonathan Goody +Larry Nienkark +Swee Oh +Lorenzo Montezemolo +Paul Porter +Toby Harriman +Tressa Crozier +roma g +Ed Sweeney as well as the rest of the SmugMug team +Katherine Cheng +Schmoo Theune and +Michael Bonocore just to name a few brave (and frozen) souls. 

Most of the footage and ALL of the editing this video was done by +Chris MacAskill. Really amazingwork. Way to go Bald... more »

2013-01-09 21:49:04 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 12 +1s)

Special Print Sale - Let's Help Jaime - PLEASE SHARE

As some of you know, our dear friend and a very talented photographer +Jaime Ibarra has been hurting in a big way ... together we can put him back together! 

Jaime needs an operation for an umbilical hernia El PRONTO! Like most creative artists he does not have health insurance & is too damn proud to ask for assistance. His friend +Gretchen Chappelle made a promise to him last year that she'd see to it we all chip in and get him sorted out. 

After getting evaluated by the doctor, it turns out Jaime needs $5,000 for his surgery. Around Christmas time we started collecting donations from photography community for that sum. We've made a good progress, but we're not there quite yet. 

Talking to me and Gretchen about what else we can do, Jaime was kind enough to offer some of his ownfavo... more »

2012-12-24 19:50:02 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

Camera Awesome Named One of the Top 20 Apps of 2012

We got a wonderful early Christmas present today -- a top 20 pick for Camera Awesome (+Awesomize) in +TechCrunch's year end round up of top IOS and Android apps!

Almost one year ago, we launched Camera Awesome, the camera you never knew you always wanted, the camera we always dreamed of – a camera fit for the iPhone. Millions of people around the world downloaded the app and have been shooting and #awesomizing  ever since. We're grateful for your support and are gearing up to make an even more awesome splash in 2013.

And hey, #android  users -- we love you too! We want to bring #awesome  to Androids and are looking for a great Android developer to add to the team. Are you one or do you know of any? We want to hear from you: http://www.smugmug.com/jobs 
http... more »

2012-12-19 22:08:50 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 7 +1s)

Here's the video from a great storage panel I was on at  +Amazon Web Services re:Invent Conference.  

Sorry the Q&A is missing (it was great), I'm asking AWS if they have it somewhere.  The moderator was very good about repeating questions, so it should be good video if it turns up.

My other session (where I'm the sole speaker):  https://plus.google.com/+DonMacAskill/posts/dtvhGtPrXcy

And slides from that session:  https://plus.google.com/116570889542655364711/posts/YQSVnBfNwSD

2012-12-19 22:06:33 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Here are the slides of my talk from +Amazon Web Services re:Invent Conference where I go into details about how +SmugMug has grown up with AWS over the last 6 years.

You can see the video here:  http://bit.ly/ZjIgCi

2012-12-19 22:05:31 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Here's the video of my talk from +Amazon Web Services re:Invent where I go into details about how +SmugMug has grown up with AWS over the last 6 years.  

Sorry the Q&A is missing (it was good, I thought), asking AWS where it went.  I was very careful to repeat every question so it'd make for good video, so hopefully it's around here somewhere.

You can see the slides here:  http://slidesha.re/V7q2j1

2012-12-07 18:47:11 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Personally providing free flu shots to all San Francisco bay area kids at Target -- just walk in.  Research shows giving kids flu shots can have a big effect in preventing flu in the whole region and protecting elderly.  (Don't worry, I'm not actually administering the shots :)

The CDC has designated December 2–8 as National Influenza Vaccination Week to highlight the importance of continuing flu vaccination throughout the flu season.  So happy National Influenza Vaccination Week.

http://shootheflu.org/where/
https://plus.google.com/u/0/103295265775351483797/posts

2012-12-01 21:09:56 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Dear Internet:  I need help finding kid sized dishwashing gloves for my 5 & 6 year olds.  They love helping around the house, but really need gloves.  Any ideas?  

If they don't exist, sounds like a good Kickstarter, no?  Probably lots of similar product needs out there, too...

Alas, these great looking gloves I'm embedding are adult sized, apparently. :(

2012-11-28 07:21:06 (3 comments, 3 reshares, 10 +1s)

I bought a digital video download today that required a video player from Leaping Brain. As usual, the proprietary player wasn't great and to transfer it to my iPhone I'd need another proprietary player. Ugh. But I browsed around and found that the video had been downloaded into a hidden directory as a bunch of .mov files. Great, except none of the files would play.

It turned out the actual player, launched from their compiled app, was a Python wrapper around some VLC libraries. Nothing funny going on, as far as I could tell, but when I tried to launch the player directly, nothing happened. The compiled app was modifying the .mov files right before they were loaded into the player, and then reverting the file on disk. According to http://leapingbrain.com/mod-machine/faq/:

 "We apply our BrainTrust™ proprietary video encryption to your movies before we upload them to ourse... more »

2012-11-27 21:07:26 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

I'm going to cover our 6 years of using #AWS  in my re:Invent talk tomorrow, 'Ahead in the Clouds'. Should be fun.  2:05pm Wednesday in 3501B.

Should have time for questions, so come prepared.  Tell your friends.  :)

2012-11-08 19:53:44 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography

Huge congrats to the incredible photographers featured in Rangefinder's 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography! We couldn't be prouder of the 10 SmugMuggers who made the list -- amazing! We're honored and proud to work with them, you, and so many incredible photographers around the world.

Here are the spectacular SmugMuggers who made the list:

Nirav Photography: http://www.niravphotography.com/
Erich McVey: http://www.erichmcvey.com/
Tiny Water Photography: http://www.tinywater.com/
Paco and Betty: http://pacoandbetty.com/blog/
Vincius Matos: http://www.viniciusmatos.com/
Gesi Schilling: http://www.gesischilling.com/
Ash Imagery: http://ashimagery.com/
Fer Juaristi: http://ferjuaristi.com/
JezaP... more »