CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-16 22:06:15 (359 comments, 85 reshares, 843 +1s)

I understand making certain decisions in order to use Google products,  and for the most part I'm pretty okay with it ... but I don't like having to give Google access to my text messages in order to use the new Talk (which is now replaced by Hangouts).

I guess lots of people are okay with this because it's how Facebook does it, but I really think we need to have some things that are kept out of social networks or the hands of third parties.

This is especially important considering how easy it's become for law enforcement to get into our digital lives, and how willing service providers are to just hand our stuff over without so much as a warrant.

Call me old fashioned, and not that it really matters, but I won't be using Talk on my GNEX unless and until I can turn off access to my text messages.

2013-05-15 23:56:32 (500 comments, 35 reshares, 1312 +1s)

What do you think of the new G+ layout? I think I'll eventually get used to it, but at the moment I'm having a hard time parsing the overwhelming amount of visual data on the page.

2013-05-15 18:26:09 (32 comments, 12 reshares, 190 +1s)

Updated and now fully "Customizable" through Thingiverse's Customizer App. 

Enjoy +Wil Wheaton, you Rock.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:89111

2013-05-15 18:25:07 (64 comments, 18 reshares, 169 +1s)

SANDMAN SLIM is on sale for $1.99 in all ebook formats from now through the 17th. If you're following me, you've probably already read it and didn't think it sucked. However, if you know someone you think might like it but hasn't read it, this might be a good time to tell them to give them a try. With luck, they'll enjoy it and I'll be very grateful for your help in getting the word out. Thanks.

2013-05-15 05:59:47 (115 comments, 18 reshares, 425 +1s)

Makers and homebrewers! I have this idea: 3D-printed tap handles.

Let me explain: I got some chalkboard tap handles because I thought they'd be awesome, but they were worthless. The chalkboard portion was crap, and the whole point of the tap handles was rendered useless.

So I have this idea! Someone who is good at it can write some 3D printer code that allows a homebrewer to put the name of the beer on what becomes a customized tap handle.

2013-05-14 17:36:41 (236 comments, 56 reshares, 804 +1s)

We got up at 3am on Thursday morning for our 6:52am flight. We stumbled around in the middle-of-the-night darkness, and I wondered if it would have just made more sense to stay awake, instead of trying to sleep for a few restless hours.

We kissed our dogs and our son who was housesitting for us goodbye, and about 35 minutes later we were at the airport. We did the security theatre dance and got some food that we took to the departure lounge where we waited to board our plane.

A United Airlines employee, apparently annoyed to be dealing with passengers, announced that our plane had no flight crew, would be delayed for almost an hour, and those of us connecting to Ottawa would need to go to the service counter to rebook our connection. She frowned at me when I approached the counter and asked her where the service counter was. As if she was speaking to an idiot child, she told me it was... more »

2013-05-14 04:41:55 (257 comments, 15 reshares, 372 +1s)

We have this ice maker in our fridge that has been giving us a real hard time for a few months, filling up the hoppe with ice and then lifting off its connection to the door of the freezer.

Tonight, I tried to figure out what was causing the problem, so I tried to lift the ice dispensing thing off the door, but it had a lot of frozen water (aka ice) holding it down, so I applied all my muscles ... and shot the goddamn thing right into my face.

I currently have a giant gash just below my lower lip, above my chin. I had to shave the little bit of my beard that grows there off, and hope to seal the fucking wound closed with liquid bandage, because I really do not want to have to get stitches in my face, especially because I'm supposed to shoot a thing on Sunday.

Holy hell does it hurt, and holy fucking hell am I pissed that I did this to myself.

The status of the... more »

2013-05-13 21:04:00 (34 comments, 17 reshares, 122 +1s)

2013-05-13 18:04:15 (223 comments, 459 reshares, 2093 +1s)

I'm just sharing this for the eleven people in the world who haven't seen it.

Those shots of our planet always bring tears to my eyes. That's us, that's where we live, and we dont' have anywhere else to go. We should probably take better care of it.

2013-05-12 20:40:15 (44 comments, 5 reshares, 265 +1s)

Thus begins the trip home. This plane takes me to Toronto, and then another plane takes me to Los Angeles. I expect to sleep most of the way becausezzzzzzzzzzzzz...

2013-05-09 01:27:02 (500 comments, 4597 reshares, 5443 +1s)

This is just amazing, and absolutely worth your time. I promise, it is worth your time.

2013-05-06 20:09:11 (62 comments, 59 reshares, 263 +1s)

I haven't played Dungeon World, but I've read a fair amount of the rules, and the advice to GMs sprinkled throughout is applicable to any RPG. This article at Gnome Stew focuses on three of them, and the comments are also quite insightful.

2013-05-04 23:58:29 (127 comments, 42 reshares, 870 +1s)

Making pepper-infused vodka for spicy martinis in the mysterious future.

2013-05-04 20:22:12 (45 comments, 61 reshares, 303 +1s)

Happy National Homebrew Day!  Check out our new brewers guide: http://bit.ly/e1kUPE #homebrew #BigBrew13

2013-05-04 20:20:03 (145 comments, 217 reshares, 593 +1s)

*Facebook Rejects Ad Highlighting Zuckerberg Group’s Support For Keystone XL*

"When a subsidiary of Mark Zuckerberg’s new political group started airing ads for expanded oil drilling and the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, CREDO Action decided to post an ad of their own calling Zuckerberg out — on Facebook.

"This morning, Facebook rejected CREDO’s Facebook ad (pictured right). According to CREDO Action, Facebook initially informed them they rejected the ad because it used Facebook trademarks — specifically, Zuckerberg’s image. Though the image used was fully licensed for creative commons use, a Facebook representative told ThinkProgress that any images of Zuckerberg are off-limits, as he is part of the Facebook brand. The rules governing Facebook brand usage specify “trademarks, names, domain names, logos” but does not explicitly restrictimages of Zucke... more »

2013-05-02 18:46:41 (168 comments, 150 reshares, 1697 +1s)

+Wil Wheaton Recovery

Tonight, +Wil Wheaton was trying to root his HTC One and failing miserably. He was able to get recovery installed, but couldn't figure out how to get Superuser installed through recovery (some issue with mounting, blah blah).
https://plus.google.com/108176814619778619437/posts/11MvAVpy98E

Tough bootloaders call for an even tougher recovery. I'm proud to announce the new Wil Wheaton Recovery. Wil Wheaton will offer to root your device if root access is missing.

Will Wheaton Recovery is a limited edition recovery, exclusive to the HTC Ones (AT&T + Tmobile) and Wil Wheatons. Enjoy!

Download Wil Wheaton Recovery and flash it with fastboot:
http://download.clockworkmod.com/test/wHil-wheaton.img

Boot recovery, then just reboot back to Android once in the recovery menu. Before recovery exits, it willa... more »

2013-05-02 05:01:24 (137 comments, 26 reshares, 272 +1s)

Has anyone successfully rooted the new HTC One? I have unlocked its bootloader, but I can't get it to mount any partitions when I boot into recovery and I'm about to scream.

It works fine when I boot it normally, but I can't write to /sdcard with any file managers (though, for some reason /sdcard/sdcard seems to work just fine ... until I'm in recovery and trying to load the zip.)

This experience is really making me appreciate my GNEX. I love the hardware on the HTC One, but my god is this frustrating (and the stock UI is just gross and annoying).

UPDATE Okay, I'm giving up for the night. I've been at this for close to five hours, and I'm getting nowhere. Thanks for the suggestions and offers to help, everyone. 

2013-05-01 17:57:27 (48 comments, 31 reshares, 285 +1s)

True story...

2013-04-30 17:38:47 (186 comments, 465 reshares, 1647 +1s)

This is my message to baby Violet ... and to everyone else in the world, too, I suppose.

2013-04-29 22:00:36 (253 comments, 27 reshares, 723 +1s)

As if flying isn't miserable enough, airports insist on blaring CNN in every departure lounge. Knowing that a huge audience watches this garbage and thinks they are being informed by it helps me understand why America is so stupid.

Someone wised up, too, and made the broadcasts immune to the ninja remote... Er, uh, I heard from some guy on the internet, that is.

2013-04-23 01:16:21 (153 comments, 17 reshares, 949 +1s)

Nailed it.

2013-04-22 23:17:30 (162 comments, 11 reshares, 570 +1s)

Boy, I really hate how huge Google made the cover photo. It's a little ridiculous.

2013-04-21 19:24:49 (98 comments, 15 reshares, 705 +1s)

Today's bed head was cosplaying from Something About Mary. Also, I discovered really awesome filters and frames in CM10's camera app.

2013-04-18 18:04:30 (103 comments, 32 reshares, 450 +1s)

We played Savage Worlds last night, and I really enjoyed it. I can't imagine another system that would let us get in 5 satisfying combats in one session, and the thrill of exploding dice was really great (except when we were trying to subdue some bad guys, aced three times, and ended up killing them. Oops.)

My friend Martin ran it for us, in a post-apocalyptic setting he's been working on for a long time. It says a lot about the system, I think, that he could just drop something into it that he developed entirely on his own and Savage Worlds supported it without any weird hacking.

My general impression of the system is positive, though I think using a wild card die with a d4 skill for a trait test is a little broken. We didn't run the math, but it seems like it turns a lot of those trait tests, which should be very difficult to make since you only hit a success one in four... more »

2013-04-16 02:15:57 (250 comments, 15 reshares, 561 +1s)

*HELP!*

I think I bricked my phone.

Verizon GNEX, rooted, running CM10.1.
I accidentally updated to the nightly, which didn't work at all, so in my effort to restore the toro 10.1 image I'd been using, the phone's gotten itself stuck on the cyanogenmod loading screen for going on 35 minutes now.

Should I reboot into recovery, factory wipe the whole thing, and then sideload cm10? Everything important is backed up in a million different places because I'm like that.

I've already tried saying a lot of swears at it, and that didn't seem to be helpful.

Thanks in advance, G+!

UPDATE:

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions, everyone. I really appreciate the summoning and appearing of Android experts! This is a super-helpful thread, as it turns out! Looks like I'm making a DROID... more »

2013-04-15 02:15:22 (133 comments, 18 reshares, 298 +1s)

I'm learning Savage Worlds, and planning to start a Deadlands campaign. I can't say more than that, because I think some of my players read this... but I have plans for something awesome.

But here's what I really want to know from experienced Savage Worlds players and GMs: What do I really need to make sure I understand in the rules, and what are some tricks you've figured out that really make it sing?

2013-04-13 05:29:49 (77 comments, 65 reshares, 659 +1s)

I am easily amused.

2013-04-12 21:56:33 (68 comments, 31 reshares, 150 +1s)

2013-04-12 20:28:22 (97 comments, 248 reshares, 692 +1s)

A couple of years ago, I came across part of a recording called "Found on the Elevator". It was just a few minutes of a recording from the future, that was archived on a record in the past. It was supposedly found in an elevator in New York City in 1969. 

Here's the way it was described: "This recording is an "unauthorized experiment" that was made in the year 2058 C.D.S. (Carbon Dating System), a "blue verbal data feed" sent backwards in time to "retro A.D." by Decker, T. L., index J-3, CMR 00965 of T-Group Roaring Vectors 252, a human cyborg who suffers from a malfunctioning number nine electrode in his head which causes him to have an emotional breakdown as he records this message. It's a secret message to a past world he has trouble imagining, a world of foreign substances like metal, plastic, animals, soldiers... a world all physical and... more »

2013-04-12 16:58:31 (32 comments, 13 reshares, 128 +1s)

2013-04-11 19:48:24 (292 comments, 35 reshares, 2225 +1s)

Friendly reminder: if you're a dick, you get blocked. I have zero tolerance for people who are dicks to me or anyone else.

2013-04-11 19:37:45 (273 comments, 84 reshares, 690 +1s)

In 2008, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that his top priority was to ensure that Barack Obama was a one-term president. In his failed pursuit of that goal, he has lead his party to unprecedented obstructionism, abusing the filibuster to bring all Senate business to a halt.

In the 2012 election, Americans overwhelmingly re-elected President Obama, cast more votes for Democrats than Republicans, and increased the Democratic majority in the Senate. 

Millions of Democratic voters urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to change the Senate rules in response to Senate Republican’s unprecedented filibuster abuse. Unfortunately, Senator Reid ignored the warnings of his own party and the Democratic base. Unfortunately, Senator Reid reached a meaningless agreement with Senator McConnell that has done nothing to restore the rights of the majority. The Senate is asdy... more »

2013-04-09 17:03:48 (39 comments, 38 reshares, 230 +1s)

I can't believe Mike is going back to Soul Coughing songs, considering how painful that time was for him, but I'm so freaking excited that he is. I hope that recording these songs now allows him to reclaim them, so he can enjoy them the way the rest of us do.

2013-04-08 20:05:09 (67 comments, 32 reshares, 329 +1s)

2013-04-08 18:28:31 (185 comments, 12 reshares, 948 +1s)

This morning's I-slept-13-hours-after-a-weekend-at-a-comicon bed head was pretty great.

2013-04-04 20:18:39 (106 comments, 105 reshares, 756 +1s)

HEEEEYYYYY YYYOOOOUUUUU GGGUUUYYYSSSSS!!!11 New #Tabletop !

2013-04-02 17:41:15 (65 comments, 22 reshares, 328 +1s)

Hey beer nerds! Tonight, I'm meeting Drew Curtis and Greg Koch at the +Stone Brewing Co. Bistro in Escondido for a special reception to celebrate and talk about the collaboration beer Drew and I are doing with Stone.

Details are in the attached link.

2013-04-01 20:27:16 (62 comments, 107 reshares, 688 +1s)

2013-04-01 17:56:42 (15 comments, 22 reshares, 144 +1s)

2013-03-31 19:59:13 (203 comments, 279 reshares, 1501 +1s)

This young woman is better at playing the banjo than I will be at anything, ever, in my life.

2013-03-30 17:36:27 (24 comments, 16 reshares, 279 +1s)

2013-03-29 05:25:21 (66 comments, 151 reshares, 763 +1s)

Two of my favourite people being awesome together.

2013-03-28 16:48:14 (41 comments, 114 reshares, 397 +1s)

"Today we're running a crowdfunding campaign to edit this video into a 30 second spot, and place it in over 50 movie theaters around the country, starting with the premier of 'Star Trek Into Darkness.'    

By backing this 30 second trailer in the top movie theater markets around the United States, you can show our students and young people that we're in an exciting new era of space exploration. Now is the time to reach them - to remind them that an inspiring space program awaits, one that is worthy of their ambition."

Internet, we can do this. We can fund this and make a difference. I know there are at least 20,000 of you reading this who can give a dollar to make it happen.

2013-03-28 16:03:03 (33 comments, 31 reshares, 381 +1s)

2013-03-27 18:50:13 (58 comments, 34 reshares, 511 +1s)

HOLY CRAP #TabletopDay  was on CTV this morning!!

2013-03-26 17:24:31 (50 comments, 90 reshares, 388 +1s)

From Paper Magazine: "The New Museum has a new campaign called "Recalling 1993" and it sounds great, especially if you need to duck into a pay phone. If you go to most of the working phones in Manhattan and call 1-855-FOR-1993, you'll hear a recording of someone -- often a notable New Yorker -- telling a story about what the neighborhood you're calling from was like in 1993."

2013-03-26 05:55:57 (147 comments, 240 reshares, 944 +1s)

2013-03-26 01:32:52 (98 comments, 34 reshares, 429 +1s)

Listen quick, before THE MAN takes it down. (You can hear a sample from a young me at 0:55, which is why this is awesome.)

2013-03-25 20:43:51 (77 comments, 94 reshares, 240 +1s)

This is my friend Scott's band, and they need your help.

On November 17th, 2012, New York-based comedy music group Fortress of Attitude uploaded a music video they created for their song “PS Gay Car” (using the exact words of a mean note they found on their car one day) to YouTube. The pro-gay rights video was immensely popular, garnering coverage from, Huffington Post, Out Magazine, College Humor and Queerty.

The video gained 39,800 views in its first month, and then a month later Youtube took down the video, claiming they’d used bots to drive up views.

The story that unfolds is Kafkaesque: Fortress of Attitude hires New Media Rights to help them get their video reinstated, and Google/YouTube’s response is to send form letters back that just restate the alleged initial TOU violation. Ultimately, Google/YouTube refuses to consider any evidence or explanation fromFortres... more »

2013-03-25 19:50:54 (66 comments, 101 reshares, 712 +1s)