CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-23 18:17:07 (10 comments, 135 reshares, 173 +1s)

Amazing.

2013-05-22 15:54:47 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 37 +1s)

Do you ever do that thing where you go into an elevator and not turn around or point in the direction that everyone else is pointing. I admit to doing that. It is awesome.

2013-05-17 16:27:42 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Grats to +Cliff Lampe on his tenure at Michigan. Here is his overly modest post about the epic achievement.   Cliff is very near the top of a very short list of reasons that cause me to occasionally doubt my decision to move to DC.  
http://clifflampe.tumblr.com/post/50649119165/gratitude-in-the-tenure-process#permalink-notes

2013-05-17 16:25:43 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 3 +1s)

A fantastic story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-22542222

When Star Wars fans meets Dr. Who. Choice quotes:

"This wasn't a fight between Star Wars fans and Doctor Who fans with lightsabers and sonic screwdrivers drawn," he said.

2013-05-16 15:40:58 (8 comments, 13 reshares, 47 +1s)

And it's public:

http://www.nature.com/news/google-and-nasa-snap-up-quantum-computer-1.12999

I'm very much looking forward to it's installation. Please note we're setting aside 20% of the qc's time for academic research, so if you're doing that kind of work, check back in the coming months. 

2013-05-15 23:36:43 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 33 +1s)

I have some remarkable co-workers, I mean, I even like my interns.

2013-05-13 16:06:22 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

The Final Countdown... On May 26 one of my dreams will be delivered!

2013-05-08 18:03:50 (8 comments, 2 reshares, 29 +1s)

I bought me a case for my Nexus 4. It has the bugdroid featured in the design. I was extremely pleased to see this on the back. 

So if some random case manufacturer can comply with a creative commmons license's attribution requirements, there's hope! 

The case: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00APKD21O/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00APKD21O&li nkCode=as2&tag=chrisdibona 

2013-05-08 17:20:57 (106 comments, 202 reshares, 558 +1s)

I'll never think of Riker the same again. 

2013-05-08 16:46:46 (10 comments, 9 reshares, 14 +1s)

This is pretty insane fun. Try and guess the random geographic location based on Street View imagery. I'm playing under a strict 'no Googling' rule (i.e. not looking up place names I might be able to read on stores or signposts), and my best so far is 12,145 points. Enjoy!

2013-05-07 18:09:25 (17 comments, 1 reshares, 23 +1s)

During the stop-n-go portion of the drive into work today, I saw someone driving while texting, following someone reading while driving, followed by a makeup-phone-muffin eating person, followed by another texter. 

The increased latency in that lane was absurd. In my lane was mostly people judgmentally cataloging the other lane's failings.

2013-05-07 16:21:38 (6 comments, 3 reshares, 18 +1s)

Well, that's extremely silly:

http://vimeo.com/23460979#

2013-05-07 16:12:05 (19 comments, 83 reshares, 77 +1s)

I so would have bought the S7 if it had been available when I picked up the A7. Great ad :-)

2013-05-07 02:19:08 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Watching a 1966 batman with my 6 year old. He wanted a lego over the weekend and he totally glommed onto this one:

http://goo.gl/05JMM

I was all thinking "Dark Knight" and he was all "Cesar Romero and Adam West". But in watching this old cheese fest of a batman, I find it really fun and endearing, honestly.  na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na batman..... 

2013-05-06 18:23:24 (32 comments, 1 reshares, 16 +1s)

Ready to pay Adobe $29.99 a month for the rest of your life?  hehe...  Or wait, how about $49.99 a month for the complete package?   

I think it's pretty crazy... I like the good old days of buying software and owning it forever.  For example, let's say that I drop my Creative Cloud membership and I want to go back in a few months later and, say, CROP AN IMAGE using Photoshop, then I can't without paying Adobe again?  It just seems crazy!  

Anyway, we'll discuss this on the live show soon - see  https://plus.google.com/events/c647hgj11keapdsnva92m5d6uao  -- we'll bring this up almost straight away with +Thomas Hawk +Frederick Van Johnson   and more!

To me, it seems like Adobe seems more interested in having predictable revenue than making customers happy.  This tends to happen in organizations with a lot of bloat where eventuallydecisions are... more »

2013-05-01 21:25:35 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

#gsoc 2 days left for students to apply for Google Summer of Code 2013. The deadline is May 3: 19:00 UTC - no exceptions!!

Don't wait for the last 5 minutes to get your applications done in Melange!

2013-05-01 21:24:56 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 8 +1s)

It's that I/O time of year, and that means it's time for the latest installment of my annual Android Protips sessions -- Android Protips 3: Making Apps Work Like Magic!

If you're coming to #IO13  join me in the big room on the 3rd floor, first up on Day 2 - or tune in via the live stream at home or as part of #io13extended  (and of course everything will be recorded for posterity on YouTube).

Session Link: https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/326454327 

New to the franchise? You can catch up on the trilogy on YouTube:
- Google I/O 2011: Android Protips: Advanced Topics for Expert Android App Developers
- Google I/O 2012 - Making Good Apps Great: More Advanced Topics for Expert Android Developers

2013-04-30 16:40:15 (22 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

If you could ask Noam Chomsky anything, what would it be?

2013-04-23 18:08:46 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

Google Root Access this week with +Chris DiBona talking about how startups can use Open Source, how to build scalable systems, tips and tricks, and what to be careful about.

2013-04-23 16:36:45 (20 comments, 17 reshares, 63 +1s)

Dear Internet;

I'd like to propose a new term in the spirit of "open core" and "public source" (two crappy terms from people wanting to rent-seek against you) : Roach Source.

This is code that is 'released' on a publicly available blog, source repo, social coding site like github or bitbucket, without an open source license or much much worse an open source license with 'extra' terms tacked on (which is largely not allowed by open source licenses) .

Derived from the term roach motel, and also because I really dislike roaches, this kind of code, once it is mixed with your code base, makes your code something you must throw out or spend an absurd amount of time clearing before properly releasing it.

For my friends in startups: This kind of thing tends to hold up acquisitions. I've seen acquisitions scuttled because people... more »

2013-04-22 21:12:20 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 10 +1s)

We are now accepting applications from students to participate in Google Summer of Code 2013. Please check out the FAQs [1], timeline [2], and student manual [3] if you are unfamiliar with the process. You can also read the Melange manual if you need help with Melange [4]. The deadline to apply is May 3 at 19:00 UTC [5]. Late proposals will not be accepted for any reason, so if you're interested, don't delay!

[1] - http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2013/help_page#
[2] - http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/events/google/gsoc2013
[3] - http://en.flossmanuals.net/GSoCstudentguide/
[4] - http://en.flossmanuals.net/melange/students-students-application-phase/
[5] - http://goo.gl/ZSYyp

2013-04-22 18:09:39 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

Recently, Research at Google sat down with Googlers +Martin Wattenberg and +Fernanda Viegas, co-leaders of the Big Picture visualization group in our Cambridge, MA office.  Before joining Google, Viégas and Wattenberg founded Flowing Media, Inc., a visualization studio focused on media and consumer-oriented projects, and led IBM's Visual Communication Lab where they created the public visualization platform Many Eyes.

Creators of compelling data visualizations, Martin and Fernanda describe their work, educational backgrounds, and their take on the intersection of computer science and graphic design. Read on to learn about their data visualization work and to get answers to some questions asked by those of you following Research at Google here.

---

Research at Google: Martin and Fernanda, you both have very different and interesting backgrounds.  Can you talk alit... more »

2013-04-22 18:07:04 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

I would so buy this game:

GLORY TO ARSTOTZKA

2013-04-21 22:42:46 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 11 +1s)

#PSA : Use Chrome Profiles: http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2364824

2013-04-21 22:26:10 (3 comments, 8 reshares, 15 +1s)

First comment from NEXT A-Class "This is a really irresponsible way to run a soup business"

2013-04-21 21:46:02 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 7 +1s)

9 days until the submission deadline for Google Science Fair 2013!

. 9 is a square number (3x3).
. The atomic number of fluorine is 9.
. The atomic mass of beryllium is approximately 9.
. A 9-sided polygon is known as an enneagon or a nonagon.
. Any group with 9 members is known as an ennead.
. A 9-year wedding anniversary is known as a willow or a pottery anniversary.
. The game of baseball is played with two teams of 9 players each.
. What do Martians have to do with the number 9? Sesame Street - My Martian Cutie (Number 9)

2013-04-15 23:24:39 (0 comments, 6 reshares, 15 +1s)

We have launched Person Finder to help people caught in the explosions in Boston. Learn more.

http://google.org/personfinder/2013-boston-explosions

2013-04-12 03:18:43 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

2013-04-12 00:58:38 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

Hey, they're still cleaning up after the costa concordia, you know. Moderately interesting: http://www.theparbucklingproject.com/

2013-04-09 23:53:02 (36 comments, 44 reshares, 219 +1s)

I gotta tell you all, I'm getting very tired of seeing people promoting their work as open source when there is no actual open source code being released, or worse, code being released without an open source license attached. 

It's getting to be a real pain in my ass. A great number of projects, gists, blog entries which seem so very inviting are simply not to be copied. Remember, if you don't see an open source license, you cannot use that code unless you arrange a license with that developer. 

Also, almost every real open source license has very clear rules as to what a  user can do to them and still say they are using them. If you add a clause to the GPL license, for instance, that says "And you agree to send me a mink coat every time a user downloads this library" or "This is under the GPL except you must also pray for the rights of the elbonianrevo... more »

2013-04-09 19:57:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

PixelPusher will be at the Starter Fair in Berkeley next week:

http://youtu.be/x11nCniIWnU

You should check it out!

2013-04-08 17:30:22 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

R.I.P. Annette.  Also loved you in all the silly beach movies.  

2013-04-08 16:46:07 (13 comments, 24 reshares, 44 +1s)

This blog is hilarious. A father takes a picture of his son crying, then writes the reason he's crying in the caption.

Absolutely wonderful.

2013-04-08 15:43:45 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

It's soon Monday, which means it's soon time for another Root Access episode, the +Google Developers show about startups. In this episode, +Don Dodge will interview +Chris DiBona, open source manager at Google. Chris will take us through best practices, licenses and patents, as they apply to open source. He will also tell us how Google uses open source and contributes back to open source within Chrome, Android and other projects.


https://developers.google.com/events/ahNzfmdvb2dsZS1kZXZlbG9wZXJzcg8LEgVFdmVudBjz1ealAQw/

2013-04-08 15:54:01 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 21 +1s)

The abominable snowman...

2013-04-08 15:39:24 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

My twelve-year-old, Toby, watched Wall-E and designed his own "Tob-E" on Tinkercad. We then 3D printed it and painted it. Came out pretty well!
https://tinkercad.com/things/5O9oapvfc0f-tob-e-robot

2013-04-05 22:01:39 (11 comments, 11 reshares, 13 +1s)

They should teach it to say, "Are you Sarah Conner?" with an Austrian accent.

2013-04-05 16:38:30 (19 comments, 12 reshares, 13 +1s)

Backed:

2013-04-05 16:28:08 (0 comments, 5 reshares, 10 +1s)

A few weeks ago at SXSW in Austin, TX, I gave developers a sneak peek at the Google Mirror API, which is what they'll use to build services for Glass.  With the presentation, we set out to help developers and entrepreneurs start imagining what they could do on Glass.

The Mirror API is a cloud platform that uses OAuth 2.0 and REST as an architecture for delivering a new class of experiences to people using Glass.  We walked through the basic building blocks of the API: timeline cards, menu options, share contacts, and subscriptions.  We then demonstrated some early uses of the Mirror API on Glass that were built by Evernote, The New York Times, Path, and our own Gmail team.  

Developing for this type of device is a little different because you’re wearing it and it’s a very intimate experience.  So we also gave would-be Glass developers some recommended guidelines:
Des... more »