CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-20 18:17:46 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

ORD to Frankfurt to Rome.

2013-05-18 05:03:15 (10 comments, 30 reshares, 142 +1s)

+George Takei is a national treasure.

http://imgur.com/a/vchC7

2013-05-17 09:26:20 (5 comments, 8 reshares, 71 +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)

2013-05-16 18:10:55 (5 comments, 28 reshares, 51 +1s)

Yet another reason to do business with Newegg.

Patent trolls have got to go.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/newegg-nukes-corporate-troll-alcatel-in-third-patent-appeal-win-this-year/

2013-05-16 17:51:20 (4 comments, 15 reshares, 51 +1s)

Hardcore Apple Fans and Siege Mentality

Just got back from I/O and I run into a Twitter thread where +Farhad Manjoo John Gruber, et al are criticizing a strawman Larry's Q&A session where Larry talks about negativity in the tech press.

There's an  underlying current of siege mentality in the Apple blogger world, after years of teetering on the brink, Apple made a come back, but its hardcore users lived under a constant perceived threat by Microsoft, and Steve Jobs cultivated a cult like tribalist view of the community when it came to competing ecosystems as a defense, not unlike I think governments that whip up nationalist or patriotic fervor.

Now with Apple as the most successful company in the world, they still can't shake the amygdala urge to fight anyone in their space as an enemy.  Case in point, John Gruber refers to anyone who criticizes Apple inthe... more »

2013-05-16 17:30:54 (3 comments, 5 reshares, 23 +1s)

Whoa.

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2013/05/launching-quantum-artificial.html

2013-05-16 16:50:09 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 21 +1s)

Sciencefight!

2013-05-16 04:45:13 (16 comments, 11 reshares, 136 +1s)

+Ade Oshineye and I took the Bing Challenge: Google 4, Bing 0. :-)

2013-05-15 15:14:41 (4 comments, 3 reshares, 6 +1s)

Syria's gone off the internet... again.

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/explorer/?r=SY&l=EVERYTHING&csd=1367812470491&ced=1369629580000

2013-05-15 06:19:01 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Added photos to Google+ San Francisco PhotoWalk with Thomas & Trey! All skill levels are invited - Grand Prize: Google Glass!.

2013-05-15 06:18:35 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 42 +1s)

Had a blast tonight at the Google+ #glassphotowalk .  We started with something like 200-300 people at Yerba Buena Gardens and ended up at Union Square. It was fun, if chaotic. and the weather was quite divine.

Nothing like an excuse to walk around and try to see a city through different eyes.

Comments and critiques more than welcome.

2013-05-15 04:33:50 (12 comments, 16 reshares, 30 +1s)

"CAPS LOCK is cruise control for cool"

This is crazy sad, but made me laugh until I cried.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/this-is-the-most-epic-brand-meltdown-on-facebook-ever

2013-05-14 20:53:33 (8 comments, 3 reshares, 32 +1s)

Lunchtime view from the office

2013-05-13 22:42:21 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

One more from this weekend's hackathon. Window whiteboards with the city as a backdrop.

2013-05-13 19:53:34 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

"It's kind of like rounding up the world's greatest minds and making them do Sudokus for nickels."

http://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-most-powerful-computer-network-is-being-was-504503726

2013-05-14 23:18:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Eric van Zanten and 1 other was tagged in Brian Fitzpatrick's album.

2013-05-13 13:13:06 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 25 +1s)

ORD to SFO for Google I/O

2013-05-13 03:42:29 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

How nice of them to inclue balancing!

2013-05-13 01:41:58 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 20 +1s)

A photo I made at the Chicago Safe Communities Hackathon (https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c1ikcblaaeru5o7u3tcg2kk5ua4) that Google hosted this weekend.

Due to construction, we held the hackathon in the cafe, which was, ahem, lacking in whiteboards.  Turns out the window worked well, with Our Fair City as a backdrop.

2013-05-13 00:51:33 (4 comments, 24 reshares, 25 +1s)

Somebody call the burn unit.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10049454/Dont-make-fun-of-renowned- Dan-Brown.html

2013-05-11 12:18:51 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

We’re teaming up with Google to have our first-ever hackathon focused on safe communities in Chicago. More details to follow, but developers can expect a brand new API with data on community safety: tips and concerns from residents, community events and more. Whether you’re a civic developer or community leader, sign up to receive updates on this event and be among the first group of people with API access. 

2013-05-10 22:17:52 (12 comments, 20 reshares, 35 +1s)

tl;dr: Wine reviews are bullshit; drink what tastes good/whatever you can afford.

http://io9.com/wine-tasting-is-bullshit-heres-why-496098276

via +Jamie Zawinski 

2013-05-10 01:58:47 (33 comments, 33 reshares, 128 +1s)

I know that some astronauts on the space station are on Twitter, but I don't think they're on Google+.  Anyway, if you are an astronaut and you are currently on the space station, just skip this post.

Gravity Official Teaser Trailer (2013) - George Clooney Movie HD

2013-05-09 18:35:05 (16 comments, 58 reshares, 77 +1s)

This is amazing.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2013/05/08/new-zealand-government-announces-that-software-will-no-longer-be-patentable/


via +Lauren Weinstein 

2013-05-09 15:19:02 (5 comments, 5 reshares, 12 +1s)

I'm going to have to share this everywhere.

2013-05-08 22:03:26 (1 comments, 8 reshares, 24 +1s)

How the price of paint is set in the hearts of dying stars

Today I’m going to try to explain the real reason that barns are painted red: nuclear fusion. And yes, this is an excuse to take a mad ride around some of the stranger corners of physics and chemistry in order to give you the real, this-is-not-BS, answer to a simple question.

This question got stuck in my head as a result of an episode of a long-forgotten sitcom called Head of the Class, about a high school class full of smart kids. (Sort of like Welcome Back, Kotter in reverse) This being an American show, it’s obligatory to occasionally emphasize the superiority of the ordinary virtue of “plain folk,” so in one episode the protagonists face off in some kind of academic contest with kids from a rural school, and end up losing because their city-slicker knowledge can’t answer the question “why are barnsred?” (And ... more »

2013-05-08 18:23:20 (20 comments, 14 reshares, 39 +1s)

This is... horrifying:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57583395-38/doj-we-dont-need-warrants-for-e-mail-facebook-chats/

2013-05-08 14:49:27 (2 comments, 5 reshares, 8 +1s)

Looks like Syria is back online now:

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/explorer/?r=SY&l=EVERYTHING&csd=1367777940758&ced=1397958180000

2013-05-07 20:26:13 (5 comments, 6 reshares, 15 +1s)

Looks like Syria just dropped off the Internet:

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/explorer/?r=SY&l=EVERYTHING&csd=1367777940758&ced=1367958180000

EDIT: Second source: 

http://labs.umbrella.com/2013/05/07/breaking-news-traffic-from-syria-disappears-from-internet/

2013-05-07 18:26:00 (21 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

Wow! +Nicole Wong is heading to the White House!

I greatly enjoyed working with her when she was at Google.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57583249-38/white-house-picks-twitter-lawyer-as-chief-privacy-officer/

2013-05-07 17:46:52 (8 comments, 38 reshares, 51 +1s)

One of the best commercials I've seen in a loooooong time. I actually laughed out loud at the end.

Zachary Quinto vs. Leonard Nimoy: "The Challenge"

2013-05-05 20:45:42 (19 comments, 1 reshares, 58 +1s)

I just had to reboot my dishwasher.

#TheFutureIsNow  

2013-05-05 00:33:55 (18 comments, 1 reshares, 30 +1s)

"We call it the Good Morning Burger"

@The Chicago Brauhaus

2013-05-03 15:22:02 (0 comments, 5 reshares, 14 +1s)

Celebrate the Day Against DRM

At O'Reilly Media, we've always published our ebooks DRM free, following the advice of Lao Tzu, who said, 2500 years ago, "Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you."

At first, it was pretty lonely out there, but as more and more of our competitors saw how well it was working for us, they agreed to join us, via our digital distribution services.

To make a long story short, in honor of the National day Against DRM, you can take 50% off on thousands of technical ebooks and videos from many top publishers, today only.

2013-05-03 15:17:05 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 15 +1s)

And remember, these are 1964 dollars!

2013-05-03 14:36:19 (0 comments, 9 reshares, 9 +1s)

Chicago Girls in Computing is raising money to help more girls learn about CS. I just sponsored them, and you should too! :-)

https://www.piggybackr.com/girls_computing/chicago-girls-in-computing-encourage-girls-in-tech-fundraiser?source=twitter

2013-05-02 14:43:44 (3 comments, 8 reshares, 24 +1s)

Reason #9,003 I love the internet:

"I tried to capture the emotions behind not knowing who let the dogs out, while also wanting to know who let the dogs out."

Who Let the Dogs Out by Baha Men - Matt Mulholland Cover

2013-05-02 05:26:43 (29 comments, 132 reshares, 224 +1s)

This is a terrific display of how monkeys -- like humans -- have brains wired to look for fairness:

Two Monkeys Were Paid Unequally: Excerpt from Frans de Waal's TED Talk

/cc +Bill Duane 

2013-05-02 04:42:48 (2 comments, 3 reshares, 22 +1s)

Well, now I've got to watch The Matrix again.

2013-05-01 03:57:24 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 11 +1s)

Got to hang out with the amazing +Marcin Wichary last week and while he's usually the guy with the camera, I managed to turn the tables on him.

/cc +Brandon Downey for critique. And yes, the eyes are out of focus in #2 :-(

2013-05-01 02:30:25 (11 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

This is horrifying [emphasis mine]:

"The tax guy said that by this point in my career I needed to be signed by a major label, that I should have been signed to a major label by now, that I needed to be signed to a major label to establish myself. [He said that] there was no evidence that I was actively sending my records to major record labels, so therefore I must not be interested in profit, and not running a for-profit business."

http://www.minnpost.com/minnpost-asks/2013/04/talking-taxman-about-poetry-and-deductions

2013-04-30 21:52:53 (10 comments, 80 reshares, 178 +1s)

This is on our internal guide to choosing an open source license.  It's (somewhat) tongue-in-cheek.

+Dan Bentley came up with this a few years ago and I made a nice Graffle of it, and it still makes me laugh.

Thanks to +Will Norris for reminding me about it :-)

2013-04-30 01:21:08 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 24 +1s)

Summer is coming :-)

2013-04-29 22:05:13 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 13 +1s)

I'll just leave this here...

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130417/03315522738/mpaa-fair-use-more-detailed-history.shtml

2013-04-28 19:44:47 (4 comments, 29 reshares, 132 +1s)

Seen in Mountain View...

2013-04-28 19:38:18 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 12 +1s)

#computationalnecromancy  

+Steve Hawley got some of his old Apple II disks turned into dsk images and decided to open-source some of his old projects.  The first? Conway's Game of Life.  Written in 6502 Assembly, of course.

https://6502life.codeplex.com/

2013-04-28 19:42:24 (10 comments, 9 reshares, 44 +1s)

I don't know much at all about +Russell Brand, but I do know that this article is both a brilliant description of addiction and a beautiful piece of prose.  What a writer! This is well worth reading, especially if you know (or have known) someone addicted to anything.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8857821/fixing-a-hole/

2013-04-27 12:46:20 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

SFO to ORD. yaaaaaaawn So. Tired.

2013-04-26 00:41:06 (20 comments, 11 reshares, 20 +1s)

This is really helpful -- I highly recommend that any Twitter users take a minute to check it out.

http://www.ismytwitterpasswordsecure.com/

2013-04-25 16:47:13 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 5 +1s)

We’re teaming up with Google to have our first-ever hackathon focused on safe communities in Chicago. More details to follow, but developers can expect a brand new API with data on community safety: tips and concerns from residents, community events and more. Whether you’re a civic developer or community leader, sign up to receive updates on this event and be among the first group of people with API access.