CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-06-19 21:35:40 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

2013-06-17 17:57:52 (10 comments, 23 reshares, 24 +1s)

Surfing...In Munich? Whaaaa? Yes, you can surf at an area where fast moving water enters a river that cuts through the English Garden

2013-06-16 10:43:10 (20 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Stupid Americans abroad. At the Dachau camp in Germany where tour guide is explaining the process of aryanization -- the transfer of Jewish property to nazis. One older American next to me turns to his wife and says "that's the same thing Obama is doing." I felt like explaining Godwin's rule to him.

2013-06-14 07:52:30 (3 comments, 7 reshares, 17 +1s)

The surprising mathematics of Origami, or why math is beautiful.

I never realized that origami now has an algorithm, and you and practically transform a sketch into a set of crease patterns. I wonder if you could build a kind of "2d Makerbot" with this stuff. That is, design a shape, compute the crease pattern, and half a robot fold it.

With the appropriate materials, and a hardening process, it might an alternate way to create 3D figures.

2013-06-14 07:05:12 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Damn, why did I click this knowing I have a flight tomorrow night.

2013-06-14 05:02:54 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 9 +1s)

I actually viewed the ending of this as developers blowing up the evil overlord Oracle to free Java, probably not what Oracle intended.

2013-06-13 17:28:15 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

I love the internet.

2013-06-13 07:21:50 (9 comments, 2 reshares, 13 +1s)

Holes in the NSA story.

2013-06-12 19:51:51 (2 comments, 6 reshares, 13 +1s)

David Drummond interviewed on Channel4.

2013-06-12 15:46:47 (5 comments, 7 reshares, 20 +1s)

Well, since no one in the English-speaking world seems to have produced a Hitler meme YouTube video for iOS 7 yet, I decided to try my hand.  It's my first time trying a meme video, but I'm surprised how well it turned out.  Enjoy!

2013-06-12 06:16:34 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 2 +1s)

Ellen Page seems to be kicking ass. And Virtual William Dafoe looks pretty sweet in this trailer: BEYOND: Two Souls E3 Trailer | E3 2013

2013-06-12 05:08:45 (7 comments, 3 reshares, 18 +1s)

I don't know what the hell has come over Sony recently, did they have a management shakeup? They seem to be firing on all cylinders now. They're listening to customers about DRM. They listened to developers about ease of development and indie publishing. They learned their lessons on price. And they appear primed to ship a new console, that is simultaneously more powerful than their competitors, cheaper, and more open, and ship it on time. (PS3 was 1 year delayed)

And now, even their commercials are more interesting. This commercial speaks to gamers, not casuals, but true blue console/PC type gamers. 

They're going back to basics, targeting their core audience. And it looks good.

2013-06-12 04:35:59 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Wow, no more turn based combat?

2013-06-12 04:18:34 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

Augmented Reality demos on PlayStation 4 Eye and new DualShock with TouchPad, plus Tablet integration. 

2013-06-11 21:03:26 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Red Band Trailer: Electro-shock torture of semi-naked elite sniper women. Water boarding. Child soldiers and blood diamonds. Battlefield abdominal surgery to remove implanted bombs?

And, Jack Bauer, er, I mean Solid Keifer Snake.

The writing, set design, direction, acting, and graphics of blockbuster video games continues to increase. Yes, Ebert, they are an art form, if only you could been around longer to watch them mature.

2013-06-11 08:06:28 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Bing it on? Let's try a fun game/experiment. Post long-tail searches that either Google does better at, or if you manage to locate one, a query in which Bing wins. 

My favorites are obscure movie references, for example:
"the movie where a kid kisses a girl in an elevator in the dark"
"the movie where wine is spilled in the computer"
"the movie where a women is turned into an ostrich"
"the movie with evil microwave"
"the movie with unicorn and elf"
"the movie where japanese aliens are gorillas"
"the movie with nuclear cockroaches"
"the movie where everyone goes blind because of alien plants"

I could go on, at this point, I'd be interested in seeing any examples where Google definitively loses. 

Bing it on. :)

2013-06-11 07:01:55 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 9 +1s)

In-game, real-time, climax of the inFAMOUS Second Son E3 trailer. inFAMOUS Second Son - E3 Trailer (PS4) | E3 2013

2013-06-11 06:39:51 (0 comments, 4 reshares, 9 +1s)

The theme of E3 seems to be Next-Gen Console + Tablet. This looks pretty awesome.

2013-06-11 06:36:19 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

One last one from E3: Destiny, from Bungie (makers of the original Halo).

2013-06-11 06:22:46 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

More Next-Gen E3 awesomeness, this time, Battlfield 4. Particularly, starting from 4 minute mark, they show an Tablet "Commander" directly resources from above the Battlefield, calling in missile strikes, as well as tanks destroying a skyscaper, that collapses like the Twin Towers after your squad evacuates.

2013-06-11 06:12:19 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Damn these next-gen console titles are looking sweet. More beautifulness from E3. 

And yes, that's Keifer Sutherland/Jack Bauer you hear. I still prefer David Hayter's voice as Snake.

2013-06-11 06:02:38 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

This folks is Exhibit A as to why console/desktop PC gaming isn't going to be killed by mobile. This is a  multiplayer/social third person shooter.  It actually includes tablets as a second screen, but it is "next gen only" as far as the main game. http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.com/game/en-US/game_info/index.aspx

2013-06-11 04:55:18 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

Real time on PlayStation 4. Surprise twist at the end.

2013-06-11 04:44:55 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

+Bruce Johnson's blog post is worth reading just for the succinct description of agile software development alone (based, I assume, on personal experience).

Oh, yeah, and he's launching a new web app, Homebase.io. Makes me want to get into marketing just to try it out... Maybe they'd let me into the beta if I pretended to be a marketer, but then I actually use it for other purposes...?

2013-06-11 04:29:04 (16 comments, 7 reshares, 36 +1s)

Thoughts On iOS7 From an Android Fan

Like many other people I was curious to see what Apple would come out with today in terms of updates to their mobile platform. As we all know iOS6 was dated and long overdue for an update. Let's face it, skeuomorphic design went out with the last decade in favor of the more modern, minimalist feel of flat design.

So how did Apple do? They did a great job of implementing a very nice, clean and modern UI. The design features they implemented were largely copied from Android, Windows Phone and WebOS. And what is wrong with that? Absolutely nothing.

Copying UI designs is hardly new a new concept as designs are as much about trends as music and hairstyles. Take an example from the side menu on the Facebook Mobile app. Now I'm not say the Facebook app is a good design, however they did get this one thing right. This small... more »

2013-06-11 05:08:10 (19 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Did Sony just put the nail in Microsoft's coffin?

1. More powerful console
2. $100 cheaper (Kinect surcharge?)
3. No restrictions on used games.

Checkmate.

The moment when Sony won this generation? Watch the crowd PS4 - Used Games/Play Offline

2013-06-11 04:13:41 (5 comments, 18 reshares, 20 +1s)

A comparison someone posted in The Verge comments section. BTW, I found this link there too (http://mycolorscreen.com/) it shows screenshots of Android home screens that have been heavily customized.

2013-06-10 23:41:59 (3 comments, 6 reshares, 35 +1s)

Best Troll Comment from Ars Technica Forums:
"The animated backgrounds and direct access to Notification centre from the lock screen, the control centre, multitasking!!! And the new Safari!!! Who's ever done a full screen mobile browser with a smart address bar that you can search directly from, synced bookmarks, unlimited tabs!!! Being able to access all your running apps by a simple tap, or two! Live filtres on the camera! Segregated photo albums!

These features are ground breaking. Nobody has ever done anything like this!!!!"

"Mr. Page, Mr. Brin, start your photocopiers."

2013-06-10 18:18:02 (29 comments, 2 reshares, 29 +1s)

Android, Android, Android. Punching below your weight eh Tim Cook? He just spent 10 minutes whining about Android. Tells you something.

2013-06-10 18:13:03 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Props to Apple's new Pages/Keynote/et al for iCloud. Looks pretty slick. Did I see them using CSS-Region for reflow of text around an irregularly shaped image?

2013-06-10 18:01:48 (23 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Finally a new Mac Pro, this is gonna cost an arm and a leg I bet.

2013-06-09 19:55:34 (20 comments, 0 reshares, 13 +1s)

Seriously, Edward Snowden, China was your first choice to hide from the NSA? 

Holy shit that was a bad choice for many reasons. I can't think of a worse place to go, other than Russia or Iran with respect to the intense desire of those nations to extract as many secrets about NSA capabilities as possible. These are the most secret of the secret capabilities of US intelligence. He even boasted that he knows many more secrets that he himself took care to censor unlike Bradley Manning. I think China will be very interested in hearing those redacted snippets.

Secondly, if he ends up revealing sensitive information to these countries, any sympathy from the US population will turn into calls for frying him as a traitor. Going to China makes him into a Rosenberg.

This guy doesn't seem very smart at all. And using pillow cases and shields over screens to stop the NSA?... more »

2013-06-09 08:26:43 (2 comments, 4 reshares, 4 +1s)

The Verizon story was reported 7 years ago.

2013-06-09 07:32:20 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 13 +1s)

Good movie to watch given the current context.

2013-06-09 07:21:14 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

Pretty slick looking ExtGWT app. :(

2013-06-08 19:49:16 (8 comments, 8 reshares, 21 +1s)

LOL, the NSA uses GWT (ExtGWT). See the BOUNDLESSINFORMANT docs. :)

+Colin Alworth +Michael Mullany 

2013-06-08 18:13:55 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

New prism slide shows upstream fiber taps, but still claims to get data directly from servers, although what this means -- is it just an NSL request that must be reviewed and complied with, or is it automated, continuous, interception? -- is still unclear.

But why would they need upstream intercept if they've got downstream intercept? The upstream data is more likely to be raw and encrypted, the downstream data is application level data, already parsed and decrypted, clearly you'd want that.

The Guardian is dolling these slides out 1 day at a time (there are 41 of them), talk about manipulative traffic maximization.

2013-06-08 04:21:59 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 12 +1s)

I may have to change my underwear after this.

2013-06-08 01:58:03 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 5 +1s)

I have a tremendous number of thoughts about the various revelations about the NSA's domestic espionage programs revealed this week. But first and foremost, I wanted to share this message from +Larry Page and our Chief Legal Officer +David Drummond. Google had no involvement in the PRISM program and the first we heard of it was when Greenwald's article hit the press.

I'm not sure what the details of this PRISM program are, but I can tell you that the only way in which Google reveals information about users are when we receive lawful, specific orders about individuals -- things like search warrants. And we continue to stand firm against any attempts to do so broadly or without genuine, individualized suspicion, and publicize the results as much as possible in our Transparency Report. Having seen much of the internals of how we do this, I can tell you that it is a point of pride, both... more »

2013-06-07 21:35:20 (7 comments, 3 reshares, 26 +1s)

There's a new kind of Birther or Truther, let's call them PRISMers. No amount of denials or evidence to the contrary, no matter how they are worded or exposed, will satisfy PRISMers that Google is not uploading all user activity to the NSA. It's just impossible to repair the harm that's been done to the brand by the government. 

For some people, I doubt trust can ever be regained. Companies affected by this PRISM program should sue the US Government for damages, or at least sue them until it is completely declassified.

2013-06-07 17:17:46 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Schneier has a great article here on the many ways you are being tracked, but I think overlooks the fact that much of this record keeping happened prior to the internet. Almost all public activity generates a paper trail, and before the internet, your phone company, bank, grocery store, even your VHS rentals and public library, were keeping records on you.  The internet makes it far far more efficient, but it didn't invent the collection of such records.

I think the focus shouldn't be on the unavoidable "information radiation wake" you give off as you move through the world living your life, but on the ways people utilize this information. The government, and private entities, need to be constrained in how this information can be legally used, not in the collection of it, which I think is impossible.

Consider health records, which lots of people are paranoid about.... more »

2013-06-07 17:01:17 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

60 seconds of kneeling before Zod.

2013-06-07 16:10:10 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 11 +1s)

Obama meets with the leaders of China today at a summit in California to discuss cyber security and Chinese attacks on US networks, and perhaps Chinese censorship.

Imagine how US arguments are now undercut by the NSA's not only well known foreign snooping, which is their mission, but by widespread snooping on Americans. There can be no moral authority in telling China that they need to be "more like us" or they need to stop hacking when the NSA+Courts are hacking US domestic services. 

Hell, for all we know, the NSA PRISM program could have licensed backdoors from the People's Liberation Army or zero day attacks from douchebags like VUPEN. 

If you want to tell other people they should act better, you've got to practice what you preach.

2013-06-07 06:35:39 (28 comments, 21 reshares, 80 +1s)

"According to a report in Bloomberg, Google has been the only major communications company to fight back against NSLs. Challenges are rare: Of 300,000 government-issued NSLs since 2000, only a handful of companies have resisted."

Three hundred thousand. Are there even 300,000 terrorists in the entire world?

2013-06-07 05:58:55 (2 comments, 6 reshares, 26 +1s)

Metadata is data. Some government apologists as well as legislators are arguing that the government isn't actually listening in on your calls, or reading your emails, they're just getting logs of who you communicated with and when.

Don't fool yourself into thinking metadata is harmless, or because you encrypt communications, you are ok.

There's a very good reason why metadata can in fact be quite dangerous, because the government uses bulk processing of it to fish for leads, and then they follow those leads by traversing the network of connections in the metadata. Ultimately, this leads them to suspicious activity, of which there will be plenty of false positives. 

And what do you think they do when they turn up something suspicious to their algorithms? They go to secret courts to get real wiretaps and other surveillance, they may even pay you a visit for... more »

2013-06-06 06:00:18 (1 comments, 5 reshares, 15 +1s)

The graphics on the Wii U version of Goldeneye are massively improved.

2013-06-06 05:55:46 (13 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

Clipper, Carnivore, FinCEN, Echelon. Julian Assange, and others are asserting that Google (and by transitivity, cloud services in general) are evil because the state can seize the data. This is true of practically any new invention or service that either provides a new communications channel, or provides a high frequency service to the user (e.g. your local grocery store)

What's missing in this discussion of warrants and national security letters for email records, is the fact that the government has been engaged in a widespread firehose, warrantless, gathering of information from ISPs, phone carriers, banking institutions, and airlines, and this has been going on for a long time. 

Geeks and civil libertarians seem to have given up talking about that. Now the big fear is that the government will get the records of cat gif sharing services.

Point is, going after Google... more »

2013-06-06 02:31:05 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Looks like Naughty Dog does it again. One thing Sony has going for it compared to Microsoft is a lot more exclusives. The Last of Us REVIEW! Adam Sessler Reviews

2013-06-05 17:31:23 (4 comments, 3 reshares, 24 +1s)

Lucky or unlucky?
Nonetheless this is crazy.

2013-06-05 04:43:52 (3 comments, 8 reshares, 17 +1s)

Those things are far more aggressive than I thought.