CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-22 21:18:05 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

Wohoo! Finally sorted out the photos taken during our two-week road trip through Norway last year. In short, we've started in Oslo, drove up till Trondheim and then back south along the coastline.

I've added notes and location info to many of the photos, so it should make flicking through more fun. If you don't wanna go through all of them, just make use the new show highlights option of G+ photos.

If you ask me what my personal highlight was, I'd say revisiting Vigeland Park. Sure, all of the fjords and mountain passes and Ålesund and Kristiansund and Røros and everything else was impressive too, but Mr. Vigeland's stuff still blows my mind (see the last dozen of the photos).

PS. We did the very Stunt-Car-Racer-esk Atlantic Ocean Road (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Ocean_Road) too, but sadly, I messed up every single photo :-(

2013-05-22 14:50:46 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Short excerpt from Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis that I'm currently reading.

(You might like that, +John Lewis)

2013-05-21 20:38:11 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

That's the most stupid Kickstarter reward up to now :-)

(BTW, me @ 7:40)

2013-05-21 19:52:16 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Boy, +Google+ Photos definitely needs an auto straightening feature.  Or me. Whatever's easier to change.

PS. Finally sorting through our photos from last year's vacation in Norway.

2013-05-21 19:07:17 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Not sure if I get modern gaming anymore as the Xbox One presentation only made me yawn.

Reason for this might be that...

○ It's all just cars, sports and QTE-Shooters with all of them trying too hard to raise the level of physics/realism and storytelling while lacking gameplay innovation. Well, dynamic multi-player maps does sound fun but then again Scorched Earch – it's not called The Mother of all Games without reason – already gave us that idea back in 1991.

○ It's targeted at US audience only. NFL? Football Fantasy? CBS and NBC? Who cares! Sitting in Austria means that there aren't any  TV shows to keep track of or movies to rent or TV stations offering SmartGlass enhanced programs.

○ Spielberg? Well, I kinda liked his Boom Blox games although I'm not really a fan of physics based games at all but come on, he stoppedmaking wat... more »

2013-05-20 15:30:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

My niece and I replayed a couple of DKCR's fun but tricky as hell mine cart levels on Wii yesterday.

I really do hope that the unannounced Wii U title Retro Studios is currently working on is the next installment of this fantastic series.

retrostudios.com | donkeykong.wikia.com/wiki/Mine_Cart

2013-05-20 11:52:21 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 14 +1s)

Some things can only be shared properly in portrait format. 
Thx for adding it, +Google+ :-)

Source: c64screenshots.com
#c64   #retrogaming   #LucasArts  

2013-05-18 10:10:58 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Hm... I thought it was mentioned at IO13 that G+ does already support WebP format?

Further, anybody knows a good WebP tool/converter?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebP
developers.google.com/speed/webp/

2013-05-18 08:54:25 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Huh? What's that?
Swooshing through the Play Store's music library via the tablet app?
Very neat!

PS. Don't know if that's been around for some time - Music has been added to the Austrian store just recently.

2013-05-17 19:41:11 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

As a follow up to my last post (goo.gl/z2m6R), here's my CSS hack for enhancing the highlighting of posts when browsing via keyboard shortcuts. It works for single as well as multi column layout although looks better in the first one.

If you wanna give it a go get either Stylish (goo.gl/RKjK5) or Stylebot (goo.gl/hTxba) and add the CSS data available via the link below.

I've also added some color coding:
○ grey = posts
○ green = share box
○ blue = general info boxes

There's also at least one bug:
○ when focusing the first posting on a profile page, G+ scrolls automatically to the top revealing  the profile banner instead.

A big Thanks! to +Filip H.F. Slagter and +Markus Haselböck for their help and code samples. 

PS: It was definitely fun fooling around with G+, but I'm not yet sure if I'm actuallyusing my own ... more »

2013-05-17 05:45:23 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Got my Google Maps invite* :-)
Can't wait getting to a browser.

* request one here: google.com/maps/preview

2013-05-16 21:04:51 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I have been using the keyboard shortcuts j & k for navigating through my stream for ages and I'm very happy to see that it's still working.

With the three-columns layout, there has been a blue border added for highlighting the currently focused post, but frankly, that's not enough for me. 

How about tweaking the contrast of the posts too as shown in the picture below?

Any JS/CSS wizard out there who could add such a feature?
Any chance we see something similar in G+ sometime?

#googleplusupdate   #UX   #keyboardshortcuts  

2013-05-16 19:48:03 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Join the G+ UX team for a design workshop at Google I/O, tomorrow May 17th. Here are the presenters from Get Unstuck: Gamestorming Not Brainstorming - http://goo.gl/nRIu2 #getunstuck   #io13  

2013-05-16 17:56:37 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

At Franz Lun's vernissage "Die Farbe will zur Form" in Vienna.

2013-05-15 20:38:39 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

As the new G+ UI hasn't shown up yet, I'll go checking out the Resident Evil: Revelations demo on #WiiU  instead.

2013-05-15 18:05:01 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

First of the launches - Android and iOS apps are on their way

2013-05-15 17:42:14 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

And this UI update is beautiful too.

#IO13  

2013-05-15 17:49:40 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

This looks very promising. 
Can't wait till it's rolled out :-)

#IO13  

2013-05-15 12:10:02 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Presentation slides from the UX conference are online!

http://www.nofro.com/2013/04/uxkonferenz.html

http://goo.gl/z71mC (German)

http://goo.gl/QIGQZ (English)

2013-05-15 15:53:54 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I've taken some PhotoSpheres on my way to the Interaction Design Stammtisch at the MetaLab.

Enjoy.

#IDSW metalab.at/wiki/Usability

2013-05-13 18:28:57 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

It's fun how often people point out that the video game they're selling has only been played once. 

2013-05-12 19:53:49 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

A quick musical follow up to my Sunday movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: the full soundtrack including Seu Jorge's beautiful acoustic covers of various Bowie songs sung in Portuguese.

Enjoy.

PS: I haven't shared music via Google Play before, but everybody in my circles should receive one free full play.

2013-05-12 15:59:25 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Sunday afternoon movie: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

http://imdb.com/title/tt0362270

2013-05-11 19:27:07 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Adding three new big box games to my collection:

○ Beneath a Steel Sky: A point & click adventure with backgrounds (and a comic) drawn by Dave Gibbons? Yes, please. BASS can be downloaded for free via gog.com and ScummVM.org 

○ Elvira II - Jaws of Cerberus: While I do already own the C64 version (goo.gl/R2iFL), I couldn't resist buying this beautiful box in which the PC and Amiga ports had been shipped back in the 90s. The game's available directly via AdventureSoft's online store (goo.gl/wjDcX).

○ Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver: A IMHO very well made 3rd-person-puzzle-platformer-action-adventure build upon switching between two planes of existence. It's on sale via gog.com (goo.gl/3OoML).

#videogames   #retrogaming  

2013-05-11 16:11:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Me? I just watched a live feed of two people working ... in Space!

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

2013-05-11 13:46:34 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

It's raining, let's better stay inside and forge some katana and ōdachi.

Murasama – The Demon Blade
Vanillaware (2009), Nintendo Wii
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muramasa:_The_Demon_Blade

2013-05-11 10:18:15 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Today is +Gratis Comic Tag (Free Comic Book Day) in the German speaking world.

○ List of comics: http://gratiscomictag.de/comics
○ Where to get: http://gratiscomictag.de/regions

On my list are Before Watchmen, Skull Party (by +Melanie Schober) and Koma.

2013-05-10 21:37:24 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

A late Wohoo! for G+ supporting high res photos!

Below, the Evil Dead trilogy in my favorite cut: combined into a single movie.

Further, I've reuploaded my other movie stills galleries:
○ Wong Kar-wai: http://goo.gl/IHeXD
○ Alien Quadrilogy: http://goo.gl/V06VD

2013-05-10 17:26:35 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Schönes Wochenende!

2013-05-09 15:58:42 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Sucht noch jemand ein Nexus 4?
Bei diTech gäb's die grad um € 333.

ditech.at/artikel/SML0014/Smartphone_Google_Nexus_4_16_GB.html

2013-05-09 11:55:36 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

With Evil Dead (2013) finally hitting the Austrian cinemas next week, why not rewatch the first two flicks of the original trilogy as double feature at the Filmcasino in Vienna tomorrow night (ED1: 22:30; ED2: 00:30)?

Too bad the chances that I can make it are almost zero :-(

http://www.filmcasino.at

2013-05-09 09:54:44 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Checking out the Happy Lab in Vienna.

http://www.happylab.at/

2013-05-07 21:20:31 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Some G+ number crunching although it's a very limited set of data:

Sharing a post with a community (8,854 members) resulted in 335 views [1].
Sharing a post with the 2,358 people following me resulted in 371 views [2].

As both posts were similar regarding structure and publishing date as well as both did – more or less – meet the audiences' expectations, shouldn't the view stats of the community post be way higher?

Thoughts?

[1] plus.google.com/117501271892858907275/posts/fWoozHBrcm8
[2] plus.google.com/117501271892858907275/posts/cc3AwfpVtWC

2013-05-07 20:02:08 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

2013-05-06 21:09:33 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Spending another evening at the Covenant estate in Ireland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undying

2013-05-06 11:07:49 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Checking #videogame  footprints again (http://goo.gl/eOtRV).

Bonus Sunday evening question:
Name the game that I'm currently revisiting here.

2013-05-04 18:46:26 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Added some video game soundtracks to my music library:

○ Sam & Max: Loads of fun and imaginative jazz numbers written by +Jared Emerson-Johnson. These two digi packs contain 113(!) songs from the first two seasons of +Telltale Games' fun adventure games on four CDs. Bad news is, they're out of print and therefore hard to get (thx again to +Sébastien Frippiat who has sold me his copies)

○ +American McGee's Alice: Fantastic game (goo.gl/5t8C5) with a fantastic score composed by frikkin' Chris StabbingWestward/NIN/Manson/Tweaker Vrenna (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Vrenna)

○ Alice - Madness Returns: Haven't yet played the sequel – although it's been installed on my HDD for ages already – but the score is truly beautiful. Composed by Jason Tai (twitter.com/jasontai) with contributions from +Marshall Crutcher and ChrisVrenna.... more »

2013-05-04 16:56:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

A quick #comics  update from my side.

After having rewatched the movie adaptation of Sin City last week (goo.gl/BCzPb) and having read some other stuff written by Frank Miller (Ronin and Hard Boiled to be precise), I felt the urge to get myself the complete Sin City series. If you're a fan, you might have already spotted that the third book is missing in the picture below. Well, I don't know why but it looks like the The Big Fat Kill is the only book of the 3rd edition being out of print already :-(

Next, the fifth and final TPB of the new Hellraiser series written by Barker and published by Boom Studios. Even though it didn't match the quality of the first two TPB, the series still was a blast. Good news is, there's already a second Hellraiser series (dubbed The Dark Watch) in the works.

What to say about Crossed? Well, it's... more »

2013-05-03 17:59:34 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Nooooo!
One of the best live bands ever is no more!*

While I'm glad that I've seen them play (almost) every single time they've visited Austria between 2001 and today, it's still sad to know that there won't be a next gig.

Good thing is, there are plenty of live recordings available via archive.org, like this one from their gig at Kåren in Gothenburg on February 10, 2001:

archive.org/details/tsool2001-02-10.shnf

* Jep, I'm late as they've already disbanded in December 2012.

#TheSoundtrackOfOurLives   #OEOC  

2013-05-01 19:24:29 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

I know nothing about Poker but +Classic Game Room's review of Telltale's Poker Night 2 got me interested (read it here: goo.gl/eD42l).

It's also only € 4.99 ... and there's Ash ... and Sam & Max ... and frikkin' GLaDOS is dealing cards!

Get it here: pokernight2.com

2013-05-01 13:11:59 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Just installed Talisman Prologue on my Nexus 7.
Let's see if the game is any fun when played alone.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nomadgames.talismanprologue

2013-05-01 20:34:43 (0 comments, 6 reshares, 6 +1s)

Just stumbled* upon the date for this year's Sommernachtskonzert played by the Vienna Philharmonic in Schönbrunn: Mai 30 (see http://www.sommernachtskonzert.at/ for more details)

Perfect time for sharing a video of the 2010 concert showing how the world's best orchestra playing one of the world's most famous movie theme at one of the world's most impressive places can give does end up being pure magic.

Here's the link to the full concert: Star Wars Main Theme - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

* I thought it was a post by +Martin Gugerell, but I can't find it anymore?
Found it: plus.google.com/112709661632630108956/posts/6FUwjEhJS5G 

#Vienna   #StarWars  

2013-04-30 22:26:33 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

One of the features of Nintendo's Miiverse that I would like to see copied by +Google+ is being able to link single posts and comments to a specific feeling (see picture below). Sure, Miiverse uses the system's signature Mii avatars that can easily be tweaked for reflecting the selected expression, but a set of profile photos could do the trick too.

Actually, I've thought of uploading various profile pictures back in the early days of G+, but as changes of profile pictures are applied to all postings and comments, it just wouldn't work the way imagined.

What's Miiverse? nintendo.com/wiiu/built-in-software/#/miiverse

2013-04-29 19:43:02 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 4 +1s)

User Experience Konferenz am 4. Mai in Wien im Rahmen der Linuxwochen Wien @ FH Technikum Wien. Der Eintritt ist frei!

Themen:
+Claudia Oster: Prototyping und User-Testing zum Selbermachen.
+David Höller: Die User Experience meistern
+Wieland Kloimstein: User-Centered Design fürs Parlament
+Michael Klein: System-Performance als User Experience Katastrophe
+Max Scheugl: Mobile Web App Design - Wie man Bankkunden begeistert     

Mehr Infos: http://www.nofro.com/2013/04/uxkonferenz.html

#ux   #uxwien  

2013-04-29 18:46:40 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

Computer game art has lost some of it's magic, I refer you to this collection of GIFs from fighting games. Truly sexy.

Fighting Gifs imgur.com/a/GPlx4

2013-04-27 16:22:26 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Another Kickstarter project backed :-)

(via +Elke Mattheiss) 

2013-04-27 16:11:19 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Watching the original RoboCop directed by Paul Verhoven and starring the highly underrated Peter Weller (Naked Lunch anyone?). I've always liked him and IMHO it was his outstanding performance that made the fifth season of Dexter truly shining.

Anyways, let's see if this late 80s sci-fi flick aged well.

imdb.com/title/tt0093870/

2013-04-26 19:40:49 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 15 +1s)

Me? I'm just hanging around...

2013-04-27 09:57:41 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Browser version of Miiverse bookmarked? Check.
Rayman Legens Challenge Mode installed? Check.
WiiU's Spring Update installed? Waiting... Check.
WiiU's Virtual Console in eShop? Waiting... Check.

https://miiverse.nintendo.net/users/Graufeller

2013-04-24 21:12:44 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Quick read-later share of a Raspberry Pi Micro Arcade Machine.
Maybe I'll get my arcade cabinet after all sometime :-)