CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-18 00:31:13 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

He's an atheist and he's proud

Mike Booth has been branching out from the Some Grey Bloke series of satirical cartoons. In this video Jeremiah McDonald performs Mike's writing. It's a bit of fun but what I found particularly interesting was the weblinks to this thing called Patreon. The idea is that people can become a patron of an artist/content producer. We're talking about something like a dollar for anything they produce. No one is getting rich off it (yet) but I saw that when Mike makes a video he gets about $50 out of Patreon. Beer money if nothing else. I think it's a pretty cool idea.

2013-05-18 00:22:16 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

This is a winner!!! LOL

2013-05-18 00:21:07 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

:-)

2013-05-18 00:01:44 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Happening right now at your local Microsoft retail outlet.

2013-05-17 23:42:49 (8 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

Google does listen to our feedback.

Fewer Read More links is what we need.

2013-05-17 14:10:23 (37 comments, 3 reshares, 14 +1s)

I'm also submitting this (with notes from my past posts) to Google+ feedback.

2013-05-17 08:38:52 (15 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Does this scream README!?

There are 603 words of highly considered thought ENTIRELY BELOW THE FOLD

WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK?!!

From the top border of the post to the top of the photo is 257 pixels in my browser.  (Yes, so sue me, I fired up the GIMP and measured it).  Dedicated entirely to envelope-level contextualizing data, styling elements, and whitespace.

There are 603 words, 3428 characters, of content.  They're all completely hidden beneath the fold.  It's advertising for Google Glass (which, frankly, I am starting to get a little tired of, but y'all might like to see it).  And it features, I counted, ZERO photographs of +Robert Scoble in his, or anyone else's, shower.

My first reaction (as with most graphics-heavy posts) was to mute it and move on.  Then I saw those tiny words, in a pale gray,"... more »

2013-05-17 08:28:15 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Google Glass Impressions

My attempt at being a Glasshead. Alas, with my eyesight it just wasn't a happening thing. There are adjustments on queue that will enhance Glass' ability to work with prescription eyewear, but my guess is that people who don't wear contacts and who have some major visual challenges should try before buying.

That said, I got plenty of exposure to Glass at #io13  and met some awesome folks on the Glass team and some very insightful Glass users. The technology has enormous potential, even with its very alpha-stage form.

The good news is that the Mirror API for Glass makes many powerful things possible, including the ability to do custom menus which can give reasonable action choices that target your content - not just the hardware and Google services. The full developers' toolkit is still in the works, but it sounds as if there... more »

2013-05-17 05:15:55 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

2013-05-17 05:02:53 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Maybe a black person's life is not really worth the same as a white person's life?

Surely not.

2013-05-16 11:48:37 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Hangouts: Google real time messaging platform dissected by Verge 

Hangouts is a work in progress, with integration of Google Voice and SMS integration still pending. Like everything Google does, things start small and then grow to become big and ever-present.

2013-05-16 11:30:10 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 18 +1s)

Haha, I kid because I love. :)

#GoodOldDays  

2013-05-15 23:38:33 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Try to use the new g+ website from the iPad. Works pretty well under the Chrome browser if you "request Desktop site".

2013-05-15 22:50:54 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Not a photoshop.

2013-05-16 02:28:24 (8 comments, 2 reshares, 16 +1s)

Via jwz

"And the codec played ã"

Caption stolen from +Pet +Peter da Silva

2013-05-15 09:20:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

It's now 43yrs since I was in Vietnam. Con Thien was the northern-most place name that our unit regularly patrolled and fought in. I see that a forlorn-looking bunker is all that marks a firebase that I went to many times. There is a picture on Google Earth that shows the tanks that are arriving at Alpha-4, the last firebase before the DMZ. I went there many times and lived and fought in the fields around it. It was called "The Marketplace," so named because so many soldiers "bought it" there. I was very anxious the first time the old guys told me about the marketplace that we were going to patrol, then after months of being there, one gets used to it and wonders why it was so scary back then. Although we did see combat, it became manageable.  Much as I think hell would be if one spent an eternity there. 

What is neat is that as you can see, the road was a cruded... more »

2013-05-14 21:51:47 (8 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Monetization strategy for G+ unveiled!

This is my G Drive status now with the new change (thanks to +Max Huijgen for bringing this to my attention):
http://googledrive.blogspot.com.es/2013/05/bringing-it-all-together-15-gb-now.html

If I had not got the 100GB drive with my Chromebox I would have been forced to upgrade due to all the G+ Photos. G+ Photos did not count towards the storage space limit prior to this change.

No such thing as free lunch as they say. Now we know the monetization strategy for G+. Storage!

I think it is time to renew my Flickr Pro account. $45/2 years for unlimited storage.

What do you guys think?

2013-05-14 12:08:28 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

2013-05-14 02:47:46 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Notification on the G+ iOS app are so broken.

2013-05-13 23:23:24 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Sucking at the teet of the great Canberra Sky Whale

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/photogallery/act-news/canberra-centenary/the-centenary-of-canberra-skywhale-20130510-2jbq7.html

Via jwz

2013-05-13 22:33:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

グリーンランドの氷床を行く、ソーラー駆動地中レーダー搭載自律ロボット:NASA

NASA’s Grover debuts on Greenland’s Ice Sheet

2013-05-13 10:23:15 (12 comments, 2 reshares, 14 +1s)

No. Really.

2013-05-13 10:01:42 (13 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Americans, taking the English language where Anglais fear to tread.

2013-05-13 09:35:40 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here's Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World. Space Oddity

2013-05-13 23:15:06 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

From 1978. It just gets wilder as it goes along.
Rock Lobster • The B-52's

2013-05-12 09:33:01 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

#Caturday  

2013-05-12 09:25:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

The little nephew studies, wonders: "ALL the crapping and peeing goes into a little tank of water? Really? That's just stupid..."

#ft  

2013-05-12 01:52:09 (31 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Carbon Dioxide Reaches the Highest Level ever in Human History

#globalwarming #carbondioxide #climatechange 
#sciencesunday #euromaestro 

Congratulations to mankind, we have managed to set a new record.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a new high obtaining 400 parts per million.  This concentration level is substantially higher than the pre-industrial levels which varied between 180 and 280 parts per million. 

The scientific consensus largely attributes this substantial rise to anthropogenic sources.  (That mean us). 

The data in the chart is gathered from the NOAA, a US government agency that has monitored carbon dioxide levels continually since 1959 from an observatory in Hawaii. 

It is true that in Earth's history, there have been higher levels of Carbon Dioxide but this hasnot be... more »

2013-05-11 06:39:16 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Strangely quaint and melancholy at the same time.

2013-05-10 12:11:28 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Australians are easily amused. +David Megginson

2013-05-10 11:51:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Stephen Hawking ain't gonna play Israel

or Sun City.

2013-05-09 12:55:03 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

More pinko talk from the Economist.

Close Gitmo now.

2013-05-09 00:04:51 (12 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Just makes me wonder how many more.

How many other basements are also prisons.

2013-05-08 10:27:56 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 21 +1s)

ムンク

The Scream

2013-05-08 23:32:43 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

The Great Game between China and the Obama Administration continues unabated. Burma has come in from the cold and the military powers there have suddenly become very friendly to the US at the expense of China. Furthmore the US have brokered a deal between Aung San Suu Kyi and the generals in exchange for US support. Publicly its all about extending peace and democracy in Burma, privately it's all about containing China's influence in South and South East Asia.

It is now becoming clear that Suu Kyi must have reached an agreement with the military - and that there has been considerable outside, read US, pressure on her to come to terms with the country's rulers. A politically divided Myanmar would not serve America's purposes; an alliance between Thein Sein's government and the popular Suu Kyi would.

NLD activists admit in private that Suu Kyi and the party... more »

2013-05-08 03:56:19 (21 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

Touch screen UI design

Whoever decided that dragging up on a page was a good way to close it?

I see this gesture in a few places such as G+ and in Feedly.

Seems really dumb.

2013-05-08 03:42:29 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Jonestowns

http://www.uncertaintyofidentity.com/GB_Names/Mapping.aspx

One of the fascinating things about this surname map of the UK is that it enables you to trace the Welsh Diaspora; from the thick wall of Joneses that is Wales itself, seizing territory in Bristol and Merseyside, then pushing outward in streams towards Birmingham and London, pitching camp on the way, bartering exotic trade goods for local wives, setting up fastnesses amid the surrounding seas of Smiths.

http://feedly.com/k/10Fr0S3

2013-05-07 23:33:12 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Everything you ever needed to know about CSS selectors.

2013-05-07 21:34:12 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 1 +1s)

Rather than thinking of intelligence as a simple connect-the-dots picture, think of it as a million unnumbered pictures superimposed on top of each other. Or a random-dot stereogram. Is it a sailboat, a puppy, two guys with pressure-cooker bombs, or just an unintelligible mess of dots? You try to figure it out.

2013-05-07 21:24:09 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

http://feedly.com/k/106Nw7c

2013-05-07 14:42:12 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Stylites were awesome. And awfully stylish.

I wonder why you don't see the devout sitting on columns any more. It's obviously a really great way to get away from the hurly burly of metropolitan life.

2013-05-07 13:49:17 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Huh, The Guardian?

2013-05-07 13:14:09 (6 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

Are you Lonely ?

2013-05-07 10:57:29 (12 comments, 1 reshares, 20 +1s)

One of the great things about my wife's corporate job is she always gets issued with the latest in high tech

...as long as it's made by Lenovo or Blackberry.

So her last phone was a Blackberry Torch which she thought was pretty crap especially when compared to her old Nokia feature phone. The best thing she said about it was that it actually made a pretty good torch when she needed some light.

Her latest phone, however, is a Blackberry Z10. Despite all expectations to the contrary, this thing seems to be a really slick device. Comparable with an iPhone even and smoother than a lot of Androids I've seen. It's damn nice and has a great web browser too.

Well, at least I'm impressed. She's reserving judgement for now.

2013-05-07 10:36:28 (11 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

Nothing you didn't already know but it's still amazing when you think about it.

2013-05-07 10:29:51 (14 comments, 8 reshares, 10 +1s)

MOST of what we call money is actually short-term debt created by banks when they make loans. This means that banks are the stewards of our savings and manage the payments system. As a result, they have a privileged place in our society: governments never deliberately choose to liquidate the banking system. It always appears preferable, in the short term at least, to preserve the incumbent institutions and personnel through bail-outs. (Lending to “solvent but illiquid” firms at below-market rates is another kind of bail-out, even if it is not always called one by the authorities.)

Bankers thus have every incentive to become as “systemic” as possible and to take as much as risk as possible—they know that they can almost always get these bail-outs when they need them. Moreover, the liability of the big risk-takers (i.e., the mid-level traders rather than the executives) is often quitelimited.* T... more »

2013-05-07 10:16:09 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

You might be hearing less Google bashing coming from MG Siegler.

Meanwhile Marco and Gruber will continue fulminating over Google Glass and all the other stuff Apple isn't doing.

2013-05-07 10:02:53 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Going for 100% renewable energy in Australia is actually not all that hard.

2013-05-07 09:31:52 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 10 +1s)

Want to hear the oldest known (1890) recording of human speech? Well, now you can, thanks to this impressive hack:
http://mediapreservation.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/extracting-audio-from-pictures/
Via +Andrew Pam & +Jon Swabey 

2013-05-07 09:16:43 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

#NBN