More Google+

One thing I like is what they have done to leverage Picasa Web Albums (instead of reinventing something).  Google+ makes good use of Web Albums, and makes some slight changes to the way Web Albums works which I think are improvements.

When you get started with Google+ it's helpful to try a few things relating to photos and albums, then bounce over to your Picasa Web Albums and check out what it's doing.

In addition, the Google+ mobile application offers additional new, and much improved, ways to interact with photos in your albums.

Google+

I got into Google+ today.

Ok Google, let me know if I'm leaving anything out.  If I find something I think is interesting on the internet (that happens now and then), I need to:

1) eMail a link to people I know
2) Note the page in my shared items feed so people see it in Google Reader
3) Post the link to Google Buzz
4) If it's Google blog I need to "Friend Connect" it
e) "+1" it
6) Again if it's a blog, add the RSS feed to my Reader subscriptions
7) I'll just leave out Wave...
8) Post the link on my own blogger blog where it will show up in Reader for those that either Friend Connect or RSS subscribe
9) "Like" the page via Buzz or Reader or ...

And now I can also post it in Google+ !  Well, all this should only take about 10 minutes.  Much less if I practice browsing to all the various websites...

Oh but to do all this I will need to maintain groups in contacts for email and Buzz posts, and now Circles also since they do not interact.

I was also nothing less than astonished that Google+ includes a checkin feature (another checkin feature) that, yes, believe it or not, appears to have no relationship to Latitude, Places, Buzz or Offers.  Wow.

Google, these things are so obvious that they should not have to be mentioned, but here it goes...

A) I need to be able to add an RSS feed to Google+ so it can replace Reader, or I need to add Google+ items to Reader via an RSS feed (there's *no* RSS feed on Google+?!  Seriously?!).

B) I need to be able to add Google+ to the feeds I share into Buzz, or, well, see above...

c) why does gmail exist as a separate interface?  Why are not all the features (filters) of gmail implemented on  Buzz, Reader and Google+ as one unified service?

D) Google, you really and truly did not tie this together with Latitude, Places and Offers?  Really???

E) One, count them, one, mechanism for organizing contacts please.  I actually had to type in some names, even though my gmail contact list is all set and organized.  Why didn't groups I've created in gmail become circles?

F) Offer an RSS feed for publicly shared Google+ items so readers can read them in Reader.

G) There would appear to be no functional difference between "Like" and "+1", and even though here are sometimes both available, yet there are separate and do not completely overlap.  Does that make sense to anyone?

H) There's almost no functional difference between Buzz and Google+ posts.  Why do both of these exist?  At the very least items posted to Google+ should be available as an additional feed to Buzz followers.   People that follow items I post/blog/email/share will not check 4 different places for new content.

I) Related to Buzz...  Why does Buzz history, shared items and comments, migrate over to Google+?

J) I see there is a "chat" in Google+, is that Google Talk, or yet another and different chat/IM/XMMS/whatever?

There seem to be people that exist only and fully with both feet in Facebook and never look at anything else.  I think this is strange, but people like that do exist.  For those people, Google+ may be easier and more fun.  They might switch.  But for those of use trying to organize and control a more robust online existence, a service that is yet-another-service isn't going to help.

Thank you though Google, keep up the work.  And thank you for the de-facto additional space in web albums.

Google+

As everyone and their pets has heard, Google has introduced a new competitor to Facebook called Google Plus.  It sounds good.  They have an intriguing set of walk throughs up, and we all know a Facebook that isn't Facebook is long over due.  If anyone could do this, it would be Google.

But something doesn't add up here.

Within hours of "launching" this invite-only beta of Google Plus, invites were cut off citing "insane demand."  As I write this, invitations have not resumed.

I know a lot of techy people.  And they all know a lot of techy people.  But no one seems to know anyone that has access to Google Plus.  No one.  Not a soul got an invitation.   Google+ has created a huge "buzz" on the internet.  A "latest" results search on Google for Google+ reveals a steady stream of chatter.  But does anyone outside of Google employees and a few select journalists actually have access to the new service?

It doesn't make sense...  Is Google doing this just to generate that chatter?  They don't need to do that.  Anyone would know that anything that offers a Facebook alternative would generate a massive "wave" of interest.  Google does not need an artificial scarcity campaign to get attention.

So did Google get genuinely overwhelmed with a response their new system was unprepared for, and have to cut it off?  That makes no sense either.  Again, who wouldn't know that the sort of response this was likely to get?

Yes, I'm sure Google would want to be very cautious about this roll out.  No one would want to see them pull a Sony and have the system flat on the floor the first day, as the PSN was on its triumphant return.  But Google appears to have pulled the plug on signing up for Google+ almost instantly.  And not a soul I know, nor any they know got their foot in that door.

Fishy.

So I'm calling it, it's vaporware.  A social service no one can use, is a service that doesn't exist.

I very much look forward to something like Google+ could be, might be, whatever.  But at this time, it's definitely not there.  I'm sure they are working on it though.

Zombies Ahead

Tips from the CDC on being prepared for the zombie apocalypse...

http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/

"There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this"

Google Music Beta

I received a Google Music Beta invite, and I've just set it up.
Here's a few initial observations...

1) It requires an application to upload files.  The application is only for "PC and Mac", but what they really mean is Windows and Mac.  It appears to be a real compiled application, not a Java program.

2) The web page shows all the music you have uploaded and you can play music and manage lists from there.  It divides it nicely by artist, album and genre.  However there is no way to upload music from the web application.

3) The web application works on Linux.

4) The Android app works fine too.  Both the web app and the mobile app saw the new music I added as soon as it was finished uploading.  The mobile app does not seem to have a way to delete music from your library however.

5) The system had no problem displaying cover art for the albums I uploaded.

6) I uploaded whole artists by placing my artist directory in "My Music" on Windows (you can use other locations).  The system had no trouble magically dealing with my directory structures.

7) It appears to be able to suck music right out of iTunes.

8) The system seems to add free music to your available music based on what you upload, and also based on genre preferences entered during the initial setup.  The does not seem to be a way to edit these preferences later.

9)  Not surprisingly, there is no way to download files (aside from streaming music).

10) There's no "social" elements.

11) As far as I can tell, the mobile application includes no way to delete, thumbs-up or thumbs-down a song.

12) I like that the system counts the number of times a song has been played.  On the web page, when viewing items by song, the play count shows up. The data can even be sorted by play count.  Oddly though, this is only the plays via the web page.  Plays via the Android application are not included.

13) During playback on my Droid 2, using the the phone network not WiFi, songs occasionally abruptly end and it skips to the next selection.

14) I did not at first realize it, but the interface on the mobile app is significantly different, and better, in "landscape" mode.

The whole thing, including the mobile app, has a very much no-frills feel to it.   There's no fat or fluff on this, so on the one hand there's a lot it can't do, but on the other it's bonehead simple.

Seems to work so far, and the streaming audio quality is high...  This thing it a major bandwidth consumer, but this isn't Google's fault.   If this application catches on, and I think it will, the over-promising telcom providers are in trouble.

Things the new music system needs...

1) the mobile app should send play count data to the server so it shows on the web application.

2) There should be custom, configurable,"smart" automatic playlists so the user can control, perhaps with percentage sliders, the influence of various factors in "magic" playlists created by the system.

3) The "3D" interface element on the mobile app is fun.  I'd like to see more of that.

4) The modile app'a album view shows 3 rows of cover art, in sideways mode.  These images are too small on a phone. The size of the thumbnail should be configurable.

5) The WIndows/Mac only upload utility needs a bit more control - and a Linux version.

6) I'd like to be able to throttle back the playback bit-rate manually to save bandwidth in some situations.  Of course the system is said to do this automatically, but just the same there may be times when I went something less then the very best possible rate.

7) Playback can be set to WiFi only on the mobile app.  It would be nice to be able to set it to WiFi never as well.

8) Eventually it needs a method of buying music, if the media companies ever get out of suicide mode.  Or perhaps Google should simply launch a record label and deal directly with artists.

The World's Largest Model Airport

40,000 lights, 15,000 figurines, 500 cars, 10,000 trees, 50 trains, 1000 wagons, 100 signals, 200 switches, 300 buildings and 40 planes - now that's dedication!

http://singularityhub.com/2011/05/11/worlds-largest-model-airport-completed-in-hamburg-germany-150-square-meters-costing-4-8-million/

Create an XMLGregorianCalendar for the Current Date/Time

Creating a XML calendar object suitable for use in SOAP messages, in Java, is simple enough.

    public XMLGregorianCalendar getXMLGregorianCalendarNow() 
            throws DatatypeConfigurationException
    {
        GregorianCalendar gregorianCalendar = new GregorianCalendar();
        DatatypeFactory datatypeFactory = DatatypeFactory.newInstance();
        XMLGregorianCalendar now = 
            datatypeFactory.newXMLGregorianCalendar(gregorianCalendar);
        return now;
    }

Healthcare in America

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/04/09/number-of-the-week-u-s-spends-141-more-on-health-care/

"A new report finds that the U.S. spends far more on health care than any of the other 29 OECD nations, and gets less health for its money."

America provides the best healthcare in the world, for the wealthy...

RIP Kermit

Image via WikipediaNo, not that Kermit...   This Kermit:

http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/

"Unfortunately, Columbia has determined it can no longer continue to support the Kermit Project going forward. As of July 1st, 2011, development of any new Kermit software enhancements at Columbia University will cease, as will any ability of Columbia to provide ongoing maintenance and technical support for Kermit."

Something like 25 years ago I was working on a project in which we needed serial data transfer for an unusual computer - some sort mini-computer, I don't even remember.  We just picked the phone (yes, the telephone) and called (on the telephone) the author of Kermit, over at Columbia.  We gave him some specs on our system, and a few weeks later, just like that, Kermit supported our computer!

Free Gun

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/07/us-guns-radioshack-odd-idUSTRE73644320110407

"A chain of electronic stores in parts of the states of Idaho and Montana are offering free guns to first-time subscribers of satellite TV services."
...
"There's no problem with it here; this isn't New York City,"