A TED talk by Kevin Slavin

Today, Google announced its new service: Google+ (google plus). It consists of 5 components:

• Circles: Have your friends divided in groups. Something like “aspects” in diaspora, but with a better name.

• Hangouts: A group video chat. Or something more, which I didn’t get.

• Instant upload: Uploading images from your phone on the fly. Pretty much I got that.

• Sparks: Something like search, I guess trying to personalise more your search results. Or something else, which again, I didn’t get.

• Huddle: A group chat. The second thing which I believe I got.

The web went crazy, it’s a trending topic and everyone is trying to get an invite. Personally, I didn’t really get it. To be honest, I didn’t try much to get it. But that’s the point.

No, it’s not 2009 and this post is not about Google Wave, it’s something else, something new…

Google is making a move into social web after several major failures such as Google Wave, Buzz, even the recently announced +1 (they really do believe in the “plus” sign, don’t they?). Let’s think about the risk of that move. It’s the move that will get Google into the social web or stay out forever. And in my opinion, it’s under my lowest expectations about Google’s social approach. The approach that will pretty much define the company’s future.

Maybe it provides better sharing options and friends management than facebook with “circles” (don’t you think that facebook is working on something equivalent or can’t do so in no more than a week time?), maybe you won’t need skype’s group chat or tinychat with “hangouts” or almost any IM for group chat because of “huddle”. However, I can see no motivation for the common user to ditch her ease in all these services and go with Google+. There is no gap on the social web that Google+ is targeting to fill. As a consequence, there is no space for it.

What is the most important, it’s not obvious how it works. I never got confused on anything on facebook. Even my aunt is on facebook.

For example, Google+ imports all your data from Google Profiles. Do you really know what Google Profiles are? And the best part: there is a Buzz tab in your Google+ profile page.

Google is trying to catch up with Facebook in a wrong way, trying to copy what is already done in a way that has set what is easy (as a UI) for the masses on the web.

25 April 2011

Cascade is a visualisation tool, using Processing and MongoDB, about how users talk (especially in twitter) about certain articles. Or as they describe it:

“Cascade allows for precise analysis of the structures which underly sharing activity on the web.

This first-of-its-kind tool links browsing behavior on a site to sharing activity to construct a detailed picture of how information propagates through the social media space. While initially applied to New York Times stories and information, the tool and its underlying logic may be applied to any publisher or brand interested in understanding how its messages are shared.”

Sir Ken Robinson on changing the education paradigms. Also, see his opinion on how schools kill creativity.

XKCD about statistical significance. Great resume for this great article from New yorker.

Some months ago, when I dropped Firefox for Chrome, the biggest disadvantage in my everyday use was that there wasn’t (and still isn’t) a real extension for del.icio.us bookmarks. However, I settled down for other extensions that would fill somehow the gap. As I continued to use Chrome, I figured out that I didn’t use delicious as much as I did and I had no real problem with that. And by that I mean that I wasn’t bookmarking at all.

Last month, with all the rumors that yahoo was going to shut down del.icio.us and the web going crazy, many alternatives came up and I found myself considering what I was going to do. I tried Xmarks, but that helps when you want to have many machines with your bookmarks synced, I tried historio.us, but to get some great functionality you had to pay etc. So, for a second time, I faced a challenge about by bookmarks and I practically did nothing. Then I realised that I was spending more time thinking about bookmarking than actually using it.

I’m the kind of person, like most of you, that won’t look after the first and maybe sometimes the second page of the google search results. I’ll try to do a better query, use the right place to search (and del.icio.us is a great place to search) to find what I’m looking for. I can’t remember if I did that search before and if I did, if I had saved the bookmark.

That’s why I think there is no more time for bookmarks, but I’m glad for all of you continuing to use bookmark sites such as del.icio.us, you are giving me exceptional search results.

I found some time to ask myself if I was happy with the font I was using for programming. That was Monaco (without the anti-alias option). It is a neat monospace font that served me well for over a year and a half, since I bought my mac. However, I was jealous of the Windows font Consolas, which I believed was the most descent one, although I couldn’t even stand trying to install it on my mac. That’s why I searched a bit more and came up with the OpenType font Inconsolata, which I’m currently using.

“It is a monospace font, designed for code listings and the like, in print”

Monaco:

Inconsolata:

• the first dawn of 2010 found me in my car, and i wasn’t driving.

• friends leaving, in every possible way.

• the dream journey to NYC as the end of an era.

• the relief when i handed the exam paper for my last unit and walked out.

• the phone call informing me that it was over.

• the applications, the deadlines, the statements, the acceptances and the rejections.

• awarded my degree while i was food poisoned and I did celebrate in hospital.

• the endless summer.

• the road trip in peloponnese.

• my last night in Patras.

• my first day in Bristol.

• the loneliness and frustration in coding like never before.

• the best night of my life.

• the days we spent stuck in London.

• the feeling getting back in Patras.

• meeting someone who says that heaven can wait.