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Hey #googleplus denizens. How can I get a circle to stay in that little top bar between visits? i…

rich_on_google_plus — Fri, 18 May 2012 00:33:37 +0000

Hey #googleplus denizens. How can I get a circle to stay in that little top bar between visits? i.e. I don't want to know about Family or Friends most of the time, I do want to know about the interesting morsels our BSc Web Technologies students are discussing. But, when I reload, I'm back to All, Family, Friends. Hopefully it's a config option I'm missing… or perhaps it needs a #greasemonkey script.

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I’m trialling Google Drive on our apps domain. Brilliant although … it does insist on using the…

rich_on_google_plus — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:21:24 +0000

I'm trialling Google Drive on our apps domain. Brilliant although … it does insist on using the folder name "Google Drive", which is ugly. I use short folder names, nocaps, nospaces. #onetinyflaw #frasiercrane #googledrive

Here's To Impossible Standards

+Google Drive Y U NO LET ME PICK FOLDER NAME?

I Can Has Cheezburger? Historic LOLs · Pundit Kitchen · Animal Capshunz · I Has A Hotdog · ROFLrazzi · Animal Gifs · If Style Could Kill · Set Phasers to LOL · Animal Memes · Lolcats · So Much Pun · A…

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I’m trialling Google Drive on our apps domain. Brilliant although … it does insist on using the…

rich_on_google_plus — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:21:24 +0000

Here's To Impossible Standards

+Google Drive Y U NO LET ME PICK FOLDER NAME?

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If #apple does build a 3840×2400 resolution #mbp , I may have to sell a kidney. #retina #laptop

rich_on_google_plus — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:21:13 +0000

If #apple does build a 3840×2400 resolution #mbp , I may have to sell a kidney. #retina #laptop

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Reshared post from Edd Dumbill

rich_on_google_plus — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:42:36 +0000

Edd Dumbill originally shared this post:

Google does the semantic web

Except they call it the "knowledge graph".

Notwithstanding all the snide remarks, disinformation, cranks, wonks and derailers, the semantic web is at its core an awesome idea. It's just an idea with an arc of about 20 years to reach true usefulness. I reckon we're past the halfway point on that arc.

Google Goes Back to What It Does Well: Finding Things

Surprise! Google has completely transformed the way search works again. But this time, it's a kind of search that would have made the old Google proud. Today, starting with U.S., English-language …

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Reshared post from lynn paden

rich_on_google_plus — Sat, 12 May 2012 09:15:50 +0000

lynn paden originally shared this post:

yes.

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1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 #obama #chess #equality

rich_on_google_plus — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:29:06 +0000

1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 #obama #chess #equality

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Ever-so-slowly, Google is rolling out Google Wave. Hoi polloi need some things drip-fed.

rich_on_google_plus — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:54:09 +0000

Ever-so-slowly, Google is rolling out Google Wave. Hoi polloi need some things drip-fed.

A better Google+ notification experience in email

Posted by Zohair Hyder, Software Engineer Notification emails are a great way to keep up with what's happening in the Google+ stream: whether someone mentions you, comments on your post, or shares…

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Reshared post from Robert Nyman

rich_on_google_plus — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:02:31 +0000

Cute CSS3 Menu Candy

Robert Nyman originally shared this post:

CSS3 menu effects: http://louisremi.github.com/menu-effects/, by @Louis_Remi

Menu Effects

Silly menu effects. Pure CSS, degrades gracefully in IE8! Created by @louis_remi. Tested in WebKit & Firefox Nightly. Inspired by @hakimel's scroll-effects. Fork me on GitHub. Bounce. sub-One;…

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Descriptive Camera

rich_on_google_plus — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:00:12 +0000

A beautiful example of connected service-based computing.

The Descriptive Camera works a lot like a regular camera—point it at subject and press the shutter button to capture the scene. However, instead of producing an image, this prototype outputs a text de…

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Patents. Doh.

rich_on_google_plus — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:18:08 +0000

Simon Phipps originally shared this post:

"If only two of Oracle's patents hold up on review, that means the patent office got it right less than 30 percent of the time, an average we have every reason to believe is representative of the entire sector's patents … Yet these overwhelmingly invalid patent claims have had dramatic impacts on the industry. They've allowed an entire sector of patent trolls to emerge with the sole aim of strong-arming companies into forking over licensing fees."

Oracle-Google case shows patent system flaws

The big news out of the Oracle versus Google showdown on Monday was that one of Oracle's patents was brought back from the dead, put back into play after the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office reversed…

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JS Conf Videos

rich_on_google_plus — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:45:44 +0000

Videos from JSConf US 2012 are online. Get 'em while they're hot.

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Google Drive

rich_on_google_plus — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 08:50:03 +0000

Google Drive represents a serious alternative to dropbox and icloud that will integrate completely with our uni systems (and #android ). Hopefully launched in time for us to get things ready over the summer, and use for the 2012 cohort.

This could make continuous formative feedback significantly easier and turn the coursework submission process into (merely) taking a snapshot of a folder at a predetermined time.

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This is a test.

rich_on_google_plus — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:57:17 +0000

This is a test.

That is all.

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HTML5 Please

Rich — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:08:37 +0000

HTML5 Please is a new site reflecting the suitability of the latest Web Standards that are still works in progress. It’s somewhat similar to Can I Use.

Back from the Google Wilderness

Rich — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:39:53 +0000

Some time ago, I noticed the traffic on this site dropping off rapidly. Commensurate with it’s global norms, Google was driving the majority of new users here, and one day that traffic stopped without warning.

To see that happen is quite strange, akin to having your water supply cut off when the reservoir up the valley is full to the brim. There’s no easy way to ask why (and if you find your way through the webmaster tools to request reconsideration (in the stairless-basement; locked filing cabinet, “Beware of the leopard” sign etc), the likelihood is they won’t respond in a timely manner, and when they do respond the content will be terse and useless, at least, it was for me).

After much banging of my head on the wall of Google, eventually, an anonymous feedback engineer offered up that this site was “manually blocked” because someone else (let’s call them an operative, because it sounds dystopian) decided this is a “spam blog”. Google provided no more information than that, but eventually, after about 6 months, decided to unblock the pipes and people started to find the site again.

The Moral

The moral? It’s not safe to rely on only Google traffic for a business. If someone at Google makes an honest mistake then your whole livelihood can be removed overnight, with no warning, no explanation and no hope of a quick fix.

Hopefully, Google+ will go some way to alleviating this problem. The massive verified-human-crowd-sourced database of opinion on sites should go some way to removing the mis-flagging of normal small sites as spam blogs.

If you’d be so kind as to +1 this site, it might go some way to avoiding any future unplanned absence from the web (as google describes it).

Smallest Federated Wiki

Rich — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:22:42 +0000

Ward Cunningham introduces a work in progress, the Smallest Federated Wiki with a series of short films.

story-and-journal-for-federation from Ward Cunningham on Vimeo.

cross-page-refactoring from Ward Cunningham on Vimeo.

wiki-json-coffeescript from Ward Cunningham on Vimeo.

SVN Externals Reminder

Rich — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:24:15 +0000

go to parent folder
noting that there is a . at the end of the command, type: svn propset svn:externals 'foldername url' .
observe that it says; property 'svn:externals' set on '.'
type svn up

Liquid Alchemy

Rich — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 06:45:46 +0000

I woke this morning feeling still a little under the weather after a few days of the common cold, so before making a pot of tea, I went for a Lemsip. In a pique of consumerism at the shop the other day I also bought a tube of orange flavour Berocca. I’m not usually one for buying supplements, or much at all, from the pharmacy aisles so this was a venture off piste.

Doing the sums, I noted I’d have to drink the whole Lemsip, and then a glass of (very nice by the way) Berrocca juice, before I could get to a cuppa. Not good; but it was seeing the ingredients together that prompted me to try dropping the Berrocca tab into the prepared Lemsip. Ladies and gentlemen, the result was a cup of warm gold. It’s bizarre to look forward to a cold, but henceforth, I shall.

After last month’s (previously undocumented) discovery that Marmite and Portsdown Honey go particularly well together (and who’d have known there’s a whole cookbook for Marmite lovers), I’m looking forward to my next surprising combination. Heston Blumenthal probably need not worry just yet.

The People’s Manifesto

Rich — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:16:33 +0000

I’m delighted to see Mark Thomas new book “The People’s Manifesto” is now available from the publisher as a traditional paperback and an ebook. It’s as razor sharp as any of his previous books & TV shows, and stunningly diverse because each policy was suggested and voted on by the general public in shows all over the country last year. I was at the Newbury gig. It was very funny. Definitely a present to consider for all thinking carbon based life forms in your vicinity.