I was doing a Google image search for someone giving the “middle finger gesture,” as I’ll call it, for professional purposes. (Yes, I have the greatest job in the universe.) Google allows you to narrow your search to images that are labeled as “free to use or share, even commercially,” which is handy if you know how to confirm that they really are free to use or share.
Anyway, amongst the search results, I noticed an image at Wikimedia Commons simply entitled “Middle finger gesture.jpg.” This title fails to account for two features of the image that seem important: Continue reading →
The best mysteries often have the most mundane explanations.
Mind you, I’m not saying that Webdriver Torso is the best mystery on the internet, not by a long shot.
Since March 7th of 2013, one mysterious channel has been flooding YouTube with a near constant stream of baffling videos. Even calling them videos is generous—they’re more like blips or brief communiques—although communicating what is anyone’s guess. All exactly 11 seconds long, consisting of a 10 slides with red and blue boxes in varying configurations, 77,000 videos and counting have been uploaded in the last year—literally dozens every day.
The mystery of Webdriver Torso might have the most mundane explanation, though. Click the link, or watch the video below, for spoilers. Continue reading →
Google is shutting down its Google Reader service on July 1, 2013, I recently learned. I have used Google Reader for all my RSS feeds for over a year, and have liked it far more than any other similar service that I have used. It works particularly well with an iPad app called Flipboard, which arranges posts in a style reminiscent of a newspaper. Apparently, Flipboard will allow its users to transfer Google Reader subscriptions directly to its service, to the gratitude of many users. I’m pretty sure Flipboard did not have to do that, just like Google does not have any obligation to keep Reader going. The reason for that is that I, and as far as I know everyone else in the world, do not pay for the Reader service, or for Flipboard.
As my friend Kevin said (or quoted), if you are not paying for a service that you are receiving, you are not the customer. You are the product.
Google has no obligation to continue offering a service that does not make it money, even if everyone loves it. Google makes money from its online services by selling advertising, justlikenearlyeveryotherinternetservice that does not charge a fee directly to users. You, the user, are the recipient of that advertising. Google’s revenue is based on how it can monetize your online behavior. The company has an interest in keeping users happy, because it needs us to keep coming back to the site, or any other site plugged into Google (which is probably most of the world’s websites by now.) Its bigger concern, though, is keeping those advertising bucks coming in and keeping costs low. If a service costs enough that it impacts the acceptable profit margin, it goes. If you are not a Google shareholder or an actual customer, you ultimately have zero clout in influencing the decision to discontinue a service.
Google Reader is not an essential service for me, but rather a convenience. My life will not suffer for a lack of centralized RSS feeds in a handy newspaper-style format. At worst, I’ll have to get used to a different way of reading the news/blogs. The convenience offered by Google Reader/Flipboard is not something so important that I think it should be a public service. I do think that other services that benefit the public much more directly need to remain public, for the very reason that public service, not profit, should be the primary motivator. Prisons come to mind. So do roads and sewer mains.
I would consider paying something for a service like Google Reader. Maybe no one else would anymore. Maybe that is the problem.
The Garabogazköl Basin is a large body of water in Turkmenistan that connects to the Caspian Sea via a small strait. It is very shallow and, according to Wikipedia, ridiculously salty, with a salinity level of 35%, compared to 1.2% in the Caspian Sea and 3.5% in the overall ocean. This makes it the second-saltiest body of water in the world outside of Antarctica (saltier than the Dead Sea). While Turkmenistan harvests salt from the area (obviously), it sounds like a place that is not terribly interesting.
Except for what I will call the Rectangle. On Google Maps, what would otherwise be an unassuming, albeit huge, lagoon, with a total area of about 6,900 square miles, has a large rectangular area that is either much more shallow than the rest of the lagoon, is somehow obscured, or is just not photographed as well.
Via Google Maps
There is a very large, probably 40 mile by 50 mile, rectangular area in the lagoon, with an odd shadow in the top right corner. This time, my attempts to Google my way to an answer only yielded confirmation that this is, in fact, a mysteriously obscured or incomplete area. In all likelihood, the area looks different because there is no point in going to a lot of trouble to take satellite photos of the middle of a lagoon filled with water that is too salty even for sore throat sufferers.
Still, maybe something unusual is going on. Google Maps has been known to obscure areas for security purposes.
For my part, I still hold out hope it is a breeding and training area for a new race to inhabit the oceans, sort of like Sea-Monkeys but more science-fiction-y.
No, not *that* kind of sea monkey! (via jaxgraphix.deviantart.com)
At least one night a week has been relatively sleepless, for unknown reasons so far. Since I am not one to allow a single waking hour to go unwasted, though, it seemed like high time to play around with the auto-fill function on Google. All of these are 100% and and happened between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m. today.
Indeed, these are the questions that haunt us in the wee hours of the night.
That’s, uh, good to know…
Okay, raise your hand if you saw that third one coming. Are you raising your hand? Liar. No one could have predicted that one.
o_O. Good night, Google. You obviously need sleep at least as much as me.
It sounds like something out of a movie or a cheesy Google commercial, if they ran commercials for Google Earth. From Yahoo! News, the story of a boy from India who found his family after 25 years using Google Earth:
Saroo Brierley was only 5 when a train zoomed him hundreds of miles from home. It took 25 years and a technological revolution for him to get back
An Indian man separated from his family for 25 years has defied the odds by tracking them down — using little more than a vague recollection of his childhood and some help from Google Earth’s mapping technology.
In short, when he was 5 years old in 1987, he and his brother boarded the wrong train, thinking they were going home. They fell asleep on the train, and when they woke up, they were on the wrong side of the country, with no money. Also, he was only 5.
A tragic saga ensued. His brother died, and he was eventually declared a lost child and adopted by a family who took him to Tasmania. Tasmania is very, very far away from India.
Finally, using Google Earth and vague memories of childhood, he began searching the area around the train station until he found his hometown, Ganesh Talai. Using Facebook, he corresponded with some people from the town, and went to India and pounded pavement until he found them.
He says he plans on making a movie about the experience. I’d watch it.
Photo credit: Tasmania.A2005320.2355.250m by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC[see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons.
We are now more than halfway through the excitement! Part of me is sad to think it will be over soon. The entire rest of me is exhausted, and slightly annoyed at that other part for continuing to make it do stuff.
The day started out cold and foggy. It abruptly turned warm and sunny mid-morning, but this was not an inspiring way to start the day.
Not that my dietary habits are of any particular interest, but I had an awesome breakfast at Kerbey Lane, followed by some aimless wandering. I have been on vacation in my own town for the past few days, but today I must return to my actual house because of some real-world obligations, alas.
Perhaps the most anticipated (by me) event of the whole conference was the Game of Thrones meetup in Palm Park around 11:00 a.m. For those of you who do not know what Game of Thrones is, I have to ask, like I asked the people who’d never heard of “Firefly,” what are you doing here???
Moving on, Game of Thrones is the first book of the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. It is also a television series on HBO, starting its second season (roughly corresponding to the second book) on April 1.
The meetup was just a chance for fans of the books/show to hang out, talk about the books or show, avoid spoilers, and so on. It was great, after several days of feeling intimidated by my lack of technical know-how and slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of my own aspirations as a writer, to meet some like-minded people in an area that is more geeky than nerdy. I speak geek far better than I speak nerd. I happen to have strong opinions on the fundamental difference between “geeks” and “nerds.” That’s for another post, though.
So anyway, I met some awesome folks, found inspiration, learned a few new Westeros conspiracy theories, and fun was had by all.
Chillin’
After hanging out with same Game of Thrones fan friends for an hour or so, I decided to wander again. I’m honestly a bit burned out on panels and sessions. I would rather hang out and meet interesting people. After grabbing a sandwich and charging my phone, I decided to head back to the Samsung Bloggers’ Lounge. I actually found a seat and once again met interesting writer types.
Since the whole raison d’être of this conference is to meet people, that seemed like the best use of my time. Another enticing feature of SXSW is chance celebrity sightings and surprise apearances. As I sat in the lounge writing and chatting, the person next to me excitedly noted that Robert Rodriguez was sitting on the stage. Turns out he was there for a live interview with “What’s Trending,” a web series or something. I have now achieved my obligation to see a famous person.
Actually, I’m pretty sure I saw Rob Riggle walking around Saturday, although his badge had someone else’s name on it. When I stood in line to get my badge on Friday, I stood next to someone I call not-Ben-Affleck. This is because I determined that he was not, in fact, Ben Affleck.
There was also a musician named Daria Musk who apparently built a following on Google+ and plays “hangout concerts.” She played on the stage for a little while and broadcast it (is that the word?) on Google+. I’m not entirely sold on the concept yet. It might have been the song title “+1 Me.”
On an unrelated note, I missed a panel the other day that sounded interesting, “Sex Nets: Pickup Artists vs. Feminists.” There were not as many fireworks as one might expect with those two groups thrown together, but I was more interested in hearing what people had to say. Panel participant Amanda Marcotte has a write-up of how the panel went. Worth a look.
Google Docs does not work very well on an iPad. Who knew?
I guess this means I will have to give up on getting any actual work done. Instead, I shall talk to people. I suppose that could be a productive use of my time :p
Google is 
