Joe Beda › Comments

"Google's messaging platforms might all be rolled into one new platform, according to a recent report. The search giant is planning to combine its many messaging platforms, including Google Talk, Hangout, Voice, and Messenger, into one service it'll call Babble, Geek.com is reporting, citing "multiple sources" who claim to have knowledge of its plans. The move is designed to make it easier for Google's users to communicate and also reduce the sheer number of places the search giant needs to work to keep communication going." - Me from Bookmarklet

:( - Amit Patel

Why is this a ':(' ? - Joe Beda

You're paying extra for that, you know. - Akiva

There should be a registry of companies that do dumb stuff with passwords. We can then query it with a chrome extension and display some sort of icon if you are on their site. I'm at a loss as to the correct icon for "dumbass site". - Joe Beda

http://plaintextoffenders.com/about... - Amit Patel

I've been very unimpressed by the Mac book s at work. I have no idea why people buy such expensive crap for work. - Piaw Na

Chromebooks look so appealing but I can't see myself using it. The Mac Air meets most of my computing needs: emacs, terminal, browser, irc. And I often use it with no network. I also don't find that I use the iPad much, because the combination of smartphone and Mac Air fills most of those needs… - Amit Patel

Yes, I will post pics :) - Amit Patel

We could have a python hunting contest … - Amit Patel

I like the background on both. :) - SAM

Second - ᏓᏰ #team Monique

Like this: http://www.123rf.com/photo_1... - Brian Johns

this http://ff.im/19VkAc - WarLord

"With Google's mobile OS claiming a whopping 68 percent of the world's total smartphone marketshare, it's almost a requirement for companies to expand outside of that other well-known platform. Naturally, the Kickstarter-funded Triggertrap has taken note of this and is now announcing that its automatic shutter release creation will be available on Android starting today. Unlike on iOS, however, the Triggertrap Mobile application won't have a free version on Google Play (or Amazon's app store), so users will have to shell out $5 for the app in order to get started -- of course, that's on top of the $30 for the must-have dongle and matching cable. Triggertrap's expected to be showing off the new Android app at Photokina next week, and you know we'll be sure to bring you a demo to help you decide if it's indeed worth pulling the trigger." - Me from Bookmarklet

Also kickstarter funded: http://www.triggerhappyremote.com/. I have one in the package at home that I haven't had time to play with yet. - Joe Beda

Fire map link: http://www.wunderground.com/wunderm... - Amit Patel

We just drove through there yesterday and it didn't look too bad. I really didn't notice any fires. - Joe Beda

I've hesitated to tell my wife this when the announced this a little while ago. I'm afraid she'll decide she doesn't need me anymore :) - Joe Beda

There is no support in GCE right now for specifying rack locality. However, we built the system to work well in the face of large numbers of instances talking to each other in a fully connected way, as long as they are in the same zone. This is one of the things that allowed MapR to approach the record for a hadoop terasort. You can see that in action in the video for the Criag Mcluckie's talk from IO: https://developers.google.com/events... The best way to see is to test out your application and see how it works. - Joe Beda

"The agency encourages but does not mandate the use of child safety devices on airplanes because of the increased safety risk to families who, if forced to purchase an extra airline ticket, might choose to drive. The risk to families is significantly greater on the roads than in airplanes, according to FAA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics." - Tudor Bosman from Bookmarklet

Interesting risk calculation above. - Tudor Bosman

We had one of these several years ago for the kids right after they were approved. There was quite a bit of confusion from the flight attendants. The big bonus is that it is super compact and the child sits further back in the seat vs a regular car seat. The end result is that the kid can't kick the seat in front of him/her. - Joe Beda from iPhone

"I basically killed my father. or at least intentionally allowed him to die. He was an abusive father all my life, and when I was 19, he had a heart attack. I calmly took the phone away from him before he could dial 911, put the recliner he was sitting in up so he would be laying back and his weight would make it harder to breathe, took one last look right at him, then left the room. About an hour or so later I found him sitting there staring forward with foam in his mouth, not breathing. I should clarify that I had been working at a hospital for at least 4 years at that point (volunteer work) and I was first aid certified. I knew exactly what was happening, and what I was doing." - Tudor Bosman from Bookmarklet

wow - Clark Kent

In such an environment you don’t have to be part of some executive’s inner circle to succeed. You don’t have to get lucky and land on a sexy project to have a great career. Anyone with ideas or the skills to contribute could get involved. I had any number of opportunities to leave Google during this period, but it was hard to imagine a better place to work. But that was then, as the saying goes, and this is now. - Piaw Na

Dave Cutler -- Second-hand info: in '07 I was given to understand that he has always wanted the top title, alone. As the organization grew and he had to share it, they created a new one for him, one notch more impressive. Of course, as his bio states, he is "generally considered one of the top programmers worldwide". - Ace

Looks like it might be a Circumhorizontal arc -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Joe Beda

Google image search mostly brings up huge arcs but there are a few that look similar to mine. Of course I don't know if those people identified it correctly either ;) - Amit Patel

All big companies are this way. - Piaw Na

I've been saying this for years. It is really the main reason I left. You need to manage to get ahead. - Joe Beda from iPhone

I'm in the process of doing the same thing with Jekyll/Octopress. I have all the pieces in place; I've just been too lazy to do the CSS, etc. - Akiva

Thanks, Nathan. The anti-comment faction's pretty vocal, by the way, and can be persuasive... "Let’s be totally honest here: anyone worthwhile leaving a comment should do so on their own blog. Very few read blog comments anyway. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Commenting is a facade. It makes you think you have a voice. You don’t. Get your own blog and write how you really feel on your own site." -- http://parislemon.com/post... - Ken Sheppardson

"Picasa Web Albums offers 1 GB of free storage for photos and videos. However, files under certain size limits don't count towards this free storage limit. This applies to uploads for other Google product that store photos and videos in Picasa Web Albums, including Blogger, Google+ and Google Maps." - Amit Patel from Bookmarklet

I don't print at all so 2k is plenty. However, I'm not on Google+. I found it interesting that they're imposing a strategy tax here. I imagine they'll impose it on lots of other products over time, either with carrots or with sticks. Some people will end up signing up for Google+ and others will switch to competitors. For now I'll use the paid versions of both Flickr and Picasaweb but my gut says that Flickr will be around longer. - Amit Patel

I did not know the S100 went to 24mm. That is an excellent upgrade from the already impressive S90. - Benjamin Golub

Yeah well, that's going to have an impact. Though with photos, I'd rather have a few good pictures than a lot of crap. There's evidence that your perception of the past is determined largely by your photos, so if you have a lot of crappy photos you'll make your self less happy in the long run. - Piaw Na

Micro four thirds telephoto lens. Weird: as far as I can tell (based on the animation) it doesn't extend when you zoom in, like every other lens I've seen. - Amit Patel from Bookmarklet

The Canon 24-70 f/2.8L gets longer as you go wider. It takes a little while to get used to but works really well with the fixed lens hood. - Joe Beda from iPhone

A rare public criticism of Google by a current Googler. - Piaw Na

Overall, I think that Steve kept it all pretty positive. I know most outsiders don't realize it, but this type of rant is pretty common internally and (sometimes) can lead to real changes. Other times it ends with the entire company laughing at you. - Joe Beda

The solution is to drop spent batteries as you fly. - Brian Johns

You also can't shift fuel around to make up for fat passengers all sitting on one side of the plane. - Joe Beda

Did you get chickens too! We go four this spring and have been having a blast with them. One ended up being a rooster and we had to send him to a farm (seriously). The other three are getting pretty big and we are hoping we will start getting eggs soon! http://bedafamily.smugmug.com/Family... - Joe Beda

It looks like chickens are allowed, but not coops. - Gabe

I've long been a fan of Microsoft's maps, especially for scenic drives: http://amitp.blogspot.com/2007... - Amit Patel

Make sure you try the terrain view: http://g.co/maps/75xs - Joe Beda

We did this the other week up here in Seattle at the northwest railway museum. It was a lot of fun. We ended up combining it with a camping trip. - Joe Beda from iPhone

"So, you’re a hero. A tall combine harvester of a man, with a unique knack for rolling forward and crushing and scything everything in your path, and you’re on a quest to rescue a lady, kill some monstrous boss monster and save a town. This tireless plot has been the set-up for a thousand fantasy videogames. Now, imagine if you could fail at all this. Imagine if the lady could die, the monstrous boss monster could beat a retreat, and the town relying on you could, ultimately, be laid to waste. Imagine if everything mattered. That’s Din’s Curse." - Amit Patel from Bookmarklet

With Din's Curse it seems the NPCs will come back slowly as you complete quests. There is an option to disable town invasions at an xp penalty too. I do like that you can finish a town and move your character on to the next. - Joe Beda from iPhone

Via Kevin - Piaw Na

Read this, it's good. - Tudor Bosman

Do you really think that doctors are overpaid? It is really more complex than that. Anything that involves lots of small procedures (derm) is pretty out of control. We have a huge shortage of family and internal medicine docs due to being relatively underpaid (~100k-120k), overworked (>50hrs for full time), lots of schooling and big loans. - Joe Beda

:( - Derrick

Our daughter is in Kindergarten had an issue like this with a couple of other girls earlier this year. We talked to the teacher and she took it very seriously and got on it right away. I was actually very impressed with how she and the school handled it. It was really hard on her though. You could see how much it upset her and she just wasn't herself when this stuff was going on. - Joe Beda

It sums up Gary so well. - Joe Beda from iPhone

I'm not sure I read the same post as Dare. - Joe Beda from iPhone

@jbeda I agree with your analysis and to make it more robust, Google allows us to easily export our content from their services. Now what we need is an ombudsmen at Google or other service providers to represent us in disputes. - Shakeel Mahate

yuck. - Michael Herf

They have old versions but apparently it isn't figuring that out. - Joe Beda from iPhone