Ever wonder what the "brick circles" are in San Francisco? Wonder no more.

For more technical details you can read this writeup which goes into the various failsafe mechanisms involved:

http://www.sfmuseum.org/quake/awss2.html

Though I wonder if they're still using a SCADA system connected to a VAX 4000 to run their pumps?

#gplus

36 days until Google I/O?  Hurried man indeed.

#gplus

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!  Julie & I spent a fine evening at Pizzaiolo which had a March 32nd themed menu with dishes we won't see till next year, including their special Italian spring break cocktail sesso sulla spiaggia.

#gplus

Seeing this on http://tv.tunein.com/

Any ETA on a fix?

#gplus

Paul Lindner was tagged in Mario Anima's album.

#gplus

#geekhumor

Two bytes are sitting in a bar. One says: "I'm not feeling so well. I think I might have a parity error."

"Yeah," says the other, "I thought you looked a bit off."

(found in the latest DNA Lounge mailing...)

#geekhumor #gplus

Intuit's market cap is $20B.  If the government bought them and sold off the non tax related assets the return on investment would be less than 5 years.

That's how a government run like a business would operate...

#gplus

If you're a wikipedia contributor you might be interested in this feature request...

#gplus

Here's another episode of the fun with stopcharacters for #musicmonday 

Last time we covered the curious case of "ke ha"

Today we have someone that's truly ungoogleable.  He's Matthieu Chedid, better known by his stage name "-M-" (that's dash, M, dash)  Go ahead, try searching for that, you won't find it on Google, Youtube, or Play.  Not even Dailymotion or Fnac.

This is sad because less people see and hear his high-energy rock&roll played on a pacman-ghost guitar.  Enjoy!

#musicmonday #gplus

Test

#gplus

Prince playing at the DNA Lounge 

#gplus

A good writeup from the folks at GitHub.

#gplus

This out-of-print audio book is a must-listen.

Brought to my attention by Julie Lindner via a Gibson retweet.

Note that a 5-disc CD version was made - we have one.

#gplus

Only a week to go until the radio play of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere on BBC Radio 4.  It has quite the all star cast:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwhere#Radio

#gplus

So had a four hour power outage last night. Pretty sure we're down to 2 nines of availability for the year.

You'd think with all the new Smart Meters that 

Pacific Gas and Electric Company should accurately know about power outages in near real time. Instead of alerting on their usage graphs it appears that the primary feedback mechanism is phone calls.

I've asked for a callback.  When I do I'll post it to the Postmortems community.  Ought to be interesting...

#gplus

No, this isn't today's doodle.  It is some very creative high-speed liquid photography.

Originally shared by Alex Koloskov

Behind the shot video:

http://www.photigy.com/the-making-of-google-happy-birthday-google-plus/

Have one can of blue paint left, should we shoot Facebook from it? :-)

#gplus

The grandfathers of Grunge are back on a new Sub Pop Records release 25 years after their first.

Thanks to Pixbear 

#gplus

Hi fine folks at Montclair Vet clinic.  You should merge your Google+ page with your local page here:

https://plus.google.com/117774614967907184951

I work for Google and am happy to help you out if you want.

Paul Lindner

plindner@google.com

#gplus

And here's the official word on the Azure outage.

#gplus

#ifihadglass I could safely post more photos like this.

(Note: I was stopped in traffic for this one)

#ifihadglass #gplus

Just so you know the background here.  Moving to the new fetcher triggered this.  This also happens whenever we add a new datacenter.  The NY Times staff figures this out pretty quickly and we have notified them of this issue.

http://b/8227621

Originally shared by Lauren Weinstein

(New York Times links are having increasing problems embedding into G+ reliably.)

#gplus

A birch pig overlooks the crowd at Plow.

#gplus

Anyone going?

#gplus

Yes, this is real.

The Great Wall is a 100' x 100' video installation in Oakland's Uptown neighborhood that displays all kinds of videos.  

http://greatwallofoakland.org/

#gplus

Mesmerizing.  Be sure to click on the live map.

#gplus

Not much technical detail here other than "The Landing Page didn't work on IE"

#gplus

I recommend that you check out the Loring Cafe.  They're opening up from 5-8 during first friday.

#gplus

There have been some historic photos posted, might be of interest..

#gplus

Once a Google+ skeptic the author Neil Gaiman is starting to share with people on Google+  You may remember that he didn't think much of us back when we launched:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2011/07/tangled-like-ivy.html

Here's hoping that he's having more fun now, and that he enjoys and engages with his community.

Originally shared by Neil Gaiman

My Australian trip. My Return. Stuff. The Fire Brigade arrives.

#gplus

SeeClickFix is one of the best things to come along for fixing problems in Oakland.  Here's one of their "highlighted" issues for all you typography/design nerds out there..

#gplus

Here's something you won't find on Top Gear -- A car with true front-wheel drive.

The Zapatilla was minimal indeed, with no doors or windows or reverse gear. The 1 cylinder, 197 cc, two-stroke motor produced 9 horsepower (7 kW), had a crank starter, and drove only the right front wheel. Braking was by an unusual three-point system involving the transmission and cable ties to the two rear wheels. One genuinely advanced feature was an all-aluminum body, although steel was later used.

Thanks to my coworker Jacobo Tarrio for educating us about this micro-car.

#gplus

Finally getting a Nexus 4. They even let me keep my G1 data plan on upgrade.

#gplus

Reposting this writeup from Peiran Guo on the google groups list.  It is so true.  I deployed 40 resonators on 1950 Charleston a couple of days ago.  Could've kept going if it wasn't for a meeting.

Bonus: you can piss off TheCurmudgeon.  I hope for the sake of his career that he's hitting his OKRs since it seems like he's playing all the time and all over campus.

I wonder if there's any players in this area who are looking to level up. The resistance at Googleplex is oncall 9-5 on workdays and they respond with an SLA of less than 5 minutes to several of the portals on campus.

If you have a few hours to kill and want some easy AP, then bring about 200-500 resonators of any level, blow up one portal, stand back  about 20-30 meters and tap the deploy button as fast as you can. I've seen people come running out of the buildings to clear your resonators for you like it's some sort of emergency or something. You'll get as much AP as you have resonators. If you find you can't keep up, you may need to slap a bunch of shields on the portal. You might want to find a bench in the shade in case you get tired. You might want to double check that your gps isn't floating too much before you begin. Maybe bring a sandwich or a drink if you think you might get peckish and don't forget to use the restroom before you start.

#gplus

I wonder who will they bring back as a hologram this year?

Originally shared by Coachella

FIRST! Coachella 2013 lineup – http://Coachella.com 

#gplus

Lessons learned taking down a dozen L8 portals.

SYB King organized an attack on the L8 portal farm in Jack London Square this monday.  We had 2 L6s and ~4 lower level players. Some things I learned

- Planning helps.  Know your targets and your XM spread.  Scan the area for portals with closely spaced resonators.

- Stock up big time.  We collected all the L8 items.  Also bring low level stuff for the players that are just getting going.

- Move fast, 2 resistance were on site within 30m

- Attack from a single direction if you can.  Make sure no one's sucking down XM ahead of your attacks.

- New client allows you to rapid fire many XMPs.  You're likely not going to waste those on a L8 portal.

- Have a parallel XM source.  We attacked the waterfront but could move two blocks up to enemy portals we were not attacking and move back.

- Have a "Medic" driving a car that can move people to nearby portals with lots of XM and bring them back to the battlefield all charged up.

- Open a 2nd front.  When resistance arrived I took out a bunch of control fields nearby while I recharged.  It seems that it would be a decent tactic to cycle people in and out quickly between the two attack areas.

- Have lower level people to hold the portals you claim since there will be counterattacks.  They can get big AP placing res on portals being counterattacked.

At the end of the day they only retained 2 L8 portals.  We knocked down over a dozen and farmed them dry.  They sent in reinforcements and took them back.  However it'll take them a while to get them back to L8.

#gplus

Grrr..  Too many Googlers with too much time on their hands.  Where do they find the time?

It hurts east bay since these guys take their farm yields back with them on the shuttle and cause trouble..

Originally shared by Ingress South Bay Area Resistance

[AAR] Operation: All your GOOG belong to SMURF!

Executive Summary:  Operation commenced at 1255 PST (2055 GMT) 17 Jan 2013.  A team of 9xL8 "Some Modestly Under-inventory Resistance Fighters" (SMURF) Agents executed a successful  "flashmob" build of 7xL8 Portals on the GOOG Mountain View campus.  SMURF Agents present were able to Hack-Farm to full Burn-Out in approximately 30-45 minutes Mission-Elapsed Time (MET).

Mission Cover Objective: How awesome would it be to drop a L8 Portal farm in the midst of perhaps the most highly-churned Ingress Portal area on the entire planet? 

Reference: http://goo.gl/h1DsC

Primary Mission Objective: Have a Freakin’ UNreal (FUN) time. 

Agents Present (9xL8):  josh, gosha, lipko, TheCurmudgeon, sleepy, MrAnalytical, tanzanite, raptor, scootle

Reference: Pre-operation planning/mission map procured by SMURF josh and initial L8 Portal deployment confirmation.  Area of Operation (AO) outlined in red attached.

[Special Advisory:  Given minimal prior operational notification, strict pre-operational blackout conditions, and short mission duration parameters, no viable damage-assessment imagery of the Global Intel map with 7xL8 Portals intact are available... SMURF Agent assets fully engaged with Mission Objectives.... Request additional AO surveillance resources via NianticOps.]

Real-time AO Global Intel Overview:

http://www.ingress.com/intel?latE6=37421238&lngE6=-122071057&z=19

Mission Timeline:

1255 PST - SMURF advance element completes AO sweep and assessment of field objectives.

1300 PST - Mission execution order issue and confirmation by deployed field SMURF Agents.

1315 PST - initial Hack of fully-powered L8 SMURF Portal

1317 PST - 9x L8 SMURF Agents commence dispersed Hack-Farm Operations

1342 PST - initial SMURF Agents begin Ex-Fil after successful Burn-Out

1355 PST - initial field report of hostile Booger Agent Reaction Force (BARF) assault on B1225 Portal cluster (3x)

~2x SMURF Agents immediately initiate Attack-Containment (AC) by inducing BARF XM-deficit.  Defense-Control (DC) provided via Deploy-Defense (DD) Procedure #36 on B1225 farm core

Field surveillance of BARF reveals 2x Booger Agents designated Alpha and Beta

Additional 2x SMURF Agents arrive on-scene to initiate Cheesy-Conversational-Countermeasure Protocol (CCCP) on BARF (i.e. Inquire regarding general consensus about current meteorological conditions, local recreational competitive activity results, state of domestic welfare, offers for battery containment and/or signal assistance, etc.)

Remaining operational SMURF Agents continue Hack-Farm Op concurrent w/ AC/DC 36DD and CCCP Ops

~1400 PST - initial B1225 Portal cluster destroyed beyond defensible threshold due to insurmountable XM-deficit.  AC/DC and 36DD terminated.

BARF Oscar-Mike and executes scissor-maneuver to the North (Alpha) and West (Beta).

CCCP Team unable to maintain lock on Booger Beta.  2x SMURF Agents maintain positive CCCP lock on Booger Alpha

~1404 PST - collateral XMP damage to “1200 Charleston Fountain” by Booger Alpha degrades hack output levels below acceptable threshold (L6).  2x SMURF Agents escape BARF detection in final attempt to complete Hack-Farm Op at “Three Yellow Umbrellas.  Burn-Out is confirmed.

“Three Yellow Umbrellas” Portal degrades within the next 10 minutes.

~1408 PST - Booger Beta successfully disables “Water Fountain” (West) and is Oscar-Mike to final “Wooden Archway”

~1411 PST - Booger Beta successfully disables “Wooden Archway”

~1415 PST - 1x SMURF Agent successfully transitions CCCP to Useful-intel Gathering/Hospitality (UGH) Op, 1x SMURF Agent initiates emergency Ex-Fil

1x addditional SMURF Agent provides UGH cover before initiating high-stealth Ex-Fil 

8xL8 SMURF agents confirm successful Ex-Fil from AO with zero casualties

~1500 PST - UGH  is terminated and remaining 1x SMURF Agent Ex-Fil is successful via Big Motorized Wheels (BMW)

1515 -  Operation Complete... remote SMURF Debrief commences

Net SMURF L8 Inventory Assessment:  Positive

Mission Cover Objective Assessment: TRIUMPH

Primary Mission Objective Assessment: HUGE SUCCESS

Special kudos to SMURF josh for the pre-planning effort:   CAKE

Strategic Assessment:

Transmission via SMURF scootle / Leeep ster 

Ingress South Bay Area Resistance 

Distribution:  Brandon Badger Joe Philley Brian Rose 

#Ingress  

#Resistance   #IngressFieldReport   #Niantic   #NianticLabs

#8x8  

#8x8 #ingress #ingressfieldreport #niantic #nianticlabs #gplus #resistance

A little late to the party, but this is one incredible album.

Recorded at the First Avenue and 7th St Entry you'll get plenty of Dick Valentine banter between a solid set of Electric Six classics including this quote:

"Put the two together and you have a kangaroo going down a water slide." 

And what's more you have long-time First Ave stage manager Conrad Sverkerson on the cover.  Read more about it here.

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2012/10/electric_six_release_live_album_recorded_at_first_ave_...

#gplus

More from the e-waste event...

The hard drive shredder just drives a big spike into the drive.  (I was hoping for something with big nasty grinding gears..)  Plenty of old gear there: broken NeXT monitors, a Sun IPC, a SparcStation 1 and even an Oscilloscope!

#gplus

It's e-waste day here at Google. Time to ditch all my 16MB video cards, 10base2 Ethernet cards, UltraSCSI HBAs (fast 'n wide) and some old tape backup gear.

I might keep the Pentium 2 just for the bed of nails heat sink. Raj Iyengar snagged the Myspace branded Flip video camera with the dead battery.

#gplus

test

#gplus

A hobbit wedding? Yes, yes indeed.

A colleague recently asked me about wedding photographers and I immediately thought of Lilia Ahner who I knew from my days at Six Apart.

She has this charming photo gallery of a Shire-themed wedding.  Also check out her other albums at Lilia Photography 

#gplus

This is good.  Listen for free, pay if you like.

They describe themselves like this:

Like a tidal wave consuming a densely-populated island of sentient robots, Wiping out Thousands’ brand of electro - equal parts abrasive and gorgeous - reaches out from their home base of Minneapolis to the far corners of the grimy neon futurescape of tomorrow.

[realized that I deleted my public post by accident...]

#gplus

Are gourmet ramen restaurants only a Bay Area phenomenon?  This place looks really good...

Originally shared by KQED Bay Area Bites

A good first impression! more quality food options in Oakland!

#gplus

A great impromptu outdoor show by Ilona Staller - a local band with a noisy sound that reminds me of Arcwelder.

#gplus

Checking out the Loring Cafe which transplanted itself from Minneapolis on #firstfriday in Uptown Oakland.

#firstfriday #gplus

Interesting observations by Brad Garlinghouse.  I'm reminded of this quote from  Sergey Brin:

“In some ways we have run the company as to let 1,000 flowers bloom, but once they do bloom you want to put together a coherent bouquet,”

Originally shared by Anne Toth

Spot on.

#gplus

Are you folks aware of this community.  Lively discussion with only a little bit of misinformation...

#gplus

Animated GIFs.  In the Washington Post. What next? The Memeconomist?

#gplus

Interesting perspective on the "sustainable" movement in restaurants and how it hasn't made it all the way to the kitchen.

#gplus

The first job title listed in LinkedIn's Outages skill?

Vice President, New Nuclear Operations at SCANA/SCE&G

... and you have to love the "Related Companies" list...

#gplus