barry-hunter's shared items in Google Reader

Google's Plus Operator, No Longer Available

2011-10-22T08:58:00Z

The plus operator from Google Search was useful to highlight one or more keywords that had to be included in the search results exactly as you typed them. If you search for [ai], Google matches terms like "artificial intelligence", "Amnesty International", "Art Institutes", "Appraisal Institute", "Adobe Illustrator" and that's not so useful. To restrict the results to pages that include "ai", you had to replace your query with [+ai]. Unfortunately, the plus operator is no longer available and you now have to use quotation marks even for single words and search for ["ai"].

"Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, childcare for the query [ child care ] (with a space), or California history for the query [ ca history ]. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don't really want it. By putting double quotes around a single word, you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it," informs the Web Search help center.

The plus operator was easier to use for single words and it was intuitive, considering that the minus operator is employed to exclude results that contain a certain word. Maybe Google wants to use the operator to integrate Web Search with Google+.

{ Thanks, 7E. }

Plotting the Expansion of the US Through Post Offices

2011-08-17T11:11:39Z

This post was written by Andy Kirk, founder and editor of visualisingdata.com. Andy will be guest editing Information Aesthetics for a short period while Andrew takes a well earned break.

Another of the most discussed and viewed projects over the past week has been the visualization by Derek Watkins [derekwatkins.wordpress.com] which presents an animated sequence of the expansion of the US depicted by the spread of post offices.

You can read in detail about Derek's data gathering and design process in his blog post but in a nutshell he scraped post office location information from the USPS Postmaster Finder, plotted their lat/long coordinates and developed the animated visualization using Processing.

The result is a fascinating historical journey through the expansion of the US as it transforms from the lopsided weight of population in the East to the development of the West. Derek's suggested timeline of key events reveal the reasons behind the patterns that emerge, such as the impact of the gold rush in the middle 1800s and the Oklahoma land grabs of the 1890s.

You can view the animated visualization via the embedded video below or in higher quality HD and 1080p on vimeo.

People taking naps with stuff (big photo gallery)

2011-08-17T22:33:42Z

A worker takes a nap surrounded by ducklings at a duck farm on the outskirts of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China.

What could be more satisfying than a nap? A nice nap taken while surrounded by piles of stuff. More photos of people taking naps while surrounded by stuff, below. (PHOTOS: REUTERS)

A rebel fighter in Libya sleeps next to a box of ammunition at a position in the outskirts of Zlitan, near Misrata.

A worker sleeps on a pile of cement in front of closed shops in Lahore, Pakistan.

North Korean workers nap on piles of fertilizer shipped from China on the banks of Yalu River near the North Korean town of Sinuiju.

A boy, with his face covered with an empty onion sack to protect him from flies, takes a nap in an open air vegetable market in New Delhi.

A worker sleeps on tangerines in a market in Siliguri, India.

A vendor naps beside packages of cabbages at a food market in Suining, China.

A vendor selling Chinese watermelons takes a nap at a wholesale market in Huaibei, China.

A vendor who sells tomatoes naps at an open-air market in Changzhi, Shanxi province.

A vegetable vendor sleeps in his roadside shop in New Delhi, India.

A boy sleeps beside fish heads as his mother works to extract meat from them, at a fish market in Jakarta.

13-Year-Old Uses Fibonacci Sequence For Solar Power Breakthrough

2011-08-19T12:43:00Z

An anonymous reader tips news of 7th grader Aidan Dwyer, who used phyllotaxis — the way leaves are arranged on plant stems in nature — as inspiration to arrange an array of solar panels in a way that generates 20-50% more energy than a uniform, flat panel array. Aidan wrote, "I designed and built my own test model, copying the Fibonacci pattern of an oak tree. I studied my results with the compass tool and figured out the branch angles. The pattern was about 137 degrees and the Fibonacci sequence was 2/5. Then I built a model using this pattern from PVC tubing. In place of leaves, I used PV solar panels hooked up in series that produced up to 1/2 volt, so the peak output of the model was 5 volts. The entire design copied the pattern of an oak tree as closely as possible. ... The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day. But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!"His work earned him a Young Naturalist Award from the American Museum of Natural History and a provisional patent on the design.

Find the perfect hotel with the Hotel Finder experiment

2011-07-28T16:00:00Z

Finding the right hotel can make or break your vacation, so with this in mind, we’re introducing Hotel Finder, a new experimental search tool specifically designed to help you find that perfect hotel. Google Hotel Finder makes it easy to narrow down the options:

Figure out where to stay: To help you figure out where the action is, Hotel Finder shines a "tourist spotlight" on the most visited areas of U.S. cities. We select an initial shape for you based on what’s most popular or you can draw a shape around the area where you want to stay, e.g. on the ocean or along Sunset Boulevard.

Get a good deal: In the “Compared to typical” section, you can see how each hotel’s price compares to its historical average, so you can tell if it’s good value for your stay.

Compare fast: You no longer need to open a new browser tab for each hotel result, and then go hunting around for pictures. When you select a hotel in Hotel Finder, we show you a collage of images, Google Places reviews, and key information right within the list. You can even use keyboard shortcuts (“J” and “K”) to flip through the results quickly, just like in Google Reader and News.

Keep a shortlist: As you flip through the results, add the hotels you like to a shortlist to easily keep track of the ones that interest you.

When you’re ready to book a hotel, you’ll find a selection of booking options from a range of available partners or directly from the hotel.

Since this tool is an early experiment, it’s currently only available for locations in the U.S. If you’re planning a trip in the U.S. anytime soon, be sure to give Hotel Finder a spin -- and let us know what you think through the “Send Feedback” link right at the top. You can try Hotel Finder by visiting www.google.com/hotelfinder/.

Posted by Andrew McCarthy, Software Engineer

Four short links: 22 July 2011

2011-07-22T10:00:00Z

Competitive Advantage Through Data -- the applications and business models for erecting barriers around proprietary data assets. Sees data businesses in these four categories: contributory data sourcing, offering cleaner data, data generated from service you offer, and viz/ux. The author does not yet appear to be considering when open or communal data is better than proprietary data, and how to make those projects work. (via Michael Driscoll)
Interactive Touch Charts -- GPL v3 (and commercial) licensed Javascript charting library that features interactivity on touch devices: zoom, pan, and click. (via James Pearce)
Solar Cutter, Solar 3D Printer -- prototypes of solar powered maker devices. The cutter is a non-laser cutter that focuses the sun's rays to a super-hot point. The printer makes glass from sand (!!!!). Not only is this cool, but sand is widespread and cheap.
Synthetic Biology Open Language -- a language for the description and the exchange of synthetic biological parts, devices, and systems. Another piece of the synthetic biology puzzle comes together. The parallel development of DIY manufacturing in the worlds of bits and basepairs is mindboggling. We live in exciting times. (via krs)

Decisions, decisions

2011-07-18T21:30:04Z

This cartoon would be funnier if it were a little less true.

Read the comments on this post...

Vacation Stress

2011-07-15T21:49:17Z

Very very accurate.

She’s Alive… Beautiful… Finite… Hurting… Worth Dying for.

2011-07-12T17:59:01Z

Comments

The Backpack Scooter Lets You Walk Then Ride

2011-07-12T13:26:43Z

This is the Bergmönch – the Mountain Monk – a scooter that folds into a backpack, thereby allowing the brave to ride down the hills the climb up at breakneck speed. There are no pedals – just a pair of disc brakes – and it costs $1,880.

The kit weighs about 20 pounds and, while I admit I’m no mountaineer, looks pretty rugged. I would only worry that the scooter handlebars would stab you in the back at some point or you’d fall on the wheel and get impaled by a spoke, but I supposed all that doesn’t matter when you’re Matterhorning down a mountain yelling “Trollolololol” while pushing yourself along on a portable scooter.

Product Page via Wired via OhGizmo

Hold the Alt Key While Double-Clicking for Faster Access to Properties in Windows [Video]

2011-07-11T14:00:00Z

Windows: To get to the properties screen for Windows shell objects like files or folders you probably usually right-click and select "Properties." A quicker and less well known way to get to that screen is to hold down the ALT key while double-clicking on the object. More »

Tubular Fells

2011-07-04T08:00:16Z

When I was up in the Lake District earlier this year I came across a new map of the Wainwright Fells and thought that today I would share it with you on the Ordnance Survey blog. The map is called Tubular Fells.

The Tubular Fells map is based on Henry Beck's iconic London Underground map.

The map has been inspired by Harry Beck and his famous schematic map of the London Underground that was produced initially in 1931. Peter Burgess, a London base Geography teacher, has taken the idea of this iconic map and creating a new one based on the Lakeland Fells shown in the Wainwright guides.

Having lived in London for nearly 20 years, Beck’s map was something Burgess was very familiar with. As a keen fell walker and being a Geographer by trade – he thought to himself “I could make a fells map like Beck’s” – and so he did (after about 10 years of thinking about it and a few weeks sat in front of a computer).

So what’s on the map? In addition to the Fells there are also all 17 of the lakes that give the Lake District it’s name. You’ve also got the Coast to Coast, Cumbria Way and Dales Way along with the wheelchair accessible route to the summit of Latrigg and other identifiable features that you’d come across on the route (for example the Skiddaw House bunkhouse). As in the London Underground map where there are connections with ferry services – so there are also ferry connections shown on this map. The fells are connected by a coloured line (as in the style of Beck’s London Underground map) – with each colour corresponding to the relevant colour of Wainwright’s pictorial guides.

This isn’t a map designed to help you navigate your way around the fells – for that you’re going to need the Ordnance Survey maps of the Lake District – but it does provide you with a fantastic pictorial representation of the fells.

If you have a look at the Tubular Fells website you’ll also find that in addition to the map there is a wealth of other information that will help you make the most of your time in the Lakes. There are some suggested walks for you that take in some of the fells featured on the map, a suggested route card to make sure others know what your planned and information on public transport links.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of the Tubular Fells map – you can order it on-line or through one of the recommended stockists. With £1 from every map sold going to Fix the Fells – you’re doing your bit to repair and restore the fells at the same time!

This year the Lake District National Park is celebrating its 60th anniversary. In August we will be celebrating the park with a series of feature blog articles. For one of these we ask for your input – where is your favourite walk in the Lake District? Share with us your favourite walk and the most popular will feature in our Lake District special walks of the week in August.

Four short links: 13 June 2011

2011-06-13T10:00:00Z

AIRPrint -- prototype box scans a fingerprint from six feet away. (via Greg Linden)
Squishy Circuits -- teaching electronic circuits with conductive and insulating playdough. (via Hacker News)
GraphLab -- alternative take on Map-Reduce, called Update-Sync, where tasks run on connected sets of nodes rather than on one node at a time.
Tower Bridge Closed -- the @towerbridge account was a cute hack from Tom Armitage, whereby the public site for the London Tower Bridge was scraped and connected to Twitter, so you would see tweets like "I am closing after the MV Dixie has passed Upstream" and get a feel for the ambient activity in your city. Twitter turned over @towerbridge to the most tediously vomit-in-your-own-mouth-they're-so-anodyne beige corporate tweets ever (account description: "Leading tourist attraction situated inside Tower Bridge", sample tweet: "Looking for something to do it the City this weekend, check out http://www.visitthecity.co.uk/ and you're always welcome at @TowerBridge") and deleted the past history of tweets. Way to embrace the community of engaged passionate fans, guys! Welcome to Twitter, try not to step in your social media strategy as you cross the threshold--oh no, too late.

OptiMap for Google Maps v3 released

2011-06-03T10:10:54Z

After being “almost ready” for way too long, the next version of OptiMap, based on Google Maps API version 3, is now launched. While I have tested most aspects of the application, there are most likely bugs, since the update touched almost all areas of the code. There are some improvements too, however:

More robust address lookups (a lot of people experienced a “failed to geocode” error when entering many addresses. This was due to too many requests in a short period of time, and a queue-system has been added to avoid this from happening. The lookups may take slightly longer due to this.
Progress indicator for directions lookups. Because version 3 of the Google Maps API only allows 10 waypoints in a single request (down from 25 in the previous version), this part is now a bit slower, so a progress indicator is needed.
Tuning of the solver code based on faster browsers becoming more common. This should improve the quality of the solutions for cases with more than 15 locations.

Please help me solve any bugs that you may encounter by posting a comment on this site. Information that will be helpful when locating the bug includes:

Browser (with version if possible)
List of addresses or locations and a description of how to reproduce the bug
The output that you see (error message, why you think the solution is wrong etc.)

Beautiful, out-of-phase pendulums

2011-05-13T06:42:55Z

This Harvard physics apparatus uses a series of pendulums of varying lengths, swinging together, to make a mesmerizing dance:

The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. The length of the longest pendulum has been adjusted so that it executes 51 oscillations in this 60 second period. The length of each successive shorter pendulum is carefully adjusted so that it executes one additional oscillation in this period. Thus, the 15th pendulum (shortest) undergoes 65 oscillations.
Our apparatus was built from a design published by Richard Berg [Am J Phys 59(2), 186-187 (1991)] at the University of Maryland. The particular apparatus shown here was built by our own Nils Sorensen.

Pendulum Waves (via Kottke)

IOIO Lets You Control Your Electronics Project From Your Android Phone

2011-04-08T15:58:56Z

Ytai from Tel Aviv wrote in with a cool new board he developed: [via]

I’m very excited to announce the launch of a new product I’ve been working on for the past months! IOIO (pronounced: yo-yo) is a product which lets you connect electronic circuits to an Android device and control them from an Android application. It is comprised of a small (2.7×1.2″ = 7x3cm) PCB that connects to an Android device with a USB cable and a software library (Java .jar file) that you use in your Android app which handles all communications with the board.

No firmware programming is required – only Android application authoring with a very simple API for controlling the pins on the board. No modification of the Android device is required – you avoid the complication of modification and the voiding of warranty.

IOIO Lets You Control Your Electronics Project From Your Android Phone – [Link]

Snowman Slide: insanely elaborate slide `

2011-02-23T19:19:24Z

Some ~~nameless,~~ awesome individual named Ricky Reich undertook "80 hours of shovelling" and made this insanely fun, elaborate "Snowman Slide." The video is thrilling work, with lots of different angles to show off the wicked fun and the great craft on display in this winter marvel.

Snowman Slide in South Lake Tahoe! (via Reddit)

London Bike Flow Animation

2011-02-18T11:27:00Z

Dr Martin Austwick and Ollie O'Brien here in CASA have produced an updated version of the animation of Barclays Cycle Hire bikes on a typical weekday:

Boris Bikes redux from Sociable Physics on Vimeo.

The data for the bikes is courtesy of Transport for London, with the Thames, parks and the underlying network being faithfully drawn by OpenStreetMap contributors.

You can find full details over at Suprageography...

Disposable USB Sticks, For Those Sad Memories You Don't Mind Losing [Designs]

2011-02-15T12:00:48Z

The creative minds of Art Lebedev have once again thought of something interesting to do in the USB world—cardboard. The design team's concept "Fleshkus" memory sticks are supplied on printed card, with users able to tear one off as needed and write a description straight onto the back. [Art Lebedev via UberGizmo] More »

Threatened BBC websites crawled and shared as 1.88GB torrent

2011-02-10T17:28:52Z

the torrent holds 172 websites set for closure