Oz Warren

Did you know that Mitch Romney spells his name R Money? The man who hates paying taxes makes a point during his campaign.

I’m sorry, but I don’t know who to credit for the photo.

This tool, the Unofficial Google Image Search by Drawing site looks like it has the potential to be fun. My efforts don’t seem to have brought much back in the way of results though.

I’m not sure how this came about, but both of these forecasters appear to be wearing leather or PVC dresses. On the left, RTE (Ireland) and on the right, the BBC national forecast.

This video illustrates the less desirable elements of Bath society – arrogant and bullying people who think they’re better than everyone else.

The original post has been made private, so some kind soul has posted this copy:

I’ve been using Google+ since the start of July 2011 and one of the things that I’ve found is that a substantial minority of the users are fanatical Android fanboys. I know that’s not going to be a shock to many of you and it’s to be expected on Google’s social media platform, but it’s become more obvious to me because I post a lot of articles about Apple and that makes me an irresistible target to some. Now I do like Apple products, but I’ve used many platforms and products over the 30 years that I’ve been playing with computers and spent more time on those other platforms. Apple do make very good, if expensive, products and their customer service is the best I’ve ever known. Does that mean that I’m fanatical about them? No. I’ve used Android and it’s good. It has strengths and weaknesses and so does iOS. Google is a large, successful company that seems to know what it’s doing, I think it’s becoming increasingly ‘corporate’, but that’s what happens where money is involved.

There, that’s a rational view. The gist of a discussion with an Android fanboy generally covers the following points:

1. Apple is ‘evil’
2. All Apple users are stupid and Apple does well because most people in the world are stupid
3. Apple does not innovate, it steals (from Android) or buys its technologies
4. Apple users are all fanatical fanboys (!)

I’ve seen a lot of badges doing the rounds on Google+ saying something like “I was on Google+ before it was public” together with “share this post if you were too”. I decided to make a statement by posting my own ironic version of those badges. It seems to have struck a chord, because it’s had (so far) 583 +1s and 1022 shares. I think that most people understood that I was having a gentle prod at people’s desire to be slightly better than their neighbour. It was comical that some took it as a genuine statement of greatness and even funnier that some shared in in the exact spirit that was being lampooned, commenting on how ‘awesome’ (arse-ome) they were. Humans are endless sources of fascination and entertainment. Long may that continue.

I’m now onto my second game using the Cocos2d and Chipmunk frameworks and I think I’ve actually got the hang of it. I’m not an expert and I still have to google things to remember how to do stuff, but I feel like I know how I should be tackling various parts of a game and what will work well and what won’t. They are both excellent products and they’ve now been combined with some other essential tools to make the Kobold2d development framework by Steffen Itterheim. It saves some time and has been well thought out in order to develop cross-platform apps. Definitely worth a look.

Google+ is obviously designed to extend Google’s reach and make even bigger piles of cash for them, but what is its purpose as far as the user is concerned? I believe that its raison d’être is to massage your ego.

I’ve watched the flow of postings develop from the beta version and it’s been a little like a gold rush. People are desperately looking for that magic posting that will cause others to +1 and share it, as well as convincing more willing readers to add the poster to their circles. Let’s just look at that a moment. There’s a +1 button, but not a -1 button, so why is that? You’d think that it would be useful from a search perspective to be able to negatively rank content, but the truth is that Google doesn’t want you to feel bad and stop using the service. Yes, Facebook has the same approach with their ‘like’ button, but the more inter-personal nature of Facebook content means that there is less to debate on Dave’s trip to the shops.

Google+ attracts a certain kind of user, one who wants to bask in the glow of adoring ‘fans’. Those individuals flock together in mutual stroking societies, so you often see the same people in incestuous circles. Woe betide you if you dare to point out an error in their post or, horror of horrors, express a different opinion. I’ve seen people savaged, in a virtual sense, as the strokers dive in and rip off a piece of flesh. If you make more than one of these contrary comments, then you are singled out as a troublemaker. Be wary of any glow on the horizon, as it may be a group of torch-and-pitchfork-carrying locals.

Another comical facet of Google+’s mini-culture is the slight caused by failing to credit an item’s poster. This may be the sixth time that you’ve seen the animated cat GIF on your travels across the Interweb, but if you dare to post that link from the Google+ iteration (because you’ve finally caved in and decided to bore friends) without crediting the Google+ poster, you are committing an heinous crime. The poster may be the 20th person to post the content, far removed from the creator (the person who deserves our praise) – but nonetheless THEY MUST RECEIVE CREDIT. It’s the virtual equivalent of back slapping and hugs, for the hardship of clicking on a ‘share’ link and perhaps adding a line of semi-relavant commentary (if you’re lucky). To those of you who will leave teethmarks around the edge of your computer desk if you feel that you’re not being duly recognised I say this: You need to get out more. I mean that in the nicest possible way.

Well, there are several hundred people on the Polterballz leaderboard now, but I’m still staying at number one for overall score. The scores at the top do seem to be creeping up though, so I might have to see if I can get a bit further and add some more points to my tally. Way to go Paul though, for a Level 1 completion time of 2.73 seconds. I have no idea how he managed that. I think it’s all in the wrist.