Explorations on Google+

OK, blog time about the amazingness that is Google+. Seriously. The only reason I'm not using it 100% of the time is not all my friends have been given the chance to jump over. Thoughts and critiques commence!

The "Friend Request"

While it's easy to say it's "Facebook but not Facebook" I'm starting to realize that's fundamentally incorrect. I mean, yeah, you could use it exactly like Facebook. But that's not its underlying rationale and structure.

Really, it's basic structure is more Twitter-ish. By default you might fire off Public Posts that anyone who is following you can see. But you have some subsets that you share more personal stuff with, like Family or Friends-only, and Google+ is happy to oblige you.

This is different from the Facebook model. Note that to see what others do, you just need to follow them. It's a unidirectional transaction. Contrast this to Facebook where you have to confirm your Friend Request, and then everything is shared between the two parties bilaterally. In fact, I have several people on Facebook I've friended then summarily hid from my feed 'cause I'm using it like a Rolodex and don't actually care about what is going on in their lives, or I don't share things with my "Limited" friends because I figure I'm not as caught up with them, they probably don't care about my stuff anyways.

Obviously you can replicate this Facebook Friend behavior. Google+ tells you who is following (but not what circle you've been placed into) and you can promptly follow back. Friend Request Accepted! Commence 2-way spam! (This is also apparently what most of use are doing right now)

However, really what following someone means is not "are you my friend" but instead "do I care about what you post and share and see what is going on in your life." And perhaps it's mutual. Perhaps it's not.

The Subsets and Supersets of Circles

Google+'s main cool feature is a really, really nice way of organizing your friends. These Circles though allow you to share stuff with specific sets of friends. Some of the obvious ones are Family-Only announcements. Some more creative ones I'm are people making specific lists for sharing a particular part of their life, like music they found or links on the internet. Personally I'm building a "Spammable" circle for my link propagation habits. (These are often opt-in and people will post seeing who wants in. Hopefully a feature will come that will allow us to make these circle opt-in from the other side instead of us manually sorting the masses.)

Since we can place the same person in several circles, you suddenly have a very interesting potential set of overlapping circles, just like modeling your real life. Currently I've sorted people mostly by my relationship to them, and the Spammable circle is a way to mash a bunch of them together from disparate parts of my social network. This way I still have a network of individuals sorted, but only the closer ones regardless of other circles get my spam.

Of course, if you instead want to use it as originally intended, just push most of your stuff as Public and use Circles for specifically targeted messages and conversations. I'm sure as time goes on we'll see more ideas and structures develop using this feature.

HANGOUT ARE AWESOME

Probably the most badass feature so far are Hangouts. It's group video chat, up to 10 people. Sure Skype and Ventrilo and many others have similar things, but Google+ has 2 major advantages.

Sure, there's video. And that's kinda awesome to see people's faces again and their expressions as they laugh or give you the stare.

The kicker is the natural casual nature of the hangouts. Two people can just be "Hanging out" and a button shows up on Google+ to let you join in. Boom, instantly you're in! THAT'S AWESOME!!! It's like my olde East Dorm Lounge. Walk in, people are there, chill, leave when you want. None of this "setup a call" or "did so-and-so invite me to that group". Well. You could do that via Circles and just not invite people. But still, Hangouts provide a really nice way for people to just walk into the meeting and chill with friends. This feature alone is egging me on to finally buy a webcam. (I know, no smartphone, no webcam, still stuck in the 2000s)

Google Integration

A really, really sweet feature is you can see the notifications on any (well, almost any) Google App page. Your top bar that typically tells you all the Google Apps you can switch to gains a notification spot and a field you can use to quickly share something you just found.

Number shows up for how many notifications you have, you can review them and quickly see just the updates, then resume your Gmail or Google Searching. That feature alone, that I don't have to keep a Facebook Tab open, is gonna be the downfall of mankind's productivity I guarantee you. And instantly sharing? Oh goodness me.

Still some Rough Edges

So, that Google Integration? Somehow it doesn't work on Calendar. D'oh. Also, using the "Share" system on Google Reader doesn't appear to load it into Google+ (yet). And Vimeo video embeds don't work. And they won't let us invite more people. And apparently it hasn't rolled out to Google Apps so go setup a GMail / Google Account if you want to partake. And obviously since it has no data it can't suggest people to you very well yet so you'll have to search people manually.

EDIT: Apparently it doesn't catch my Blogger Posts either! /EDIT

"Better" Privacy

Well, at least it's not randomly popping stuff up like a stalker on other pages and it's way easier to only send stuff privately to a subset of your buddies and there aren't any subversive data mining 3rd-party applications, but you know Google wants all your data. COOOOKIES. OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM

But seriously, even with the Buzz and a slight oopsie here, Google has had a better track record on privacy than Facebook. And while it's still getting out the kinks in letting me custom tailor my privacy settings to lockdown mode, the bonus of using Circles to carefully cull who gets what sensitive info is a huge plus already.

The BIG Question:

Will it beat Facebook?

Dunno. The biggest issue is can you get the adoption rate? Social networks like this only work if everyone else is using it so you use it too. And getting that critical mass is what makes or breaks it. Also, tearing people away from Farmville.

For most of my friends, we're flocking to it ASAP. So, it's gained critical mass for a few of my circles. But there are several other still left out in the cold. Even with some of its oddities and bugs I like it and frankly I bet a bunch of my non-as-tech-savvy friends would like it too.

The Problem with Saying You're Sorry

I've noted something interesting. A lot of people say "Oops, I'm sorry" or "I need to work on that." This can be something skill based, like your macro in Starcraft 2. It could also be something you did, like cheating. The problem is not everyone actually makes a change.

We seem to fall into the trap that saying "I'm sorry" is so powerful and special that often times it's enough to just bow your head in humility. And in response we reciprocate and forgive the offending party. End of story?

No.

The problems persist. They aggravate and we just keep going "oops" and walking away. Sometimes it's just a personality quirk in a friend, like a certain catch phrase or driving technique. Other times it's a habitual problem that ruins lives, like infidelity.

We really need to look for the core problem and fix it.

Sean Plott (Day[9]) does a show on learning to be better at Starcraft 2 and has a segment every week called Newbie Tuesday. On one recent episode he comments that you shouldn't just say, "Oh, I need to work on my macro" you need to find out what was wrong and fix it. In his example game he shows the player forgetting to always produce workers, a critical error that slows down your resource collection throughout the match. He even comments that saying, "Oh, I should work on always making workers" is insufficient. Make a plan and execute it. For example, keep that building on a hotkey and constantly check it ALL GAME EVERY SECOND. Excessive? Sure. Real Pros at the game know when to jump to the building and make a new one. But you're not a pro, and this plan will ensure you will always be making workers.

Similarly I often fall into the trap of not listening intently. "Oh, I should work on that" sounds good, and apologies to all parties injured by my negligence are nice, but really I have to focus on the core issue. I think whatever I'm doing is more important. Obviously the other person will remind me later and I'll remember it then, right? WRONG. So to train myself, I need to always give my full attention every time someone talks to me. Even in the middle of doing other things, drop it and give my full attention. Also, taking up note taking so I don't have to rely on my sometimes spotty memory. Sure I may only mess up remembering things 10% of the time, but sometimes those are critical things I forget.

It's really odd how we've fallen into this trap. Are apologies so rare and forgiveness so foreign that we feel sufficiently absolved when we use them? Perhaps. It's often a huge story any time someone gives a formal apology. Instead we seem to focus on saving face properly and weaseling out of the situation. Or perhaps it's just short-term reverence and really we don't care when we apologize? I hope not, because I've been fairly sincere every time I apologize.

Are there areas you need to finally make a plan to fix? How do you evaluate what the core issues are in your life?

Infatuation with Stories

I think I have a slight infatuation with stories.

I really enjoy telling them and hearing/reading them. Often times, it doesn't even need to be that great of a story to get me hooked.

There are times they get tedious. Or really obvious. At which point I can stop. And this applies to TV series too. I dropped out mid-season of several shows that had connecting storylines mostly because I got bored/pissed/annoyed.

I'm not sure why this is true.

Telling stores is a little obvious. I get to control the mood and timbre of things. I also enjoy sharing. And sometimes it's the only way to keep the silence away. I'm perfectly willing to fill conversation gaps with my voice if needed and then back off the instant someone interjects. I also enjoy the crafting elements and making it all flow together. Best of all when you can describe something super complex elegantly and to someone who didn't expect they'd understand, i.e. most engineering I do.

Hearing stories perhaps hearkens to middle school and high school. There was an element of control, things would resolve, good triumphs, etc. Gave a nice balance to my otherwise hectic life. I could spend an entire day wrapped up in another world, breathing it in, and forgetting the reality around me.

Even the narrative of simple things intrigue me. The stories of game development, simple faux pas events, or the crafting of a meal.

Are other's the same?

I Hate Online Banking

So, I try to log into my account today. It claims my password/username don't match and therefore we have a problem. I type it all in again, still no dice.

OK, I'll just reset my password!

Go through the security checks, at the end it asks me to set a new password. I type in my olde password I was just trying.

"Your new password must be different from your old password"

Wait.

You're telling me this is my password on file.

The one I'm typing in now.

The one you JUST SAID was a mismatch.

Update on Life

Hm missed last week. Oh wellz. Hi to the 5-10 people who actually read this when things get posted. =p

Anyways, time to take a break on "insightful" posts because I'm kinda stumped. Here's a few ideas I've been tossing around

• Are we looking at the wrong numbers?
• HoNvLoL again (but just the major points)
• Gamer v1.5

But, meh, I don't feel like taking the time to write that stuff down. So you get dull life story instead!

Anyways, last weekend was the Catalyst Spring Retreat. For those who are in Catalyst who missed out, um, you missed out! I mean, getting to see Landon, Eddie, Jon, and Tim wail on branches and logs? Operating pneumatic log splitters? Awesome food? Leaving Matt in the forested hills to fend for himself? BONFIRE? \o/

Thesis has been going well, I guess. I've hit the minimum required 60 pages, except that count includes stuff like the Table of Contents, Title Page, Glossary, etc. I still have a few sections to write, could probably beef up several parts, and need to spend a day making figures. I could also drown out another 10 pages by inserting sample code. But, suffice to say it's nice to finally hit a major milestone, even if it did take me 2 weeks to grind this out on top of refreshing my memory on using LaTeX (heck yeah tables). Now if only I could get some revisions back from the professors.

Grading is a pain. Enough said.

Car has been used, and will be used. But I'm mostly biking around Davis because parking is atrocious at UCD and I like the exercise. I noticed that after a decent hike at the retreat I was sure I'd be sore all along my calves and thighs, being mostly out of shape and all, but woke up the next day not sore at all. That's biking legs for ya. Now if only I could automatically work my back and arms every day. Silly desk job. But back to the car, it's really been useful for carting people around Davis already. Still have to get an oil change and a solid look-over by a mechanic, but overall it's running well and serves me well. And really I can't complain for the price D gave me on it.

Next up are a series of get togethers with some dudes, Picnic Day, and running A/V as the main point man Sunday Evening. Gonna be fun, especially since it's the college kids doing worship too. So, College kids running sound, slides, worship, and maybe even announcements. Would have been hilarious if the college pastor was also giving the sermon. Then it'd be just like Monday nights, except in a bigger room with older people participating. =p

Anyhows, that's a light dump on my goings on. Laterz.

Basis of Attraction

I blame one of my female friends for asking pointed questions which then forced me to resolve my views on this topic. You know who you are.

Let's talk for a moment about attraction/dating/relationships. Or, more accurately, my views on them. Feel free to fill the comments section with your own opinions.

For this post, I am focusing on what attributes of a female attract my interest. These roughly fall into two categories.

First, we have the logical ideal woman. This is from years of hearing about what is good for a relationship, things I find desirable, etc. The double-talk list is as follows:

• Intelligent.
• Stable, but willing to change and learn.
• Reserved, but not closeted nor reclusive.
• Energized, but not over-the-top.
• Responsible, but not meddling.
• Humble, but not subservient.
• Stand up for what she believes in, but willing to concede if proven wrong.
• Pretty, but not vain.

You get the picture. =p

Then, there are things that I pick up on when I first meet a girl that instantly hit me in the gut. Logical reasons be damned.

One of the notables is passion and skill. I have a particular weak point for musically talented individuals. Probably because of how many years I've sunk into my own musical skills (with subpar results) and how much music affects me. This is especially true if she can sing and/or play piano/keyboard. Also, being passionate about what they do is key. Just having skill is one thing, and typically the category I fall into. Taking your skills to a whole new level is exciting and definitely draws me to the person. Dunno why, but this is all an instant attention grabber for me.

Another would be a common interest such as games. It's one of the major venues that I can spend oodles of time on, especially when playing with other people. I have literally walked into rooms knowing no one, then played a few games with people and we're buddies. Plus, I love discussing how to play them better and on designing better, interesting, and fair games. Other notables include things like anime, music (see above), faith, cooking, and whatever else.

Ironically while looks can help, they don't have quite the same internal instinctive draw for me. This might be due to self-training and constantly telling myself to look for character over looks, but I'll leave the psychoanalysis for someone else. Don't get me wrong, a girl wearing some seriously elegant or well-thought outfit with a body to match is very eye-catching. But it seems to trigger a different set of attraction than the aforementioned ones. Physical beauty and attraction are one things, but strong subtle gravitation is a totally different thing.

Anyways, typically the initial attraction leads to very fast "getting to know" phases, and levels out in favor of a more "logical" approach to candidacy. No surprise there for anyone. As everyone should already know, initial attraction isn't worth squat once you get to know the layers of the person and whether or not you're actually compatible and willing to commit to being in for the long-term. And then things start getting complicated.

A Light Story

The following is as close to a transcription of a dream I had a while ago that I could write. Re-done slightly to explain the gaps of wtf madness that occurs in dreams, and the characters were given names.

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Margaret and Tim stood on the platform, waiting for the train. They happened to be next to each other by coincidence. They had entered the campus from opposite entrances, but through the various tangled webs of service lines and passages and time knots here they were. Both waiting for the train at the same time.

Gracefully the bullet entered the station and the doors slid open. As they entered they both unceremoniously found seats. Margaret opted for a seat next to the aisle. Tim sat one row behind, but one seat inward.

A brief survey of the train showed only one other person in the train. Another young man a few rows towards the front. Otherwise the car was empty. Made sense due to the timing and nature of the schedule. Tim idly began fiddling with his papers.

"Hello," said a voice.

Tim looked up to see the gentleman standing in the aisle, obviously addressing Margaret. Margaret looked at him, gave a small smile with a nod, and turned her head back to resume staring out the window. Tim casually looked back down at his papers.

"I said hello," the man said again. He was now sitting down across the aisle.

"Hi," Margaret responded.

"Oh come now. It's not like I'm going to ask you out. Just trying to make conversation."

Silence.

"Name's Thaddeus by the way."

Tim glanced back up. The young man, Thaddeus, had moved into the seat next to Margaret. Obviously this was all too smooth to be just casual conversation. Tim knew though that Margaret was too smart for that. He had tried a small ploy on the platform and she had returned with the usual iciness.

"And who might you be?" Thaddeus tried, turning to Tim.

"Timothy. Most call me Tim."

"Pleasure to meet you. First time going in to Titan Security I see." Thaddeus nodded at the papers in Tim's hands.

Tim smiled weakly.

"It's a shame I couldn't get the slower train. I had wanted to get a better glimpse of the transit," Thaddeus continued. Tim noted there was a divine musical quality to his voice. Almost a hint of some kind of accent buried deep within as well. It wasn't terribly surprising. Titan Security hired people from all sorts of periods and regions. They had to have the best there ever was.

The train's intercomm announced the train was preparing to leave and for all occupants to please find a seat to avoid interference during transit. Thaddeus rematerialized in the seat across the aisle again.

"Hm, I believe I'll be seeing a few of my old buddies. Margaret will be seeing Mary though."

Margaret perked up.

"Really a shame though. She did always get fixated on those rare few moments. Much like playing a game of dice and rolling a low after as string of highs. Never mind your previous luck, you always fixated on that one roll where the rest caught up and overtook you. And never mind your future luck either."

Thaddeus sighed and sank back into his chair.

"Oh well, should be over quite quickly on this route."

The door hissed shut and the windows blacked out. The train's internal lighting seemed much more harsh than the simulated sunlight of the station platform.

"Really is odd though. I'm guessing you're both third-rates. No Fate running in your lives."

Margaret finally spoke up, "And what would you know about all this? You some kind of Master?"

"Third-class as a matter of fact. I was the unfortunate one who mired about with separating Julien and Jones, and look how well that turned out. Silly of me to try and mess with first-rate Fate players. Cost me a shot at second-class Master status."

Tim was taken back a bit. A Master? First time he'd ever met one. It was rare for anyone to get a handle on time manipulation, and even more rare for them to casually be taking a train.

Granted, they had nothing on those who had Fate running their lives. If you were fortunate enough to have Fate, it didn't matter what others tried to do. Eventually things ran their course, sometimes in the most extreme ways. There were legends about Masters being asked to change a Fate line and try their hardest the universe would rearrange itself back in alignment with the original, give or take a few thousand lives. It was why the Masters Guild was even formed in the first place, to ensure they could notice, catalogue, and reconcile the Fate lines and to make sure Masters didn't do anything stupid.

Third-rates like Tim though were just chaff. Lucky to even exist in their little corner of the universe. Lucky for their timeline to even exist. Still, he was going to work for Titan Securities. That had to stand for something.

Tim didn't get a chance to really think much more on it. A thin purple veil suddenly ran through the train. As it passed through him he suddenly felt his consciousness collide with whoever else in some other part of the universe used that seat on their trip. It was brief and Titan had figured out how to separate the different pieces back out the other end as they entered Titan itself in the singularity, but for a brief moment it was uncomfortable to be sharing the same mind space as someone else.

As they entered the Titan complex proper, the windows opened up again. Margaret apparently was slightly worse for wear from her encounter with Mary. It wasn't every day you ran into your own time clone. No, that's not quite right. Really Mary was another version of Margaret, but in a separate timeline.

They hated each other.

Due to several infinite crisis events many people had met their double from other universes. Some got along quite well. Others were too similar with just enough difference that they drove each other mad. Margaret and Mary fell into the latter group.

"Well, that was fun." Thaddeus commented.

Thaddeus phased to where his old seat was and picked up his briefcase. "Pleasure talking to you fine folk. Perhaps we'll run into each other some other time."

The train slid into the station. Tim gathered up his papers and stood to leave along with all the others that bustled in the train.

"Welcome to Titan Securities. Please remember that all trans-universe devices are disabled while in Titan. We hope that you enjoyed your transit. You are entering Titan on 1567-point-143. It is 5 o'clock in the evening. Your universal watches have been automatically synchronized."

Tim joined the crowd on the train platform and trudged into the giant building.