A Wii Game of Note

When Steven Spielberg hooked up with EA Games to produce a game for the Wii, one could imagine that it would turn out to be all hype. But Boom Blox lives up to all of the promise that the Wii could be. It is one of the best video games to come along for some time.

Basically, it is a series of puzzles that requires you to throw balls at various constructions or to carefully pull those constructions apart. Some are easy while others are quite tricky to solve. But you can come back to the game and progress in as short or as long steps as you like. Actually, during one long session my throwing arm hurt considerably afterwards. I call that 'exercise.'

You can play with the kids in a cooperative mode too but really, why let them have a go when they can just watch and shout at your poor choices?

Week 3: Pageant of the Transmundane

Why in god's name am I standing in Kentucky? WHY! What did I do to deserve this fate...

...we're live aren't we? Why didn't anyone tell me.... err... before I started rehearsing a scene from a one act play... yeah, that's the ticket.

Ahem. Well, before this thing gets too derailed, let's get on with the ceremony with the return of the king, baby!

Yes, that's right. Mr. Fabulous has once again ascended to his rightful place in the annals of Transmundanity. And if you are familiar with Fab's milieu, you know that whatever the fuck he is doing is going to be some weird shit, and this week's winning entry is no exception.

It is all about shaving with a set of unusual lubricants (I assume that the regular lubes were used up by Fab before the photoshoot).

However, it was the use of bread that put it over the top. It is usually some form of edible product that ends up winning Fab something.

Just when he thinks he is out, I keep pulling him back in.

And because this week's winning entry has to deal with shaving, well, naturally I had to have some Homer Simpson goodness with some shaving... or at least with some cream. Here's what I came up with... I think it fits, don't you?



Homer Simpson doesn't give pity fucks, and neither does this award ceremony. So take it in the spirit is given Fab... it is like Brannigan's love and law: hard and fast, so congrats to Fab for breaking out of the slump.



The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogosphere to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Tags: homer simpson, pointless drivel, shaving, pageant of the transmundane, russia, parody, mr. fabulous, kentucky, that's the ticket, zapp brannigan

Introducing the Google Health Data API

By Christian Sonntag, Google Health Team

With the recent launch of Google Health, we also launched the Google Health Data API, which we hope will further contribute to the goal of making personal health management easier for people. The API can be used to create new medical records, request a list of medical records, and query for medical records that match particular criteria.

Learn the details from this announcement post on the Google Data APIs blog, and join the conversation in our discussion group. We look forward to seeing the apps you create with this new API!

Another data option

Hot off the heals of Trixie Tracker, I was told of another similar web offering, Baby Insights from Babblesoft. It offers a pretty similar set of data collection tools but the presentation of the data is somewhat different. As I noted last time, we are beyond actually using these sites so I can't really rate them -- but please feel free to do so in the comments.

On a quick glance, the Trixie Tracker graphical information is more technical -- something I like -- but that might not be for everyone. But the Baby Insights diaper option has an incredible array of classifications for the 'insults' you might find when you go to change your baby (you know, colour, clarity and consistency -- the same things you learn about diamonds when shopping for engagement rings).

Express Checkout: Hits, Twix. and Twits

• You know what I would love to play in video game form? Rollerball. Not the version in that crappy Chris Klein/Jean Reno/LL Cool J remake, but the kickass, ahead of its time, balls to the wall vision of James Caan smashing some skulls while taking on some mighty corporate giants. Alas, I don't think Norman Jewison would be too into that idea, as he was horrified that people enjoyed watching the spectacle of the in-movie sport and had even pitched making a real-life (though far safer) version of it with leagues and such.
• 
  
• There is a new Twix commercial playing, and as far as I remember, it is the first time I've seen an ad on television that actually used the words blog and blogging. Of course, someone can likely find an ad that pre-dates this, and I would love to hear about it or see it, because to me, watching a new phenomenon or product emerge into popular culture is utterly fascinating.


• The Enemy of your Enemy is not necessarily your friend. Case in point: Evangelical tool Kirk Cameron is going after Scientology. Ooh... I don't know who to root for in that one. I think it is Cameron by a nose because I've hated the cult longer.

Tags: twix, kirk cameron, scientology, rollerball, james caan, chris klein, jean reno, blogging

Google Visualization API Expanding Beyond Google Spreadsheets

By Nir Bar-Lev, Product Manager

We are excited to announce that we are opening up the Google Visualization API beyond Google Spreadsheets and adding more capabilities for developers. Earlier at the Google I/O developer conference, we launched several new features of the Google Visualization API:

• A JavaScript interface to create add-hoc data tables on the client. This way, visualizations are not limited to server-side data sources living on the Google cloud. Data from any source can now be visualized using the visualizations created by Google and the community.

• The new interface allows developers to create non Gadget-ized visualizations. With this new option, developers can embed visualizations directly into a web page and have those interact with the page. Of-course, Gadgets have significant advantages related to syndication. They are also the option of choice when looking to include visualizations in popular “containers”, such as Google Spreadsheets, iGoogle, etc. The Google Visualization API will continue to support both flavors of its API going forward. Visualizations can easily be created and then be wrapped by a thin Gadget wrapper. This allows for maximal exposure and use of the visualization in as many use cases as possible.

• The AJAX API introduces another cool new capability: we are introducing a common event model to allow for visualizations to communicate with their host web-page and with other visualizations. With this event model web page authors and developers can create complex dashboards from several visualizations, all associated and context-aware.

As part of the event model, we are introducing a generic select event. Developers can introduce their own events for their visualizations. We plan on adding more generic events that the community chooses and aligns around – ultimately creating a robust event model for visualizations and dashboards.

You can read more about these cool new additions on the Visualization API website. Browse the new visualization gallery to see the visualizations we have already posted over the new JavaScript interface and and take look at code examples to get started with your own.

We would love to hear more from you on these new additions. Tell us what you think and engage with the rest of the community on the API’s community group page.

Data-driven parenting

As an economist, I like to base as many decisions as possible on hard data. Obviously, most of the time, such data isn't available. But when it is, instinctively I want to latch right onto it.

For instance, take this short snippet from the 'book only' material in Chapter 2 of Parentonomics describing the contraction-measuring machine during labour:

... [t]hat machine – which I lovingly called the ‘contraction-meter’ – kept me amused and interested through the many hours of labour. I would sit next to it and watch the printed readout. Most of the time nothing much happened. Then suddenly a seismic event would register. I would remark, ‘Ooh, that was a big one. Did you feel that?’ A whimpered reply would follow. I may have not been feeling her pain, but I was at least on top of the statistics.

Every economist I know has similarly fond memories of that machine including women who would ask for a read-out after each contraction.

But following that there has been a dearth of data to assist in parenting. The children's mother is an engineer and a data-lover herself. Indeed, I think her job description is "doings things with Excel." She tried to rectify our lack of data by keeping records on height and weight in Excel. This allowed for some inter-sibling comparisons but little else.

So imagine my delight this morning when I received an email from Ben MacNeill. Ben was a stay-at-home dad who recognised that lack of data in parents' lives. So he build a web service, Trixie Tracker, that allows parents to record and revisit information on sleep, nappy changes, feeding (both breast-milk and solids), medicines and pumping. You can then go back and see how things have been going. Just check out the information in sleep tracking. And there are even stories of how this has helped parents:

Nico is my 4th son but the first one whose sleep was so out of whack. He slept 8hrs/night straight for the first 5 months but hardly napped and when he started napping, his night times went awful.

I started tracking him at 7 months using TT so I could see any patterns developing, see how much actual sleep he was getting, and have records to back up what I suspected. By 20 months, even my pedi had to agree that he was not getting an average amount of sleep and that it was time to start delving deeper into things and we were referred to a developmental pedi. After talking to him and a behaviorist pedi, we were finally referred to a sleep specialist neurologist. I was able to show him our records for months so he could see the patterns (or in our case, the lack of them) and how long it would take to put him down at night.

He was able to see what our problems were and see that we really had done everything behaviorally that we could do and recommended putting our son on melatonin. With that, his average sleep has gone from 9hrs/day to almost 10½hrs/day but none of that would have been nearly as easy to get done if I hadn’t had all the records right at my fingertips to show the doctors at every step of the way. My son is much happier now that he gets more sleep and we are as well.

I can't tell you how much we would have loved this service had it been available when our kids were younger. The diaper activity information would have been really helpful for us when Child No.1 (between 3 and 4 months) would only go once every 5 days. Early in the cycle we could leave the house without nappies! The solids and sleep data could have been correlated for us to identify the fact that our son's digestive system was keeping him awake at 5 months and that we had been too loose with introducing new foods. Finally, for years our house was dedicated to the production and storage of breast-milk. To say that this inventory tracking system could not have been put to good use is an under-statement.

Now you might say, who has the time to keep this information? Well, it looks pretty easy. You can even do it from an iPhone so you don't have to be near a computer. To my mind, not keeping adequate records when you have a tool like this is criminal neglect! (Of course, you'll need to pony up a $4 per month fee for Trixie Tracker but that is money well spent). You can even benchmark your child's data against the averaged and anonymous data gathered from others using the service. What more could anyone want? It almost makes me want to have another child just to do it right this time.

Sadly, our opportunities for data-analysis bliss and super-crunching our parenting appear to have passed. The site doesn't deal with issues beyond the toddler stage. But imagine a school age upgrade that allowed you to track academic and other milestones ...

Jimeoin - A funny, funny one named comic

I've seen Jimeoin (pronounced like Jim Owen) quite a few times on the Just for Laughs specials they show up here in Canada, and he just seems like good folks.

Enjoy him.

Tags: jimeoin, jim owen, just for laughs, comedy, comic, stand up, australian, british, moths, carrot cake

Parentonomics Pre-Order Discount

The Australian cover design for Parentonomics is out. If you are in Australia or New Zealand, you can pre-order the book for a 20 percent discount (just click here).

For the rest of the world, I hope to have news for you very, very soon.






Also, here is what some other economists have to say about the book:

"Dr. Spock meets Freakonomics. Parenting will never be the same. Forget about inflation and unemployment. Here Gans uses economics and game theory to tackle really important topics, such as toilet training and fussy eaters. Parentonomics lays bare what most sleep-deprived parents only dream about. Gans may not help you become a better parent, but it will help you stay one step ahead of your kids." [Professor Barry Nalebuff, Yale University, author of Thinking Strategically]"

"A delightful read that shows how being a parent changed one economist, and how being an economist provided insight on being a parent. Now if only I could get my two-year old to eat her peas." [Professor Susan Athey, Harvard University, winner for 2007 John Bates Clark Medal]

The circle is now complete

From Alice Bradley, a story of how she lost her son to the dark side with, you guessed it, the sinister help of his father.

In the living room, my husband and son are killing each other. "Zat!" cries Henry. "Zat zat zat! I got you with my lightsaber!" "But I am your faaather..." Scott gasps, clutching his stomach. It's too late. Henry, 5, has gone over to the dark side. There's a lot of killing going on in our house. Most of the carnage occurs on Saturday mornings, although occasionally there's time for a duel or two before school.

To say that the story of a child becoming deeply obsessed with Star Wars because of indoctrination from a parent rang true for our household is an understatement. Remove the frustrated mother, replace her with someone complicit and change son to daughter and you have our experience. Why just last weekend an army of children all ages were running around our house with lightsabres saying "prepare to die" and me revealing to three of them that "I am your father. You know it to be true." And yes, we had more than enough lightsabres to go around (adults included)!

I suspect the story is a very familiar one. Parents love Star Wars as children and can't wait to introduce their own to the whole thing. For us, we lucked out that the prequels rocked around so that our eldest could see the last two in the movies (and yes, she was like 4 for Attack of the Clones but she has terrific tolerance for violence and bad dialogue). That mean freely available Star Wars toys in the shops. There were light sabres (even plush ones for babies), action figures, ships, talking Yodas and interactive R2D2's, little Russian doll style toys, clothes and dress-ups galore (including one awesome Darth Vader mask -- and let me tell you, you ain't seen nothing until a 5 year old wearing one of those comes around a corner. Scary and funny at the same time), Mr Potato Head (you know Darth Tater), children's books (including a Pop-up one), video games, and, of course, the wonder that is Star Wars Lego. With parents for whom this was virtual religion, we could say goodbye to spare cash.

Now the way to story is supposed to go is one of grave disappointment. You know, the kids never really care and the parents are forlorn. But no. Just as in the Bradley household, our children took up the cause. For our eldest daughter, it took her away from the year that was the Wizard of Oz (let me tell you, you don't want to open that can or worms with a 3 year old) and into a full blown Star Wars obsession. Dueling was a continual activity and my daughter could recite Weird Al's "The Saga Begins" by heart. There was constant movie watching as she realised that like some Jedi-mind trick, we could never deny her Star Wars like we could normal television. Much to my surprise, the obsession actually became too much. But here is the dismay part -- almost completely focussed on the new movies. How much Jar Jar could we take? (And by the way, those were the cheapest toys of the bunch). But it passed and they moved on.

So this experience is a cautionary one. You can indoctrinate your children with your own childhood obsessions. But it can go too far. And it is, I guess, somewhat fleeting. A few years later you are left with a house full of Star Wars stuff, used and non-collectible and a child singing Hanna Montana songs. It really isn't the best of both worlds.

Harrison Ford saying No to playing Han Solo Again

Harrison Ford has vowed never to play the second of his two most iconic characters again on film despite the financial success of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Yes, fanboys everywhere are either cheering or weeping about the news that Han Solo will never be played by Harrison Ford in a future film.

Ford claims that playing the character would be dull and is sort of one dimensional, and thus not deserving of being revisited. Now this may indeed be the truth, but somehow I think there may be other factors at play as well.

For example, I think at least some of these are involved:

a) he knows that going to the well a fourth time for Indiana Jones was a bad idea
b) his reacquaintance with George Lucas creatively on that movie was enlightening
c) he saw the Star Wars prequels and knows that it is really not going to be worth his time from both a financial and creative point of view
d) He'd rather beat the snot out of Ben Affleck and play Jack Ryan again
e) He is afraid Carrie Fisher is going to want seconds *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*
f) He wants more money, so he is playing hard to get
g) That strange night he had with Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and Peter Mayhew that ended up with everyone naked in a hotel room after Return of the Jedi wrapped.
h) People will start asking about what happened to that nice Ewok he took home for a nice meal.

and finally i) Nick Nolte has gone on the record saying he wants to finally play the part and has given Ford ample incentive to turn the role down (it involves all the deposit on every bottle and can of beer Nolte has ever drank, a sum which would be well worth the sacrifice.)

Russian Communists don't really get fiction

Despite your feelings about the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones saga,(and I know there are a lot of blogger reviews of the movie up at present), at least most of us understand that those films are in fact fiction.

However, it seems that the Communist Party in Russia doesn't really get that. The political party is apparently trying to get Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull banned in Russia because the film represents an attempt at "ideological sabotage".

"[Russian Youth] will go to the cinema and will be sure that in 1957 we made trouble for the United States and almost started a nuclear war. It’s rubbish."

"In 1957 the Communist party did not run with crystal skulls throughout the U.S. Why should we agree to that sort of lie and let the West trick our youth?" Again, fiction is not "tricking". It is storytelling. It is not that hard a concept.

And correct me if I am wrong, but I don't remember reading about complaints from the West German government or the American Nazi Party over the way the Nazis/Germans were portrayed in Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade. And let's fact it, the Soviet Union wasn't exactly a friend to the United States or the West in 1957, so really, I don't think the Communist Party is in a position to make the argument that the Soviets were the peace loving people they claim they are (especially after Hungary 1956).

I am sure there are a lot of other movies in which certain characters of Russian descent or Communists look far worse than in this puffed up and lighthearted adventure film set 5 decades in the past. So my advice to the Communist Party is get over yourselves. It wasn't 70 years of bliss and you know it. Just admit it, sit down and enjoy a little bit of fiction, because you are all obviously already living in a dream world.

Tags: russia, soviet union, raiders of the lost ark, indiana jones, last crusade, kingdom of the crystal skulls, united states, hungarian uprising, 1956, 1957, nazis, germany, nuclear war

Sunday Night Video: It's Getting Boring By The Sea

I discovered this little gem last week. Performed by Brighton band Blood Red Shoes, It's Getting Boring By The Sea is a great sonic blast, and if you are watching this in the morning, well, I think it will help wake you up.

It sort of reminds me of Elastica, Brassy or Republica.

Tags: blood red shoes, it's getting boring, by the sea, brighton, noise rock, pop, elastica, republica, brassy

Another use for eBay

OK, so don't tell me that you have never been tempted to do what these German parents did; put their baby up for sale on eBay. The ad read:

"Offering my nearly new baby for sale, as it has gotten too loud. It is a male baby, nearly 28 inches (70 cm) long and can be used either in a baby carrier or a stroller".

The only mystery is why they restricted themselves to a positive reservation price. In my mind, the optimal arrangement would be renting. Just a little peace.

The ad was pulled and the police are now baby-sitting the 7th month old. As it is clearly a joke, I guess the parents really got the rental option. If the police had taken the child in temporary custody for show, they might find a queue of willing participants.

Week 2: Pageant of the Transmundane

Hello from the sunny vales of Hawaii. Seeing as I don't really like the sun, well, this is all some sort of joke on me, as I am virtually reflective on the beach.

That being said, with so many excellent contenders this week, I was able to spend a lot of time in front of the computer figuring out which contender was best.

This week's winner comes from Puppies, Kittens & Cirrhosis, a blog full of oddities, which as you know, I love to see.

There were quite a few strange and wondrous entries for me to peruse, but in the end, it was a large Pez dispenser that resembled something a little more provocative that took the day. I thought it was quite funny, and well in keeping with the spirit of this award.

And because of the nature of the character depicted on that same Pez dispenser, I thought that this would be the best representation of the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award this week.



Come to think of it, I sort of want one of those now. Not the Pez dispenser, the Homer Simpson doll.

Congrats CTK on this momentous first win. Huzzah!



And don't worry Fab. I believe in you, and your ability to win this award again. After all, you practically built it.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogosphere to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Tags: puppies, kittens, cirrhosis, homer simpson, bert, sesame street, pageant of the transmundane, hawaii, reflective skin, transmundanity, ctk, lazy eye

Combat activities

A couple of weeks ago I discussed by 9 year old's Taekwondo experiences. I noted that she (and it turns out I to some extent) enjoyed watching some actual fighting going on. But I also mentioned that my 7 year old son was also taking these classes. However, is motivation is somewhat different.

My son is not taking Taekwondo because he enjoys sport. He doesn't, unless of course it is on a computer or video game console. He is taking it because his mother thinks that he is small and that a boy's playground experience at school is full of fighting and that unless he can defend himself he will be clobbered. Now she formed this opinion not on observing boys' playground behaviour now or when she was at school. Instead, it appears to have come from popular culture -- probably, The Simpsons. When I, as a person who had experienced playground boy behaviour, queried this motivation, I was ignored. Apparently, I didn't know what I was talking about.

Now why did I query all of this. Well, I figured that arming our son would not be enough. He would have to want to actually use his skills. What is more, getting picked on can occur but it seemed to me unlikely that actually stepping up was going to deter would be bullies. Better to rely on strategic avoidance such as staying within eyesight of a supervising adult. I myself survived to adulthood and beyond based on this strategy.

The upshot of this is that he was enrolled in classes at age 5 and after a year of this, finally, was allowed to give it up. It just wasn't him. My son would be classed as the sort of person who "wouldn't hurt a fly." Actually, looking at him do his classes, I came to the opinion that he in fact, "couldn't hurt a fly" even if he would want to. That would require speed and force; two factors that were not apparent in his martial arts arsenal. While other kids enthusiastically kicked and punched bags. He would step up and just go through the motions. This eventually convinced his mother that it wasn't to be.

After my last post on this subject a concerned and knowledgeable person emailed me to make sure that I emphasised that the idea that you teach kids Taekwondo so they can actually defend themselves is not correct. Instead, there is a danger of too much confidence and more trouble. All that sounds plausible to me.

Nonetheless, my son had given up for a year and what do you know, some other kid took a swing at him in the playground. And what happened? He used his Taekwondo defensive moves to block the attack! Then he assumed some aggressive looking stance and the other boy ran off.

Well, you can guess what happened next. His mother seized upon this and asked him if he wanted to return to his classes. He said yes and he has been back ever since.

That said, I still think flies have little to fear. In his grading, he is a consistent C student and his in-class enthusiasm is as lacklustre as ever. But that is except for one area: defense. There he scores an A and is the top of his class.

[PS: Any would be Taekwondo and martial arts experts who want to chime in on the comments about the merits of all this, please feel free. I am just relating the story not advocating such classes.]

If you let me play...

A friend of mine gave me an MP3 of this song a few years ago, and I've loved it every since I heard it, and when I saw that someone put the record on Youtube, well, I had to share it with all of you. The track is called If you Let Me Play by Hartman's Heartbreakers from 1936.

Just remember this song the next time you hear someone talk about the filth of pop music today.

Tags: hartman's heartbreakers, if you let me play, 1936, pop music, innuendo, old timey music, roots of country, north carolina

A Collision Course with Horror

I feel sort of like I am standing in the middle of a field, watching a derailing train slide across of the ground, while at the same time, realizing that a plane is about to crash down on the spot where I am standing.

Why?

Fran Drescher and Rosie O'Donnell want to do a sitcom together.

Shudder.

I am not prepared for that level of horror. If this goes through, I foresee a lot of hospital admissions for eye abrasions and ear damage as the entire viewing audience tries to scratch their own eyes out and rip their ears off.

The fact that conceivably a television executive could envision this and still give the series, tentatively titled The New Thirty, a green light chills me to the bone.

Personally, I would have called it When the Titanic met the Iceberg, because that at least gives you an idea of the pending disaster about to unfold.

Tags: fran drescher, rosie o'donnell, the new thirty, sitcom, plane crash, train derailment, television executive

How the bar chart was reinvented to renewed notoriety

By Nir Bar-Lev, Product Manager

When we launched the Visualization API we wondered, which new visualization types will the developers out there come up with? Which one will be successful? Will we quickly see the long tail of visualizations being developed?

Visualizations, as with many other things, follow a rule we know very well at Google: Their distribution is such that there are a few visualizations at the 'head', which get the majority of usages, and then there is a long tail of special visualizations, that by virtue of their subject matter or type, get little overall use.

Take for example the ubiquitous line chart vs the radar chart:




Line charts are extremely useful in visualizing continuous changes over time or other factors, and as such are used for data sets ranging from displaying financial results, to the growth of germs on petry-dishes to following presidential candidates' accumulation of votes. You'll find line charts in almost every type of presentation, even in cartoons:



On the other hand, radar charts are relatively rare and most people have never encountered one, unless they happened to have taken an advanced university course in Marketing, for example.

Obviously there are highly specialized visualizations that are extremely common. For example, the 2-hands clock view, is one of the most wide-spread used visualization to display time. Yet, many visualizations have been developed for specific use in specialized fields of study, or work.

As such, you can imagine we had a fun time betting on which visualization will come out and which will catch on. Some of the bets in the team were made on us first seeing specialized visualizations. Perhaps a network diagram. Others, had bet on seeing new, high end, pivoting and data drill-down, slice-and-dice wizardry. Who won? Apparently we all lost our bets.

It seems the common straightforward visualizations can be reinvented with a just few simple changes to make them immensely powerful - and fun - as visual tools. Enter, the Bar (or Column) Chart and the Piles of Money visualization:





By altering the standard visual design of the bars (or columns) as wide lines, or rectangles and simply converting them to an image of a growing pile of money, the Piles of Money chart has rocketed to the top five most popular visualizations used over the Visualization API. This simple change can provide the same insight as any bar chart, yet when used on data sets related to cost, revenue or any other financial measurement, it becomes a fun, engaging chart, not derogating in any way from its original purpose and actually adding additional emphasis that the subject matter is money.

The Bars of Stuff chart was added just after Piles of Money, and provides the same treatment to the horizontal bar chart as Piles of Money did to the vertical bar chart. Users can choose on of several cool visual designs, like chocolate, cute worms, etc to be used instead of the bars.

I can't wait to see someone take the idea behind Piles of Money and advance it to the next step: create a visualization in which the user can visualize bars of anything they want by choosing the image to be integrated into the visualization: Piles of Boxes, Piles of Shoes, Bars of Soap.

To see all of the Visualization API's current list of visualizations by Google and the community, check out our gallery.

Using Git with Google Code Project Hosting

By Benjamin Lynn, Google Developer Programs

Git is a popular member of the latest generation of version control systems. Learn why at our Open Source Blog, where we show how to use Git with Google Code Project Hosting.

MGM is Remaking two movies starting with R

MGM confirmed over the weekend that they are indeed making a remake of Robocop, and when you think about how recent remakes of formerly subversive and satirical films have turned out, well, you can see why almost an entire generation of geek boys and girls are silently dying inside. For shame, MGM, for shame.

And along with destroying a classic, MGM also said they are committed to redoing Red Dawn for modern times, which is a wonderful idea. I mean, how could remaking a somewhat crappy movie (sorry, Mr. Sobchak... err Milius, but it is the truth) from the 1980's about a simultaneous invasion of the United States by Soviet and communist forces from Latin America during the Reagan phase of the Cold War and modernizing it be a bad idea. I guess the Red will come in from either the increased bloodshed a la Rambo or, I don't know, the potential losses from its filming, instead of that whole Communist angle. The fact that both now and then a superpower is fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq is in the middle of a war with *ahem* purported Iranian ties should be taken as being completely coincidental. The lack of originality in Hollywood exceeds any capacity their executives have to come up with such a complex and subtle international relations connection. Scratch that. Subtlety and Hollywood don't go together period.

That being said, if this movie is, as theorized by some of my peers in the blogging village, about terrorists invading America, well, I saw that movie in the 1980's as well. It was called Invasion USA. I guess the producers are afraid of those Chuck Norris stories coming true on them.

Honestly, I cannot see a way a Red Dawn remake could ever be good. Even if the producers somehow manage to computer-generate faux Patrick Swayze snot bubbles on another young cast member(somehow I have the felling that Zac Efron is going to be cast).

So the onus is on the producers and cast to prove me wrong.

Tags: red dawn, mgm, robocop, invasion usa, chuck norris, patrick swayze, snot bubble, iran, iraq, afghanistan, terrorism, john milius, walter sobchak, zac efron, remakes suck

Sunday Night Video: Larry Miller's 5 stages of Drinking

This is a classic, classic closer from Larry Miller's long and illustrious career. It is an underrated gem of 1989.

As someone who now has the perspective on the scope of the joke, it is even funnier.

Tags: larry miller, 5 stages of drinking, comedy, 1989

It is so unfair

[HT: Greg Mankiw] From P.J. O'Rourke a quote:

I have a 10 year old at home, and she is always saying, “That’s not fair.” When she says that, I say, “Honey, you’re cute; that’s not fair. Your family is pretty well off; that’s not fair. You were born in America; that’s not fair. Honey, you had better pray to God that things don’t start getting fair for you.”

Like Greg, I have had pretty similar conversations although except for the America bit. That said, it is so unfair that we can't buy an official iPhone here in Australia.

How Google Friend Connect Works

By Peter Chane, Sami Shalabi, Mussie Shore

We figured you might be tracking the conversations about Google Friend Connect and Facebook. We want to help you understand a bit more about how it works on the Friend Connect side with respect to users' information.

People find the relationships they've built on social networks really valuable, and they want the option of bringing those friends with them elsewhere on the web. Google Friend Connect is designed to keep users fully in control of their information at all times. Users choose what social networks to link to their Friend Connect account. (They can just as easily unlink them.) We never handle passwords from other sites, we never store social graph data from other sites, and we never pass users' social network IDs to Friend Connected sites or applications.

The only user information that we pass from a social networking site to third-party applications is the user's public photo, and even that is under user control.

That's the high-level view. But what about the details? Here is more information on exactly how Friend Connect interacts with third-party social networks and applications.

1. Google Friend Connect puts users in control over whether they're connected to their data on Facebook.
2. Google Friend Connect only reads a small amount of user data from Facebook, and does so using Facebook's public APIs. We read the Facebook numeric id, friendly name, and public photo URLs of the user and their friends. We read no other information.
3. The only user information that we pass from Facebook to third-party applications is the URL of the user's public photo.
4. Google Friend Connect does not permanently store any user data retrieved from Facebook.

1) Google Friend Connect puts users in control over whether they're connected to their data on Facebook.

We behave like any other caller of the Facebook API. (See the Facebook developer api documentation for details.) When a user links their Facebook account with Google Friend Connect they must consent to this on Facebook itself. Here is the set of screens a user goes through:

First, the user must click "Link in Facebook friends":



Next a user sees this screen. This screen is from Facebook (notice the URL of the page shows facebook.com):



The user is then asked for their Facebook username and password on Facebook. (Note that Google Friend Connect does not have access to the user's Facebook username and password.) If the user logs in successfully, Facebook returns a session key to Google Friend Connect, and the user sees this screen:



This screen also comes from Facebook. On this screen the user is asked to consent to allowing Google Friend Connect to access some of their personal information. The user can choose to allow this access or not.

The user can easily unlink their Facebook account from Friend Connect. This can be accomplished in two ways:

From the Friend Connect settings dialog:



And from within Facebook's own Applications Privacy screen:



2) Google Friend Connect only reads a small amount of user data from Facebook, and does so using Facebook's public APIs. We read the Facebook numeric id, friendly name, and public photo URLs of the user and their friends. We read no other information.

If a user decides to link their Facebook account to Google Friend Connect, we ask Facebook for a small amount of user information. Here's an example of what might be returned:

Example data retrieved from Facebook (NOT passed to third-party apps):

  500013789
  31415926535
  Peter Chane
  http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/1038/101/s500013789_4207.jpg
  694454023
  Mussie Shore
  http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile6/1933/85/s694454023_4271.jpg
  709611
  Sami Shalabi
  http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/657/87/n709611_9673.jpg

This data is made up of the following fields:

• A Facebook user ID (e.g. 500013789) that is used when Google Friend Connect communicates with Facebook. The unique ID is a number assigned by Facebook -- it is NOT the user's username or their phone number. The unique ID contains no personal information.
• A session-key (e.g. 31415926535) which is a unique number provided by Facebook, that Facebook uses to track and control what data is exposed to Google Friend Connect for the logged-in user.
• The user's friendly name as they entered it in Facebook (e.g. "Peter Chane"). This is typically a first and last name.
• A URL to the user's public Facebook picture (e.g. http://profile.ak.facebook.com/profile5/1038/101/s500013789_4207.jpg). If the user set their picture to be private on Facebook then Google Friend Connect does not receive the picture. Again the picture used by Google Friend Connect is public and is easily viewed by anyone on the web.
• A list of Facebook user IDs for each of the user's friends on Facebook. For each friend, Google Friend Connect retrieves the friend's Facebook picture-URL and name.

3) The only user information that we pass from Facebook to third-party applications is the URL of the user's public photo.

Applications that run on Friend Connect sites (e.g. the iLike application that runs on www.ingridmichaelson.com) have access to a subset of the information that is requested by Friend Connect from social networks such as Facebook. Applications are passed the following data from Friend Connect:

• Your Google Friend Connect ID. This is a number. It is not a name, and it is not your ID from Facebook or any other social network.
• Your nickname that you entered in Friend Connect. (NOT your friendly name from Facebook or any other social network.)
• The URL to your public photo from Facebook or another social network. And only if you've chosen to make that photo public on the social network. (Note that Facebook includes the user's Facebook ID in the URL of their profile photo. We intend to obfuscate this URL in a future release of Friend Connect.)
• The Google Friend Connect IDs (and Friend Connect nicknames, and photo URLs from linked social networks) of any of your friends who are also members of this site. (Not all of your social network friends. Not their social network IDs.)

That's it. These apps have no access to additional profile data -- yours or your friends. The apps have no idea who else is on your friends list on your social network(s).

4) Google Friend Connect does not permanently store any user data retrieved from Facebook.

Google Friend Connect purges all of the data it receives from Facebook frequently. The Facebook terms state that application developers should do this every 24 hours; we do it more often (currently every 30 minutes) because we don't want to store this data any longer than we absolutely need it.

Thanks for your interest in Friend Connect!

Regards,

Peter, Sami, Mussie

Year 3, Week 1: Pageant of the Transmundane

Hello from the Streets of San Francisco. I am being chased by a young Michael Douglas and an old dude with a huge snozz, so I am guessing this is 1973.

This week's winning entry comes from the sugary sweet environs of Layercake.net.

Heidi threw down a little slice of Onion goodness she entitled When Dinosaurs Ruled the video store aisles, which discusses a certain chain of video stores as a retail relic.

And since this week's winning entry is video-related, well, Homer's appearance and subsequent edited interview on Rock Bottom seemed appropriate. The fact that it is also related to a certain video that has been floating around the internet of a particular blowhard who I have a professed dislike for, doesn't hurt, especially since Rock Bottom is sort of a riff on shows like A Current Affair and Inside Edition.



Welcome to the club, Heidi.



The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogosphere to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Tags: layercake, homer simpson, pageant of the transmundane, rock bottom, inside edition, bill o'reilly, blockbuster, onion news network, streets of san francisco

Code Review: Friend Connect, App Engines kick in, Flash-y maps, and documenting the Open Web

By Dion Almaer, Google Developer Programs

With Google I/O around the corner on May 28-29th in San Francisco, you can feel excitement bubbling within the Google Developer Programs team and beyond.

We had another Campfire One this week, and this time the team introduced Friend Connect, a way to easily add social features to your website using open protocols such as OpenID, OAuth, and OpenSocial APIs. Below is a short walk through:



The previous Campfire One was held to announce Google App Engine, and the engines continue to roar. If you are a Mac user, you may be interested to view the native App Engine Launcher, which allows you to manage your work form a UI that you know and love.

You will want to be able to write a scalable application, and Ken Ashcraft has written up some tips to do just that.

Finally, Guido van Rossum wrote a version of Mondrian, the code review system that he wrote for Googlers, that works with Subversion.

The Geo teams also had some interesting releases. First we had the long awaited official Flash API, and then we saw the new ability to find photos and Wikipedia content right in the Maps UI.

If you really liked the My Map editing tools that were made available on the Google Maps destination site, you will be happy to know that a quick polyline.enableDrawing(); will turn it on for your own mashup, hanks to new API support.

Google Doctype is a bold new undertaking spearheaded by the prolific Mark Pilgrim. Doctype aims to build a test-driven reference to the Open Web. Mark "humbly offers this fledgling encyclopedia under a Creative Commons Attribution license, and we invite the web developers of the world to contribute to it."

When you think of developers around the world, you think of translation. The AJAX Language API can now piggy back on Google Translate adding 10 new languages.

I have been having a great deal of fun with the translation API; translating Twitter on the fly, and more importantly having bookmarklet that can translate any selected text on a page.

I will finish up with some interesting thoughts on ipv6 and the new Google Reader version for iPhone.

As always, listen in to the Google Developers channel, and I hope to see a bunch of you at Google I/O. If you can't make it, be sure to follow us on Twitter as we discuss the event in real-time.

Something doesn't add up

In Slate, Emily Bazelon describes her attempts to keep her 5 year old son calm while teaching him self-reliance. Each Friday, after school, for logistical reasons, her son was not picked up but played a little soccer. He expected and was given a snack (Veggie Sticks) but repeatedly couldn't retrieve them from his own bag and became uncontrollably upset.

Now we have all seen over-reactions in young kids. Out of frustration they panic. But it is usually a once-off. For Bazelon it was repeated and, indeed, she had not resolved it by the time she came to write the article.

I was left with the impression that we only had half the story. First of all, it may be that other children were getting 'better' snacks. Would it really be the case that he would have so much trouble finding a snack if it were a treat rather than Veggie Sticks? If it was my kids, put a treat in their bag and it would likely never make it to the end of school.

Second, what were the supervising parents doing? It seems strange that each week they couldn't resolve the situation.

Finally, if my kids are anything to go by, by the end of the week they are quite ratty and tired. The last thing they would want is a lesson in self-reliance.

My thought is: it's Friday, lay off the life lessons and if you have to be late, put a treat or something special in his bag.

The Second Annual SUPER TRANSMUNDANE Awards

It's that time of year again, when the selection panel for the weekly version of the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award looks back at the previous 52 weeks of winning entries and decides which ones are truly deserving of additional accolades and praise.

Of course, since the selection panel for all the Transmundanity Awards consists of me and... well, me really, I guess choosing the best shouldn't result in any backroom deals, coercion or threats of violence, for which I am eternally grateful.

So it comes down to 51 stunning entries (as week 6's contest resulted in no winner), and 7 awards. Who will win this year's brass ring? You'll just have to read further to find out.

Best Original Video: Burbanked Week 45. My definition of original video is a video that a entrant has made on their own. So, despite the fact that the majority of the footage this winning entry contains is gleaned from movie trailers to make a definite statement about the upcoming summer movie season, it is still the work of a blog editor, so I feel comfortable giving Alan this award. (Burbanked won the Best Movie Parody/Mashup video last year)



Best discovered video: fjetsam, week 47 Muppet Rickroll was legendary. It really was. The editing, the concept, and the fact that I got hit by an infuriating trend, and yet I didn't care... the presentation was solid gold. And with over 10 thousand hits after its win, it seems that many others agreed.



Best Movie Parody/Mashup video: Popped Culture, Week 36. The Frogfather, which was a segment from The Muppet Show, was a well-conceived parody of The Godfather, back when entertainment for kids on television could be enjoyed by adults as well. If history is any judge, the Muppets will continue to do well in the Weekly Transmundanity Awards.



Weirdest Product: Fandumb, week 31. It's Milk, it's Cheese made out of resin and getting ready to have a street fight. Indeed, it is everything that I look for in a winning entry, and more. It is weird, funky and slightly disconcerting, which clearly are qualities which I reward.



Best in Text transmundanity: Jay Barnes, week 42 Jay wrote a ribald little anecdote entitled Maybe the Dog just isn't into you, which described a friend's work in animal husbandry. It was an instant classic. And I think I would be a little reticent about shaking the hand of someone who did that for a living now.



Best First Half entry: C3Fun Week 4, which featured Don Hertzfeld Rejected. I think the factor I used for this determination was the fact that I have returned to that entry on more than a few occasions in the 48 weeks since it first won the weekly Transmundanity Award, which indicates to me at least that it has some staying power.



Best Second Half Entry: fjetsam, week 47. Is it any surprise that not only did this winning entry pick up the best discovered video, but the Best Second Half Entry award as well. I love the Muppets, and while I am not wild about getting Rickrolled, well, the presentation really did mitigate that. It is indeed a great piece of work. Huzzah!



Congratulations to this year's big winners. Tune in tomorrow night for the start of this year's set of awards. Who will win the first prize of this year? I guess you'll just have to wait and see.

Tags: homer simpson, pageant of the transmundane, rickroll, fjetsam, muppets, popped culture, godfather, frogfather, milk, cheese, animal husbandry, c3fun, rejected, don hertzfeld, burbanked, movie trailer

The 100 Most Manly Books?

I was tooling around Stumbleupon last night, and I came across a great list from the site The Art of Manliness, and I was so moved by this particular one, I thought it was worth sharing.

Entitled 100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man's Library, the editors/writers for the site, to quote their own words, "have narrowed down the top 100 books that have shaped the lives of individual men while also helping define broader cultural ideas of what it means to be a man.". Is it a perfect list? No, but those involved seemed to realize that there would be some contention about their choices, and it sort of makes me respect their selections a little bit more.

Indeed, I do like a lot of the selections which come from not only fiction, but biography, history, epic poetry, religious texts and collections. And the Teddy Roosevelt and John Steinbeck content is high too, as there are 4 books about the former president on the list and I believe 3 works by the Nobel Prize winning novelist.

There's Homer, Hemingway, Orwell, Machiavelli, Kerouac, Kafka, Vonnegut, Shakespeare... basically all the big guns you would expect from a list of recommended books. There's Tarzan, King Solomon's Mines, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and a lot of other pulpy goodness, along with works like Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Plato's The Republic, and even Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It is a very eclectic list to say the least.

And while I don't agree with every selection (as both Catcher in the Rye and a Separate Peace are on the list), I do think most of the choices are pretty solid. And the fact that James Joyce's Ulysses made the list, well, I certainly can't complain about that. But what makes this interesting for me is the spirited discussion that has developed in the comment section, which for the most part, has been very civil despite the disagreements, not only with some of the choices (and there have been some excellent alternate selections), but there are also some minor religious and political differences being expressed, which is usually the sparks that start off a conflagration in forum/blogland. Personally, I think having so many people talk about books passionately online in one place actually bodes well for reading in general. After all, having a heated exchange about the merits of individual books denotes an intellectual and emotional attachment to such literature, and for those pundits that talk about the death of reading, such devotion to a favorite book or author does go a long way to dispelling the rumors that adult functional literacy is about to rapidly disappear in the next few years.

Tags: ulysses, james joyce, shakespeare, island of dr. moreau, art of manliness, kafka, catcher in the rye, separate peace, adam smith, wealth of nations, kerouac, vonnegut, orwell, homer, hemingway, tarzan, theodore roosevelt, zen, art of motorcycle maintenance

How to Sell Girl Scout Cookies

Yeah... just had to post it. Just HAD to.

Now I want some thin mints bad. F'n bad.

Tags: david mamet, girl scouts, glengarry glen ross, hard sell, video jug, always be closing

Google Maps API for Flash

By Mickey Kataria, Google Maps API team

We just released the Google Maps API for Flash, which gives developers access to Google Maps from Flash/Flex apps using ActionScript. For more details, check out the Google Maps API blog, and as always, let us know what you think.

Introducing Google Doctype

By Mark Pilgrim, Google Code Team

The open web is the web built on open standards: HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and more. The open web is a beautiful soup of barely compatible clients and servers. It comprises billions of pages, millions of users, and thousands of browser-based applications. You can access the open web with open source and proprietary browsers, on open source and proprietary operating systems, on open source and proprietary hardware.

Google has built its business here, on the open web, and we want to help you build here too. To that end, we are happy to announce the formation of an encyclopedia for web developers, by web developers: Google Doctype.

In its current (beta) form, Google Doctype contains dozens of articles written by top Googlers on topics important to all web developers: security, performance, caching, DOM manipulation, CSS styling, and more. It contains over 8,000 lines of JavaScript code: Google's own battle-tested JavaScript library, released today under a liberal open source license. And it contains the beginnings of a test-driven reference of the open web: a reference of every element, every attribute, every DOM method, every CSS property, all backed up by test cases.

Well, not quite every property; at least, not yet. We're still working on filling in a few of the details about the world's largest development platform ever, and we need your help. And so we humbly offer this fledgling encyclopedia under a Creative Commons Attribution license, and we invite the web developers of the world to contribute to it. Sign in with your Google account and edit any page, any article, anywhere. Create new ones, update old ones, and help expand the world's understanding of the open web.

Life on Mars coming to ABC this fall

I wrote about the BBC series Life on Mars last February, which followed a policeman named Sam Tyler (played by John Simm) who was pursuing a serial killer in the present day, got hit by a car and found himself in the early 1970's on the very same police force. He doesn't know if what he is experiencing is real, or merely a coma-induced fantasy, so he has to roll with the punches so to speak and try to survive a different era of police work.

The reason I bring the series up again is the rumored American remake has been picked up by ABC for the fall, and I decided to take a look at what elements are coming together for this David E. Kelley production.

The pilot is being directed by Thomas Schlamme, whose previous work was executive producing Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and doing a lot of directing for The West Wing.

Looking at the cast, one name really popped out to me. Star Trek and Roddy Doyle adaptation veteran Colm Meaney has been cast as Detective Gene Hunt, and if you were going to get someone to step into the irascible shoes of that character, played by Philip Glenister in the original, well, that is a damn good choice. Meaney brings many of the same qualities to the role

Then there is the female lead, Annie Cartwright, who was played by Liz White in the original series, and Rachel Lefevre in this new iteration. I've seen Ms. Lefevre's work, and while the original version of Annie is still fresh in my memory, I am willing to give her a chance to wow me in this role. However, I do have a caveat. In the BBC series, Annie Cartwright was a pioneer on that police force, a woman who had to overcome barriers to be taken seriously, but I noticed that her character is listed as Detective. That to me tells me that perhaps the gender politics of the ABC version may be a little different than the original. Granted, Los Angeles in 1972 may have been more progressive than Manchester in 1973.

And of course, there is the series star, Jason O'Mara, who I have to say, I am entirely ignorant of his work, so I really can't comment about his potential in the role of Sam Tyler. I will say that I really enjoyed John Simm's portrayal of the character in the original, so O'Mara has some big shoes to fill.

I also think it is sort of funny that the three leads on this show are in fact, not American, but rather two Irishman and a Canadian.

I've also seen that comedian and frequent Denis Leary costar Lenny Clarke is also attached to the project, which I think bodes well for the show. In addition, I read that Kelley had at first tried to get both John Simm and Philip Glenister to reprise their roles for his version of the show, but both actors turned him down due to family or other work-related commitments (as Glenister's Gene Hunt is featured on the LoM spinoff Ashes to Ashes)... which to me seems to indicate that Kelley is indeed interested in keeping the spirit of the original intact.

So I look forward to seeing how it all turns out, and with the cancellation of Journeyman this season, well, there seems to be an opening now for another time travel related show. I hope that not only does it capture the quality of the original, but that a 10 PM Thursday night audience gravitates to it as well.

Tags: life on mars, ashes to ashes, david e. kelley, john simm, philip glenister, gene hunt, colm meaney, liz white, annie cartwright, lenny clarke, abc, pilot, denis leary, cop show, time travel, jason o'meara

A Show that is a Convergence of a Lot of Bad Elements

I am just going to quote the first two lines of this story I found on Starpulse... because you have to see it too.

Get your popcorn ready: Terrell Owens is coming to prime time Wednesday night. As an actor.

T.O. will make his sitcom acting debut on the MyNetworkTV show ''Under One Roof'' as the long-lost brother of the show's star, Flavor Flav.

Things that are wrong with all this:

1. Terrell Owens trying to act.
2. Flavor Flav trying to act.
3. The idea of Flavor Flav and Terrell Owens trying to act off of one another.
4. The fact that Flavor Flav got a sitcom.
5. That he not just got a role on a sitcom, but that he is the star of said series.
6. And the fact that despite starting last month, said sitcom is still on the air.
7. My cable system gets 3 different MyNetworkTV stations.
8. Despite the fact that I know that it will be bad... like Cavemen bad... I will now be compelled to watch it.

Pray for me as I face this challenge in the coming days.

Addendum: Watching the show, I was reminded of how sitcoms are portrayed in fictional movies about actors, especially one about a child actor. You know, when a filmmaker has a scene from a fake sitcom, and it is horrible, and you don't see how anyone in America could find that compelling television. Well, Under One Roof is that same kind of show brought to the real small screen. Wow, it was crappy, but in an entirely different way than I had been expecting.

Tags: flavor flav, mynetworktv, terrell owens, under one roof, sitcom, cavemen, disaster