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UNDERSTANDING GOOGLE+
They say a picture is worth a thousand words so this small work I did should be very useful for understanding Google+ very fast. Feel free to share it to help every newbie and give me some feedback on the original post: https://plus.google.com/u/0/106393478695568433143/posts/K2mCT7cSboj
Background source: http://thedeleteduser.deviantart.com by +Gahan Raj
Other useful posts: #gvgpUseful31465.11 rating - Read in G+
Happiness and success?
1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery. Or stay unmarried if you wish.
2. Work at something you enjoy and that's worthy of your time and talent.
3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
6. Be generous.
7. Have a grateful heart.
8. Persistence, persistence, persistence.
9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.
12. Commit yourself to quality.
13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
14. Be loyal.
15. Be honest.
16. Be a self-starter.
17. Be decisive even if it means you'll sometimes be wrong.
18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did.
20. Take good care of those you love.
21. Don't do anything that wouldn't make your Mom proud.21917.49 rating - Read in G+
Smallest rotary motor in biology, the ATP synthase. All the work done in your body is fueled by breaking a chemical bond in ATP, the “currency of energy”. Did you know that you convert your body weight (or an estimated 50 kg) of ATP per day?!
Where does this ATP come from? It is synthesized by an incredibly sophisticated molecular machine, the ATP synthase, embedded in the inner membrane of our mitochondria. Energy from the oxidation of food results in protons being pumped across the membrane to create a proton gradient. The protons drive the rotation of a circular ring of proteins in the membrane that in turn move a central shaft. The shaft interacts sequentially with one of 3 catalytic sites within a hexamer, making ATP (little butterflies in the movie!). The ATP synthase rotates about 150 times/second
To visualize the rotation under a microscope, a very long fluorescent rod (actin filament) was chemically attached to the central shaft. Watch real movies (not animations!) of the enzyme spinning here: http://www.k2.phys.waseda.ac.jp/F1movies/F1long.htm
Notice the rotation is slower with longer rods. The rotor produces a torque of 40 pN nm (40 pico Newtons x nanometer), irrespective of the load. This would be the force you would need to rotate a 500 m long rod while standing at the bottom of a large swimming pool at the rate shown in the movie.
How did this amazing rotor evolve? The hexameric structure is related to DNA helicases that rotate along the DNA double helix, using ATP to unzip the two strands apart. The H+ motor has precedence in flagella motors that use proton gradients to drive rotation of long filaments, allowing bacteria to tumble through their surroundings. At some point, a H+ driven motor came together with a helicase like hexamer to create a rotor driving the hexamer in reverse, to synthesize ATP.
The 1997 Nobel prize in Chemistry was awarded to John Walker and Paul Boyer for solving the structure and cyclical mechanism of the ATP synthase, respectively. This amazing enzyme was also the subject of my own Ph.D. thesis, and my first love!
For #ScienceSunday curated by +Allison Sekuler and +Robby Bowles .18739.85 rating - Read in G+
One of Google's long-time strategic advantages -- and one that impacts everything they do -- has been their proprietary data center design and use of easily replaceable low-end PCs as servers. Though Google has kept they key details secret, you'll find some interesting facts revealed in +Steven Levy's new book In The Plex (which, by the way, I highly recommend: http://amzn.to/eBSr6Y). In short, the "world" (and world of competitors) generally knows that Google is doing something unique and powerful, but no one quite knows what it is.
How is Facebook fighting back on this front? Facebook is leading something called the "open compute" project, which is an "open-source" / Linux-type attitude applied towards hardware and data center design. Facebook and other members of the group share notes on the designs used by some of the biggest online companies in the world, including Tencent, Baidu and Microsoft. Members (including Dell, ASUS and Intel) are completely open with their "wins" and "losses" in terms of energy efficiency & hardware design. As Quentin Hardy notes in his NYT article on Open Compute (http://nyti.ms/uGpKiy), "By creating Open Compute, Facebook most likely hopes to neutralize some of Google’s advantage in data-center design, by putting Google in competition with brains from around the world working on a common standard."
Put simply, with the introduction of Open Compute in April, the battle between Facebook & Google has gone beyond the software and consumer-facing "feature" level... The battle has a new dimension and has moved to an area that we as consumers don't think about much, but is incredibly important for issues like data integrity, speed, and economic efficiency. We tend to think about the features of a service, but data center architecture can have huge impact on the up-time/quality of service (think of Twitter's constant fail-whale), and just imagine how devastating it'd be if a large social network ever lost a significant amount of your data. Doubling or tripling your infrastructure for backups and potential outages is not cheap nor is it easy. These issues represent the gargantuan tasks that employ thousands of people at companies like Google (and hundreds at Facebook).
I've mentioned before that Facebook has a history of making smart moves to leverage the power of platforms & crowd-sourcing (http://tcrn.ch/r7Izoh) Open Compute is another smart move and typical Facebook. Because Google is secretive about their own data center design, we can only speculate on what reaction they may have to it, and wonder how far ahead of the world Google is in their current infrastructure. Man I'd love to spend a few hours in one of Google's data centers. :-)18157.23 rating - Read in G+
Thoughts of change:
- Go on that trip. Don't postpone it.
- Say those words. Don't let the moment pass.
- Do what you have to, even at society's scorn.
- Write poetry.
- Love deeply.
- Walk barefoot.
- Dance with wild abandon.
- Cry at the movies.
- Take care of yourself. Don't wait for someone to take care of you.
Go for the win.
(Pic: Career planning in 60 seconds - a recreation by +Simon Kemp from orig. by Bud Caddell)17893.62 rating - Read in G+
A lightning storm over the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle range a day after the volcano, which had lain dormant for half a century, erupted.
Photograph: Francisco Negroni, AgenciaUno/AP17659.60 rating - Read in G+
I don't usually like geek humor but this was spot on.
If this has already made its rounds around G+, I have no idea how I missed it.17440.52 rating - Read in G+
Insane Indian skyscraper replaces balconies with glass pools.
A 37-story residential skyscraper in Mumbai, India, called the Aquaria Grande Tower (currently under construction) will have the most insanely awesome feature ever: glass swimming pools where the balconies normally go for some of the apartments.
I want one.
http://www.jameslawcybertecture.com/html5/?section=ProjectDetails&project_id=1516817.30 rating - Read in G+
Aurora over Abisko National Park, Sweden
January 24, 2012
Image Credit & Copyright: Chad Blakley16457.11 rating - Read in G+
What It Looks Like Inside AMAZON
These pictures are from Swansea, Wales. The Amazon Swansea fulfillment center is one of the largest Amazon warehouses in the world. This where all your stuff come from!
(Photos: Getty Images / Matt Cardy)
Amazon handles more than 150 orders/sec at peaks. That's 12.960.000 orders/day!
Now add Zappos.com , Endless.com , Soap.com , Diaper.com , Woot.com and other companies owned by Amazon to the equation to melt your brain.16185.29 rating - Read in G+
A collection of some the most interesting street art photos.
Source: www.streetartutopia.com15428.54 rating - Read in G+
A Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana
Is that a spaceship or a cloud? Although it may seem like an alien mothership, it's actually a impressive thunderstorm cloud called a supercell. Such colossal storm systems center on mesocyclones -- rotating updrafts that can span several kilometers and deliver torrential rain and high winds including tornadoes. Jagged sculptured clouds adorn the supercell's edge, while wind swept dust and rain dominate the center. A tree waits patiently in the foreground. This supercell cloud was photographed in July 2010 west of Glasgow, Montana, USA, caused minor damage, and lasted several hours before moving on.
Image Credit & Copyright: Sean R. Heavey
Explanation of the image from: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101130.html15391.70 rating - Read in G+
This is called The Minister’s House-- the world's largest tree house! It is over 97 feet tall and uses six Oak trees as support. It's got over 11 floors, and is about 10,000 sq ft. It's in Crossville, Tennessee, which means I'm gonna go to Crossville some day! They do give tours. (About 400 people a week visit.) I want take some photos of this thing! (Construction started in 1993, and because people started donating, the total cost so far has been less than $12,000 to the landscape architect/builder, Horace Burges. Go Horace!) More photos here: http://bit.ly/ttaHJa14939.57 rating - Read in G+