The trickiest part to the code is setting callback=? at the end of the url and setting the dataType to jsonp, the p is very significant check here why.

Please note you need to add your own google+ api key below
“YOURKEY” as well as your own google plus userID “YOURGOOGLEPLUSID”.

Contents of getGooglePlus.js below,
$(document).ready(function() {
$.ajax({
type: “get”,
url: “https://www.googleapis.com/plus/v1/people/YOURGOOGLEPLUSID/activities/public?alt=json&pp=1&key=YOURKEY&callback=?”,
contentType: “application/json; charset=utf-8″,
dataType: “jsonp”,
success: function(msg) {
BuildTable(msg);
}
});
});

function BuildTable(msg) {

var table = ‘

‘; for (var i = 0, l = msg.items.length; i < l; i++) { var googlePlus = msg.items[i];

var row = ‘
‘;row += ‘‘ + googlePlus.object.attachments[0].displayName + ‘
‘ + googlePlus.object.attachments[0].content + ‘

‘;
row += ‘

‘;
table += row;
}
table += ‘

‘;
$(‘#Container’).html(table);
}

Contents of HTML CODE:

<script src=”http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js” >
<script src=”getGooglePlus.js”>
<div id=”Container”>

Got this on Saturday, had it delivered Monday and setup Monday night.

PROS
– Great picture quality (once you turn of all the mumbo jumbo, smooth motion and dynamic contrast)
– Low energy consumption
– Excellent value for money with 3 year warranty
– Nice remote/Nice Menu system, lot better than Sony. Menu user experience with Sony I have found awful based on playing with the 46HX800 model(nice having the power button under the remote though)

CONS:
– Speakers are awful u can barely hear them, I think they are just tweeter no bass to them at all. So hooking up to an amp of some sort is essential.
– Glossy screen (Maybe! Though some people perceive that the glossy screen actually enhances the image on the screen) but does reflect stuff something awful.
– Bent insertion column guide inside the TV when setting up the stand (not sure if it was my fault or was like that from the factory), anyone else experience this? Had to get a massive screwdriver to bend it back into place.

I upgraded from a 32″ Benq(1280×768) and was worried that the SD signal from a set top box would be awful as I have experienced that in the Sony 46HX800 and Sanyo 46″ LED( in show rooms only), but was pleasantly surprised as the picture looked quite good not as sharp as the 32″ but very close, but off course that is to be expected larger screen larger pixels. HD signal looked very good.

Yet to hook up the console and HTPC.

I found the below addition to the web.config to be very useful in changing the culture locale:

<configuration>

<system.web>

<globalization
fileEncoding=”utf-8″
requestEncoding=”utf-8″
responseEncoding=”utf-8″
culture=”en-AU”
uiCulture=”en-AU”
/>

• Excellent screen, easy to read
• Long battery life
• User friendly design
• Easy to transfer sync files
• Saves trees (maybe, would like to see cost of resources used to produce and ship one of these suckers..)
• Useful dictionary

Cons:

• Keyboard is pretty irrelevant and takes up precious space
• Surface could be a little stickier for holding long periods, back material could have been used on the front
• Logo on front is distracting when reading

I’ve been wanting to get an e-reader for quite a while now. When I lived in Tokyo 2 years ago I spent months trying to find one with no avail. I event went to the multi-story Sony headquarters  building in Tokyo and when I asked the sales guy about an e-reader he thought I was talking about a mini laptop. Basically they didn’t sell ‘em.

Along comes Amazon and starts selling the Kindle, each revision sells more and more of them. Now at version 3 its met a price point I cant pass up. So I preordered mine a month ago and a couple of days ago it arrived.

The new Pearl E-Ink screen is very easy to read, I’ve had a look at other e-readers with e-ink and they are not as clear/crisp as this pearl display. Sony has also released a couple of readers now with Pearl but they are almost double the price.

One of the biggest issues people have usually commented on is the screen refresh that this type of screen has to do, fortunately this refresh is very quick.

[UPDATE - Microsoft has asked for the IE browsers to be taken down! Thats just awesome!]
Just found a very useful tool for browser testing, you can run IE 6/7/8 (plus other browsers) in a sandbox(def. runs on your local machine in an isolated environment). This works very well from initial testing.

You will need Firefox and go will need to go here http://spoon.net/browsers/ install the plugin.

Wait for the browser to reboot and go back here http://spoon.net/browsers/

Then you will be able to click on the browser you need to launch and preview a page in.

Background: I am a 1.6 year user of the iPhone so my comparison is directly to that OS. The Win Mob OS is still not complete so I will only note the things that came to mind whilst playing around with it.

Cool features:

• IE  remembers the zoom level you were at in the previous page, very nice little feature. Also renders pages very nicely, but not any CSS3 as yet.
• Messaging auto word suggest is unobtrusive compared to the iPhone. The words appear in a horizontal list below the word you are typing, its quite nice.
• Apps are displayed in a long list, depending on your resolution you will at maximum only see 10 apps at a time, down from 16 on the iPhone.

Essential Tools

Firefox 3+

Plugins:

• firebug – net section
• yslow
• FF – Lori
• Page Speed

The above plugins are very useful for what we want to do, each one has its strengths and weaknesses.  YSlow offers suggestions for improving the page’s performance, summarizes the page’s components, displays statistics about the page, and provides tools for performance analysis, including Smush.it™ and JSLint. Another cool tool is Page Speed. It is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to check the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.

Below are recommendations once you have established that your site is under performing.

1.0 Images
Compress images as far as possible before loosing quality. JSLint and Smush.it are easy tools to use as mentioned above in YSlow. Reusable images should be combined into one file and manipulated through CSS.

2.0 Javascript
Move all js files to the bottom of the file where possible. Compress files where possible with jsmin.

3.0 HTML/W3C Compliance

W3C compliance is important as the browser has to do extra work if there are syntactical errors.

4.0 CSS

Compress files where possible with jsmin. Make sure CSS is not redundant.

5.0 Server Compression

Assumptions: Website is running on Microsoft Platform and website is running on IIS (Internet Information Server). I found this step to have the most immediate impact and one of the simplest and fastest optimization techniques. IIS Compression using GZIP . Using this technique I was able to cut download size by 40%.

[update] Found this recently posted resource which gives an even more in-depth tutorial then the above link on fine tuning IIS Compression.

6.0 Reduce the number of files

The number of files being included into a page has a big impact on page load time. Combine image into one if used across site. Combine CSS/JS where possible.

Using the simple steps above I was able to cut the page footprint by 70%. This is not only a time saving for the end user but a huge financial saving for the host in terms of bandwidth.

Related:

Another quality article from smashing magazine, http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/06/page-performance-what-to-know-and-what-you-can-do/

[Update - 4th June 09] – Super Mario Galaxy 2 has been announced at E3 dont expect it anytime this year though.

Ingredients:

(2 bananas used for this recipe)

¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon lemon juice
250g (8oz) bananas 
1 cup sugar
2 cups self raising flour
2 eggs
60 g (2 oz) butter

Method:

Combine milk and lemon juice. Peel and mash bananas, put into bowl of electric mixer. Add sugar, sifted flour, lightly beaten eggs, softened butter and combined milk and lemon juice. Beat on low speed until combined, then beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Turn mixture into greased 23 cm x 12 cm (9 in x 5 in) loaf tin which has the base lined with greased greaseproof paper. Bake in low to moderate oven approx 1 ¾ hours or until cooked when tested. Cool in tin 10 minutes before turning out on wire rack to complete cooling.

I found this recipe here

Things you will need right of the bat are the  Java SDK, an IDE,  google recommends Eclipse, which I got.

Then go here http://code.google.com/android/

Download the SDK and plugin for eclipse. pfooh and thats it u can start coding. It took me about an hour to get everything depending on your net connection offcourse, being in Australia forget about it.

I followed the tutorial on the above link to create a notepad style application. The tutorial is very good and pretty easy to follow even if your not a Java guru, as long as you understand OO concepts.

So within an hour I was able to run the emulator with my small functional app residing on the android phones desktop.

One thing that I liked straight away was how the interface can be coded in xml and is seperated from the classes. Also all OS libraries are logically set out and are quite easy to understand and use.