Last year I published a similar post and mosaic to ring in 2012 (http://goo.gl/oBeBA). It was comprised of all the avatars for users with me in their circles and for users that I had in my circles. The mosaic was comprised of 3025 images in a 55×55 grid. A year later, I wanted to revisit this project and it was a tad more daunting to accomplish, which is why I did not get it published until the 3rd.
This year's mosaic is comprised of 11,449 images in a 107×107 grid! Info at the bottom of the post on how I got this number and saved the images.
Download the full-size 10meg version "2013-New-Year-Mosaic.jpg" from here: http://goo.gl/FXNxN
EDIT: +Dustin Cochran made a really cool overlay to search the mosaic via the browser and give you the coordinates for a cell when you click on it! Go here to use it: http://digipiph.com/mosaic/?
Over the past year, I have had the honor and privilege to connect with so many more of you! Many of you may only catch a random post by me or not notice me at all and have me hanging about as part of a larger shared circle you added and forgot about – that's okay! I do it too. 😉 However, there are so many of you that have become a part of my daily Google+ experience, whether in your amazing interactions or your own thought-provoking or funny-bone-tickling posts.
To accidental adds, lurkers, media elites, G+ rock-stars and all my crazy friends, this is for you! I less than three you all and it was well worth the hours spent at the laptop until the wee hours listening to Pandora and eating waffles. I hope you enjoy.
Now, the MOSAIC CHALLENGE!
Okay, so I couldn't just leave well enough alone with a picture. 😉 Download the original full-size image if you want to have some fun. Some people did it last year on the Google+ size version on their cell phones but this one is way bigger! EDIT: Google+ does not save a big enough version of the file. Download the 10meg version "2013-New-Year-Mosaic.jpg" from here: http://goo.gl/FXNxN
1) Can you find yourself? I'll admit, I'm a little vain sometimes. I searched for myself. Took me way longer than it should! Please note, I saved all the avatars on the 1st and 2nd. If you added me after that I apologize that your picture did not make it into the mosaic. Also, if you changed your avatar recently, look for your old one!
Most of us share the Geek gene. I have a Doctor Who, Star Wars, Firefly, and The IT Crowd challenge hidden within the mosaic.
2) Find the following Star Wars images: Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princes Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C3PO, R2D2, Yoda, Jawa, Stormtrooper, and Death Star.
3) Find the following Doctor Who images: Each of the 11 Doctors, Tardis, and a Dalek.
4) Find the following Firefly images: Malcolm Reynolds, Zoe Washburne, Hoban Washburne, Inara Serra, Jayne Cobb, Kaylee Frye, Simon Tam, River Tam, and Derrial Book (Preacher).
5) Find Roy and Maurice from The IT Crowd. Be careful not to drop the Internet. 😉
6) I also threw in, for good measure: a #dropbear crossing sign, two rubber ducks, and The Tick.
Random stuff:
If I somehow missed you, let me know and I will put you into a random drawing for a random prize of random value.
Anyone providing me with the most coordinates of all the challenge images (there are 40 total) will definitely be getting something random from me!
Once more, Happy New Year! Looking forward to 2013 with all of you!
How I nearly went crazy saving all the darn avatars:
With nearly 15k people who have circled me or added a shared circle with me in it, Google+ let me grab a little over 9k avatars from my "Circles" page under "Have you in circles". I also saved over 4k avatars for users that I have in various circles. I used the "Save Images" plug-in in Firefox and paged down through the lists one click at a time, saving after each group. Cache viewers were unreliable in reporting all the images, saving the entire page without using a plug-in was (even more) cumbersome, and the Google+ API still does not have support for finding information on circles so far as I could tell. The way the circles page works, I ended up with thousands of duplicates using this method so I also had to download and run a program to find and remove duplicate images. I am not sure what the problem is between the reported number of people who have me circled and the actual number of avatars I was able to save, but there was a disparity of about 5k. I sure hope I have not gotten blocked by that many people! Looking through the images I captured, though, I see the avatars for all the peeps that I know and love from day to day interactions. I am guessing there is either a security permission where many users are somehow not allowing their avatars to be seen in my listing, or Google+ is not reporting a fairly large sampling of users who have me circled but whom I do not have circled back at this time. If anyone has any information on this, I would love to know!
Google+: View post on Google+
Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.
do you have a high res version of it? It's too small on G+ to spot people
Oh my… You are loco but amazing Scott 🙂
All the best to you
That is an awful lot of work!
Officially insane.
i'm feeling a bit "closed-in".
Download the full hi-res version "2013-New-Year-Mosaic.jpg" from here: http://goo.gl/FXNxN
Google+ downsized the image when I uploaded it.
so do your friends call you "rain-man"? wow. impressive.
Scott: Kristi, I'm thinking of doing the Mosaic again this year.
Kristi: Then I'm taking the kids and going to Disney. You better be done by the time we get back.
Seriously dude, do you ever sleep?!! This is another piece of awesome I will download & play later 😀 (oh and Happy New Year btw!)
I think I passed out earlier for a bit… I erased the first version of the post with several hundred letter "M's" in a long row. 😉
Obtained by +Moritz Tolxdorff
You got some skills!!!!
There goes my productivity for the day.
With just a quick glance I've spotted a few of the pluskateers I know quite well along with a small handful of celebs, but I have yet to find myself (a metaphor?).
Happy New Year 🙂 thanks for my dropbear xo
wow. incredible.
Holy crap man… If this doesn't make it to what's hot then we need to reevaluate our lives lol… I'm too sick to really look at the big one but I will later… Amazeballs!
Could the discrepancy be from blue heads +Scott Cramer, since you eliminated duplicate pictures?
+Yonatan Zunger
Wow. i just spent about 15 minutes trying to find myself and other people. Still no luck on my mug, but, kudos to you for creating such an amazing collage! I'm sure there will be many an hour spent scouring it!
I took only a quick look, but the first one to pop out to me was Jon Pertwee. 😉 Still looking for myself.
Found you +Tara Mulder. I won't give it away, but if you get stuck, let me know. Still haven't found myself.
Guess what just showed up in the "What's Hot" stream? Kudos +Scott Cramer.
+Dustin Cochran made a really cool overlay to search the mosaic via the browser and give you the coordinates for a cell when you click on it! Go here: http://digipiph.com/mosaic/
yah!!!!
+James Hamel , +Scott Cramer is an excellent plusser. Yeah.
Wow…. just wow. That is some pretty neat work +Scott Cramer , amazing
Finally found myself — so to speak. I can now resume my life.
Thanks everyone. Getting the avatars was the hard part.
+Tara Mulder Points for knowing Jon Pertwee! Scary thought having him jump out at you. lol 😉
Blue heads as the discrepancy would account for up to a hundred, but not in the thousands. That was my first thought, too. I actually stepped through the entire list of avatars and saved them down multiple times to double-check myself. I came up with the same results (and it takes forever to step through them, argh)! I hope the API has more functionality before next year. 😉
+Adam Tyler And, I forgot to mention the existential properties of mosaic searching. You are now one with the Plus-Verse. 😉
That is some serious AwesomeSauce Scott.
My mom wishes Jon Pertwee would jump out at her.
Seriously though, she always had a weird crush on him.
Love it Scott! I remember fondly the hours I spent locating my avatar last year on my mobile no less. Not even going to attempt that this year!
How am I going ot get any work done now?
Thank you +Dustin Cochran for the the mosaic search, I can now search a small grid at a time and save my place by clicking an avatar to display the coordinates! No more increasing frustration of wondering if you are going over the same area more than once! And I can get a bit of work done between search areas.
+Scott Cramer you continue to amaze me.
Awesome!
+Kari Tedrick Hmm… That's how you won the home made cookies! I forgot how that came about! 😉
Awesome bro. Will have to look at it tonight. Was wondering… We made it all the way through Jan 1st and 2nd without a holiday post!
Don't know how, but found my image as soon as I opened the file. Pure luck! Awesome job!
In spot checking it during creation, I have been amazed going through the images how certain ones jump out at me every time and others I can not find at all without cheating. It took me forever to find +Mary C..
Finally! 49×29!
"That's how you won the home made cookies last year" he says so nonchalantly. Like it wasn't FOUR DOZEN HOMEMADE COOKIES and like they weren't wrapped in miles of bubble wrap and aluminum foil so the soft and chewy cookies wouldn't break in transit.
yeah, that's right. I have not forgotten. 🙂
That's bee-ah-coo-ahz I'm a ninja +Scott Cramer ;D
Found me! Haha http://goo.gl/dN6WI
Heheh +Kari Tedrick Thinking I should offer up some more home-bake for anyone completing the challenge! 😉
+Mary C. After looking at your screen-shot, I have no idea how I did not see you! And… please stop enthralling the rest of the mosaic with your p-psy-kick energies! 😉
Muahahahahahahaha
I've found Keith, Mz and Mar already! Still looking for Roy and Maurice… and the Firefly crew… and the Doctors… I need to stop and get back to work but… puzzles are an addiction o' mine! O_O
Bwahahaha! I am the killer of productivity! It's scary how proud I am of that.
Too much awesome! Awesome overload! Wow!
Found me in less than a minute although not where I first expected (in the green area). Which then made it easy for the very reason I keep this profile pic…I can easily skim for the bright green when few avatars have that colour.
https://plus.google.com/photos/108316670838828910396/albums/5699973131352158593/5829279151801387778
Epic picture full of Epic Awesomesauce deserves an Epic Manly Man Squee!!!
+Scott Cramer this is truly awesome…Thanks for sharing, and a very happy New Year to you too!
Btw, I found me…starting from the top left corner, 14 across, 12 down… Woohoo!!!
Skills!! amazing 🙂
Thanks!
Woah Scott, this is insane o_O 11k images! Puts my periodic table to shame! I guess the rest of my day will be spent lookin' for me 😛
+Chris Mallory Periodic table still rocks it out; especially because you put thought into who went where! Love that concept! I have been meaning to return to it and play with it some more. You know, in my spare time. lol
When you're not distracting us with puzzles and frivolity Scott? Hehe
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think I found a Doctor… http://goo.gl/ngkHm
That's an insane amount of work! Very amazing skills +Scott Cramer
woah, amazing job Scott 😮
+Mary C. You totally found a Doctor. Not one of the ones I added! With 11k images, someone was bound to have the Doctor as an avatar. I will accept all correct images as part of the challenge, though! In a tie, I will go with the ones that I put in as priority. Hint: All the Doctors that I added are similar head shots.
Thanks for the fun! Great job!
Ah… I was wondering about that. :] Thanks for the hint!
I think I found Wash now!! Curse yours amazing mosaic… can't stop looking!!!
Hmm… Thinking great idea for a well-placed tattoo. 😉
o_O snerk
cool…
I'm thinking the challenges might be a bit too much while I'm stuck on mobile. Super awesome, Scott.
Found myself and Wash so far, along with a few of the usual G+ suspects – this is a fun fun game!
Hm… what's the shipping for cookies to Cardiff? Ruh-roh!
Flat rate priority shipping FTW. 🙂
Star Wars (I found Han Solo but then I lost him again! Story of my life!!!!) and a Dalek http://goo.gl/kgIDV
Also Wash!! http://goo.gl/yXCkt
Old G MAIL nice move &nice comments O:-)
You're too good at this +Mary C. o.O
Tip to finding your avatar: take a look at your avatar first. It speeds up the process like 100% for some people.
#justsayin
~( _ _ )~ +Chris Mallory What can I say? I love puzzles, always have! ^__^
+Bill Abrams, I put it up, and spent 2-3 minutes looking, and can only find Doctors. : I'll try more later.
+Tara Mulder Doctors! Now let me get this straight.
You put your eyes behind the glasses and opened them together.
You put your eyes behind the glasses in order to see better.
You put your eyes behind the glasses and opened them both up.
You put your eyes behind the glasses, but you ain't matchin up?
Just Doctors? You such a silly woman.
(apologies to Harry Nilsson)
I found a lot of people, but still not me or Charlie. Then again, not trying too hard.
Jolly gosh! How long did this masterpiece take you?
Happy New Year +Scott Cramer
#awesome
I found you… You're on the couch in front of me… This is easy…
>_>
I just systematically went through every line and could not find mine
Did you leave some people out?
+Beth Revels I had some trouble with G+ giving me access to all the avatars. I have you in a circle, though, so yours should have been in there… I will check on my side!
+Carter Gibson looked about a million times last year and I finally had to make him his own 3×3 graphic. {grin}
+Carrie Canup I will look for you and +Charlie Hoover too!
+Beth Revels You are within 11 of the "g" 😉 Verified.
Also I saw +Carrie Canup and +Charlie Hoover when I searched for mine
+Beth Revels almost directly opposite me!
+Carrie Canup is 73×24
Oh that's so weird cuz I remember running across your picture. I will have to go to the desktop and look in a few minutes. Now I know if I spot you I'm close.
I have Charlie's coordinates. Bwahaha… missiles aimed and ready.
Battleship!
You sunk my Battleship!
I found it. Then got a little goofy in paintbrush XD
By goofy, she means really creative and cool! Check her stream! On mobile, or I'd link. 🙂
🙂
That is rad
+EcoSnark wants to know if she's in it but she can't post here.
very cool, downloading in full size. I hope to find the Doctors before it's time to change a diaper.
No EcoSnark in circles, it seems, +Kimberly Chapman. :-/
Trish is going to smash you, Scott, when she finds out! I'd go into hiding.
Awesome!
Commenting to remind myself to take a closer look at this on my laptop when I get home.
woohoo — found me 😛
also seen Leia and the Luke …… but forgot to mark them grrronme
Found myself! Also found: Darth Vader, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C3PO, R2D2, Yoda, Jawa, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia, Death Star, Tardis, a Dalek, Roy and Maurice from The IT Crowd, #dropbear crossing sign, two rubber ducks, and 2 of the 11 doctors from Doctor Who.
While finding the above extras, ran across +Kyla Myers +Kari Tedrick +Keith Cramer +Scott Cramer (twice) +Salvio Giglio +Dustin Cochran +Kimberly Chapman +Dirk Reul +Lacerant Plainer +Jo Lane +Chris Mallory +Charlie Hoover +Damian Sanchez +Tiffany Henry +Mar Mai +Mary C. +Halfdan Reschat +Marcus Holloway +Mz Maau +Mellie B +Bearman Cartoons +Jake Marquart +Nunzia Nullo +Sheila Garl +Luke Stamets +Bill Abrams +Caroline Evebetty +Eric Albin +Christy Pemberton +Rhonda Stewart
Image looks awesome on my phone. Going to have to check on computer later
Oh dear.
+Scott Cramer: Some of the overlap may be in the Black-with-White-Triangle images given to toasted accounts, I note you have one in the mosaic.
Also, I found +Jack Hardman and some Angry Birds.
+Mz Maau Good call… I wonder what the percentage of toasted to non-toasted accounts is… of 15k having me circled, I could only garner 9k in avatars from the circle page of my profile.
I'd say the potential percentage is pretty high. There was a time when every time I viewed my profile, at least half the avatars in the "has you circled" were the black and white triangles.
I recall one of the integration moves last spring encouraged a lot of people to delete their Plus account.
Upper right corner woo hoo.
Also quick perusal saw +Bo Lumpkin +Hisham Hashim +Randy Hilarski +CircleCount and +Mark Rodriguez in the G!
I usually stand out in a crowd.
That is an awesome undertaking. There is no way my limited access internet card will let me do all that but i still think it is awesome.
Wow Thanks +Scott Cramer! I am 77 x 92
Tagging for later …. damn work.