Google Chrome Extensions Released

Just saw this morning, as I fired up Chrome to check my Gmail, that there was a notice that Google Chrome extensions have been released. Not sure when this actually was launched (I didn’t notice yesterday), but I am excited for it. I have been using Chrome for a year (maybe longer?) now and have been waiting for these kinds of extensions.  Here are some of the ones I came across I really liked…

Weather.com , Send from Gmail , Play YouTube in HTML5 instead of Flash , Open in IE Tab , RSS Subscribe , Magazine-like Start Page , All Google Accounts in One Place , Twitter Client , Get Lowest Price

photo credit: google

Stuff I found at Bill Gates’ Blog

Bill Gates just fired up a blog at gatesnotes.com .  I wanted to pass on a few cool things that I have come across – outside of his posts and writings.

TED – their tag line is “ideas worth spreading”.  The whole site is dedicated to smart people, some famous/some not, talking about their ideas.  Pretty neat stuff here and not just technology.

Academic Earth – like TED, lots and lots of videos.  Except this is primarily university professors giving lecture on all kinds of topics – from career to science to engineering.  How about a 20 lecture psychology course taught by Paul Bloom at Yale.  I personally have no idea who Paul Bloom is, but the guy teaches at Yale – what is it $40-50k a year to go there?

The Teaching Company – this is a pay service, but Gates’ claim is that there is a lot of quality material.  Prices seem reasonable.

photo credit: gatesnotes.com

I was on TV… for about 3 seconds

WKYC Channel 3 has been hot on the story that the firm I work for, Rosetta, is moving to downtown Cleveland.  Currently we are located in two Cleveland-area locations – Independence and Beachwood.  Cleveland.com first broke the story around 3pm yesterday and Channel 3 picked up the story on the 11pm news last night.  We are taking over the old NCB building at 629 Euclid Ave, about 2 blocks from the exciting East 4th renewal.

Today Tom Beres from Channel 3 came out to our Beachwood office to film some our inter-company olympic events (called Practice Wars: The Conflict Within).  I was MC’ing the Chili Cookoff – an Iron Chef type event.  If you watch the video, I am around the 1:30 mark (bald guy, black shirt).  Saying “…the taste is bold and spicy and full of flavor”.  Oscar winning performance don’t ya think?

Back to it

Been a long time since I have posted anything, something I wanted to avoid.  Not sure whether it is the turn of the year or the new role I am taking at Rosetta, but I wanted to start back to blogging.  Largely I have potsed work type things, but felt pressure to put a lot “work” into this – both in topic and in effort.  I want expand a bit and put things out about a whole variety of topics – my Cleveland Browns, just got a dog, thoughts on some political stuff, economic issues, share things from other blogs that I read, etc.  More of effort to diversify and keep me interested which hopefully grows the interest of my current (non-existent) readers.

The goal is a once per week something.  Time to get back to it.

Photo Credit: dullhunk

Understanding your Job

Back in February I wrote a post about transitioning your job effectively to a new person.  I have used the same concepts and approach when helping people be more effecient and effective at their jobs as well.  What I find is that people don’t fully grasp all of the things they really do in a given day (or week, month).  Once they write it all down and analyze what they are doing is when an increase in productivity can be seen.

The tricky part is analyzing what you do and finding areas that can be improved.  People can be so deep in their work they can’t see around it – bringing in another person, which is the role I have played, is extremely benficial.

Original Post – here

photo credit: beija-flor

My Twitter account is unlocked

My Twitter account   billweber that is tied to my primary email has been unlocked/unfrozen/whatever and I can start to play around with it.  Most of my readers are people I know anyway so feel free to follow me and I will do the same.

Back to the Grind

The golf trip was great – weather between 65 and 75 and sunny everyday, very windy at times but I’ll take it.  Overall I played pretty well shooting scores of 93, 84, 88, 86 and 97.  We played 36 holes on the 19th and 20th and 18 holes on the 21st.  My hands and forearms were pretty fatigued by the time we played the last 18 – the score of 97 should make that obvious.  My chipping the last day was terrible, tired hands made for lots of chunked chips and poor distance control around the greens.

There were many highlights – nailing my new hybrid from about 210 yards and just missing a 25 footer for eagle, a 9 iron from 135 yards to within 2-3 feet, made a few 10-15 foot putts and lots of 280+ yard drives.  Overall I averaged 89.6 for all of my rounds – the last round of 97 raised that average 2 strokes.  I track my scores at freegolfinfo.com (not sure of another good free tracking service) and it calculates my handicap at 15.5 right now… I’ll take that.

Pictures from the trip after the jump…

I am Going on Vacation

I heading to Manning, South Carolina for a golf trip with a few buddies of mine Wednesday through Sunday – can’t wait.  I purchased a new hybrid and putter but it is highly unlikely I will get to hit them before I leave – they arrive via UPS tomorrow.  I should be able to get on a driving range while I am there and hit the hybrid around.  I am taking my old putter so if I can’t get comfortable with the new one quickly I can swap it for the old one.  The weather is supposed to be fantastic all weekend – Thur 75/some clouds,  Fri 58/some clouds,  Sat 65/sunny.  Little chilly on Friday, but 58 feels like 80 given the weather in Cleveland lately.  I have only played one golf course outside of Ohio (Kentucky) which is crazy considering I have been playing golf for probably 15 years.

I’ll post some pictures, course reviews and comments on the villa we are staying in when I get back.

-Bill

photo credit: hopvietravel.com

I Want to Twitter!

Over a year ago I signed up for a twitter account with my gmail account and off I was – well not really.  I  knew nothing about it, what it was good for or what to do with it.  Well lots of people seem to be twitting (tweeting? twittering? tweet-meeting?) or something like that and I want to figure out what it is all about.  Somewhere along the line my account was deleted (I assume I did this and just don’t remember) – so I followed the restore your account rule here… and nothing.  It says 4 to 6 weeks… yikes!

Any tips or help you can offer?

- Bill Weber

Dropbox – 2GB online storage, no gimmicks

Came across this earlier this weekend and wanted to share – Dropbox.  Dropbox gives you 2GB of storage for your files – you can upload/download via browser or you can install their software (no ads, or spyware) that will allow for drag and drop features on your PC or Mac.  They offer a 50GB account for $9.99 per month or $99 per year.  My flash drive is 2GB so the free account should suit me just fine.  But if you are a pack rat or have large files to share – $100 is reasonable.

I have seen lots of these services that are tied to Microsoft Live (an account I don’t use) or similar – this one isn’t.  Until Google allows me to use my gmail space or google docs space for all kinds of files, I will stick with Dropbox.

Also – use this link when you sign-up and get 256MB more storage space.  I will get 256MB more as well so it is a win-win situation.  Referrals are limited to an extra 3GB – meaning after 24 referrals I could have as much as 5GB of storage space – awesome.  Anyone can refer so if you get referrals after you sign-up you can have more storage space as well.

- Bill Weber