Googling Yourself

Prelude: The concept for this post was provided by ReputationManagement.com, a leading provider of premier relationship services.

Do you know what I give thanks for?

It's that when I was in my teens and early twenties, I wasn't on Facebook.

True, I did have my own website (talking about computer games and rave music - if anyone wants to experience my ancient and extremely poor game, "Ravers vs Peaceniks", I need something that can compile Visual Basic 3 code into something understandable by todays computers, do let me know if you have a solution) but that website has sunk virtually without trace, and I can proceed through life, unhindered.

Today however people (including, but not exclusively, the young) have to be prepared that whatever they put online may be accessible for years afterwards.

Put a cheeky selfie up about a few too many drinks?  Or a long rant about an annoying customer at your current job?  It might just be a bit of fun, but how would you feel if a potential recruiter viewed it?

ReputationManagement.com have put together this infographic full of tips on Googling yourself and seeing what's out there.

If you try this, do pop in the comments know what you found - was you surprised at what you found?

From Ravers vs Peaceniks - I must find out how to compile it and make it run on today's PCs!

Tea

Today is apparently the 358th anniversary of the first advertisement for tea in Britain, albeit at the time being described as a "China drink".

Tea is the quintessential British drink, I venture to say.  There's nothing I like so much as the idea of afternoon tea, reviving yourself after a hard day of writing letters and walking the estate by taking on a pot of tea and a selection of cakes and sandwiches.

There has been many recipes over the years on how to make the best cup of tea, and I'm sure that they are all very good.  But allow me to put forward my method:

One - Kettle on

Don't fill it up too much, or you'll be waiting forever.

Two - Teabag in a mug

The choice of teabag shows your social standing.  If you're using square teabags, you're salt of the earth. Pyramid ones are for those aspiring to the aristocracy.  Everyone else has a decent round teabag.

Three - When the kettle boils, fill the mug about 75% full

Not too full!  You can always put a splash in later if needed.

Four - Milk in

Don't even think about telling me that the milk should go in first.

Five - Sugar if required, otherwise, stir to a good colour

The right cup of tea should be a decent beige colour, not quite brown, but heading that way.  White is a no-no.

Six - Drink it!

Ideally accompanied with a rich tea, digestive (even though you have to bite the edge of it before you can dip it in your mug), or a Chocolate Oreo if you're just a crazy fool who likes living life on the edge.

Cheers!

 Tea - how do you take yours? Drop me a line in the comments :)

Google is trying to help

Working on a story, I wanted to find a good location accessible across the world, and so turned to Google.

Got halfway through typing "easiest place in the world to get to" when Google leapt into life suggesting what I wanted.

Thanks Google - but not this time...

In other news, here's a video of me attempting to drink three beers infused with chilli, while playing FIFA 16, with some Baileys as a backup if it just got too bad. Don't worry, it's heavily edited!

Windows 10 vs Google Chrome

(Please enjoy this blog post, I fell down the stairs earlier - an event surely deserving of beer and a lack of achievement - yet I still went back upstairs to the PC to write it!  However, I am knelt on the floor as sitting in a chair is a little uncomfortable.)

I'm struggling at the moment.  You see, I've got Windows 10.  By and large, I'm very happy with it - I can't particularly say that it's better than 8 (or even 7, for that matter), but it seems fine.

However, ever since I got it, Google Chrome keeps falling over, and I love Google Chrome.  I use a lot of the Google websites and services available (including, obviously, its Blogger facility), Chrome is fast, and does everything I want well.

So having to try Microsoft Edge, which seems sluggish in comparison (and isn't automatically logged in to all my Google stuff) isn't great.

Chrome seems to work as long as I don't open too many tabs at the same time, so I'm having to audit my tab usage constantly, as I am one of these people that has tens of different internet windows open all at the same time.  I've tried looking for solutions but I've not found one that works yet.  I may be forced to employ the services of Colin to help me out.

And he hasn't even got his Microsoft certification.

Anyway, must dash - Downton Abbey starts in 20 minutes!

Does Gmail secretly like Spam?!? (the junk email, not the meat)

I use Gmail as my main personal email facility - it works fine, I can use it anywhere, all that kind of stuff, but there's one thing that I've noticed.

If you get an email that you want to delete, what you do is you tick the box next to the email to select, and then a "Delete" button pops up.  And you click Delete and boom, the email is gone.

However, sometimes Gmail moves emails into a Spam folder, and occasionally I go in to clear it out.  The Spam folder is always full of spam comments on this blog, offers of Viagra, and coupons for Pizza Express - I'm not sure what Pizza Express has done to deserve the designation "spam", but to be fair I don't go there very often so perhaps Google has picked up on this and decided that I don't want their offers.

To delete the emails in the Spam folder however, you tick them, and then you hit the box marked...

DELETE FOREVER

Which just gives it a little bit more emphasis, as though Google is saying "I think that these are spam emails so you probably don't want them, but I could be wrong so do have a good look through first - wait!  Wait!  You've not looked thoroughly at the emails!  There could be something really important that I've marked as spam by mistake!  Dear me, no don't - agh!  You've deleted them FOREVER!!! Don't you realise how much space I have on my servers?  I could have easily looked after half a dozen emails offering you 40% off a main meal at Pizza Express, you didn't need to just go and get rid of them!"

Perhaps I'm reading a little too much into it.

If you got all the way to the end of this post, well done!  If you like stuff about the internet, maybe this vaguely philosophical piece about spending time chilling out on the Internet might be to your liking.  On the other hand if you're looking for something funny, perhaps I HATE NAPPIES is more to your liking.

Or if you've had enough of this blog, go see Tim over at Life, Explained.  His are very good.  Some people said better than mine.  But I found them and they don't say that any more.

This end bit has gone a bit dark now.

Strolling along the shore of the Internet

Tonight (as I type this it's about 3.30am) I've been strolling along the shore of the Internet.  I know the common cliche would be to "surf the net", but I don't think I've been that focussed.

I've been uploading a video onto YouTube, and encoding a second video to be uploaded after the one first is finished.  For some reason these videos are monstrously huge (3Gb for a 15 minute video) so it is taking some time to get them online - hence the reason why I'm up to late (and also that my other half has agreed to get up with the little one so I'm enjoying the opportunity to be a night owl for once!)

In the meantime I've been checking out peoples blogs, and it's been really interesting.  You never know what you're going to come across when you visit a new blog.  Is it going to be about a particular subject?  Or is it going to be a general everyday life blog?  Are you going to find it interesting or not?  Maybe they might hold some views that you don't agree with - not that I'm looking for an opportunity to troll or flame anyone, but I find it interesting to compare views.  If I come across a blog that I really don't agree with, well there is always another one to try instead.

It could be argued, is what I've been doing an efficient use of my time?  In this age where you can type whatever you want into Google and get it in a split-second, should I be spending time looking at blogs that might not interest me, or might even offend me?

Yes.

It's important to experience other things, other views, to stop and smell the roses.  I've learned and seen things tonight that if I hadn't done this, I might never have experienced.

Moving on, I am continuing to do Vlogtober despite missing out the 7th of October, so go over to my YouTube channel and discover the thoughts I have whilst in bed!

Google turns 16!

Happy birthday Google, who today turns 16.  I've discovered this as a result of a long period of research, and certainly not by noticing Google's doodle of the day on www.google.co.uk

It is interesting to think about and see how the Internet has developed and moved on over time.  I started using the internet in 1999 when the PCs at college were enabled, and at the time there was a whole host of search engines fighting it out for supremacy - Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Altavista, Lycos, and Excite spring to mind, I remember my favourite being Altavista for quite a while, and also having a website on Lycos's free webspace service, Tripod.  Nevertheless, apparently like 88% of internet users worldwide, I now use Google.  I love the clean design of the website, how it works out what I want (back when I first started using the internet half the struggle was wording your query correctly so that the right websites would come up - now all I have to do is type "Guardians of the Galaxy Hull" and Google fetches the cinema show times for me)

So, if Google was an actual person that had turned 16, what could it now do?

• In the UK, they can join the army.
• In Canada they can get a driving license (and join the army)
• In Germany and Mexico they can legally drink alcohol
• In Tacoma Park, Maryland in the US, they can vote (as they also could in the recent Scottish referendum)

(Actually I found it really hard to use Google to do the research for this - it seems to be stuck thinking that I want UK websites!)

What else is new?  I've got a new video on my YouTube channel up, it's a bit different to most of my videos as it's a gaming video, but if you'd like to watch a rogue ragequit in Hearthstone then do check it out!  I expect to be doing more of these videos as they're really easy to do - provided I record anything worth watching!  I'm also planning a series about the classic ZX Spectrum game, Journey's End, so stay tuned for that too!

Google+ Auto-Awesomed my 2013!

The thing I love about Google is how it does cool stuff, and half the time it just quietly does something brilliant without shouting about it.

I already love how it automatically backs up my photos to Google+, and then sometimes does a thing called "Auto-Awesome" on them.  I've already talked about Auto-Awesome on a previous blog post, but basically it takes your photos and does cool stuff with them, like making a collage, or an animation.  Apparently something it's been doing over Christmas is taking photos with snow in, and animating the snow.

Anyhow, what they've done is take key photos from my Google+ albums that were taking in 2013, slapped a bit of music onto them, and made a video.  It's quite cool (and interesting what photos they've picked - pulled pork sandwich from Rebels Smokehouse being one!) and I'm quite pleased on the whole the photos that have been picked out.

You can see the video Google+ made in its original high-quality here, or click on the video below for a low-quality version.

Has anyone else had one of these videos made, and if so what did you think of your video?  Was there a key memory missed out?  And what was the strangest photo included!  Pop a reply in the comments if you feel the need.

It Lives! (Nearly)

I've almost got my dad's "new" second-hand PC up and running!  I've just got to get Windows installed on it and it should be ready to run.  He's been using a PC that I bought about ten years ago and one that we really can't upgrade any more (AGP graphics card - anyone still got one of them?)

But I've noticed something a little worrying - I'm starting to lose the capability to operate technology.

Now, I am a geek.  This is undeniable.  And I'm somewhat proud of being one (even though, truth be told, I'm not actually that good with computers - I'm not bad, but I could be better)

At the age of four (I think) I had a Sinclair ZX-81 home computer.  After that, a variety of ZX Spectrums. Other computers I have owned include a variety of PCs, from an ancient XT to my current Intel Core 2 Duo (I know, I want an upgrade) beast, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Sega Megadrive, Nintendo Gameboy, I think there was an Videopac console at some point, Playstation 2, Wii, a variety of smartphones and tablets, various other electronic gadgets, I hold two degrees (okay, one is a Foundation Degree) in IT, and various other IT qualifications.

But despite all this, my computer skills seem to be fading.

I haven't changed a toner cartridge for a long time, and I suspect that I wouldn't be able to do it now.  When I say this, yes I could, but I'd have to refer to Google.

Or the manual. (dear god!)

I had major trouble today working a software program that I downloaded, one that I used to use (albeit a few years ago).  It took me quite a while to work out how to operate it, which I'm sure in my younger days I would have figured out in an instant.

Ah well - I'm sure there's lots of useful other information now in my head that's replaced the IT stuff.

Like the best place to get sausages from (Jacksons Butchers in Louth)!

A Story In Pictures. And Words. And Auto-Awesome.

We had a lot of milk in our fridge.

My partners mum had gone away for a few days, and being helpful, we raided her refrigeration unit to use up anything that was going to go off while she was away.  One of the items was a litre of milk.

Because the milk shelves in our fridge were full of milk, we laid the additional litre down in our fridge, but unfortunately it leaked - not a great deal, but enough that we couldn't keep it laid down.

So I, the (slightly) lactose intolerant person, had the great idea of making a chocolate milkshake (don't fear readers - this didn't have any awkward after effects).

We didn't have any chocolate milkshake powder, so I used hot chocolate powder.

A lot of it.

So much, that the milkshake was very chocolatey indeed.

So chocolatey, that when I drank half of it, I poured another half pint of milk in, stirred it up, and it was still very chocolatey.

The stained chocolate milkshake receptacle.

My attempt to colour in the grey bits of my beard with milkshake failed.  But at least I managed to make an attractive "stain" fashion pattern on my white t-shirt.

At least I'm not the only one who spills stuff on himself in our house.  Yes - that is a chair sat on a wooden box underneath the TV.

While I'm blogging I wanted to write about Google's "Auto-Awesome" feature.  This is ace.  Basically, when photos are uploaded into Google+, Google looks at the photos, and if you've taken the right ones, makes them better.  If you take multiple photos, it combines them to make the best one.  If you've got a few close together, it'll animate them.  And it'll maybe make collages of similar photos.  Apparently it'll even create panoramic shots but I've not tried that yet.

It totally blew my mind, because on my new phone (Samsung Galaxy SIII) it automatically backups photos onto my Google+ account, which I was vaguely aware that it did, but then when I actually went into the account, it had made the below picture for me:

Auto-awesome in action!

It's pretty neat.

My hundredth blog post!

This is my hundredth blog post!

Apologies for the delay in blogging but I've been working on a new writing project (plus I've been under the weather).  Details of my new project are sketchy but suffice it to say that it's going to be my biggest writing project to date - it's going to be a book - and I may be needing help over the forthcoming months to undertake various activities.  As things become clearer I'll let you know!

Today I thought I'd point you to something fun that we can all try - easter eggs on Google.  If you don't know, easter eggs are fun little things that programmers put into programs and websites for people to find.

Take a look at the Wikipedia entry for the ones on Google.  I particularly recommend going on to Google and searching for zerg rush.

Sticking with the Google theme, it's Safer Internet Day and Google have released some guidance on how to stay safe on the Internet.  It's always been a bugbear to me that while people are able to use computers and the internet easier and easier these days (which is good) the traps and dangers online are getting smarter and better and it's consequently more dangerous for the non-savvy computer user.

Anyway, thank you for reading my posts - very pleased to get to a hundred and let's go for a hundred more!

Social Media in Construction - the revolution begins...

I attended the first meeting of the new Constructing Excellence Social Media Task Group today in London, at CE's offices on Buckingham Palace Road.  The group was co-ordinated by Paul Wilkinson, a veritable guru on all things social media, and had a good representation from construction professionals at different levels in all types of different organisations.

Paul ran through a presentation of his (I think I've found the right one on the net - you can view it here) giving us all a good session on social media, running through examples of good usage of the new technology, and new ideas.

What if instead of using email we used Twitter or instant messaging to get information out?  I use Twitter, but I never considered it as a replacement for email, merely as an alternate communication channel.  What if instead of having meetings we had video conferences, which can be set up easily and for free with software such as Google Hangout, and we could even record the conference for future reference.  No more problems six months after a meeting trying to work out if a certain point was mentioned from the minutes taken, simply play back the recorded conference.

For G4C in the Yorkshire & Humber region I'm very interested in social media because of the distributed nature of the population.  I'm well aware that I need to run events in Leeds to attract the majority of the Yorkshire population.  I'm also aware that this automatically reduces the chance of people attending from Sheffield, York and Hull (not to mention the many other towns and settlements in the county).

Paul also recommended that organisations set up Google Alerts so that they can be informed of when new content about their organisation is put up on the Internet.  This can be done here.  And again, it's free to do.

There was a lot of concern in the room about control of social media, which is a fair point.  Social media for work has to be focussed, and some control available.  It's all too easy for social media use to become people going on Facebook and playing games all morning.  But provided that it is controlled, there are some huge benefits.  And people should be able to take responsibility for what they post with social media - if people are trusted to send letters, telephone clients, and email out information, is social media that much different?

One point that was made was about how social media can allow a persons personality to come through, helping relationships to be built.  If every tweet from a person is purely another sales pitch or press release, I tend to switch off.  But if I see something of that person, what they are like, it allows them to become a real person in my view.  And then I'm more likely to read their press release when they do send it.

New technology has massive benefits that over the next few years people will think of ways to use.  We're currently able to use GPS to position people and items on the world.  What if some kind of positioning system was made so that it could be installed on utilities pipes and cables?  Rather than relying on statutory undertakers drawings, we could have some kind of RFID tag that when you dig close to it the tag is activated, and the excavator can tell that there is a pipe there and that they have to swap to hand digging.  Rather than using GPR kit and cable detectors, we could do it by walking over the site with a mobile phone or tablet.

Another example of the use of technology was one organisation who was able to take a BIM model of a building out on site on their mobile phone, hold the phone up to where the building was due to be built, and the software showed the built structure on the screen, allowing the viewer to see how it would interact with the adjacent buildings, how sunlight would shine once the building was constructed.  An excellent way to show clients a representation of the completed building prior to construction.

I'm very much looking forward to the next social media task group (despite it being in London!).  If anyone else is interested in getting involved, let me know and I can pass your details on.

Paul's site, including his blog, is at http://pwcom.co.uk/ and he also has a huge amount of presentations viewable at http://www.slideshare.net/EEPaul