Connected Well - Latest Comments

Re: Google Tasks in a Chrome Browser Sidebar

Robert Merrill — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:38:01 -0000

@Patrick Harrison: There is an "X" in the upper right corner of the tasks popup in Gmail.

I don't know about the Expand Gmail tab, and I am not a programmer for Google, so I didn't change any of the Gmail features.

Good luck!

Re: Google Tasks in a Chrome Browser Sidebar

PATRICK HARRISON — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:12:01 -0000

How do I close the dang Task window that stays open in Gmail?

And what happened to the Expand Gmail tab?

And why did you complicate closing Gmails which now takes
2 clicks rather than one?

This seems to be the way of the future making things more complicated
when trying to make it less.

Re: Novell, Chipotle in Same News Story? Yeah.

Robert Merrill — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:06:12 -0000

Your comment reminded me that I am hungry

Re: Novell, Chipotle in Same News Story? Yeah.

Joe Goss — Mon, 16 May 2011 10:16:23 -0000

This blog post made me hungry.

Re: Android Gets Netflix... Kinda

Robert Merrill — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:30:48 -0000

Update: The post is back with a new URL. Nevermind.

Re: Novell: New, Again

Robert Merrill — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:30:10 -0000

Thanks, Ammon! I appreciate the sentiment :)

Re: Novell: New, Again

Ammon — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:15:53 -0000

I spent two wonderful years of my life working at Novell while I wrapped up my degree at Utah Vally University. The teams I worked with on NetWare and NSure SecureLogin were top notch.

Over the years I've rooted for the Big Red N to pull through and make something of their Ximian and SUSE acquisitions or to at least define some sort of viable long term strategy.

At least now the HQ is back in Provo, where it belongs, and no longer in Waltham.

Good luck Novell, you'll need it!

Re: Google Tasks in a Chrome Browser Sidebar

Robert Merrill — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:27:19 -0000

Note: in application, this "sidebar" lives only inside the browser tab you fire it up in. So, launch it in a tab you will frequent. I'm using it inside my Google Voice tab right now where real-estate isn't crucial. You could have it alongside your calendar or email, although you can launch tasks natively inside gCal and gMail already...

Re: Follow Policy: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, et al.

Robert Merrill — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:38:42 -0000

Interesting enough!

Re: Follow Policy: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, et al.

SocialMediaDirectory — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 19:37:26 -0000

A powerful tool that is often overlooked on twitter is lists. You can still follow all the people who follow you, as a courtesy, and then instead of following your standard timeline, click on the list of people that you really care to follow. This creates a new timeline that will have purged most all of the stuff you don't really want. If someone starts to break your follow rules stated above, you can just remove them from the list and voilà no more tweets from them. This also works great when a person you are normally interested in following is attending a conference/meeting or #chat and tweeting much more than normal, filling your timeline with stuff you are not interested in. After the heavy tweeting is over (meeting/conference/chat adjourned) just put them back on your list.

Re: You Should Apply Yourself – Brian Regan (Video)

Robert Merrill — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:52:29 -0000

"I don't have any thumbs." Does everyone in California need to know this contingency plan? Classic humor by Brian Regan

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Marc Miller — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:49:47 -0000

I probably have a different perspective than most. I spent 30 of my 33 working years in high tech. I spent 2+ years (2004-2006) teaching high school math in an inner city high school. Middle school is when kids decide to drop out. They may not drop out until high school but the decision is made in 6th or 7th grades by stop working. The key is mentors. It is finding someone you look up to and inspires you to want to graduate from high school and then on to college.

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Robert Merrill — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:46:36 -0000

Good thought @maximusimpact. I've owned 4 totally different business in the last 10yrs and I can directly attribute any personal career success to the blood, sweat & tears I put in learning things the "hard" way... which really is the most-rewarding way!

Thanks for sharing!

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

jasonalba — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:49:23 -0000

thanks for the comments - this has been fun to follow.

I honestly can't say I agree with the other advice to follow your passion, learn chinese, learn to program, etc.

With no disrespect to Jeremy or Jennifer or others who have shared their ideas, I think it sounds too cliche or overwhelming for this audience...

They're always told to follow their dreams, but what does that mean? 60 hours of video games a week, because they love it so much?

Regarding Chinese, I learned the other really important foreign language (Spanish). While I love Spanish, and use it every once in a while, I can't say it has had a significant impact on my career, job security, etc.

Regarding programming, I am a programmer, or I was. I was okay, back in the day... I did some fun and cool stuff. But the world of development has changed enough that I really am not a web programmer anymore. Knowing what I know has been awesome so I can talk shop with my dev team, for sure, and it has been a huge, major benefit just understanding this stuff, but if I didn't know the back end I'd just tap into people who did, or only work with programmers I could trust.

Okay, maybe programming is a really awesome skill, at least to have the basics, but I'm not sure I'd have that be one of my handful of tips.

I still go back to starting your own business ... no matter what it is... and learning all the stuff you'll learn as you move forward.

Even if you work for someone else doing the same stuff you won't get the same experience - when it is YOURS you have a sense of pride and go to great lengths to ensure your brand is strong, and you deliver what you say.

Maybe the essence of this advice is to be the person who is completely responsible for the success of failure of what you are doing... ah, the lessons just waiting to be learned in that scenario!

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Michael J. Rowley — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:39:04 -0000

Some great advice given here..

My son is 9 years old and we just started this conversation with him. My Thoughts

1. Education - Regardless of working for yourself or for someone else.. education is always important and can NEVER be taken away from you.

2. Start your own Business - Working for yourself, a 12 year olds lawn cutting business can be the next multi million dollar landscape company. I developed so many important social and business skills from my earliest work.

3. Be Coachable - The days of working for one company for a career are rare... Never let your skills get stale.. I have seen far too many people who relax their way out of a job

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Michael J. Rowley — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:34:09 -0000

Starting a business, or working for yourself is the best way to develop significant life skills, even if you decide to "work for the man" later

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Christina — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:58:42 -0000

I completely agree! Just be proactive, and try as many different things as you can. Growing up I felt like I had to just take a job and do what was expected (which I still struggle with at times) but that's truly not the case, and the more things I've tried the more I've realized that. Really you can do anything!

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Robert Merrill — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:55:17 -0000

@jeremyhanks this is great. I agree... Don't be mystified by things, MAKE things. Plus, communication is the key--in Chinese, too! I will absolutely be sharing this with advice them. Thank you

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Robert Merrill — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:51:09 -0000

".... start a business while in school... start lots of businesses..." not
only is great advice, it looks like my resume :) excellent, real valuable
tips, Jason. Thank you!

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Robert Merrill — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:50:16 -0000

Good comment, Natalie. If it's online, it's searchable... and if it's
searchable, many potential employers can and will be using it to make
judgments about you. Thanks for the comment!

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Robert Merrill — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:48:57 -0000

Good feedback, Deserae. Thanks. I like the part about diversifying
experiences and being involved. You never know what you will like and what
you don't until you try them.

I used to work in the temp-staffing world and many, many people got not only
a new start in a new career direction by first being a "temp" but they got
to try a lot of things in a short period of time (plus less politics because
you're not there long enough). Often, someone would realize they had natural
skills and talent plus knowledge or abilities that really "clicked" in a
certain line of work and they made the full switch into that field!

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Deserae — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:21:53 -0000

1. Build a strong foundation in education.
It is important to really learn and be proficient in the basics. Don't do your homework just to get it done. Do your homework and study to LEARN the material. You are learning the skills that will be built upon in the future.... avoid a shaky foundation.
2. Diversify your experiences
Be involved in school, community, and the arts. Don't be so focused on developing one area. Learn about the world around you by taking advantage of the opportunities presented to you. Being well rounded will increase your understanding of the world, help you have deeper thinking and analytical skills.

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Natalie — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:29:44 -0000

More than anything, be your own person. And after that, do what's most important to you and take the steps you need to be the best person you can be. A small decision that involves doing whatever your friends are doing can largely change your life in the future more than you may realize. Also, as stated above, watch carefully what you post on facebook and twitter. Sometimes the goofy things we do with our friends don't shine a good light on us, and when others see that on facebook, they may not necessarily find it as funny as you do. ;)

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Ash Buckles — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:35:38 -0000

I agree with Jennifer about seeking out a mentor. This is a huge idea for anybody, BTW. I also agree with Jeremy about learning Chinese (or Hindi or Kashmiri).

It should be understood that careers evolving so although you may specialize, you should never close the door on learning anything someone will teach you.

Re: HELP: What Career Advice Would You Give to a Middle School Student?

Steve spencer — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:10:52 -0000

I remember when I started my first day at Unisys... I was just 18 years old. We went up that day to work on a broken monitor. The person training me told me to pull the back off of the monitor. Right there on the back was a sticker that stated "Only to be opened by qualified repair person" or something similar.

When I pointed this out in distress to my mentor, he chuckled and replied "Ya, that's us." I didn't know anything about fixing monitors. But I pulled the screws, and we fixed it.

That lesson has stuck with me in life. I have fixed several dryers myself just because I had the guts to pull the screws on the back and look inside.

People need to learn that there is no black magic to doing things. there isn't some skill everyone else had, or secret that everyone else knows. Just have the guts to start trying. Don't wait for someone else to show you or to figure it out for you. You have the internet... You can find info on how to do pretty much anything. Want to sell stuff on your own web site? Do it. don't whine about not knowing how to build sites. Put one foot in front of the other and just do it.

I think that this ties in to the idea of being an entrepreneur. Kids think they just need to take a job. I think it is important that they understand that they can do things too. They need to be curious about how business works, and realize that they can pull the screws on that monitor case as well.