November 22nd, 2005
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Normally I’d simply add this to my del.icio.us bookmark list but since it’s a javascript bookmarklet, I don’t think it will accept it.
This will scan the current web page for an ISBN number, then see if the Cobb County Library system has the book available. Useful for reducing the regular Amazon tithing!
Drag this link to your Bookmarks Toolbar: Cobb County Public Library
Found via Jon Udell’s blog
Tags: Geek
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June 3rd, 2005
Here’s some of the extensions I use with Firefox that make it much more useful than IE!
Googlebar: Adds a Google Toolbar to the top of the browser, Just as featurefull (and then some!) compared to Google’s own toolbar.
Bloglines Toolkit: Adds a small notifier that tells you if you have new Bloglines subscriptions available.
del.icio.us: If you don’t already use del.icio.us, read some of my previous postings about it. This makes browser bookmarking a dream!
BugMeNot: Tired of being prompted to create a login for a web page, just to read one article? Join several others that create “fake” logins and pool them into this resource. No more registering as Amanda Huginkiss who lives at 123 Main Street!
BetterSearch: This improves search pages on Google, del.icio.us, Amazon, etc. by adding thumbnail previews, site info and a bunch of other features to your search results.
Foxylicious: An even better way to sync your bookmarks with del.icio.us than the way I described here.
LiveLines: Adds a notification icon to the bottom of your browser window when a site has an RSS feed. You can configure it to subscribe to the feed via Bloglines.
miniT: Adds better tab functionality such as rearranging them via drag and drop and opening new tab windows after the current window instead of the end of the tab list.
GreaseMonkey: A fairly new extension, this one lets you add scripts to web pages that enhance their functionality. For instance, I use these scripts:
Book Burro: Adds a drop down menu on Amazon’s web pages that compares prices of the book you’re viewing at Borders, Powell’s and several other book stores.
RSS AdFilter: Filters out the ads you’re starting to see in RSS and Atom feeds.
And there’s a bunch more available.
Tags: Geek
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March 18th, 2005
My co-worker and I were talking today about the benefits of getting into an MBA program. The main benefit seems to be the networking that is the inevitable result of being around a bunch of business minded people.
While I agree that’s important/valuable, I don’t know if it’s worth piling on more debt or getting handcuffed to your company’s education benefits program. In the meantime, I’ve been reading many of the books found on Josh Kaufman’s “Personal MBA Program” reading list.
Tags: Life
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December 15th, 2004
Here’s a valuable negotiating technique I often forget, whether I’m in a job interview or trying to sell something. I’ll often say the positive and negative sides, thinking I’m giving additional information when in fact, less is more.
Everything Sysadmin: The right answer
The name for this technique is “playing dumb.” It is a technique that we geeks often forget. We geeks are smart. We get paid for being smart. We get paid for having all the answers. Someone once told me, “My value to the company is to be the guy that knows everything.” That’s us. We’re the smart people. It’s difficult to not give a well-reasoned answer even when it won’t work.
Tags: Geek, Life
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November 16th, 2004
The stereotypical roach coach coffee cup replicated in for home or restaurant use. I’ve got many fond memories of lugging these across campus
Tags: Caffeine
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November 15th, 2004
CobbElections.org - Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration
Interesting to see who people wrote in for the recent elections. Some notable ones were Jesus Christ, Oprah, C. Montgomery Burns, and “I Don’t Like My Choices, So I’m Protesting By Not Voting For Prez.”
Tags: Life
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October 7th, 2004
Some more followup to my earlier posting about better browser functionality…
I use multiple computers (often several in the course of one day!) and subsequently have web bookmarks spread all over the place. I mentioned the benefits of del.icio.us previously but couldn’t figure out a seamless way to get it to work in Mozilla Firefox other than via the plugin for it. Today I upgraded my laptop’s Firefox install to the 1.0 Preview Release. One new feature it added was Live Bookmarks. It’s a fancy way of saying that you can make a bookmark entry dynamic- they parse out each entry in an RSS feed and make them appear to be items under the bookmark.
Big deal, right? Well, del.icio.us also creates an RSS feed of your uploaded bookmarks. So…. you create a Live Bookmark of your del.icio.us RSS feed, place it in your Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar Folder, and your bookmarks are now available as if they were stored locally! I dunno, but perhaps IE has something similar?
Now if only I could figure out a way to import all of my bookmark.html files in batch without resorting to some Perl-fu…
Tags: Geek
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October 6th, 2004
Being a transplanted Yankee living in Atlanta, it’s funny seeing how the cultures mix. Two of my co-workers are from New York but you’d swear they were born on the bayou. Today they were talking about monster trucks and wrestling, loud enough that everyone nearby could hear, when another co-worker IMs me:
He cried when Burt Reynolds shot the country bumpkins in Deliverance
Coffee nearly came out my nose at that point…
Tags: Life
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October 3rd, 2004
Kim is the secret Mav TV champagne granter! She delivers tasty beverages in the still of the night, under cloak of darkness.
–Bill O’Neill
Tags: Life
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October 1st, 2004
What is this, an 80’s sunglasses flashback?
–Bill O’Neill
Tags: Life
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