Category Archives: Personal

Calming Down the Grandpa in Office 2013

Posted on January 19, 2013 by ricbret

I got a lot of good feedback on The First Thing to Do to Your New PowerPoint 2013, thanks and wow – happy to help. So OK, here’s the second thing you should do after you install Office 2013.  It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Geeking around, Health and wellness, Personal, PowerPoint, Presentations, Random thoughts, Software, Thoughts | 6 Comments

Love of Books – An Unboxing of “The Fifty Year Sword”

Posted on December 10, 2012 by ricbret

I’m a big fan of books. Not just the stories, but the book construction as well. From bindings, paper choice, typeset, typography, layout, it’s all interesting to me. Mark Z. Danielewski is most famous for House of Leaves, an inventive … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Design, Entertainment, Geeking around, Movies, Personal, Technology, Uncategorized, Writing | 1 Comment

The Facebook Face Flip

Posted on November 13, 2012 by ricbret

This is not a political post, although a quick reading without comprehension will surely give some that impression. Trust me, and read on. I was reading this evening about how you can actually see people “unliking” Mitt Romney’s Facebook page … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, History, Media, Organizations, Personal, PowerPoint, Presentations, Random thoughts, Technology, Thoughts, Writing | Leave a comment

Four Days to Better Presenting – Yes, You Can!

Posted on August 11, 2012 by ricbret

Oh dear. Another drab blog entry about presenting.  Well, maybe not. If you hear the title Presentation Summit, you might picture an international cabal, those folks from around the world whose job it is to keep presentations bland, sleep-inducing and … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Personal, PowerPoint, Presentations, Software, Technology, Travel | Leave a comment

PowerPoint History, 25 years ago…

Posted on May 25, 2012 by ricbret

This has to be quick.  Sorry for any typos or errors, but I’m packing, medicating, and generally running about today and this could not wait. I got a very nice letter from Bob Gaskins yesterday. If you don’t recognize the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Business, Deals, Design, Geeking around, History, Media, Organizations, Personal, PowerPoint, Presentations, Software, Technology, Thoughts, Writing | 2 Comments

GoPayment Vs. Square – One More Thing, One Less Thing…

Posted on March 6, 2012 by ricbret

I signed up for Intuit’s new GoPayment card system yesterday. Thought I’d share a few thoughts. GoPayment is a way for regular folks to take credit card payments from other regular folks using your cell phone or tablet.  It’s advertised … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Geeking around, Personal, Random thoughts, Software, Technology, Thoughts, Uncategorized | 17 Comments

The Ultimate PowerPoint Survivor…

Posted on January 8, 2012 by ricbret

Here’s a trivia question for you.  PowerPoint has been around forever. Bob Gaskins, the father of PPT puts the start date for the team as 1984.  Lots of great folks have come and gone, and a few have even come … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, History, Organizations, Personal, PowerPoint, Presentations, Software, Technology | 5 Comments

How Facebook Will (May Have Already) F#@k You Up

Posted on December 11, 2011 by ricbret

Really, I’m not doing much here.  Just trying to draw your attention to someone else’s work on how Facebook’s recent bout of ill-conceived changes continue to mess with your privacy, your communications, and your ability to actually use the system … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Geeking around, Home and Family, Media, Organizations, Personal, Random thoughts, Technology | Leave a comment

Nest Learning Thermostat

Posted on December 6, 2011 by ricbret

Last Friday I installed a new thermostat in the house, the first one since we moved in. Now the prior thermostat was programmable, hourly and daily you could configure it to heat and cool as you like.  It made a … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Geeking around, Health, Home and Family, Personal, Random thoughts, Technology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

And about that moon…

Posted on January 13, 2011 by ricbret

Sometimes you just do things for fun. For the last four years I’ve produced a weekly podcast and occasionally written articles for a web site called Fanboy Planet. There’s no money in this, but usually it gets you into conventions, … Continue reading →

Posted in Entertainment, Geeking around, Media, Personal, Random thoughts, SciFi Fantasy | Leave a comment

The Garr Box…

Posted on September 23, 2010 by ricbret

To be honest, I’m having a little trouble getting to the point where I write every day. But I’m lucky, I have inspiring friends who help me get past this without even trying.  Today is Garr Reynold’s turn. It’s Wednesday … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Design, Media, Personal, Presentations, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Resonate!

Posted on September 21, 2010 by ricbret

Nancy Duarte’s new book, Resonate, is in the house. Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Business, Design, Personal, Presentations, Thoughts | 1 Comment

Oh, where to start…

Posted on August 5, 2010 by ricbret

So my imaginary reader, do any of these “resonate” with you? Let me know, I’m feeling some writing coming on… or is that the sore throat? Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Personal, Presentations, Thoughts | 5 Comments

An ending leads.

Posted on May 29, 2010 by ricbret

Forgive me if you’ve heard this one before: I honestly never meant to stay this long. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Personal, Presentations, Software, Thoughts, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A beginning follows…

Posted on May 2, 2010 by ricbret

I must say simply patience. All will be revealed with time. And you’re likely not reading this at all, anyway. Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, Thoughts | Leave a comment