Category Archives: Technology

Leap Motion – First Impressions and Demo

Posted on July 23, 2013 by ricbret

Postman bought my new Leap Motion controller this week. Minutes after installing it (and figuring out I’d placed it on the desktop upside down!) it was up and working. This video is my first few impressions of the orientation application … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Geeking around, Hardware, Media, Personal, PowerPoint, Presentations, Software, Technology, Thoughts | Tagged 3d, controller, cross-platform, demo, geek, leap, Microsoft, motion, ui, user interface | Comments Off

How Screwed-Up is Apple Safari? I Think It Needs Therapy.

Posted on June 23, 2013 by ricbret

Some people think that because I worked for Microsoft for so many years that I’m an Apple hater. Well, that’s not actually true. Fact is, I’ve had a Macintosh on my desks, at work and home, pretty much constantly since … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Geeking around, Media, Organizations, Software, Technology, Thoughts | Tagged apple, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Safari, WWDC | Comments Off

Savino Wine Preservation System Unboxing

Posted on March 29, 2013 by ricbret

Sometimes we have to put the tech, and the presenting and the other stuff geeky aside and just enjoy a glass of wine. But maybe we can combine a few of these. The latest tech in wine storage. The geeky … Continue reading →

Posted in Entertainment, Food and drink, Geeking around, Personal, Technology, Uncategorized | Tagged Kickstarter, Savino, Unboxing, Wine | Comments Off

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 | Comments Off

The First Thing to Do to Your New PowerPoint 2013…

Posted on November 1, 2012 by ricbret

Warning, I’m pretty opinionated when it comes to a garish design that I have to look at for hours at a time. I find it personally offending and I’m not going to mince words here. Luckily there’s a quick fix … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Geeking around, PowerPoint, Presentations, Software, Technology, Thoughts | 3 Comments

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 | Comments Off

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

25 Gigs for Nothin’ And The Clicks for Free…

Posted on April 25, 2012 by ricbret

Ok, I’ll apologize for that title first. Sounded better in my head. Wanted to get this out fast because according to a quick poll of friends a lot of people may have missed the news. Hope you already had a … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Deals, Geeking around, PowerPoint, Presentations, Software, Technology | Comments Off

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

QuickTechThought: Our Red Toaster

Posted on January 13, 2012 by ricbret

Our pretty red toaster died this week. Sunbeam Oster. It wasn’t even three years old. I know, I know, they don’t make things like they used to. But it’s just a toaster, it’s supposed to be pretty fundamentally simple. … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Food and drink, Geeking around, Home and Family, SciFi Fantasy, Technology, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Comments Off

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 | Comments Off

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

This Just In: Microsoft Fails to Get the Macintosh – or just good installation practices…

Posted on October 25, 2011 by ricbret

Just got notified that there’s a Silverlight update for the Mac. OK, I’ll update, what’s the… Wow. The instructions are so dense with unnecessary text, and eventually tell you to first uninstall any previous version, which necessitates removing half-a-dozen files … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Geeking around, Software, Technology, Uncategorized | Comments Off

My iOS 5 Update on iPad

Posted on October 13, 2011 by ricbret

Just finished the iOS 5 update on my iPad 2. Man, what a marathon. It basically needs to back up your data, reset the device, update the OS, then restore your data. So plan for a few hours to completion. … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Geeking around, Random thoughts, Software, Technology | Tagged apple, geek | 1 Comment

Why does this appeal to me so?

Posted on June 15, 2010 by ricbret

There’s something magic about retro tech. Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Geeking around, Technology, Uncategorized | Comments Off