Author: Tim

New Google Meet Extension

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In today’s remote workplace, often Google Meet is the primary way companies communicate. I often chat with a coworker then realize a video call would make it quicker to come to a solution. This usually involves opening a new Chrome tab, browsing to https://meet.google.com/, clicking on the new meeting button, copying the URL, and sharing the URL in chat. These few extra clicks gave me the idea to create a one-click solution using a Chrome Extension called New Room for Google Meet.

The extension is simple and does the work of creating a new Google Meet Room and copying it to your clipboard. Chrome extensions are great for small utility programs that enhance your web browser. If you are a Google Meet user, check out the extension and let me know if you have any additional ideas for features or similar tools. Pro tip: Google offers a few shortcut URLs for creating new Docs(docs.new), Sheet(sheet.new), Slides(slide.new), and Meet(meet.new).

Click here to Install the Extension

Bean to Brew Coffee Maker Tchibo

Tim 2 Comments

If you enjoy a good cup of coffee, you know there is a big difference in taste when it comes to freshly ground coffee. And if you have ever ground your coffee, you know it can make a mess and take some extra work/time. I was in the market for a new coffee maker but wanted to avoid the Keurig-style machines due to the pods and regular drip coffee machines. I considered going full expresso and getting the Breville Barista Express, but I was looking for something more convenient and affordable. That’s when I discovered the idea of bean to brew machines. They offer the same convenience as a traditional coffee maker but with the added quality of freshly ground beans. I decided to try the German-made Tchibo Fully Automatic Coffee. Read More

Dynamic Social Media Share Images

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To improve the experience when sharing an AtomicQuote URL on Twitter or Facebook, I needed to dynamically generate share images that include the quote and author with multiple background images. To do this, I could have generated millions of photos. Based on the number of quotes that AtomicQuote currently has, this would result in 17,673,360 images. Each image is around 60kb. So to store all the images, it would take over 10 TB of storage. To avoid paying for this storage, I planned to generate them on the fly and cache the result for a few days. So far, this has worked well and has improved the sharing of quotes on social media. See the example below: Read More

Introducing AtomicQuote

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I’ve always been a fan of quotes. Quotes can motivate, inspire, teach, and more. When things get tough, many people turn to a motivational quote for a bit of inspiration. We are most open to change when we feel change is needed. So, we search the web when we have had a tough day at work to find that perfect pick-me-up quote to feel just a bit better. Once we locate the excellent quote, we are filled with inspiration and motivation and may have the courage to take on the world.

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