Amy S. Chan, tech evangelist

So I carpooled for a couple weeks and love it. Even though I drive a Honda Civic which gets 35 mpg, I still burn a lot of gas on my long commute. I filled up the tank the other week and the charge actually hit the $50 mark!!

I’ve been Googling tips on carpooling and found a couple lists but wanted to compile a comprehensive list of top ten:

1. Agree on the route, pickup point(s), and times. A single pick-up point is recommended for simplicity and efficiency.

 

2. Be punctual.
• Agree on how long the driver should wait if someone is late. 5 minutes is a good rule of thumb.
• If you are running late, let the driver or passenger(s) know when they can expect you to be there with a call or text message.
3. Agree on a schedule for driving responsibilities.
• Find out which members of the carpool will be driving and how often. Will you rotate on a daily, weekly, or monthy basis? Weekly is a good starting point.
• Appoint a backup for each driver.
4. Determine how driving expenses will be reimbursed.
• If there will be non-driver(s), figure out how costs will be shared and when payment is expected. (per day or per mile contribution)
5. Establish a chain of communication.
• Exchange phone numbers and email addresses.
• Let members know ahead of time when you will be away on business or vacation.
• If a driver can’t carpool one day, an alternate driver should be notified as soon as possible.
• If a passenger won’t be carpooling one day, the driver should be notified as soon as possible.
6. Be flexible.
• There will be days that someone will be sick, need to drive in on their own, or will telework and won’t be able to participate in the car pool.
• Let members know ahead of time when you will be away on business or vacation.
7. Be considerate of your fellow carpooler(s)
• Fill your gas tank before you leave. Don’t waste everyone’s time at the gas station during the carpool.
• Adjust the cabin temperature for maximum comfort for all passengers.
• Make sure your car is clean.
• Avoid strong scents that may be irritating to others.
8. Establish guidelines from the start.
• Smoking or nonsmoking
• Food and drinks
• Music, station, volume. (Tastes may differ so you may want to suggest members to bring headphones.)
• Coffee runs
9. Be Safe.
• Maintain your car. Make sure your car is in good repair.
• Drive safely and drive defensively.
10. Give your carpool some time to work. It may take a few weeks to fine tune the details and for everyone to adjust to the new routine. You can also start off on a trial basis for a month or two.

Hope these help you!

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Peter aka Geriatric1927 is age 80 and has been posting videos on YouTube for the last year and has built quite a following. Check out his YouTube profile.

Geriatric1927 has 100+ videos to YouTube and has received many comments on his videos. In fact his first video logs in almost 3 million views and 12,000+ comments.

He says in his first video:

… I really am as old as I look and therefore I think I’m in a unique position. What I hope I’ll be able to do is just to bitch and grumble about life in general from the perspective of an old person who’s been there and done that. And hopefully you will respond in some way by your comments and then I might be able to do other videos to follow-up your comments.

Geriatric1927 has a blog if you’d like to check it out.

Love it! If know of any similar blogs or videos filled with wisdom please post in the comments!

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Steve Job’s keynote at WWDC 2007 has ended. One of the big pieces of news announced is that Safari 3 will be available for Windows users. Up to 2x faster than IE! The public beta has just been posted (2:33 pm EST): http://www.apple.com/safari

Not a surprise as Windows users will be exposed to Safari on the iPhone and now on their PCs as well!

This is going to be exciting to see how much of the market share Safari will take over and if this will force IE to become more web standards compliant and less bloated.

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I’m loving RecruiTV. They’ve put together some videos that give some insight into what students think about video in their job search.

Read the menu or taste the food? (Read: read the job description or watch a video about the job?)

Text vs. Video (Pictures are worth a thousand words.)

Job Candidates: “See Us and See You” (It’s more personal and exciting.)

You can also play these videos using the playlist.

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CBS: Video Resumes Helping Job Seekers
WSJ: Posting Your Resume on YouTube To Stand Out From the Competition
NPR: Job Hunters Seek Winning Edge in Video Resumes
Time: It’s a Wrap. You’re Hired!

Not a surprise as broadband connections, webcams, and Apple computers with built in iSight cameras and video editing software are becoming commonplace.

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In the last couple of months, video resumes have been getting more airtime in the news.

Now that’s a great way for your company to get to know the applicants before meeting them but do the applicants really know your company? Work environment, culture, benefits, perks, career growth, opportunities within the company… not things that are easily communicated via the company’s career website.

And with the baby boomer generation entering retiring age, hiring quality workers to fill the gap will become increasingly competitive. So how do you get the message out especially to the Gen Y’s that are entering the workforce?

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Lifehacker has posted a great keystroke command that allows you to cycle through tabs by using CTRL+Page Up/Down. Great for Excel and Firefox! This is one command I will definitely be using!

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You’ll notice that when you hover over the links in my blog, you now get to see where a link goes before you click on it. Cool huh? To add to your blog, go to snap.com.

Here are some similar tools for your browser. I’m currently using Cooliris.

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Every time I mention the term web 2.0, I get a “huh?” So here are some videos to help explain. (I personally like Jason Goldberg’s explanation.)

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Very similar to my idea in Recruit on YouTube for free, GiggedUp offers employers the ability to post a video talking about an open position YouTube style but there is a fee of $265 per job. Less if you go with one of their packages. And candidates can record themselves answering some interview questions and post the video to the site for free.

I tried to play one of the sample videos on the site but it took a long time to load. It’s in beta right now so they’re probably working out the bugs. But I think GiggedUp could do a better job of communicating what the site can do and for whom on the homepage which states:

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