Itai Boublil

Google Chrome is my favorite browser for many reasons. One of the main reason, though, is the ability to install Chrome Extensions that can make the experience of using the internet to a fun (and addicting) experience.

There are thousands of extensions available on the Chrome Extensions website, and many of them are worth mentioning. Today, however, I am only going to cover one extension that really turned my Gmail into a Social Media central command. The extension is named “Gmail Facebook Integration”, and can be found by clicking here.

This extension will allow you to see friends notifications and newsfeed updates by simply staying in your Gmail Inbox (see photo below, or click here to see full photo). Furthermore, it will allow you to update your Facebook statues and share links on your wall without, again, leaving your Inbox. With Google Buzz, Facebook and Twitter already in my Inbox, I now have total control over my Social Media channels (well, some of them). The extension is fairly easy to install. Once you download it, all you have to do is allow it to connect to your Facebook, and viola! You have Facebook in your Gmail (Note: it will only work if you are using Google Chrome as your browser).

I want to mention that the Extension is not perfect, and there are many Facebook features it does not support yet. But, for the purpose of checking newsfeed updates, commenting on friends status updates, and updating your status it actually does very well.

Click the image blow to see the full description:

Gmail Facebook Integration

I am a big fan of Egyptian movies. I remember that as a kid growing up in Israel I used to watch Egyptian movies every Friday at 5:00 in the afternoon with my parents. It was when Israel had only one TV channel, and watching the Egyptian movie on a Friday was quite the tradition at that time.

Last night Irm and I watched the The Yacoubian Building (Rented from here). The movie, almost three hours long, was brilliantly directed and written.  Briefly, it revolves around many different characters -which either live or work in the building-that come from different social levels in the Egyptian society. The characters introduce different personal stories anywhere from love, self recognition, meaning of life, frustration, corruption, politics, and much more. I do not want to elaborate too much, as I might ruined it for you.

The Movie, also, features one of my favorite Egyptian actor, Adel Imam, which I think is a brillant actor.

I highly encourage you to rent this movie, you will not be disappointed.

Human space flight is associated with losses in muscle strength, bone mineral density and aerobic capacity. The ability to estimate the physical cost of exploration tasks, monitor crew health and fitness, and to provide effective hardware for exercise countermeasures use will be valuable in supporting safe and successful space exploration.

A few weeks ago my boss, Matt Brzycki, and I were approached by Mike Paluszek, the president of Princeton Satellite Systems, who offered us to be part of a team that is developing an exercise device for NASA to be used in space.

Our role in the team is to help design an exercise device that is 20 lbs or less including all accessories (or demonstrated to be within this allotment for a flight unit if the ground prototype exceeds 20 lbs), require no vehicle power to operate, include materials/components that can be flight certified and do not pose risk to the crew vehicle/habitat, and can be stowed within 1 cubic foot of space aboard the Orion vehicle.

To add to that, it must be a multi purpose device, i.e. covering all muscles in the body. This is not easy to do, but I guess everything is possible when you are dealing with NASA.

We had a productive meeting yesterday, where we discussed a few good ideas that I think will work best.

I spent a good three hours this morning sketching the device, trying to think of ways to make it work on all muscle groups. .

I came up with 4 possible initial models, but the final design is far from being done.

I want to say that I am thrilled to be part of a very brilliant team of engineers, and even more thrilled to work on a project that, if approved, will help astronauts avoid some of the  physiological issues that are associated with staying in Zero gravity out in space.