Paperghost.com

Hooray! Google have finally dropped their idiotic names policy on G+. Unfortunately it's a massive hack job and fails in almost every way imaginable. I'd much rather be called "paperghost" than "Christopher Boyd" on G+. With that in mind, it should be a piece of cake to change it, right? The first problem is a total lack of clarity on the part of Google with regards how to change your details, what works and what doesn't. A quick look at the Google posts on this one [edit - I had links but in keeping with the G+ tone they've fallen off and don't want to stick] and you'll see the first issue: people simply don't know what to click on to change the public facing name.  You'd think this rather basic info would be right there on the Google posts about this brave new world of customisation, but nope...nothing. First port of call is trying to change the name in the custom url pop up, seeing as it's likely the first name related ...

Or extensions or whatever you call them. Anyway, I noticed my PC has been dying a death recently, and with the launch of G+ things just got worse. I had it pointed out to me by my rather awesome co-blogger that apps / extensions / whatever all had their own processes running, even the ones that weren't on your app bar but were still enabled. Come to think of it, I had gone install crazy with the G+ apps and sure enough: Whoops. Six billion disabled / uninstalled items later (including one which was disabled but somehow hogging memory anyway) my PC is back to normal. Thanks, awesome co-blogger, for schooling me in the ways of not being stupid.

Okay, so if you don't want to keep visiting the G+ website every time something remotely interesting happens, you should install this extension for Chrome . It places a little notification box on your app bar, and lets you post from anywhere on the web too which is the main plus point for me. Works like a charm so far.