Digital Dad

YASIMH (yet another screen in my house)

I introduced a new screen into the house this past weekend.

Most of the day it stands on an arc stand on my bedside table showing off photos, but I can pick it up, browse the web, read choice NYT articles, check Twitter/FB or catch up on email.

It's an iPad, the 16Gb WiFi model, and it is unnecessary. That being said, I like the direction this class of device is going. My previous tablet was made by Siemens and ran Windows CE! Quite old school with it's Compact Flash WiFi card.

I am posting here from my Delta flight going back east for a few days. It's ideal for these ridiculously cramped seats. I took my company Dell m1330 as well - quite indispensable for "real" work like Outlook/PowerPoint/Office, RASing into the network, etc. Gartenberg may be able to pull that off, but not me. Typepad, if your listening, I need a proper blog posting app for iPad, or perhaps my brethren over in Windows Live Writer could fill the gap. Posting on the Typed web site from this is painful and incomplete (can't seem to add hyperlinks).

Typing is slow on this, maybe half the speed or less. I didn't buy one of those cases/stands that enables me to view/type on an angle yet, so I am one handed typing most of the time. Right now I have my ZuneHD propping it up.

I have my Zune with me as well because I have a ZunePass and I can't get that content on the iPad. Ideally I should just be streaming my library from zune.net, but this doesn't support Silvelight. And and and.....

The iPad has it's limitations. I also can't seem to connect to my other computers, so even when I am home I can't point it to all of my music, photos and videos and say "just deal with it." If you want photos, videos or music on this you can either buy it from iTunes, or side sync it with a cable. No WiFi sync either. I forgot how retro iTunes is after using the Zune software. Ouch.

A few days with the iPad led me to this YASIMH (yet another screen in my house) rule - screens should not have their own disconnected databases. That goes for PCs, consoles, TVs, photo frames, tablets, phones, etc. In 2010 we can do better - can you imagine if you had one PC with some of your email, and another PC in the house with the other part? Sounds kind of nuts, so why do we put up with it for photos, music, videos, etc,?

It gets worse when the screens create content, not just output content. Much worse. Once you put a camera on the screen you now need all of that original content flow somewhere central, otherwise you'll get islands of memories everywhere. When I download a song here, it just needs to show up there - period. No cables, just pure air. Why not?

One final benefit of the iPad is that it keeps my work mail on another machine. Creating a little distance, a little buffer, is a good thing. Remember, Thoreau's house was in the woods, but it was still pretty close to town.

Any suggestions on cases and apps?

Annual IT Visit

I am finishing up some vacation time here on the east coast (self evident from those following my tweets), but one of the items on the list is doing a top to-bottom IT check up of my Dad and his wife’s computer systems.

They have two machines – a Dell that we picked up new last year with a 24” Acer display, and a Toshiba “schleptop” with a 17” display, and two printers, both HP scanner/combo units. Linksys 802.11g router.

Job #1 was to upgrade the Dell from the Windows 7 RC from last year to a full retail Windows 7 Home Edition copy. The RC had already timed out such that the background wallpaper was black it shut down every two hours. Given that this PC is used mainly for email this was not that big of a deal, but it’s annoying and you could potentially lose your work if it shutdown while you had files open. I was offered to do an in-line upgrade but I went with a clean install after moving the files off using Windows Easy Transfer. WET is a great tool for a complete move, although it is pretty dang slow. Install went without a hitch.

The notebook is running XP SP3. I thought about doing a 7 upgrade on it but it’s chugging along just fine and I would rather not potentially break something that is working well. It’s an older notebook (circa 2005), likely with some funky Toshiba drivers, so better to leave that alone. I did do some file cleanup and desktop clean up, and installed Microsoft Security Essentials with a full Windows Update. I also ran msconfig to remove a bunch of startup stuff that had appeared there.

I downloaded the Windows Live Essentials pack, and downloaded the beta to the Windows 7 machine, so the Windows Photo Gallery was fully set up and easily accessible. WPG has really come along, especially the new beta (too bad the beta is for Vista and 7 only). I am keeping all of the images on the Toshiba upstairs, but I am sharing the folder so it shows up in the Pictures Library of the 7 machine. One area for all pictures with WPG pointing to it on each machine. One gripe on WPG is that there is no clear way to upload pix to get printed. You can “share share share” but what about plug-ins to upload to a printing service?  At least Kodak?

They also have a DSL connection with Verizon and this is the biggest issue for them. This connection is rated at 768Kb/sec and using Speedtest I am luck to get 500Kb/sec. That is dog slow. Barely passable for one PC but terrible if both are accessing it. Pretty much kills the vid con scenario. My brother had his iPad here and it slogged for the whole week. Faster speeds cost more, so that is something to look into, but 768Kb/sec these days is just ridiculous for Verizon to even charge for – they should bring that up to a minimum 5Mb/sec as a baseline offering. Might make sense to go to Comcast.

I also set up Windows Remote Assistance on both machines so they can send me a ticket code in case I need to log in remotely. Done until next year!

Capital of the Vast Republic - a week in D.C.

We just finished nearly a week in Washington D.C. – myself, my wife and our three kids –  ages 5, 8 and 11. It was the first time for any of them and the first time I had been there in at least twenty years. My defining visit there was when I was eight, I believe, with my family.

I set up the trip so we would not be rushed. There’s a ton to see there and the last thing I wanted was to feel like we needed to schlep everywhere to get it all in. Yes, we schlepped, but we also took our time. We had five full days there. It was during “high season",” just before the July 4 week, and the weather ranged from warm to freakin’ crazy uncomfortable warm. Typical Dad uniform – t-shirt, shorts, baseball cap and Converse slip-ons with Dr. Scholl’s gel insoles. Gellin’!

I found a good deal at Embassy Suites on 22nd Street. A few blocks from DuPont Circle Metro, you get two rooms, one with two Queen beds and the other with a pull-out Queen sofa bed. Two flat screen TVs, fridge, microwave, big bathroom, free breakfast, nice if smallish pool, etc. The kids thought we were at Buckingham Palace. Tip: pay for the room in advance for a big discount.

We did not rent a car. Given the Metro and cabs, and lack of parking, there’s just no point in wasting the money. You can even Metro it from Ronald Reagan airport into the city. As for the Metro, I just bought some pre-paid tix on the first day for each family member – $20 each. At the end of the trip I still had almost half left on them, so I would suggest going with $10 and seeing how it goes – you can always add fare. The Metro is clean, pretty clear and has plenty of stops in key places. Yes, there is some walking involved but it won’t kill you to get some exercise. When we needed it we fit five of us into a cab.

Months ago I contacted our congressmen’s office to arrange some tours. Back when I was eight you just showed up. Now, post-9/11, you need scheduled tours that include social security numbers. Also I am not a fan of Dave Reichert I was impressed by their tour booking operation (I am still voting for Suzan DelBene in November, not just because she’s a Democrat, and not just because I used to work for her). You need to book tours for the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, etc. We did not get into the “first come first served” WH tour but we made it into Congress and the Supreme Court. Make sure you ask for the permissions to actually see the House in operation (you need a separate rectangular sticker), otherwise you get the perfunctory tour from folks in red blazers.

Supreme Court was very cool – spent time in the actual court room hearing about very interesting history.

We also spent time at the Smithsonians. All the museums are free, which counterbalances the outrageous prices for lunch in the cafeterias. American History, Natural History and Air & Space were all big winners.

Coincidentally we were in D.C. at the same time as friends of ours from our neighborhood so we teamed up for sightseeing and a night out. This enabled me and the other Dad, with his two oldest sons, to visit the Holocaust Museum while the rest of the gang hit the Smithsonian American Museum. This is a fantastic place but I will caution it is not for kids. Not even close. I would suggest 11 and up, even then it is pretty severe. Walking through the rail car that transported my ancestors to their deaths, seeing the crematorium ovens, the piles of kids shoes – very heavy duty. It took me two hours to go through the permanent exhibit and it was a chilling experience (literally, they must have had that place at 60 degrees).

Other big highlights:

• Georgetown – we walked down M street the first night with nice restaurants, shops, etc. Ice cream on 31st and M.
• Big Planet Comics – went here with my son one morning, also in Georgetown, then we walked from there to the Potomac and around to the Lincoln Memorial. Great adventure.
• Frozenyo – a few of these in the city – self serve frozen yogurt shops where you pay by the ounce. Great biz model - tiny real estate, seemed to be staffed by one person.
• Eli’s – excellent kosher restaurant
• Botanical Garden - -on your way to the U.S. Capitol, check this very well done building and set of exhibits.

Gear list: we had three Zunes - two HDs and one "old skool" 30Gb. Content was mainly Rocky & Bullwinkle, Brady Bunch and some choice movies. I tried to keep the media load identical amongst the three devices.I had my notebook for photo management, a Nikon D60 with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses, two KIN phones, and one Droid Eris that I used as the dedicated map/nav device. Helpful tip - if you have a five year-old that doesn't feel like walking anymore, give them a phone with real-time navigation on it - does wonders for their motivation.

Net net, a great time. Kids had a blast, we endured the heat, and I think we had our fill of D.C. until one of our children gets inaugurated.

Post Father's Day Post

Ah the post-Father's Day post. 

When the domain name (and now twitter handle) is Digital Dad you're somewhat obligated to opine. 

I'll avoid the obligatory link-bait on the "Best Father's Day Gifts" or "Best Digital Dad Gadgets" and just cut to the chase: Father's Day is not just a day for your family to shower you with gifts, handmade or purchased online, or give you time to play golf or just hang on the couch - it's a day to take some stock for yourself as a Dad. 

Some of us have Fatherhood as part of a well-crafted plan, others have it thrust upon us. Many of us had fathers we knew, some we did not. What does Fatherhood mean to you? Are you a teacher, a role model? Are you making the best of the situation? Are you human and make mistakes? Are you "in the present" and understand that time with your children is finite?

I've had a few new Dads on my team at work. My advice: "You can never buy your kids too much ice cream."

BTW - my family bought me a cool Washburn Travel guitar. 

Happy Father's Day.

What Does All of this XBOX Stuff Mean?

Wow - I am pretty psyched by all of the announcements at E3. The living room is going to get very interesting this fall. Here's my take on the Digital Dad impact:

KINECT - yeah, I liked the name Natal as well, but my kids kept calling is "Natle." I also dig the KIN part :) This is a game changer, a potential Minority Report moment in everyone's living room. This also gets all of us in the game, literally, and off the couch. I am not allowed to reveal my beta testing experience, but trust me - I am breaking a sweat! I can already imagine the demos and lines in Best Buy for this - huge viral retail experience.

NEW CONSOLE - built-in 802.11n and a 250Gb drive? Nice. Now that we have Netflix et al on XBOX it becomes a real viable option to put several around the house. It would be great to see a console SKU targeted at this kind of use - $149 or less.

ESPN - Woo! I am psyched to see this in action. Inasmuch as KINECT gets me off the couch, this gets me back on the couch :)  The preview says 3500 sporting events to choose from? If I can get my Yankees and Giants I will pay a big premium! I would love to see an MSNBC type program here as well.

ZUNE -  Did you noticed that Zune Pass will now work on XBOX 360 by this fall? That means the ZunePass you buy for your PC, or your KIN, will also work on your XBOX in your living room/family room/bedroom. Harking back to my comments about getting multiple XBOXes around the house, this could be a big winner.

Good stuff, looks like a very strong upgrade in the right direction. One conspicuous absence from the recent announcements - where's Hulu?

Router Router

After my old (not too old – two years?) Linksys router up and died on me for no reason I had to swap back to my backup Buffalo 802.11g. It’s a fair unit but once you get used to 802.11n speeds it is a noticeable lag to go back. Plus. the 802.11g routers don’t seem to have the range of the 802.11n and I was clearly on the edge of my network in several places around the house.

Loyal readers may note that I had a Linksys router die on me in 2004, to be replaced by the now “backup” Buffalo. Some things never change!

I went looking for a new router and hit eBay. I had three criteria:

1) 802.11n

2) Some antennas for better range

3) Cheap

eBay delivered with a “new in box” D- LINK DIR-615 which I picked up for $40. It has antennas, it has 802.11n.

The set up was pretty easy, although there were all sorts of warning stickers to run the CD first. I use this router to connect to my cable modem, of course, but there is no PC attached to it, so I heeded the ominous warnings by taking a notebook, connecting it with ethernet to the rig behind the TV, and then running the CD from there. Windows 7 also has a slick router set up and when a new one is detected you simply enter a PIN on the router and it configures it for you. Neat.

The performance is great – seems like I doubled if not tripled the reception at the ends of the house and my Speedtest is clocking in north of 20Mbps at the Kitchen PC. Zoiks!

This Won’t End Well

Terrifying robot police car hunts down speeders like a Terminator (via DVICE.COM) – seems like a good idea on paper, but the whole “robots taking over the world” thing here kind of creeps me out.

I much prefer the scowl of a State Trooper behind mirrored sunglasses. At least you can attempt to explain yourself. 

Fortress of Solitude

Interesting visual article on the “man cave.” I like the Fortress of Solitude reference.

http://realestate.msn.com//slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=24358895&ocid=xnetr2-4#

Coax and Dryer Vents

I am finishing off the laundry room, the result of a recent remodel downstairs. It’s now brand new, with a nice venting system to the outside, as well as a new “old” fixture we used have in our San Francisco house. The monster Samsung washer/dryer units look good recessed into the wall, above which I will install a shelf.

One thing I forgot to have done when we remodeled was to have coax run into this room. It would be nice to have a TV in there and given I am paying for it anyway house-wide I might as well run it more places than less (albeit carefully considering splitters so that I do not reduce bandwidth of my cable mode connection).

So now that laundry room is done sans coax. I have three choices:

1. Run an IPTV type system. Basically, a cheap PC with Hulu and a display. Hulu desktop works with Media Center remotes so this could work, although I hesitate purchasing a bunch of new kit just for this, nor do I look forward to making it “one button simple,” unless perhaps this is an excuse to buy a new Roku box?
2. Run the coax myself. This will be difficult and messy as the wall that faces the front of the house is concrete except the top two feet, and then we have supporting beams. Navigating that infrastructure will be tricky
3. Run the coax through the current dryer vent. This is a large tube that runs from the room to the outside front of the house where I could easily fish tape coax around and in. I would have to make a hole somewhere in the dryer vent tube to accommodate the coax inside the room. My main concern here is any adverse effect this coax line would have on dryer performance. Would one line of coax make that much difference? Positive here is that I have an existing, nice unused Sony TV that I can just plug in and it works.

The Roku/Display route is tempting, as it involved buying new stuff, but the dryer vent angle just seems smart (or very dumb).

Thoughts?

Abraham, Inc.: Klezmer With A Funky Hip-Hop Beat : NPR

Clarinetist David Krakauer is known as both a classical virtuoso and a hard-rocking player of klezmer, the instrumental music of East European Jewry. Several years ago, he connected with DJ Socalled, a young Canadian musician, and started playing klezmer with a hip-hop beat. Now, Krakauer has added legendary funk trombone player Fred Wesley Jr. to the collaboration, and their band, Abraham, Inc., has audiences dancing in the aisles.

via www.npr.org

Interesting twist on Klezmer with a bit of hip hop and jazz - not as riveting as Matisyahu in my opinion but worth a listen!

Beverage Robot

Sort of interesting, although the Robot looks like a garbage can. Note the cold beverage is a Fresca. This would be a killer college project, although I suspect you would want to speed it up a bit.

A Dozen or So Easy Steps to Get Music Onto Your Droid Over the Air

I sincerely appreciate this blog post but I have to wince when I see what we expect human beings to go through just to get music onto their phone without cables:

. . .

“What you’ll need:
Android 2.0 phone (may work on earlier version)
FTPServer (from Android Market Place)
SyncBack (Windows only)
Wifi Connection

Once you’ve downloaded FTPServer onto your phone, go in and enter in the FTP server information you will use to login.

User – username you will use to login via SyncBack
Pass – password you will use to login
Port – must be greater than 1023 (I used 2000)
Default dir – if you want to start off in a certain directory on the phone enter it here (you must know it though since you can not browse for it)

Next just check “Accept connections” under the wifi name and “Any Network”.

Press “Save and Restart Service” to start the FTP server on your phone. I usually takes around 5-15 seconds for the FTP service to fully start.

Below is how I like to have the files synced in SyncBack but please feel free to play around with the settings to best fit your needs. I use it to sync podcast that were downloaded through iTunes and I want what ever is in the directory on my PC to be what’s on the phone. So if I delete a file on the PC, I want it to remove it from the phone on the next sync.

Next you’ll need to install SyncBack. Once it’s installed open the program and create a new profile. You should be prompted with a “Profile type” menu. I chose “Backup:…” but this is really up to you how you want to sync your files.”

. . .  or just buy a KIN for $49 with ZunePass.

USB and Power Outlet Combo

Looking forward to installing one of these – my collection of USB powered stuff is getting ridiculous.

I am not a big fan of the alignment of the USB ports on the far left – looks odd, but it sounds like UL asked them to do a re-design for safety’s sake.

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http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/22/fastmac-u-socket-delayed-due-to-safety-redesign-now-going-for/

Warm LED Lights?

We recently remodeled a downstairs area of the house where we removed a very cruddy bathroom, laundry room and two small offices and replaced them with three rooms - a new bathroom for the kids, a nice laundry room,and a new bedroom for one of the girls (at some point they will want their own rooms).

The net result is that we had a nice hallway that led to these new rooms, although the ceiling was a bit low and had the heating duct running down the middle of the ceiling..Rather than using recessed cans due to the duct, I went with two small sconces.

The kids like to keep this hallway lit at night and I was hesitant to burn two 60 watt bulbs all night down there. i stopped into Ace Hardware a few weekends ago (Dad + Weekend = Hardware Store) and i saw some new LED bulbs on the shelf. They were shaped like candle lights with the smaller socket, and they were only $10 for about 2.5 years of continuous use, at only 1.5w of power consumption - nice!

I picked up one bulb to check it out relative to the incandescent and you can see the results here:

 
 

The light closer to the camera is the LED and clearly it is "bluer", or has a higher perceived color temperature, than the incandescent farther down the hall.

One thing i learned from my time at E-Color was that the human eye does its own white balance adjustment - white balance is generally relative to whatever else is "white" in the field of view. Therefore my hypothesis is that the warmth of the incandescent was making the LED bulb even bluer than usual.

That was part of it, but when i went back to Ace Hardware i noticed that although I bought the 6500k LED bulb, which is pretty warm on the color temp scale, they also had a 2500K bulb! I bought two 2500k bulbs and tried them out below:

 
 

Now they both look pretty warm. The actual brightness is higher than in the pic.

So now I am consuming 3 watts down there and it looks pretty warm. Costs $20. Interestingly, they don't sell these bulbs at Lowe's, my fav hardware store, only at Ace, so check them out.

New Look!

 After writing this blog for six years now I thought it might be time for a bit of an overhaul! I wanted to clean up the look, eject the Goggle Ads and stuff, and add in more social networking capabilities, like the ability to "Like" each post.

TypePad has been there for me each step of the way so I scrapped my hand-coded template and moved to this new lean theme they developed. 

Whaddya think?

Microsoft KIN

Ah well , yes another extended absence. At least this time I have a decent excuse.

The team and I have spent the last couple of weeks launching KIN, from Microsoft (please note my new Faceboook pic in the right-hand column). I run the Product Planning and Management team there and have been on the project for a few years now in one form or another. It was great to finally get it out publicly and we look forward to seeing it on the shelf in Verizon stores in May! It’s the end of a ton of work but also the beginning of a long journey about what a phone experience could be.

Long time readers of this blog will recall when I worked for a small company in California, and then when I moved the family up to Bellevue, WA, so I feel like launching KIN has been the culmination of a five year journey with Microsoft. Glad I made the trip.

Hope I can post more often now.

Comcastapalooza

Whew, well I have been delinquent in my postings here. A whole month!

I recently returned from Barcelona and Amsterdam after attending the Mobile World Congress, a hullabaloo where tens of thousands of participants in the mobile phone industry gather ever year for demos, sessions, meetings and deals. It was very productive and Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7 Series. It was a big milestone to get that news out there.

Back to DDad stuff. I recently followed up my new TV purchase with the understanding that I needed a new box from Comcast in order to get HD on it. This is a special HD box, and apparently it would cost me an extra $12/month! An HD DVR from Comcast costs me $15/mo. I decided to bring in my DVR at the same time to see if there was an upgrade. Sure enough, there was, much more storage capacity and a touch panel interface (what is the sue fo the touch panel interface on a set top box when I have to get up from the couch anyway? This touch things is getting out of hand).

In order to get the HD box “free” I signed up for a six month low price deal that got me the extra box and also got me IP voice with a new modem. Now, I will need to “sign up for a new promo” in six months when this deal is up, but at least it absorbed the incremental cost of the extra HD box and got me free IP phone service. I still have Vonage active for now, but at this point it’s just a waste of $20/mo.

End result was that I received a new DVR, new HD box, new cable modem with phone line support, all “free.” Hook up was painless although their universal remote is pretty gargantuan. Next up is a TV upgrade for the guest room. No rush.

Flat Panel TVs and Child Safety

Had this come into the Digital Dad inbox and thought I should pass it along:

“It goes with out saying that expectant parents should lock medicine cabinets, pad corners, secure outlets and install gates in order to protect their baby, but a danger that often goes overlooked is the potential for falling/unstable furniture and electronics.

As electronics become increasingly thin, they pose an even greater risk to children who can easily grab them off shelves and media centers. In fact, a recent study found that these types of injuries have increased over 40% in the past 10 years.

Peerless Industries, the maker of the world’s thinnest TV wall mounts, is encouraging parents to place TVs out of the reach of children by mounting them to a wall. Unlike other baby proofing techniques, mounting electronics protects children while simultaneously enhancing the look of a room.”

Hulk Smash Printer

Oy. That Dell 948 was just trouble. I spent quite a bit of time with it to see why I was getting these random white lines across the printouts. i did find a few bits of paper in there but nothing that would obstruct/jam the machinery. I loosened every screw on that thing and still found nothing.

Now it’s in my garage – a very large scanner, basically.

Lessons learned:

1. I bought a new color AND black and white cartridges before testing. I should have just bought one (the cheaper one, b&w) then tested. Now I am out an extra $20 or so.
2. Buy a printer from someone who makes printers.
3. Check warranties. Mine expired in July – not sure that would have helped much here but once your Dell warranty expires you cease to exist.

I did a bit of research for an inexpensive replacement. I figured that anything I get will last two years max, so I kept the search near the magic $99 range. I also needed a scanner for copying dox and scanning photos. The WiFi stuff was optional, but it seems to almost always be included.

I ended up with an Epson NX515 from Amazon. It received a darn good review from CNET and the price was right - $120 with free shipping.

So far, so good – very good. It is fast. Very fast. Printouts look great. Here’s the best part – when you put something on the scanner and hit the scan button – it actually scans, and when you hit the copy button, it actually copies. No weird dialog boxes, driver problems, or hesitations or hang ups. Wow.

Yes, the WiFi does work. I set up my wife’s XP notebook to print remotely. Shockingly simple.

Anyone interested in some very new Dell 948 cartridges?

Evolution of the PC

This was sent in by my brother – how true!