Digital Dad®

MeeHive is YourHive

I think I was reading a Sunday NYT when I came across Meehive. I’ve always been interested in news aggregators and I may be the last person actively using my.live.com. Doh.

In any case MeeHive takes your interests and builds a real-time newspaper out of it. It has a cool aggregation and formatting algorithm that presents all of your stuff in a way that is an easy read and scan – a big improvement over Google Reader, for example. It also adds in hot Twitter topics and other recommendations for productive exploring.

One thing it’s missing is an OPML file import, a geeky feature but for those like myself that maintain my OPML file like an english garden it’s an easy way to get all of your interests imported.

It does have a way of inviting friends and I think I can share my “Hive” with friends, but so far none of my invites have been accepted. Boo hoo.

It doesn’t have a mobile web site (bummer!) but it does have an iPhone app (double bummer!). Just kidding.

Not sure I really need to say this, but it’s free. 

Universal Wish List

Not sure if wish lists take the fun out of birthdays and holidays, or do they help your friends and relatives get you something you’d really like?

I prefer to look at someone’s list and then come up with something in the same zone, but not necessarily the same item.

My son and I keep our list very much up to date, and I suspect he takes a pretty literal view of his list. That’s what you do when your nine.

I found an interesting new feature (new for me, at least) on Amazon – a universal wish list bookmark. Check it out here. You add it as a favorite and when you see something you like, on any web site, you hit the button. The Favorite captures the web page and puts it nicely on your wish list.

Pretty cool.

Blackberry out, BlackBerry In

The Oxford Dictionary for Children is removing a bunch of “nature” words, like blackberry and dandelion in their new edition so they can make way for “tech” words like MP3 and  . . . Blackberry.

Apparently they are keeping the word “moron.”

Gotta Love The Simpsons

Kind of says it all.

The Campaign and Kids

We're having a healthy discussion about the Presidential race in our house. My oldest is eight and we're talking about the process, who's running, what kind of President each child would like to see as our leader. My son even has a laminated placemat of all of the Presidents at the dinner table and is getting pretty sharp on Presidential trivia.

These days the candidate sites on the web are good safe sources for kids to learn more. I'd like to see actual "kids" sections that had a bit more explanation (anyone see these out there?), but the collection of video is pretty good.

I avoid YouTube due to just too much garbage and crude and explicit comments from users.

My favorite is BarackTV but each candidate has their own version.

Talk About It

Have you seen the new Ford Escape ad?

The daughter asks her Dad to drop her off before they get to their destination because her friends all have Hybrids. When the Dad informs her that his truck is a hybrid she asks him why he never said that.

His response? "I didn't think I had to," inferring that it's a negative to actually talk about being environmentally aware.
Hey numb-nuts Ford owner - talk about it, especially to your kids. They're counting on it.

Strangely, I also get the occasional comment that since this is a "tech blog" I should avoid talking politics here.

Here's the payoff - every Friday night at Shabbat we pass a question around the dinner table for everyone to answer. The latest one was about something you wanted to fight for in the world. My daughter talked about helping animals, I talked about global warming, and then it was my eight-year old son's turn.

"I want to end that war, the Iraq War. As far as I can tell all wars are bad so this one should end."

My son is in an enrichment program at school, builds Snap Circuits and robots, and read all the Harry Potter books in the second grade - but that is the smartest thing he's ever said.
He's not afraid to talk about it and neither am I.

Save the planet and end the damn war.

DadLabs

Here's an interesting site that came up in the comments - Dadlabs.

I especially liked their video podcast on the topic of "To Beer or not to Beer. Your kids birthday party is coming up - should you tap the keg, or keep it drier than a new diaper?"

My take? OK at a BBQ, not cool at an indoor kids-only party.

Everyone's a Critic

I received a LinkedIn update recently about a colleague from way back. He started a company that was bought by Phoenix Technologies, my old employer, and then he left to found another company that was acquired indirectly by Yahoo. Eventually he left tech to focus on woodworking.

Through the update I found his new project called Toolcritic, a web site devoted to the discussion of tools - woodworking and otherwise. Post your own review of a tool or just browse the site to read some really extensive hands-on reviews by ordinary folks. Post five reviews and you get a free t-shirt!

I posted about my Wagner Power Painter - quite a handy tool for painting my deck, and a good price to boot.

I'm not a super handyman but it's a cool site to get the low-down on what tools are working for others.

Podcasts on the road

I am on the road this week, hitting focus groups in San Diego, Chicago and New York over three days. Quite a run.

As you know I've been beta-testing the new Zune software, which rocks, and a new Zune 8 is available for me to test when I return to the office. I can't divulge much more but one thing that the new Zune software re-introduced for me was podcasts and I am listening to them on the plane as I write this. 

Podcasts have been around for a few years, initially popularized by Adam Curry of former MTV fame. They are basically a big long MP3-type file that is typically spoken word or sometimes video. You subscribe to them and get fresh ones downloaded every so often, depending on how prolific the author is.

The Zune software does a great job of finding these and pulling them in to your PC or Zune using wireless sync. I've loaded up my Zune 30 (new firmware load) with a few of these. They do make for good entertainment on the plane and i suspect commuting as well. Part of their charm is that anyone can publish podcasts, so you get a wide range of topics, production quality and content. I'll give you two examples.

The first is the Writer's Almanac, published by Garrison Keillor. Some of you may know Mr. Keillor from his Lake Wobegon books or his Prairie Home Companion radio show on NPR, both highly recommended. The Writer's Almanac is published daily and is only five minutes long. Mr. Keillor runs through famous authors' birthdays and provides some good commentary and back story on each one. He ends the podcast with a poem from a famous or not-so-famous author. Cool.

The second example is Trucker Tom. He is a trucker that drives around the US and is pretty tech-savvy. The recording is very casual and somewhat rambling, running around 45 minutes. I heard him eating his breakfast on a recent episode and scraping the empty plate into the sink as he described buying a new router and sending back his Skype phone. His plain-spoken discussion of technology was entertaining.

That was the first part of his show. The second part included him reading listener email and the tone changes a bit. Tom appears to be a bit farther right than G.W. Bush and it sounds like his listeners may be even farther. To each his own but at that point it went from entertaining to uncomfortable so I stopped listening.

In any event, I will dig into these podcasts a bit more and find a good subscription list. I'll also be looking for some that are appropriate for young people as my eight year old son might enjoy hearing these as he goes to sleep. If you have any recommendations then please send them in.

Off to Chicago!

Giving

October is the month for Microsoft's Giving Campaign, which has raised billions of dollars for numerous charities through employee donations and Microsoft matching funds since 1983.

I just need to go to an internal Microsoft site to donate straight from my paycheck, donate per pay period, or request matching funds - pretty cool. There's a bit of competition between divisions to see who can raise more, but it's a good way to focus the resources for 80,000+ people for good causes. 

I donate to a bunch of causes and I added a new one today called Farm Sanctuary. From their web site:

Farm Sanctuary is a national, non-profit animal protection organization. Each year we rescue, rehabilitate and provide lifelong care for hundreds of animals rescued from factory farms, stockyards and slaughterhouses. In addition to operating the shelters, we work to gain legal protection for animals used in food production and to raise public awareness about factory farm cruelty and cruelty-free alternatives.

My friends are participating in a walk-a-thon for Farm Sanctuary and I installed a widget from firstgiving on the top right part of this site where you can donate and track their progress. Neat!