Dr iPad To The ER

The above awesome image was provided courtesy of the one and only DrthGeek

We need to go back a bit to start our story.  Our boys love technology, and quite frankly, I do blame myself for that.  With a geeky dad, like me, did they really ever have a chance?

About a year ago, my wife acquired what we jokingly referred to as her "boyfriend."  The iPad2.  With some of the tax return money for that year, we were trying to decide how we should spend it.  I had decided to go the route of a tablet.  I had done a bit of research, and had convinced a somewhat reluctant wife, that she might enjoy one too.

My plan had been a good one, why limit ourselves to only iOS or Android?  She could get a tablet in one format, and I could get one in the other.  That way, I figured that we could get access to all of the thousands of apps that were available for both systems.  It was a good plan.  The only problem was that the tablet that I wanted, was not yet available, but hers was.  There was only just a slight twinge of envy, seeing my wife getting to play with her new toy, while I had to continue waiting for mine.  She tried to console me, by letting me download a couple free apps on hers, but it wasn't quite the same.  She got to be first (ah, the Geek-ster's lament).

Though initially skeptical, my wife fell head over heels in love with her iPad.  She barely even touched our family computer any more and did just about everything on her new little friend.  A question that almost immediately came up was whether or not to let our two young children (then 3 and 4) actually play on Mommy's expensive tablet.  After some trepidation and with strict supervision, she let them begin to explore it.  As kids are apt to do (see my related article "Rise of the Junior Geeks"), they began picking up on it right away and loved it. Even dad eventually got his baby and with little prompting necessary, I shared the joys of my toy as well.

Soon, they and the tablets were practically inseparable.  My boys enjoyed our tablets so much, that we decided to get them there own "kid" tablets for Christmas.  Looking at our options, we considered the Innotab from Vtech and the Leap Pad from Leap Frog.  We finally decided on the Innotab and awaited the joyous reactions from our kids at getting their own tablets.  Christmas came and the liked them okay, but the strangest thing happened.  They did not stop playing with our tablets.  We had fallen into the parental trap of spoiling them with the good stuff first (who wants to downgrade from a Harley Davidson to a Big Wheel).  Proud of their taste, but ugh!!!!

That brings us to a few months ago.  My son reached for mommy's iPad one day and said, "What's that stuff on the screen?"  I asked him for it, thinking that I would encounter the normal toddler messy finger junk on the glass, but instead I was met with a terrible sight.  Multiple hairline cracks had appeared on the lower left hand corner.  The horror!  Not wanting to see the quick and early demise of my youngest, I decided to break the news to my wife personally.  She was obviously devastated, but she refrained from breaking that particular commandment.

We had pieced together that it had been dropped, and despite the injury, it still was functioning.  Phew!  Keeping it in a leather case, she forwent my offer to have it repaired.  Less than a couple months later, though, disaster struck again.  This time it was Mommy.  Exiting our front door on the way out to church, the iPad slipped out onto the porch.  Had it not been for previous mishap, it probably would have escaped without a scratch.  Weakened, the damage to the glass was much more severe (I could see a sliver of the glass completely missing at the bottom).

This time, there could be no more delays, we had to call in the experts.  I checked around the Internet for some places and prices, when a friend of mine suggested a local company called Disciple Technologies.  We made contact, and their prices seemed reasonable, so we dropped off the precious cargo in their intensive care unit.  A couple nail biting days later, the report came in, the boyfriend had made it through surgery.

We were very pleased with their work and would recommend them to others.  As for the boyfriend?  He spends most of his time in his reinforced, shock resistant case, and...

...yes, the boy forgiven, is even allowed to play with him.  Sometimes.

~TGCD

RIP One Easter Bunny

He was supposed to be a mostly "indoor" dog.  That was my wife's plan, at least, but more and more, it becomes evident that he is not.  She sometimes tries to bring him inside, but normally within a matter of minutes he begins whining like a tired toddler, and barking until she relents and takes him back out.  It's hard to fight those natural instincts.

To say that Buster has a lot of energy, is pretty much an understatement.  He is definitely a bit on hyper side and he tends to make known to you, the pleasure that he has, of you coming outside to see him.  He varies from bounding about, to leaping up towards you (two paws forward, which can be painful at times).  My wife has tried some of the Dog Whisperer techniques to keep him from his ballet like antics, but unfortunately she has not yet tamed the beast.

That brings us to a time near the most recent Easter holiday.  My two young boys and I had ventured into the jungle that we commonly refer to as our backyard (I really am truly hoping that the rain will cooperate with me, so that I can finish mowing it.).  We were playing, kicking a ball around, when we came across a rather gruesome scene.  There, lying next to the garage, were the grisly remains of a fairly good sized rabbit.  Our little Buster had claimed an unfortunate, furry victim.

I had to keep my rather curious young geeks at bay, as they tried to get a better look at the macabre sight.  Reminiscent of a CSI episode, I examined what remained of the poor creature.  Flies were encircling his little corpse like bi-planes around King Kong.  One front leg was missing (I guess it wasn't his lucky one, eh?) and there was a little hole there where it had once been.  The geek in me came out, because to me, it looked sort of like a biology class dissection project.  It was interesting to see some of the inner workings of the little guy.  A little gross, but interesting.

I ushered the boys inside and had to break the news to my wife about what had happened.  It saddened her, of course, that her little baby would do such a thing.  I saw her heading out the door with two WalMart bags, and I said, "No, you are not going to do that."  Besides the fact that I feel a certain amount of responsibility to handle some of those type of things for her, I knew that she can't even cope with the sights or sounds of vomit, much less the little bio-hazard we had going outside.

No gloves were readily available, so I had my wife fashion two impromptu ones out of the bags she had.  With a few more in hand, I set out to do the necessary deed.  Though not trained to do this type of work, I was able to get it accomplished.

So if you didn't get as much sweets during the holiday as you have in the past, now you know.

~TGCD


___________________________________
"Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won't stay there."  ~Clarence W. Hall

Never Lose Anything...Ever?

How many times have you "misplaced" your car keys in the house?  Truthfully, how often do you have your spouse "call my cell" so that you can embark on a listening adventure to find it?  I may have found your new best friend.

I was searching across the internet, and ran into a blog article from http://technabob.com/ about a product called uGrokIt.  It piqued my interest, so I checked it out at http://ugrokit.com/.  A husband and wife team have evidently come up with a way for you to keep track of your items electronically.  Their system uses RFID technology, and helps you keep track of really, just about anything.

Here is how it works.  First, you stick a small tag on items that frequently tend to lose themselves (yeah, I think I'll lay the blame on the object itself), and then you add them to a list.  If you need to find them later, just plug your smartphone into the device, and like a little digital bloodhound, it helps you locate the object.  Pretty cool.

There are no batteries to change, the tags are powered by a tiny antenna and that reflects back the system's radio waves with a special, individual code.  I understand that it works with a series of beeps, that get louder and faster as you get closer (I suppose that you could re-enact a scene or two from the Aliens movie, if you wanted to).  The device range, it says, is somewhere between 6-10 feet.

Okay, now that I have you excited about the prospect, I'll have to tell you that you can't have one.  That is, you can't have one yet.  At the time of this article, they are not commercially available, but the rumor is that they will be, some time in 2013.  The site allows you to be notified by email when they are ready for purchase.

I'm not sure if it works well on little geeks or animals, but hey, I could see tagging a particular cat at our house that can hide better than Waldo ever could.

RFID technology can seem to be a bit ominous (See an article about it from CNET) due to the potential misuses of it, but as a coworker rightly pointed out, almost every technology has the potential for misuse.  Either way, with this technology getting cheaper and more easily available, we will probably see a lot more clever uses to come.

---
"Technology... is a queer thing.  It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other."  ~C.P. Snow, New York Times, 15 March 1971
---

~TGCD

Doggone Dogs And Doorknobs

Let's set the stage.  My two boys were in their normal rambunctious state, just prior to going down for the night. One very tired Mrs. Geek asked a favor of me.  In her most humble of voice, she asked if I would "have a heart" and let her dog in when I came to bed.  (I use the title of "her dog" for a variety of reasons; longer than I could get into in this post)

;-)

At about 1:30 am, I remembered my promise, and feeling a bit tired myself, made my way back to the back door to let him in.  I unlocked the latch and turned the knob, with no perceptible result.  The door remained stubbornly closed.  Deeming myself to be more intelligent then a doorknob, I kept trying various ways to get it open.  Despite all of my probing, prodding and pulling, the lock remained firmly in place.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

It is important to note, that her dog, as well as the juvenile delinquent neighbor dog (one who was slated for a "deportation" of sorts after killing one of their chickens) was pawing at our back door and whining in empathy for my struggle.

Time for some proper tools.  Where's the screwdriver?  I knew that I could ask my wife and she would be able to tell me fairly easily where I could look, but the Sir Galahad in me would not allow me to disturb her peaceful slumber.  After multiple looks in all the usual hiding spots and traveling past the quizzical looks from our cats, I found my prize.

One phillips head screwdriver later, and I started work on the obnoxious doorknob with a renewed fervor.  I was a flurry of tightening, loosening and poking.  It was obvious that my nemesis was winning this battle.  I resorted to taking off the inside knob completely, but the halfway dismantled apparatus defiantly resisted every attempt of mine to dislodge it.

Having labored for at least forty minutes, it was time for plan B.  Traveling through the house to the front door, I decided to retrieve our little friend the long way (which obviously in retrospect, would have been the shorter way).

Separating the aforementioned juvenile delinquent from Mrs. Geek's very jealous dog, I was able to lead him to the front of our house.  Opening the door wide and in hushed tones, I encouraged him to go in.  No go.  Just a blank stare. More pleading, he just plodded back towards the back yard again.  Uggghhhhhhh!  Not wanting to raise my voice (which is something I am sure my sleeping neighbors would appreciate after 2:00 am) I walked to the dog, hoisted him like a sack of potatoes, lugged him back into our home.

From there, he promptly ran with breakneck speed to our bedroom, bounded to the bed, and did what could only be likened to a WWF dive from the ropes onto my wife's seeping form.  Groggily, she awoke to my apologies for waking her up.  She turned to me smiling and said...

"You know, if it was me, I would have just made him stay outside."

-TGCD

Eeny Meeny Miny-CRAFT

Like the proverbial moth to the flame, I could feel myself being drawn in.

For those of you who didn't know, a "sandbox" computer game came out May 17th 2009 from Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson, by the name of Minecraft.  Though it has achieved an almost cult like popularity around the world, I must say that I had never foreseen that it would become MY latest obsession.

I believe that I was the shocked most of all, to discover that a highly frugal me would be brought to the point of shelling out close to thirty dollars for a piece of software.  Amazed at this turn of events, I decided that I had to document the chronology of the progressive events, just to see for myself how this bit of temporary insanity came to be.

- FIRST SIGHTING: Some time ago I saw a trending video on youtube and did not know what I was even watching.  I was hard pressed to even confirm that it was actually a game.  It featured some bizarre visuals of sheep, men jumping and digging into walls.  I just chalked it up to just one of those strange thing out there.

- SPOTTED AGAIN: Many months later, I saw a cousin's youtube video and a couple of his friends related videos.  I recognized the game from my previous sighting.  The videos featured a creation of some amazing looking buildings that were made out of blocks.  I had thought to myself, "Wow, that really looks like something that could consume a lot of a person's time."  I made a determination then and there, that I should probably avoid getting involved in a game like that.

- THE TURNING BEGINS: I truly believe that I have pinpointed this moment in time as the beginning of the end for me.  Darn you, Luclin Family!  :-)  I happened upon a really neat video where a father and son went through a Minecraft adventure together.  They had recorded the dad's computer screen and both of their voices as they played.  The four part video was entitled Father & Son Escape Island.  It was a mesmerizing to watch these two guys interacting with one another while playing this game.  Their charm started to win me over to Minecraft.  (Note: I have since subscribed to their youtube playlist "Minecraft Family Adventures" and the Luclin Family channel "MinecraftWB" where they feature a new Father and Son adventure series and a new series where even mom gets into the action with them.  It is really a lot of fun to watch, and I would highly recommend that you check them out.)

- IF YOU HANG AROUND THE POOL: Many more months and a couple videos later, I came across the minecraft.net website.  I saw that in addition to a link to buy it, that you could actually play it "in browser" for free.  This intrigued me.  I played the classic single player and it was a decent experience, but truly, it was only a small taste of the product.  Since I always detest creating logins for websites, I did not want to sign up to try out the multiplayer.

- MINECON MADNESS: Just recently, there was a lot of media hype about the gathering called Minecon 2011.  I saw a promotional video and news story about the event, detailing that the full version of the game was going to be released.  The price tag was pretty hefty and I wasn't budging, but I could feel the tug.

- MINECRAFT ON THE BRAIN:  More videos.  The Fine Bros. on youtube, host a weekly web show called "Kid's React"   They show a group of kids various viral videos and such, and record their reaction to them.  On this particular episode, they showed the kids the Minecon promo video, and talked to them about the game.

- OK, I'M IN TROUBLE: On the android market, a free limited version of Minecraft became available.   I downloaded the app, but I knew that it wouldn't completely satisfy my growing Minecraft appetite.

- THERE'S NO TURNING BACK NOW: I went back to minecraft.net.  Okay, fine.  I guess since it IS free, and I guess it's just ONE more login.  I tried multiplayer classic, and started playing the creative version.  Aside from some "drive-by griefing", I had a blast with some of my creations.

- I'VE GOT A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS: I had already told a friend of mine about the growing obsession with the game and that I was thinking of writing up an article on it.  Then the last straw broke.  I found a link to a PC pcgamer demo of the game and downloaded it.  The free demo gives you 100 minutes of playing time (which you can reset with a new world).  It was an older version of the game, but I knew immediately that I was hooked.

So one purchase and a few bleary-eyed nights later, I have to say that I am very happy with my temporary insanity.  I don't know if it is the "man vs wild" aspect, the creative, the adventurer aspect of it (my skin, by the way, is a blocky Indiana Jones) or what, but I do love my Minecraft.

Try one of the links above at your own peril.  You never know, you may not be able to resist the pull either.  (did that sound like a dare?)

I guess that the ultimate proof of infiltration is that I heard my son the other day exclaim, "stinkin' creeper!"  The invasion is now complete.

-TGCD

The Grateful Geek

The internet is full of people giving thanks during this holiday season.  Family, friends and home; all things that this geek is also truly thankful for.  I knew that I wanted to do a post about my appreciation of these things as well.

For this particular post, though, I wanted to take a slightly different tack then the norm.  This Thanksgiving has really reinforced for me, the importance of giving thanks through adversity.  Though my circumstances this holiday were certainly far from horrific, I did find myself in circumstances that allowed me to give thanks through some minor inconveniences and annoyances.

1)  My kids got very sick, the night before Thanksgiving.   Both were coughing and miserable.  One had a temperature of 102.

----Grateful for a good mommy to help them and love them through these times.


2)  The Doctor said take them to the emergency room as a precaution.

----Grateful that we have insurance and that there were doctors and nurses trained and willing to help us.


3)  With the holiday, the pharmacy would not be open until more then a day later.

----Grateful that the hospital was willing to give my child the initial dose to get him through


4)  I was asked not to come see my parents home for Thanksgiving.  There was a fear that I would be introducing a nasty virus to a grandmother and a baby niece.

----While disappointed at not getting to go to see my family, I was grateful for the delicious care package of food delivered to us, early Thanksgiving afternoon.


5)  I kept getting interrupted while messing around on the computer by a wife needing things, one son sick and grumpy, and the other constantly wanting to play with me.

----So grateful for a family who need and value me, and actually want to spend time with me.


6)  Didn't get to sleep in my own bed (the kids were piled in with mom in our makeshift recovery ward).

----Grateful for a roof over me and a relatively comfortable sleep through the night.


7)  I had to try and think up a good post to put up on the blog.

----Grateful for the precious freedom of speech in this wonderful country, to speak my mind to others without fear.  I am also, of course, grateful for you.  You took time out of your day to read this entry, and I am humbled and thankful.

May God bless you and your family abundantly this season.  I hope that you always take the time to look around you and recognize the many things that you can truly be grateful for.

~ ~ ~ ~
I looked for a relevant quote for today, and found two good ones:

"If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart."  ~Socrates

"We have no right to ask when sorrow comes, 'Why did this happen to me?' unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness that comes our way."  ~Author Unknown

Rise of the Junior Geeks

It never ceases to amaze me, how every successive generation of kids, are so inherently able to quickly pick up and adapt to the latest technology.

I saw a video posted online of a woman who filmed her infant daughter, playing with mommy's iPad.  She was opening and closing her fingers, moving and adjusting the picture on the screen.  Later, she handed her daughter a magazine, where the infant took it, and tried to manipulate the pictures inside and on the cover with her fingers.  Frustrated, she ultimately pleaded to get the one back that did something.

The mom's comment at the end of the video was:

"For my 1 year old daughter, a magazine is an iPad that does not work.  It will remain so for her whole life.  Steve Jobs has coded part of her OS."

Okay, I don't know about the whole iBaby inference, but I certainly agree that kids quickly pick up tech.

I had a fun example of this the other day with my just turned five year old.  In the mornings when I get up, I like to grab my tablet to read my Bible, check out the Amazon free app of the day and toodle around a bit until I have to take my shower.  Usually about that time, my oldest is up, and wants to have a go at Daddy's favorite toy.

When I am finishing getting ready, I will have to warn him "You have about two minutes, then Daddy needs to take it with me, so I can go to work."  That day, I decided to give him a treat.  "I tell you what, man. One time offer, just for today.  How about I leave it with you guys this morning, and just pick it up later when I come home for lunch."  He replied in the coolest kind of voice he could muster "Ohhhh Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!"

Later at work, I was regaling my friend at work with this tale, when I realized something.  The Internet on my tablet was still turned on.  Oooops!  I have only been tripped up a couple times by kids making an in-app purchases on my friend, but maybe today I would stay safe.

When I returned from home and checked my tablet notifications, I saw that indeed a purchase had been attempted, but blocked.  I noticed that the airplane mode (block all internet) had been enabled.  Phew!  I thanked Mrs. Geek for switching off the internet for me.  She said that she didn't know how to do that kind of stuff.  Sure enough, I checked with my boy and he had selected the notification bar, clicked on the settings tool, and toggled on the airplane mode.  He had seen that I did that for them, and knew that I would want it done.

That's my little geek!  A computer chip off the ol' block.

TGCD

**Click the picture at the top of the article if you would actually like to order those bumper stickers.  They were a collaboration between Think Geek and another technology blog called Geek Dad.**