Heather, On Tech

Forget "Pre-Teens" - What About Younger Kids?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been awhile since I posted, I know.  Today's going to be a good one though.  It's not really about a gadget, but it's a rant on something that needs to be addressed by the world, like NOW, because wake up people!

I have two boys, ages 6 and 8.  Believe it or not, they can read!  And even worse, they can write!  Oh my God, can you believe it?  Guess what else?  They have their own computers!  I realise that last part may not be completely mainstream yet, but as life and technology have evolved, more and more children - and I mean really young ones - will have their own computers, or at least access to them all the time.  Mine have had their own computers since they were roughly two years old (both my husband and I are software developers, and when you get a new computer every two years, you tend to accumulate them - may as well put them to good use).

Both of their machines are set up in a "public" area of the house - namely the family room.  They have no privacy while surfing the Internet.  But that doesn't mean that I'm sitting right there with them, either.  They are old enough to type in their own searches and look for and view whatever they want to on the Internet at their leisure.

Now, before you misunderstand and think I feel there should be parental controls on everything, please finish reading.  I know there are plenty of parental-type controls to install (remember what I do for a living?  I spend much of my time on the Internet myself).  I also know that a lot of those controls are all-encompassing for your household (if you block a site at your router, you're screwed; using online family tools requires everyone to sign up (sometimes); it's a hassle because frankly, there are plenty of sites that have perfectly suitable content for my children as well as things that are completely unsuitable for the entire world to see).  So, basically, I'm not talking about a children's browser or parental controls.

For instance, my kids adore YouTube.  There are plenty of child-friendly videos on YouTube that I let them enjoy, that's perfectly suitable for them to watch (and gasp! even age appropriate!).  The rub is that while they are searching for Harry Potter, they may stumble upon something that isn't really Harry Potter related, despite being tagged as such (for instance, a teenager home-made movie with lots of blood and gore in it and one of the characters is dressed up like Harry Potter).  I have no problem with those types of videos per se, and I certainly don't think they should be banned.  What I do think is that if you're going to have parental controls on your web site, they need to address the fact that people under the age of 13 are viewing it.

Now, I'm picking on YouTube because they are the flavour of the day (and the current problem in our house).  However, to their credit, they do mention that only people 13 and older are allowed to create an account.  I also have no problem with this; it's their business and they have the right to do that.  I just wish there were a way to convince them that really, just because a six year old has an account, they can still read and write, and they can type their own stuff in - and wouldn't it be nice to treat them as the (somewhat) responsible children they are and flag the material that's appropriate for them, just like the pre-teens?  What a concept!  It's what, one more record in a lookup table, right?  If the content is being flagged by the parents anyway, why not allow younger kids to sign up and be protected?  What about something like Fred?  My kids adore him, and he's perfectly safe for them to watch.  Why not let them?  Because if they type in "Fred" as a search item, they are also likely to get "Fred Kruger" of A Nightmare on Elm Street fame, which I don't want them watching.  If they were 13, I wouldn't care so much, or at least they would be better able to understand that the boogeyman isn't real.

And yes, I know there are plenty of sites out there for kids.  My boys actually spend a lot of their online time on Webkinz.  They've tried Club Penguin but my oldest found it boring.  We've checked out a few of the other online things for kids but they are either too new when we check them out (read: there are no friends to play with there) or it's made for kids five and under.

No, I'm not trying to absolve myself of any responsibility of protecting them.  I'm just saying, if you're going to have a policy for protecting children, it's time to go younger than 13, or even 10.  There are a whole bunch of kids on the Internet that are under that age, and who's to say there's nothing on YouTube for them to watch?  Maybe it's a better policy to opt-in on things like that, rather than opt-out?

I'm not saying I have all the answers, because I really don't.  I'm just sick of "everyone" assuming that "Internet safety" applies to ages 10 and up.  It doesn't - it actually applies to everyone, including the youngsters.

End of rant, thanks and have a great day.

iHat MP3 Beanie

So, now it's cold.  I live in Florida, and the high today is supposed to be 46 degrees F.  That may not be so cold to people "up north", but that is usually the low this time of year, not the high.

On days like today, when you want to listen to your mp3 player, but you know, you don't want your ears to get cold, you could try the iHat MP3 Headphone Hat.  It's essentially a beanie with built-in speakers!  Just plug it into your mp3 player and go.

The hat costs about as much as a regular set of headphones, at $25 and can be bought at Gadget4all.com.  Too bad it doesn't have bluetooth/phone capabilities, then it would be perfect!

Hat tip: GeekAlerts

Organize Your Legos With Box 4 Blox

Do you have kids who love Lego's?  Do you have roughly 10,000 of them laying around your house in various areas, and you step on them in the middle of the night?  Do you spend hours a week looking for "that one part" that Junior just has to have right now?

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, you need to read on.

Anyway, other than the blocks being on the floor (for which there is really no cure other than to train your kids well), the other hassle is the question, "Mommy, can you find me some fire?  I really need some fire for this <insert destructive device here>."  (Remember, my boys are just five and seven years old, so "finding things on their own" lasts about five minutes.)  Now the fun begins.

We were keeping all the Lego's in a giant box.  It's actually one of those fold-able cubes.  So, how do you look for a smallish piece when you need it?  You dump out all 10,000 pieces and sift through them.  Sometimes it would take hours of searching.  You can't just pick up handfuls and dump them back in the box; you have to sift through each handful.  Tedious and boring, not to mention aggravating for the kids trying to patiently wait for the coveted block.

So I did some searching.  I didn't want to organize the blocks by colour, or snap them on top of each other, but I wanted to organize them somehow.  Size seemed like the reasonable approach, but how to do it?  Compartmentalized storage is easy to come by; I could use tackle boxes or sewing boxes or little tool boxes or whatever.  But nothing really appealed to me.

Until I started searching on the Internet and came across Box 4 Blox.  It looked a little cheesy, but I thought it was perfect.  It's an inter-locking stack of boxes with smaller and smaller holes in them on the bottom, so the Lego blocks use gravity to sift through.  The smallest pieces end up on the bottom, and the larger pieces stay on the top.  I ordered two sets of them and they arrived in short order.

We've been using the Box 4 Blox or a little over a month now.  I am so happy I bought these!  It's rare that the boys call me for help to sift through the blocks anymore.  They just take the boxes apart and look for the piece themselves.  Everyone is much happier and I don't spend hours looking for that one special pieces.

The box sets are just under $30 but in my opinion they are worth every penny.  I need to get two more boxes, but I'm actually waiting until after Christmas because ultimately I might need about three.  The site claims the boxes hold roughly 1,500 pieces, but I'm pretty sure I got more than that in there.  I did leave the "giant" pieces out though.

The owners are located in New Zealand and email you a few times to keep you posted on when the boxes have shipped, when they should be there, etc.  I like that personal touch, as I am a small business owner myself.  I'm really big on customer service and they certainly provided that (even though I didn't need it for any problems).  Despite them being a world away from me, the boxes shipped from within the US and I actually received them in about a week.

If you need to organize your Lego's, this is a great solution to your problem.  Of course, I haven't figured out how to get the pieces to put themselves in there, but at least I don't have to individually place each tiny Lego blog into a specific section; I can just shake the box and they all go quite nicely to their intended home.

One Remote all Daddies Should Have

OK, well, Mommies too.  It's a "Control Your Kid" remote.  And, as you might have guessed, it doesn't work.  Doesn't even require batteries.  But the buttons are good for a laugh!  They include (but are not limited to):

• grow up
• say please
• eat greens
• say thank you

You get the idea.  The "say please" and "say thank you" buttons would be worn out at our house! 

Yeah, this is a dumb toy, especially since it's $6.99.  But that might be worth it on those really "bad" days that you can't take any more of your children's shenanigans!

Available from Think Geek.

Trekkin' for Pez

According to Newlaunches, you can now get Pez dispensers with a Star Trek theme.  Way cool!

It looks like you can get the "collector's series" packaging, which contains all your favourite Star Trek characters - at least the original ones - which, let's face it, is the best one!  The package includes Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott, Lt. Uhura, Mr. Sulu, and Mr. Chekov.  The eighth dispenser is the Enterprise herself.  The best likeness seems to be Dr. McCoy; it actually looks like him.  Maybe Mr. Spock a little bit too.

Yep, nothing tastes better than bad candy out of Captain Kirk's butt.  You know you want some!

Some is Better Than None

Finally.  I've been talking about using solar panels to help charge electric vehicles for...what, a year or more now?  The response I always get is "But it can't possibly charge the batteries all the way.  What's the point?"

Don't you remember being in high school or college, and you only had $5, so you didn't fill up the tank?  Doesn't the same principal apply, now that you're a grown-up?  Free charging is free charging, even if it's just enough to get you home (or to a charging station).  And if you're parked outside all day at work, you can recharge your commute almost daily - so at least half your trip is free.

It looks as though Toyota has finally seen the light too.  According to Newlaunches, Toyota will be offering up solar panels on the high-end Prius very soon.  In Japan only for now, but that's a start.  The belief is that it can save up to 10% on fuel costs - because it will help run the air conditioner.

Imagine what that could save you if you lived in Florida?

Can U Find Me?

By now some of you have noticed the widget on the left (obviously if you are reading this in feed form you haven't seen it...), so it's time to tell you what it's all about.

I've started an online game called Can U Find Me - it's the online version of hide and seek.  How do you play?  It's easy!  You upload a photo, email it to friends, and they try to guess where you are.  Many people do this on their blogs, and I wanted to extend that a bit.

You don't have to register to play, but if you do register, you can email your photos to the game and it will be auto-emailed to your friends, or you can upload to Twitter or Brightkite.  Eventually I will expand that to Facebook, MySpace, and other platforms, but for now that's it.  Registering also creates a widget for you if you want to put one on your blog or other website - and it's automatically updated with your latest image, so you don't ever have to change anything.

So, if you like to play online games or think you might want a widget for your blog, check out Can U Find Me?  If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear from you - just fill out the form on the site.

Forget the Robot; I Want a ZOMBIE!

Our family is really into the tech stuff - computers, robots, legos...I bought David a Lego Mindstorm robot for our anniversary a few years ago and the boys really dig it.  Little E is getting into the whole "build a robot" thing.  I think it's all pretty cool stuff too...within reason.

I just saw Scary Harry on Newlaunches that changed my mind, and I have to have one.  It's a remote-controlled zombie!  It talks, crawls, and looks like the werewolves got hold of him - just my kind of toy!  This thing would be great at Halloween, don'tcha think?

Of course, it costs $2650 at Fright Catalog, so I doubt I'll be getting one this year.  Maybe one day though?  Please?

Forget the Robot; I Want a ZOMBIE!

Our family is really into the tech stuff - computers, robots, legos...I bought David a Lego Mindstorm robot for our anniversary a few years ago and the boys really dig it.  Little E is getting into the whole "build a robot" thing.  I think it's all pretty cool stuff too...within reason.

I just saw Scary Harry on Newlaunches that changed my mind, and I have to have one.  It's a remote-controlled zombie!  It talks, crawls, and looks like the werewolves got hold of him - just my kind of toy!  This thing would be great at Halloween, don'tcha think?

Of course, it costs $2650 at Fright Catalog, so I doubt I'll be getting one this year.  Maybe one day though?  Please?

Solar Mini Fan: I Gotta Get Me One of Those!

OK, so I'm reading Coolest Gadgets today and came across this solar-powered fan by Brando.  Ally (the writer) mentions how silly it is, and I would agree, to a point.  Keeping in mind that Coolest Gadgets is based in the UK, I have at least one really good use for this fan though.

It's no secret that I love college football (and my Florida Gators).  If you ever attended any college game (or other sporting event I guess), you know you are packed in like sardines.  And, at least at the beginning of the season, it's hot as HELL.  Those of us in Florida experience the heat pretty much the entire season, unless we are fortunate enough to get a televised (night) game.

The opening game for the Gators right now is scheduled for August 30.  At 12:30PM.  Without putting too much emphasis on the dumb-ass that scheduled this game, I will use it to give an excellent example of a use for the solar-powered fan.  It looks dorky, and clips on the bill of your baseball cap, and if you were walking around the mall with it, yes, you would look like a complete IDIOT. 

Preface: Caps/hats are a must at a southern football game; whether it's to keep your (damn) hair out of your face or keep your bald head or face from getting burned to a crisp, you need one (you're going to smell like a rotten cow after the game anyway from sweating, so nobody cares about hat-head). 

OK, so the opening game is on August 30 at 12:30.  Those of you unfamiliar with the Florida weather, you should know that the average temperature here anywhere besides the beach is roughly 95 degrees in the month of August.  And, the humidity is usually around 90%, again unless you are right on the beach (which doesn't have less humidity but does usually have some kind of breeze, even though it feels like it's blowing out of an oven).  The temperature in the stands at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium is probably around 98 degrees, because it's all concrete (the field is usually around 120F I think, on those hot days).  OK, so now we've got 98 degrees, 90% humidity, and 92,000 of my closest friends - and let me tell you, they are CLOSE! 

Usually in the first few games of the season, fans are given out when you come in (and I mean the kind you use to move air around, not football fans - although you can never have too many of those!).  They do the job but not well enough, and besides, who wants to do the manual labour anyway?  Not to mention that they get wet from a drink being spilled on them, or the sweat running down your arm, or the drunk guy next to you vomiting on it...so it's pretty useless.

So, need I say more?  I'm going to get one of these fans and try it out (yes, really).  I don't give a hoot how stupid I look; I'll be the coolest football fan in the stadium - at least out of the 90,000 of us not sitting in the air conditioned seats!

Oh, and Ally, this wasn't intended to bash you at all; just an opportunity to rag on the brain surgeon who scheduled this game.  I'm gathering you're not living in the US and so are not subjected to the sweltering heat (and apparent shamelessness!) we are over here across the pond.  I was in Ireland in August and the high temperature was 65 one day (the rest of the time it was around 55).  For native Floridians, 65 is barely warm enough to not wear a jacket. ;-)