Category Archives: technology

Anyone Can Be Tech Savvy!

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Will & Lola using iPad2

Technology has gotten to the point that even someone who is not tech savvy, or who has not been raised using computers, can be a tech junkie.

Programs and apps are now made so that anyone can start using them with ease. Just download an app or join a social network and VOILA! you’re off and running! These easy to use programs and apps wind up turning LO-FI individuals into insta-techies! Take Grandparents for instance:

Here are some quick stats on Will’s grandparents off the top of my head:

2 out of 4 of Will’s grandparents are on Facebook.
3 out of 4 use Skype to video conference with Will.
4 out of 4 use email (but who doesn’t these days).
4 out of 4 use them for picture and video sharing (I am one of their largest supporters of this as I take and send a lot of media via my Posterous.com blog, my personal blog, Facebook, Instagram, Socialcam, email and more).

My dad came to visit us this last weekend. He was drawn to use his Facebook at various hours of the day during his visit. He would add new photos of our adventures together as well as engage in “the usual” Facebook business. He uses it more than I do. Whoa! And, he doesn’t even have a smart phone allowing him to use the Facebook app (which is where I do quite a bit of my Facebook usage).

My mom uses Facebook on occasion but mainly when we send her messages or photos.

Billy’s folks don’t have a Facebook account but I am going to see if I can set them up with one this week so they can be a part of the “Will-versation” at the very least. They love when I send them Will-related items so I feel bad when I post Will stuff exclusively to Facebook which means that they miss out. But, do they really need another hook for their valuable time? We shall see…

Mormor’s Hjartegull (Audio Clip of Will Speaking Swedish)

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I caught in his car seat on a drive. My mom says this to Will as a term of endearment when she speaks with him. “Mormor” is Swedish for “mother’s mother” (or “grandma”) and, I think “hjartegull” means something along the line of a pet name like “love” or “dear heart”.

I used the Voice Memos app to capture this audio on my iPhone. I pulled over after I stopped recording and emailed it to my mom. She loved that.

…
I just realized I need to work on my inner tech to figure out how to post audio here ;}

Taboo

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Hi. My name is Christine and I am a tabaholic.

Always have lots of tabs open in my browser. There are even some days where I have multiple windows open, each window with a multitude of tabs going. I multitask and I find things (sites, pages, or pictures) in my internet travels that I want to look at later because I am trying to stay focused on the task at hand or, I am not in the mood to delve deep or, I don’t have time now.

When Billy borrows the computer and sees the vast sea of tabs I have created he often groans. Apparently keeping lots of tabs open slows down the computer as well as keeps it hot (not a good thing when its a hot day and you use a MacBook Pro) because of all the rendering it has to do with all those pages open. Today he installed a little thing called Taboo. It is a Firefox add-on that will save the stuff I keep open in tabs in one place that is easily accessible just to the left of my URL search bar. When you go back to look at it later it will bring the page up at the exact position you were in. Seems nice. I have tried it only briefly as of yet.

I wonder how the “out of sight out of mind” issue will play into things. One of the reasons I leave the tabs open is so that they will be there like a little flag to serve as a reminder to have a look at them.

Today, I embark on the Taboo adventure.

Error Pages Are Delightful!

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I get a kick out of the fun error pages I have seen lately. Thank you for brightening up a situation such as that, dear Etsy and Twitter.

Here are those beauties:

Uh o! Twitter is over capacity this morning (I want this image on a t-shirt!) :

The Etsy error page makes me nostalgic for the old school Nintendo games:

You can click on the images to see them full size.

The Roku Has Arrived

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We got our Roku box this week that allows us to instantly stream movies from the Netflix library. Now that we have been using it for about four days I thought I would do a follow up to the post I wrote on May 26th in which I talked about ordering it.

It is easy to fill up the instant movies que by going to our online Netflix account and selecting the titles we want to eventually watch. I added a bunch of things that I was pretty sure I would like as well as some things that I probably never would have chosen if I had to pay extra or, if I had to wait for the DVD disc to be mailed to me. One such thing was a documentary about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec called Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre. I found it interesting and somewhat inspiring mostly because of the innovations that Toulouse-Lautrec came up with. I qued up some other interesting looking documentaries, including some on pregnancy. The movie selection is not amazing but with the variety of categories you can choose from it makes it worth while. And, I hope that they will keep expanding the available titles to include some more modern things.

We do feel a bit like guinea pigs because there are some functionality issues like the navigation being a bit clunky. For instance, once in a while the picture will freeze and take a moment to catch up to the audio. That has only happened a few times on the first day we used it though. One time we saw a line across the screen that was a glitch in the streaming, I think. Additionally, I think the remote control user experience is below par. One issue I have is that level at which you can forward or rewind a bit rudimentary and imprecise.

All in all we find this device and service to be worth it. It is just so easy.