We begin this week with some happy birthday wishes to Scott Jangro’s son Jason, who is celebrating one soon. My daughter, Winter (who makes her Geek Dads debut in the opening this week) turns four in about a week, and Joe’s daughter Lily has her first birthday next Monday. It’s quite the festive time of year!

Our main topic this week is the acquisition of FriendFeed by Facebook and what it means for the social media and micro-messaging space. What’s next? laconi.ca? Something else? Google Wave? Something will need to fill the void being left by FriendFeed. FriendFeed users do not, we’ve decided, want to be Facebook users (by and large).

Who’s the bigger evil empire, Apple or Google? (What? Google???) Jason Calacanis thinks Apple is more of an evil empire than Microsoft, but I think that Google has them both beat in terms of raw power, if not evilness.

More on Twitter and practices we hate: twitscopes, and the constant barrage of tweets from blip.fm abusers.

In a related Facebook bit, we talk about Facebook Connect and comment systems on websites – we’re using Echo now, try it out! Leave us a comment!

The dad talk this week covers eating & sleeping habits, and we talk about staying home with the kids while the wife is out of town.

All in all, a great 47 minutes or so. If you’d like to be a guest on the Geek Dads @ Home, please contact us, we’d love to hear from you.

The opening music was downloaded from http://music.mevio.com, a great source for podcast-friendly music. Check ‘em out.

[show notes by Daniel Clark]

It’s pretty much all my fault. I was out of town last Wednesday, so we couldn’t record on time, and then when we got together on Friday, I was in charge of production – which I couldn’t finalize until today. Many apologies to the guys… I’ll do better next time!

Despite my (apparently) best efforts, we had a great show. Topics this week include:

• My family’s traveling adventures and keeping kids entertained on long drives. Scott likens me to a rock star’s wife – always on the move (we’re not gone *that* much!) – and Joe asks if we trash the hotel rooms. Yeah, we do.
• When travelling with young kids, if you can swing a suite don’t hesitate.
• Scott’s daughter turned 12 and got an iPod Touch! Lucky kid… I don’t have an iPod Touch, and I’m jealous.
• At what age do you give a kid a cell phone? How much freedom should they have with a cell phone?
• Don’t leave the door of your freezer overnight. Trust Scott when he tells you, it’s not fun.
• School seasons and schedules
• Muggy, frappes, grinders, coffee milk and other New England-isms
• Joe’s Memorial Day excursion with the girls – riding the train around Atlanta! Fortunately, there was no riff-raff on the train that day.
• Scott tells the tale of the home renovation he’s going through right now (boooo to wallpaper) and the acrobatics required to navigate new flooring.
• The remodeling is due in part to Scott’s fish tanks, which he explains in great detail (our longest segment of the show this week) – and which leads into a discussion about how awesome basements are. If my next home has a basement, I’ll seriously consider fish. We also cover the ins and outs of salt water coral tanks.
• Pool tables at home, basement bars.
• Being a packrat, especially for books and electronics. We all agree that if they want people to recycle electronics, it needs to be much easier and cheaper than tossing it in a trash can.
• Disposing of motor oil and paint.
• Finally, of course, Twitter and Kukral. I wasn’t hating on him! Jim’s a good guy. Spymaster, a Twitter-based game, gets some coverage. I compare it to Utopia and Earth 2025, which may or may not be very accurate. Scott updates us on his experiment with running two Twitter accounts – one where he autofollows everyone back, and one that he keeps very small and personal.

…and that wraps up this episode of GDAH. We’d love to hear what you think!

[Show Notes by Daniel M. Clark]

The Geek Dads this week were myself, Joe and Scott – Sam couldn’t join us this week, though we hope that we can get him on a couple more times before he starts his new teaching job.

My computer, the one doing the recording, had a failing hard drive. You may notice a whirring noise at some points because my microphone jack also decided to stop working, so I was recording through the laptop’s internal microphone. The computer died later that day, and I had to get it replaced, which is one reason why this show, recorded last Wednesday, is going up today.

Our topics this week:

• Sam’s teaching job
• Joe being under a tornado watch, and dealing with taking the family into the bathroom tub for safety
• Lobster!
• Kid competitions, hockey and skating
• Skiing in various places in the US
• Illness, fevers and general yucky-ness
• Swine flu (OMG WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!)
• Asthma, nebulizers
• Autism
• Scott tells a story about a false positive on a genetic test
• Swamp coolers
• More about autism
• Enough of the depressing stuff! We move on geeky topics… or topic. Twitter. Of course.
• Who we follow and why (and who we no longer follow and why)
• Various clients – Nambu, Tweetie, Tweetdeck
• Having multiple accounts and managing them
• Twitter “chats”

The show runs a hair over an hour. Enjoy!

This week’s Geek Dads at Home podcast clocks in at a whopping 85 minutes worth of geekery. Since last week was devoted to all things fatherly, this week we get right to the tech, web 2.0, and productivity stuff.

However, this jammed packed podcast makes it challenging for me to produce the show notes in my usual plot intensive narrative. So, for this edition I am going to produce brief bits with links to the various applications, services and products that we discuss.

Enjoy!

Act I

After a quick introduction of Ian Clark, Daniel has to step away to tend to his Geek Dad responsibilities, so Joe and Scott discuss a quick overview of Easter Weekend, including Happy Birthday! wishes to Alex Jangro who turned 3 over the weekend, plus a review of camping at High Falls State Park in Georgia.

Then on to a review of a new social toolbar for Firefox called Tiseme, and the other social sharing recommendation from Cloud 39, collaboration using the Diigo application.

We’re into Twitter Apps and the Seesmic Desktop versus Tweetdeck debate.

Act II

Daniel returns, and Sam Harrelson joins in to continue the conversation and shares his odd Easter Egg hunt at the Biltmore Estates.

We get back to the discussion of micro-messaging desktop apps and how Daniel is now disappointment with the recent upgrades to Nambu, driving him back to using the Tweetdeck application.

There is also a reference to Event Box and the Twitter Gadget integration with Gmail.

Act III

Daniel has to depart with Winter to head to a doctors appointment and as good Geek Dads will, we talk about the benefits of a skin rash ointment Aquaphor.

Sam shares how his IGoogle page looks with Twitter Gadget integrated.

Scott has RSS reader overload and is about to declare Reader Bankruptcy, and we talk about Friendfeed,  Delicious and if you don’t already, you can get great stuff by subscribing to Sam’s Shared Items.

Scott has a post coming on Cloud 39 about the new task manager / get things done client called ToodleDo including the oragami pocket list it provides…. no, seriously it does!

Finally we transfer offline and discuss the merits of journaling and keeping Moleskins for recording the life stream.

Hopefully, this conversation will be motivation for some (as it is for us) to take the time to thoughtfully observe and record what is going on around you.  This point didn’t come to me during the recording, but I just realized that our online activities are quick, short, bursts, and even personal blogs play towards the attention spans of online readers, which is quite honestly, very short.  Finding a quality journal to make personal entries, and carving out some time in our “live streaming” lives to record observations will provide a much deeper penetration into who we really are, and will leave a long standing legacy.

Episode 11 of GeekDads@Home is sadly missing the voice of Sam Harrelson.

In honor of Sam, we cut five minutes off the end of our normal hour.
Please spend it in a moment of silence.

This week, we talk about…

• the recent eMarketer report in podcasting audience size. 9% now, growing to 17% of U.S. internet users listening to podcasts by 2013.
• A 4-Geek-Dads-thumbs up goes to You Look Nice Today podcast. We only wish they did more shows.
• The Twitter Search Results in Google firefox plugin leads us into a long discussion on abuse and pollution of twitter by marketers and DBs. Take the oath with us. “We will not ruin twitter.”
• Skittles.com and other great, and legit, uses for twitter.
• While “ruining twitter” might have counted as our Jim Kukral mention, we did more explicitly touch on his dealings this week with Billy May in Miami.
  
• Joe recounts his frightening weekend with snowstorms and tornadoes…and good in-tub livin’.
• And Finally, we wrap the show with some dad talk. Listen to dads speaking of breast milk vs. formula, pumping stations and eating. oh my.
]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/geekdadsathome.com/p=115 0 twitter Episode 11 of GeekDads@Home is sadly missing the voice of Sam Harrelson. - In honor of Sam, we cut five minutes off the end of our normal hour. Please spend it in a moment of silence. - This week, we talk about... Episode 11 of GeekDads@Home is sadly missing the voice of Sam Harrelson. In honor of Sam, we cut five minutes off the end of our normal hour. Please spend it in a moment of silence. This week, we talk about... the recent eMarketer report in podcasting audience size. 9% now, growing to 17% of U.S. internet users listening to podcasts by 2013. A 4-Geek-Dads-thumbs up goes to You Look Nice Today podcast. We only wish they did more shows. The Twitter Search Results in Google firefox plugin leads us into a long discussion on abuse and pollution of twitter by marketers and DBs. Take the oath with us. "We will not ruin twitter." Skittles.com and other great, and legit, uses for twitter. While "ruining twitter" might have counted as our Jim Kukral mention, we did more explicitly touch on his dealings this week with Billy May in Miami. Joe recounts his frightening weekend with snowstorms and tornadoes...and good in-tub livin'. And Finally, we wrap the show with some dad talk. Listen to dads speaking of breast milk vs. formula, pumping stations and eating. oh my. Geek Dads @Home no 54:27 http://geekdadsathome.com/episode-6-birthdays-and-adblockers.html http://geekdadsathome.com/episode-6-birthdays-and-adblockers.html#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:20:49 +0000 Scott Jangro http://geekdadsathome.com/?p=64


Here we are for another GeekDads@Home episode, brought to you by the number 6.

This show was recorded on Scott’s Birthday, January 28. Mental note, if we put the date in the podcast, publish it on that same day. My bad.

The birthday discussion sends Daniel into his rendition of Patton Oswalt’s take on birthday celebrations.

Sam has a friend who was born on leap day and only celebrated birthdays every 4 years. She’s 26, does that make her 104 in human years?

Sam shares a little too much about gym class, showers, and junior high. Awkward.

In the geek department, Sam shares his experiences with Windows 7 Beta. We’re concerned that he’s moving back to Microsoft.

We discuss the phenomenon of Keyboard People and Mouse People. Daniel’s a mouse person. He may lose his geek credentials and be sent down to the LudditeCast with Jim Kukral. (Not really Daniel, we just have to mention Jim at least once in every show.)

Joe shared his visit the world famous Atlanta Aquarium recently. I call field trip!

Great video by Joe. Be sure to flip this over into HD mode…

Finally, Sam laments on the Twitter impersonators that assumed his identity and spammed his followers. Marketers ruin everything. We discover that adblocking is the real reason that Sam was forced to leave marketing for good to avoid a scandal.

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/geekdadsathome.com/p=64 4 adblocking,aquarium,birthdays,twitter,windows 7 Here we are for another GeekDads@Home episode, brought to you by the number 6. - This show was recorded on Scott's Birthday, January 28. Mental note, if we put the date in the podcast, publish it on that same day. My bad. Here we are for another GeekDads@Home episode, brought to you by the number 6. This show was recorded on Scott's Birthday, January 28. Mental note, if we put the date in the podcast, publish it on that same day. My bad. The birthday discussion sends Daniel into his rendition of Patton Oswalt's take on birthday celebrations. Sam has a friend who was born on leap day and only celebrated birthdays every 4 years. She's 26, does that make her 104 in human years? Sam shares a little too much about gym class, showers, and junior high. Awkward. In the geek department, Sam shares his experiences with Windows 7 Beta. We're concerned that he's moving back to Microsoft. We discuss the phenomenon of Keyboard People and Mouse People. Daniel's a mouse person. He may lose his geek credentials and be sent down to the LudditeCast with Jim Kukral. (Not really Daniel, we just have to mention Jim at least once in every show.) Joe shared his visit the world famous Atlanta Aquarium recently. I call field trip! Great video by Joe. Be sure to flip this over into HD mode... Finally, Sam laments on the Twitter impersonators that assumed his identity and spammed his followers. Marketers ruin everything. We discover that adblocking is the real reason that Sam was forced to leave marketing for good to avoid a scandal. Geek Dads @Home no 50:51 http://geekdadsathome.com/gdh-5-looking-ahead.html http://geekdadsathome.com/gdh-5-looking-ahead.html#comments Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:46:37 +0000 Sam Harrelson http://geekdadsathome.com/?p=57




The GeekDads@Home (Scott Jangro, Daniel M. Clark, Joe Magennis and Sam Harrelson) circled the changing table for another episode.

Clearly, the big news of the week had to do with the inauguration of Barack H. Obama as the 44th President of the United States.  First, the gang discussed how this inauguration differed from inaugurations of the past with the use of social media, Facebook integrations, Twitter survival, mobile phones and mainstream geekery (like Microsoft’s awesome Photosynth debut).

Along those lines, the conversation morphs into a discussion of the possibilities that come with this national attention on politics and if/how future generations will view politics differently than the current crop of parent and adults.

And, Twitter stayed up!

Next, the group discusses some of the more interesting and geek-notable functions of the new WhiteHouse.gov site and how technologies such as comments, RSS, podcasts and blogs will be second nature to our children as they grow up digital.

After a conversation about how parents should be great role models and demonstrate reading and listening to good music, the group starts their new weekly segment entitled “I Can’t Believe I Did That To My Kid.”  This week’s segment is a sad and bloody tale.

The show runs a hope-filled 50 minutes.

Enjoy!

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/geekdadsathome.com/p=57 0 blackberry,Boxee,facebook,hulu,iphone,obama,twitter,web2.0 - The GeekDads@Home (Scott Jangro, Daniel M. Clark, Joe Magennis and Sam Harrelson) circled the changing table for another episode. - Clearly, the big news of the week had to do with the inauguration of Barack H. The GeekDads@Home (Scott Jangro, Daniel M. Clark, Joe Magennis and Sam Harrelson) circled the changing table for another episode. Clearly, the big news of the week had to do with the inauguration of Barack H. Obama as the 44th President of the United States.  First, the gang discussed how this inauguration differed from inaugurations of the past with the use of social media, Facebook integrations, Twitter survival, mobile phones and mainstream geekery (like Microsoft's awesome Photosynth debut). Along those lines, the conversation morphs into a discussion of the possibilities that come with this national attention on politics and if/how future generations will view politics differently than the current crop of parent and adults. And, Twitter stayed up! Next, the group discusses some of the more interesting and geek-notable functions of the new WhiteHouse.gov site and how technologies such as comments, RSS, podcasts and blogs will be second nature to our children as they grow up digital. After a conversation about how parents should be great role models and demonstrate reading and listening to good music, the group starts their new weekly segment entitled "I Can't Believe I Did That To My Kid."  This week's segment is a sad and bloody tale. The show runs a hope-filled 50 minutes. Enjoy! Geek Dads @Home no 49:49 http://geekdadsathome.com/growing-up-powerpoint.html http://geekdadsathome.com/growing-up-powerpoint.html#comments Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:15:09 +0000 Sam Harrelson http://geekdadsathome.com/?p=30




This week, the GeekDads (Daniel Clark, Joe Magennis and Sam Harrelson) welcomed a new member to the show, Brad Waller.  Brad has pretty strong credentials as both a dad and a geek, as he explains, so he’ll be a welcome voice to the show.

After Brad’s initiation, the show quickly jumps into chat about which geeky toys were awaiting the kids for the holidays.  Sam’s daughter received a Vtec “kid’s” laptop for Christmas and he was amazed and just how quickly and intuitively she was able to pick up on the general mechanics of the device (keyboard, mouse, etc) since she’s only 14 months old!  What follows is a long and interesting discussion on how quickly kids are becoming accustomed to tools such as laptops and even iPhones in their journey towards adulthood while living a digital childhood.

That conversation moves into a conversation about whether or not children and teens should bring (not have, but bring) laptops to school.  The conversation is driven by Brad’s story of how his daughter’s school is relying on PowerPoint and presentation software for project reports, making computer usage mandatory.

Of course, this leads to some nostalgia among the GeekDads as they stroll down memory lane into the kb driven world of the early 90’s, 80’s and 70’s when they were cutting their teeth in the primordial ooze of technology that would become the www and laptops.

The conversation turns to the Wii and its family friendly nature.  This is an interesting discussion of the little gaming machine that could, and how it won the hearts of both geeks, grandparents and young kids all over the world because of its retro style of gaming compared to more advanced gaming machines like the Xbox 360 or PS3.

Little Ian Clark had a big week and the GeekDads discuss the topic of baby circumcision.  You’ll have to listen to that segment on your own.

To wrap up the show, the GeekDads discuss how and if marketing to parents and kids will affect platforms such as Twitter or the iPhone.  Daniel and Sam have a particular take on the topic of the iFart app developed by Joel Comm, so you’ll have to listen for their views on that as parents.  The discussion hit on a constant stream of the podcast that tackles the difficult and often gray-area of how to protect (and educate) kids on the web without being unnecessarily draconian.  There are lots of good tips for parents from Joe, Daniel and Brad in this segment.

All in all, the show runs a very quick but fun 75 minutes.

Make sure to grab the RSS feed for future updates or subscribe to the show in iTunes!

Happy New Year from the GeekDads!

[update from Daniel - the bit at the end where I mangle my Rush geek cred? Yeah, I wasn't in top form. Here's the clip of Rush playing Rock Band. Enjoy!]

[update #2 from Daniel - the Twitter user who followed me after I tweeted about olive oil was @iloveoliveoil, as I thought. Just wanted to verify that for you. Great example of someone using search or track to connect with people.]

]]> http://js-kit.com/rss/geekdadsathome.com/p=30 1 children,christmas,ifart,laptops,marketing,safety,twitter - This week, the GeekDads (Daniel Clark, Joe Magennis and Sam Harrelson) welcomed a new member to the show, Brad Waller.  Brad has pretty strong credentials as both a dad and a geek, as he explains, so he'll be a welcome voice to the show. This week, the GeekDads (Daniel Clark, Joe Magennis and Sam Harrelson) welcomed a new member to the show, Brad Waller.  Brad has pretty strong credentials as both a dad and a geek, as he explains, so he'll be a welcome voice to the show. After Brad's initiation, the show quickly jumps into chat about which geeky toys were awaiting the kids for the holidays.  Sam's daughter received a Vtec "kid's" laptop for Christmas and he was amazed and just how quickly and intuitively she was able to pick up on the general mechanics of the device (keyboard, mouse, etc) since she's only 14 months old!  What follows is a long and interesting discussion on how quickly kids are becoming accustomed to tools such as laptops and even iPhones in their journey towards adulthood while living a digital childhood. That conversation moves into a conversation about whether or not children and teens should bring (not have, but bring) laptops to school.  The conversation is driven by Brad's story of how his daughter's school is relying on PowerPoint and presentation software for project reports, making computer usage mandatory. Of course, this leads to some nostalgia among the GeekDads as they stroll down memory lane into the kb driven world of the early 90's, 80's and 70's when they were cutting their teeth in the primordial ooze of technology that would become the www and laptops. The conversation turns to the Wii and its family friendly nature.  This is an interesting discussion of the little gaming machine that could, and how it won the hearts of both geeks, grandparents and young kids all over the world because of its retro style of gaming compared to more advanced gaming machines like the Xbox 360 or PS3. Little Ian Clark had a big week and the GeekDads discuss the topic of baby circumcision.  You'll have to listen to that segment on your own. To wrap up the show, the GeekDads discuss how and if marketing to parents and kids will affect platforms such as Twitter or the iPhone.  Daniel and Sam have a particular take on the topic of the iFart app developed by Joel Comm, so you'll have to listen for their views on that as parents.  The discussion hit on a constant stream of the podcast that tackles the difficult and often gray-area of how to protect (and educate) kids on the web without being unnecessarily draconian.  There are lots of good tips for parents from Joe, Daniel and Brad in this segment. All in all, the show runs a very quick but fun 75 minutes. Make sure to grab the RSS feed for future updates or subscribe to the show in iTunes! Happy New Year from the GeekDads! [update from Daniel - the bit at the end where I mangle my Rush geek cred? Yeah, I wasn't in top form. Here's the clip of Rush playing Rock Band. Enjoy!] [update #2 from Daniel - the Twitter user who followed me after I tweeted about olive oil was @iloveoliveoil, as I thought. Just wanted to verify that for you. Great example of someone using search or track to connect with people.] Geek Dads @Home no 1:14:55