Kids say the darndest things

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Today after the message was over at church, I was standing talking to friends (DJ and Alicia) and our 6 year old son, Nathaniel, was talking to them while sitting on a chair.  The next thing I see is him lying on the floor on his side whimpering a little.  I was a little confused at first because I didn’t understand how or why he was on the floor, I didn’t see him fall.

I picked him up, checked him out and life went on…

On the way home, I asked him what happened that made him fall on the floor?  His response,

“I lost my dignity and was looking for it on the floor!”

I almost wrecked my truck because I was laughing so hard!  He then explained, this statement is what “Beaver” would have said.  He was referring to “Leave it to Beaver”. I love that he likes these classic shows and is able to quote lines from them.  Classic TV like this teaches kids to be “real” people as apposed to what is on TV now a days.

Facebook video chat vs Apple Facetime

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With the announcement of Facebook integrating Skype into the chat feature so now it supports video, how much will this affect peoples use of Apple’s Facetime.  I can personally say, even though I’m an Apple fanboy, I’ve not been a huge user of Facetime.  *Disclaimer* I do not have an iPhone 4, I’m still on the 3Gs so maybe this has slowed my adoption rate.  I do however have it on my Macbook Pro and have never used it.  I always use either iChat or Skype when doing video chats.

Once Facebook integrates video chat into their mobile apps, this will likely be bad news for the other players in this arena.  Skype was already the major player anyways, but this will likely shift everyone to using Facebook especially for ease of use for friends and family.  This is assuming Facebook greatly improves the mobile app.  The current version of the iPhone app is complete junk.

What do you think?  Have you used Facebook video chat yet?

iPhone and iPad Calendar Colors

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iPhone Calendar Color ExampleRecently I had searched for a solution on how to change the colors on iPhone and iPad calendars for the various accounts setup on each device.  Much to my surprise this was a feature Apple has decided to omit from iOS.  I would have thought they would build similar functionality to the way iCal works on OS X, but this isn’t the case, at least not for now.

iPhone Email Account Type

If you have both Gmail and Exchange accounts setup, in my experience iOS chooses the same color for the calendars.  I’m assuming this is because they are different email account types.  I did find a work around yesterday.  If you are able to setup all your accounts using the Exchange account type, iOS then selects different colors for each of the calendars.  I know this is not ideal or even possible for everyone, but for my situation it is better than nothing.  Here is a link that explains how to setup your Gmail account to use the MS Exchange account type on your iPhone.

If you are wondering why I avoided this in the first place, it is because of push notification.  I have the iPhone 3Gs and in my experience using push for all your accounts drains the battery very quickly.  In a previous version of iOS, Apple started supporting Calendar and Contacts syncing with the standard Gmail account type, so this is why I had them setup separate.

I haven’t tested this on anything than iOS 4.2.1 but I would image it should/would work the same way on previous versions especially 4.1.

Online Friendships – How do you handle them when they are broken?

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Remove as Friend on FacebookOnline social communities like Facebook and Twitter are great ways to meet new people and build new relationships.  Relationships don’t always end up being long term and often times people get their feelings hurt in the end.  This topic made me stop and think of not only my own experiences but also what impact it has on the younger generations.  Do they possess the maturity to handle this gracefully than the older generations or does maturity even play a role?

I have recently been unfriended on Facebook by a few people.  I’m not really sure their motivation, but it is after all their choice.  I’m not going to sugar coat this, the first time it happened, it stung my ego pretty bad.  I immediately had all these questions.  Was it just a mistake (this has happened in the past)?  Should I send a friend request again or try to follow them again?  Why would they do this?  What have I done to offend them?  Is there something I can apologize for and we can mend the relationship?

The first thing I did was try to re-friend them.  I’m not quite sure if this was the best choice at this point.  I didn’t get an immediate response so after a day or so, I sent them a Facebook message.

Hey ********,
I noticed we aren’t friends on here anymore and you stopped following me on Twitter. Just curious if this was by choice or a coincidental glitch on both software platforms?
Also, if I’ve done something that has offended you, I hope you’d at least give me the opportunity to apologize and set things straight.
Hope all is well.
Rob

I never did get a response to my Facebook message or re-friend request, so I gave up.

With Twitter, it is a little easier to follow someone again you simply click the “Follow” button and you are back in business, UNLESS they block you.  Well, you guessed it, I had been blocked.  It really made me wonder what was so awful they felt the need to go to extreme measures.  Oh well, life goes on without them in mine.

The range of emotions I was faced with I chose in the end to simply move on.  I can’t really fix it anyways, so why bother.  If this person ever wanted to let me know what I did to upset them, I would apologize and ask if we could get past it.  I personally feel this is the mature and adult way to handle this but time will tell if I’m correct I suppose.

As for the question of whether or not today’s youth have the ability to deal with this sort of thing, maybe they are better at it than the older more mature crowd.  Their friendships are sometimes much more volatile than adults.  They often get mad at each other and make up all in the course of an hour so maybe they are already conditioned for this behavior?

What has been your experience with being unfriended on Facebook or blocked on Twitter?  How did you handle it?  Please leave a comment below I’d really like hear your thoughts!

When will other audio/video equipment catch up to support AirPlay?

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AirPlay has been the BIG buzz since its release yesterday.  I have used it, played with it, kicked the tires and my conclusion, its future will be bright IF other players in the game adopt the standard.

Here is an example of how I would have liked to use AirPlay today, but technology stood in my way.  My wife told me the other night she wanted a song for her iPod.  Well, yesterday I downloaded the song and wanted to surprise her by playing it while she was fixing lunch today.  So I’m in my office cue up the song, but one big problem, the Apple TV in the living room isn’t able to play the sound.  Why you ask?

Most people these days have multiple devices hooked to their TV’s, a DVD/Blu-Ray player, a gaming system like a Wii or Playstation, a receiver, and of course, an Apple TV.  All of these devices require different types of cabling and switching in order to make them all play well together but NONE of them, that I know, have the ability to be controlled by your computer let alone iTunes.  If you want to be able to use your Apple TV and AirPlay you first have to get up out of your chair in your office, go to the living room, grab remotes, turn everything thing on, then switch to the appropriate input on either your TV or receiver.  Sheesh, what a PIA!  There really needs to be a simpler way!  I just want to pick the song, the location where I want to listen to it and the device(s) be smart enough to figure out what needs to be done to make that happen.

Unless you have unlimited financial resources for an elaborate home automation system or the receiver manufacturers catch up with the current technology trends, we are all stuck with less than desirable configurations when it comes to our home audio/video computer controlled devices.

Holiday Gift Giving Shift – Gift Cards

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Gift cards traditionally have a stigmatism associated with them.  Most people think they are very impersonal and thoughtless or even the easy way out.  Well, this year, I offer you a different side of gift cards, specifically for us techie types in the form of iTunes.

I was talking to my wife today while she was making lunch about how my Christmas wish list has changed the past few years.  This year especially, I have one BIG request from people, iTunes gift cards!  I believe a lot of people forget the fact you can buy a lot more than music.  The number of devices capable of taking advantage of this form of currency is growing and I have all of them.  The 1st generation Apple TV for buying music and movies, the 2nd generation Apple TV for renting movies and TV shows and purchasing music, the iPhone(s), iPad, and iPod Touch for buying applications and music and of course iTunes on our MacBooks that can do any of the aforementioned.

I have a “media server” that is a Mac mini for hosting digital copies of all my movies that can then be streamed to any of my devices or a copy sync’d over for viewing offline.  For this reason, I really would prefer to either purchase movies directly from iTunes or at least buy a physical DVD that includes a digital downloadable copy.  We have a 5 year old boy that also enjoys being able to watch movies on all of these devices and he knows how to use them all.  This has made our lives much better because no more scratched up DVD’s that don’t play anymore.

So, for these reasons, I REALLY do want and enjoy getting iTunes gift cards!

Apple’s Magic Trackpad – Review

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I have been using the new Apple Magic Trackpad for nearly 2 months.  This was a BIG adjustment for me having used the Magic Mouse prior.  I haven’t switched back not one time to the mouse.  The main reason for the change was the Magic Mouse made my wrist tired and hurt after usually only a half days work.  This is just not acceptable since I use my computer for 8-10 hours a day most days.

My original plan was to switch back and forth when I need to have “finer” control when using certain applications like doing video editing.  So far I’ve been able to accomplish all tasks and navigate all applications with ease now that I’ve gone through the learning curve.

The hardest part to overcome is the lack of a “button” click when you need to select items.  The double tap to select and then single tap to release was the 2nd hardest to master.  The simple task of moving windows around at first was much harder than I expected.

I have also learned to adopt more keyboard shortcuts into my routine, which I used to use wildly back in the PC days.  This way I don’t have to move my hands from my Bluetooth keyboard to do the simpler tasks that some would reach for the mouse.  It really is about being efficient after all, right?

Overall, I give this product a glowing review and suggest you give this one a shot if you want to use something other than a mouse or suffer from wrist pain as I did.

People are People

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We are who we are regardless of what we “share” online?  I read an article this morning about social networking sites and how the 18-29 crowd are more likely to be more cautious about the things they post then the 30-49.  The article went on to suggest the much older older crowd 49+ really don’t care what people think of them, especially if they have a secure retirement strategy.

This really got me thinking.  Is this really true?  This is backwards, isn’t it?

Never before have we had a means to see into peoples personal lives.  The wave of being social on the Internet has ushered in a new era of privacy.  What do you “allow” people to know about you and your personal life?  Using social sites such as Facebook and Twitter can be fun, rewarding, challenging, and sometimes life changing.  Here are few questions I will let everyone ponder:

  1. We are who we are regardless of what we “share” online?
  2. We can create persona’s of ourselves that don’t match up with our typical everyday life, but does that mean this reflection of ourself isn’t really us?
  3. As a hiring manager/company, do you think you should do background investigations into someone’s online social presence before making a decision?

There have already been a few examples of people getting fired from their jobs based on things they’ve posted on facebook and twitter.  There have also been a few examples of people tweeting about things which prevented them being hired as well.  Is this really fair?  What about freedom of speech?  The gray areas start to creep into the rule making and interpretation process when this happens

I am not a Psychologist by any stretch but I do enjoy observing and analyzing human behavior.  I believe we are all capable of doing anything, but there are limits hard coded in our brains that limit us from doing certain things.  UNLESS, we find a way to do it that allows us to feel safe about it or are in a state of mind that prevents us from rational thought.

People believe they can do things online that are anonymous or maybe they feel they can express themselves more freely because they will not be judged by their peers.  Either way, everyone needs to be aware we live in an imperfect society and until we all realize and understand all things aren’t always as they appear the censorship limits within ourselves will need to live on.