Techmamas

Just helped friends customize their blog, that was fun!

Many parents who consider themselves non techie are now either reading, setting up blogs of their own or trying to understand blogging because their tweens/teens have blogs.

Luckily, I started blogging over 4 years ago and now my son, who is 10, is just becoming interested in blogging. Today I had to the honor of helping dear friends - that are going on an AMAZING year long sailing trip - finalize their blog. For anyone that is interested in following a family that set sail for a year - click here to see the blog: Mitgang/Gottesman Sailing Voyage Aboard Whatcha Gonna Do .

They had done a great job of setting up their blog and picking a simple background with text that is easy to read, but I helped them add some important details: categories, setting up RSS feeds so their friends can subscribe to their blog and other details. This was my first time using Google Blogger and I found it easy to use. I started blogging on using the blogging platform "Typepad" and have been using that ever since. I also have blogger friends that use WordPress. There are also other platforms to use as well.

So now I decided to work on a post that will help beginners understand how to create a "basic" blog. My first step is to do some research. I will be posting soon with details, please add any hints for beginners creating a blog to this post. One thing I will be looking into is - how to set up controls if it is your tween/teen setting up a blog (public versus private).

More to come...

Web Management Tools For Students, Teachers and Parents

It is that time of year when I ponder what is the best system to manage my family's schedule and as a room parent - how to manage the class information. So I took my quest online. Here is what I found so far....

Mashable had some great posts on web tools for students and teachers, so I started by reading those posts.

STUDENTS:

Mashable - Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students 

(Evernote, Notely, Grademate, Backpack, StudRails, Diigo, Delicious, Mindmeister, Google Docs, Etherpad, SlideRocket, Wikidot, Citeme, EasyBib and Zotero) CLICK here to read the student post.

TEACHERS:

Mashable - Back to School: 10 Terrific Web Apps for Teachers

(SchoolRack, SchoolTool, Curriki, Edmodo, Shmoop, Footnote, ClassMarker, Bookgoo, DOC cop and TeacherTube) CLICK HERE to read the Teacher post.

I know teachers who create their class sites using Dreamweaver, blogs or TeacherWeb.

10 WEB TOOLS FOR PARENTS TO MANAGE SCHEDULES:

Here are some web tools for parents who have kids in elementary school/highschool. I hope to add more to the list:

1. Google Calender/Docs: Many parents are using Google Calender to manage their calenders and Google Docs to keep shared documents in the "cloud" online.

2. Smartphones - Many parents manage their calenders using their smartphones and corresponding calendering systems. Smartphone calenders can also sync with outlook, iCal and Google Calender - which makes it easy to share info with other family members, use desktop management or online tools.

3. Cozi.com has an online family organizer system that includes online calender, shopping list, todo lists and family journal.

How To Load Video to Blogs - And 11 Video Hosting Sites

Many bloggers are starting to incorporate video into their blogs (called "vlogging"). We are excited at Silicon Valley Moms Group to have started a video series called A Byte Out of Life sponsored by Yahoo. Here is a video that I enjoyed participating in - about Moms, Celebrities and Twitter. Here is a link to my post on Silicon Valley Moms Blog that provides a background. The Video is included in the post, hosted on our the Yahoo Video website. Because my post has a video - it is considered a "vlog". There are also great vlogging sites to follow, such as GoToMom.TV.

Who's Following You on Twitter? @ Yahoo! Video

I am also participating in a fabulous group of fem tech bloggers in a site called "Gadgetspin". While our site has videos (our first was at the exciting Virgin American - Orange County inaugural flight), our focus will be on livestreaming. Livestreaming is when you post video live from an event. Gadgetspin is in beta and will be launching soon.

Because I am starting to vlog, I spent time researching different video hosting platforms to load video to. After the video file is loaded to the hosting site, "embed" code can be generated and loaded to  blog posts. Listed below is a summary of the steps and the video hosting sites I know of. If you know of others, please comment on this post with a link to the website.

STEP 1: CREATE VIDEO FILE: There are many gadgets bloggers can use to record video. Some use the internal webcams of their computer, some an external webcam and some a video camera. The Flip Camera has a pop-out USB drive for one button upload and software for editing. I will post soon with other alternatives for video cameras (a whole other topic!).

STEP 2: LOAD YOUR VIDEO FILE TO A PLAYER: Once you have a video file - you need to load that file to a video hosting site that provides a player (the square and buttons around the video) and the embed code that enables loading to a blog. Here is a list of 11 video hosting sites I know of:

1. Yahoo Video: http://video.yahoo.com/

2. YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/

3. Vimeo:  http://www.vimeo.com/

4. BlipTV http://blip.tv/

5. One True Media: http://www.onetruemedia.com/ This service allows you to do all types of editing using photo montages or video - then upload online, send as a DVD or email.

6. Vlog It: There is supposed to be a option for a 15 day free trial but I could not find it. The product is made by Adobe. I purchased the $29.00 version and will give it a test run.

http://www.adobe.com/products/vlogit/

7. PhotoBucket: You can use Photobucket to load and then generate embed code to share with a website:
http://register.photobucket.com/?ref=aboutTitle

8. Windows Movie Maker: For Windows Users - you can use Windows Movie Maker for free to upload video to (and edit) - then generate embed code using one of the video hosting partners they recommend:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/create/saveforweb.mspx

9. iMovie: For MAC users iMovie does have a function to upload to blogs/websites. If anyone has tried this - it would be great to share:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

10. Flickr: With a Flickr Pro acct you can upload a limited number of videos and generate embed code:
http://www.flickr.com/help/video/

11. Brightcove: Used by web marketers and media companies.
http://www.brightcove.com/en/

12. Update 8/16 - TheGoToMom added a open source video platform to the list - Kaltura: http://corp.kaltura.com/

Update 8/20: Lifehacker published a post asking for the best video sharing site. There are other sites listed on that post including Viddler, Veoh, Megavideo, BitTorrent, Daily Motion, and Exposure Room .

Update 10/6. The GoToMom once again helped me identify another platform: Delve Networks
http://www.delvenetworks.com/

Each has their own process for loading and then displaying embed code. Some are free and some charge for hosting. Please be aware that video privacy settings need to be "public" to display on a blog. Please make sure your video has all "public" info. For families wanting a private place to load videos to, they should look at sites with multiple levels of privacy such as Vox or Plumkeeper.

STEP 3: COPY EMBED CODE FROM PLAYER INTO YOUR POST: Copy" then paste the embed code into the html section of your post - in the spot that you want to the video to display.

***Check the width of the column you are display the video and change the width in the embed code if the width is too big.

For Example, here is some code that has a video the width of 500 pixels:
embed style="width:500px; height:326px;"

You can just change the width to "480":
embed style="width:480px; height:326px;"

Need For Speed, Need For RAM

When I received my refurbished laptop in the mail 6 months ago, the first thing I did after I unwrapped the package was install another 1GB of RAM (the laptop only had 1GB). As I do more graphics and multi-tasking, I am starting to crave more RAM.

While reading my online RSS feeds, I saw a good article about RAM at Laptop Magazine. CLICK HERE to read it if you are craving more speed with your computer.

Stanford & Common Sense Media on Safe Social Networking

I am thrilled to see organizations like Common Sense Media and  Dr BJ Fogg of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab provide valuable information on safe social networking for teens including IMPORTANT information on privacy controls. So here are the links, parents take a look and learn:

• Dr. BJ Fogg - Facebook For Parents website and class for parents
• Common Sense on Social Networking and Online Safety and their Family Media Agreements

I hope to go to the Facebook class for Parents at Stanford and will print out the Common Sense Family Media agreements for my kids.  It is important for all parents to be proactive and help themselves and their families learn about/implement proper online safety.

YouTube & Video: Search of the Future

I just read a NYT article about kids using YouTube as "their" search engine of choice. My 10 year old always searches YouTube and prefers video sites. Out of the mouth of babes, I see the future of search. And it's all about video!

NYT Article: At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool.

Here is a listing of video search sites:

• YouTube (surprise)
• Google Video (hmm, hmm - Google owns YouTube)
• Yahoo Video
• Blinkx

CES09 Windows 7 Is Available for Download

I went over to the CES Microsoft Booth specifically to learn more about Windows 7. I had originally gone to get pointers on fine tuning Vista - but then I realized why do that when I can just load Windows 7 and focus on understanding that. There has been strong interest that has lead to server overloads, but Microsoft is adding infrastructure to support that.

(photo credit: Microsoft)

CLICK HERE to learn what is new about Windows 7.

CLICK HERE to download the Windows 7 Beta. As I suggest before every upgrade or operating systems changes, it is a good idea to make sure your back-ups are up to date.

CLICK HERE to see Windows 7 Beta Videos.

ClICK HERE to get an update from Microsoft on Windows 7 Availability.

I am heading back to the CES floor, but I will be loading a video I took at the booth with more information about Windows 7.

Click here to see the in-depth post on Windows 7 beta via Ars Technia

Looking For "People Friendly Media" Technology

I was honored to connect with Deaf Mom and read about her life on her blog Deaf Mom Shares Her World. I learned from her that video interviews are not accessible for people who are deaf, that text transcripts along with videos are accessible. She inspired me to become interested in the people friendly media technology available. Just this morning we were emailing about this need:

NEED: We are looking for a technology that can "transcribe" audio files to text.

Then today I read about another inspiring person (T.V. Raman, a Computer Scientist and an Engineer at Google) in the New York Times article "Going Where No Guide Do Can". The article describes him as a leading thinker for accessibility issues and notes that some of Mr. Raman's innovations may help make electronic gadgets and web services more user-friendly for everyone. For example, the article also mentioned that Mr. Raman said that with the right tweaks, touch-screen phones - many of which already come equipped with GPS Technology and a compass - could help blind people navigate the world.

I will be heading to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. I decided to add accessibility technology that can assist people with disabilities to the my list of things to look for.

Please comment on this post with any technologies (and links) you know of to assisting people who are Blind or Deaf. I would also like to hear from people with other disabilities to add the technology they use also and will post about that also.

After reading the New York Times article, I realize that my comments do have a captcha which may be hard to use for screen readers. If you want to comment, and find the captcha an issue - then please email me and I will add your comments to this post. My email is techmamas(at)gmail(dot)com.

Relevant Links:

Start with a visit to Words Matter - Writing about people with disabilities

Official Google Blog: T.V. Raman on Even More Books to Read

Google Accessible Web Search For the visually impaired (Google Accessible Search) and Google Accessible Search FAQ

Google Book Search Becomes Accessible

Links From Deaf Mom:

• Deaf Mom: Moving in a New Direction With CSDVRS
• www.overstream.net and www.bubbleply.com are two sites that allow a person to add captions to videos.
• You Tube has a captioning feature that can be turned on and off-- video host has to add the captions.Here is a link to the TechCrunch post on YouTube captioning (Click Here):           

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/28/youtube-adds-closed-captioning/

Resolving Audio Problems With PC's, Or "Help - I Can't Hear Anything!"

Just as we were about to put the boys to bed tonight, I decided to show a video to my older son on my notebook. Well, what do you know but the sound did not work. When I informed my husband that I needed to troubleshoot, he knew that he would be putting the boys to bed tonight. I am lucky to have a husband who supports his wife's troubleshooting obsession. We share a love of geekiness between us, except he (Neil Blecherman) is a green geek.

Just in case other moms or dads have a "sudden" audio problem that stops them from hearing any sounds from their computer (for those with built-in speakers) - here are some troubleshooting hints:

1. CHECK YOUR AUDIO DRIVER: It is important for the first step to be determining the actual sound problem. Most computers have a "speaker" icon on the toolbar. Right click to see if the speakers are working. You can also check the audio by looking at control panel>device manager>sound video & games controllers. You should be able to "click" on the sound controller. If you don't see it, that may be an important hint.

With my problem it actually said "device not installed" when I knew I had an audio driver installed (I had been hearing sound beforehand).

2. INSTALL A NEW AUDIO DRIVER: After you have decided that the problem is related to the audio driver, then it either is corrupt or "uninstalled" for some reason. To solve this, go to the support website for your computer and follow these steps:
a. Go to "computer" on your sidebar and then right click and choose "properties". This will show you the correct model number for your desktop or PC which is important.
b. At the computer manufacturer's support website (my notebook is made by HP, so I went to the HP Customer Care website). Type the model number and search for "audio driver". Find the right driver for your computer and re-install.

I reinstalled my audio driver - and suddenly I can hear sound again from my PC!! Yeah!!

Vista Users (I am one of them..) - I found the following information (CLICK HERE) on the HP Website about resolving audio problems. I am sure each computer manufacturer website has similar information on resolving audio problems.

Please share any other audio problem stories with me. I would be really interested to hear from any APPLE users - this post only covers Windows PC's.

NeedTech HELP? Go Online

Two days ago I was having a mommy meltdown moment - not because of the usual things but because I had done a Windows update and my RESOLUTION was reset. In normal circumstances I would have just checked the control panel display settings to reset my resolution. But I had run the updates while entertaining my twin 5 year old boys (bad idea) so I did not have a quiet moment.. I checked the DPI settings in the Windows Vista personalization first and tried to reset it. I had some screaming in the background so I reset it to "large". This turned my normally organized icon and folder desktop into a giant wonderland with big letters and huge monster icons.

Soooo Scary..

Now - it seems like it would be easy to just reset it back to normal.. But NO!  The fonts were so large that I could not click on the "OK" button to reset. I was stuck.

So I went to my trusty Google Search and typed "can't click on dpi font size button". Well, one of the search engine links was to this amazing website that simply stated to "use the tab button to tab over to the "OK" and hit enter if you can't see the button".

Duhh...

I tried that and it worked. Then the kids stopped screaming and I finally realized that I needed to go to control panel>personalization>display settings and change the monitor resolution back to 1280x800 pixels (that I had to start with). That worked, problem fixed..

I hope this post helps anyone that had the same problem and is searching the internet..

And in a cosmic episode of timing, the New York Times published an article today called "There’s Lots of Tech Help, Yes, on the Internet ". READ IT, really. It has links to some great tech help sites on the internet (other then mine of course) such as CNET TV How To Videos, CNET's MacFixIt.com,  Fixya.com, TechIMO and more..

CLICK HERE (or above) to read the New York Times article: "There’s Lots of Tech Help, Yes, on the Internet "