Going Mobile

Can you effectively stay connected to social media with a basic cell phone and a generous (unlimited) text messaging plan? Facebook and Twitter have the functionality, but is it still cool, interesting, fun, and effective on a basic phone with a tiny screen and no QWERTY keypad? I’ve set up mobile access to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Follow me and find out how effective it is.

Why am I doing this? Being a dad takes a lot of my time. My computer time is limited. I’m looking for the pebbles and the grains of sand to squeeze between the boulders. Using public transit means waiting and sitting. When I don’t feel like listening to music or watching a video podcast, I can send tweets and check in with Facebook.

Facebook Text Messaging Options

Send Text to 32665 (FBOOK)

You don’t even have to type in your friend’s full name to send a message, get profile info, poke, write on their wall. You can type just enough to uniquely identify that person. For example, if I wanted to send a msg to Ernesto Brown, I can just enter “msg ernesto b hey, what’s up brownie?”

You can also set up which notifications go to your phone. Currently, I have messages, pokes, and status updates of a few select friends going to my phone.

Twitter Commands

Send texts to 40404

The offical Twitter Commands can be found in their help pages. Twitter is well-suited for text messaging since your tweets need to be 140 characters or less. You definitely want to fine-tune which events trigger a notification. You will get a LOT of text messages if you don’t pare it down to essential information. I only have direct messages going to my phone for now.

A New Paradigm

Accessing email on my phone is an exercise in frustration, but so far, the mobile versions of Twitter and Facebook have been good to me. If you really need to get in touch with me, sending me messages through Facebook and/or Twitter is, in some cases, more effective than calling, emailing, or instant messaging me.

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I’ve been online since 1992. The internet looks very different, but we still use it for very similar purposes. I searched for information. I stayed in touch with people I already knew. I looked to make new friends. Internet porn is almost as old as the internet itself. There. I said it. I said “PORN” in a blog post. All it takes is one mention of “PORN” and you become a spam magnet. Just ask Jeremy at Discovering Dad. Spamdora’s Box is already open. If comment moderation slows down, you’ll know why.

Where was I? Oh yeah, social media. I don’t even use instant messenger and I got sidetracked.

Jeff’s post and some recent email conversations with some old friends got me thinking. My friend Pat has been online since 1994. He’s extremely tech-savvy, can build an entire website in Notepad, assemble a computer from parts, troubleshoot Windows (that alone deserves praise!), and gets along with technology in general. However, he flat-out refuses to go anywhere near MySpace and has put signing up with Twitter, Facebook and  LinkedIn on his procrastination list.

There are times when I feel cutting-edge, and there are times when I feel like I’m only Web 1.6. Pat and I email each other and have “conversations.” Instead of replying in one big block of text, we reply to each other’s emails paragraph by paragraph. We keep track of who’s saying what by the presence or lack of >’s.

We rarely send attachments in our emails. Back in the day, attachments were unwieldy, requiring you to manually encode and decode them. We simply posted files up on our web servers or FTP sites and put the link in the email.

I have benefited a great deal from using social media. What Classmates.com charges money to do, you can do for free on Facebook. I’ve had some great Tweet sessions. StumbleUpon continues to send traffic to my blog.

But all this takes time. MySpace and Digg are like gym memberships. I’m beyond inactive on those sites. I check in with Facebook and LinkedIn periodically. I don’t post nearly as many photos as I should to my Flickr account. If you ask nicely, I’ll Stumble your page or site. I also use Entre Card to promote my blog. All of these sites take time to work. If you’ll excuse me, someone has added me as a friend on Facebook. I’ll need to sign in and confirm them.

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One of my friends recently sent me an email, “My hard drive crashed and I lost all my photos. Can you send me any pictures you have of the gang?”

A little while back, I described how to organize your digital photos. Organizing your photos is just as important as backing them up. You can’t effectively back up your photos if you don’t have them organized.

Backups Are More Feasible Than Ever

But why do so few people do it? Is it because we’re lazy? Yes. Stop being lazy. You’re not my teenage stepson, so you’ll actually listen when I say, “stop being lazy!” Does it take much effort to burn a CD or DVD once a month? How about a little drag and drop action between two Windows Explorer or Mac OS Finder windows?

In the film-only era, organizing your photos meant putting them in photo albums and storing the negatives in a safe place. Did we ever do that? Based on how people are now, I doubt that many people’s photos were organized. I still have shoeboxes with envelopes in random nooks and crannies in my house! My digital photos have fared much better. In the digital world, organizing your photos is easier than ever. Having a backup copy is within the reach of our budgets, our technology, and the precious time we have.

Several of my older co-workers in the past were afraid of the computer and skeptical of the security of the data. The argument always was, “but what if something happens to the computer?”

My internal dialogue went like this, “Sure Louise. Your paper filing system is really secure. What if we had a fire? All the electronic files we have on the swappable backup drive is off-site. We’ll still have those files. Your paper files are toast! See what the boss will think if you spent the next 6 days doing nothing but photocopying every sheet of paper in our file cabinets. Then see what he thinks about leasing storage space across town to keep all this paper!”

Storing your data, or in this case, your photographs, in digital form is the easiest, most cost effective, time-efficient, and most secure option available to us.

Backup Methods

Backup strategies range from the simple to the elaborate. Your family photos are no less valuable, but you don’t need the same robust solutions that professional photographers use. The important thing is, you must do something.

CD-R and DVD-R

Once your photos are organized, it’s only a matter of dragging and dropping the folders into your CD/DVD burning software or your external hard drive. If your photos are organized on your “live” drive, then they will be organized on your backup media too.

External Hard Drives

I’ve seen many references to CD-Rs and DVD-Rs being an affordable method of storage. Byte for byte, even an external firewire drive (more expensive than USB drives) are cheaper than the equivalent storage in CD-Rs and DVD-Rs!

Hard drives are always getting cheaper and cheaper. This is the most convenient method of redundant storage. You can drag and drop folders from one window to another. Voila! Your photos are saved to more than one location. You win extra bonus points for stashing the external hard drive off-site, like in your desk drawer at work.

Memory Cards

Memory cards also continue to drop in price. For special events, consider buying memory cards just for the occasion and storing them somewhere secure. Of course, you’ll also have the images on your hard drive, your external drive, and a CD-R too.

Multiple Locations

The ultimate in security is to have your data in different locations. This protects your family memories from natural disasters.

Send a CD-R copy to your relatives. They would love to see the pictures, and storing your backups off-site is as secure as it gets. Likewise, you should offer to store their backups too.

Upgrade to a pro account on Flickr. For $25 a year, you get unlimited storage. You can even set up your computer to automatically upload your photos to your account. You will be uploading uncompressed full-resolution photos, but do not fear. They can be set for private viewing only. The added bonus here is, you can just flag the ones you want to share publicly with a few clicks.

There is some debate on the volatility of the media we use to back up. CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and hard drives each have their advantages and potential downfalls. Data can get corrupt on any storage medium. However, with redundancy, you are ensured that your family memories are secure. Storage media fails, but the chance of all of your redundant media failing is slim.

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Increase your knowledge base through one of my favorite blogs of all-time – Strobist.

The winky little flash on your digital camera is responsible for more red-eye than every instance of demonic possession ever documented by paranormal experts. Its location near the lens axis provides the most unflattering light ever known to mankind (think of your driver’s license or passport photo). When you have an external flash unit (or multiple flash units) positioned away from the camera, it makes your photographs come to life with a 3D-like quality. Strobist teaches you how to do it.

I debated whether or not to really pimp Strobist here on 21st Century Dad, but I have to admit it. I am a pathetic Strobist fanboy! David Hobby is the MacGuyver of lighting. I’m doing more with two small flashes, some free sample gels, and stuff lying around the house than I ever did with an entire professional studio strobe setup. The studio strobes are now sitting in someone else’s closet gathering dust. Now my wallet weighs more and my lighting bag weighs less.

I’m so grateful that I had the chance to learn how to use off-camera lighting. My daughter’s first year is being documented in a much more satisfying way. I’m getting professional results from a pretty minimal rig that’s easy to use. We’ll never have to drag her to JC Penney. With some more tools in my toolbox, I’m also able to get some the most elusive photos of all – photos of angst-ridden teenage boys.

Just as it was when you made the jump from point-and-shoot to DSLR, you can run on a sort of a semi-automatic mode until your comfort level and knowledge increase. The most basic Strobist techniques already improve your photos dramatically. As your ambition and budget grow, your creativity does too. It doesn’t have to cost much at all. For around $200, you can get a complete starter kit.

When you buy your Strobist kit, you might want to pick up a battery charger and some rechargeable AA’s too. I recommend the La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger and Sanyo Eneloop NiMH AA batteries. Standard NiMH batteries lose their charge over time, even when unused. The Eneloops don’t. Strobists are among the most demanding and critical users of AA batteries. You can get an 8-pack on Amazon for a little more than the 4-pack at your local discount store.

David started the blog in February of 2006 as a way to store his notes. It has since grown to get over 1 million page views a month. He took a leave of absence from his job in June of 2007 to focus on the blog full-time. David is an inspiration photographically, but he’s also one of the reasons I started blogging. He made the right decision for his family and for 200,000 daily readers. The blogger’s lifestyle allows David to spend more time with his favorite Hobbys – Susan, Emily, and Ben.

Buy your Strobist kit on Amazon

A few months ago, I made a pathetic plug for the Eye-Fi wireless SD memory card. That was hardly a worthwhile introduction to photography 21st Century Dad style.

I didn’t want my photography related writing to go over the heads of the point-and-shoot crowd. My original plan was to share more general photography tips that everyone can benefit from. DSLR users are notorious for spending more time online than shooting. There are plenty of camera aficionado sites out there for the technical information you crave (notice I didn’t call them photography sites). I’m here to talk about photographing your family. I know a better way, and I’m here to share.

What’s a DSLR and Why Do I Want One?

Oh wait a minute. I just got done saying I didn’t want to alienate the point-and-shoot crowd. What’s a DSLR? DSLR stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. If you’re still scratching your head, it’s the camera that uses interchangeable lenses. You probably think of it as a “professional” camera.

DSLRs are now within reach of mere mortals’ credit limits. You can get an entire kit with a body, a great lens, and plenty of great features for under $500. So why would you want a DSLR?

• Ready to shoot as soon as you flip the power switch on.
• No shutter lag.
• Higher image quality (a 6MP DSLR beats a 12MP point and shoot in image quality, no contest.)
• Versatility and expandability through countless accessories.
• Men like to play with advanced technology, no matter what it is.

That’s all fine and dandy. But what does that mean in real life?

• “Honey get the camera quick! Jenny just put her Dora shoes on the dog!” By the time the cheesy little start-up song and cutesy animation is done playing on the LCD, Jenny has her little brother in a headlock because he put Play-Dough in her hair.
• “Hey Peanut! What a gorgeous smile!” Click. Half your child’s face is out of the frame and out of focus.
• A 6MP DSLR beats a 12MP point and shoot in image quality, no contest.
• More cool stuff to buy like lenses and flashes.
• How does GPS tagging of your pictures and wireless control of multiple flashes sound to you?

You probably agree with me on all of the above except for the megapixel issue. There’s a technical explanation and there’s an easy explanation. The easy explanation is to take my word for it. I own both types of cameras.

If you want to make high quality prints at larger sizes, elevate your photography to the next level, and have more creative control, a DSLR will let you do that. The photo you see here on the left is an example of some of the creative things you can do with a DSLR. This image was created without the help of an image editing program like Photoshop. It was done completely in-camera.

Things You Can Do That Cost $0

Will buying a DSLR cure you of all your photographic ills? Can it magically transform your snapshots into captivating photographs? The short and long answer is NO. Great photography is a result of upgrading the gear between the ears. Here is a short list of things that cost $0 that you can do to improve your photography:

• Get in close and fill the frame.
• Change position to eliminate a cluttered background.
• Use the longer zoom setting for a more flattering perspective when doing portraits.
• Use the flash outside in broad daylight.
• Avoid harsh mid-day sun. Early morning and late afternoon provide the most flattering natural light.
• Get down to the child’s eye level.
• Try the vertical orientation.
• Join Flickr and post your photos. Get feedback.
• Look at photographs you admire with a critical eye.
• Keep your camera with you all the time.
• Take more photos.

For more tips on how to improve your photos by spending $0, check out John’s article on photodoto.com

Is my Point and Shoot Camera Worthless Now?

Don’t put your little point and shoot up on eBay yet! The tips I just mentioned work on any camera, whether it’s the flagship pro model DSLR or a 3 year old camera phone. The camera you have with you will take better photographs than the one sitting on your desk at home. Sometimes, it’s just not practical to lug your DSLR rig around. Some people just don’t care to get a DSLR.

I used a point-and-shoot camera to take the photo you see here. There is no such thing as a perfect camera. The DSLR and the point-and-shoot each have their pros and cons.

Choosing a DSLR

Once you upgrade to a DSLR, image quality is the same, whether it’s an entry-level model or a flagship pro camera. When you spend more money, you only get more features and more pixels, not higher image quality. When I upgraded from a 6 megapixel DSLR to a 10 megapixel model, I only gained 866 pixels on the long side and 592 pixels on the short side. That’s not a lot.

As far as the different brands go, the image quality is really close. The decision will come down to price, the way the camera feels in your hands, and whatever I tell you. Canon and Nikon are the two top dogs in this game, and the consumer wins here. You get better OEM and 3rd party support. The community of users is much larger.

I spend my time with my children, writing for this site, and of course, taking pictures. I’d rather spend my time doing that than looking at “camera porn” sites. There are some links below to get you started. Making your purchase by clicking through to Amazon from this site puts a little money in my “tip jar” without costing you anything extra. This goes for anything you purchase on Amazon.

Next Steps

This is a daddy blog, not a pixel-peeper site. DPReview.com does a great job of running cameras through their gauntlet of tests. There is such a thing as too much information. You can just take my word for it, buy a Nikon D40 kit, and be extremely satisfied. You’ll be ecstatic with the responsive handling and image quality from any DSLR. If you’re not comfortable driving stick shift yet, the full auto mode works great. Even an entry-level DSLR has features you can grow into.

After you upgrade your camera, it’s time to improve your lighting. Direct on-camera flash is harsh, flat, and causes red-eye. Think of your driver’s license photo. David Hobby over at Strobist will show you how to use small flashes and a DIY MacGuyver ethic to get professional results. It’s nowhere near as expensive or difficult as you think. I’ll talk more about Strobist later.

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]]> http://www.21stcenturydad.com/2008/01/29/improve-your-family-photos-21st-century-dad-style/feed/ 0 http://www.21stcenturydad.com/2008/01/18/babies-require-aa-batteries/ http://www.21stcenturydad.com/2008/01/18/babies-require-aa-batteries/#comments Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:07:41 +0000 21st Century Dad http://www.21stcenturydad.com/2008/01/18/babies-require-aa-batteries/ Why is it that battery operated baby toys take 3 batteries? These things are sold in multiples of 2, with a 4-pack being the most common. I don’t own enough clocks and keychain-sized flashlights to utilize all the leftover AA or AAA batteries. As for larger toys, I haven’t found a use for the orphaned single C or D cells.

As your baby grows, so will her toy collection. Some 3th grade math will tell you that buying 24 batteries will power 8 toys. You can keep these magic cylinders out of the battery orphanage.

Being Green Saves You Greenbacks

It doesn’t make sense to use alkalines. Nickel metal hydride (or NiMH) rechargeables are your best bet. You will recoup their premium over alkalines after two charges. They are good for many more charge/discharge cycles. This makes sense for your wallet and for the environment.

Sometimes you can score a deal and get a charger bundled with some batteries. You might even get lucky and get a 60, 30, or 15 minute rapid charger. Brute force charging will shorten the lifespan of these little metal cylinders. These little metal cylinders are an integral part of maintaining your child’s pleasant disposition. Your batteries deserve better.

A Better Battery Charger

The La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger is the best battery charger available today. You don’t give much thought to a battery charger. Pop the batteries in and wait for the red LED to turn green. Thoughtlessness will kill your batteries as fast as the child who just discovered how to make Dora say “¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás?” enough times to make you think you live in Miami.

I shelled out full-pop before the price drop to $39.95. I didn’t buy an iPhone, but I paid the nerd tax on this one. It’s worth every penny, even at the original price of $79.95. Here’s why:

• Trickle charge or rapid-charge your AA’s and AAA’s. Trickle charging gives you more battery life per charge and many more charge/discharge cycles.
• It’s smart enough to keep batteries topped off after they’re fully charged. You’ll have full-capacity batteries ready to go. Typical NiMH’s lose charge while on sitting on your shelf or in your kitchen junk drawer.
• Can be set to fully discharge partially drained batteries before recharging them, further enhancing battery life.
• There’s a “Refresh” mode that reconditions poor performing batteries.
• Each charging slot is discrete and works independent of the others. Perfect for when you have to charge the 3 batteries from one of those pesky 4.5 volt devices.
• Works on archaic nickel cadmium rechargeables too. Battery type is automatically detected.
• It doesn’t get hot when plugged in and unused.
• The charger is bundled with 4 AA’s, 4 AAA’s, and 4 C and D cell adapters. Now you don’t have to try and find rechargeable C or D cells. The extra batteries and the C and D adapters are worth $30 alone!

The Savings Continue

Every time you charge a set of batteries, you save $5 or more. Between your child’s toy collection and your own gadgets, this charger will pay for itself quickly. I bought mine on Amazon a year and a half ago and the savings continue to rack up. I love the smell of nickel metal hydride in the morning.

Don’t be seduced by false economy and settle for “basura barata” when it comes to battery chargers. The BC-900 maintains healthy batteries long after a rapid charger has finished sucking the life out of these magic little cylinders. The refresh feature has saved a few batteries I thought were toast.

The manual is written in “Engrish,” but well worth your diligence to decipher. The demo video on the manufacturer’s site is of some help, but it’s more of a sales pitch than an informative video.

If I stopped you from buying a bunch of alkaline batteries, pass some of the savings along and make a donation.

]]> http://www.21stcenturydad.com/2008/01/18/babies-require-aa-batteries/feed/ 0 http://www.21stcenturydad.com/2007/12/10/21st-century-dad-gets-a-new-look/ http://www.21stcenturydad.com/2007/12/10/21st-century-dad-gets-a-new-look/#comments Mon, 10 Dec 2007 12:06:37 +0000 admin http://www.21stcenturydad.com/2007/12/10/21st-century-dad-gets-a-new-look/ Aren’t you glad that ugly theme is gone? Finally!

No self-respecting blogger would ever use the default themes included in your WordPress installation! An exhaustive search led me to the Heckerped theme. It’s a great looking theme and the story behind it is even better. This theme was created for a client who burned the developer of it. He chose to do something positive about it by offering it to everyone for free. In his own words, “lighting a candle instead of cursing the darkness.”

There are so many reasons I ditched the old theme. The main one that comes to mind is, “it was ugly as sin, and didn’t have widget support. This one solves those problems, and many more:

• The Categories and Archives are now drop-down menus. This alleviates some clutter and visual noise.
• I always seem to like blue things. Blue is good.
• With a little work, I can add a Google search box to replace the standard search. I find the Google search box is far more robust than the build-in search.
• The header now features a random image for every page impression. I replaced the defaults with photos of my own family.

Dads are gadget geeks. We love our children, and we love our gadgets. This one is much easier to sell mom on. It makes it so much easier to capture and share those pictures. It’s easier to get mom’s approval if it legitimately benefits the whole family.

So what does theEye-Fi Wireless carddo? It’s a wi-fi enabled SD memory card for your digital camera. You can transfer photos wirelessly from your camera to your computer, or to any of 17 different photo sharing sites. It wasn’t long ago you paid $99 for a 2GB memory card without this functionality.

Nikon recently introduced a camera with built-in wi-fi, but I believe you had to subscribe to their service in order to share photos. The Eye-Fi Card gives that functionality and more to any camera that uses SD cards. You can continue using the Flickr or Shutterfly account that your friends and relatives already have bookmarked.

Even if you don’t use a photo sharing site, this card saves you from having to connect cables or deal with a card reader. Just be sure your battery has plenty of charge before making a massive file transfer.