Internet Archives - Page 10 of 17

Happy Anniversary-Of-When-We-Met To My Angel

September 12, 2011 TechyDad Anniversary, B, Internet

Today marks a very special occasion. (Well, by the time most people read this, it’ll be yesterday, but I’m going to publish this just before midnight so it’ll technically be correct on the day.) Twelve years ago, on September 12th, I had just come home from Rosh Hashana services. After being offline for two days, I was ready to spend some time on the computer. I signed on, figuring I’d waste a couple of hours and then go to sleep.

Little did I realize that, at the same time, B was on her computer. She had forgotten that she even had a chat window open. When she noticed it, she glanced at the people in the chat room. My name must have caught her eye as did the “Nice Jewish guy looking for a nice Jewish girl” tagline that I had added a couple of weeks prior. She sent me a message.

As we conversed, I knew right away that there was something different about her. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew that something special that made her stand out from other ladies I had met. Not only did we like many of the same things, but I didn’t feel nervous around her at all. That was very odd. I usually would get so nervous that I’d say or do something wrong that I’d freeze up and do nothing. With B, however, I didn’t worry or freeze up. Talking to her (and later being around her) just felt natural and right.

Long, late night chats became long, late night phone calls. This turned into a face-to-face meeting that we couldn’t bear to end. (We drove my parents, who had accompanied me to the outlet mall but then made themselves scarce, crazy by continuously delaying leaving by “just 5 more minutes.”) Those all-too-infrequent meetings turned into a marriage proposal (aka squashing bugs) which B accepted.

All because of a forgotten open chat window and an entry into a chat room “just to kill some time.” Happy Day-We-Met-Online Anniversary, B!

A Crossover of Animated Proportions

September 1, 2011 TechyDad Cartoons, Internet, NHL, Television

I’ve been thinking a lot about fairies. You see, NHL recently discovered The Fairly Oddparents thanks to Netflix/Roku. And by “discovered”, I mean I showed it to him knowing full well that he’d be hooked. Of course, being the TV geek-in-training that he is, he immediately went on a quest to watch all of the episodes there are.

If you aren’t up to date on your NickToons, here’s the quick run-down. Timmy’s a little boy who has it rough. He’s unpopular in school, has parents who frequently ignore him and has a babysitter who terrorizes him for fun. Luckily for him, he’s assigned two fairy godparents – Cosmo and Wanda. Their job is to help him be happy until he’s good enough to not need fairies anymore. At that time, he loses his fairies, loses his memories of them, and they get re-assigned to a new miserable kid. They grant him wishes with comical results while trying to keep their existence a secret.

At one point, while listening in on one of the episodes, I wondered about the guy who did the voice for Timmy’s dad. It’s a pretty distinctive voice and I wondered if I had heard it anywhere else. Being a TV Geek, I loaded up IMDB and browsed on over to the Fairly Oddparents page. I didn’t see Timmy’s dad right away, so I looked up a few of the other voices. That’s when I noticed two things.

First of all, Timmy’s parents and godparents are voiced by the same people. Cosmo’s voice and Timmy’s Dad’s voice are by Daran Norris while Wanda and Timmy’s Mom come from Susanne Blakeslee. This adds quite an interesting wrinkle to the show since his fairy godparents often act as replacement parents (for better or worse) to Timmy.

Secondly, I began to notice a pattern with some of the voice actors. A few of them also voice characters in another series that the boys like: Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

This series, aimed at a younger set, is about the adventures of a yellow being (exactly what he and his friends are isn’t clear) named Wubbzy who likes having fun, his friends Walden (who likes reading/studying/science), Widget (who likes building things), Daizy (who likes gardening). All of these characters, except for Widget, share voice actors with Fairly Oddparents characters.

Wubbzy might be fun loving on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy, but on The Fairly OddParents, Grey DeLisle plays Vicky, the babysitter from hell. While Wubbzy would love to play a game of kickety-kick ball, Vicky would love to play a game of kickety-kick Timmy.

Timmy Turner is your average kid with a miserable life (save for his fairy godparents). He likes the usual boy activities such as watching TV, playing video games and reading comic books. His voice actor, Tara Strong, also voices Daizy, the aforementioned gardening lover who also likes rainbows and lollipops. They do seem to share an affinity for pink, however.

Carlos Alazraqui voices Denzel Crocker, Timmy’s fairy-obsessed teacher. Mr. Crocker, when a boy, had Timmy’s fairy godparents. Since growing up, however, he’s become a man obsessed with 1) proving that fairies really exist and 2) using their magic to take over the world. He’s deduced that Timmy has fairy godparents and constantly tries to lure them into traps. He’s actually been successful a few times, but Timmy always prevails and Mr. Crocker’s memory is wiped, though the crazy remains. Meanwhile, over on Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Carlos plays Walden, a well-adjusted figure interested in books, science and art. No sign of craziness at all.

I debated whether or not to share this information with NHL. On one hand, he would surely appreciate the linkages between the two shows. On the other hand, would it spoil the magic of the shows to know that people give voice to these characters? I decided to tell him. As expected, he loved the linkups and was curious what others there might be. Given his recent excitement over seeing the “last” Fairly Oddparents episode (the last one available on Netflix, at least), it hasn’t reduced his enjoyment of the show at all.

Have you spotted any interesting cartoon crossovers?

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The Continuing Adventures of My Super-Boys

August 10, 2011 TechyDad Computers, Geeky Pursuits, Internet, JSL, NHL, Superheroes

Last year, I sat my boys down on the HeroMachine website to let them make their own superheroes. Since it’s been so long, I decided to let them back on to see how they would make their heroes this time. As with the last time, I guided them through the setup. I might have nudged them here or there but the general look and feel of the superheroes was up to them. For example, I might push to make tops and bottoms match in color, but if they decided to change the color palette, I wouldn’t refuse their superheroic demands.

I also purposefully didn’t show them their superheroes from the previous year. I didn’t want them to simply recreate their old heroes. I wanted to see what more recent influences might being to their heroes.

Let’s start with JSL. Last year, he made this hero:

He named his superhero “FireGuy.” So what did he make this year?

Meet Super Agent JSL Buzz Lightyear. Breaking down the name first, the “Super” part comes because, to JSL, a superhero must, obviously, be names super-something. I’m not sure why he thinks that. Most of the superheroes he knows don’t have names that begin with “Super.” “Agent” comes from Agent P, from Phineas and Ferb. We had recently watched the Phineas and Ferb movie so he wanted to be a secret agent. Buzz Lightyear comes from his favorite Toy Story character.

The shield is based on the one that his favorite superhero, Captain America, has. The color scheme incorporates his favorite colors. I’m not sure if there was a particular rhyme or reason behind the rest of the outfit, though.

Next up, was NHL. Last year, he made Disco Man, so named because he had “disco eyes.”

This year, NHL made Toolguy/Mathman/Cordman. Yes, you read that right. This superhero has three names. I tried to get NHL to shorten it, but he was adamant that it needed to be all three and include the slashes.

The name is based off his love of building things, his love of math, and the fact that his superhero has a whip. The head was based loosely on Hulk. For the body, NHL insisted that his superhero was part-robot and so it needed to be grey. In retrospect, I wonder if this comes from Perry the Platyborg from the Phineas and Ferb movie. It was interesting that NHL picked out the same tail that he chose last year. He also chose the same eyes at first, but then changed his mind.

Have your kids used HeroMachine? If so, what kinds of superheroes have they made?

Anonymity and the Google+ Circle

July 28, 2011 TechyDad Internet, Social Media

I’ve been signed up with Google+ for a few weeks now and it seems like an interesting service. I’ll admit that I don’t use it as often as I use Twitter. That’s mainly for two reasons.

First of all, I can update Twitter via SMS message, Seesmic Desktop program, API-powered tweet from my blog, Twitter.com or a bunch of other sites/services. Google+ can be updated only from the Google+ website. Assuming Google has an API planned, the amount of third party tools supporting Google+ should skyrocket upon its release. Google has also been testing SMS updates, albeit in India which doesn’t help me.

The other reason I haven’t used Google+ much is more thorny. You see, on Twitter and here I go by “TechyDad.” When I first signed up for Internet services (decades ago), I didn’t really care about privacy and thus used my real name. After I became a father, though, and after B began TheAngelForever.com, I saw the value of anonymity (even partial anonymity).

Being “TechyDad” means that I can mention things in general without worrying that some stalker might track down where I live. And remember, I’ve had an Internet Stalker before. As worried as I was when the whole thing went down, I was comforted that it would be extremely tricky for her to pinpoint my address.

Proclaiming my real name to everyone via Google+ negates this anonymity. Had Google+ been around during my Stalker episode, I would have worried that said stalker would take my real name, run it through some phone listing/lookup tools and (even though we’re unlisted) find our home address. If someone who is even slightly unhinged finds that out, they might decide to pay you a visit. Harassment over the Internet is bad enough. Harassment that spills into real life is a whole different class of bad.

The thing is, though, Google could solve this easily. They already have a Nicknames field. Let people specify nicknames for themselves and assign those nicknames to circles. Then, let people decide whether or not those circles get to see the user’s real name.

Suppose John Smith has three circles: Family, College Buddies and Blogging. His family would likely want to see him as John Smith. His College Buddies could see him under the nickname “Dunk” (earned during a college basketball game) but would also be able to see his real name. His Blogging circle members, meanwhile, would only see him under the nickname “Dunkers Shame” which he uses to blog about various embarrassing things he’s done in his life. His real name would remain hidden to everyone in this circle.

Under this setup, everyone wins. Google would know people’s real names. People who want complete anonymity could hide their name from everyone except Google. People who want partial anonymity could have multiple identities for multiple circles.

There are bugs to work out, of course. For example, what if one of John Smith’s College Buddies is also in his Blogging circle. Would he see updates by “Dunkers Shame” or “Dunk”? Would his real name be visible? Would we need to set up a circle hierarchy? (Name preferences from Circle 1 override name preferences from Circle 2.) I’m sure Google could solve this dilemma.

Until they set up some kind of pseudonym/nickname feature, though, and let people hide their true names, I just don’t see myself using Google+ much.

How I Broke Free Of Picture Sharing Services

May 31, 2011 TechyDad Blogging, Internet, Mobile Photos, Photography, TechyDad.com, Twitter, Web Development

Three weeks ago, Twitter began to buzz about a change in TwitPic’s terms of service. The change appeared to give TwitPic the right to sell posted photos to third parties without the approval of and without sharing the revenue with the person who posted the photo. Needless to say, people didn’t like this and began moving to YFrog and other image hosting sites. TwitPic attempted to explain the TOS change but this didn’t satisfy everyone.

I have to admit, I was one of those people who weren’t quite reassured. I switched over to YFrog. However, then I began to think. YFrog said they would never do what TwitPic did, but how could I be sure. Perhaps a year from now we’ll all be talking about some big scandal about new YFrog TOS changes. Or maybe YFrog will go belly up. What would happen to my photos then?

In addition, I began to think about traffic. When B was at Disney Social Media Moms, she saw Chris Brogan speak. She relayed some of what he said to me including that you should treat your blog like your home base and Twitter, Facebook, etc like outposts. Perhaps it was time to move my “photos shared from my cell phone” operation back into my home base. After all, wouldn’t it be ideal to drive traffic back to TechyDad.com rather than SomeRandomPhotoSharingService.com?

I already had a pretty decent idea of how it would work. I would create a super-secret e-mail address used only for posting photos. A script on TechyDad.com would check this inbox for photos I sent and would make them into blog posts, uploading the photos and any additional text I provided. Finally, an auto-tweet script would alert my Twitter followers of my uploaded image the same way that TwitPic or YFrog would.

While I’d have loved to have written the script myself, I decided to see if anyone had done a WordPress plugin. Sure enough, I found Postie right away. I figured others might want to do something similar with their blogs, so I’ll detail my basic steps below. (NOTE: WordPress has a “Post By E-mail” feature, but you’ll see soon enough why I didn’t use this.)

Step 1: Be Using Self-Hosted WordPress and install the Postie Plugin

None of this will work if you’re using Blogger or are hosted on WordPress.com. There might be some solution for you, but I’m not sure what that would be. Sorry. If you do have a self-hosted WordPress blog, add the Postie plugin from the Admin control panel.

Step 2: Create a Post From Cell Phone E-mail address

You don’t want to set Postie to use your publicly available e-mail address. There are protections against just anyone posting to your blog (more on these later), but do you really want to chance it? So have your web host set up (or set up via their control panel) some kind of super secret e-mail address. Something like thisisonlyusedby5551212topostpics@mysite.com. Add that e-mail address to your cell phone’s contacts under a name like “Post Photo.”

Step 3: Configure Postie

In your sidebar, under Settings, click on Postie. You’ll get a list of options to set up. First of all, you’ll need to tell Postie just how to get to the e-mail inbox. So give Postie the mail server, userid and password information.

Next, under User, you want to make sure that you’re the only one who can post. This is where WordPress’s basic Post-By-Email function fails. If a spammer were to guess the e-mail address, you might find your blog relaying a Nigerian prince’s pleas for help. Make sure “Allow Anyone To Post Via Email” is set to No and set up the authorized addresses to be the e-mail address of your phone. If you’re not sure about this, you could always send a TXT and Picture message to your normal e-mail address and see what e-mail addresses they come from. (TXT and picture messages often display as two different e-mail addresses.)

Under Message, select the category that the messages should take. I created a new one called Mobile Photos. Text/picture messages received as e-mails can often contain signatures added by the providers. (For example, “This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!”) Obviously, we don’t want that posting, so go under Advanced options and any signature as a new signature pattern. You don’t need the whole thing, just enough to for Postie to recognize it and not confuse it with your own text. (e.g. Don’t add in “This message” lest it cut you off when your post should say “This message comes overlooking a beautiful landscape.”)

You can customize the template under Image and fiddle with the other settings if you wish, but the basic functionality is there now. Now, you should be able to take a photo, send it to your blog and have it posted. The only thing you’re missing is tweeting it.

For this, I turned to the Twitter Tools plugin for WordPress. Sadly, this plugin required a prefix for tweets. Something along the lines of “New Blog Post”. Of course, I didn’t want my Mobile Photo posts to be called “New Blog Posts”, so I went into the code. It turned out to be a simple fix to make it stop using prefixes. (I actually set it so that a prefix of a blank space would result in no prefix used at all since the application errors if no prefix is used.) Since I don’t want to assume that everyone out there is comfortable coding, I’d simply recommend finding a prefix you can live with or using another plugin such as Tweet This.

Once this is set up, you’ll be able to completely replace the functionality of those Twitter photo sharing services. Your photos will remain under your control, you’ll drive more traffic to your site and you won’t need to worry about some random terms of service changes (at least not with this).

If given the opportunity*, would you set something like this up for your blog? Do you see an upside to TwitPic/YFrog type services that my Post-To-My-Blog solution doesn’t have?

* If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, but aren’t techy enough to set this up, I do freelance work on the side and might be able to help you out. Send me an e-mail via the Contact Me form above.

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