Articles by Zek

Start Your Child on the Right Geek Path with The Star Trek Enterprise

When Sarah was pregnant with our son, we received two pieces of advice from nearly every parent we knew: get lots of sleep while we still could, and go see as many movies as possible before the little person arrives. This advice is the only reason Sarah relented and agreed to see “Star Trek: Into Darkness” with me. And while she found it less than exhilarating, our unborn child LOVED it. Yes, he spent the entire movie kicking and moving. Now, it might have been the vibrations from all the explosions, but I prefer to believe the little one…

Editorials

What’s a Fair Wage for Fast Food Workers?

What did your first job pay? I vaguely remember my first “real” job (i.e., not babysitting) at Borders during summer break from college, where I was thrilled to be making $6.25ish per hour. Fast forward to when I worked as a supervisor for Borders, post-college, with a degree, where I started at $8.75 an hour. Even with roommates, it was tough to stretch that every two weeks. So I have a lot of sympathy for the current fast food workers’ strike, where they’re fighting for a raise, specifically to a significant level above the current average rate of $7.25 per…

News & Features

Jillian’s Drawers Makes Trying Cloth Diapers Economical and Fun!

My son may be small, but he has quite a bit of gear amassed already. Bottles, pacifiers, “soothing vibration” in just about any accessory he can lay or sit on…he’s got quite the stash of baby stuff, all of which is constantly being refined and retooled by manufacturers as design and technology improve. Even items that most people think of as “old-fashioned”, like cloth diapers, have undergone a major revolution and style change. Since disposable diapers are both pricey and not great for the environment, Sarah and I are anxious to try our hand at cloth diapers. However, there’s what…

Reviews

Tweekaboo Virtual Family Diary Review – a Baby Book for the Digital Age

Sarah and I can probably repeat the story of the 24 hours leading up to our son’s birth by heart. We told the story to family and friends, and whenever our newborn got fussy we told it to him. After a few days, Sarah turned to me and pointed out that we should probably write it down somewhere since we will eventually forget all the details. Luckily for us, we had the opportunity to test Tweekaboo, an app that acts as a virtual baby book, letting us add pictures and stories and share them with family and each other. Is…

Reviews

Trident Aegis Case for the Nokia Lumia 928 Review – Bubble Wrap for Your Mobile Phone

I am loving my new Lumia 928. Windows Phone is slick, and I am enjoying the phone just as much as I did the day I bought it. However, the operating system isn’t the only thing that’s slick — the polycarbonate casing is very slippery, and I am very accident prone. Luckily for me, Trident cases released their Aegis line for the 928, and I quickly jumped on the case as a way to give my Lumia some solid protection against my personal chaotic field. Is it a good balance of protection and style? Does it make an already…

Editorials

What Subscription Services Are Worth a Place in Your Budget?

Sarah and I have been loving the new Netflix series “Orange is the New Black”. It’s incredibly well-written, has an amazing cast, and manages to add levity and entertainment to a relatively depressing premise (it’s not exactly happy time watching a protagonist navigate life in prison). I’ve been recommending the show like crazy and was surprised when Dan told me he recently cancelled his Netflix subscription. We use Netflix constantly and it didn’t occur to me that not everyone pays for the service! It sparked a larger discussion among the Gear Diary Editors about what subscription services we pay for…

Gear Bits

SPIbelt Makes Their Kids Pouches Insulin Friendly

I think I enthuse about SPIbelt almost as much as I enthuse about RoadID. SPIbelts are small low-profile waist packs that are ideal for running, hiking, and other activities where you need to keep your phone, a granola bar, or some other small items close to your person. They are an American company that consistently improves and refines their product based on the feedback from users, and their latest refinement shows they pay close attention to how parents and children use SPIbelts! SPIbelts are very popular with kids who have medical needs such as diabetes. It’s much more attractive and…

eBooks

Apple, Publishers, and How eBook Price Fixing Changed the Market

In 2009, several major publishers announced a huge pricing change for eBooks; retailers would sell them only at the price set by the publisher, and no one could apply any discounts or coupons. The move was anti-competitive and clearly aimed at attacking Amazon, but what really struck everyone was the company behind the curtain. Apple had just announced the iPad, and they seemed quite confident that the projected $12.99-$14.99 prices for iBooks would not be undercut, a suspicious claim since Amazon sold those titles for $9.99. The assumption was that Apple had worked with the publishers to create this price-fixed…

Editorials

Bing’s SafeSearch Filter Issues Explained!

A few days ago I pointed out some very odd behavior in the Bing SafeSearch filter. Certain words, like “Lesbian”, were being summarily blocked while insulting or hateful words came through just fine. I had the chance to chat with someone from the Bing SafeSearch team today, and I learned a few important things: One, the SafeSearch filter isn’t as simplistic as it first appears, and there’s some nuance to how it blocks content. And two, Microsoft is an incredibly responsive and community-oriented company! I learned that SafeSearch is designed to filter out “adult” content from web results. If a…

Editorials

Bing Thinks ‘Lesbian’ Is a Dirty Word

Update 07/09/13: Please see Microsoft’s Response Sarah and I were chatting this morning about parenting books, and we wondered what resources were out there for lesbian moms. So I pulled out my trusty Lumia, hit the search key, and typed in “Lesbian mom blogs”. Imagine my surprise when Bing informed me that “Your current Bing SafeSearch filters out results that might return adult content.” I had no idea same-sex moms were so risqué! So I set out to test the Bing SafeSearch filter (on moderate, FYI), and the results were shocking. Read on to find out more! (NOTE: All the…

Reviews

Mr Reader Helps Ease Google Reader Withdrawal

I don’t require much in an RSS reader, I just want a list of new items, broken up into folders. No need for fancy animations, layouts that look like magazines, or silly flipping transitions. My favorite RSS reader pre-Google Reader shutdown was FeeddlerPro, and I was heartbroken to leave it behind. But the developer for FeeddlerPro isn’t supporting Feedly, and since that’s become the simplest platform to keep my computer, Windows Phone, and iPad in sync, I needed a new app — one that wasn’t the Feedly app, because I really hate the Feedly iPad app’s style over substance approach….

Health and Fitness

RoadID Debuts Companion iPhone App

I am sure I sound like a broken record, but everyone who is even moderately active should have a Road ID product. These simple bracelets and tags let you keep emergency contact and health information on your wrist, shoe, or around your neck so that, if something were to happen to you and you are unable to communicate, first responders have information to help assist you. The products are inexpensive but offer an immeasurable value and, more importantly, safety. Road ID is now taking their protective ideas to a new level now with an iPhone app that offers its own safety-minded…

Reviews

Lumia 928 Windows Phone Review – Slight Learning Curve Leads to High Rewards

About a month ago, I made the radical decision to move from my iPhone to Windows Phone. I’ve always liked Nokia products, and when the Lumia 928 came to Verizon the temptation was overwhelming, so I took the plunge. You can check out my first impressions here. Since this was such a radical change, and since Windows Phone has so many proponents and detractors all by itself, I’ve broken this review down into two sections: Windows Phone itself, and the Lumia Hardware. Windows Phone: Before I get into the phone itself, I think it’s worth spending some time initially on…

Gear Bits

The Greatest Use for a Smartphone Camera for New Parents

Sarah and I are adjusting to being new parents, and it is definitely a major change. From the sleepless nights to the diaper duty, we are making a few rookie mistakes and having a good time trying our best. Luckily, our son seems to grasp that we’re all winging it a bit, and we’re hoping to get some sleep sometime in 2014. In the meantime, we’ve come up with a use for our smartphone cameras that make our lives infinitely easier, and it’s not just playing paparazzi every time our baby does something remotely cute. See, often our son prefers…

News & Features

Stuffbak Reminds Me What Life Was Like in 2006

This morning I woke up to an email from Stuffbak. If you’ve never heard of them, they were a company that was quite popular in the Palm/Windows Mobile dominant mid-2000’s, and their pitch was fairly simple: they’d send you a label with an 800 number and serial number to stick on your valuable electronics. This way if they were lost or misplaced, a good samaritan could call the number, Stuffbak would arrange shipping to return the item to the owner, and the finder received a $20 reward from Stuffbak (and the owner could increase that at their discretion). It was…

Gear Bits

A Freakishly Prescient True Blood Parody from Sesame Street

Last night, a Facebook friend shared a Sesame Street clip from 2010 that parodied HBO’s “True Blood“, calling it “True Mud”. As you’ll see below, it’s a whole lesson in things that rhyme with mud, and it’s silly and cute. It’s also weirdly psychic, as you’ll see after the break (spoilers through Season 5 below).

Gear Bits

It Pays to Chat with Customer Service!

When we moved into our new house, we made a very unfortunate discovery. Our box spring didn’t fit up the stairs. My brother-in-law was kind enough to build us a platform bed frame for our mattress, but it still left us very low to the ground. Sarah finally got fed up last week, and I agreed to look into split box springs. I was about to give up, or buy a crappy build-it-yourself box spring from Amazon, when I happened to get a pop-up while browsing 1-800-Mattress, asking if I wanted to chat with a representative … and I am…

Reviews

Ampjacket for iPhone 4S Review

The iPhone has some amazing multimedia features, but you need headphones, a Bluetooth speaker, or some other sort of stereo system to really appreciate them. The built-in speaker is ok, but nothing mind-blowing. What if you need a sound boost, but don’t want to lug around a full speaker system? The Ampjacket aims to deliver boosted sound in an iPhone case, but does it live up to the promise? The Ampjacket is a simple case made of a soft plastic material. Inserting the iPhone is simple, and the Ampjacket is quite protective with a slight lip around the edge for…

Gear Bits

Spock Squared Makes Everything Funnier

I very, very, very rarely notice car commercials. And they never influence me on what sort of car I’d like to drive. But despite them being way out of our price range, I totally want an Audi after seeing this Young Spock/Old Spock commercial, spotted by our friends at Mighty Mega: Is that not the most awesome, geektastic commercial of all time? I can’t tell what made me laugh harder-the “Wrath of Khan” bit or the part where Leonard Nimoy sang bits of his infamous Bilbo Baggins song. And now a bit of trivia after you’re done laughing: Do you…

News & Features

Moxtra Updates with an Android App, Google Drive, and More!

I reviewed Moxtra about a month ago, and was very impressed with this digital binder/scrapbook app. It loos great and makes it easy to organize and collaborate on all sorts of projects. At the time, my biggest complaint was that I couldn’t easily get documents and web clips to Moxtra without stopping in Dropbox or Box first. Moxtra was just updated to add Google Drive, and a web browser for clipping, plus an Android app! I took a quick look at the update; does it impress as much as the original?

Reviews

2Day Tasks App for Windows Phone Review

When I made the switch to Windows Phone, I had to start replacing my various “go-to” apps. Chief among them was a decent lightweight to-do manager. Something more robust than, say, “Reminders” on the iPhone, but it didn’t need to be a full-blown Getting Things Done organization system. I poked around Windowsphone.com, and noticed 2Day had a number of positive reviews. This has quickly become my favorite new productivity app; it is simple to use, with tons of customizable task options. Read on to learn more! 2Day follows the Windows Phone “Metro” interface, meaning you can swipe back and forth…

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