Electronic stuff my friends recommended to me over the summer

Games for IPod Touch 4:

Settlers- $4.99- Somewhat fun. I can't play on any one mission for more than about five minutes before my enemies attack me and I have to start over.

SurvivalCraft- $3.99- I didn't actually get this because I don't have the money. From what I've heard it's exactly like Minecraft but with more species of animals.

Clash of Clans- free- Fun, but once your shield runs out people attack you like crazy. I got attacked four times in two hours. The good news is that if whoever attacks you destroys enough stuff in your village you get a free shield. NEEDS WI-FI!!!!

Total Domination: Reborn- Free- Fun. Like Clash of Clans but set in the future after a nuclear war. Rebuild civilization and become the top player. NEEDS WI-FI!!!!

Battle Bears Gold- Free- LOVE IT. Imagine an eight-bear ( Yes, you read that right) war with four on each side. You can choose from eight different bears: Sniper, Soldier, Heavy, Huggable, Demo, Engineer, Assault, and Chub Scout. I'm totally addicted to it. I even bought the green skin for Heavy. NEEDS WI-FI!!!!

Dumb Ways To Die- Free- LOVE IT. My current favorite non wi-fi game. Even has a little three minute theme song. You can listen to it at http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw. I've already driven my parents crazy because I've been singing it a TON for about two days. I even memorized the first three verses.

SPECIAL FEATURE: How to look like a hobo in Jetpack Joyride: Buy the paper bag, the barrel, and the diy jetpack and put them all on at once and (drumroll, please).......... a HOBO BARRY!!!!! (cue fanfare)

Videos:

Cat Flushing the Toilet: I nearly fell out of my seat watching this 46 second video. You can watch it at http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=saQcnblLinc

Dog Chasing a Rabbit in its Sleep: This is pretty funny. And the crazy thing is, the dog doesn't wake up until he hits the wall!!!! Watch it at http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=grEypMDqvTE

TV/MOVIES

Merlin: Arthur and Merlin are teenagers and Arthur is still a prince. Uther Pendragon is still king, Morgana Le Fay isn't (bwa ha ha ha) evil, and Guinevere is the blacksmith's daughter. Everything that happens is way different from the traditional story. I watched it on our TV by streaming it on Netflix with my mother's account.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail: In my opinion, the most absurd and funniest movie ever made. What could be more funny than an enchanter named (bum bum bum buuuuuuuh) Tim???????

Disclaimer of the disclaimer.

I, John Hartman, wrote this post.

Batteries: Running Them Down and Charging Them Up

Packing the night before a 21st century vacation with kids sounds something like this, "Make sure you plug in your iPod and 3DS before you go to bed!" Depending on your mode of travel, whether by car or by air, you may face some serious battery issues.

The car travel problem
On our recent 6-hour drive from Tucson to San Carlos, Mexico the boys faced a major dilemma. They wanted to play games on their electronic devices, knowing they would run down the batteries. They also knew we had options for recharging the batteries while we were in the car. Battery life for any device depends on how you use it. I've noticed heavy wifi and bluetooth use run down my smartphone and iPad batteries the fastest. When the devices are in airplane mode the batteries last significantly longer. The good news for our car trip was that most of it would be out of cell phone range, meaning the boys would only be able to play games that don't require wifi or to watch videos they pre-loaded onto their iPods. Both boys started complaining about their batteries being low about 4 hours into the trip. At that point they had two options: 1) play games on their Nintendo 3DSXLs, or 2) recharge the iPod batteries. I assume talking to one another or to other people in the car was out of the question.

The car travel solution
My Toyota Highlander has two DC outlets, one on the dashboard and one under the dashboard. I have a car USB power adapter that can charge 2 devices at once. However, it will not charge an Apple device (more about that later). The Apple Store sells a proprietary car USB power adapter for $15 that works for Apple devices but it only has one USB port. If you have 4 people with 1-2 devices per person and only 2 DC outlets you are looking at a real power struggle. Furthermore, the charging cable that comes with the iPod Touch is so short it won't reach from the DC outlet to the back seat. That means the boys can't use their devices while they're charging. Oh, the humanity!

Thankfully we have another solution that works for car trips. My husband has a Port A Wattz 300 power inverter and a DC outlet extension cord. When you plug the power inverter into the car 12 volt DC outlet it will generate 120 volts of AC power. I plug the extension cord into the DC outlet in the front of the car and the boys can put the power inverter, which has 2 AC outlets, on the back seat. They then plug their iPod AC wall chargers into the power inverter and they're back in business.

The air travel problem
Our next big trip is will take us to the east coast to visit family. We'll be flying and at the moment we all have middle seats so batteries are not our biggest concern. Assuming we can get the seating worked out we will still have to deal with battery usage. We'll be traveling without our power inverter and I can guarantee we won't have seats with DC outlets. I've heard of such a thing on airplanes but not the planes I fly on. So here's our new conundrum - if you drain your iPod battery on the flight from Tucson to Chicago, can you fully re-charge your battery during your layover before you have to board the flight to Buffalo?

A temporary diversion regarding chargers
There are 3 general ways to recharge your device battery: 1) an AC wall charger, 2) a DC car adapter, and 3) a USB port on a computer. The things I charge on a regular basis are my Android smart phone and my iPad. In my experience the AC wall charger is the fastest way to recharge them. I can't recall the last time I charged my smart phone using the USB port on my PC laptop although I know I've done it at least once. I use my DC car adapter to charge my smart phone on my way home from work and when we're on car trips. I find the DC car adapter to be much slower than the AC wall charger.

The Apple devices present a more complex issue. My iPad came with a wall charger and USB cable. The Apple wall charger and USB cable are proprietary hardware. This means the USB cable is not a standard USB cable, and that's not just because it's white. If you plug the iPad with its USB charging cable into a standard USB wall charger, a standard USB DC car adapter or a PC USB port, the iPad will not charge. You can only charge an iPad when the USB cable is plugged into an Apple wall or car charger or an Apple computer.

To my surprise, when Nathan bought his iPod Touch the device came with the USB charging cable but not an AC wall charger. I figured that was OK because I have a Logitech speaker stand I can use to charge my iPad. I let Nathan use the AC wall charger that came with my iPad to charge his iPod Touch. However, when John bought his iPod Touch we needed 3 ways to charge the devices. I bought John an official Apple AC wall charger for about $20 because I'd read that non-Apple chargers can be dangerous (http://www.righto.com/2012/10/a-dozen-usb-chargers-in-lab-apple-is.html).

There's no good air travel solution
So now I can return to our airport problem. Let's say the boys drain their iPod Touch during the flight from Tucson to Chicago. At that point they can: 1) play on their 3DS, 2) talk to the person next to them, 3) read the airline magazine, or 4) make multiple unnecessary trips to the restroom. When we get off the plane in Chicago we will have to run to our connecting flight, which in my experience is always the farthest gate from wherever we landed. Will that leave us enough (or any) time to find an outlet to charge up our batteries before we have to board the next plane? Airports are getting better about having at least some outlets available for travelers but searching for an open outlet may be akin to searching for the Holy Grail. I often end up on the floor, crouched against the wall, feeling lucky to have found a single, free outlet. When I'm accompanied by the boys and their power hungry devices I fear we shall be denied our quest and thrown off the Bridge of Death into the Gorge of Eternal Death.

It is with great apprehension and uncertainty that we will start our journey to the east coast. We will charge our devices the night before, put them in airplane mode while in flight, and keep our chargers in our carry-on bags. We will then use our devices, always keeping an eye on the remaining battery life.

John's perspective: 
[Disclaimer: John still refuses to write anything but is always interested in discussing our topics. He proof-read this blog entry and laughed at "Oh, the humanity!" and the Monty Python references.]

Last week my husband took the boys to Lake Powell. It was a 6-9 hour drive, including the 50-mile detour around the US 89 road closure, depending on the wind and the number of vehicles in your caravan. Faced with the absolute certainty of draining their iPod Touch batteries both boys opted to plug into the power inverter the moment they left the driveway.

Regaining Parental Control

As a parent I often feel I have lost control of my kids. John doesn't hear a word I'm saying when he's absorbed in book. Nathan informed me he doesn't like to wear clothes that match and his favorite hair style is natural bed head. I figure you have to pick your battles because you can't win them all. In that vein I decided to take back the control that only parents can demand - "Parental Control" over the kids' electronic device access.

I found enabling parental control and controlling parental control are two different things. I suffered my first set-back last weekend when my husband and I tried to stream the first episode of "House of Cards" on Netflix. After I selected the episode I got the message “This title cannot be played as it exceeds the parental level set for your account.” It appears I outsmarted myself when I found and set the parental control on my Netflix instant viewing account. I selected the "Older Kids" level of maturity, which allows PG-13 movies and TV-14 television shows, since that's what we often watch as a family. I had not considered that shows such as "House of Cards" would be rated TV-MA. Once the error message popped up on my TV screen I had to run to my computer and re-set the parental control settings. This is Netflix's solution to temporarily overriding your selected parental control preference. It is then up to the parent to remember to re-set the parental control level afterward. In my opinion that is not a very parent-user-friendly system.

Next I set out to explore the parental control options on my iPad. The default setting for the iPad disables restrictions. That's great if you're the only one using your iPad but my kids sometimes prefer my iPad to playing Minecraft on my laptop or using their iPod Touch or Nintendo DS. You can find the parental controls in the "Settings" app under the "General" menu and then under the "Restrictions" menu. If you decide to enable the Restrictions you will be asked to create and enter a passcode, which you should never divulge to your children. You can then choose which apps to allow (e.g., Safari, Facetime, iTunes) by setting them to "On" and which ones to disallow (e.g., deleting apps) by setting them to "Off". You can also set ratings levels for music, movies, TV, books, and apps. The most interesting setting to me was the one that disallows In-App Purchases (set it to "Off").

Once I figured out the iPad parental controls I thought I should set the parental controls on the boys' iPod Touches. The first problem I encountered is Johnny had password protected his iPod and I don't know the password. The second problem was he already set the parental controls on his iPod. That meant he created his own passcode to control the parental control. It also meant I had once again lost parental control. I had been foiled twice-over by a 10-year old!

My attempts at parental control haven't all been failures. I count Pandora as one place I've had success. The boys and I created several stations we like to listen to around the house and in the car. When I started my first Pandora station about one year ago I was shocked to learn the lyrics to the Nicki Minaj song, "Starships". I had no idea she was saying, "We're higher than a motherf****r" because I had always heard the song on the radio where the Federal Communications Commission requires the removal of profane language. I'm generally not in favor of censorship but I don't want to hear swear words when I'm listening to music with the boys. I discovered Pandora has an option for allowing or dis-allowing explicit lyrics. The only place to set your option is on the Pandora web site, as opposed to the app on your smartphone or iPad. When you log in to Pandora you click on your email address and select "Settings" from the pull-down menu. Under your basic account information you will find the "Explicit Content Filter". I set mine to "No. Do not allow explicit content." Now the boys and I can listen to Macklemore and Lewis's "Thrift Shop" and I don't have as much explaining to do. John knows the real words and likes to point this out to me but I don't think we need to hear the naughty words over an over again as we listen to the music and sing along.

I investigated Parental Control options for the Windows 7 operating system on my laptop computer. They are found in the Control Panel under User Accounts and Family Safety and then under Parental Controls. The Parental Controls can be customized for each individual user. The pre-installed options on my laptop include the ability to set time limits for when each user can use the computer. For example, you could only allow your child to use the computer between 3-5 PM on weekdays and 9-11 AM on weekends. You can also allow or block access to programs on your computer. For example, you could block your child from using the the internet by blocking access to the browser. I suppose this could be useful if your child is using the computer without supervision. There are additional Parental Controls that can be installed such as Web Filtering, which allows or blocks certain web sites, and Activity Reporting, which monitors the web sites and programs your child is using. I decided not to enable these features at the moment but it's good to know they're there in case problems arise in the future. However, if the power you have over your child's computer use gives you a sense of superiority keep in mind that Web Filtering and Activity Reporting can also be used by employers to restrict or monitor employee activities on work computers.

John's perspective

John set his own parental controls on his iPod Touch. He set Music & Podcasts to "Clean", Movies to "PG-13" and TV Shows to "TV-PG", Books to restrict "Explicit Sexual Content" and Apps to "12+". He said he did this because he doesn't want to see or hear inappropriate things. He doesn't know my Apple ID so if he wants to download an app he has to get my permission. We're currently debating the appropriateness of the "Kick the Buddy" app. John said he doesn't care if I want to monitor his web site usage or computer activity but at the same time he doesn't want me to restrict his usage and activity.

John's Club Penguin Video Capture with Jing

After the wild success of his Minecraft anti-bullying video, John agreed to try out another video-editing software program. We decided to try Jing primarily because it is free, but also because my friend's sons use it to make Minecraft videos.

Jing (http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html) lets you capture images and videos you see on your computer screen so you can share them with other people. You can add text and captions to screen images. You can also record whatever you are doing on your computer screen, along with your narration, in a video.

Next, John had to decide what to use as the subject of his video. The boys had recently revived their interest in Club Penguin so the answer was obvious.

As a general rule I don't like downloading unknown software onto my computer. It seems that whenever I download new software something evil happens and I start getting error messages or a virus hijacks my browser. Since one of primary activities I do on my laptop is write lectures and organize materials for my courses I always get nervous that my computer will stop working and I'll lose all of my work. At one point I instituted a policy of "no new downloads during the semester". Now that it's summer I'm feeling more adventurous about venturing outside of my comfort zone.

Our first step was to download and install Jing. Jing lives on the computer desktop so you can capture a screen or record a video on the desktop, in your browser or in any application you have launched. John opened Club Penguin and recorded the computer screen while he navigated the game and narrated his video. When he played back the video there was no audio (arrgh!) I Googled "Jing audio not working" and determined we hadn't selected our USB microphone as the audio source for Jing. Once we did that we were back in business. John narrated and recorded his new video and saved his file. He then uploaded the video to YouTube. Everything looked great until the end of the upload when YouTube announced the file was not compatible with YouTube (double arrgh!).

Have you ever heard of a .swf file? Neither have I but that's what Jing produces. I found out .swf stands for Shock Wave Flash, which is more commonly called Adobe Flash. Turns out there are a lot of different types of video files and YouTube only likes a small set of them. We recognized .avi files from the list of acceptable formats and set out to convert our .swf file to a .avi file. I Googled "convert .swf to .avi" and there were several programs available, many for free. I was hesitant just to start downloading a converter from any random website. I might inadvertently download a virus or some other source of evil. I decided to go with the  "Free SWF to AVI File Converter" download from the CNET.com site because I have read what I believe to be reputable information on the CNET website. CNET also collects reviews of the downloadable programs and I read through a few of them for the "Free SWF to AVI File Converter". I crossed my fingers and hit the "Download" button. The download of the .swf to .avi converter went well and I declined all the extra downloads that were offered as part of CNET's ad-supported service.

We installed our "Free SWF to AVI File Converter" and launched the program. The CNET reviews said the program wasn't intuitive so we used the program "Help" to figure out how to use it. The first topic in the "Help" file is called, "How to convert Flash to Video?" Clicking the link takes you to a video with the instructions for the conversion. The video is available at http://www.swf-video.com/guide/How-to-convert-flash-to-video.htm. We watched the video and following the steps to covert our .swf file to a .avi file.

John was then able to upload his .avi file to YouTube. His 4 minute 21 second video can be found at http://youtu.be/MexTi8F0mvA. If you don't have time to watch the entire video, here are some highlights;

0:00 - How to become a Club Penguin secret agent
1:25 - John's younger brother annoys him during the making of the video
1:55 - Bonus footage of how to throw suds at someone in the hotel spa
3:34 - Unable to put dots in the blog address