"Eumenides with an inscribed calendar." Photo by Flickr user oedipusphinx, used with Creative Commons License.

I don’t write in books. I don’t even like writing my name in them, even though my mom taught me I should. If I do, it’s usually in pencil, lightly.

I suppose it’s for the same reason that I keep all my original board game boxes when I transfer the games to smaller boxes: just on the slightest chance that someday I’ll tire of something and want to sell it or give it away, I want it to be in as pristine condition as possible. That’s my best guess, and it’s not entirely rational. It’s not like I think someday my books will become a public library — and generally I try to stick to buying books that I’d want to keep anyway, so I’m not as likely to give them away.

But there’s some part of me that just cringes at the idea of putting a pen — or even pencil — to my books. I have a study Bible that is mostly free of highlighting, underlines and notations. I even have trouble sometimes writing in workbooks that are meant to be written in.

I certainly didn’t get this from my parents. I remember flipping through their old books and finding words underlined—as non-native English speakers I know they often had to look up unfamiliar words—and I loved finding my dad’s doodles of Snoopy or Woodstock in the margins of old Peanuts collections. It’s fun to read a book and know that I’m following in somebody’s footsteps, to see traces of of their progress through the text.

I remember hearing an episode of This American Life called “The Book That Changed Your Life.” Act One is about Alexa, who started exploring her grandfather’s books when she was seven. She grew to know him through the notes he left in the margins, and his books literally changed her life. The story appeals to me—one of the things I’ll leave behind when I die is a big collection of books, and I think the selection says something about who I am. But I realized that my children (or anyone else who’d be interested) probably wouldn’t glean much from the books themselves — they wouldn’t know what I thought of a book or which passages excited me or even if I’d ever gotten around to reading it. (Sure, that’s where my blog comes in, but still…)

I like the idea of leaving a trail behind me when I make my way through a book. It’s like dropping a few bread crumbs or pebbles so that I can follow them on my next journey, or leaving a message for the next person to read the book. I like the idea that my library could be more than just a collection of books on shelves, but that they could actually tell a story about who I am, in my own words.

So that brings me to my New Year’s Resolution for 2011. This year, I’m going to try to get over my reluctance to mark in my books. I’ll probably start with pencil, and maybe I’ll never progress to pens and highlighters. I certainly don’t see myself marking up a text like the image above. But at the very least, I’ll put a date in a book when I’ve read it, maybe the date and place I acquired it.

Of course, probably I’ll end up switching to ebooks this year and all of this will be moot.

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If, like me, you’re concerned about the state of our world from an environmental standpoint, you might be pondering a New Year’s resolution that has more to do with making a change on a global scale rather that on your bathroom scale. Implement some – or all – of these ideas to make a positive impact with your commitment to change and teach your geeklings to be responsible residents of this Earth.

1. Read Eaarth – Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. It will open your eyes about why it’s imperative that we make changes now. My review is here.

2. Paper NOR Plastic. Somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Those free bags that your grocery store and shopping mall provides for your convenience are smothering the earth in plastic. Not to mention the fact that plastic bags are a petroleum product and thus unnecessarily depleting our oil supply. While there are plenty of reusable bags to choose from, I find that the ones that fold up and tuck into my purse are always there when I need them. You can also get reusable produce bags for fruits, vegetables, and bulk food purchases.

3. Skip the zip tops. If your lunch is littered with single use zip top or sandwich bags, consider trying something a little bit different. The reusable Kid Konserve Food Cozy is made from recycled (and recyclable) bpa-free plastic and closes with Velcro. Or try a zero-waste bento-style lunch system or the PlanetBox.

[Read more of Kris Bordessa's geeky ways to save the planet in 2011 over at GeekMom!]

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While it’s always great to meet geeks from around the nation, and the globe, I always find it thrilling to connect with local geeks doing amazing things. North Carolina-based Harris Educational is one of those such local connections, doing awesome science right here. The best part? The offerings from Harris Educational are both geeky and, well, as you might guess from their name, totally educational.

Sure, there’s a ton of science kits out there. But what I love about the Harris Educational products is that they allow you to do such cool and interesting projects with your kids. How about making a light bulb? Or a telegraph? These kits come with everything you need to do just that. I particularly like the steampunk angle, considering the approach to making these items are very old-school, yet the results are undeniably awesome.

[To learn more about this, another of Natania Barron's Awesomely Geeky Gift Ideas, visit GeekMom!]

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In my day, Transformers were these little itty bitty things. And they weren’t just plastic, they were metal. They were awesome, of course, and were one of the toys that definitely defined my childhood.

But times change. Bumblebee is no longer a Beetle, he’s a gorgeous Camaro concept car (this GeekMom has checked out the new Camaro many a time on the highway, and whispered sweet nothings to it… it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine… in a thousand years when I can afford a car that doesn’t double as a bus/garbage can. How’s that for a Transformer? Eesh. Anyway.).

[Read more about Day 2 of GeekMom's 12 Days of Awesomely Geeky Gifts, put together by Natania Barron!]

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If you’ve done any graphic or web design (or hired someone to do design for you) you’re probably familiar with the Latin dummy text that is used as a place holder during the planning stage. According to lipsum.com, “Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.”

[To learn about a very geeky alternative to Lorem Ipsum, see Kris Bordessa's post at GeekMom!]

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All images used are copyright of their respective owners

Just the fact that you’re reading this means that, if we’re serious about it, you have things to be thankful for — to whatever higher power you believe in or simply to the universe in general. But you probably didn’t come here wanting to be serious, so we’ll let you deal with such things on your own.

In considering what to include on this list, I was originally going to include “We haven’t heard anything more about the reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer without Joss Whedon, so maybe it’s dead.” Sigh. And of course, in last year’s list I included an item about how George Lucas had said there wouldn’t be another Star Wars trilogy and that the six existing movies weren’t going to be re-released in 3D. So you’ll understand why this year’s list doesn’t have anything related to Star Wars on it.

These are in no particular order, and we’d love to hear your ideas for geeky things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day 2010 in the comments.

1. Peter Jackson is directing The Hobbit, and the cast that’s been announced so far looks excellent. While we weren’t hugely unhappy with the prospect of Guillermo del Toro directing, the news that Jackson has taken over can only be a good thing.

2. The Verizon iPhone looks like it will actually happen within the next year, possibly the next few months. If I worked for AT&T Wireless, I would be cashing in my stock options just as soon as I could.

3. Matt Smith has silenced the skeptics and proved himself a surprisingly excellent Doctor Who. Those who bemoaned David Tennant’s decision to leave are, for the most part anyway, singing a different tune.

4. Caffeine.

5. It looks like Duke Nukem Forever, the most famous vaporware product ever, will actually be released on February 1 of next year. If it really does hit stores as scheduled, we advise caution when venturing outside on that date, due to the serious possibility of airborne swine.

6. After years of declining relevance to what was actually popular on the web, Digg finally dug its own grave with its major site restructuring.

7. Joss Whedon is directing the movie of The Avengers. We are fairly confident that Fox does not have the authority to cancel it, but if asked would probably hesitate to place a bet on it.

8. Portal 2 is set to come out in April, after garnering tons of accolades at this year’s E3 convention. We have yet to hear whether there will be cake.

9. TRON is finally getting a sequel, 28 years later. Now we just need to convince Fox that Buckaroo Banzai deserves one, too.

10. With AMC’s awesome adaptation of The Walking Dead comic book series, there’s finally a zombie story in the mainstream that relies on deeply-drawn characters, not just scaring viewers.

[The image at the top of this article is a modified version of Norman Rockwell's famous painting "Freedom From Want." Special thanks to GeekDad Nathan Barry, who assembled the image for last year's Thanksgiving despite being British and therefore not a celebrant of said holiday.]

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at GeekDad!

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Hands-free FaceTime Mod is Very Geeky

We may not have jetpacks for commuting yet, but in many ways, we do indeed live in the future. We carry around more computing power in our pockets than the Eagle had on board when it landed on the moon. And the things we can do with that computing power is straight out of the science fiction of 30 – even 20 – years ago.

Which is why I’m a little confused as to how little hullabaloo Apple’s FaceTime has actually gotten. Yeah, I know: it’s just an implementation of VOIP with video, something Skype and iChat have been able to do for years, and that has even been possible on phones for a while. But it’s the best implementation of that technology brought to a highly ubiquitous platform to date, and it’s free (or, it doesn’t cost any more than your original hardware purchase and your monthly internet plan). I was really excited to have a chance to try it when it was announced as a major new feature.

But sadly, my upgrade cycle for the iPhone is out of sync with the iPhone 4 hardware update, so I was going to have to wait to really play with FaceTime until next year. Until Apple contacted GeekDad and loaned me one.

FaceTime works really, really well. The picture is crisp (especially on the new screen), sound is great, and there are no jaggy compression artifacts in the video. It just does what it was meant to do. But after a few calls, it got me to thinking — besides just straight video calling, how else could we use FaceTime to make it feel like we really do live in the future? Here are some ideas:

• Play D&D via Facetime: videoconferencing and telepresence have undoubtedly already been used for playing the world’s favorite role-playing game, but it can be tough to set up around the kitchen table. However, having a remote player call in via FaceTime (because it’s VOIP, the call doesn’t cost anything), while not as good as actually being there, could work very well. The DM could keep the main camera focused on the map, and then speak directly to the remote player by switching to the front-facing camera when needed. The player could role their dice on camera to keep everything above-board.
• Use FaceTime  as a baby monitor: Good quality video baby monitor systems are pretty pricey, and very often the radios in them will pick up cordless phone chatter from elsewhere in your neighborhood. Why not put your charging dock in the nursery and your mate’s dock on a nightstand in your room, and keep a FaceTime call going all night over your home wi-fi?
• Create a periscope for your kids: when I was young, my dad built me a periscope using two small mirrors and a old cardboard tube. Well, for a lot more money and no lesson in reflection, you could do the same with a couple of iPhones running FaceTime. Yeah, kind of silly. On the other hand, there might be a fun afternoon had by mounting one camera on an R/C car and piloting it around the house using the PoV from the other phone.
• Set up two friends on the safest blind date ever: You’d need to either be in the room with one of them or have two iPhones and point them at each other, and it wouldn’t exactly be a traditional date. But two people could meet and talk with each other without either one of them needing to have the slightest idea how to contact the other, so nobody needs to worry if it doesn’t work out.
• Have a quick consultation with a doctor or nurse: You don’t need to describe your kid’s rash to the pediatrician on the phone — you can show it to him/her. Worried that the mole on your forehead might be early-stage melanoma? Save yourself a trip and get your dermatologist to take a quick peek at it.
• Conduct an awesome experiment: Get everyone you know who has an iPhone 4 together, and everyone they know, until you have at least ten of them, and an even number is essential. Set them up in pairs talking with each other using FaceTime, and set each one to use the back camera instead of the front one. Now balance each of them on its bottom, back to front,  in as close to a circle as you can get, with members of each pair across the circle from each other. Will it create a portal to another dimension? Would each screen show an infinite progression of iPhones? I’m not quite sure, honestly. Now take one of the phones out of the circle and point it at something — watch as the image hits each phone. Revel in the awesome geekiness of it all.
• Has your car been making strange noises? Do you need to check the undercarriage, but don’t want to get out the jack and really don’t want to crawl underneath? Well, put a worklight and your mate’s iPhone on a dolly or even a piece of cardboard, start a FaceTime call with your phone, and push the first one under the car to check things out.

There are probably plenty more (slightly silly) ways to use Facetime, but that just means it really is a useful tool. If you have an idea (SFW, please!), leave it in the comments.

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Some musicians have a hard time saying “no” to new (or vintage) gear, and their arsenals end up looking a lot like Rick Wakeman’s keyboard corner in Yes.

Of course, getting superb and subsonic synth sounds in 2010 doesn’t have to make you go bankrupt or make your studio look like a still life from Hoarders. Korg’s Monotron, a tiny analog ribbon controller, is miniaturization done right. Images and YouTube videos don’t quite capture the deceptively diminutive dimensions of this music box. Trust us: the Monotron is small enough to lose, but expansive enough to lose yourself in.

Like Schroeder’s pico piano in Charlie Brown, the Monotron requires nimbleness and ultra-skinny fingers to play standalone. The single octave keyboard is a flat beveled plane about four inches across, with printed lines between the keys and white rectangles to make sharps and flats visually pop out. A stylus would make things much easier, but Korg doesn’t include one in the box.

That’s actually fine, because the Monotron’s core strength comes from its innards — specifically its analog filter, nearly identical as the one in the much bulkier, knobbier Korg MS-20 (check out this video comparison). At the turn of its plastic dials, the Monotron oscillates from smooth to screeching, and pulsing to droning, rising through a built-in speaker as a sawtooth wave (named for its sharp, up-and-down modulation).

On the back of the Monotron are jacks for headphones and better yet, an eighth-inch stereo cable. During our tests, we routed in a Line 6 DL-4 stompbox to create heady loops with the Monotron, and plugged in a Vox tube amp as a preamp to turn a Fender Telecaster into a fuzz axe. An evening of wacky jamming ensued.

Since the Monotron came out, videos have also surfaced showing users routing in iPhones, iPads, the Korg Kaossilator and other external audio sources, revealing the broad analog capacity of the little synth. Some DIY tinkerers have even revealed some (relatively) easy soldering mods for the Monotron. We haven’t attempted surgery yet, but it looks fun. Replacing the quick-draining AAA batteries for an external power adapter?

Uhh, yes, please.

WIRED Analog filter is a steal for the price; minimal dials makes sound manipulation super accessible.

TIRED Granular keyboard bites for sausage fingers; battery life is what you’d expect with to AAAs: brief; we’d like to see a eighth-inch auxiliary input.

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Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

This is not the easy weekend project I included in my book (over there, in the sidebar). This is something that took Luke Geissbühler months of research and planning, plus he’s a professional camera Director of Photography, so his knowledge set was already strong. But the payoff is spectacular.

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Image via Wikipedia

Today is September 22nd, otherwise known as Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday for those of us more hobbit-minded. What, you don’t have anything planned yet? Well, no worries. While not (yet) a nationally recognized holiday, here are seven easy ways to celebrate the day with your kids!

1. Cook some hobbity food. This is easy! Mushrooms, potatoes, anything delicious, really. Make it hearty and healthful. Visit your local farmer’s market, and find some traditional English recipes. Contrary to popular belief, much English food is absolutely marvelous. A real simple approach (that we tend to do every year) is a Ploughman’s Platter.
2. Work out some riddles together. “Riddles in the Dark” was always one of my favorite chapters in the Hobbit, and with the magic of the internet, you’ve got thousands of choices.
3. Draw a map. One of Tolkien’s biggest draws continues to be the world that he created. Take some time with your geeklets and create your own map, pad and pencil style, or something fancier.
4. Watch this.
5. Do a back-to-back showing of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings. Then, if the kids haven’t seen the Bakshi and Rankin-Bass versions, show them as much as you can endure, trying to give them a frame of reference for what the world was like before PJ. (This might take a couple of days, but come on, you can’t just watch one film!)
6. Take a hike in the woods and learn about the trees. Tolkien loved trees, and marveled at their mystery, a theme very apparent in his works. Take your kids out to the trail and collect leaves and seeds, then bring them home and try to identify them.
7. Read some passages of The Hobbit aloud, or try some of Tolkien’s lesser-known poetry together. Stoke up the fire, pour yourself some cider, and enjoy the company of your own family. That’s probably the most hobbity thing you can do!

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H.G. Wells, the oldest and deadest person on the list

I make it a habit to check for birthdays of geek celebrities of all sorts. For this I typically browse through Wikipedia’s page for the day in question, scrolling through it and noting names that I recognize. Most times nothing much leaps out at me; some days I see one or two, and we’ll decide whether or not to write a “Happy Birthday” post for them. And then there are days like today, when I found seven, and that’s leaving off a few I wasn’t sure about.

Allison Scagliotti, the youngest person on the list; photo by Tania Ricardo (public domain).

For starters, September 21 is the birthday of two major figures in the annals of geekdom who are no longer with us: H.G. Wells and Chuck Jones. Yes, one of the fathers of science fiction and one of the greatest animators of all time, born on the same day 46 years apart (Wells in 1866, Jones in 1912). It’s too late to wish them a happy birthday, but they’re both such giants it would be unthinkable not to acknowledge the anniversary of their births anyway.

And then there are the living people. In order of their births: director of many films, including the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Jerry Bruckheimer (1945); one of the most successful authors of all time, Stephen King (1947); brilliant comic actor and star of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, Bill Murray (1950); the younger of the famous movie-making Coen brothers, Ethan Coen (1957); and the actress who plays “Claudia” on the very funny and creative Syfy series Warehouse 13 (and a geek in her own right), Allison Scagliotti (1990).

So please join all of us at GeekDad in remembering Wells and Jones, and in wishing Bruckheimer, King, Murray, Coen and Scagliotti a very big, very geeky “Happy Birthday!” (As far as we’re aware, the only one of those folks who regularly uses social media is Scagliotti, who can be found @allisonscag on Twitter.)

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Image: Wikimedia

This month, the nominating committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame meets to assemble a slate to vote on for 2011’s induction class. The factors that go into deciding who should be considered for induction aren’t well known — this is a pretty secretive group. What is well known is that when you look at the list of previous nominees and inductees, there is a huge, glaring omission from the artists honored by the committee. Rush, the most successful power trio of all time and a group that has sold more consecutive gold and platinum records than everyone except the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, has never even had their name on the ballot.

Music is a subjective experience and while some listeners may not appreciate the Canadian band’s sound or songs, it is difficult to ignore Rush based on their track record. The Hall of Fame’s mission is to honor great achievement in rock and roll. So let’s consider what Rush has done: The boys from Toronto have been together for more than four decades and in their current lineup for almost that entire time. During that period, they have released 19 studio records, 8 live albums and 10 compilations:  a total of 37 records. Of those, 24 were certified gold and 14 as platinum, which led to the sale of more than 40 million records worldwide.

Each member has been recognized for outstanding achievement in playing his instrument by various publications in the music press and by his fellow artists. Countless musicians — from Trent Reznor to Les Claypool, Kirk Hammett to Billy Corgan and many, many more — cite Rush as an influence and inspiration. And, approaching the age of 60, they still go out on extensive tours, playing long, three-hour sets for their fans.

All of this success has come without any real mainstream attention. They have never enjoyed much radio support and they’ve never had a #1 album or single in the states. The intelligentsia of the music press have always marginalized the band, going so far as to openly mock them for much of the band’s career. Still, all told, the facts attached to Canada’s most popular and best-selling band should be more than enough to gain induction to the museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

But there is more to the story than just the numbers, oh yes. Being geeks, we can come up with some geeky reasons why Rush should be given this one little victory and be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For your consideration:

1. Rush’s lyrics are rooted in literary themes and references – Listen to their body of work. You won’t find any odes to Betty Sue in the back seat of her daddy’s Ford. Drummer Neil Peart is the main lyricist for the band and literature has always influenced his words. For instance, 1976’s breakout album, 2112, is about the individual against a totalitarian state. The liner notes even contain a dedication to Ayn Rand’s writing. Sebastian Bach talks about the influence of 2112 on him as a youth, “I ran right out and bought The Fountainhead and read it. How many bands get 12-year-olds that fired up about literature?”  Xanadu is tied to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Kahn. Peart has talked about being inspired by T.S. Eliot for Distant Early Warning. That’s a bit more substantive than lyrics like “my hump my hump my hump“.

2. They understand your pain – For many geeks, growing up is a tough time. There’s the feeling of alienation, of being outcast and bullied. Not only are these themes that Rush has addressed in their music (Subdivisions), but they are hurdles the band has had to face in their early lives and careers too. Bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson have talked openly about how being bullied at school was part of the reason they dropped out of high school before graduating. What’s more, Rush has been marginalized by the music press (and some of their peers) for most of their career for not conforming to the mainstream.

3. The band has embraced technology from very early on – OK, maybe they embraced technology too much during the ’80s, but they have often turned to technology to solve problems stemming from the limitations of being a trio. This meant being some of the first to adopt synthesizers. Rush was also one of the first to realize the power of the Web to connect with people and they have stayed on the cutting edge, using technology to stay in contact with their fans.

4. They have their obsessions – First and foremost, they love making music and they obviously enjoy each other’s company — even after all these years. But it doesn’t stop there. The technology is a constant education, and then there are the tour distractions: Alex is a complete golf geek, Geddy has a deep passion for baseball and Neil has logged more miles on his motorcycle than some people do in a lifetime of driving. Reading is a favorite hobby and Peart has talked about how he learned to knit, just because he had to know how.

5. They are big fans of science fiction and fantasy: Their songs include “Rivendell,” “Cygnus X-1,” “The Necromancer” and “By-Tor And The Snow Dog.” What else needs to be said?

6. Rush fans have their own con – One of the staples of geek culture is the con, a chance to get together with people obsessed with the same things as you. Whether it’s Star Wars or fantasy fiction or comics or games or Muppets, there is a con for you. Rush fans are no different: Each year fans from around the world congregate in Rush’s hometown of Toronto and listen to speakers, play games and get to share in their obsession with other fans.

7. They have never really been cool – Yes, their fans have always loved them, but even the most ardent devotee has to admit the silk robe phase was a little … embarrassing. But the silk robes are a metaphor for their entire career. They were never the cool kids — but largely because they never wanted to be. In the outstanding Rush documentary, Beyond the Lighted Stage, Gene Simmons talks about when Rush was touring with KISS. Simmons says barely clad women were everywhere after every show, but Rush just went back to their rooms and watched television. Rush has always done their own thing — whether it’s recording concept albums, roasting chickens onstage or passing up the rock and roll lifestyle to march to the beat of their own 33-piece drum kit.

8. Like geeks in general, Rush is getting attention now – Everywhere you look, geeks are getting attention and acceptance in the mainstream. From an appearance on The Colbert Report to a supporting role as the-band-to-emulate in I Love You, Man, Rush is also being noticed. A few years ago, the Beta-2 version of Joomla was nicknamed “Red Barchetta” because of the song’s spirit of freedom. And the band has been an oft-mentioned reference on MST3K and RiffTrax.

9. Rush has a great self-deprecating sense of humor – Like any bullied geek who has honed a razor sharp wit to deflect attention away from himself, Rush has always been funny. From lampooning Canadian stereotypes (and Lee’s high pitched voice) on Bob and Doug Mackenzie’s 1982 single “Take Off” to the hilarious video interludes at concerts, the band knows how to not to take itself too seriously.

10. They are family-friendly – Not withstanding a certain incident, Rush is a band that you can feel at ease with when sharing with the whole family. Song lyrics, while mature in terms of intellect, shy away from themes that the RIAA would deem explicit – neither profanity nor sexual descriptions that would earn them a Parental Advisory sticker. Yes, A Passage to Bangkok has lyrics that could be interpreted as drug-related, but they are nebulous enough to be safe. What’s more, Rush is multi-generational. Visit any Rush concert and you’re likely to see plenty of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters enjoying the music together.

11.  Like any good Internet flamewar, Rush is the basis for plenty of good arguments – Yes, Geddy Lee has a high pitched voice. Yes, their songs have erratic time changes. No, they aren’t radio friendly. Yet, they still enjoy a huge, worldwide fan base. When you think about it, it’s tough to think of a band that has enjoyed the success that Rush has, while being as polarizing as they are.

12. Rush’s induction would be redemption for us all – Why? Because Rush has been ignored for so long, despite all of their accomplishments, because the elitists in the music press have acted like the cool kids and made fun of the band, and because they are probably the world’s biggest geeky band. Here is a group of guys who consistently stood outside the mainstream, doing their own thing – creating art that reflected their own growth and change, without compromising their integrity for the sake of sales. They took all the criticism and snark about lyrics that were silly, musicianship that was overdone and style that was nonexistent … and still they persevered and enjoyed great success. Induction into the Hall of Fame would be a win for geeks everywhere.

That’s it – our 12 geeky reasons why Rush should be included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Agree? Think we’re full of it? Did we leave something out? Let us know in the comments!

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During our recent family vacation to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, I found the most geeky object on the vacation in, of all places, a candy store.

Photo: Corrina Lawson

We had driven down the very touristy Route 28 in order to walk around downtown Hyannis. The main Hyannis strip featured a number of excellent stores, including a great used bookstore, but the kids were tired of walking, so I loaded them up in the minivan and headed back to our vacation rental.

They spotted the Candy Company in West Yarmouth on the way and insisted we stop. There was the promise of chocolate, so it wasn’t hard to convince me.

It was a candy wonderland in there.

The small store was stocked with seemingly every type of candy ever made, from pop rocks to all flavors of jelly beans to chocolate used for making candy to homemade fudge and other expensive chocolate confections. It also carried some of the more obscure candy bars, including Sky Bars.

And, of course, they had Pez dispensers, including the original Star Trek set. Our wedding anniversary was coming up, my eldest son insisted it would make a great gift, and he had a point, so I bought them for my husband.

Then there were the sugar wafers.

I hadn’t seen this candy since I was growing up in rural Vermont. A gift store near my home stocked them and I used to go there just to pick up a package or two.

For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, sugar wafers are circular solid wafers–thicker and less brittle than Necco wafers.

The ones I remember from my childhood were ridged on one side. The ones I bought at Candy Co. were not. The clerk explained that the ridged candies had been machine-made and these were hand-made but it was the same recipe nonetheless. He said they were a “pain in the neck” to make, which is why the companies that manufactured them went out of business.

Despite the difference, the wafers tasted just like I remembered, pure sugar with flavors ranging from orange to cinnamon to mint. I tried to eat them one at a time.

I was not terribly successful in this endeavor.

I resisted the urge to stop back at the store for more on our way home but I have their address in case I get the urge for them again.

Well, okay. I already want more. But I’m resisting. So far.

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The Book for iPad sleeve by longlivebooks.com

Over on the design/tutorial blog Abduzeedo, Daniela Zatti, has compiled a fantastic list of geeky gadgets and toys from around the interwebs, including the clever Book for iPad shown above and very amusing Notepod Writing App from our friends at ThinkGeek – an old school paper-based notebook shaped like an iPhone!

There are also more products featuring geeky favorites like Tetris, Lego, Pac-Man, Star Wars and Photoshop-themed goodies, plus an awesome Blade Runner Umbrella!
Check out the full post for the clickable links to drain your bank balance.

And if that leaves you feeling all creative and inspired, why not enter our Ponoko/Sparkfun competition? Design your own geeky product and you could win the materials to build it yourself.

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We’ve mentioned Ponoko.com (the world’s easiest making system) here on GeekDad a few times over the last few months, so imagine how excited we were when they contacted us with an offer of a fantastic prize for a design competition?
The competition ties in with the launch of a new extended materials catalog that includes electronic gadgetry from SparkFun, as well as their usual timbers, plastics, fabrics, metals and other sheet materials.

Pepe Chair by Stuff

Have you got a bright idea for an electronic masterpiece, a gadget, a gizmo or even a work of art? Maybe you love the idea of getting one of your kids doodles made into a 3D toy? Maybe you want to make them a unique piece of furniture? Or, maybe, just maybe, your favourite cat just needs a special shelf all to himself.
Whatever your thinking is, submit your best idea for a product to be made using Ponoko and electronics from SparkFun and you could get it made for free.

To enter the competition, post your idea to the GeekDad flickr pool and tag it ‘ponoko’. You can post sketches, product photos, or final design images to flickr. Or, if all you have is a description of your concept, leave it in a comment below. A Top 10 will be chosen by a panel of judges from Geekdad and Ponoko, and then we’ll set up a poll so that all you readers out there can vote for the overall winner.

Owen by kyle koch

It’s the first time Ponoko has offered non-sheet materials. And what’s more, they’re adding the entire SparkFun inventory list to their catalog at the same prices as buying direct from SparkFun. This means you can now source all of the parts you need to make your geeky products, all from one place. There’s no change to the way Ponoko works, you upload your design and select flat sheet materials. Then you have the new option to select SparkFun components to add to your order. You’ll get a total price, you check out your order, and all of the items will be delivered to directly to you.

More than 50,000 user generated goods have been made so far using the Ponoko system. See what others have made and get inspired in the showroom.

Bandit ruler by Spunique

One thing you need to know. To get something made on Ponoko, you’ll need to be able to submit your design in an EPS or SVG format. There’s plenty of ‘how to‘ information on the site to guide you, but if you get really stuck, we can help out with the winning entry.

You’ve got four weeks to get creative. Just make sure you post your idea the end of July, the closing date it the 31st.

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Image © Warner Bros. Pictures

This Sunday is, of course, Independence Day in the United States of America, so it’s time to show your patriotic side. There’s no reason, though, why you have to hide your geeky side — why not celebrate both at the same time?

Especially since today, July 2, really should be Independence Day instead of the Fourth, we at GeekDad would like to present our list of 10 things you can watch with your family and friends that are both geeky and patriotic. We should note that we are deliberately excluding Independence Day, because it’s really a pretty lousy film when you get down to it, and because it goes out of its way to be patriotic, which makes it seem desperate.

10. Airplane! – What’s patriotic about this movie? Well, aside from it being the original goofball, groaner-a-minute film (and what’s more American than that?), it also came out exactly 30 years ago today! To celebrate, watch it again, but first take Mental Floss’s awesome quiz about it to see how much you remember.

9. Die Hard – So it’s not particularly geeky, but it’s such an awesome film it doesn’t much matter. Yes, it takes place at Christmastime, but it’s quintessentially American: The hero is a New York cop, the villains are foreign and pretty much everything that can blow up does.

8. Field of Dreams – Seeing as how it’s about dead ballplayers coming back to play again, it qualifies as fantasy, and therefore has enough geek cred to fit on this list. As for whether it’s patriotic, that’s easy: It’s about baseball, it has that great speech about censorship that Annie gives at the school board meeting, and it ends with a father and son playing catch. What could possibly be more American?

7. National Treasure – Sure, it’s historically and scientifically preposterous, and it stars the mediocre action movie star that took over Nicolas Cage’s body, but it’s fun and it’s plenty patriotic. I mean, the main character steals the Declaration of Independence in order to save it! As for the geeky aspect, it has to be fantasy that a chamber that size could have existed under Wall Street for over 200 years without anyone noticing.

6. The Muppet Movie – The whole point of the movie is that anyone can fulfill their dreams if they keep trying hard enough, which is a very American notion. And it has Fozzie singing “America the Beautiful,” with the great line at the end: “Patriotism swells in the heart of the American bear.” It’s also just a great movie, period.

5. Apollo 13 – It’s all about the response to a very real American catastrophe that could very easily have ended with the death of three astronauts. The ingenuity and tenacity of all those involved help them find a way to keep the astronauts alive and get them back to Earth safely, and the movie does a great job of making the viewer feel the tension involved even though we know how it turns out.

4. Superman II – Superman is, of course, an alien. And we should consider ourselves lucky that his rocket cradle landed in Kansas instead of, say, Siberia or the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But no, he landed here in the U.S.A. and grew up to become the ultimate champion of Truth, Justice and the American Way. (Has anyone ever pointed out that that phrasing implies that truth and justice aren’t part of the American way?) We picked Superman II in particular partly because it’s widely considered the best Superman movie ever made, but mostly because, at the end, Superman restores the American flag to the top of the White House. What could possibly be more patriotic than that?

3. Star Trek: The Original Series, “The Omega Glory” – It’s not the greatest episode of ST:TOS by a long shot, but it’s easily the most patriotic. It has the typical unsubtle message (the opposing factions are the “Yangs” and the “Kohms”) for the series, but it earns its place on this list because of the scene near the end where Captain Kirk reads the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. You will likely never hear a more overdramatic reading of the Preamble, and even if you do, it will likely not be read by a Canadian actor.

2. 1776 – It would be impossible to find a more patriotic movie, but how is it geeky? Well, consider the scene where John Adams sings an explanation of the recipe for saltpeter to Abigail, to convince her to rally her friends to make some for the Continental Army. And consider that Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, America’s founding geek dads, play major parts in the story. Add to that the facts that everyone’s favorite former android, Brent Spiner, played Adams on Broadway for a while, and that William Daniels, who plays Adams in the film, later went on to be the voice of KITT on Knight Rider. Even if you don’t think it’s geeky, it’s a great film that teaches a lot about how independence was declared in a way accessible to just about anybody.

1. The Muppets: Stars and Stripes FOREVER! – Just watch it at the end of this article — it’s only two minutes long, so you have nothing to lose. And it is truly brilliant. It came out originally a few years ago, and instantly became an annual tradition in many geeks’ homes everywhere.

Special Bonus: Jaws – It’s still among the best films Steven Spielberg ever made, which is saying a lot. And it takes place during and around the Independence Day holiday, making it if not patriotic per se, at least timely. Given the content, this might not be the best movie to watch for young kids, or for anyone planning to go to a beach party. Note: This entry was added after the list was originally published. We figure going over the top is the American way, and besides, this way our list goes to 11.

Anything we missed?

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Image by Dennis Crothers

Here’s hoping you get the best. Gift. Ever. (time with your family)

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Photo by Anton Olsen

For Christmas last year I splurged and bought myself a Stainless Steel Wallet from our friends at ThinkGeek. Now that Father’s Day is upon us I have had a few friends ask if they should get one for their dads so here’s my reply:

First impressions of the wallet are good. It is sturdy, silky smooth, and hard to believe it is made of metal. Once I started loading it up I soon realized that I couldn’t fit everything in. The three credit card slots are good for only 4 cards. You can fit one in each of the front slots, and two in the back. That is it though. Stainless steel doesn’t stretch like leather or duct tape.

At the steep price of $80 (at least 10x what I usually pay for a wallet) I was hoping for a wallet that would last me at least 10 years. While it is definitely more durable than the Ducti duct-tape wallet , or the cheap leather ones I used to buy on clearance, it isn’t likely to last me more than 2-3 years. I suspect I’m somewhat hard on wallets since the Ducti duct-tape wallet only lasted a year before it got too torn and sticky to use, but I don’t think I’m abusive to them.

I still enjoy using the wallet, and it has maintained its appearance well. I get a lot of comments from cashiers, and an occasional one from someone in line behind me.

So is it worth $80? Probably not, but it is cool, and fun to carry. Should you get one for your Dad? Only if you are used to spending that kind of cash for a present. 8

Wired: Sharp looking, clean, slim, and somewhat durable.

Tired: Starting to show wear, especially at the folds, and around the license window. Won’t stretch like most other wallets, so you will have to exercise some discipline about what you carry every day.

Available at:
Think Geek – Stainless Steel Wallet
Amazon.com – Stainless Steel Wallet

For my next wallet I’m going to try the Dot Matrix Wallet made of Tyvek.

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Image: NASA

We geeks like to solve puzzles. We like to figure out the rules of our existence, even when we don’t necessarily understand the reasons behind those rules. And, yes, we sometimes like to use these rules as in-jokes, so we can identify fellow geeks more easily, and — let’s be honest here — feel a bit superior to non-geeks.

You know you’ve done it; there’s no sense in denying it. Ever simply said “Rule 34,” assuming everyone who mattered would get the reference? Ever mentioned Godwin’s Law? Ever made a joke involving the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? Yep, you’re a geek, all right.

Back in November I came up with a list of ten geeky laws that should have existed, but didn’t. Here, then, are ten more:

1. Scotty’s Law – There is no systemic malfunction that cannot be bypassed, even if it means spending hours in the Jefferies tubes.

2. Armstrong’s Law – There is no historical fact, no matter how full of proof it may be, that cannot be claimed invalid by people with insufficient mental capacity. This is a complementary law to Somers and McCarthy’s Law in my first list.

3. GeekDad’s Law - When writing a blog post about certain subjects, the required references must be made. All posts about nuclear weapons, for example, require a reference to Aliens. All posts that mention Yoda, even peripherally, at least one sentence constructed backwards must contain.

4. The Maker Faire Law - It is perfectly reasonable for geeks wearing “If you can’t open it, you don’t own it” buttons to own iPhones and iPads, because they (the devices) are awesome enough that they get a free pass.

5. The Ostrich Law - There is only one Matrix movie, just as there are only three Star Wars films, and the Star Trek films went straight from IV to VI. And the final episode of Battlestar Galactica never aired. (If you have to ask which three Star Wars films, by the way, please turn in your geek badge at the front desk on your way out.)

6. Henson’s Law – The Muppets are NOT just puppets, any more than the Marx Brothers were just comedians, Hitchcock was just a director and Julia Child was just a chef.

7. Kirk and Picard’s Law – Whenever there are two distinct items that are obviously comparable, be they high-tech devices, movies, characters, TV shows, snack foods, etc., you must — MUST — choose a side and be prepared to argue the subject with any other geek you meet.

8. Chuck Jones’s Law – It takes a great deal of talent and effort to produce books, movies, and TV shows that are beloved by both kids and adults. When it happens, though, the results are magical: The Muppets, Looney Tunes, Harry Potter, Phineas & Ferb, etc.

9. Disney Channel’s Law – Live-action TV shows not involving Muppets that are aimed at kids older than six are almost universally unwatchable by adults.

10. Neo’s Law - Apart from the Bill & Ted films, there is no movie starring Keanu Reeves that would not have been much improved by his replacement with an actor with talent.

Any good laws I’ve missed? Let me know in a comment.

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Wil with Wee Ninja (Photo: Jenny Williams)

Last Friday, the kids and I drove the two hours south to Phoenix on a seasonably hot day (98 degrees F), leaving the comfort of our 76 degree F weather behind. We were to check out the Phoenix Comicon as geeks, as fans and as a family.

When we first went to the Phoenix Comicon two years ago, it was advertised as a very family friendly event. It felt like it then, too. It was held in a smaller venue than this year, there were more kids around and there were more activities for people of all ages. This year, there were only a handful of kids and the majority of people there were between 15 and 30. But at least half the crowd was in costume or otherwise decked out in some way, so at least we were able to do plenty of people watching.

I knew my kids’ patience would wear thin pretty quickly, so I made sure to do the important stuff first. We naturally headed directly to meet Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day. Wil wasn’t there yet, but we got in line to see Felicia. What looked like a very short line was deceiving, though. Because of fire codes, so they said, the copious security personnel didn’t want more than two or three people waiting in front of the tables at a time. So everyone else was shuffled outside to wait in the heat. The line was in the shade, fortunately, but it was still really hot. After a 20 or 30 minute wait, we got to go back inside. We had been outside long enough for Wil to show up, so we got to see both Wil and Felicia without waiting in line again. Felicia was very nice to me and my kids, and we talked a bit about her experience being homeschooled.

Next we went over to see Wil. It was neat to see him again, and I was much less nervous than I was the first time I met him. He said he loved GeekDad. I had made him a wee ninja amigurumi (see above photo) as a “Thank You For Being Awesome” gift. He was so excited! He said that he’d seen it in my hand when I was talking to Felicia and was wondering where he could get one. I also managed to get his autograph in my book of super awesome people with whom I have had personal encounters. He was more than willing to sign it, perhaps because of the ninja thing. One thing I like about Wil Wheaton is that he truly appreciates his fans. Plus he escaped the curse of childhood stars, I think partly due to his love of gaming and other geeky pursuits.

Signed by Dave Beaty himself

We next waded our way through the sea of people in the vendor hall to meet Dave Beaty, whom I interviewed for GeekDad two months ago. He lives in the next town over from me, and we’ve had a fair number of dealings over email, so it was nice to finally meet him in person. He was very friendly, and he knew me right away. It was probably the GeekDad shirt I was wearing!

Comicon was much more crowded than the last time I went. It had moved from the Mesa Convention Center to the Phoenix Convention Center, so the layout was better and there was much more to see in one place. But it also meant you had to pay for parking. Last time Comicon seemed to have a wide variety of things to do inside and outside (it was in January when I went before). This one had a few rooms for things like tabletop games, console games and a drawing/coloring contest, but it all seemed more streamlined, lacking in fun extras.

There was an amazing collection of stars and artists there, however, including Wil and Felicia and Dave Beaty, plus Levar Burton, Jonathan Frakes, Stan Lee, Aaron Douglas, John Scalzi, Ray Park and many many more. But to fully enjoy the experience, one must be prepared for large crowds, a lot of waiting and spending quite a bit of money. It is also increasingly hard to navigate the place in groups or with kids in tow.

Colorful Man, by my 6 year old son (I helped him color inside the lines)

I’m really glad that I had been able to see Wil previously in the smaller venue. The small room in which he spoke made every seat a good seat. This year he was in the huge ballroom, so I made sure to see the talk before his (Genie Francis, who looked great) to get a front row seat for his talk. Of course Wil warrants a very large room, but it makes for a much less personal experience, even sitting in the front row. But his Awesome Hour was awesome. He never fails to entertain and inspire me.

My kids know very well who Wil and Felicia are, and a few other people at the con, but mostly they were being politely patient while I did my thing. They drew pictures in the drawing contest room, and kept busy with our Etch-a-Sketch, the DS and my iPod Touch. My daughter was so inspired by Jonathan Liu’s Etch-a-Sketch art at Maker Faire that she drew a school bus and even a GeekDad robot!

My daughter's Etch-a-Sketch drawing of the GeekDad robot

It was too easy for me to keep comparing the Phoenix Comicon to Maker Faire, since the latter is so fresh in my mind. But it was such a different experience. Maker Faire was much less about famous people and merchandising and much more about learning new things and having a positive, rewarding experience.

The more notable people I meet, especially in a role representing GeekDad, the more I realize that famous people are just people. They work hard at what they do. They put on a happy, friendly face for hours on end hoping to sign enough autographs and sell enough books/DVDs/comic books to pay the bills.

My daughter's schoolbus

Despite being crowded, the Phoenix Comicon is still probably smaller and more intimate than the San Diego Comic-Con (watch for GeekDad coverage of that this summer). But it is still small enough to get to see all the talks you want, and it is definitely worth a visit. I talked to a couple of attendees at length: a Star Trek fan from Texas and a just-graduated art student from Tucson. Both were just thrilled to meet people like Wil Wheaton in person. It just made their day. As it made mine. And that’s what people should and do take away from an experience like this.

Note: I was furnished with a press pass to gain entry to the Phoenix Comicon. My kids were free as are all kids under 12.

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That would be Role-Playing Games crossed with Lord of the Rings = Dungeon Master of the Rings, of course.

Fellow GeekDad and Star Wars fanatic John Booth recently tweeted about “Darths and Droids,” a webcomic using screen-caps of the Star Wars movies (starting with “The Phantom Menace”). When I went poking around to see what it was about (since the comic is already up to Episode 413), I was pointed to the inspiration for the strip: “DM of the Rings,” a webcomic from several years ago created by Shamus Young.

And then I spent pretty much the rest of the day reading the entire years’ worth, and I’m not even an RPGer. RPG player? (See? I don’t even know the proper term.)

Here’s the setup, which is geekiness extraordinaire: What if The Lord of the Rings was written as an RPG campaign? Let’s imagine a world in which the players haven’t heard of hobbits, Nazguls, Middle-Earth, or the One Ring—it’s all part of this huge campaign put together by their DM. How would they respond, and how would the DM rein them in to keep them moving in the right direction for this epic quest he’s devised? (Oh, and how annoying would Gandalf be as an NPC?) Young illustrated the whole thing with screen captures from Peter Jackson’s trilogy, layered captions and dialogue on top of it using Comic Book Creator, and ran through the entire trilogy in roughly a year.

The Fellowship arrives in Lothlorien. Image: Shamus Young, used with permission.

It’s fantastic (in both senses of the word), and if you haven’t already seen it, go take a look. If you’re interested in either LotR or RPGs, you’ll probably get most of the humor in it—like I said, I have very little experience with RPGs and I was still hooked. Be sure to read Young’s commentary below each comic, too. (One of my favorites was “The Truth About 20-Sided Dice.”)

More geeky math after the jump: RPG x SW = D&D.

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Last month, industry and academic experts in human-computer interaction gathered in Atlanta for their annual CHI conference. The event was a chance for practitioners and theorists alike to share their work across a wide domain. A few of these projects focused on the domestic design space and bringing families together.

Family Story Play

Hayes Raffle presented a paper describing the early prototyping and testing of Family Story Play, a teleconferencing device to connect grandparents and grandchildren. Raffle, a Senior Research Research Scientist for design and user experience at the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, argued that young children don’t find talking on the phone to be intuitive. Rather than teaching kids how to stay engaged with disembodied voices, this design uses a shared activity with which most people are familiar—reading a book—to facilitate long-distance communication.

Hayes Raffle of Nokia demonstrates Family Story Play.

The prototype comprises of a folding wooden frame housing two Linux tablets, connected via USB to magnetic sensors and a book. One of the tablets serves as the video conferencing touch screen, showing Grandma and which page of the book she is currently reading. On the other screen is Elmo from Sesame Street, who acts as a catalyst for interaction as the generations read together. Thanks to the sensors and some creative input from Sesame Workshop, Elmo is aware of where they are in the storybook and can respond to content with pre-programmed prompts and reactions.

Raffle said some of the inspiration for the project came from personal experience trying to share the early life of his older daughter in Cambridge with family in California. Family Story Play is a collaboration between Nokia, the Sesame Workshop, and MIT’s Tangible Media Group.

Family Window

Working with Kodak, Tejinder Judge of Virginia Tech tested another form of video conferencing meant to strengthen intimacy over distance. The Family Window connects families with always-on video that can be annotated with on-screen ink. To address privacy concerns, there is no audio in the system, and each side of the connection can control how much video is shown using the electronic equivalent of blinds. The participating families adapted to the constraints by using the on-screen ink to leave status messages or playful annotations on images.

In the work presented at CHI, six families served as guinea pigs under varied conditions. Most had a dedicated tablet PC, but one used a multi-purpose laptop. This caused some miscommunication when a father-in-law appeared to be staring intently at the distant family when he was really browsing the web with his video window minimized.

The testing supported the notion that the mundane is a valuable means to strengthen existing relationships. Checking in visually often prompted impromptu conversation and let distant family members become aware of patterns that might never be brought up otherwise. Families could share in ordinary routines, like getting ready for bed or reading books, despite not being in the same room.

FM Radio

A third family-oriented design project was presented by Daniela Petrelli of the University of Sheffield, with support from Microsoft Research and Rice University. FM Radio (as in “Family Member”) had two parts to the research.

The first part asked ten families to collect sonic mementos of three days of vacation. Left to each family to determine what was important, these digital sound clips contained conversations, commentary, ambient sound, and varied forms of music. On the recording days, the families were asked to only use the recorder—no pictures—to force them to consider deeply how to preserve their memories through audio.

The second part revisited six of those family recordings a year later. During 90-minute sessions, each family was presented with a device that looked like an old radio. Without any instruction or explanation, they spent the time exploring the knobs and buttons and rediscovering the sounds they had previously captured.

What made FM Radio so compelling was the physical form and somewhat antiquated metaphor given these “sound souvenirs.” It was clearly an engaging activity that required some discussion to recall the context of each clip and to share new uses of the sounds created by playing with the radio controls.

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Product: HiFiMan HM-801 Audio Player

Manufacturer: Head-Direct

Wired Rating: 8

It used to be there were only two ways to improve the sound quality on your portable music player: Ditch the shoddy included earbuds for real headphones, or hook in a headphone amplifier.

Now there’s a third option, in the form of the HiFiMan HM-801 Audio Player.

This is, without a doubt, the first audiophile-worthy portable digital audio player I’ve encountered in the past 13 years of covering portable audio technology. Sure, some players have had slightly better sound than the iPod, but none could really deliver sound the way sharp-eared audio purists desire. (We’re talking about people who own gold-tipped connection cables and headphones that cost more than your laptop.)

But the HiFiMan delivers audio that even the snootiest sound snob will find little to gripe with. It does this with a first-of-its-kind preamp (swappable if there’s another preamp your ears desire) and the support of not only standard formats (MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG), but multiple lossless formats (APE, WMA, FLAC). There’s even 24-bit resolution and a 96-kHz sampling rate for FLAC files.

That means HiFiMan not only plays lossless files that sound as good as CDs but also 24-bit files that sound better than CDs, with much wider frequency and dynamic ranges. That equates to reproducing very high pitches (even ones outside the human hearing range, which some say colors the sound we can hear), and music with more gradations in volume that allow dynamic nuances to shine through.

HiFiMan connects to your computer via USB (16-bit 48 kHz) or home stereo system with its digital coaxial input (16-bit 44.1 kHz or 24-bit 96 kHz). Bonus: It can double as an excellent home headphone amplifier through its Burr-Brown PCM1704U digital-to-analog converter.

Paired with high-quality headphones, the HiFiMan sounds better than an iPod Classic, reputedly the best-sounding model Apple makes, even when playing the same files. We perceived no hiss or distortion, backing up the strong audio specs (102-dB signal-to-noise ratio) and everything from deep bass frequencies to ultrahigh cymbals sounded clearer, punchier. Sonically, it’s drastically better than the iPod in every conceivable way.

We squeezed just over seven hours out of the HiFiMan playing a combination MP3s, lossless files and 24-bit FLAC files. If that’s not enough juice, you can pick up a spare battery for another $80. Also worth mentioning is the clean analog volume attenuator that allows smooth, precise control of sound.

Now the bad news: This thing costs $790. By audiophile standards that’s a pittance but for the uninitiated that’s plain crazy, especially for a rather homely device with a button-driven interface. Oh yeah, the device has no on-board memory — hard drives cause too much audio interference — so you’ll have to supply your own SD cards to store your tunes. Forget about popping this monster in your pants either; at 4.4 x 3.1 x 1 inches, it’s a bit too big for pockets. A velvet bag and a mini-briefcase come with it for transportation, but who wants to tote something around that qualifies as carry-on luggage?

But the most significant reason you might not want to drop nearly 800 bones on the HiFiMan is that your ears simply might not care enough. Sound quality is a game of decreasing returns, and some people don’t get the same charge out of ultraclean, expansive, dynamic, crisp, properly imaged sound that audiophiles do.

But if you’re willing to put up the cash and endure its design shortcomings, the HiFiMan’s rich quality of sound will enrich the quality of your life.

WIRED Audiophile-pleasing deep, rich, clean sound. Pulls double duty as portable and home-stereo headphone solution. Walkman looks shout “don’t steal me.” Modular components (amplifier, battery). Comes with screwdriver and schematics for alternate amp designs.

TIRED Barely portable — large awkward chassis hard to carry. Menu and button configuration clearly traveled via flux capacitor from 2001. Only a small selection of 24-bit music is available for sale online. No docking station. You’ll need high-quality headphones to enjoy the player’s sounds.

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Image by ThinkGeek.com

GeekDad Twitter follower Andrew nudged us with news this weekend of his entry into official geeky dadhood (w00t!), and it occurred to us that there’s probably some collective wisdom those of us on the postpartum side of geek parenthood should pass on. While these are somewhat lighthearted points, the intent is honest.

When it’s your first go leading up to the magical day, and especially your first time in the delivery room, you may have some ideas that seem perfectly reasonable until your mate is screaming the worst Klingon invectives you’ve ever heard as the baby crowns (and she doesn’t even know Klingon). Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Don’t record labor – Don’t plan on recording, either video or audio, any part of the labor. Do not set up your Flip Mino on a Gorilla pod from the headboard of the bed, nor your Red camera on a tripod in the corner. And don’t think you’ll be walking around the room with your Mark 7D during the delivery. Your job is to be there by your mate’s side, holding her hand (chain mail gauntlet may be advisable).

Understand that you would never be able to show the video to anyone. During labor is about the most difficult, painful and personal moments in a woman’s life (even if the room is full of people), and if you make the mistake of pushing a camera in her face during a contraction, you may see that camera torn from your hands and thrown across the room.

After the birth is another story. After the delivery, take as many pictures of your lovely mate and your beautiful new child as possible, so you can remember just exactly how perfect they both looked at that moment. Just remember: Timing is everything.

2. Gadgets are your friends – Gadgets can be your friends when it comes to communication and information about the joyous event (indeed, my wife and I bought our first cellphone just so she could call me when she went into labor). Any number of iPhone apps help couples pick baby names, mind what food to eat or even time contractions. There are books on natural childbirth available on the iPad.

Depending upon your faith in the research, there are also lots of special devices for sticking speakers to your mate’s belly and playing music for your fetus to make sure they’re Einstein-smart when the pop out.

3. Humor – Speaking of “popping out,” we should take a moment to talk about humor. Geeks like to make jokes with geek-culture references, and the tense atmosphere of the delivery room may create a strong temptation for displaying geeky humor. Remember, while your mate may have dropped some hilarious pon farr jokes in birthing class, making cracks about how the whole situation is just like John Hurt in Alien when the baby crowns is really just not a good idea.

It is perfectly OK to, in your best Darth Vader voice, say to the baby “I am your father!” Just do it when your wife can’t hear you.

4. Preparation – Preparation, overall, is key when it comes to getting ready for the delivery. Of course you’ll have a bag of clothes and other necessities ready and waiting for your mate’s trip to the hospital weeks ahead of the due date. So, too, must you be thinking of having things prepped.

While you won’t be filming the delivery itself, you need to have your camera ready ready and fully charged for the important first minutes after pictures. Indeed, you should have your tech bag with camera, laptop, 3G internet card (if possible), and phone charger ready to go at a moment’s notice. And all these things should be ready at a minimum six weeks before the due date. Because you never know!

5. DVR preset – Take a moment, well in advance, and make sure you have your DVR set for every important show for both you and your mate, just in case. Once you’re at the hospital, there’s no going back. Unless of course you can set your DVR from your phone or laptop. Which you might want to set up as a backup.

6. No tweets during labor – Similar to taking pictures during the labor, live-tweeting the duration of contractions and your mate’s dilation is not a good idea. However, it is your duty as geeky mate to broadcast the news of the time of birth, and drafting an e-mail message in advance is advisable.

You could set up a private photo set on Flickr so that all the post-delivery pix you take (which transfer through the Eye-Fi card in your camera to your laptop and then auto-upload) are instantly available to your family and friends without you needing to step away from the bed.

7. Geek indoctrination – It’s important to start the geek indoctrination early. When you’re packing that bag for the hospital, make sure you include Star Trek Onsies to bring your little navigation officer home in. Including a towel may also be a good idea.

8. Music – Music during labor can be very relaxing and comforting for your geeky mate. You should agree upon a playlist well in advance, and set it up on your iPhone or iPod (or other music device) with a plan for how it will be played out loud (some hospitals may have docks available, but plan to bring your own if you’re not sure, with plenty of batteries, extension cords and adapters).

It would be wise, however, not to include this song by Paul and Storm, and to only include this song by Jonathan Coulton if you’ve both heard it before and understand what it really means.

9. You and the machines – You’re a geek. You’re technologically sophisticated. You will probably have even done some research and be able to understand what each of the machines in the delivery room does. However, just because you can tell from the fetal/uterine monitor when your mate is about to have a contraction, doesn’t mean you should announce it with “jump to light-speed in t-minus…” for each one.

10. Caffeine – If you haven’t yet developed a caffeine addiction (as odd as that may be), there’s no time like the present to start. You’ll need it. Ask your coder friends about the magic elixir known as “Jolt.”

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