Test Drive of the Chumby

06/01 Update: I had to remove the chumby widget as it never stopped loading (passing traffic) on my web site.

Today I have an opportunity to test drive an alpha prototype of the Chumby. It is on loan for a few days (over the holiday) for me to play with for review's sake. Their web site states:

"The chumby is a compact device that displays useful and entertaining information from the web: news, photos, music, celebrity gossip, weather, box scores, blogs — using your wireless internet connection. Always on, it shows — nonstop — what's online that matters to you."

While it is too soon to give any deep feedback, it was able to detect and connect to an open network fairly easily when I first turned it on. This was after resetting the clock from a date that was like 30 years in the past(?). I also noticed that, after a few minutes, it did seem to freeze up.

As I continue to play with it, below should be a feed of what my Chumby is doing right now. That is nifty is nothing else. If you can no longer see an image below then that feed is probably broken (let me know and I'll amend the site.)

What I did, er, plan to do this summer

The holiday weekend is fast approaching and, with it, the beginning of "real" summer. I've been thinking about it a bit and now I have come up with a few things that are good ideas. Hopefully some or all of them will translate into action.

Read: I get a few magazines a month and do most of this activity in the ::ahem:: "library. My favorites are Popular Science and Maximum PC. There are also the occasion periodicals from my kid's respective schools. I tend to buy books on topics that I am interested in and then take for-freakin-ever to read them. I have two on Ubuntu Linux, Two more on Project Management, and even a couple on home improvements (inspired by my sister and her husband building their own home). This kind of reading does not include my news feeds (see below). What magazines are you reading? What magazines should I be reading?

Get My News (Feeds): I use Google Reader for this and my list has grown to 113 sources. I have it mine for information on topics from Drum Corps to Municipal Wi-Fi to the web pages of my friends and beyond. It all rolls right into my "waterfall" of content where I can review dozens of items of interest in minutes. Got a good feed to suggest?

Exercise: This is one of those interesting aspects of marriage and adulthood. I have friends who seem to be able to be a good employee, a good father and husband--and still get to the gym (or exercise in general). So what is it going to take for me to get back? I already have heredity working against me so I know I will never be thin. But if I can get out and get moving a bit maybe I can just improve my quality of life and feel better. How do you balance work, home life and exercise?

Blog: This site is like a diary of sorts. I usually write a bit about something going on, throw in a few pictures and let it rip. Maybe I can find some time to add more content (like this). Do you have a blog?

Travel...and 5 year old girls

Sometimes, you just have to ride. On Saturday Hailey and I went to Dublin and Statesboro for a (too) short trip.

Dublin:

My mom came to visit my Granny Hardin and so we were able to get 4 generations together. Granny Hardin was doing well enough for us all to go out for lunch.



Also, Hailey enjoyed the tea set my Mom gave her!



After lunch we all went back to Granny Hardin's house to visit and also to let Hailey play with her cousin Samantha.

Statesboro:

I wish I'd had more time. We got in around supper time so we ate with "Grandpa Frank", My sister and her family. Then Hailey played with her cousins until she gave out while the adults all visited at my parent's house. The next day we stopped by my sister's house to visit before heading back to Atlanta. Hailey was EXCELLENT the whole trip!



Me? Not so much... :-)

Learn to Type Online

Now this is a good idea. Take the task of learning to type--and move it online. This web site seems to have the bases covered and, when I tested it, provided a simple, intuitive interface to learn. They even have some accredidations. Take it for a spin and, if you have kids, let them try it out too.

Learn to Type Online

Hailey at Field Day

Hailey and her classmates enjoyed Field Day last Friday (kind of late in posting). Maria went over there too and took these photos.



I will ask Hailey to give me some commentary on these photos and update this post later. In the meantime, enjoy!

Neat site: FlickrVision

A real quick post of something unique. This web site uses "geo-tagging" to relate Flickr images to a world map. In successions of a few seconds apart, I saw photos from Washington (USA), Bejing (China), Athens (Greece) and somewhere in Australia. I also liked that some photos have a link back to their Flickr site where you can see more from the same photographer. Take a look at tell me what you think.