Dragons, wizards, and grandparents, oh my!

Want to see something cool? Fire up your computer, even your five year-old computer or your netbook. Go over to Wizard101.com, an innovative, entertaining, family participation role play game. Known as an MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game), Wizard101 delights people from pre-readers to post-retirement and everything in between.

I know. I play it. So do my four year-old grandson and granddaughter. My husband claims not to be that interested, but he hovers around and tells us what we need to do when we’re playing. The game is based on a Harry Potter-type world of wizards, creatures, magic, and graphics to die for.

How Wizard101 works

In this MMORPG, you get to create a wizard character, male or female, hair color from brunette to purple, and any variation of ethnicity you could come up with. Diversity is integral. With your wizard born, you hook up with the headmaster for fun lessons in how to play. Everything you’ll need is covered in about fifteen minutes of play.

• Learn to use your wand
• Learn how magic spells are cast via an amazing card game
• Understand your tools
• See how to add pets to your experience
• Begin reading the imaginative backstory

You’re ready, Young Wizard, to play in earnest. Quirky characters visit your screen as you play telling you, in the nick of time, what you need to know. Six brightly beautiful worlds, soon to be seven, make up a universe known as “the Spiral.” Intense color, well animated creatures and characters, and a satisfying soundtrack put Wizard101 out in front of the pack of role play games I’ve seen.

Participate for free as long as you wish. There’s plenty to explore without buying areas or subscribing to the universe, and thousands of people have played free for almost two years. Still, KingsIsle, creators of the game, is characterized by brilliant thinking. They don’t hawk their wares. They never push product at you. They woo you, seduce you into desiring more because it is so much fun to keep going.

Why Wizard101 is perfect for multiple generations

I talked with Fred Howard, KingsIsle marketing VP. He explained, “In 2005, our founder, Elie Akilian, saw a huge space in the gaming world. There was hard core violence, and then sites like Club Penguin for very young children, but nothing in between for family entertainment. Of course there were no wizard worlds, no card-play based dueling. Ours isn’t a tight niche; it’s crossed niches that appeal to all ages.”

He’s right. Wizard101 RPG is simple, user friendly, with much of the story playing out in text-to-speech. Even pre-readers jump in, fiddle around, strike down a banshee with a well-played battle card, and are on their way to saving a world, with magic. More sophisticated players engage in all manner of strategy, learning, and power-ups, taking play to higher levels.

The cool thing, the very cool thing is that people from 4 to 84 can play together– as a team or group. They talk to each other on screen, help each other out, strategize, and learn from each other. Grandma or grandpa, living in Ft. Lauderdale, can spend a couple of hours roaming worlds hand-in-hand with grandchildren in Anchorage, a priceless bridge over geographic distance so difficult for families to manage.

It’s a social thing, this game. Howard likes to call it “family entertainment,” not “family-friendly” play. He means his game is totally engaging for everyone. While family-friendly products like the famous Florida Mouse’s website delight kids and are safe, they could quickly bore the pants off elders.

Why Digital Grandparent is sold on Wizard101

It’s simple. It’s grassroots. This year, KingsIsle will focus on showing

Grandparents can learn magic at this school

Wizard101 to people of mature ages and let us sell ourselves. We grandparents get that it’s wonderful to interact with family in a clean, safe space. We’ve embraced Wii, Skype, and other web properties.

My grands and I learned a new language around this game. We hang out in exotic places. I like Mooshu, the Oriental city of cherry blossoms, black lotus, and the fearful Jade Oni. My grandson can’t stay out of Dragonspyre’s lavafalls, dark broken villages waiting for rescue, and a breathtaking dragonride he can access anytime he wants.

We talk about the game and plan our best options. We talk to other players, without fear of inappropriate interactions. Filters prevent inappropriate comments in player chatter. It’s almost impossible for anyone to exchange personal information – again, filters remove anything that resembling an address, phone number, real name, even age.

The interface is beautiful. The infrastructure is extremely well-planned for safety, fun, and people-appeal. Once in a while as the audience expands, technical issues arise but are solved fairly quickly. KingsIsle’s parent award winning Wizard101 is not a perfect world. But overall,  I’d be hard-pressed to think of anything else with so much to offer so many.

You, a tech-friendly grand, might just discover how to enjoy this as much as the kids, at no cost or reasonable cost.

They say laughter is as effective in preventing ailments as is exercise – we laugh a lot over this jewel of a toy. Digital Grandparent gives the game a whole bucketful of stars and recommends you grab your favorite child of any age and give it a go. You’ll find yourself feeling younger and more spry with each spell you cast.

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We liked this online learning project so much that we invited Mary Ellen Pinzino, Founder/Director of the Come Children Sing Institute to explain her program for our readers. Since 1984, her organization has been a center for research and development in music learning. Mary Ellen tells you how to learn music online. Grandparents and kids can get FREE gift certificates via SKYPE.

The Come Children Sing Institute is conducting research on music learning in the youngest children through online music classes with distant grandparents via Skype.  Come Children, Sing! Online Music Classes for infants, babies and toddlers are designed so that distant grandparents can interact meaningfully with their youngest grandchildren in an ongoing developmental music program.

Grandparents can now engage with their little ones in online music classes from their own homes and on their own schedules, whatever their musical background.  MP3 files, music activities, and grandparent tips are all provided online, while the child sees only the loving grandparent onscreen, engaging with the child in music activities.

Discover new ways to interact with your youngest grandchild via Skype on a regular basis. Become part of the exciting process of your grandchild’s music development during the most important years for music learning. Just sing along, move along, play along, and go along with Come Children, Sing! and your little one via Skype.

Come Children, Sing! is a developmental music program that makes learning music as natural as learning language. Infants, babies and toddlers across the country are thriving musically on Come Children, Sing!, surprising loved ones with their focused attention to music activities designed for the young child’s music development.

Come Children, Sing! Online Music Classes deliver one new lesson each week for 10 weeks.  Participating grandparents are expected to engage with their loved one in weekly lessons for at least 10 minutes each week for 10 weeks, with 14 weeks to complete the 10 lessons. $40 gift certificates for continuing Online Music Classes will be provided for as long as grandparent and child engage in the program via Skype. Three years of quality music instruction for little children are now available online at Come Children, Sing! where you can view sample lessons. Distance learning has now reached the youngest children, with all the benefits of online education. To participate with your grandchild, send an email to Come Children, Sing! with your name, the age of your grandchild, and a notation that you read about the program at DigitalGrandparent.com.

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Ubuntu log-in

Ubuntu is a slick operating system you might want to look in to. It’s more user-friendly than Windows. It’s every bit as robust – meaning Ubuntu can do everything you need to do on your PC. It’s quick, less buggy than windows tends to be, and probably more secure. The best attribute of Ubuntu is it’s FREE and always will be. Ubuntu is open source software.

If you use Firefox, then you use open source software. That means the program is developed by members of a world-wide team of expert, experience developers whose goal is to make computing accessible. Ubuntu is a spin-off of the Linux operating system, but don’t be intimidated. It has a graphic user interface – that means it’s “what you see is what you get.” Just like Windows. It’s point and click. No learning curve. It looks very familiar and behaves nicely.

How to get Ubuntu

The package downloads pretty quickly from Ubuntu’s site, where you can take a tour and see what this free operating system looks like and how it behaves. The package includes a web-browser (a great one!) an office suite, media apps, instant messaging and a bunch of other useful stuff that’s compatible with most other systems.

Ubuntu is easy

Anything you do with Ubuntu can be shared with other PC users, even if they’re still spending big buck supporting Microsoft. If keeping up-to-date with office and operating software is getting expensive, complicated, and annoying, take a test drive.  Download Ubuntu, install it easily, open it and start working. FREE.

Ubuntu will always be free, just like other open source software. The products get better as time goes by and are never difficult to work with. Support is available and customer-friendly. The group is interested in your input – that’s part of how they make improvements. If you really want to get into it, you can become a developer or help develop the art work and interfaces. This is a project tailor-made for baby boomers – the generation with solid experience and a great work ethic.

Becoming an Ubuntu fan

Over the next few weeks, Ubuntu gets a new version, 9.04, the 10th release of the Ubuntu operating system. It’s nickname is Jaunty Jackalope. Ubuntu 9.04 features improvements to their GNOME desktop environment including Evolution, Control Center, Media, and GNOME Power Manager –all aspects that make computing friendlier. All typical consumer “wants”. In addition, wireless, webcams, and other up-to-date compatibility and support debut with this version.

Users get FREE

• OpenOffice.org
• GIMP image editing
• Mozilla Firefox
• Thunderbird

and the list goes on.

We recently bought a netbook, the handy small laptop so popular in the last year or so. We removed

Ubuntu has a familiar feel

Win7 op sys and replaced it with Ubuntu. Dan was right at home with it, being the uber-geek, and I loved it at first use. It took me about five minutes to get comfortable in the driver’s seat, then I was off and running. Truly, if it weren’t for the fact that we need to keep up on all operating systems in our business, I would be ready to dump Windows and put this baby on all our computers. FREE is such a budget-friendly price – especially when quality is right there.

More free stuff:

Video production service

Chrome browser

Free TV

DIY videos good and cheap

Animoto.com is an online do-it-yourself video production program so easy your grandchildren could absolutely create their own videos. It’s effortless and affordable. We found it fun and quick enough that the shortest attention span can hold out during the production process.

For free trial use go to the site and clicked on the get started link. We found seven options to make shorts, full-length, unbranded video and four kinds of greeting cards. We got an immediate nudge for upgrading to a paid subscription, but hey, they’re in business to make money. Once you buy a membership – you can begin creating videos. We chose the All Access level and decided to make an unbranded, short video.

We found we could turn photos or clips into a 30 second video the one featured above, with storytelling text. The site is straight forward and easy-to-use. We uploaded still images from our computer to the site. You can use your own images, select from Animoto’s stock library or retrieve from another website like Flickr, Facebook, Picassa. You’re responsible for monitoring copyrights on your own. In other words – use only material you have rights to.

Once we uploaded, the amount of time required was governed by length and resolution of the videos or stills. Animoto allows 8-15 elements (clips or images) in shorts. We chose four still images, typed a little text  and clicked. Animoto took us to background music selection, the  we gave the video a title and short description. Our video processed, analyzed and rendered, letting us know what it was doing each step of the way, for about 60 seconds. Then Animoto began actual production, showing us in color animation what it was doing. I was interested in following the progress over one and a half minutes it took to complete the video.

When finished, Animoto loaded the do-it-yourself video into the page and emailed me a copy. I didn’t have to keep the browser open. You can go do something else, or start another video in the meantime. The end result was attractive, high quality video in less than ten minutes. This process is slick and appealing. You can produce videos for your social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – or email them to friends and family. They would be suitable for showing customers your entrepreneurial products, or for sending a video resume to employer prospects.

An enterprising person could buy the pro-quality level and start a business producing wedding or family videos for profit. Animoto has been around for about three and a half years and began as a consumer level product. It has expanded to serve photo professionals and will increase its capabilities this year. Bottom line – we couldn’t find anything to complain about. The prices are justifiable, the quality outstanding, the process simple and fast. We recommend you give it a try. My partner, not easily impressed, said, “This is actually totally cool.”

Price points:

Pro account $249 annual subscription – produce unlimited length, unbranded, commercially licensed high res videos. Three months for $99.

All access: $30 per year. Unlimited full length greetings and videos for the price of an evening at the movies. Finished product has the Animoto brand name on it with music video style credits on it indicating your name as producer. It’s like watching real music videos and there are awesome embellishments available. Animoto will provide a downloadable MP4 file for $5 or a DVD for $20. If you can’t find a use for this product, you’re not a photo enthusiast.

There’s a FREE online productivity suite that uses none of your system’s resources and requires no download. Google Docs is fun to explore and to play with. If you want to jump on the bandwagon and get some of the larger programs off your own harddrive, in other words, go for cloud computing, start with Google’s tour of Docs.

The idea is to upload your existing files and then create new documents from scratch or from templates. You can share the stuff you write, store it online and set controls to keep it private and secure, they say. I’m not sure I trust online workspaces just yet. I mean, how many times a month do we hear that a given site was hacked and all the users vital data has been scattered across the universe?

It all works pretty well if you have a robust broadband connection, though you’ll doubtless experience lags when web traffic is snarled or crowded. I’ve seen lags. Type a sentence and it appears a couple of seconds later. However, consider this, too. Sites come and sites go. This isn’t to say Google’s going anywhere soon, but who thought half the banks of the world would skate the edge of failure, either?

Google Docs is worth a look, especially if you have a thousand year-old version of one of the big name productivity suites and you’re seeing the necessity of upgrading. Those high price tags are intimidating in today’s bleak economy. Go up online, sign in with your Google account or Gmail password and take a test drive. You might like it and you’re likely less paranoid than I.

Google Chrome outshines the rest

Google’s web browser, Chrome, is now in version 4.0.249.89.  I like it, especially in view of IE’s recent problems. Gurus and pundits are advising people to use IE only when absolutely necessary since it’s security credibility roughly resembles Swiss cheese. It’s full of holes and that can cause you problems.

There are seven or eight really good browsers. I’ve tried them all, and until recently, was happy with Firefox. However, Mozilla, trying to keep up with Microsoft, bloated and screwed up Firefox. It’s slow. It’s porky. It has way, way too many updates, add-ins and plugins. It’s a drag. Nor is Chrome perfect – the biggest issue is that Chrome doesn’t get along well with a lot of sites. Wordpress and Chrome – not a good fit, for example. On some sites, Chrome can’t display images or headlines. Chrome doesn’t even recognize Stumbleupon, a hugely important tool for web-writers like me. I’ve resorted to using Chrome most of the time, Firefox sometimes, and IE never.

Usually, the first thing I do when  setting up a new installation of IE or Firefox is turn off as many of the menus and toolbars as I can, leaving only the bare essentials like navigation buttons – I do like tabs. Well, for me Chrome is the way I like it, straight out of the box. Minimal menus. One toolbar. Clean text box for the URL I’m visiting, and a few navigation buttons, and tabs. The rest of my screen real estate is open for content, which, after all is what I’m really interested in seeing – not clever icons.

The folks at Google designed this browser to be an application platform, not just a web page viewer. Computer programs and web pages are becoming more and more like each other, and bridging the remaining small gap is something that Chrome does exceptionally well.

Chrome is significantly faster than all others, too, which seems logical, considering its clean, minimalist appearance. The program starts quickly and pages load faster. It can auto fill forms, remember passwords, and do things the big boys do. It has a neat little bookmark bar at the top for those sites you visit continuously – maybe Facebook? Twitter? the browser is secure, too. That may be because it hasn’t attracted hacker interest yet since its market share is rather small. But it downloads easily and quickly – about two seconds – installs like a flash and has no learning curve. You might give it a test drive and protect yourself form the threats hovering about IE and the sludge miring Firefox.

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While not as exciting as Chistmas, Halloween or even… Fruitcake Toss Day,  Clean Out Your Computer Day is an actual day which you just might want to consider participating in. Little is known of its origin other than it’s been around since 2000, and it was originally sponsored by the Institute of Business Technology as a day to declutter and clean out old and unused files from our computers.   It lands on the second Monday of each February.

(Today we’re looking at a guest post by computer gurus at iolo technoligies, fans of DigitalGrandparent. There are some great tips in this article for cleaning up your computer and getting it back to good computer performance. If you want to try the software mentioned, System Mechanic is currently available at a special sale price. I have no vested interest in the product, but you might find it useful.) –mkpelland

Clean out your computer day

Is your computer running slow, or low on memory?   Does it take forever to boot up?   Are there programs or files on it that you never use and/or don’t even know why are there?    Maybe Clean Out Your Computer Day is going to be your day.

In time for Clean Out Your Computer Day, here are some PC Clutter Facts and PC Cleanout Tips provided by iolo technologies, PC tune-up company and makers of System Mechanic software.

PC Clutter Stats

1. The average American adult has 1,800 digital files, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, making searching them quite a task.
2. Executives waste six weeks each year looking for lost items and information, according to a study published in the Wall Street Journal, adding up for huge corporate operating losses.
3. Americans waste nine million hours per day searching for misplaced items. On average, people spend a year of our lives looking for lost items, according to the National Association of Professional Organizers.
4. In 2007 alone more than 40 million computers were dumped, up from 20 million in 1998. On average, each computer lasted only 30 months (2.5 years), that short life span often attributed to the PC running slow and having low memory/drive space due to unnecessary clutter.

10 Useful PC Clean Out Tips, and how a utility (like System Mechanic) can help

1. Delete unused, old or duplicate files, emails, email addresses, bookmarks and favorites. Tools like SM’s “Remove Junk Files”, “Remove Internet Debris” and “Find Duplicate Files” tools can be used to recover a lot of lost space – and a lot of time wasted while looking for files on a cluttered hard drive.
2. Organize your files. Make sure to use a logical file naming system and put them into folders that make sense and are easy to remember and access.
3. Defragment your hard drive. While that won’t categorize your files (you have to do that manually, see #2 above), defragmentation will speed up your access to them, again saving you valuable time.
4. Back up your files and programs at least every month. Imagine all the time wasted if your files are lost. Back up regularly to a separate device like a portable hard drive or set up an automatic online back-up service.
5. Uninstall programs that you no longer need or use. To make sure they are completely uninstalled and do not leave any residual clutter, use a tool like System Mechanic’s “Remove Installed Programs” to uninstall even the most stubborn components.
6. Once you’ve uninstalled unused program, make sure to clean out your registry as well. Invalid or out-of-date registry settings can slow down your computer’s boot time. Use System Mechanic’s “Repair Registry Problems” and “Defragment and Compact Registry” or choose another good quality registry cleaning program to shave valuable minutes off your boot time.
7. Further improve your computer’s start-up time by removing unnecessary start-up items. Many programs lodge themselves in start-up without your knowledge.
8. Once you’ve organized all your files into folders, make sure all the shortcuts are still accurate. Remove those that aren’t working properly – as you’ve guessed, SM can do that for you.
9. For an ultimate clean out, try a program like DriveScrubber. DriveScrubber can securely wipe out all your hard drive data or you can use a more selective approach, removing only your personal files and leaving the programs intact. Definitely opt for this clean out option if you are planning on donating your computer to make sure your personal information is not recoverable.
10. For a complete PC clean out on Clean Out Your Computer Day, don’t forget your PC’s outside. Clean the screen, dust the keyboard, clean the mouse. After all, your computer deserves some pampering too.

Now mark your calendar – kick-start your spring cleaning on Monday, February 8 – it’s Clean Out Your Computer Day!

(The photo above was borrowed form a very cool blog called My PC Crashed)

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I read a recent email from a PR agency that works with entertainment clients, and I almost hit delete. The email quoted book making odds on which electronic reader will top the 2010 market in sales. I though it was plain silly – and useless to argue odds about whether Apple iPad will bludgeon the rest of the readers. But then, I figured my readers have a right to know. So here it is.

Bookmaker’s odds – will iPad beat Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader and the rest?

The email press release says:

With the recent unveiling of the new iPad, it has without doubt raised awareness on how it will compare to similar pieces of technology on the market today. CEO Mickey Richardson and his team at Bookmaker.com, one of the leading sportsbooks, have put together odds on the BEST SELLING TABLET IN 2010.

The +/- Indicates the Return on the Wager. For Example: Betting on the candidate least likely to win would earn the most amount of money, should that happen. The percentage is the likelihood the contestant(s) will win.]

That’s for what it’s worth. My two cents-worth: None of these electronic book readers is quite there yet. I’m waiting for electronic paper, promised by gurus since the early ’90s. It will, they say, look, sound, and feel like paper. (Harry Potter’s newspaper?) I also want the equipment to be smaller, and to do more, and to multi-task.

I haven’t seen iPad up close yet, so I won’t critique it. Early word is early adopters of that unit will be folks who are slightly less tech-oriented. No problem there, plenty of baby boomers like technology but don’t want to wallow in it. Let’s see how it goes.

The odds above are not much use to me, but if you’re in to that sort of thing, maybe you can get up an office pool or something. Of course all proceeds would go to charity, and none of you would gamble….

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The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the trade show that debuts all kinds of electronic gadgets, toy, and equipment for consumers happens in Las Vegas every January. Despite a troubling economy, pundits say 2010’s show has a record number of new companies demonstrating their products. Attendance, however, may lag. But “tablet” computers will draw attention.

What the heck is a tablet?

Show of hands…who knows exactly what a tablet is? Well, I’m going to tell you. Apple hopes to shake the tech world January 27, or, depending on who you read, in March with the launch of their long-awaited tablet. Microsoft could decide to eclipse them with horns and whistles at CES about their pending Courier tablet and a start-up in India, company called Notion Ink had one too.

A tablet is a manageable size sort of netbook, sort of laptop. It’s a hybrid. Microsoft’s Courier, they say, will weight less, have ungodly power, and capabilities like pen input (you use an electronic pen to take notes right on screen) and finger gesture input as well. An upscale camera will be part of it. Of course the latest mobile connectivity. It will have a split screen, sort of like Nintendo’s DS gaming system, but larger and brighter.

Apple will likely go with fewer features, a much higher price than anyone else, and perhaps, fewer bugs, more reliability. Isn’t it wearying to watch Apple trail the carrot in front of consumers for so long and then release a piece of technology that very few in this economy will want to afford?

Notion Ink? Slashgear.com says:

The Notion Ink smartpad measures 6.3 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches and weighs 1.7lbs; as well as the triband (850/1900/2100) UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR it also squeezes in A-GPS, a digital compass, accelerometer and proximity, ambient light and water sensors. Connectivity includes USB, HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microphone input, and there’s also a 3-megapixel autofocus camera with video recording support. Onboard storage is either 16GB or 32GB of SSD, and there’s an SD slot for augmenting that.

Tablet computers and everyday consumers

As with most new gadgets, these little gems will come out all full of high price tags. Early adopters will include students with unlimited funding, rich business moguls, celebrities, and those who don’t balance their checkbooks. We frugal baby boomers will likely watch and wait for a bargain or for more competition.

It would be pretty cool if all these companies and a few more decided to release their stuff all at once.  I really want a tablet. What writer wouldn’t feel coolishly geeky with one of these babies on their lap in the park?

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