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Did You Miss Us? We’ve Been Licking Lemon Ant Butts! Cast of Dads Podcast #57

by Michael Sheehan on May 8, 2013

in Audio, Cast of Dads, Family, General, Humor, Opinion, Parenting, PodCast

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Yep, we’re baaaack! Have you ever tried to organize the lives of 5 busy dads who are dispersed across the country and time zones? The image of herding cats comes to mind. The desire to record our Cast of Dads podcast is there, the free time, however, is not. Yeah, excuses, excuses. We did manage to all get on a call about a week ago and chat through a variety of topics though, and were able to record Cast of Dads Podcast #57, “Lemon Flavored Ant Butts.”

Cast of Dads Podcast - Episode #57

I always feel that half an hour is simply not enough time to catch up and talk about the various parenting and life topics that are on our minds. In fact, Jeff and I would like to think that a little, profanity-filled, private video that we filmed together and shared with the other Cast of Dads members when he was visiting the town where I live was the impetus for us FINALLY getting back together to discuss our life activities. Perhaps if we have time, we will clean up the video and share it with y’all. However, until then, you just have to listen in on our latest podcast!

By listening, you might think that we are all a bunch of ADHD-plagued dads (well some of us are incredibly distracted, myself included). Just take a look at the topics we covered below, from light hearted parenting questions to the horror that occurred at the Boston Marathon to those “first times” at summer camp.

The Topics

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Reacting To and Remembering the Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary – Cast of Dads Podcast #55

by Michael Sheehan on December 21, 2012

in Audio, Cast of Dads, Family, General, Opinion, Parenting, PodCast, Safety, Security

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A week ago today, innocent children, students and educators were horrifically gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I don’t believe that anyone will fully understand the “why” but all of us have been struggling to comprehend it as well as be able to talk about this event with other adults as well as our children. The Sunday after this tragedy struck, the Cast of Dads got together to discuss this horrible event. Originally, this was to be our “holiday” episode, unfortunately, we only were able to talk about the joy of the holidays at the end of the show.

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The event was pretty fresh in our heads but I believe we all had some pretty firm ideas about Sandy Hook. And since we are all dads, this hit pretty close to home .

The Topics

Here are some of the topics we covered in Episode #55: [click to continue…]

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Boom, Boom, Pow! The Boombotix Boombot2 Rocks Bluetooth Audio Streaming with an Edgy Design

by Michael Sheehan on December 19, 2012

in Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Opinion, Review

Post image for Boom, Boom, Pow! The Boombotix Boombot2 Rocks Bluetooth Audio Streaming with an Edgy Design

With so many speaker solutions out in the market these days, it’s nice to see a company that makes their design a little edgier and with character. Literally. The Boombotix Boombot2 brings functionality and collectible character in their Bluetooth and wired portable speaker, making is a pretty neat gift for kids (and they even have a boring gray version for adults).

boombotix-designs

If you are looking for a hearty and functional portable speaker to give as a gift this holiday season, Santa has just the device for you. This light-weight speaker seems to be built to withstand an active lifestyle – think of a kid throwing this in their backpack. It is built to endure the bounces and bumps typically associated with a kid’s lifestyle and it got a personality to match.

boombotix-homepage

Here’s what you get in the package: [click to continue…]

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Dropcam HD is the Ultimate Home Monitoring Webcam Now with HD Video, Night Vision & 2-Way Audio

by Michael Sheehan on July 20, 2012

in Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Opinion, Review, Security

Post image for Dropcam HD is the Ultimate Home Monitoring Webcam Now with HD Video, Night Vision & 2-Way Audio

Almost two years ago, I reviewed a new wireless webcam that I felt was a clear winner, especially for families – the Dropcam. It was by far the easiest to set up and use, wireless web-connected video streaming camera that I had used. Over the past 2 years, I used it pretty much every day. It allowed me to have eyes at home while I was at work, or to keep and eye and ear on my kids when I was out in the yard or down the street. It was one of those devices that you set up and forget about (in terms of the setup process) but you definitely don’t forget about in your day-to-day activities. Being able to stream live (or recorded) video via the Dropcam web portal or a mobile app was (and still is) pure convenience. So how could they improve on something that I already love and use daily?

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Easy! Come out with a new version with even more (and better) features. And that is what they have done with the new Dropcam HD. And it isn’t just an upgraded version, it is completely redesigned and re-architected from the ground up. And they are smart upgrades as well. Perhaps the best thing is to list out its capabilities and how they compare to the previous version I reviewed, the Dropcam Echo (the audio-enabled version):

  • Easy set up – definitely even easier to set up than the older version
  • Audio – not only can you hear the audio, you can also speak back through the camera
  • Video – you now have a wider range of view, and it’s HD (720p)
  • Night-vision – didn’t exist in the previous version
  • Zooming – anther feature that didn’t exist in the Echo

All of these features and functions are built on top of the existing Dropcam platform which is mobile and web-enabled, as I mentioned, and extremely easy to use and configure.

[click to continue…]

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Laughter is the Best Medicine, Especially When We Recorded Cast of Dads Father’s Day Episode #52

June 19, 2012
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We all know that laughing is healthy. It’s good for both the heart and the soul. Well, in the Father’s Day (or should I say Daddy’s Day) Episode #52 (“Laugh Filled Father’s Day“) of the Cast of Dads, we definitely came out very healthy as it was one of the most laughter-filled episodes that we [...]

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We’re NOT Shaving with a Motorola DROID RAZR, We’re Giving One Away! – “Mother’s Day Special” – Cast of Dads Podcast

May 16, 2012
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While Mother’s Day has come and gone, and yes, all of the Cast of Dads were able to plan ahead to treat the moms (and wives) of our lives to their special day, we do have a “Mother’s Day Special” after the day went by. And, this episode marks a great milestone for the Cast [...]

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Consumer Clouds – A Comfortable and Easy On-ramp to More Complex Business Clouds

March 7, 2012
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I have multiple personalities. No, I’m not schizophrenic but I do have alter egos. During the day, I live and breathe cloud computing with my job as Technology Evangelist at GoGrid, a cloud infrastructure provider. And then the rest of my hours when I’m awake, I’m a dad, husband and technologist, trying to figure out [...]

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Guest on Intel’s Digital Nibbles Podcast – Talking about Consumer Clouds

March 2, 2012
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Recently, I was invited to be a guest on a podcast (sponsored by Intel) called Digital Nibbles and the topic was Consumer Clouds. Digital Nibbles is a podcast that discusses data centers, cloud computing and other topics around big data, DevOps, mobile and IT in the enterprise. As an interesting twist to the traditional corporate [...]

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