“Family” collection
Navigate the intersection of family life and technology with expert advice on household gadgets, digital parenting, and home safety. This section focuses on tools and strategies that enhance family connections and simplify domestic logistics in a digital-first world.
HTD Tech Briefs
View all →April 1, 2010
Who Has Time to Travel Anyway? – Lose the Laptop!
Travel? Who has the time or money to travel nowadays! Sure I travel...a lot! From the bed, to the shower, out the door, to the car, to the train, on the train, to work, and back again. It's a great trip actually. I get to read the paper and occasionally do some writing. In fact, my writing is happing right…
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March 29, 2010
Special Edition of Cast of Dads (Video) Podcast – “Live from SxSW 2010”
Even though South by Southwest (SxSW) is long over, the memory lives on. 3 of the 5 dads from Cast of Dads were there for this great conference which takes place in Austin, Texas and we decided to do something a bit different. The Cast of Dads that were at SxSW ventured over to the Dad Labs studio and we…
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March 29, 2010
SchlageLINK Gives You Security & Access, Even When You Aren’t Home
Keys are a pain! I have so many keys on my keychain that I feel like a locksmith and I'm not even sure what keys go to what lock. But you can't just throw them away, right? And, keys get lost. To top it off, they are simply and completely low tech. Also, the more people you have in the…
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March 25, 2010
How To Fix the Failing US Education System – Commission-based Compensation for Teachers
I just had a "brilliant" idea on how to fix the failing US Education System. Well, perhaps not brilliant but hopefully thought-provoking. I don't think that it would or could ever be implemented but I really think we need to start thinking outside the box in order to re-position the US globally in so many different ways. For me, this…
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March 22, 2010
“Tracking, Texting & Texas” with Cast of Dads Podcast – Episode #13
It’s seems like we at Cast of Dads are always talking about social media and parenting and how at times they are mutually exclusive. Part of my day job is to actually be doing a lot of marketing on various social sites. And, in fact, all of us dads on the Cast of Dads are pretty active within social networking.…
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March 10, 2010
Who Lays Down the Law in YOUR Family? – Cast of Dads Podcast #12
Discipline in the family is never an easy topic to talk about, especially when setting the rules or enforcing them. And it seems that every family has a different approach to implementing these rules. This was the main topic that we discussed in the Cast of Dads Podcast #12 titled "Discipline". One thing that we all did have in agreement…
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March 8, 2010
My Paint & Your Brand Are Eroding – An Open Letter to Honda Motors
Below is a letter to Honda Motors that has been a long time in the making. Please read it and share as you see fit. Thank you for reading! -HTD Dear Honda Motors, I'm writing this open and public letter to hopefully get your attention…again. I will bet that you feel that you have dodged a bullet with the entire…
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March 4, 2010
Are You Prepared for Disasters? The Cast of Dads Discuss This in Episode #11
With the recent tragic disasters striking around the globe recently, when the Cast of Dads got together to record Episode #11, we spent a majority of the show talking about the serious subject of family preparedness when a catastrophe strikes. It's a touchy subject to discuss, actually, because when you listen to others, you realize how far behind you might…
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March 1, 2010
Locked Out of your Twitter Account? This Trick Might Get You Back In Fast!
Have you ever inadvertently locked yourself out of Twitter because of too many simultaneous logins? Perhaps one of your Twitter clients like TweetDeck or Seesmic is having some issues and repeatedly trying to log you in and out of your account. Or perhaps your internet connection is flakey and you are dropping connections causing your logins to happen over and…
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February 23, 2010
Cast of Dads: Podcast #10 – “Kids Online & How To Do It Right”
In this tenth episode of the Cast of Dads podcast we discussed a very important topic that all parents should seriously be considering, that of educating your children about the various social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. This is particularly personal to me as my oldest daughter (a "tweenager" – pre-teen) is starting to ask more about various social…
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February 22, 2010
Cell Phones, Tweens, Texting & Conversations – Child & Family Cellular Safety Thoughts
If you are a parent of a tween (a pre-teenager), you have probably hit the stage of your child wanting a cell phone. My wife and I broke down (or were gradually worn down) about a year ago with our oldest and she got hers when she was about 10. She wasn't (and still isn't) allowed to take it to…
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February 16, 2010
Cast of Dads: Podcast #9 – “Valentine’s Day” (Massacre?)
So it is pretty obvious to me that I'm not the only guy who struggles during the romantic times of Valentine's Day. For Episode #9 of Cast of Dads, we decided that it would be appropriate to record our podcast on Valentine's Day itself. Well, it proved to be an interesting podcast filled with awkward silences, proving the fact that…
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