Techmamas

Online Social Networking For Moms (Parents)

Listed below are details from a talk I gave at my preschool on social networking for moms (Oct. 24). I wondered if anyone would show up, but I was happy to see five moms and even one dad show up to discuss online networking. Each had a different reason for their interest, the dad wanted to network for business and the moms either wanted to start blogs as a way to get their voices heard or start an online business. I talked to other parents that could not make it to the talk but were also interested in online networking for meeting other parents or for business networking. So the online networking wave is also catching parents, it will be interesting to see how it changes the nature of networking in the years to come.

I know that I have meet some amazing moms through blogging, so I am hooked!

Over 40 is Facebook Creepy?

I have been reading about youngin's getting bothered about "creepy" elders hanging out in their Facebook turf. First the article "OMG my mom joined Facebook" by New York Times Cyberfamilias columnist Michelle Slatalla. Then articles like "Teens to parents: It's our Facebook"  by Janet Kornblum of USA TODAY.

But yesterday's article in the New York Times titled "73 and Loaded with Friends on Facebook" pushed me over the edge. A daughter, after being upset about her mother "friending" a girl on Facebook that was 18, started a Facebook group called "Over 40 is Facebook Creepy".

First of all, 40 is NOT old (not that I am taking that personally). Second of all, the "not highschool, not college" age people may just be using Facebook for, um,

Techmama's Imponderables

I was in carpool lane waiting to pick up my son so I thought I would take a look at my email. I recieve RSS feeds for some of my tech news favorites to my BlackBerry. Today's email for the New York Times Circuit Section was from one of my favorite columnists David Pogue. He wrote an article called "Pogue’s Imponderables" that had me laughing so hard I am sure the other moms thought I was nuts. Two of my favorites were:

• Laptops, cameras and cellphones have improved by a thousand percent in the last ten years. Why not their batteries?
• (and as a mom of three boys) Why don't public sinks have foot pedals?

I thought I would add some of my own during the couple minutes I have free before dinnertime. For my list, I am using a regular PC as an example because I don't have a MAC. But if I did, I would second the question on why MAC operating systems don't get viruses.

Techmama's Imponderables:

• Why is it that 90% of computer problems magically disappear by shutting down then starting up the computer again?
• Why is it that 90% of smartphone problems magically disappear by shutting down then starting up the phone again (or resending "service packs")?
• Why is it that 90% of wireless router and DSL modem problems magically disappear by shutting down then starting up the computer again?
• With all the advances we have made with PC's, why can't computers just start up quickly? Why oh why??
• Why does the blue screen of death haunt so many?
• Why do you have to buy software anymore? I dig getting all of this free software online... Even if I have to look at some ads....
• On the other hand, why is it that I am happy to pay big money for good graphics software?
• Why does my "t" key always fall off my computer after a year?
• Why do printer cartridges always run out of ink so quickly? And does that happen to be linked to the fact that my son sneaks in and makes copies of his pokemon cards on our printer/copier.
• Why do some women use their husbands email address as their own, putting women's rights back years. You know, you can get email for FREE using your own name...
• When I send the beautiful Microsoft excel spreadsheets out to class parents, why do some of them tell me "they can't open spreadsheets".
• Why do people send those misspelled emails saying they are some prince of something and that I have won some money...EVERYONE DELETES THOSE MESSAGES, SO STOP SENDING THEM. Whoops, David Pogue asked who the morons are that respond to spam so I guess they are still out there.
• How do you really make money from online ads?
• Why are handwritten notes so much nicer then emails?
• Why is it that I would rather keep writing this post then cook dinner?

What are yours? I know I will think of more later....

Paperless Thank-You's

I have been in thank-you twilight zone. I don't buy stationary anymore because I usually print them from my computer.

But then I had some computer issues and I could not print.

I wondered if I could just send simple emails as thank-you's.

But the etiquette issues for that overwhelmed me.

So instead, I just sent nothing. Nada, zero.... I was in a thank-you twilight zone wondering if I would start losing friends and my family would give me that "you have no manners" glare.

Instead, I decided to officially go paperless. Here are some of the sites I found most interesting:

• Evite: If you use Evite to organize an event, then you can send email thank-you's to all those who attended. And the nifty part about that is all the emails are already associated with the invite (saves time). Just be careful, the first time I used that functionality, I thought I was sending out the mod thank-you but instead I sent out a "cocktail" thank-you to some of my son's friends who had given him a gift for his birthday. So choose carefully....

            Evite also has an ecard section.

• Amazon has a section for ecards.

• Iomoi is a site with chic e-stationary.  If you purchase a membership, then you can use the site to send custom stationary emails.

Did I miss anything?

Make a Blidget For Your Blog with WidgetBox

I was following a click over from a new blog I started with some awesome moms (MOMocrats) and found this interested blog called Moms Salon. I had seen Widgetbox but I was so overwhelmed with widget options I never really took a look. They had this great widget loaded on their blog called a Blidget (from Widgetbox). I had been looking all over for something like this, easy to use and a great way to spread the word by allowing readers to load a listing of your blog posts to their blog.

Here is the blidget I created for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog: