Watching J’aime’s kids the other day, gave me an idea.  I call it KidCom.  It’s a device, much like a watch, that your kids wear.

In it’s simplest form, it just has the time on it and you can set alarms on it that say things like "1 hours before Daddy gets home", or "it’s almost snack time".  It’s to help highlight and grow the anticipation for the important and happy moments in their days.

There are a few things you can do to extend the functionality.  A web interface or desktop application to record your own voice and have it say messages on certain times.  Or you can change settings remotely if you’re going to be late.

It could be integrated with a gps for locating your kids, or even some sort of 911/call home functionality for emergencies.  I think the simpler the better these days when it comes to technology…especially when it comes to kids…which makes me feel old…I’m going to go play with LEGO blocks now.

There’s a bunch of lists out there, and I’m sure you’ve heard how geeks are great lovers, but I think I have a few things to add to the list.  Geeks are great.

10.  Getting to know a geek is easy – just google their name…or sometimes, their alias…or aliases.  You can find pictures, blogs, forums, newspaper articles, anything they’ve done or been involved in.  Throw in some myspace and facebook stalking, and you’ve got a good sense of what they’re all about and their friends.  You can make a pretty good judgement of how interested you should be based on these alone, and you didn’t even have to meet them in an awkward place!

9.  It works both ways – rest assured, they’re going to do the same google stalker on you too.  Geeks want to know what they’re getting themselves into while satisfying their stalker tendencies.  Geeks are thirsty for knowledge, and this time it’s about you!  You should be flattered at how much they want to learn about you and be able to have a conversation with you right off the bat instead of just having small talk.

8.  They leave an audit trail – If your geek shows up with a tan one day…you know something is up.  They’re life is well documented, email use, text messages, new facebook friends and wall posts, twitter updates, blog posts, etc.  They great thing is, even if you can’t get an idea of what’s going on in their lives from all these things, if they stop activity…you know they’re distracted by something…

7.  They’re easy to please – All you have to do is smile at them and they’re in love.  If that fails, just buy them a new gadget like an iphone or some GPS thing-a-majig.

6..  They’re devoted – Geeks like reliability.  Once they spend all their time in building a new computer, they don’t want to see that hard drive crash.  They’re the same with their relationships.

5.  They’re connected – So you want to take a trip to London, but don’t have the money for a hotel?  Don’t worry, your geek probably plays World of Warcraft with someone from London, and you can crash at their place.

4.  They’re only 1 click away – Email, text, call, IM, facebook, and probably lots of other ways should make for an easy way to get in contact with your geek.  Alternatively, you can find out which one they check least often, and send a message there, then you can say, "oh, i facebooked messaged you that, didn’t you get it?" and you’re home safe.

3.  Full of potential (too) – Let’s face it, you’re geek spends a lot of time on his or her computer.  This doesn’t (necessarily) mean they’re an introvert or misanthrope though.  Chances are, they’re just waiting for someone else to come along and see if they want to do something.  They’ll probably be full of ideas of things to do that they read about on wikipedia or digg, and you can do them together!

2.  Mr Fix it – Yeah, they can fix your computer.  Yeah, they can figure out why your wireless router isn’t working.  Yeah, they can hook up your new HDTV for  you.  They can also do some awesome research on webMD or How stuff works or any other resource out there to do what you need done.  Like I said, they’re thirsty for knowledge because they believe human knowledge belongs to the world.

1.  Dropped connection – If you decide it’s time to end the relationship, just tell them that you’re going to South Africa to live in a hut and you won’t have any internet.  They’ve read stories about those places, and they don’t want to go there, or be with anyone who could live there.

When are roads going to start using technology?  Right now, they’re just poured concrete.  Technology could make them safer, better, easier.  They could make GPS navigation more efficient.  If sensors were place on the edges of roads, it could detect a car slowly getting off onto the shoulder to replace a tire, and maybe something in the car, like an onstar system could ask if the driver needs assistance.  Or, at least check that the driver hasn’t fallen asleep at the wheel.  If the car leaves the road at a high speed, ambulances and police could be alerted instantly of an accident, and those precious seconds and minutes before someone would pass by and call it in, and try and give a location could save lives.  When deer and such come onto the road, lights could flash or even just turn on to scare it away and make drivers aware of their presence sooner.  Statistics for traffic would be available telling real time congestion and which roads are traveled more frequently.  Speeding could be enforced easier.  once cars starting matching the technology of the road system, you could track stolen vehicles, or someone else could give directions to the driver by logging into a webpage and figuring out where the other person is.  Icy or wet road conditions would be able to be tracked.  and maybe even your car could guide itselt to it’s destination.

just got back from the metro parks cleveland zoo this weekend and thought about a new way to do the maps.  they should give you a durable plastic one with a gps tracker in it.  Then you can have a dynamic “you are here” light.  for large groups or families that split up, you could add their tracker to your screen, so that you know where they are all the time.  that would help coordinate meeting times, meals, and just supervision. 

 I was just thinking a static layout of the map painted on the screen, but maybe it could be more like a tablet pc, and the park can update if the animals are outside that day, if a new exhibit is open, the times of shows, etc.  Certainly wouldn’t be cost effective to replace maps, but maybe for $20 extra a group could use these, then i bet they would catch on.