A few days ago I ranted about my belief that take home School Science Projects should be banned. I’m not altogether against them – it’s just that as a parent of two 9 year olds my experience is that most projects are a test of the parent’s ability to teach their kids how to do a project as opposed to the kids understanding anything at all about what they’re doing. Little did I know there’s actually a company that creates science project kids that help parents understand the science fair process. You might refer to this kit as parent’s “science fair without tears”. Here’s a sample.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I noticed recently that Microsoft has started seeding release candidates for Vista SP2 to select testers. The RC is supposed to be “near-final,” what ever that means… We might-could send you another build…or we might-could not.  It just depends. The build, number 6002.16670.090130, was released to the Technical Beta team on Thursday 19-Feb-09, via Microsoft Connect and will also be made available via Windows Update.  SP2 is primarily a collection of bug fixes and updates to Vista SP1. On the server side, SP2 adds built-in Hyper-V support to Windows Server 2008. Unfortunately, Microsoft isn’t saying much about the RC releases, other than they’re in testing. Rumor has it that MS will release the gold version of SP2 and Windows Server 2008 some time in April.  It seems that April is to be a big month, as MS is also supposed to release the publicly available RC for Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server as well.… Continue reading on Gear Diary …

The Boost Mobile site now displays the long awaited Motorola i9 as ready for sale. For the pretty penny price of $299 (remember though – no contract required!) you’re getting a Motorola Stature i9 complete with 3.1 megapixel camera, 8x zoom, flash, Stereo Bluetooth, microSD card support (up to 8GB), GPS. Perhaps the best thing about this phone is you can pair it with an unlimited nationwide Boost voice/data/messaging plan for only $50 per month ($44 if you visit Target who have their prepaid cards on sale this week). Boost Mobile Continue reading on Gear Diary …

Amazon has this complete pizza making kit for half price — only $13.99 and it includes all the random stuff your kids might need for making their own pizza (Pizza pan, stone, cutter server, cheese grater and sauce ladle). I wouldn’t recommend buying this for a significant other however as joking about bad cooking is never as good idea as it first seems. Pizza Making Kit for Dummies Continue reading on Gear Diary …

If you’ve been with T-Mobile 22 months as a postpaid customer, have good credit and at least one individual line of service then you could be seeing the unlimited $49 plan offer pop up when you access your online account. T-Mobile users outside of the initial test market are now reporting that they are receiving the special offer which is meant to combat the unlimited plan recently unveiled by Boost Mobile. Unfortunately messaging and data are still monthly extras with T-Mobile – leaving this plan to be a good deal for heavy talkers. T-Mobile Continue reading on Gear Diary …

I’m a big fan of prepaid cell phones for kids and teens (as well as adults). The handsets themselves are cheap and easy to replace if they get lost (check out the Razr this week at Targed for $69.99!), there’s no surprise month end phone bill and if you play your cards right you can even land some pretty sweet deals with unlimited service from Boost Mobile where for $50 you get a month’s worth of all you can talk, walkie-talkie, text, picture and web browse. This is an in-store deal only. Target Continue reading on Gear Diary …