When the Hometown You Always Knew Could Burn Gets Erased from the Map -- Paradise is Lost to the #CampFire

Let's talk about the Camp Fire for a second. My family moved to Paradise in 1991, as I was starting 8th grade. I lived there through high school, until heading to college. The family stayed until all kids had graduated high school - the last in 2004.

(This story is adapted from a thread I initially posted on Twitter)

This was us at home in '91.

While news has referred to Paradise as isolated, we actually were moving from an even smaller town. I'd spent elementary school in Brownsville in Yuba County. When my dad got a new medical practice in Paradise, we were blown away by the McDonald's and "all those power lines".

The route from my elementary school home to Paradise.

I only spent one year in the Paradise school district, before my mom got a job teaching at Chico Jr. High. Through high school, I spent every early morning at church in seminary, and then driving down the Skyway to Pleasant Valley High School.

(Here's us in front of our house)

Paradise was always a retirement community. My dad's work was primarily elder care - geriatrics. Sometimes they died. More than once, I accompanied my dad to the coroner's office while on rounds. As he said, either their heart stopped, or they stopped breathing. Circle of life.

But that didn't mean death by other means was impossible. Fire was by far the top concern for the community. Paradise is located on a ridge in the foothills, placed squarely between two canyons. When fire would light, it would often head for the city.

In 1992, my sophomore year of high school, we evacuated twice. See the @ChicoER's coverage of those fires. Notice one of those started -- you guessed it -- at the Skyway. The problem with this, of course, is that was the main road out of town.

Fires have always been common in Paradise. We evacuated in 1992.

In 1992, even as we had yet to unpack from evacuating the first time, ash started to fall on our driveway and house. Thick, black smoke loomed above us, and the fire was closer than ever. Some firebug, in copycat mode, had lit a blaze near city limits. We left again.

Luckily, as with every other time, the fire crews did an amazing job stopping the flames from getting deep into town. We marveled at the burn scars that approached neighbors' property, but didn't take any homes or casualties. Some have argued Paradise is a woodsy town that had no business building where it did. But it's not all the thick forest you may have in your mind.

This is the entrance to Tiger Tail Lane from Foster Road (via Google Street View).

Long after I left to college and embedded in Silicon Valley, there have been other fires. As with those in the early 1990s, most were stopped. And as @Weather_West and others have reported, there were many plans in place to protect residents if worst-case happened.

Our home's position in a terrain map, clearly in the fire zone.

So what made the Camp Fire different? How did the above map turn into this scar on the North state? In addition to the exceptionally low humidity and the high winds (which can't be discounted), I'd say the origin of the fire played a huge part.

The fire's position (and all the closed roads), as of this week.

Previous fires, which started by Skyway or the canyons, and slowly meandered their way to the city, gave residents and firefighters warning. People had time to pack and leave, and routes were not frantic. The Camp Fire was a sneak attack with brutal force.

The Camp Fire didn't start on the lower Paradise side. It started in Pulga, an even tinier community. It started in the more woodsy side, where topology made it nearly impossible to stop, in starved fuel-laden forests, powered by ferocious winds and drought.

Instead of starting at the bottom of the above photo, it started at the top and right.

The winds pushed the fire into the main part of town, to all the people and all the businesses, and it hasn't stopped. Adventist Health Hospital, where my dad worked, was among the first to go.

When @Weather_West shared a tweet from @Gloria2marie, showing fire South and West of Paradise, I immediately realized the town was gone. In a Slack message to a friend, I wrote:

"This means, if true, it's going to F--- up the whole town. Bye."

Classy, I know. But not wrong.

The casualty totals, surpassing all records in California, have not been a surprise. Knowing the aging, slow, immobile population, many who don't drive, and the speed of this fire, we're lucky thousands did not perish. But the loss is still stunning.

That an entire town can be zapped off a map is practically unprecedented. And for those who want to go back... to what exactly? No infrastructure. No power. No water. No cell service. And possibly human remains waiting for you.

Chico, where I went to high school, has for the most part escaped the direct flames. But now the refugees from Paradise are encamped at the town Walmart, a drier, more outdoor version of the Lousiana Superdome during Katrina. Thousands have nowhere to go.

More than 52,000 people have been evacuated since the Camp Fire erupted in Paradise on Thursday, packing parking lots, shelters and hotels across Northern California, and straining the housing stock.

There are still hundreds missing. So many are unaccounted for that law enforcement is releasing names in batches to avoid overload. Imagine that. The fire was so intense, many people may never be found -- incinerated and returned to the dust.

The Camp Fire is not just another news story or a set of headlines, or an unfortunate reason the Bay Area is smoky. It's a remarkable human and modern disaster.

This was our Christmas photo our first December in our Paradise home.

It's almost certainly gone now, but we're alive.

I've read some ridiculous tin foil hat conspiracies on Twitter that you wouldn't believe about how the Camp Fire started. You could say this type of fire was inevitable, but also preventable. Of course climate change played a role. Of course the town makeup played a role.

Either way, this is a conversation we are going to keep having in California, and throughout the Western US and beyond. Is Lake Tahoe safe? Is Sunnyvale? Last year Napa found out the hard way. My grandparents' home in Redding was threatened in the Carr Fire.

It's reality.

This isn't a "feel sorry for us" thread. It's been a while, and my whole family is safe. But they are active in connecting with those who stayed. The woman who prayed her way to safety in a firey ride you may have seen on @Gizmodo was a high school friend I've heard pray before.

This was the last photo I took in Paradise, in May 2015, when I took my boys to a party for my brother's child - their cousin. The home that looks like it was under construction a few short years ago... it's gone now, to dust and ash.

As you lament the bad air and see the numbers rise ever upward, I hope this helps remove the abstract from what seems like a tiny town far away. Like the Woolsey Fire and the Carr Fire and all the others, your home could be the next hashtag. Have a plan.

How a Google Home in Every Room Gives My Kids Answers All Day

Some time last year, we installed five Google Home units in our house. One was placed in the master bedroom. One each went in both our kids' rooms, as well as one in the office, and one downstairs in the kitchen. Knowing that asking Google any question was just a simple request away, I was eager to see how the family would adjust to having a friendly assistant ready at any time to go fetch answers. What I've seen is that the devices are used throughout the day, and, often, the kids talk to Google before they talk to me.

OK Google, tell me a joke.

The morning starts with Google Homes sounding the alarm to wake up.

As the kids mumble "OK Google, stop", we have momentary quiet, until they shuffle out of bed and ask Google what the weather is going to be that morning. Obviously, depending on Google's answer, this can mean wearing shorts or jeans, long sleeve shirts or short sleeves. If the answer isn't detailed enough, I've heard the kids ask a second time, asking for the high of the day, which could impact how they prepare for PE at school, or if it's going to rain, and they need to pack an umbrella.

One example from our Assistant history.

As the morning routine begins, the first person downstairs gets to be the DJ, asking Google to play a song, which serves as the background music for breakfast. If the song isn't what they wanted, they simply say, "OK Google. Next song." until one they would prefer comes on.

If it's a weekday, we're most likely off to school and work, and we're all out the door. But if not, we probably have another query to Google Home to see how bad traffic is wherever we are going, how long will it take to get there - or sometimes, how the weather will be at our destination.

When the kids get home from school, Google does more than just act as background music device. My 9 year old twins use the Google Homes to confirm math homework answers to see if they are right, or ask it to sub in if an equation is too hard, or if they are unsure of spelling. The Google Assistant is the parent who is always willing to give an answer and never gets tired. 

With the expectation that Google has all the answers, the type of questions can be fast and furious. "What is hypoglycemia?" "Are hedgehogs nocturnal?" "What state is Boston in?" "What time is it in Sydney, Australia?" "What does salutation mean?" "What day is Black Friday?" "What time is it sunset?"

If Google doesn't know, or says, "Sorry. I can't help with that yet. But I'm still learning!", it's usually followed with sighs of exasperation and amusement, as they follow on with a different query more likely to get an answer.

The most popular question asked of Google Home this last year? By far, a simple one. "What time is it?", followed by "how much time is left on the timer?" for those ever important assigned times when they need to be reading, or when kids are taking turns with a game or a device, and need to hand it off to another child.

How many more minutes are left on my timer?

As homework time wraps up, and the kids find themselves on leisure, as dinner is eaten, and things are tidied up, I can hear them play music in each room as they have access to the world's artists on demand. "OK Google, turn your volume to 50 percent." "OK Google, play Katy Perry."

Do they always get the question perfectly right? No. But the device tries its best to guess and provide the answer - or pushes for another try. "Sorry. I don't understand?" or "Try again in a few seconds."

As bedtime approaches, everyone asks Google to set an alarm for the next day to start the process anew. And yes, if you're wondering, we do disable the devices in the kids' rooms by 9 p.m., so they don't end up rocking out in the wee hours. If they want something so badly they need to ask that late, they can ask me.

Set an alarm and call it a day.

The Google Home devices were such a benefit to our house that they were the go-to gift this last Christmas. Given they were only $29 apiece on the Google Store, I maxed out the order of ten, and shipped them in many directions - to family, to friends and even to neighbors, as they too could see the benefit of a smart assistant that takes the kids' tough homework questions on without complaint, and is more than happy to let you know if it's going to rain.

Just like touchscreens and tablets were so easily made a part of our family's life, from the very first iPads, and through the Nexus line, adding voice-activated devices has been simple and the children don't find them daunting at all. After all, who wants to get a laptop out and type in a query?

Disclosures: I work at Google, obviously. I paid full retail for my devices.

YouTube Kids: Smart, Mobile First, and Child Sized.

In December, I wrote about viewing technology through the eyes of a child. As much as I think of myself as an early adopter and 'with it' net citizen, I'm equally amused and amazed at the activities my own kids rapidly learn and partake in when it comes to technology and the Web, how things and concepts once considered the future are commonplace. And their eyes, unvarnished by the way things have always been, highlight shortcomings in our software and websites that historically have been designed for fully literate adults on the desktop.

I've been particularly excited to watch (and trial) YouTube Kids as it has been developed, and have been eager to see it launch today, the collective effort of sharp colleagues like +Shimrit Ben-Yair, +Pavni Diwanji, +Jonathan Terleski and many more. As they wrote in today's blog post, the new YouTube Kids is "the first Google product built from the ground up with little ones in mind." As a dad of three kids six and under, two of whom who read fairly well and a third just trying to keep up, it's exciting to see them become the focal point for an entirely new interface.

The YouTube Kids Music channel.

My children, from a young age, have been surrounded by touch-enabled tablets. They expect my laptop (and in the case of my Chromebook Pixel, accurately) to be touch-enabled. They use voice search constantly to find what they're looking for, and they essentially expect the world's content to be immediately available. But they tire quickly when apps and sites don't do what they want. That can result in complaints to me, or even a thrown tablet or two from a tantrum.

Without sounding too much like PR-speak, from my own experience, I've seen the YouTube Kids app to reduce any surprises from me in terms of what my kids are watching, they more easily navigate the app, find channels and shows they want, and generally are pleased to have something made just for them.

Browsing shows on YouTube Kids

If you haven't yet tried it out (download on Google Play or iTunes), the app features curated channels, a music area, a learning section, exploration, and the always handy search button. So the colors are bright, the buttons are bigger, and there's no noise in the way.

Browsing the PBS KIDS channel on YouTube Kids

The true measure of whether an app for kids is working is whether the kids ask for it by name, or keep using it instead of getting bored and trying something else. My four year old boy is quick to use the app on my Nexus 9 or Nexus 6, and the twin six year olds are quickly getting used to the new app after lots of their own experience on the standard YouTube app we've all used.

Searching for Minecraft on YouTube Kids

Lucky for us parents who do our best to stay on top of their digital explorations without trying to be overbearing, YouTube Kids makes searching less of a risk. My kids won't go from a G rated topic to an R rated one in a few clicks. Searching for Minecraft (which happens in my house) turns up solid results. And I can even set up the app to run for a certain amount of time before closing, to be used for incentives, or a late evening treat before bed.

Setting YouTube for Kids' timer for 30 minutes

At the risk of my once more vibrant blog to be turned into a daddy blog, the quick summary is that this app is a welcome addition to our tablets and phones. Netflix's Kids only channel is smart. YouTube Kids is smart. The next generation is growing up with smart devices everywhere. What they do with them is largely prodded by what we make possible. Thanks YouTube!

Disclosures: I work for Google, and YouTube is a Google subsidiary.

First class. Coach. Cargo. #parenting

/via My Google+ Profile.

4 Year Old Sarah Loves the Nexus 7

Quoting from today: "Daddy, you taught me how to use your tablet. You taught me everything I know."

She (and her twin brother, Matthew) are constantly talking to the tablet.

"Google, show me pictures of gorillas."
"Google, show me pictures of a blue lizard."
"Google, show me videos of a zebra."

Google Now is amazing, and this generation knows they can get anything in the world and go anywhere, if they just know what to ask.

/via My Google+ Profile.

Remember, Remember, the Month of November

Hey! Did you guys miss me?

As I wrote up about six weeks ago in my post Hey! Didn't You Use to be a Tech Blogger?, I've relaxed my typical always-on routine for the blog, spending much more time with Google+ (obviously), and keeping the occasional downtime I do have focused on something other than blogging. I still hear plenty of interesting tech news from startups and more established players, which in previous years I'd have stopped everything to write up, but given my more visible role at Google, and other priorities, for the most part I'm letting the rest of the tech world pick those up. But that doesn't mean I've got nothing to share.

In November, probably the most incredible story to tell is the one about how my car, which you may remember I bought from Robert Scoble back in 2009, and had just added personalized plates to last month, got completely wrecked, in my own driveway. While I told the full story on Google+ on November 7th, when it happened, the reality of it is still pretty nuts, and I've retold it several times.

I was watching the kids around 7:30 Monday night, getting ready to put them to bed, when I heard a shockingly loud boom from what I thought was the intersection near my house. I ran out the front door and found the accident was actually in my driveway. A massive boulder that had lined our walkway had been struck by a Toyota Tacoma, which popped it out of its cement foundation and launched it 15 or so feet into the air, where it came into full contact with my car, smashing the back left door, permanently bending the frame, and breaking in half. The Tacoma left skidmarks in my driveway, gashed the trunk and came to a rest against a tree bordering our property with the neighbors'. Amazingly, nobody was hurt, even though the driver's air bags had deployed.

Long story short, the police came by and handled him, while I dealt with insurance the next few days and weeks. Insurance did well, and actually paid me more to replace the car than I had paid to buy it. So I had the tow truck get my car, and I got a newer model of the same car with a new car, and won't end up paying much for the swap. Nobody was hurt, and I got a new car out of it, so I won't complain too much. That said, you have to see the pictures. It's crazy.

My Car, Mashed Up By a Big Rock, via a Vehicle Interloper

While I've spent a lot of time during the day in Mountain View, I get the great pleasure of coming home to increasingly amusing and amazing kids. Braden, the youngest of our three, has far surpassed the grub stage and is now walking up a storm, so we have no crawlers. While I could be wistful about passing one milestone, he is a delightful kid and I was more than happy to share a video I took of him walking last month. If kids are your thing, it's worth the minute to see.



In my time of keeping silent on the blog, I've opened up a Google Doc that has a list of ideas for posts that I'll get to quickly. There's been no push from corporate for me to be quieter here, and I've made that choice myself, but you'll see some interesting things pop up soon. Just wanted to share with you some of the lowlights and highlights from the last month. Braden waves at you.

Matthew and Sarah Turn Three Years Old

Excuse the temporary non-tech focus of this post - but yesterday marked the third birthday for Matthew and Sarah, Silicon Valley's favorite set of twins, who were pre-announced on this blog, arrived on June 20th, 2008, wore their unfair share of tech onesies from companies that have succeeded and failed, and celebrated two other birthdays in the interim. Last year, they even welcomed baby number three to the midst and have continued with their mostly upbeat spirits, inviting Braden as part of the family.

Living where we do, in Sunnyvale, just by 85 and 280, the twins live right between the headquarters of two of the world's most successful companies, Apple and Google. Some nights, we drive by Cupertino headquarters and point out all the Apple signs in their various colors... "Look daddy! Pink apple!" or we'll head the other way and have the kids play among the Android robots by Building 44 on the Google campus. The twins have mastered Netflix and YouTube on the iPad, and live in a world when they expect any show they want to be on demand immediately to any device. They refer to my 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab as "baby iPad", and the 10 inch Galaxy Tab as "robot iPad".

How deep is their tech immersion? I swear to you the only word Sarah can read is "Google", regardless of colors or font. She can read Google on a page, on a shirt, on a sign and on the Web. "Daddy! Google!"

So yes, two geeks destined for a life of electronics and gadgetry. Could be much worse. As for us, despite the occasional challenges presented by a houseful of little ones, I don't have (m)any complaints. They're delightful and funny, helpful and curious. At times, it seems we've had them in our lives forever, and other times, it seems there's no way they're already three. But they are. Next thing I know, they'll be in kindergarten, and we'll be on our way.

Happy Birthday (+1) to Matthew and Sarah.

Solving Privacy On the Web: Be Smart, Not Scared

When it comes to the amount of data I share about myself and my family on the Web, there's little question that I am at the odd end of the bell curve. It's not a secret what my family structure looks like. My kids' real names are out there to be discovered, as is my birthday, hometown, religion, political preference and much more. You can see real photos of me and my family if you search hard enough, and videos too.

I use Foursquare to share location data. I use Blippy to share purchase history, and I even use OneTrueFan to make my Web visits public. This hasn't been done with a reckless approach to privacy where I have thrown caution to the wind, but instead, has been more calculated. I believe the major trends on the Web encourage sharing, and if I can be the one sharing and not reacting, I am ahead of the game.

See CNN: The Internet and the 'End of Privacy' for their insight into my sharing behavior.

Some would look at what I choose to share and could suggest I feel that privacy is "dead". I don't believe this at all. What I do believe, however, is that intelligent sharing and knowledge of where personal data is distributed can bring value. Rather than take a more conservative approach, locking down what in other generations would be secret, I've opted to own what is shared, and to operate my life as if what I was not sharing explicitly would not be a disaster if it eventually were to be surfaced.

One needs to look no further than Facebook, the world's dominant social network, to see how the company's approach to privacy has changed in the last few years. Once a stalwart site prized for how it protected your content from prying eyes, more content has become public in practically each update. While some have suggested the best solution is to lock down one's profile, I have instead assumed the content will eventually become public and discoverable, shared to advertisers. This was one reason I downloaded an archive and self-hosted it, making the full copy available myself. (See: http://www.louisgray.com/facebook/)

But even with my level of publicness comes limits. I don't think it makes sense to chronicle the minutiae of my day through status updates. I don't muddy my main broadcast channels with location details, shopping updates or entertainment. I don't air embarrassing scenes with my wife or my kids. I don't post content of them that would be unflattering. And I try not to bore people with inane blather.

For me, the major reason I don't share some things is not because I am frightened my content will be used against me. After all, it took a simple e-mail account hack to get me fighting back on that front earlier this summer, and it wasn't tracked to my use of any of these sites. The major reason I don't overshare is because I believe it wouldn't add value and it would be boring to all who saw it.

In a conversation I recently had with a reporter from CNN.com, he asked if there were parts of my life I would be reticent to share if my transparency were further peeled back. The answer was essentially no. The trick is to live your life in a way that if your employer or future spouse were checking in on you, you would have nothing to fear. This doesn't mean you can't have a good time, but you should assume a consequence if your actions were to become public. Manage yourself well and what's discovered shouldn't turn an eye.

We live in a world with many imperfect people, and some really bad ones. That's no question. But I don't think being afraid to share and reducing the amount of personally identifiable information is the right approach. It makes more sense to assume the world is full of great people, cultivate the ones where this is known, and to be smart about what you share, and where you do. Watch the big networks to see if you think they are taking liberties with your data and prepare for the eventuality if they do.

Podcast: Talking Social Media Missteps, Family, and Android

Through my work with Paladin Advisors Group, one of the longest-running clients has been Emulex Corporation, a networking solutions provider focused on the convergence of Fibre Channel and Ethernet. One of the company's system engineers, Thomas Jones, has caught the social media bug in a big way, getting deep into blogging, Twitter and podcasting. You can find him at @niketown588 and http://www.niketown588.com. A week or so ago, he kindly took the time to talk with me in a wide-ranging conversation that covered not just social media tips and missteps, but blogging strategies, the ongoing debate of iPhone versus Android, and more personal questions, ranging from family to fantasy football.

This laid back, but content-rich podcast, can be found on his Web site in two 30-minute parts, or below in full. His soothing demeanor and friendly style make for good background listening if you want to hear about everything from Sonos to iPad, Mario Kart and TweetDeck.

The full content is below:

Braden Adds to the Gray Family to Make a Full House

As of Tuesday night, after 11 pm, we are officially outnumbered. My wife and I now get the opportunity to contend with three kids, the oldest pair being just over two years old, and the newest, starting his second day as I write. The expansion of the family continues the rapid rate of change brought on with our moving, joining my6sense, and setting other dominoes in motion. One person, in response to the many updates, even included my switch from iPhone to Android as a big move. I guess for any geek this is the case, but the addition of a new member of the family is a huge deal, much more than any operating system, office suite, or handheld.

Like Matthew and Sarah before him, Braden Thomas Gray (his full name) joined us four weeks ahead of schedule, deciding a little over 35 weeks of baking was enough. And as Sarah did in 2008, when the twins arrived, he will be spending a little more special time in the hospital as he gets needed attention.

As many parents know, the act of bringing a child into the world isn't always as beautiful as they show it in the movies. It's not always a few pushes, a cry, a smiling doctor, and a quick cuddle with mom as time of birth, weight and height are announced. It certainly hasn't been this way with us - and last night's experience was far from perfect, even if Braden's smile and fantastic skin show different through the pictures and short video I managed to escape with today. I'll save you the details, but we have had to measure our excitement with concern over the last 24-plus hours, and will keep watching until we get an all clear to take our newest guy home.

I enjoy a lot of things. I think I have more fun than most people. I enjoy interacting with all of you here and in the various places we find each other. I think I listen to more fun music than most people, and I have to self-censor constantly just so I don't ramble on like a comedian who has had a few too many drinks. But nothing has been more fantastic than raising Matthew and Sarah and watching them develop, sometimes slowly, and other times, extremely fast. They are a joy. Braden is here now, and even though I have never held him, or even touched him, he's already part of our family, and has a place.

With his rapid arrival, we're not fully ready. We don't have a car ready for three car seats, one facing backward, and two facing forward (as dictated by law). We don't have a dresser in Braden's room, and haven't found more than two newborn baby boy outfits in our garage, even though we know they are out there from when we did this just over two years ago. But Braden says he's ready, and after a rough start Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, he was looking me in the eyes through the incubator's plastic today, as he took deliberate breaths and balled his fists.


Braden's first YouTube Video

Coming on the back of late Monday's news, you would think I wanted to get everything out of the way in one week, but it's not true. Parenting is not something you get to draw up and then execute against. It takes permanent flexibility, and I look forward to the chance to bring Braden home soon and see just how much flexibility it takes to tangle with a newborn and two two year olds.

Who Cares About LeBron? Drew Is Cancer Free!

Drew Wins Again. Eat It, Cancer.

Tonight, as former Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James was making his announcement on ESPN that he was headed to play hoops for the Miami Heat, I like many other people, had the TV on to see what he would say. But I had the set on mute, as I was on the phone with my good friend Drew Olanoff, who got better news today than any Miami Heat fan. After a serious scare that had his friends and family worried he was setting up for a second round to fight cancer, he got a call today giving him the all clear, meaning instead of months of chemo, nausea, fatigue and worry, he gained a reprieve.

This is pretty much the best news of the year for me. (With the potential exception of our announcing baby #3 of course)

While I may at times seem detached and automated, and focused on tech, and while many people aren't seeing the real, true, social connections that can happen from the more virtual concepts of networks, "friends" and connections, I can verify they are real, with Drew being among the most clear connections I have gained from this Web experience. Despite our differences, Drew makes sense to me, and he is a close friend of my entire family, and hopefully, I am to his.

I've talked to you about his challenge with Hodgkin's Lymphoma that consumed much of his 2009. I told you about his starting a new phenomenon called BlameDrew'sCancer, which later morphed to BlameCancer, when he first kicked cancer to the curb. And in recent weeks, we morbidly talked about having to start a new domain name of blamedrewscanceragain.com and preparing for a much tougher fight. I had mentally resigned myself to the expectation that cancer was going to challenge him again, and that a fight was inevitable. I know he did too.

But today, on top of all the other news out there, from global issues, to jury verdicts and choices of well-paid basketball icons, there was really only one piece of news that mattered. A friend of mine and to the tech community at large is going to be with us, at full strength. The Web needs Drew, and so does my family. So cancer, please go away and don't come back. We're done with you.

The iPad is the New Electronic Babysitter 2.0

The television has long been referred to as an electronic babysitter for busy parents, or their lazy, less-involved counterparts. Rather than designing interactive projects for their children, it's far easier to flip a switch to the tube and see the kids' faces go blank, but planted in one spot, for hours at a time. Be it children's cartoons, Disney movies or PBS, it's practically a time-honored tradition. In our home, the TV stays off, and the iPads come on, performing a similar function, but with an added twist, where the kids are interacting with the device, selecting programs, or browsing YouTube with their short attention spans and curious minds.

When I purchased the two iPads in our home, the theory was that one of the devices was for me, and the other was for my wife, to be shared with Matthew and Sarah, our twins who turned two years old near the end of June. But the truth is that I am almost exclusively still on the MacBook Air (or the HTC EVO) and use the iPad sporadically. But for my kids, it's practically an obsession. Both kids know how to say "Apple" and can ask for the iPads by name. They will even point to the door to our room, where they know they are stored (and charging) and ask us to go get them.



Matthew Shows His Sports Acumen on the iPad

As my kids have grown up around iPhones, they have practically been raised around touch screen interfaces, and they took to the iPads almost immediately. Matthew and Sarah both play the many sports games on the devices, including an array from Skyworks, ranging from bowling, soccer, baseball, and basketball, to the time-honored Skee-ball. If the game has a ball and consists of you flicking from one side of the screen to the other, they've pretty much got it nailed. And over time, I have seen them learn their favorite applications, and watch them navigate dialog boxes and go from screen to screen to start new parts of the app, or exit to a new one.

In addition to the simple games, Matthew and Sarah both enjoy an application called Doodle Buddy, which lets them essentially fingerpaint on the device, use stamps for frequently-used graphics, from dogs and cats to trees and emoticons.



Matthew and Sarah Get Early Access to iPads

Also, I can't underestimate the pervasiveness of YouTube in our home, now that the iPads have brought the world's amateur video network to be one click away on the iPads. Now it's a common scene to see Sarah in her PJs, sippy cup to one side and snack trap to the other, filled with Cheerios, intently choosing from her YouTube history to watch animals and people in all manner of antics. Sure enough, we get our fair share of annoying theme songs stuck in our head, but unlike the TV, the videos don't last 30 minutes and aren't interrupted by blatant advertising.

As a parent, there are a few changes I would like to make to the iPad in terms of how my kids have access to the device. I would like to have a setting which requires a password to delete applications from the device, or to move them off the dock or around the screen. I've come home to find my Dock empty, and apps in new places, or apps vanish, requiring me to download them again. And I would also like to set a volume maximum so even if Sarah swipes from left to right on her favorite YouTube video, that it's not blaring. I'd love to disable the home button to make the iPad more of a kiosk. And yes, if either of them bump into content that's not my favorite, it would be good to add a specific video or video publisher to a "Don't show again" list, so they don't get rediscovered.

Unlike televisions, the iPads are also light and portable, and can go from room to room or place to place. So while we haven't exercised this option too frequently, we could have the kids watching YouTube in their car seats while tapping into my WiFi hotspot from the front seat. We can even hand each kid an iPad and send them to different rooms if conflicts arrive. And while the Internet is a big place indeed, the kids' ability to point and click keeps them much further away from the darker corners than once they learn the ability to type and search for keywords, so we're in a pretty safe place today, one filled with silly songs, sports, animals and video after video of giggling babies.

I guess that in our home it was pretty much guaranteed our kids would be gadget freaks at a young age. I promise they're getting their share of traditional learning with real hardbound books, blocks, and the usual array of cars, trucks and balls of all kinds, but you throw iPads into the mix, and it opens up a new world that has our TV remaining off. It's a fantastic market segment for Apple that no other manufacturer can match for a combination of ease of use and realm of possibility.

Gray Family Set To Expand This Fall With One More

It's a Boy! (The Latest Gray Family Member)

A little over two years ago, I shared with you the news that my wife and I were expecting twins, a boy and a girl, to add to our family. At the time, I referred to this as an expansion plan with 2 new hires. On June 20th of 2008, the twins, Matthew and Sarah, arrived and doubled our family overnight, from two to four. They turned a year old in June of last year, and are rapidly approaching their two-year mark. Now, while the family doesn't have yet another set of multiples to announce, I can let you in on the well-kept secret that we're adding one more to the brood this fall, and it's going to be a boy.

Should all go well, we anticipate adding the thus-far unnamed youngster to the family in the middle or latter half of September 2010, which sets us up with the unenviable position of two two-year-olds and a newborn causing havoc in our home by the end of the year. Pile that on top of all our other activities, and I think we're up for another round of exciting challenges.

When I first told people we were pregnant with Matthew and Sarah, a lot of folks thought you would see dramatic change here, that I couldn't keep pace on the blog and all other social media. But we made the twins part of the story, and have tried not to let our additional duties as parents get in the way of everything else. But the addition of a third child will most definitely bring change. The biggest change? Well, I don't see how we're all going to fit in our two bedroom, two bathroom condo. So that means the family will have to move up and out, and somehow get the opportunity to try and sell this place while finding a bigger home for our growing brood. Many have come before us and managed, so we have no doubt that we will also.




As Kristine, my wife, has successfully maneuvered her way through the first trimester, and all tests thus far have come back safe, it's time to share with you, and we look forward to more updates as the date draws closer. (This gives you six months to get on the schwag bandwagon...)

And yes, since we're geeks, we know "there's an app for that" too. We've been tracking this pregnancy with the iPregnancy app on the iPhone. It's been fun to see the days count up, and run through potential names. We have our favorites - and aren't closed to suggestions. So fire them up in the comments. What do you think? Twitter Gray? Does that work?

For Many Families, Facebook Is The Real World Web

Facebook is huge in practically every way measurable. The site sports more than 400 million active users, and just passed Yahoo! for the 2nd most trafficked site on the Web, made even more impressive by the number of hours each active user on the site spends using the platform each month. The company's Facebook Connect product is setting itself up as a challenger to represent your identity online, and many anticipate the company taking on PayPal or other products for online transactions. But even more than the raw numbers, the impact Facebook has, from sharing, to members' gestures, to the act of friending and unfriending, cannot be overstated. For while many of us digerati get all atwitter about newer, shinier objects, the mainstream Web has made Facebook their central gathering place to talk with casual friends, family members, and even talk business. Now, activities online affect those offline, and offline events directly impact a response on Facebook.

Offline Impacts Online. Online Impacts Offline.

About a year ago, I said Facebook's success made it the social media prism and translator, by which all newer tools could be described. But as the site adds functionality and sheer mass, it's possible that could render many of its potential challengers irrelevant.

Even as I try service after service, or single-use products, those in my family who have made the Web less of a central point in their lives have taken to Facebook in a way unseen with any other product. While my family has generally been among the faster to adopt other platforms, like e-mail, or even blogging, Facebook has become the central point where messages are sent, photos are shared, updates are given, and offline relationships are mirrored. Now, rather than making phone calls to see how everyone is doing, it can be a lot easier to check one's Facebook status, read their Wall, and see what other friends of theirs are saying. And when we do meet face to face, we can reference what we've seen on Facebook, instead of starting with an empty slate.

Facebook Connect for All Platforms

As with most families, ours occasionally has bumps. Marriages show cracks, and siblings fight, just like any other unit. When one couple was rumored to be talking of splitting, it became even more official when the in-law unfriended all of the other's siblings and relatives, making a clean break. When friend requests came from the crazy aunt who had ridiculous political leanings, it was declined. And people internally squabble about why one sibling's photos get a ton of comments, but another's don't.

I have seen and heard many similar conversations in families everywhere. What seems to be happening, as Facebook becomes THE default social network, where people are expected to be connected, and always listening, is that other sites become utilities for specific functions. Google is used as a search utility. Yahoo! becomes a news site or finance hub. ESPN is for sports. But Facebook has become that go-to site that absorbs what many other sites used to. It has become the platform for sharing photos, the platform for messaging, the platform for casual games, and personal connections. Its continued growth and visibility reinforces this position, as over time, the Facebook hold outs join up and get connected.

I may prefer Google Buzz and FriendFeed and Twitter and SmugMug and all these other best-of-breed sites for their specific use cases, but thus far, I haven't been able to convert the family to converge with me there. Facebook is rapidly becoming the Web platform with external services feeding in, and it feeding out. It becomes the conduit, but also the destination.

How Facebook's News Feed Failed Me (And My Family)

As more and more people are turning to social networks to share their information, practically all of us are connecting to an ever-increasing number of people, and for the most part, we are updating more frequently, and sharing content from different sources in multiple places. The resulting increase in velocity, often termed noise, has led to practically all tools to try and assist us to find the "most relevant" data, or the "best" information, based either on activity from others in our social graph, or through our own past activity. Sometimes, this works very well, helping to make signal out of the noise. And on other occasions, it can dramatically miss the stated goal, and actually make things worse. This week, Facebook's latest enhancements appear to have had a serious negative impact on me (and my family).

As you likely already know, Facebook has been working on a slew of changes to its "news feed", the main column on the site that alerts you to friends' activity. The social network implemented "real time" updates to show you when new entries were posted, and very recently divided the feed into two parts - a "Live Feed" for all updates as they occurred, with the newest on top, and a "News Feed", ostensibly from those who I engage with most often, or for "hot" content - presumably measured through interaction. This is a similar approach taken to FriendFeed's "best of day", PostRank's work on RSS feeds, and Google Reader's new feature, "Magic".

This weekend was a busy one for me, one where I was less connected to the computer than usual. As a result, I checked in to Facebook only a handful of times. Glancing at the News Feed on Saturday, nothing particularly stood out. The same held true on Sunday. I was greeted with updates from friends like Jason Goldberg and Chris Saad, both solid tech entrepreneurs. I also saw notes from Robert Scoble and a handful of connections that originated on FriendFeed. Still, nothing amazing to report.



But after 11 p.m. Sunday night, I saw a friend from high school make a mundane update, saying he had a good weekend, one he would cap off with a round of "Anno 1404." Turns out that's a city-building game, like Sim City. No big deal. I clicked through to his wall to see if he hinted at the good weekend. At the top of his wall, I saw something truly interesting. A simple update, his wall said, "Don likes Malinda Gray's photo." Malinda is my 23-year-old sister. Why would he be looking at her photos? And what photo?

I clicked through, and to my surprise found out that my other sister, 28, had given birth to a new baby boy, her first, making me an uncle. Wow! After more investigation, I found that my sister, as well as my mom, and also the mother of the child, had made posts on Facebook throughout the day Sunday on the progress of the labor, and how things had gone. I also found out that my sister had actually gone into labor and started that process around noon on Saturday - the previous day, and that I had absolutely no clue.

How could I have missed it, considering they had been updating Facebook regularly, and amassing a good share of comments and likes with each update? Well, apparently, Facebook didn't figure out that this update stream was relevant to me. It didn't realize and start sending - with alarm bells - that Louis's sister was having a baby. It didn't realize that photos from my sister, both of them, of a new baby, and the hospital just prior, were more important, than a random "OH" via Twitter from Chris.

Facebook's filter failed me. While, yes, I could have clicked on each of my individual family members' profiles at any point over the prior 24 hours, or yes, I should maybe make a Family-only list and make sure to visit it regularly, I've so far trusted the network to do a good job at gauging relevancy. Yes, it's true that I interact more often with Jason Goldberg or Johnny Worthington on Facebook than I do with my own family, but in this case, the News Feed hid the only truly relevant thing that was going on this weekend, and we missed it.

I explain further in the below video:

Matthew and Sarah Turn One Year Old! (12 Months of Photos)

One of the Earliest Pictures from Stanford Hospital A Year Ago

Exactly one year ago at this moment, my wife and I were at the Stanford University hospital in Palo Alto. She was in labor, and the two of us were eagerly awaiting the arrival of our twin boy and girl. We didn't know what they looked like. We didn't even know what we were to name them, and we didn't really know how much our lives would change. We didn't have a crystal ball into their budding personalities, and we never imagined how much fun we would have once they joined our family.

On June 20th of 2008, Matthew David Gray and Sarah Elizabeth Gray joined our family. We share with you some of the highlights in pictures. Even for those of you who follow us closely on other networks, some of these photos are new - having never been posted to the Web. Scroll down just to watch the kids grow before your eyes. You can catch more on Matthew and Sarah by following our Smugmug account or The Gray Effect.

Thank you for being part of our extended family and community.

June 2008

My Tweet that night, alerting the world we were on our way.
(Discussed on Friendfeed)


Matthew and Sarah debuted on June 20th, but were quite small. Sarah stayed at the hospital another week, as she worked hard to grow.



July 2008

Once we got the twins home, it was remarkable how small they were.



August 2008

By August, they grew used to being part of our family.

September 2008

In September, many evenings were spent with me, as my wife attended her masters' program.

October 2008


By October, though still small, the kids' facial expressions became very clear.

November 2008



By November, the two were playing along with our Schwag Magnets routine, sporting Web 2.0 logos which previously couldn't fit at all.

December 2008




December saw Matthew and Sarah grow more curious about the world around them.

January 2009


The two spend practically every waking (and sleeping) moment together.


February 2009


As the twins grow, they present quite an armful.

March 2009



One thing we never expected was how happy and upbeat Matthew and Sarah both are. The times they cry or get frustrated are far outweighed by their smiles and shouts of glee.

April 2009

The two tag along with my wife to CostCo.

Sarah exults at a friend's party. (Photo by Rachel Fox)


May 2009

Matching clothes are too tempting for the boy/girl twin set.


June 2009

As the twins grow, they get more inventive about boundaries.


The pair relax together on Robert Scoble's recliner.

Yesterday

Flying down to San Diego for a cousin's wedding, the two prepare in the airport.
Anybody who has ever been a parent knows the perfect bond that can exist with children. That we were so blessed to get two amazing children at once is something that is indescribable. We are ecstatic every day, even during tough times. But there aren't that many, and we are looking forward to year number two!