Lower your geek radar detector. You got me. I am a tech blogger. I also have a degree in library science. Guilty as charged, just put me on a cell block with wireless and a supply of graphic novels.

I am a librarian who is really okay with wikis. Would I accept every entry in one as gospel? No, but questioning is good in print, too. I believe wikis are, by and large, a decent starting point for further research, like any encyclopedia. If you're writing your doctoral thesis using only wikis, we seriously need to talk. Now.

Wikis, online open encyclopedias, I can deal with. The Kids Open Dictionary Builder makes me fear the future, and not because of all the talking monkeys and flying robots, either. Yes, I said The Kids Open Dictionary Builder, and I typed it just as the name appears on the Creative Commons blog. The blogger there typed it as it appears on the project's home page. Grammatical structure is not the writing skill that comes to me most naturally, but, guys, when you're educators pushing an open dictionary, it is comforting to see the name punctuated correctly.

Kids get computers. It seems like they take to them almost immediately, once they are big enough to be able to control a mouse. But what about kids that aren't yet big enough? I know both of my boys wanted to bang away on the keyboard from a very young age.

Rather than opening a Word document and setting the font to a huge size, why not run a program that is specifically created for young children? Well, that's what Scot Hanselman must have thought when he decided to create Baby Smash.

Baby Smash is a simple Windows program that will lock out the special keys on the keyboard so that baby can't accidentally exit the program, and will then show colorful shapes with fun sound effects in response to baby's key presses, or more likely key mashes (and slams, and bangs, and mashes, etc.).

Scott is a well-known Windows development blogger who recently went to work for Microsoft. He's using the development of Baby Smash to teach Windows development concepts on his popular blog, ComputerZen.

Dino Run is an online flash-based time waster with a great classic arcade feel. You play the part of a small dinosaur, and you run. And run.

The premise of the game is that you are running from a "pyroclastic wall of doom", while trying to find power-ups like eggs, super eggs, bones, critters, birds, and plants. Each of these things help you in different ways, such as earning you DNA which allows you to evolve your dinosaur with additional abilities.

The wall of doom is actually a pretty novel way to introduce an extra level of suspense to the game. When you're well ahead of it, you don't really have any indicator just how far ahead you are. So while you have time to slow down and attempt to get some of the more powerful power-ups, every moment that you waste feels like an eternity. When the wall of doom catches up to you, the screen darkens and it starts to envelop you like a wave. You can actually continue to play as it covers over you, so much so that you can't even see your dinosaur, and it's possible to run your way out of trouble. In fact, if you do this, you actually earn risk points.

The graphics and music are all deliciously reminiscent of 8-bit gaming days of yore. Dino Run is what I wish my Commodore 64 games were like.

Totem Destroyer is a fun little Flash-based physics game that is one part Indiana Jones, and one part Jenga.

The game play is simple; click on blocks to destroy them, while ensuring that the golden idol never touches the ground. There are three types of blocks: brown, green, and black. The brown ones are regular blocks and can be destroyed. The green ones are both bouncier than the brown ones, and have less friction, and they too can be destroyed. The black ones cannot be destroyed.

Each level starts with the idol balanced precariously on a stack of blocks, and your goal is to destroy the prescribed number of blocks without breaking the idol. There are 25 levels of mostly increasing difficulty, so this time waster should last you through your coffee break and part of your lunch break.

If you have a lot of studying to do, StudyProf FlashCards might be the buddy you've been looking for. The program, which has a free trial version available, allows you to create flashcards in a relatively simple environment. Give your card a title and an image or audio then virtually flip the card and place the information you are trying to learn on the back.

After making a set of cards you can file them in your card box and retrieve them and replay them, slideshow style with simple mouse clicks.

If you are studying something specific, StudyProf creators, Felling Software Development, has also created the Flashcard Archive to make it easier to download precreated sets of flashcards (though only the English to German flashcards are currently available).

Studying is never a lot of fun, but at least if your typing is better than your handwriting StudyProf gives you an alternative method to get the job done.

[Via download.com]

There is a battle for the hearts and wallets souls of our young surfing children on the interwebs. Parents are obviously concerned about the appropriateness of the world wide web being a kid's playground, so are looking for suitable controls to help them feel their children are protected online.

We looked at 2 kids browsers, Glubble and Kidzui, and gave them a test spin as well as subjected them to an unscientific kid focus group. Check out our results after the jump.

ZAC (Zone for Autistic Children) is a Windows-only web browser designed specifically for children with autism (and other developmental disorders). The browser acts like a sandbox to isolate the children from things like Youtube, lolcats, and NSFW content, while providing access to educational games and resources that are particularly helpful.

ZAC has 5 main sections. It opens with a comforting, screensaver-like aquarium complete with fish, coral, and bubbles. There is a television section that lets the child select from video clips that come from Disney, Sesame Street, Pink Panther, etc.

The games section has a wide array of interactive (and mostly educational) games like Artbot Jr. where we were able to make a dazzling colored picture of a princess. A music area allows children to do things like play virtual instruments and listen to Wiggles songs. A story section rounds out the browser where children can listen to a birdie read nursery rhymes (with interaction) or make a lemonade stand with Elmo.

The ZAC browser is available as a Windows installer or a Windows .exe that requires no install (good for a portable drive).

[Via NPR Bryant Park Project]

Google for educators is a landing spot for classroom resources that incorporate Google products like Google Earth, SketchUp, Maps, and Sky. The site offers everything from simple links to the aforementioned products, to classroom activities for various K-12 grade levels.

There are downloadable PDF posters covering Google search tips for kids, Google Scholar, Book Search, and Google Earth, and there are activities that utilize various media like PDFs, wikis, podcasts, and websites. These activities are organized by grade level: K-5, 6-12, and "all levels."

The Google for educators site also links to their "teacher community" which is a Google group filled with threads about using the many Google offerings in a school classroom.

Doozla is a drawing application (Mac OS X only) designed for children from Plasq, the geniuses behind Skitch and Comic Life. There are 4 main ways to use Doozla: free drawing on a plain white background, drawing on a webcam capture, drawing on one of the included background pictures, and coloring-book mode.

The interface is fullscreen and child friendly since it provides large icons and a simple feature set. There are standard tools like a color chooser, eraser, paint bucket, and ellipse tool, and clicking any of the tools triggers a jolly voice to vocalize the name of the tool or color that was chosen.

Unfortunately Doozla only saves drawings in .doozla files (not .jpgs, .gifs, etc.), so it's not very easy to share creations. However, you can print the drawing to a standard printer or to a PDF.

Doozla costs $24.95, but a 30-day trial is available.

Parents know there are plenty of Web sites where children can waste time hone their fine motor skills playing games. But what about sites that actually teach kids something? They're out there, and here's proof.

Spelling City caught our eye because it's a nice departure from the typical shrill, flashy Web sites and doesn't rely on talking iguanas or silly voice-overs. It's got a bunch of different ways for kids to test their spelling chops, including interactive games, printables, and a tool that speaks any words kids are unsure how to pronounce. Spelling City has more than 25,000 words in its database but visitors can also create and save word lists of their own. C-O-O-L.

Timez Attack is one of the best free downloadable math games we've seen. A cross between Quake (without the violence) and Myst, players must solve multiplication equations to defeat monsters and get around the cave. Since most of us around here have already mastered our times tables, we tested the game on three kids, who declare it "awesome."

Starfall is a popular Web site for new or struggling readers. It uses Flash-based movies and interactive games to help kids learn phonics, vowel sounds, and other reading basics. In addition to word recognition, Starfall also teaches kids to read with tone, inflection, and expression.

Since there are about 70 gajillion educational sites out there, it was hard to narrow it down to only three. Parents, what are some of your favorites?

What do Linux gaming, jumbo shrimp, and government intelligence have in common with each other? Think back to your English classes. (We're not responsible for any traumatic memories that surface from this exercise.) Got it yet? Anyone?

Oxymorons. No, no, wait, we're not insulting you. Those little phrases are all oxymorons. If the memories of your English classes were too painful to bear, the quick and dirty explanation of an oxymoron is two words placed together to describe something that seemingly contradict each other.

We're reasonably sure you see the oxymoron in jumbo shrimp, and government intelligence. Linux gaming? Well, we guess it all depends on how you define Linux... and gaming.

A job posting on Gamasutra suggests Amazon will soon start a PC game download store to compliment Unbox, its video-on-demand service, and the site's MP3 download store. The job posting asks programmer/engineers to apply to become a part of the Software and Video Games Digital Technology Team at Amazon, which is "responsible for digital distribution of software and video game products from the Amazon website, including the newly launched Amazon Software Download store."

The job posting itself is unsurprising as Amazon recently launched the software branch of its download services, but the job post includes the bit about the distribution of "video game products," which is currently not happening at the Amazon Software Download Store. The only software presently available from the very new service is unfortunately tax software.

But fear not! We're sure a few competent souls will apply, molding the new service into a very happy reality for those of us that hate visiting and supporting major retail stores like Best Buy and Circuit City.

[via Joystiq]

We were surprised to find an interesting time waster on the BBC's website, of all places. Microlife doesn't fall neatly into a game category. Essentially you play God, and control the lives of tiny microlife, which are single-cell organisms that move around slowly.

You feed them, and can train them to become warriors to defend their nest, but you have to be careful to keep an eye on your funds. Each microlife goes through a life cycle, starting as an infant, moving through middle age where it spends the majority of its time (and lays eggs if you're lucky) then becomes elderly and ultimately dies. Illnesses can also befall your little critters, so ensuring that they stay healthy is also your responsibility.

In the early levels you get to try your hand at raising little microlife without having to worry about the evil Catchers, but later on these predators come looking for a snack, so you have to make sure to have Warriors trained up to fend them off.

Microlife is well designed to slowly introduce new game concepts as the levels progress, and keep you addicted. This time waster can eat up an hour easily, so consider yourself warned before you click. But you're going to anyway, aren't you? You know you are.

Toonlet is a free web based comic strip creator that allows you to create a comic strip starring a cartoon person or persons that you design yourself and then send your finished strip to friends.

In order to create your own strip you have to first create characters. The character builder on the site has a massive amount of body parts, hair, and clothing to choose from and unlike other similar character builders all of the parts can be adjusted in size as well as moved around. You're probably not going to make a character that looks exactly like you, but you can probably get pretty close.

Once you create an original version of your character you have the option to create additional version of the same character experiencing different emotions. For instance after we created "normal" Emily we went ahead and created a "surprised" Emily as well by changing the eyes and mouth on the current creation.