Husbands and Dads » Technology

Four Ways to Keep Your Family Media Safe

cory — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:30:15 +0000

Many fathers wonder how to keep their children safe from the influence of the media. We want our children to be protected from inappropriate material. How do we do that? Mary and Mike from Brudis and Brudette have some ideas:

I really like media. But, I also really hate all the garbage that’s so often mixed in with it. I think this is probably something that a lot of people struggle with – wanting to enjoy watching, listening and playing – but not wanting to expose ourselves or our families to, well, crap. Mike and I have some pretty solid ideas about how we handle this conundrum, so I thought I’d just share how we do things and some resources we use that might be of use to some of you out there in the blogosphere.

Movies at Home
Movies are definitely my favorite kind of media. Sometimes, all I want to do is just veg on the couch and pop in a movie. But I don’t want to hear any swearing, or see any sex, nudity, or too much violence. So that eliminates almost any non G-rated movie. Our solution? “ClearPlay,” one of our very favorite inventions. ClearPlay is a company that makes a DVD player that edits out all the crap, without editing the actual movie (hence it doesn’t infringe on copyright laws and is perfectly legal). The company doesn’t edit movies, they simply produce the filters that you use with the movies you buy or rent. We have our ClearPlay DVD player, and a “Filter Stick” (which is just a USB drive). All we have to do is periodically download the latest filters from the ClearPlay website, and we can watch practically any movie we want. Not only does it mute out swears, but it actually cuts out entire scenes that are inappropriate – and we can set the filtering to the level we want. So I can watch all my chick flicks that I love – but I don’t have to watch the sex scenes. We can watch a cool action movie with substantially less violence, etc. The DVD player was $60, and you do have to subscribe to be able to download the latest filters, but it’s only a few bucks a month. We got our player at Macey’s grocery store, but you can also check out their website: Clearplay.com.

At the Movies
Of course there’s no fix like that in the movie theater, and how do you know before you go to see a movie if there’s stuff you won’t like in it? Another great website – ScreenIt.com – is a great tool we use. You can look up any movie on ScreenIt and it will tell you exactly how much and what kind of profanity, violence, sex, scary scenes, etc. are in it, including movies that were just released in theaters. Before Mike and I will go see any movie (except G-rated ones), we check the website and see what it has in it. I think it’s easy to become desensitized to what’s in movies, but because of ClearPlay, Mike and I are actually SUPER sensitive to all the crap, since we never see/hear it. Because of that, if a movie has ANY profanity/sex, etc, in it, we we usually just wait until it comes out on DVD and watch it with ClearPlay. That usually means that we don’t see any PG-13 (and even some PG) movies in the theater, but we’ve learned patience, and usually don’t mind waiting.
*Note: if you go to the screenit.com website, it will look like you have to pay for the service. You don’t. Just scroll down to the very bottom and you’ll see a little “No Thanks” button – and you’ll go on to the website. You can pay a monthly fee – but that’s only to have access to info on brand new movies as soon as they come out. However, it usually only takes a week or so before the ‘new’ movies are available to non-paying visitors.

TV
We used to have a cool thing called TV Guardian that muted out profanity on tv shows as well as movies, but for some technical reason that Mike would be able to tell you, it doesn’t work with our current setup. So for TV shows that have stuff we don’t like in them, we usually do the same thing we do with movies – wait until they come out on DVD. Here again, ClearPlay is our best friend. They also do TV series! This waiting takes A LOT more patience though, since we have to wait for the series to end, THEN for it to come out on DVD. *sigh* For instance, we love “The Office,” but we only just barely saw the third season, since it just came out on DVD. We do still watch TV, but we mostly just watch ESPN (Mike), HGTV (Mary), Discovery and The History Channel. We also are occasionally American Idol junkies. If anyone can figure out a way to buy cable a la carte, as in just buying the channels you want, sign me up! We have a million channels we never watch and it feels like such a waste!

Internet
The internet has it’s own special kind of crap – called pornography – that is especially vile. Neither Mike nor I want pornography to be available in our home – regardless of whether or not we would actually look at it. We don’t even want the possibility. Our friend here is a program/website called K9 Web Protection. K9 is a free program that you can download that will protect your family from the majority of bad internet stuff. One person in the household (usually the wife/mother) has the password (yes, Mike doesn’t know our K9 password) and holds the power. With it I can block any website I want, any keywords I want, and make it so the internet can’t be accessed past a certain time without the password. That means that if I tried to look up anything with the word ‘sex’ (or a plethora of other words) in the search phrase or website address, a K9 screen will pop up (complete with barking sound) and tell me I can’t proceed. I can also see all the websites that have been visited (and they can’t be deleted by deleting history or anything else). I think this will be extra useful when we have older kids, but it also gives me a sense of security now. It’s so easy to think “That can’t happen to us” or “My husband would never do that.” Don’t give temptation the chance. That’s my theory anyway.

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The Web is Wide, Sometimes Too Wide

cory — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:58:22 +0000

The most powerful tool in your house is not in the garage, though my compound miter saw does rock. It’s sitting on your table in a few wafers of silicon. And just like that miter saw, you’ve got to make sure you’re using the Web with safety in mind. To a young person, the web is full of discovery and interaction. They’re able to let their friends know what song they’re listening to on MySpace while they meet a person in Tel Aviv who’s interested in their favorite hobby. The web can be a great resource, but there are also a lot of dark alleys where you can get into some pretty big trouble.

You’re not going to be able to control how your kids behave online 100% of the time, but just like in the real world you can give them the tools they need to make the right choices. Here’s five ways to make the web a safer place…

1.Talking Works Wonders: Here’s an old school way to share information, sit down and have a conversation. It still works great and is the best way to help your kids understand the internet, both good and bad. Nothing else that you’ll read past this point is nearly as important as having a good old fashion face-to-face with your kids. Here’s what you need to discuss in this 21st century version of, “the talk.”

Everyone Gets a Say: There’s all different points of view out there, some are good, some are bad, some are crazy and some are just plain made up. When your kids are online they’ll be exposed to all types of ideas so you will want to make sure you give them the tools to determine which ones are which. You may also want to use this time to help clarify your family’s values and why you believe what you do.

Never Talk to Strangers: That saying doesn’t work so much online, but the principle still holds true. Kid’s are trusting by nature, so educate them a little on the art of holding back. They don’t need to be giving away their home address, phone number, email, social, birthday, favorite color, you name it to anyone. Even if they THINK it will be okay.

Right and Wrong: Your kids already know right from wrong, but reiterate the basics of ethics, respect, etc. Most importantly you’ll need to hit on where indecent exposure falls into this category.

2.The Router is Your Friend: If you’ve got high speed internet and a router you can control what goes on in your home. With a few clicks you can choose when the internet is available, what sites can be visited and more. This is so easy that it doesn’t matter if you’re a computer genius or barely know how to turn on your monitor.

The most common brand of router, NetGear, has a site, routerlogin.net, which is where you’ll go to set up your controls (Note: make sure you’re plugged in to your router to do this). If you don’t have a NetGear router, don’t worry; they all have security features built in, just check the box or instructions about how to get started.

When you login to your router, here’s what you’ll want to set:

Update the Password: By default, most routers use admin and admin as the username and password. Change this right away so that someone from outside your home can’t hijack your system.

Set Up Some Type of Security: There’s more and more things that are going online in your house from the computer and printer to the PlayStation and Refrigerator. Set up a special key that that someone has to know to get onto your network. It’s called a WEP key and is very easy to set up. Most likely, you’re just preventing that cheap neighbor from using your internet for free. But you may also be preventing a bad guy from sneaking into your computer and stealing your credit card number too.

Control the Time: Just about every router out there has a parental feature that lets you control when the web is available. This means that you can let your kids get online from 8:00am – 9:00pm only and don’t need to worry about them checking out an inappropriate site at 3:00am.

Parental Controls: There’s also a ton of other parental controls in your router such as which sites are safe and which ones you want to blacklist. I’ve heard mixed reviews about these since they often cause far more problems with usability than they solve. Give them a shot and if they work, great, if not, there is parental software out there that can do a better job filtering the bad stuff off the web.

3.Get Vaccinated, for Free: If you’re reading this article, you’re online and should have some kind of virus software. Did you know it’s probably available to you for free?

Just about any internet provider (I have Road Runner) offers free spam, virus and spyware software built into your monthly price. It’s an easy way, to make sure you’re not going to have any scary computer virus, plus it’s free and there are not many deals that can beat that price! Check out your internet provider’s site for the specifics.

4.Keep an Eye Out for the Little Ones: Just like that miter saw, you don’t have to let your kids use the internet alone. There’s nothing wrong with a little parental supervision over their browsing history and what they’re up to. This can be as simple as checking out the sites they have visited to more complex software that tracks every single thing that your kids do on the whole computer.

An important part of this is communication. You need to decide if you want to let your kids know you may be monitoring what they are doing or keep in covert. I would recommend letting them know that you have that ability to see what they’re up to for two reasons. First, you may be able to prevent them from seeing something they don’t need to see. Secondly, it helps to build trust with your child. As long as they know why you are monitoring they’re likely to better accept the concept. If they only find out you’ve been spying on them after they’re caught, you may be creating deeper trust issues.

5.Make Friends with Your Kids: Did you know that you kid has a MySpace and/or Facebook page? Well the odds overwhelmingly suggest that they do. I’d recommend that you have one as well and become their friends. You’ll get a deeper understanding of your kids, their culture and what they’re thinking. You will also be able to make sure they haven’t posted the code to your security system to their page as well.

MySpace: You don’t need to register here and it’s the most popular social site for the teen crowd. If you’ve got a kid, they’ve got an account here.

Facebook: You’ll need to register to view member’s here. It’s also more popular with the later-teen and college crowd.

Twitter: Think of this as a mass instant message to anyone who cares to read it. Signup just takes a moment and you can then search and subscribe to your kids updates. Twitter has not yet caught on with younger kids, but it’s a good to keep an eye on this one since it’s so easy to use and works with cell phone text messages.

The web is wide, and getting wider every day, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be a safe place to work and play. The best thing you can do to keep the little ones safe online is to be involved. It goes back to point #1; talk about the internet over dinner and you’re going to be a lot less likely to talk about it in hot water.

Pete Dimaio is the author of TheRogueParent.com. You can read reviews of family products, parenting tips, and politics at his website.

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Create a Fun Family eBook at MyBabyOurBaby

Jeremy — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:13:59 +0000

Ray Hernandez, Co-Founder MyBabyOurBaby

MyBabyOurBaby.com allows parents to create a fun family eBook that friends and relatives can all help to build and write. I created an eBook for my son Ty shortly after the site launched, and I’ve enjoyed sharing photos and “firsts” with family members since then. I had a chance to talk with co-founder Ray Hernandez last week about the background and progress of the site since it’s launch earlier this year.

What is My Baby Our Baby? MyBabyOurBaby is a couple of different things. The most important thing that MyBabyOurBaby provides is a way for parents to archive and share their photos, memories, growth charts, and “firsts” with friends and family in a completely private environment. We also provide a social scrapbooking feature. Meaning that the friends and family you invite, can also have permission (you set your own permissions for people) to add photos or stories they may have collecting dust on their cameras or hard drives. So not only are you archiving memories, but your discovering new memories of your children that your friends and family have had with them and, possibly, not shared with you.

How did the concept for the site originate? When did the site launch? Me and Beau (Lebens – the other co-founder) are both in our late 20′s. All of our friends are getting married and having kids. Well, one-by-one we were being asked to design and build a website for our friend’s kids. We just realized that more people out there would probably be interested in a service like this. So we decided to take the initiative and just launch a full blown site for everyone. The site officially launched on February 14, 2008. It was a nice little Valentine’s present.

Does it cost users anything to sign-up or use the site? MyBabyOurBaby is completely free. We started off as a subscription-based service, but we just felt bad. We wanted people to be able to use our site with no obligations. So we switched our service to a free model. Under the free model you are allowed to upload 20 photos a month. And every month you get a fresh new 20. If you want to upload more than that, then we do have a premium service ($39.95 a year) that gives every person connected to your child the ability to upload an unlimited amount of photos. Other than unlimited uploads every other feature is completely free.

What are some of the cool things parents can do with the site? Can they take “books” they create and turn them into hard copies? You know how grandma is always yelling “Send me photos!” Well, if you invite grandma to MyBabyOurBaby, then she will instantly receive updates the second you post anything on the site. Friends and family can also comment on any story written about the child, if they are signed up. This is great when family members live in another city, state or country.

Hardcover books, prints, dvd archives…all of these things are in the works, and they will definitely be features in the near future. If you work for a company that handles any of these features please come talk to me.

I know that the site started out as a subscription service, then changed to offer the majority of features for free. How else has the site evolved over time? Actually, all of our features are FREE. We don’t hold back any of our features and never will. The only thing we charge for is to cover our costs of large amount of uploads and archiving of everything. Other than changing to a free model, we really haven’t changed anything since the launch. We’ve just been trying to listen to our members and give them what they want. Members can give us feedback in a forums section of the site or via e-mail.

Are you planning on adding any additional features or services in the future? What are you currently working on? I’m non-stop designing new themes/designs for you to choose from for your baby book. New features are an ever growing list that we have running. A few things we will have in the future: full hd video, importing from other photo/video sites, custom photo galleries, Facebook/MySpace apps, as well as cleaning up the design of the overall site.

You also have a blog attached to the site. How does this add value to the site/community? The blog is ever evolving. Before we launched, it was a way for people to see where were in development, but since the launch it’s become a place to share cool things I see that I hope parents might find interesting. I’m not sure where it’ll go in the future – I’m definitely open to ideas.

Any other cool things happening that you’d like to share? Well I just got married a few days ago. That’s pretty cool. So I’m a new husband and working on becoming a new dad. Hopefully soon I’ll have my own kid on MyBabyOurBaby.com.

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Ray Hernandez is Co-Founder and Creative Genius of MyBabyOurBaby.com. He is a web designer by day, and a new yet amazing husband by night. He just recently left Hawaii for Austin, Texas. He encourages people who sign-up and create an eBook for their child or family to provide him with feedback via e-mail at ray@mybabyourbaby.com or on Twitter: @raydawg88.

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Amazing New Ecofriendly Products of the Near Future

Jeremy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:20:26 +0000

Globalization combined with an increasing population has sparked a huge rise in the consumption of our natural resources. As time goes on, the need for businesses and manufacturers around the world to invent, create and produce more ecofriendly products is becoming more and more imperative.

The world population as of February 2008 was estimated to be 6.65 billion. By comparison, the world population in 1950 was believed to be 2.52 billion. Assuming the population continues to grow at a rate slightly higher than 1% per year, then the world population will exceed 9 billion by 2050.If the way and manner in which essential products are produced does not seriously change in the coming years, then consumers will be faced with a dilemma of scarcity, huge price increases and potential economic instability throughout the world.

Here are some examples of innovative ecofriendly products that could help conserve resources and meet the needs of consumers in a more sustainable manner:

The RoboScooter – is a lightweight, folding, electric motor scooter. It is designed to provide convenient, inexpensive mobility in urban areas while radically reducing the negative effects of extensive vehicle use – road congestion, excessive consumption of space for parking, traffic noise, air pollution, carbon emissions that exacerbate global warming, and energy use.

Gravity powered lamp – essentially, it works similar to an hourglass that captures the energy of a falling mass and uses it to output light equivalent to a 40-watt bulb. Imagine being the first person in the neighborhood to get one of these – it would certainly be a conversation starter at a dinner party.

Designer Clay Moulton acknowledges that the current state of the art isn’t sufficient to actually build the lamp. The news release should have said: “based on future developments in LED technology.”

The Air Cars – you’ve heard of running like the wind, but what about air powered cars? No, this company is not suggesting a wind powered vehicle, but rather using compressed air to power the engine and deliver comparable performance to current vehicles.

Here’s another link that describes a prototype being produced in India. The article says the car can go as fast as 68 mph with a range of 125 miles. All this with zero emissions.

The City Car - Stackable Electric Cars – electric two-passenger vehicle. The City car utilizes fully integrated in-wheel electric motors and suspension systems called, “Wheel Robots.” The wheel robots eliminate the need traditional drive train configurations like engine blocks, gear boxes, and differentials because they are self-contained, digitally controlled, and reconfigurable. Additionally, the wheel robot provides all wheel power and steering capable of 360 degrees of movement, thus allowing for Omni-directional movement. The vehicle can maneuver in tight urban spaces and park by sideways translation. This technology is patented-pending and under design development at the MIT Media Lab.

Body Heat Powered Devices – everything from cell phones to iPods could be powered by converting your body’s lost heat into energy. The conversion process would involve nanotechnology, and researchers at U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley are currently researching means of viable application. Just think – if you’re a big talker on the cell phone, it could be recharging from all the hot air as your speak!

Ecofriendly products and innovations will be essential to the future world economy.

Please feel free to share any leads you may have to cool new products that will help conserve resources or provide viable alternatives to existing needs.

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