BD-032 - Basketball, Star Wars Exhibit, Data Backup Strategies

Spring is here! So begins the dull thump, thump, thump of driveway basketball. Also, Star Wars Exhibit review and online data backup tips. Read more

BD-030 - ADHD and the Decision to Medicate

Struggling to keep order in a house full of children. Read more

Remember the Milk

I recently discovered a task manager that is making me become more efficient with my horrible ‘to do’ list habits. Read more

How To Subscribe To A Podcast - Video Tutorial

Podcasts are a wonderful source of entertainment. Generally speaking, ordinary people like you and me decide they have something to share and publish it online for others to enjoy — for free! Community participation is what inspires podcasters to continue to publish content.

Podcasts come in audio and video formats, covering most every subject imaginable. If you haven’t done so, I suggest you take some time to explore the breadth of content and creativity out there.

To get you started, I recorded a brief video tutorial (7 min) explaining the basics of how to subscribe to a podcast. You’ll learn:

• The fancy buzzwords.
• Podcatching software to make subscribing and organizing easy.
• How to subscribe to any podcast.
• How to find RSS feed links you need.

I hope you find this useful. Enjoy!
-BD

Teach Your Children These Computer Ethics Tips

I saw this title in eWeek and groaned: Seven signs that your kid might be a hacker (Or how to tell if your kid might go to jail before getting into college.).

It’s pretty dopey and another example of how media picks up on buzz words and doesn’t know what they really mean. I wont bore you with the details of hacker vs phreaker, but it’s similar to the Trekkie vs Trekker argument.

What’s worse, I click through expecting an article about teens trading stolen credit card numbers or poking at secured servers. Instead it’s a ridiculous slide show of illustrations with dopey stereotypes like being a Star Trek fan.

So, I thought I’d share some useful advice instead. Here are Seven Tips:

• Teach your children right from wrong. Moral ambiguity and a sense of entitlement is why young people think it’s okay to trade music files and use Bit Torrents to download movies without paying. Support the artists when possible.
• Know what they’re doing online. Set limits. Have them explain what they’re doing and who they’re communicating with. Make agreements about what is acceptable. Enforce limits. It’s called parenting!
• Everything is traceable. Everything! Every Web site you visit has what’s called an IP address - a numeric representation of the site. Even the location you connect to the Internet from has an IP address. Every site you go to is logged somewhere, most likely by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or online services you use, like Google, which offers to keep a history of the pages you view, just like your Web browser. Even when you post a comment on a blog or forum, your IP address and other information is recorded. You can not absolutely cover your tracks.
• It is not acceptable to slander others online and think you can remain anonymous.
• It is not acceptable to trade the personally identifiable information of others for financial gain or bragging rights.
• Once you post information online, it’s out in the wild permanently. Content gets cached and stored on backup tapes, other servers or requoted/redistributed by other people online.
• It is not okay to sabotage someone’s computer system if you have a disagreement. When I was a teen, there were guys (yes, myself included) who stole apple pie slices from the fast food store we worked at because we thought we were entitled to it for the extra hours we put in. Now teens/twenty-somethings place logic bombs in payroll systems. Either way, it costs the employer money and potentially lost productivity.

Please share your thoughts.
Thanks.
-BD

Related Links:
What are your kids doing with the video camera?
Parental control software
Protect your privacy at home

Get School Lockdown Alerts By Email or Cell Phone

Last week was crazy here in New Jersey. Just two weeks into the new school year here were several school bomb threats and other shenanigans causing dozens of school closings and disrupting lives.

Check out this new service that I heard about on The Advertising Show podcast… it’s called LockdownAlert.com.

Lockdown Alert works with almost any pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, special education or vocational public school in the United States.

The next time there is an unplanned event at your child’s school, you will receive a text message alert or email directing you to a web page with full details and instructions.

You can sign up to receive these free school lockdown alerts by text message to your mobile phone or via email. They cover all grade levels, from Pre-K thru College/Universities.

I thought this makes sense to register. I’m a bit leary to give out my cell phone number to receive text messages. Instead, I registered with one of my secondary email addresses and used Gmail’s inbox filters to forward emails from that domain to my work email and my wife’s email address.

Related Links:
Help Locate a Missing Child - Register For Free Wireless Amber Alerts

P.S. Please share any tips or related Web sites and services. Thanks!

:-) is 25 yrs old. Blame this Guy…

It’s his fault. Yup. He started it all. Those little cutsie sideways facial expressions — emoticons.

That earned him an entry in Wikipedia and a story to pass down to his descendants.

Parent: “Children, gather around and let me tell you about the first emoticon. On September 19th, 1982, great great great grandpa Scott was typing on an online electronic bulletin board.”

Children gathered around the glow of the plasma screen wall: “What’s a bulletin board?”

Parent: “Well children, before there was telephathy and surface computing, humans actually had to press buttons with their fingers! And they developed these symbols to communicate feelings to each other.”

Children: “No way!” “Gross!”

:-)

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