In my previous post, “Setting Up Your Child’s First Computer,” I mentioned that you can configure your router to block your child’s computer from accessing the Internet.  I prefer this method over software-based methods because any software installed on your child’s computer can potentially be reconfigured by your child or one of their friends. 

Step 1:  Find Your Child’s Computer’s MAC Address

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Background

My 5-year-old daughter has always been fascinated with computers.  This is not surprising since she sees Mommy and Daddy on their computers every day.  When she was only three, we began making a game out of typing words that she was learning in pre-school, and soon she began picking out the letters of her name on the keyboard.  She would giggle for hours as we helped her identify the letters in words she knew and helped her type them on the screen.  She was typing her name like a pro long before she ever learned how to handwrite it.  Not long afterwards, I installed some age-appropriate games on my computer so she could begin developing her hand-eye coordination by operating the mouse to manipulate the characters in the game.  However, as her skills and enjoyment increased, so did her demand for time on MY machine (these demands always seemed to occur when I was in the middle of a website, photo, or video project.)  So, when I upgraded to a new desktop a few months ago, I knew that it was time for my little girl to take over my old one. Here are some of the issues I considered when setting up her computer:

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Most of the public has no idea that a political battle has been brewing in Washington over the idea of Net Neutrality:  the principle that your Internet Service Provider sells you unedited access to the internet.  No matter what site you visit, you get the same speed downloads from that site as you would any other.  However, in recent months, some of the big ISP’s (who also happen to be phone and cable companies) have announced plans to throttle your bandwidth when you use certain services (like voice-over-internet calls, or video downloads) from the web.  Needless to say, this exposes a major conflict of interest on the part of your ISP.

This video (from 2007), does an excellent job of explaining just what Net Neutrality is and what the current threats to our online freedoms are:

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The Onion News Network posted this funny gem about their view of the future of Appl’es Mac line:  the Macbook Wheel.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

As with most humor, it’s funny because it contains some real elements of truth.  Some of my favorite quotes include:

Everything is just a few hundred clicks away.”

I’ll buy almost anything if it’s shiny and made by Apple.”

…where people use computers for actual work and not just dicking around.”

Well, I’m posting from within the Beta version of Windows 7, the newest operating system from the folks up in Microsoft-land.  After waiting with the millions of others on Friday to get my hands on this thing, I ended up downloading on Sunday night.  To be perfectly honest, other than the delayed download, the worst part of the installation was finding a Virtual Machine software that I could use with Vista Home Premium x64.  My original plan was to use Parallels, since I use it on my XP laptop.  However, Parallels doesn’t work with 64-bit operating systems.  So then I tried Microsoft’s own Virtual PC.  However, Virtual PC does not work on the Home versions of Vista.  I finally ended up using a demo version of VMWare.

A quick word about the hardware:  I am running this instance of W7 in a virtual machine with one core and 2GB of RAM dedicated to the VM.  The physical box is an Intel Core 2 Quad-core 2.33 GHz with 6 GB RAM.

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Right on the heels of my diatribe about anti-Muslim bigotry comes this post (once again from God’s Politics! Yay Jim!)

I Love My Name (by Omar Al-Rikabi)

Two points in this article that are delivered with much more eloquence than my feeble attempts:

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