Grandparents Using Skype to Keep Up with Family
In an interesting illustration of how technology is used to bring families together and keep people who may be geographically separate together in communication, the Kansas City Star published an article about how technology is embraced as a means for family cohesiveness. (more…)
Being Two-Faced (or even more) on the Internet
The Virtue of the Walled Garden
This post isn’t about deceit, it’s about creating walled gardens of individuality.
In the social internet, you are encouraged to be you, your name, yourself. But it might benefit us to be more cautious and adopt a feeling of being two-faced. Not to lie to your friends about who you are, but more to make sure to segregate your friends from your acquaintances.
Here’s my concern, see if you don’t share it with me: privacy on the internet is becoming more and more scarce as time moves forward. (more…)
For Me, A Last Nail In Dropbox’s Coffin
I wrote just last week about how not only was the Dropbox service compromised in theory through the changes in their Terms of Service but also with a series of scripts that could potentially quickly and easily access your Dropbox information (though granted it required local access to your machine). A recent mis-step occurred however, that has broken whatever confidence I had in the Dropbox service for anything but the public sharing of files.
What happened, and why does it concern anyone that isn’t just some geek that wants to share files on the internet?
Making Things Is Hard
The act of creation is hard. Coming up with either a new way of using an existing item or with a new thing to be used is exceedingly difficult. I expect that I will come back to this topic again, but for now, let me say that making stuff can be tough.
Why? There are a whole number of reasons. (more…)
Your Home Wi-Fi: Blessings and Dangers
Going wireless is fantastic. I love it and enjoy the benefits that it provides. Do I want to enjoy the sun out in the backyard? My wireless netbook can still connect and I can still work. Is it a pain to try to string cable to the downstairs apartment to be able to stream media to the entertainment station there? Wireless is the answer. How do I get more out of my smartphone when I am at home? The answer, once again is the signal coming from my Wi-Fi router.
These are the miracles of our age, these little ways that we can stay connected to our friends, family and news and information sources. There’s no doubt that Wi-Fi is a great convenience, but it can make your home network more vulnerable if you’re not following a few simple steps. (more…)
Don’t Give In To The Monkey Brain
It’s easy, when you’re going through a difficult time, to fall into a deep, dark spiral of thinking that ends up feeding on itself with more and more depressing thoughts, fears and anxieties. That nattering chatter that won’t let up and pushes itself unbidden on your thoughts is something that I like to call the monkey brain.
It’s a plague and a problem, when you have to deal with not only the real troubles that you are going through, but also this unwanted chattering monkey in your head.
But I have found something that helps, and if it helps me, I like to think that it could help you too. (more…)
New Dropbox Vulnerability
According to an article on BetaNews, a new tool (in the shape of a series of Python programming language scripts) called “Dropbox Reader” can delve deeply into the data about your Dropbox account (more…)
6 Ways Cheap Fiber Access Helps You
The big news in the ISP market last week may have escaped you. After all, who really pays attention to the doings of monopolies when the trend is to pay more for less service? However, there are some small players that are shaking things up, and last week there was a distant rumble. (more…)
Great Games for Your Kids This Summer
It’s summertime and the living is easy. But Jimmy and Sally are out of school and looking for mischief, and it’s darned hot outside and gee, mom, can’t we just play inside for a while? (more…)