Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 17th Jan 2009 07:05 UTC
Using an Mini-ITX motherboard and some spare parts lying around my study, I was able to put together an extremely powerful internet filtering appliance that is not only powerful but fast, reliable, and darn near impossible to circumvent by computer savvy teens. Most parents do not want to bother becoming the internet police of the household but today's internet is a very hostile place with many different opportunities for trouble.
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
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Linked by David Adams on 05/16/13 4:23 UTC
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
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2008-11-06
Excellent article!
People who don't want to filter what their kids are exposed to also believe that you shouldn't discourage cursing, should allow kids to have sex at any age, or that kids don't need to learn how to speak properly. They are basically anarchists, which is the opposite of society.
Society is the implementation of filters that allows people to interact in a decent manner. The Internet is rather anarchist, and teaching kids that filters are important in every aspect of life is a responsibility that is too often avoided in modern society. This accounts for the high, high rates of STDs, teenage pregnancy, drugs, gangs, runaway kids, and later in life, malicious hackers, and unethical stockbrokers, real estate brokers, and bankers.
It would be great if this project is done with your kid (if old enough). Yes, they could learn how to circumvent it, but they would learn the value of filters and limits with you -- which is an invaluable lesson. They would also learn how people have the courage and tools to limit bad behavior in society. Fewer and fewer kids have parents who can teach their children that lesson in a constructive manner.
There are lots of similar filtering tools listed (such as IPCop and Smoothwall) as well as other parental controls (such as the usage monitor Timekpr), as well as system-wide usage monitors (OpenKiosk, for example) at
Kubuntu Guide (http://kubuntuguide.org)
and
Ubuntu Guide (http://ubuntuguide.org)