|
|
|
|
|
|
newsletternewsletter 293
Protect Your Kids from the Internet Protect Your Kids from the Internet Your high school kids and younger are trading their photos on the internet. If you are older than 30, you probably don’t have a clue about how common this is. Kids are trading their photos via the internet, myspace.com, and telephones. It is very common. Just to be clear, these are explicit photos. The practice is not limited to the “bad” kids. Many high achieving “good” kids take part. It has become a common right of passage for kids who are growing up. It’s all over the news. Take a look at these recent newspaper articles: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20081125-NEWS-81125022 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351171,00.html How do you protect and monitor your kids? Do you need to monitor your kids? It’s not for me to make recommendations about watching your kids. My two kids grew up with full access to the internet. I never monitored their watching habits. They grew up pretty well. As a matter of fact, one is now the CEO of pcAmerica. My kids were in their teens when the internet was just beginning to blossom. The internet always had “bad” things on it. My personal belief is that censorship is not a good thing. If my kids were in their teens now, I probably would not monitor their internet habits. I do know and do respect that many parents believe that their kids should not be allowed to have unmonitored access to the internet. Many parents do not allow their kids to have a computer in their room and have their kid’s computer in an open area. ...and retail and business owners need to be careful, too. You don’t want your employees going to inappropriate web sites within your retail operation. For those of you who are concerned, Net Nanny 6.0 is a great product. Net Nanny is a software program that prevents a computer user from accessing inappropriate web sites. It can also monitor IM (instant messenger) conversations. You can establish passwords, time limits, prevent or allow game playing, and even change settings from a remote location. Net Nanny can email you reports and alerts. Is your kid getting bullied? Net Nanny can sense the conversation. Do you own a retail store or small business? Your employees may be nothing more than big kids. Net Nanny can prevent your employees from viewing inappropriate sites. You may want your employees to have access to the internet to help customers with their buying needs. However, you may not want your employees to access their myspace.com or facebook.com pages during work time. Net Nanny is highly customizable. You can allow or disallow web sites for individuals or groups of individuals. Although I am not sure about how much censorship to place on teenage kids, I am pretty sure that my retail employees should not be surfing the web during work hours. PC Magazine (pcmag.com) rates Net Nanny very highly. Read the complete review at: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2335359,00.asp CyberPatrol is a Net Nanny competitor which may be a little more business oriented. Read the review of the highly rated CyberPatrol at: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2334004,00.asp Both products are each available for about $39.95. Multiuser and corporate versions of these products are available. You can visit their sites directly at http://www.netnanny.com/ or http://www.cyberpatrol.com/. Buying A $499 Laptop
Here are some features that you may want to examine when comparing laptops. You can purchase a laptop on sale for $499. That’s a great price. I just purchased a laptop for $1299. What’s the difference? Do you want Microsoft Vista? Most laptops found in retail stores come with Vista Home Premium installed. If you don’t want to use Vista, it could cost you an extra $50 or more to buy a laptop with Windows XP. Personally, I am fine with Windows Vista, but this XP option is still available from Dell and HP. Buy a laptop with 3 (or 4) GBs of RAM. When you are comparing laptops, make sure you get 3 GBs of RAM (or 2 GBs if you are using Windows XP instead of Windows Vista). The extra RAM will make your laptop significantly faster. How much does it weigh? Many laptops weight 6 or more pounds. That’s kind of heavy to walk around with or, bring on a plane. The weight is fine if your laptop will mainly sit on a desk. My $1299 laptop weighs between 4 and 5 pounds. That’s much better when traveling. What’s the screen size? The most popular laptops come with a 15.4 inch screen. That’s probably an ideal size for most users. However, my laptop has a 14.1 inch screen. I’m very happy with it. My eyes are used to the size. The smaller screen gives you a lighter laptop. If you need portability, the smaller screen is just fine. If your laptop sits on your desk and the extra pound or two does not bother you, go for the 15.4 inch screen. Larger screens are also available. A 17 inch laptop has an ideal screen. It’s great if you need a large screen and don’t plan on walking around with it. It’s kind of heavy to transport. Some laptops have 13.4 inch screens or smaller. The smaller screens are more portable. In my opinion, a 12 or 13 inch screen is too small for my eyes to get adjusted to. If you need a light weight laptop, examine the smaller screens at the store before buying one. Dell sells a popular 13 inch laptop. I think the screen is a little small for me, but it could suit your needs. One Year Warrantee. Most laptops comes with a one year warrantee. That’s fine for laptops under $1,000. If you purchase a $1,000 and above laptop, you may want to consider paying extra for a three year warrantee. Discrete vs. Integrated Graphics. A $499 laptop will come with an integrated graphics card. If you are doing some serious graphic work or playing games, you would want a more expensive laptop with a discrete graphics board (a graphic non-integrated graphic card). Pentium Dual Core. A $499 laptop may come with a slower processor (a dual core vs. a core 2 duo). It’s not bad at all, but if you want a faster laptop, you need to pay more for at least a core 2 duo. VGA Input. A less expensive laptop allows you to add only a VGA type monitor. If you want to attach a good monitor to your laptop, you need a DVI monitor port. Most laptops come with a keyboard and mouse port. Wireless Connection. Most laptops come with a wireless connection. The best and fastest connection in Wireless N. A less expensive laptop will come with Wireless G (as well as A and B). Wireless G is just fine. However, Wireless N will give you significantly better speed and connectivity. You can find some pretty nice $499 bargains out there. You should understand the difference between a $499 laptop and my preferred $1299 laptop. If you are using your laptop about 3 hours per week, that $499 laptop is a bargain. If you want the best, you need to spend more dollars.
|
Best
Buy, Staples, and lots of other retailers are selling $499 laptops.
Should you buy one?
|