http://www.softwaretime.com/wp When families and technology collide... Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:14:53 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en My friend Gary writes me just now: Right near the 'ice house' on Route 1 there is a bridge over the Hammonasset River.  Tonight around dusk I'm driving towards the bridge and see three boys sitting on the railing in bathing suits.  I figure they've been jumping into the river.  As ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/07/boys-being-boys/ Where are the Children?: "Of all the things that make me feel as though my time was in the past and I don't understand this world today, first on my list is the absence of children playing outdoors in suburban neighborhoods. "Here in Madison, I go for walks past 20 or 30 ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/07/where-are-the-children/ Has your Roomba been looking at you funny, or making threatening movements towards you? HUAR – Humans United Against Robots – was designed to educate and aware the citizenry of the world of the impending attack that computers and robots will put into effect against humans. HUAR is the collection ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/06/humans-united-against-robots/ "Something profound seems to be happening to the human brain," says Susan Greenfield, Oxford professor and head of the Royal Institution of Great Britian, "and what really worries me is that we could be sleepwalking into a new world of technology without even considering what it is doing to our ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/06/is-the-internet-making-us-stupid/ A 12-year-old girl spends too much time online, posts inappropriate pictures of herself, gets grounded, and then takes her dad to court... and wins!! The father's attorney says what every parent ought to know as common sense: "She's a child," Beaudoin told AFP. "At her age, children test their limits and it's ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/06/grounded-12-year-old-sues/ This cracked me up, and some of the "reviews" have some additional humor in them as well. Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House? Apparently a marketing stunt by Microsoft to promote their Home Server product. http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/05/mommy-why-is-there-a-server-in-the-house/ So I get an  email today from one of those friendly family members that likes to forward things on to everybody in his address book. name removed wrote: Hi All, Found this today and it seems to be pretty accurate. MSN does some sort of polling and checks gas prices every night. You ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/04/how-much-does-searching-for-cheaper-gas-cost-the-average-person/ I don't like bullies and if you ask me, the best way to deal with a bully that won't leave you alone is to punch them in the nose. That's why I like the story of Tanya Andersen and how she's successfully fought back the RIAA and now she's ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/04/riaa-litigious-bullies/ According to some experts, the mainstream media has been unfair to social networking sites like MySpace, and Facebook. School principles even send memos home, warning parents to beware of the dangers of the popular web hangouts that kids are increasingly spending time on. A handful of people who study these types of things ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/04/is-myspace-good-for-society/ Have you tested your kids’ to make sure that they are operating at the optimal download bit-rates in school? Parents, school administrators, and teachers can’t seem to effuse enough about the wonders of computers in education. They insist we need to have wired schools; otherwise, a lack of adequate computing resources ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/04/student-30-now-with-gigabit-ethernet-built-in/ Apparently not... supposedly...  At least not by creating a black hole here on Earth. My feeble little mind understands enough to create worry about some silly things. Take black holes for existence. My working layman's definition of a black hole is some entity that is so incredibly dense, that its gravity ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/04/can-one-bumbling-scientist-destroy-us-all/ There is disagreement over a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) study that makes a case that people are reading less and kids are in trouble as a result. The NEA study is ignoring online reading, according to Steven Johnson in his article Dawn of the Digital Natives. He contends, "if ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/03/are-computers-killing-reading-abilities/ I learned through Dr. Helen, that Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is being proposed for inclusion in the DSM-V. IAD has actually been proposed for inclusion as a psychiatric diagnosis in the next issue of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).Writing in the new issue of the American Journal of ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/03/internet-addiction-disorder/ I hope so. I'm working on it. Despite my infrequent posting here, I do enjoy blogging and want to be doing more of it. I have been sidetracked by a crazy work schedule as well as having to deal with some unpleasant life stuff. The good news is that the unpleasant ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/03/lame-posting-schedule-coming-to-an-end/ On a weekday morning, last week, I was waking up, still a bit groggy, when I heard my daughter excitedly calling her brother over to the window, saying something about "birds". It sounded like my son was unimpressed, but her enthusiasm was surprising for 6:45am. When I got out of bed ... http://www.softwaretime.com/wp/2008/02/simple-secret-to-improving-your-familys-well-being/