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Limiting Kids' Computer Time?
Bibu asks: "As a parent of three, I have to spend a lot of effort to keep my kids away from the computer. Until now, we had a Linux box in which a little cron script would just shutdown the machine after half an hour, when the kids were using it. Does someone on Slashdot have a fancier solution? One that keeps track, controls the total time per user per day, and would warn the user of the upcoming deadline (e.g. in five minutes their time is up)? Since we just moved to Mac OS X, solutions for that platform are preferred."
I still am a kid. Lendrick is totally right; I just find ways around it... at one point my parents were using some crazy login alternative that tracked time like they do at cyber cafes, but I just dled slax (knoppix wouldn't have been bad either) and got all the time I wanted using that by editing the log files (they were plain text, just in the "administrator" account directory, so you couldn't get to them as any other Windows user)...
Kids will find a way. Trust me.
Even now, I'm 'limited' to 1 hour a day. I've been on just over 11 hours already...
Do I have a Social Life? Nope. Do I need one? Nope.
Just let your kids grow up nerds. It's good for them. Think of their future.
You're qualified to offer an opinion regardless. Being a parent doesn't escalate you to some grandious level of wisdom or insight. It means you are capable of combining sperm and egg. Congratulations on doing something dogs and hamsters can do, too.
It means you have actual experience parenting. Which means your opinion counts more than some armchair expert Slashdotter who still hasn't really grown up and thinks restrictions on his 'rights' of any kind is 'sooooooo unfaaairrr'...