Ask Slashdot: Keeping Your Media Library Safe From Kids?

Re:two choices by epyT-R · 2013-01-04 11:49 · Score: 5, Interesting

In trad slashdot style, I didn't read. Best way to do this is to keep R-rated stuff off the family tv's media playback device. Share them on a different share etc.

Permissions by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 11:49 · Score: 3, Interesting

How about just using Linux file permissions? Keep daddy's movies in his home folder, and have the XBMC under an unprivileged user.

Re:Permissions by Architect_sasyr · 2013-01-04 17:20 · Score: 1

Then what is the point of having XBMC for my movies?

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Me failed English...
FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...
Re:Permissions by jgrahn · 2013-01-04 18:48 · Score: 1

How about just using Linux file permissions? Keep daddy's movies in his home folder
Or better in a directory only readable to people in the "grownups" group.
Re:Permissions by gadget+junkie · 2013-01-06 00:13 · Score: 1

Truecrypt archive, in a folder where only you have the permission. Then again, if he can enter that, grownup or not, he'll land a job at the NSA, let alone watch X rated content on the internet.

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"If a boss demands loyalty, give him integrity. But if he demands integrity, give him loyalty." (John Boyd, 1927-1997)

Knowing more than parents... by gnasher719 · 2013-01-04 11:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

Don't worry. You knew more about computers than your parents. You'll also know more about computers than your children.

Re:Knowing more than parents... by rolfwind · 2013-01-04 11:57 · Score: 5, Funny

You called?
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 12:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

Some will disagree with you but I'm not one of them. So I want to expand on what you're saying. There is a certain age range that had to understand how a computer worked to run anything. Older generations were past the age of quick learning when this happened with only a few exceptions. On the other end, younger generations have no need to know any of that stuff. The file system is more and more hidden. Younger generations know how something works by clicking and touching on different things, but beyond that not much. That middle generation however can figure out any UI and fix problems as they arise because they understand what's going on underneath. There are exceptions to all of these generalities, but in general they're true :)
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Garridan · 2013-01-04 12:09 · Score: 2

It's (mostly) true! The current generation of kids are consumers, not tinkerers. Chances are, you're a consumer too, and your skills are a result of a childhood well spent. Unless you keep tinkering and raise your kids to do the same, you're safe.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by shakezula · 2013-01-04 12:17 · Score: 5, Interesting

I agree, my kids know a lot about computers because I work on them for a living. They are NOT typical of their friends. Most of their friends know their way about an iDevice or how to check their Gmail or Facebook, but that's the extent of it. My 10 year old could help you mount a heatsink to your Core2Duo and re-install Windows, but that's because he's helped dad do just that on countless computers in his short existence.

This disposable computing age we're entering has its ups and downs...

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I know what you're thinking. Did I forward 65,535 packets or 65,536 packets?
Re:Knowing more than parents... by johnsnails · 2013-01-04 12:27 · Score: 1

that had to be a setup...
Re:Knowing more than parents... by SlappyMcgee · 2013-01-04 12:28 · Score: 1

If I had mod points and I could give you all of them, this comment is worth it (just about spit wine out my nose - once I figured out why it was funny - sorry long week).
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 12:41 · Score: 2, Insightful

I'd agree with you on the premise that today's youth is dumber and less capable period, lack critical thinking, never been in a fight, etc...
But that's where it ends: assembly programmers probably know more about how a computer works than either one of us, in fact I always raise an eyebrow when I hear older techs talking about motherboard processes in the form of IO & voltage rather than clock speeds & bridges. I know voltages only for the purpose of OC (and fixing buggy asus motherboards), but that's not my #1 thought process when it comes to analyzing mobos. The point being we do our stuff just find without knowing assembly, a select few still have to know it to write translation / engine tools for frameworks, but a time ago that was everybody.
It goes something like this: jscript > jquery > ajax / jquery, and remember how hard ajax was at first? Ya most of that has been automated, no reason this pattern won't continue.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by jedidiah · 2013-01-04 12:42 · Score: 2

It was a C64.
Just to run a game you had to do far more "tinkering" then a modern kid may ever do. It just came with the territory becuase the user interfaces were embryonic.
You had to understand the machine just to use it.

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A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Andrewkov · 2013-01-04 12:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

So true.. Kids today are very well versed in the Internet (Facebook, Twitter, email, etc), but have no idea of anything technical like setting up a network or troubleshooting hardware. There are exceptions, of course, the nerds who have the interest and might go into IT. But generally, kids are strictly users like most of our parents were.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 13:00 · Score: 1

Exactly. Mod parent to stratosphere!
Todays kids are just as computer illiterate as anyone.
Geeks will always be geeks and they will always be rare.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Miamicanes · 2013-01-04 13:20 · Score: 5, Interesting

Yep. To load a game, at the *bare* minimum, you had to hop over at least one trivial speedbump that somehow managed to stump lots of supposedly "normal" kids:
load "*",8,1
God knows, it took my brother almost TWO YEARS to finally get the hang of it. He now owns a Mac. Surprise, surprise... ;-)
Fast forward ~10 years to 1993... and try explaining the concept of an IRQ, a cascaded IRQ, and reconciling conflicts between a piece of shit internal modem that only supported IRQ 2, 3, and 4 & a malfunctioning soundcard camped out on IRQ 9... to that same tech-challenged brother (hint, for anyone who didn't instantly get the punchline... the modem was set to IRQ 2)
Today's kids are no dumber than the kids we went to school with. The difference is, 25 years ago, today's clueless kids wouldn't have owned a computer at all, and if WE were 13 again, we'd spend summer vacation building Arduino LED cubes (or if we were in college, we'd be building circuits with FPGAs).
Kids who are like we were still exist, they're just lost amidst the background noise of stupid kids with toys they think work by magic.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 13:37 · Score: 5, Interesting

I first got onto the "Internet" (gopher, email, FTP and BBSes) in 1991 when I was 9 years old. I bought my first domain name (wakeup-people.com) when I was 14 in 1996; it cost me about $150, iirc ($220 in 2012 dollars). My sister's boyfriend introduced me to BASIC at age 8 in 1990 and gave me Visual Basic 3.0 16-bit when I was 11 in 1993.
For my 7th grade science experiment the next year, I created an automatic calculator that would do complex equations a million times (took forever in 1994!) and compiled it in 16bit and 32 bit and then extrapolated how much more efficient integer and float math would be on 64-bit machines, and extrapolated when we were likely to see them (I had said by 2000, iirc, and AMD released the specs for X86_64 in 1999).
My point is that from the age of about 8 until this very day, every single person in my family relies almost exclusively on either myself or my girlfriend (another techie ^^) for almost all of their above-simple technical needs.
And this includes my kids, aged 8, 10 and 11!!
It drives me up the wall that my 11 yro is as thick as rocks when it comes to computers, despite being enmeshed in the technology to a degree unfathomable to me, quite frankly, as he has a combined 40+ year technical experience w/ his parents (she a DBA and myself a sr. software architect). He seems so uninterested and lacks the drive I had/have to be a self-solver. He threw hissy fits every time I just told him to plug in a USB disk and follow the windows install prompt, to set up a new box I built for the family. My partner was like, "JUST INSTALL IT FOR HIM ALREADY!!" but i was like, um, if he can't follow printed directions and install windows, then the family just doesn't deserve a common PC.
Fortunately, my 2 younger kids were very excited with the opportunity. They even put together the hardware components, and we went to the store, too. Then they started viciously harranging the 11 yro, calling him retarded and stuff, cuz he wouldn't figure it out, but he's tested for a 130+ IQ and is in the GT program, so it isn't that. Afterwards, I paid them both 1/2 of what Best Buy would have charged me, and oh boy, the 11 yro took that *so* hard. He literally went crying to mommy about how he would have worked if he knew there was such a lofty reward.
"It's too bad you didn't get in on the offer when you were given exclusive rights to it", I told him. "Your payout would have been double." When his tantrum escalated after that little bit, I said, "Look. The payout was a selection pressure designed to promote self-initiative and help you become a little more skilled in a craft. You're already a geek, no denying that, but if you have all of the likes of a geek but few of the positive technical skills, where will that leave you?" ::sigh::
Before I had children, I honestly looked forward to them teaching me cool stuff and expanding my horizons, like I did so often and so much with my parents. Now, all of my kids are very adept at *tweaking* technology. My 11 yro can modify my android phone in ways I never even thought possible. But is there any technical aptitude in being skilled at finding and punching checkboxes in preference windows? I don't think so. I think he just has more time and less pressing things to do than me and chooses to explore the UI of the phone.
I'm of the opinion now that people born between 1975 and, from what I can tell, 1991 are a special segment of self-initiatied technically-midned people. At least, a sizable minority of us. I simply do not see the same characteristics in people born after.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Qzukk · 2013-01-04 14:12 · Score: 4, Informative

the modem was set to IRQ 2
For people who still don't get it: http://bucarotechelp.com/computers/anatomy/90032101.asp

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If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by rubycodez · 2013-01-04 14:20 · Score: 2

if you started as a computer hobbyist when I did (early 70s), knowing assembly was a requirement. the good news is you can get instruction online for free (dozens of introductory tutorials out there for x86 or x86-64) and the tools are free. no barriers to entry.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by readin · 2013-01-04 14:25 · Score: 3, Insightful

You're right about the generation that grew up while computers were growing up likely understand the internals much better (at least those who were at all interested). However kids today don't need to understand the internals to hack anymore. They just need to find the right hacking software.

I would say a simple password will work against the 4 yr old for at least the next 5 years. After that it's only partly a technical problem. It is also a question of how well your kids listen to you and what kinds of friends they're making.. Possibly in upper elementary school, probably by middle school, and certainly in high school, there will be kids who know how to get the software to crack their parents computers. Complain about your parents restrictions to the right person and they'll likely offer to get you a flash drive that will let them bypass the protections (and perhaps give you some viruses).

The kids have physical access to the computer. If they're well behaved kids who don't feel a strong need to bypass the rules you've set, then regular passwords should continue to work. But if they're the kind of kids who regularly go behind your back then I doubt there is much you can do.

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I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by rubycodez · 2013-01-04 14:28 · Score: 5, Insightful

the percentage of "computer people" is very small and always was. your 11 year old would probably be excited and self-motivated by *something*, but maybe it's outside of what dual computer-geek parents would even consider. could be art or music or mechanical things or sports or debate......
Re:Knowing more than parents... by readin · 2013-01-04 14:32 · Score: 4, Insightful

I disagree on the "dumber and less capable" part. They're capabilities are different. I think the schools do a better job of teaching the kids to be organized and to think abstractly. But when you say "never been in a fight" I think you hit on something that worries me.

These kids are going to vote. If the schools protect them too much from each other, they'll never understand what people are like. Kids today don't get out and play - they stay inside and play video games. The rules are enforced for them (they don't have to argue the rules with each other). They don't have to figure out who the quarterback is. And they don't have to worry about people who break the rules and try to bully others into accepting their rule breaking.

In short, they'll suck at foreign policy because they'll assume everyone is basically good and willing to follow the rules. Older voters already seem to include a lot of people who don't understand that foreign leaders typically have more in common with Al Capone than with Martin Luther King.

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I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by dadman · 2013-01-04 14:57 · Score: 1

Parent should mod as Funny, not insightful! Children ALWAYS, ALWAYS know more computer than their parents, period.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Ambassador+Kosh · 2013-01-04 15:10 · Score: 2

To balance it out they will support the creation of killbots to make wars a very clean thing for them. They will just sent out hordes of killbots and very soon the way will be over....
They won't be worried if a country does not like their rules or plays by the same rules since they will just send in the bots to kill them.

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Computer modeling for biotech drug manufacturing is HARD! :)
Re:Knowing more than parents... by SirSlud · 2013-01-04 15:35 · Score: 2

"Your payout would have been double." When his tantrum escalated after that little bit, I said, "Look. The payout was a selection pressure designed to promote self-initiative and help you become a little more skilled in a craft. You're already a geek, no denying that, but if you have all of the likes of a geek but few of the positive technical skills, where will that leave you?"
I'm a dyed in the wool c++ software engineer and even I want to punch myself in the face after reading that. Perhaps he doesn't want to do exactly what already comes very naturally and easily to his parents. But hey, I guess you can always apply selection pressure. Geesh.

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"Old man yells at systemd"
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Gr8Apes · 2013-01-04 15:46 · Score: 5, Insightful

I disagree on the "dumber and less capable" part. They're capabilities are different. I think the schools do a better job of teaching the kids to be organized and to think abstractly.

I disagree with every point you make above. They are dumber. They are less capable (unless playing video games with top notch hardware beating out those unfortunate enough to have slightly less capable hardware counts in your statement) The schools do a horrible job of teaching kids anything at this point. I swear we learned more in half the grades than current spoon-fed "graduates". And colleges? Since when is it the job of a college to graduate students versed in some corporations level 1 training program: just about any comp sci school these days only teaches 1 or 2 language syntaxes. Algorithms? What are those? Data structures? You mean like when I lean the 'A' against a 'D' to create a wall? And I'm 99% sure that what you call "abstract thinking" is nothing more than glazed eye day-dreaming. We won't even talk about pattern recognition, critical thinking, or applying logical solutions.
I interview a few "senior" folks a week. These have already been screened through 2 layers, which weeds out a bunch before I see the cream of the crop. I pass maybe 1 out of 10, and most are in their 30s and 40s, with several up to their 60s. No age bias here, if they know their material, I'll thumbs up them - last 2 that got thumbs up were most likely 60+, I am not allowed to ask. I had some 20-something that somehow slipped through (someone else answering for him earlier?) and couldn't answer even basic technical questions about what he claimed to have accomplished on his own resume. He's not unusual. These aren't just out of school people. They have worked for generally more than 2 companies over a period of years.

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The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by BergZ · 2013-01-04 16:01 · Score: 1

Well said. It sounds like your experience is very similar to mine.
I was once told that you "couldn't really understand computers unless you've extensively used punch-card systems." (what a bunch of generational snobbery!)
I didn't believe the guy who told me that and I don't believe the cynics who say that kids today will never know as much about computers as people from "insert your favorite golden age of computers here".
I suppose kids today won't learn about computers the same way that I did; but in my mind the jury is still out on whether that way will be "better" or "worse" than how I learned.

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Re:Knowing more than parents... by wisty · 2013-01-04 16:11 · Score: 1

Nonono. Kids need abstract, flexible thinking. They need to be able to write an essay with 5 paragraphs (an introduction, which outlines their 3 arguments, 3 paragraphs explaining why their arguments feel right, and one which concludes they might be wrong but probably aren't). Then they need to learn a larger, more fractal kind of essay (with 3 main sections, each consisting of 5 paragraphs).
And they need to learn how to say "we didn't learn what to think, but how to think". Because thinking consists of lining up a bunch of arguments (like little soliders), and sending they off to fight a straw man.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by qzjul · 2013-01-04 16:42 · Score: 1

When/if I have kids, when they ask for a computer I intend to give them a box of my old parts and tell them they can have whatever they can build from it. Maybe with some Dapper CD's in the box to install.....
Re:Knowing more than parents... by drinkypoo · 2013-01-04 16:51 · Score: 1

Older voters already seem to include a lot of people who don't understand that foreign leaders typically have more in common with Al Capone than with Martin Luther King.
Have you figured out yet that our candidates are the same?

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"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Fallen+Kell · 2013-01-04 16:57 · Score: 1

...then extrapolated how much more efficient integer and float math would be on 64-bit machines, and extrapolated when we were likely to see them (I had said by 2000, iirc, and AMD released the specs for X86_64 in 1999).
Too bad the SPARC V9 64bit CPU was already out in 1993.

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We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"
Re:Knowing more than parents... by gQuigs · 2013-01-04 17:11 · Score: 1

Every generation thinks they are the best.
It's sorta cute. If it wasn't so predictable.
My generation (and subculture) has to plug somewhat tangential XKCD posts. https://xkcd.com/1095/
Re:Knowing more than parents... by xhrit · 2013-01-04 18:07 · Score: 2

>...they don't have to worry about people who break the rules and try to bully others into accepting their rule breaking.

I doubt that - kids that really do stay inside and play video games all day have already seen the worst cheaters, hackers, and trolls the world has to offer. It is hard to maintain faith in humanity when you are constantly exposed to an endless stream of sadistic assholes who enjoy being absolutely the most despicable fuckwads to each other as imaginable.

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Dungeon Tactics : Free Open Source SRPG
Re:Knowing more than parents... by war4peace · 2013-01-04 18:12 · Score: 1

You're saying it like it's a bad thing.
We knew so much about computers because we had to. One couldn't do squat on a computer without knowing much of what we knew. Those were the times. Now there's an app for everything, you don't have to build your own anymore, and I don't think it's a bad thing. People simply moved on, the IT world did what was expected of it: fulfilled a need. Young people nowadays are skilled in other things. Some are social media afficionados, for example, which we frown upon, but after all my father used to frown upon "youths nowadays" who couldn't code a punch card at all.
I wouldn't expect my children to know all about BIOS settings if it becomes an anachronism, or how to install an Operating System if all that's going to become automatic, self-configurable and self-repairing. My father and his friends all had good to excellent electronics know-how. For my generation though, it was merely a hobby of past times.
And nerds were always a minority, no matter the generation. So your phrase should be:

Don't worry. You knew more about computers than your parents. You knew more about computers than most of your generation. You'll also know more about computers than your children.

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...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Re:Knowing more than parents... by jgrahn · 2013-01-04 18:55 · Score: 1

assembly programmers probably know more about how a computer works than either one of us, in fact I always raise an eyebrow when I hear older techs talking about motherboard processes in the form of IO & voltage rather than clock speeds & bridges
That's not assembly programming, though. Assembly is just another programming language, and doesn't teach you anything about voltage.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 19:03 · Score: 1

From how you describe your interview process, it sounds like you work for a large company that offers quite a bit of stability. As such, your company is likely to attract primarily people with families and people who are more risk averse. There are talented young people, but most of them want jobs with a certain level of excitement. That usually means a small startup environment with lower pay and a ton of stock options.
I've been at startups my entire career. My last one got bought and now we're bigger and have a huge parent company. The top-notch young people (and myself) are here just as long as the golden handcuffs don't chafe too much. After that we'll be gone. And whereas we used to be able to post an ad on craigslist that we threw together at the last minute, we now have corporate standards that tell perspective applicants that there's no fun to be had in the job. And our applicant demographic has changed from the kind of people you claim don't exist to a steady stream of older people and immigrants who value stability over the fast paced, high risk startup world.
So, in short, those people do exist, but your company is selecting them out. They want to change the world, and they can't do that becoming a cog in a giant machine.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by jgrahn · 2013-01-04 19:08 · Score: 1

It was a C64.
Yes. Almost all good programmers I know had one of those, or an Amiga. I'm biased, but it seems to me that younger people who grew up when PCs were available to home users, are more likely to be good if they have lived in a time capsule and owned some older machine.

You had to understand the machine just to use it.
Part of it might be that there wasn't a lot to do. You could play the (pirated) games you had, but when you were bored with them you couldn't turn to Facebook. The only other thing these machines were good for was hacking them.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by fostware · 2013-01-04 19:15 · Score: 2

1974 says you're wrong. :)
I agree that there's appears to be a change in the motivation and thought processes after that *rough* age bracket. Last year our CTO and I were having the same discussion regarding new hires. Initially we thought it was a different mindset between age brackets that wasn't just related to how old they were. New hires were appearing to have padded their CVs more, less likely to take ownership of issues, less willing to apply basic troubleshooting logic (even when flowcharts, knowledge-bases, and internal Wikis are provided), little initiative, and less willing to push themselves.
In the end, we realised that there's just more people claiming IT proficiency now. In my day, I started on electronics, and moved to computers as an extension. Many of the others I know had a similar background of wanting to know how everything worked. Our claim of working with computers was either met with some admiration and a lot of recrimination (whether verbal or physical) and thats formed a perception of 'if you went through those years and still work IT you must be good'.
Now almost everyone has a level of IT proficiency but the background is now no longer required and the derision isn't there anywhere as much. Those that do have the background, different mindset, and critical thinking are now preened for promotion/succession and we don't see a lot of our competitors potential Level 3s changing companies since everyone's fearful of the job market. We do concentrate hiring during or after major contract reshuffles (like last months mining industry contractor bloodbath) or competing MSPs folding.
There's still the same amount of *good* IT people, but the quantity of mediocrity overshadows that. After that conversation, questions about how candidates push themselves outside of work have been added to the practical spot questions interviewees receive.
All said, we also had some issues with pre-1991-born employees having little initiative or feeling that surfing a news site during waiting for tasks to complete whilst onsite was acceptable. IT infrastructure, procedures, and documentation are never completely optimised, so there is no excuse for non-work related surfing (outside of lunches when employees are suggested to go outside get some fresh air, and surf there)

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"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over." - Aneurin Bevan
Re:Knowing more than parents... by lister+king+of+smeg · 2013-01-04 19:46 · Score: 1

and when was that last time they made a sparc based mass market pc oh wait... never

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---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by SheridanR · 2013-01-04 20:45 · Score: 1

I'm of the opinion now that people born between 1975 and, from what I can tell, 1991 are a special segment of self-initiatied technically-midned people. At least, a sizable minority of us. I simply do not see the same characteristics in people born after.
Bullcrap. The time period you were born in has nothing to do with your innate drive to learn and accomplish cool things. I was born in 1994, started experimenting with computers when I was 8, learned ANSI C when I was 12, and now I'm a bored college student who writes 3D game engines for fun. I've always been filled with a passion to learn new things about computers, and I will never stop trying to accomplish things that are awesome. I am ambitious.
Contrast with my older brother, who was born in 1990 - well within your special birth year requirement - but who is exactly like your 11 year old son. He is not unintelligent by any means, but he is lazy and lacks any sort of drive whatsoever. He can figure complex things out from sheer boredom, but nothing but the most mindless pursuits seem to capture his attention for very long. It took him three years to get a two year degree at a community college, and he's been through a dozen different jobs in that timespan. He has a small future to speak of, and doesn't seem to particularly care - save for the fact that he knows he won't ever really get everything he wants.
I don't really care whether or not I've convinced you that you're wrong. I just wanted to say it. I have a mind to develop great things one day - you just wait.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Patch86 · 2013-01-04 21:30 · Score: 3, Insightful

IT has always been this way. Think back to when you were at school- you and a few of your friends were probably pretty techy, but what percentage of the kids at your school were? Were most of them more interested in sport? Pop music? Heated political debate? Doing drugs behind the bike shed? Things other than computers and technology?
That's how I remember my childhood, anyway. I loved computers. A few of my friends loved computers. We were a minority.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by bogjobber · 2013-01-04 23:59 · Score: 4, Interesting

Senior engineers with 30+ years of experience are more knowledgeable than people in their 20s? The horror! The shame!

I'm not sure what country you or the GP poster are living in, but the people I grew up with seem a hell of a lot more hard-nosed and street smart than most of the boomer generation. We didn't grow up with peace and prosperity, cheap education, and a straight shot into the middle class. We didn't get to ride the coattails of a 50 year economic boom caused exclusively by the fact that North America was the only part of the developed world that wasn't burnt to the ground in the 1940's.

Your generation of course calls this concept American exceptionalism, because America was largely excepted from the destruction caused by World War 2. This American exceptionalism naturally does not translate to the younger generation, due to the lack of such an important geopolitical event in our parents' lifetimes.

Said exceptional generation seems (at least as far as I can tell from the history books I haven't read) to have earned their wealth primarily through plundering our country and running it in the ground, and whose main occupation currently seems to consist of trying their damnedest to pull the ladder up behind them by removing every single social program they used to get to where they are today, all the while yelling at us that we're stupid and lazy.

This is, of course, completely true. Our generation is demonstrably different from, and in every way inferior to, the one preceding us. This is proven by the obvious fact that our country, right as the younger generation is coming of age (hardly a coincidence wouldn't you say?), is on the edge of economic collapse, with a failing political system and a military that is fighting multiple unnecessary wars around the globe.

In fact, most of those soldiers are members of the younger generation! The fact that we can no longer pay for college, long considered well within the reach of an average working class youth, is further evidence of our generational failure. If only we worked a little harder, like our daddies did, maybe we'd have something to show for it.

There are vast reaches of this great land of ours, usually in the suburbs, where Montessori schools are churning out glaze-eyed traveling team soccer players who are destined to be nothing more than mediocre students and passive recipients of whatever the nanny state or corporate bureaucracy tells them to do.

Places where information is inaccessible, ambition does not exist, minds are not independent, selfs do not actualize, and the older generation is simultaneously the cause and victim of (but entirely devoid of culpability, or indeed self-awareness, in either case) the inter-generational misunderstanding that has been so well-documented over the course of history that to call it trite is a truly magnanimous compliment.

Or... maybe... you're just getting old.

Dude.

I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.
- Hesiod 8th Century BC
Re:Knowing more than parents... by rarumberger · 2013-01-05 00:38 · Score: 1

...and whose main occupation currently seems to consist of trying their damnedest to pull the ladder up behind them...
That pretty much sums up every feeling I get when fricking boomers complain about the supposedly lazy and entitled generation that's finally taking over. So bravo. I wish I'd strung those words together. I'm using that in conversation regularly from now on.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Anne_Nonymous · 2013-01-05 01:37 · Score: 1

All the kids today are consumers of content, not techies. That's why the iPod, iPad, etc. are so popular.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Hognoxious · 2013-01-05 03:23 · Score: 1

Schools aren't teaching shit, but what *their* *payed* to teach.
Unpossible!

--
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Re:Knowing more than parents... by tazan · 2013-01-05 03:49 · Score: 1

A generation or two ago they probably said the same thing about cars. Used to be you could overhaul your engine in your garage and people often did. The technology improved and you didn't have to know anything about a car to use it. People moved from tinkerers to consumers, the old timers complained about the kids who couldn't change a tire or set of points, and the kids saw no reason to learn it as there was more interesting things to learn in the world.

The cycle continues. The things we spent a lifetime learning don't seem valuable to our kids. And that's probably the way it should be. By now computers, like cars, should be a solved problem for most people.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Hognoxious · 2013-01-05 03:51 · Score: 3, Funny

Bullcrap. The time period you were born in has nothing to do with your innate drive to learn and accomplish cool things. I was born in 1994, started experimenting with computers when I was 8, learned ANSI C when I was 12, and now I'm a bored college student

Did you take intro to statistics yet?

--
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Hognoxious · 2013-01-05 04:14 · Score: 1

Todays kids are just as computer illiterate as anyone.
Sure. But being computer illiterate doesn't prevent you from using a computer. Thirty years ago it did.

--
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Re:Knowing more than parents... by SheridanR · 2013-01-05 04:48 · Score: 1

Did you take intro to statistics yet?
I fail to see the relevance of that question.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by AlphaWolf_HK · 2013-01-05 05:20 · Score: 1

For me it was just:
load "*",8,1
I thought this was a "code" to start until I hit around 8, which is about the time I started understanding the basic interpreter.

--
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
Re:Knowing more than parents... by dakohli · 2013-01-05 05:29 · Score: 1

In short, they'll suck at foreign policy because they'll assume everyone is basically good and willing to follow the rules. Older voters already seem to include a lot of people who don't understand that foreign leaders typically have more in common with Al Capone than with Martin Luther King.
As a foreigner, I completely agree with this statement
Re:Knowing more than parents... by phantomfive · 2013-01-05 08:45 · Score: 1

In short, they'll suck at foreign policy because they'll assume everyone is basically good and willing to follow the rules.

If it makes you feel any better, Americans have always sucked at foreign policy, so we're not really losing anything here.

--
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Gr8Apes · 2013-01-05 12:38 · Score: 1

You are wrong on all counts. Company is smaller than 100 people. We are high risk. We pay as well as they come, but I don't interview lower level people anymore. I think I passed 1 out of over 100. I too have been at startups, and at larger companies both. I've played stock option roulette several times. I've experienced the same nonsense over the past 10 years interviewing people at startups.Younger people on the whole come off as holier than thou know it alls that when queried, really don't understand even why they chose to do what they did. They tend to not understand the fundamental basics of their own chosen languages.

So, in short, those people do exist, but your company is selecting them out. They want to change the world, and they can't do that becoming a cog in a giant machine.
I too would like to change the world. Guess what - only 1 in a billion gets that lucky, and that's pretty optimistic. Most companies want workers that will do what's needed by them, not some one that thinks he doesn't stink hot-shot that goes off and makes a spaghetti mess of things. I've seen lots of companies with those supposed young people fail. Many fall out of the programming market as well, which is probably a good thing.

--
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by HornWumpus · 2013-01-06 05:08 · Score: 1

They beat those essay formats into my head in high school English in the early 80s.
Nothing new there. Every 'college bound' high school kid knows that formula. You get to repeat it in Freshman comp if you weren't ambitious enough to take AP English in high school.

--
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Re:Knowing more than parents... by HornWumpus · 2013-01-06 05:20 · Score: 2

That's a no.

--
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Re:Knowing more than parents... by HornWumpus · 2013-01-06 05:42 · Score: 1

People don't still overhaul engines? You can usually overhaul a 4 banger without taking it out of a Honda. Granting in rust country the car is done before the motor.
In any case there is still a reasonably healthy mix of gear heads of all ages and ability. Still making our cars too fast. It continues with electric cars. Lots of crossover with computer geeks. People who optimize machines around them.
All the automotive OEMs could make cars for drivers. None of them do (especially the one that used to advertise 'drivers wanted', last good car from them was air cooled), the market demands mushy suspension and automatic transmissions (credit the Eurotrash, at least more of them know how to drive standard, they still love mush). If you care, you're going to be tuning on any car you buy. Hence the skills live on.
People can spend lots and lots of money on new M3s or Ferraris. The people that do, treat them like fashion accessories. Status symbols, rarely driver toys.

--
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Gr8Apes · 2013-01-06 07:53 · Score: 1

Good thing I'm not a boomer or I'd be the target of your vitriol. And while I'm not fond of boomers, you're being unfair:

Said exceptional generation seems (at least as far as I can tell from the history books I haven't read) to have earned their wealth primarily through plundering our country and running it in the ground, and whose main occupation currently seems to consist of trying their damnedest to pull the ladder up behind them by removing every single social program they used to get to where they are today, all the while yelling at us that we're stupid and lazy.
They had little to no social programs helping them. Social Security was signed into law in 1935 and covered the elderly and disabled, not the healthy and capable. What they did get was an unprecedented chance to manufacture for the world, which had a huge positive inflow of wealth into the US, along with a huge economic growth that has never been equaled nor most likely will it ever repeat itself as automation starts handling more and more labor intensive functions. That said, the boomers have been supremely unsympathetic to those following and had the nerve to tell us to just get a job, any job, and work hard, blah blah blah and we too could live the dream. It didn't work that way. Hard work just got you minimum wage, and you know how far that'll take you.

--
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Gr8Apes · 2013-01-07 03:07 · Score: 1

Actually - my mistake. The "Exceptional generation", aka the "greatest generation" was the generation that fought in WWII, the one that lived through Great Depression, and they certainly had no handouts. The Baby Boomers are their children, by and large, and they are exceptional only in the gift-wrapped economic boom they received, making the American Dream possible for unprecedented numbers of them, and the exceptionally large consumption economy they created.

--
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Re:Knowing more than parents... by bogjobber · 2013-01-08 19:02 · Score: 1

Well, in my defense, you *do* sound like a boomer with the whole "kids these days" rant. :)

It's not like I can't sympathize. I also think kids these days are unusually stupid, and I'm only 26! That's just a natural part of growing old and has nothing to do with the actual merit or lack thereof of this generation of kids. Some of them are incredibly talented, some of them are scum, but most are exactly the same as every other human being that's ever lived. If anything, people are getting smarter as time goes on, but that's another conversation.

I was sort of aiming for sarcastic rather than vitriolic, but I didn't take the time to write it that well. I was trying to show my own rant as another example of the silly inter-generational prejudice that exists, but I don't know that my sarcasm came through that clearly. Either way, I look forward to the days when I too can rant about how stupid kids are while vastly overestimating my adolescent work ethic and academic abilities!
Re:Knowing more than parents... by Gr8Apes · 2013-01-09 05:06 · Score: 1

Actually, my adolescent work ethic was drilled into me @ college. Before that, it was a bit of a coast, as I think my earlier schooling was slightly ahead of the curve into becoming what schools today are - afraid of failing anyone. My first 3 elementary schools (we moved a bit) regularly failed and moved failing students into special ed classes if necessary. My last one didn't even have special ed classes, and current schools "mainstream" those problem students, to the detriment of all other students, IMNSHO.
As for the college remarks, there was a deep change in how students were taught as far as the graduates I interviewed which became apparent starting around 2000, IIRC. It's been a while. It went downhill rapidly, and has stayed pretty steady since about 2004 in (lack of) quality of interviewees. That doesn't mean we don't get an occasional diamond in the rough, but the average quality is bottom of the barrel, and their knowledge of even basic items is shockingly absent. This would be general knowledge of algorithms, data structures, and basic concepts of how computers work, among other things. Knowing how to write printfs or System.outs is of little interest to me as they are assumed.
So it's not a "gee we were great, look at how stupid they are" post, but rather a "WTF, where is this basic knowledge" post. I blame the colleges, students can only go so far beyond what they're given in general, and right now my perception is that colleges are not only failing to teach basic knowledge, but even worse, they are failing to teach analytical and logical thinking skills and investigative techniques.

--
The cesspool just got a check and balance.

RTFM by OverlordQ · 2013-01-04 11:50 · Score: 5, Informative

RTFM

XBMC supports multiple user profiles, much the same as setting up individual users on your home computer. These individual profiles allow you to customize the environment for multiple users, allowing for such functionality as:
Customized view settings such as skins for each user
The ability to lock folders, such as network shares on a per-user basis
Separate Media Libraries for each user

Did you even attempt to find something yourself?

--
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.

Re:RTFM by WilliamGeorge · 2013-01-04 11:53 · Score: 4, Insightful

I have mod points, but where is the option for 'Informative - but a jerk'? Granted, it can be annoying to help someone when the answer to their question is a short Google search away... but the question there at the end seems unkind (at best). Lets keep things civil :)

--
William George
Re:RTFM by ThatsMyNick · 2013-01-04 11:57 · Score: 5, Funny

It could have been worse. He could have linked to this http://lmgtfy.com/?q=XMBC+lock
Re:RTFM by geekoid · 2013-01-04 12:03 · Score: 4, Insightful

No. people need to know they are being lazy, and being nice hasn't been working.

--
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Re:RTFM by c0lo · 2013-01-04 12:19 · Score: 2

No. people need to know they are being lazy, and being nice hasn't been working.
Working for what (i.e. what purpose do you target)? 'Cause not all the nerds share the same purposes, moral or ethical values (and it's is still OK... less boring, you see?)
E.g. if it is the opportunity of jerks to show themselves informative (which I can accept as a passable purpose), it seems it's working quite well.

--
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Re:RTFM by johnsnails · 2013-01-04 12:39 · Score: 1

Isin't the story getting published a sign of the /. community?...

that instead of checking /. once a day and spending ~45min going over 4 good stories we would rather habitually read junk like this (in the sense that the answer was one quick seach away) 3-4 times a day. I know I am guilty of this.

What we need is an rss feed of 2600 type stories(articles), so not just popular news stories but 'news' as in new intersting hacking to learn type stories(articles).
Re:RTFM by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 12:40 · Score: 5, Insightful

He should also stop pretending he's trying to hide Terminator movies. We all know who is stabbing who in the face and with what in his collection.
Re:RTFM by Nyder · 2013-01-04 12:40 · Score: 1, Troll

I have mod points, but where is the option for 'Informative - but a jerk'? Granted, it can be annoying to help someone when the answer to their question is a short Google search away... but the question there at the end seems unkind (at best). Lets keep things civil :)
No, I don't agree. If you are too fucking stupid to read up on the program you are using, then you get what you deserve. It's not like that info is hidden. Not to mention it's a fucking computer, why don't you make user accounts, and keep the porn and adult movies in an account he can NOT access? And don't put it in your regular account, I suggest you make one that you log in when you want to watch those movies/shows. Give the kid his own account, and then just give him access to the kids shows & movies. You can also lock the internet down on that account so he doesn't discover porn.
But honestly, it seems your knowledge of computers is meh, and the kid will probably be smarter then you on computers in 3 years. Enjoy it while it lasts.

--
Be seeing you...
Re:RTFM by cgimusic · 2013-01-04 12:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

My ideal target is for Ask Slashdots to be interesting and informative with the pros and cons of various solutions to a complex problem being discussed. With a really basic problem such as this I really would have thought a simple Google would have given the best solution. In fact I had this very problem several months ago and all I did was search the internet and the manual for XBMC came up top.
Re:RTFM by fermion · 2013-01-04 12:45 · Score: 1

I would say permissions are the way to go. Keep it simple, because kids have nothing by time. That is why you knew more than your parents. Hiding, obfuscating, putting it on a different server, is just going to provide a vector of attack.
What I might do is set up an account that only holds appropriate videos. Log into this account during unattended viewing. Long term this will allow the child to feel more in control and less under your thumb.
As an aside, many of my friends just left the tv on PBS. At some point the child realized there were other channels. and would surf. This provided an opportunity for a conversation about rules of the TV, and appropriate consequences.

--
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Re:RTFM by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 12:53 · Score: 2, Insightful

No. people need to know they are being lazy, and being nice hasn't been working.
Working for what (i.e. what purpose do you target)? 'Cause not all the nerds share the same purposes, moral or ethical values (and it's is still OK... less boring, you see?)
E.g. if it is the opportunity of jerks to show themselves informative (which I can accept as a passable purpose), it seems it's working quite well.
Yes, you're right. Not all nerds share the same purposes or values.
That being said, do you know what all lazy people have in common? Being fucking lazy.
Bottom line is when it takes longer to type the question on Slashdot than it does to find the answer in Google, you're not only doing it wrong, but you have no right calling yourself a nerd.
Re:RTFM by aliquis · 2013-01-04 12:56 · Score: 1

So. What's next mr first post?
What should we do with the rest of the thread?
Re:RTFM by wer32r · 2013-01-04 12:57 · Score: 2, Insightful

I really hate this one. Few things are as annoying as searching for some difficult-to-search topic, find a forum link on the top search result with a relevant topic, and then find that Imgtfy link to just another Google search. Typically when this happens, the result of the next search is as little informative as the link itself. The really annoying part is that you know that whoever posted the link is likely to know the answer and could have stated it in a few words or have provided a relevant link instead of being a douche.
Re:RTFM by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 13:13 · Score: 2, Insightful

Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, then come back and bitch about being hungry tomorrow.
Teach a man to fish, and he'll leave you the fuck alone.
Re:RTFM by c0lo · 2013-01-04 13:32 · Score: 2

That being said, do you know what all lazy people have in common? Being fucking lazy.
Bottom line is when it takes longer to type the question on Slashdot than it does to find the answer in Google, you're not only doing it wrong, but you have no right calling yourself a nerd.
Gosh, buddy... you let common sense slipping into /. . This does need to be corrected... so let's build a theory and draw a conclusion that is in no logical relation with it... bonus points if the conclusion is emotionally loaded and involves building a strawman!
That a look on the nickname of the OP (Serenissima not Serenissimus). Together with the mention of "so I could get some cleaning done" best chances that's a she - and I'm not implying the cleaning is done by women only, but I surmise women are more likely to mention it to establish a context for the post (male nerds wouldn't think of it as a relevant information)
Now, we may have a person:
1. which know what /. and posting on /. are
2. does cleaning (mind you: this may be as a reasonable explanation for not turning to Google as laziness would be. Not for the lack of time - Google is faster - but do I need to ask you what would you prefer: posting on /. or cleaning? Speaking for myself, I'm procrastinating from ironing my shirts for the next week as I'm posting this on /.)
3. has a small kid (which, highly probable, indicates sex in the near past)
4. likely to be a woman.
Of course, the above doesn't describe a very typical nerd (points 2 and 3 being highly atypical), but... hey... why would you try to quench cultural diversity on /.? I thought nerds are quite liberally minded.
(ducks)

--
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
Re:RTFM by JasoninKS · 2013-01-04 15:35 · Score: 1

But sometimes it's nice to get the opinions of others. Sometimes it's hard to hit just the right terms on a Google search. And sure, you can RTFM, but all too often practical experience trumps a book. Or possibly the solution in the manual would be more complex than is needed for the given situation.
Re:RTFM by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 15:38 · Score: 1

Build a fire for a man, keep him warm for a day.
Set a man on fire, keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Re:RTFM by Urban+Nightmare · 2013-01-04 16:50 · Score: 1

While I do tend to agree with you, I think we all need to remember to just be a bit more civil to each other. This whole thing would have been way more productive if the answer was just given and possibly a link to the page in the docs/manual/wiki. I don't mind if this is marked as flame bait or troll but just because we're on the internet and can post anonymously does it make it okay to call people names. Just answer the question and move on. If you don't know the answer read it so you know and move on. If you just don't care then keep your comments to your self. Remember what Mom used to say:
"If you can't say something nice. Don't say anything at all."
I'm ready to be flogged now. BTW I won't come back to read them any way so save your fingers.
Re:RTFM by drinkypoo · 2013-01-04 16:56 · Score: 1

But sometimes it's nice to get the opinions of others. Sometimes it's hard to hit just the right terms on a Google search. And sure, you can RTFM, but all too often practical experience trumps a book. Or possibly the solution in the manual would be more complex than is needed for the given situation.
Those are all valid objections in some other situation but continuing to make those objections in this situation is just fucking stupid, because none of them apply here. There's two simple solutions, either use passworded XBMC profiles or use separate user accounts with their own XBMC profile. Personally, I like user accounts, but that's because I run XBMC on Windows. If I ran it someplace that XBMC's internal SMB support worked worth a crap, then probably I'd like profiles. And finally, anyone who couldn't find both solutions with google isn't a nerd and should go somewhere else. I am beyond tired of Ask Slashdots that are trivially answered with Google.

--
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Re:RTFM by jones_supa · 2013-01-04 23:28 · Score: 1

Bottom line is when it takes longer to type the question on Slashdot than it does to find the answer in Google, you're not only doing it wrong, but you have no right calling yourself a nerd.
Sometimes typing the question in Slashdot is better. The discussion that arises may give a more richer answer, and it's nice to debate about things.
Re:RTFM by JasoninKS · 2013-01-05 08:40 · Score: 1

I don't recall Slashdot having a giant banner that exclaimed "Nerds only, all others can "F" off".
Re:RTFM by wer32r · 2013-01-05 13:25 · Score: 1

This would have been a valid point if anything was actually being thought. A proper answer (or a link to such) would not only teach the person who is asking, but also all the people that comes to the thread later in search of the same answer.
Re:RTFM by wer32r · 2013-01-05 13:26 · Score: 1

*taught
Re:RTFM by drinkypoo · 2013-01-05 15:30 · Score: 1

I don't recall Slashdot having a giant banner that exclaimed "Nerds only, all others can "F" off".
The logo banner once proudly proclaimed "news for nerds". Some of us would like it to stay that way, because there's no other such site that's worth one tenth of one shit, which is about what this place will be worth if uninquisitive, unimaginative, helpless meat puppets are permitted to proliferate. Call me arrogant if you must, but I don't think I'm the smartest guy around here, or necessarily even smarter than the baseline. I think it's interest that qualifies you for nerdhood, not capability. It's clear that Slashdot is not a meritocracy, it's interestingness that is valued. But let's not shit on that, it's all that Slashdot has left — indeed, it's all that it's ever had. Relevance. That wouldn't seem like much if it weren't so rare.

--
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Re:RTFM by Palinchron · 2013-01-05 18:24 · Score: 1

He should also stop pretending he's trying to hide Terminator movies.
This. Didn't you hear? It's okay to watch My Little Pony nowadays.

--
The lesson here is that a sufficiently large corporation is indistinguishable from government. --ultranova
Re:RTFM by tlhIngan · 2013-01-07 04:16 · Score: 1

I really hate this one. Few things are as annoying as searching for some difficult-to-search topic, find a forum link on the top search result with a relevant topic, and then find that Imgtfy link to just another Google search. Typically when this happens, the result of the next search is as little informative as the link itself. The really annoying part is that you know that whoever posted the link is likely to know the answer and could have stated it in a few words or have provided a relevant link instead of being a douche.
Really, searching for user-level based permissions is hard?
I mean, really, is this supposed to be the level of quesiton we're getting?
They guy's asking how to lock his kid out of parts of his media library. For most IT people, that's simple - you deny permission to the fileshare (and DLNA still allows working with SMB fileshares - it's a discovery protocol). Just give the kid's account permission to the kid friendly fileshare and deny him access to the other stuff. If he navigates out, he won't be able to play them - he'll get errors and depending on your fileserver, you'll get access denied entries in the log.
Re:RTFM by RivenAleem · 2013-01-08 04:04 · Score: 1

Yeah, I tried to google recursion, still don't know what it means.

Permissions, Groups, and ACLs by bmo · 2013-01-04 11:51 · Score: 2, Informative

One set of movies has "kids only" group permissions
The other set of movies has "Adults and kids" permissions.

Your son doesn't belong to the "adults and kids" group.

????????

Profit.

--
BMO

Re:Permissions, Groups, and ACLs by bmo · 2013-01-04 11:55 · Score: 1

I kinda didn't express what I set out to express.
You are an adult.
You would have access to both sets of movies "kids" and "adults"
He would have only access to the "Kids" group.
--
BMO
Re:Permissions, Groups, and ACLs by KiloByte · 2013-01-04 12:02 · Score: 1

The only profit here is for your ISP, as the porn will get downloaded twice. What do you think, that a kid today doesn't know how to avoid blocks and get to stuff he wants? Unless you go with a nazi whitelist, there's no way to stop the kid from getting to something as ubiquitous as porn. And a forbidden fruit is all the sweeter.

--
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Re:Permissions, Groups, and ACLs by countach74 · 2013-01-04 12:22 · Score: 1

There's a rather big difference between attempting to block porn and attempting to block a portion of a movie collection. Most likely the OP just doesn't want his kid stumbling across something that he wouldn't have seen, if it weren't for the XBMC library. If that's the case, the child is probably too young to be interested in seeking out porn.
Re:Permissions, Groups, and ACLs by KiloByte · 2013-01-04 12:30 · Score: 1

TFA used violence as an example, this is something that interests boys from the age of, say. 4-5. And nearly as widespread as porn on teh interwebs.

--
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Re:Permissions, Groups, and ACLs by cgimusic · 2013-01-04 12:47 · Score: 1

Yes but it is much harder to accidentally stumble across on the internet than it is in a collection of movies that can be freely browsed through.
Re:Permissions, Groups, and ACLs by AlphaWolf_HK · 2013-01-05 05:23 · Score: 1

So what would the "adults" group be for? (that is, sans the kids.)

--
Careful with names containing L slashdot.org/~AiphaWolf_HK slashdot.org/~AlphaWoif_HK slashdot.org/~AiphaWoif_HK
Re:Permissions, Groups, and ACLs by bmo · 2013-01-05 14:40 · Score: 1

Well, you want the adults in the house to be members of both groups "kids" and "not kids"
Else, the adults would be locked out of the kids movies.
Or something.
I could truth table this out, but I can't be arsed and it's late, and I have discovered that this Ikea thingy has waaaaaaay too many different fasteners.
--
BMO

Coming of age by White+Flame · 2013-01-04 11:51 · Score: 4, Insightful

If they're smart enough to figure out how to pry through complex systems and look at daddy's files, exposure to what they see will have a self-determining effect on them. Either they'll be scared of what they saw in the "grown-up movies" and will leave it alone (and you can talk it out with him), or the kid will find something he likes and expand his horizons a bit.

You don't say how old he is, but I generally believe that you've got to let curiosity run its course for everyday sorts of things like this.

Re:Coming of age by geekoid · 2013-01-04 12:01 · Score: 1

XBMC is a complex system now?
yeesh.
"but I generally believe that you've got to let curiosity run its course for everyday sorts of things like this."
and you are wrong.

--
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Re:Coming of age by suricatta · 2013-01-04 14:30 · Score: 1

I wish I had mod points - you've hit the nail on the head.
Kids will self filter things they're not ready for or not interested in.
Giving kids the opportunity to make discoveries about the world will give them the types of experiences that they will remember fondly as adults.

Priviledges/Accounts by p0p0 · 2013-01-04 11:52 · Score: 1

Make a user for yourself and one for your child. A folder specifically for kids movies. Your child's account is limited and cannot access your users movies.

You can setup a macro to log out/switch user, and quickly log onto the kids account for movies. Keep password on your account.
Simple enough?

Re:Priviledges/Accounts by Em+Adespoton · 2013-01-04 12:24 · Score: 1

Make a user for yourself and one for your child. A folder specifically for kids movies. Your child's account is limited and cannot access your users movies.
You can setup a macro to log out/switch user, and quickly log onto the kids account for movies. Keep password on your account.
Simple enough?
I did this, and have since stopped using the "kids" account. I figure if my kid is as intelligent as me, he'll eventually figure out how to get past the password if he really wants to. Now, I just have the screensaver with a password lock for making access to the system less trivial (my kids can't just "accidentally" browse the files) and have trained them in the proper way to treat a computer and account privileges. Setting up a VM and showing them what can happen to it when violating house policies helped.
Now they generally only want to view the stuff that's been whitelisted for them. This will, of course, change as they get older, but they're pretty happy with using their parents as intentional content filters right now.
My first dash of reality came back when I left my 1 year old near the computer with a web browser open to Google in the foreground, and came back to find porn splashed across the screen. All from mashing the keyboard and hitting the mouse in Google (with safebrowsing on). That's when I shortened my password lock timeout and set the screen to turn off after a minute of disuse (or when mouse moved to a hot corner).
I figure my next hurdle with this stuff will come when puberty kicks in, at which point I hope that early training in openness, honesty and respect for others will be enough to save them from being permanently scarred from exposure to things like slashdot at -1.

Try being a parent. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 11:53 · Score: 3, Insightful

Instead of looking for a technical solution to do your job for you.

Yeah, i know. mindblowing for sure.

Kids require 24-7 supervision for about 16 years or they WILL get into something you don't like. 100% guaranteed. The only fix is doing the job you signed up for when you had a child.

Re:Try being a parent. by SternisheFan · 2013-01-04 12:10 · Score: 1

Kid cracks password protection by his 5th birthday.
Re:Try being a parent. by Nutria · 2013-01-04 12:28 · Score: 2

It's patently obvious that you have no clue about how parenthood actually works.
(Don't feel too stupid, though: I spouted the same drivel before I had kids, too.)

--
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Re:Try being a parent. by Em+Adespoton · 2013-01-04 12:32 · Score: 1

Instead of looking for a technical solution to do your job for you.
Yeah, i know. mindblowing for sure.
Kids require 24-7 supervision for about 16 years or they WILL get into something you don't like. 100% guaranteed. The only fix is doing the job you signed up for when you had a child.
I believe that should read "Kids require 24-7 supervision for about 16 years AND they WILL get into something you don't like." The trick is to ensure they've had the training before they get into it so that they know how to handle it at least somewhat maturely.
Giving kids access to things is just like giving everyone else access to things -- information wants to be free; too much information is sometimes a bad thing (in retrospect). Technical solutions for kids are a useful loose set of guidelines to help protect them from wandering off accidentally, but as you state, only a history of good parenting will help them once they (not if they) intentionally step off the beaten track.
Re:Try being a parent. by Beardo+the+Bearded · 2013-01-04 12:33 · Score: 1

All my kids' movies are in the folder called @kid-safe.
They know where it is, and they know not to go elsewhere. The other content won't be that interesting to them anyway.
NSFW movies are on the black thumbdrive.

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---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Re:Try being a parent. by cheekyjohnson · 2013-01-04 12:46 · Score: 4, Funny

Anyone that disagrees with me doesn't have a child. All children are the same, too, and that's why everyone's opinion about how to raise a child will be the exact same.

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Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
Re:Try being a parent. by drinkypoo · 2013-01-04 17:02 · Score: 1

NSFW movies are on the black thumbdrive.
That's great, but like most of the answers in this thread that aren't a simple RTFM (which is all this question deserves anyway, and therefore it should never have been on the front page... was it just put there to make Slashdot seem like it cares?) it doesn't actually address the question. Luckily, the question is stupid anyway. It's called access control and you can use the kind that XBMC gives you or the kind your OS gives you, either one works fine.
In case anyone cares the advantage of XBMC profiles is a single media library. But then, there's always the risk it will expose some metadata...

--
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"

Why back in my day... by Sponge+Bath · 2013-01-04 11:54 · Score: 1

"...nightmares because he saw the T-1000 stab someone in the face."

It builds character.

Alternative parenting phrases: Walk it off, and ask your mother.

Re:Why back in my day... by DerPflanz · 2013-01-04 23:53 · Score: 1

It builds character.
For the parents yes. They have to get up in the middle of the night to calm them down. Our kids don't see any TV after dinner, just so WE can have a decent night's sleep.

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-- The Internet is a too slow way of doing things, you'd never do without it.

File server + ACLs + ldap by boule75 · 2013-01-04 11:54 · Score: 2

Currently running under Zentyal over Ubuntu 10.04.

Each family member has an account, parents have RW access everywhere, kids are generally RO or have no access at all depending on the folder.

--
I am not Remy Mouton, unfortunately: http://remy.mouton.free.fr/art/

database 'views' by TheGratefulNet · 2013-01-04 11:54 · Score: 1

use that concept. your player should only have visibility into the 'exposed' parts of your filesystem.

there are FUSE plugins, iirc, that can present partial views of your full/real filesystem.

the tv system would never see the full FS but your personal system (in a diff room that he should not have access to) would have full r/w view privs.

in a nutshell, that's what I would do.

along with that, the view concept can 'mount' the FS read-only.

--

--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."

Re:database 'views' by blueg3 · 2013-01-04 12:16 · Score: 1

Views for filesystems are called users, groups, and file permissions. (Or, if you want to get fancy, ACLs.)
Re:database 'views' by TheGratefulNet · 2013-01-04 13:42 · Score: 1

sorry, but that's not strong enough.
I've tried the FUSE 'wildcard plugin' and its pretty cool. you can hide or allow thru various patterns or whatever you want.
you could even make it time sensitive; at daytime, the system is locked down and at 11pm and later, its opened up. whatever - the plugin can handle more capable 'policies' than simple unix file perms.
if the parent does a good job, the kid won't even KNOW that there are extra files around. even if he gets root, unless he knows how to undo this FUSE stuff, 'ls -laR' still won't expose all the hidden files.

--

--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Re:database 'views' by Blaskowicz · 2013-01-04 14:33 · Score: 1

mod this up!
I've thought of the same thing, a FUSE filesystem, that it has been done already is nice. It doesn't rely on XBMC configuration and whatever the kid does or the means of access he uses, he won't see a list of "awesome movie with a cool name.avi" (read access denied) and interesting locked folders.
Re:database 'views' by blueg3 · 2013-01-04 16:43 · Score: 1

you could even make it time sensitive; at daytime, the system is locked down and at 11pm and later, its opened up. whatever - the plugin can handle more capable 'policies' than simple unix file perms.
It's true that there's not a simple way to make weird, arbitrary behaviors tied to file permissions. But that's not really what he was asking for. There are two users here, one of which should be able to access a set of files and one of which shouldn't.

the plugin can handle more capable 'policies' than simple unix file perms
Simple permissions and ACLs aren't the same, though in this case, simple permissions would probably work fine.

if the parent does a good job, the kid won't even KNOW that there are extra files around. even if he gets root, unless he knows how to undo this FUSE stuff, 'ls -laR' still won't expose all the hidden files.
Well, (a) he'd need root and (b) if he knows how to get root on a Unix system and does so, you're pretty much hosed. There are so many ways around this it's not even funny, but it doesn't matter, because root really bypasses most reasonable access-control mechanisms.
I will point out, though, that there is actually a permission for preventing people from knowing that there are the locked files.
Re:database 'views' by TCM · 2013-01-04 16:48 · Score: 1

Just because it's "cool" doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
What you describe sounds like the epitome of useless complexity with huge potential for debugging nightmares. Time-based and root-agnostic (in)visibility of files? What a turd.
Keep the filesystem a filesystem for fuck's sake.

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Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6

Re:two choices by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 11:54 · Score: 1

OP is asking how to secure media on a media server...and one of the solutions is to put them on a media server?

Forgot your own media library by maharg · 2013-01-04 11:55 · Score: 3, Insightful

the boy has the whole internet to peruse unless you have locked that down also... Seriously.. Are you actually running a walled garden ? If not all bets are off...

--

$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.

I too XBMC my media... by shakezula · 2013-01-04 11:56 · Score: 5, Informative

...from a NAS device. Like you, I've spent HOURS getting all the TV cataloged, named correctly, and with images. Like you, I have kids I don't want watching certain things and I solve it thusly:

1:Create a share on your NAS which has the items you DON'T want them to watch and make it so that it needs a password or whatever credentials you need to connect to it.

2:Add the share to XBMC, but put it under a Master Profile.

3: Create another Profile for your younglings that can't access the shared files. Double bonus, since you password protected the share, if they do go scanning the network, they'll have to have to know the (hopefully) different password to mount the share with your non-kid content.

4:??? Profit?

Check this out: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=108232 I think it will help you sort your media out with haste.

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I know what you're thinking. Did I forward 65,535 packets or 65,536 packets?

Parental controls? by Raven42rac · 2013-01-04 11:58 · Score: 2

http://www.xbmchub.com/blog/2012/08/13/parental-control-for-xbmc-addons/

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I hate sigs.

parenting, not technology by plaut · 2013-01-04 11:59 · Score: 5, Insightful

Set and communicate the rules and the consequences for breaking them, monitor compliance, and enforce the consequences if the rules are broken. If you force compliance with technology, your son won't learn what is and isn't appropriate behavior and you won't have the opportunity to build trust. And, believe me, you'll need that trust when he's older.

Re:parenting, not technology by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 12:09 · Score: 2, Insightful

This should have been moderated to 5:insightful by now. Parenting is a social feat, not merely a technical or biological one.
This parent could have simply said "hey, there are a lot of grownup movies on here that WILL give you nightmares. You are not allowed to watch the grown-up movies, ask me first before you change what's playing." You don't even need to threaten with punishment. Just state that this is how it will be, and if they start testing boundaries when they get older, THEN you can step in and start revoking privilege as punishment.
Re:parenting, not technology by jedidiah · 2013-01-04 12:49 · Score: 4, Insightful

Some things are adult by nature simply because of unavoidable social convention. Those really should be locked away using some mechanism that is expected to pose some sort of minimal barrier.
It doesn't have to be unhackable. It just has to create a clear boundary.
It doesn't matter if it's a "parents" fileshare or a lock on a gun cabinet.

--
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Re:parenting, not technology by jamesh · 2013-01-04 13:02 · Score: 2

From TFA I got the impression that the child probably isn't 2 yet. A 2 year old will _love_ doing things themselves - making a movie play by themselves without your help is almost as much fun as watching the movie (which is why you'll find them constantly flipping through movies). Sure you could helicopter over them and tell them no you can't watch that one, or that one, but you've instantly robbed the fun from the experience of learning independence.
Much better to construct a nice safe sandbox where (as far as they are concerned) their freedom has no limits. Of course that doesn't mean you can then just walk off and leave them to their own devices - you still need to be around but at least you won't be telling them 'no' constantly.
The stuff you are talking about is definitely appropriate for an older child, although the appropriateness varies wildly depending on the child - two of my kids would be likely to do as instructed by the time they were 4 or 5, the other two not so much at the same age - both because their insane curiosity of the world would overwhelm any sense of possible consequences.
Re:parenting, not technology by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 13:24 · Score: 1

Set and communicate the rules and the consequences for breaking them, monitor compliance, and enforce the consequences if the rules are broken. If you force compliance with technology, your son won't learn what is and isn't appropriate behavior and you won't have the opportunity to build trust. And, believe me, you'll need that trust when he's older.
That's too much trouble. Just put it all in a directory named "Educational".

you bult a media server? by geekoid · 2013-01-04 12:00 · Score: 2, Funny

but you can't google?
http://www.xbmchub.com/blog/2012/08/13/parental-control-for-xbmc-addons/

--
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Original poster here. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 12:09 · Score: 1

Hi guys, the original poster here. Of course I knew about the parental controls in XMBC: After all, it's only one Google away! However, what I was really after, is the geek way to go about this. I was thinking of retina-scanning myself, though also some sort of Rube Goldberg device ultimately leading to the proper identification of the person watching would suffice. Anyway, thanks!

Require "Adult Presence" for Restricted Movies by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 12:10 · Score: 5, Interesting

Here's what I do: To keep it simple, I tag all the "bad" movies as restricted. Then on the server in each room where a movie could possibly be played, I require that the server has an "adult present" token. At first this token was just a USB stick I carried around with just a certain named file on it (no crypto). A few years ago I switched to detecting the presence of a bluetooth device - my cell phone or a few other authorized devices. The server scans for the MAC address every 30 seconds, if it can't find it 3x in a row it disables playback of restricted movies. But you can use any convenient token.

I don't use this at home but at a non-profit I run (a haunted attraction). It's got a mix of adults and teen volunteers, and we have PG-13 and R stuff in our horror video library. The system has worked rather well, but I admit the security of it is based on obscurity - that the teens don't know what enables the restricted content! If they ever figured it out, I'd switch to a secure token.

Re:Require "Adult Presence" for Restricted Movies by Translation+Error · 2013-01-04 14:15 · Score: 1

The system has worked rather well, but I admit the security of it is based on obscurity - that the teens don't know what enables the restricted content! If they ever figured it out, I'd switch to a secure token.
That assumes you'll know if/when they figure it out. Why not switch to a secure token now and avoid the possibility of them accessing restricted material without you ever realizing there's a problem?

--
When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
Re:Require "Adult Presence" for Restricted Movies by Lehk228 · 2013-01-04 14:16 · Score: 1

If you ever needed to up the security you could put a small utility on your phone that would authenticate with a certificate instead of the bluetooth name. It would maintain the aura of magical access control.

--
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Re:Require "Adult Presence" for Restricted Movies by rastoboy29 · 2013-01-05 18:04 · Score: 1

Doesn't matter what's *on* the usb key--flat file or secure token--if mere possession of the token grants access. Mind you, I like your idea in general--just picking nits.

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expandfairuse.org

Read only Samba share and symlinks by SoCalChris · 2013-01-04 12:15 · Score: 1

I've got a samba server with a share containing all of our media that's for my wife & I to watch. I've got a second, read-only share set up for the kids. The kid's directory has a bunch of symlinks to content that's suitable for them. It allows them to freely browse the media on their own, and I know exactly what they're accessing.

Re:two choices by aNonnyMouseCowered · 2013-01-04 12:17 · Score: 2

"In trad slashdot style, I didn't read."

Typically with stories tagged askslashdot you need only read the submission itself. Or do you mean you have that esoteric abillity to answer questions you don't know?

I prefer a hardware solution. Different devices for different users, preferably with some sort of hardware locking mechanism for the NC stuff. I'm rather suspicious of software-only solutions since they're either a joke or too expensive or complex for the task at hand unless you're a bum willing to tweak all day.

Try something different by MrKaos · 2013-01-04 12:19 · Score: 3, Interesting

Treat your kid like an intelligent human being and implement the security measures the code has but no more. Explain to you child why but in a way that lets them weigh their own value system against their curiosity. We don't need more kids in the world that are mindless accepters of whatever is put in front of them. Allow them to make their own decisions and own the consequences for them, including nightmares.

If they break through the security, get them to show you how they did it, congratulate them, fix it and challenge them to find the next one. Turn that part into a game and you maybe able to give you child an advantage over 99% of the sheeple out there.

--
My ism, it's full of beliefs.

Re:Try something different by kvnslash · 2013-01-04 13:23 · Score: 1

What he said. By the time your kid is old enough to defeat said parental blocks, it's probably time to stop.
Re:Try something different by MrKaos · 2013-01-04 14:25 · Score: 1

If you had children, you would know the first rule: you don't ever tell another parent how to be a parent.
Prithee, desist.
Yes, I am aware of this rule, however I wasn't the one who posted a question, seeking advice, on a PUBLIC INTERNET FORUM. Did the subject of my post say "You must do what I say", no it suggested to "Try something different".
FFS, I didn't tell anyone to do anything. Stop being an example of the political correctness that prevents the human race from evolving.

--
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Re:Try something different by chadenright · 2013-01-04 14:34 · Score: 1

Alas, no mod points. +1 to this, implement the security in the wetware.

OMG they'll see nudity by gelfling · 2013-01-04 12:24 · Score: 1

Next thing you know it's a gunfight in the kindergarten class.

Re:OMG they'll see nudity by Nyder · 2013-01-04 12:46 · Score: 1

Next thing you know it's a gunfight in the kindergarten class.
And it will get blamed on video games!

--
Be seeing you...
Re:OMG they'll see nudity by jamesh · 2013-01-04 13:06 · Score: 1

Next thing you know it's a gunfight in the kindergarten class.
The only hint TFA gave about the content he wanted blocked was seeing T1000 stab someone in the face. It may be that he has a library of extreme fetish porn that would give me nightmares, but the chances are the nudity is all in your head.

Re:two choices by arth1 · 2013-01-04 12:28 · Score: 1

OP is asking how to secure media on a media server...and one of the solutions is to put them on a media server?

Well, yes, that;s not such a bad idea. Have two media servers - one open and one locked down.
Perhaps a third one too ;)

Safe from kids? No problem! by erroneus · 2013-01-04 12:33 · Score: 1

Mark it read-only!! They won't be able to delete it then.

Can we be clear on this? Does "adult video" harm children? Have there been any studies on this? Really?

Let's see: Children who grow up around guns most often learn to respect and handle them properly. Children who learn early on about knives and fire early on are no longer curious about them either. And yes, "sex education courses!" Yeah, that watered-down class of PC speak is going to address all of their natural curiosities and natural insticts right?

Let's ask the question more properly shall we?

"How can I keep myself from being tossed in jail for violating some law based on presumed morality which has little basis in fact?"

P.S. When I was a kid, I saw porn. It didn't "harm me." I'm a normal guy.

Re:Protecting a child's innocence is a futile effo by Em+Adespoton · 2013-01-04 12:39 · Score: 1

Just show them Back Door Sluts 9, show them how it's done. Theyll see it eventually anyway so its better that they'd see it in a controlled environment. I saw the 'bad' stuff when i was just a wee boy as well, never did me any harm did it?

This nonsense of 'not showing the R-rated' stuff is mostly just to console the parents really. They knew they were wrong when they allowed a child to be born into this harsh and cruel world and would rather the child think that things are rosy for another couple of years until it is absolutely impossible to keep up the lie any longer.

It's a typical US viewpoint that considers R-rated to be about how much skin is shown.

You really REALLY don't want to show violent movies to a 3-year-old. They aren't wired to process it in a healthy way. Even movies with intense emotional content (but non-violent) can cause months of nightmares. By the time puberty hits, such stuff can be handled somewhat; but a 3-year-old has trouble separating fact from fiction; to them, everything they experience is real in the same way.

If you're not concerned with a 3-year-old stumbling on the somewhat tepid live action version of Back Door Sluts 9 in your bedroom, you don't have to worry about it if they stumble on the film. But don't let them watch anything on film you wouldn't be comfortable with them seeing in real life, because for them there's not much difference (they can "tell" you when something's pretend or real with training, but it's still being processed in the same way inside their heads; separate neural pathways for the two sets of stimuli doesn't develop until later).

Re:Safe from kids? No problem! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 12:47 · Score: 3, Funny

Can we be clear on this? Does "adult video" harm children?

Yes, it does.

I grew up with computers, and early on pressed my parents into getting me access to the Internets. I saw plenty of pixelated, low-resolution boobies and at the ripe age of thirteen, was having sexy IRC times with what appeared to be hawt nerdy college chicks.

I went on to become a systems administrator.

Parents, don't let this happen to your children. Teach them to be developers; they get paid more and don't have to wake up at 3 AM because some drunk C-level forgot his password.

Parental control by mrops · 2013-01-04 12:48 · Score: 5, Informative

did you try it

http://www.xbmchub.com/blog/2012/08/13/parental-control-for-xbmc-addons/

Keep all shares password protected with mounts/drives only available to xbmc PCs.

Re:Parental control by cusco · 2013-01-04 15:19 · Score: 5, Insightful

Is everyone serious? Have you never heard of NTFS? Put all the movies he's allowed to access in a folder with Full Control permissions for Everyone. Put the movies that you don't want him to get in a different folder, remove Everyone from the Access Control List, give Full Control to the Administrators group or just to your user account. When you're logged in you can access everything, when he's logged in he can only access his folder.

It ain't rocket surgery.

--
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Re:Parental control by cusco · 2013-01-04 15:30 · Score: 2

Oh. I'm a moron. Just re-read the summary and realized it wasn't a Windows machine. The principle is the same for Linux permissions.

--
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Re:Parental control by lister+king+of+smeg · 2013-01-04 19:36 · Score: 2

Yeah just give the kids there own user account and remove his read permissions to the files for videos above his maturity.

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---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
Re:Parental control by godatum · 2013-01-05 07:06 · Score: 1

Obviously managing folder/file permissions is a simple solution. My approach is even simpler, password protect the share and never give kids access. Make them create their own shares and teach them the process. I think we should be calling it Parenting and not Parent Control (who really can control kids?).
Re:Parental control by strikethree · 2013-01-06 21:01 · Score: 1

Put all the movies he's allowed to access in a folder with Full Control permissions for Everyone.

Full Control? No. Read Only. Full Control should ONLY be for an account that needs to modify the contents of the shares. Viewers do not need to modify or add. But you are essentially correct, this is merely a "permissions" issue on the folders unless there is no authorization possible on the viewer interface.

--
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen

Re:Safe from kids? No problem! by Nyder · 2013-01-04 12:50 · Score: 1

...

P.S. When I was a kid, I saw porn. It didn't "harm me." I'm a normal guy.

When I was a kid, I didn't see porn, and it harmed me. I didn't know much about sex, didn't understand how to please women, shit, I didn't even realize how women masturbated till I was much older. Porn at least would of gave me insight on the art of sex and how to help switch it from a self act, to a pleasing act for the other.

Of course, practice makes perfect, but who wants to have sex with a guy who only knows how to please himself? Besides hookers.

Well, now you decided if I'm being funny or insightful.

--
Be seeing you...

Re:Protecting a child's innocence is a futile effo by jamesh · 2013-01-04 12:54 · Score: 1

Just show them Back Door Sluts 9, show them how it's done. Theyll see it eventually anyway so its better that they'd see it in a controlled environment. I saw the 'bad' stuff when i was just a wee boy as well, never did me any harm did it?

This nonsense of 'not showing the R-rated' stuff is mostly just to console the parents really. They knew they were wrong when they allowed a child to be born into this harsh and cruel world and would rather the child think that things are rosy for another couple of years until it is absolutely impossible to keep up the lie any longer.

Little kids have enough to learn about the world without worrying about the finer points of sex. They'll see it eventually, and eventually is when they should see it.

And if a movie called "Back Door Sluts 9" is your idea of "how it's done", then I'm guessing harm has been done and you're probably doing it wrong. Porn is done for the benefit of the audience, sex is done for the benefit of the participants. Kids shouldn't be learning about sex from porn, and should only be seeing porn once they are old enough to understand the difference between the two.

To illustrate the point to an older child, maybe sit them down in front of their favorite computer game (do people still play WoW?) and film them. Constantly tell them that they are in the way of the screen. Tell them to change their armor or other aspects of their character because it doesn't look right. Get them to fight battles that are visually pleasing, not necessarily fun.

The Simple Way by TechnoLuddite · 2013-01-04 12:55 · Score: 1

Somewhat surprised to find this hasn't been suggested already: remove all non-G-rated material.

Re:Safe from kids? No problem! by erroneus · 2013-01-04 12:59 · Score: 1

I'm going to go with obvious. Sex is part of who we all are at so many levels. Disney has been making billions exploiting kids and sexuality. And doesn't everyone know that keeping something away from children only makes them want it more?

Safe? by X10 · 2013-01-04 13:08 · Score: 1

Safe from kids? Why wouldn't you want your kids to see things that are perfectly normal for human beings? You want your kids to be ignorant? Ignorance is a main cause of teen pregnancies, did you know that?

--
no, I don't have a sig

What's wrong with horror movies? by devent · 2013-01-04 13:09 · Score: 1

When I was a kid I loved horror movies. Nightmare on Elms Street, monster movies,
The best horror movie was with a monster that came from the sea and got people with tentacles and eat them. I think I had nightmares for weeks and I'm still looking for a movie that can scary me like I was 6 years.

I think the "reality" shows on the TV make way more damage to the young generation then any horror, action or porn movie ever could. So what if he gets a few nights nightmares? That is what to be a kid is all about.

As long as you don't have some really perverted movies, let him watch what he likes.
Kids get bad because of the parents not because of some movie.

--
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute

Re:two choices by telchine · 2013-01-04 13:12 · Score: 5, Funny

OP is asking how to secure media on a media server...and one of the solutions is to put them on a media server?

Well, yes, that;s not such a bad idea. Have two media servers - one open and one locked down.
Perhaps a third one too ;)

What state would the third one be in? Open and locked down at the same time? Is that the set-up that Schrodinger opted for with his media?

Come on... by PopeRatzo · 2013-01-04 13:14 · Score: 3, Funny

Why don't you just admit you don't want your wife seeing your collection of My Little Pony hentai?

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You are welcome on my lawn.

File all my porn ... by PPH · 2013-01-04 13:24 · Score: 2

... in a folder named 'Merchant Ivory'.

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Have gnu, will travel.

Encryption by hawguy · 2013-01-04 13:28 · Score: 1

For the videos I really want to keep from prying eyes, I keep them in an encfs encrypted folder that only I know the password to, then I mount it when I want to use it.

It's all full of educational videos, of course.

Re:two choices by Artifakt · 2013-01-04 13:29 · Score: 2

I'm seeing this as a hardware and software combined solution, if the user can afford hardware solutions at all - A house server with everything the user wants backed up, and a smaller file server, or just an end user device with some internal storage, just for the kid frendly stuff, plus software to make it so the kid's server or whatever machine can''t pull, but only be pushed to, to load it from the main server. Ideally, if you ran whatever network software was on the kid's server, it wouldn't even show the main server on its lists. Combine this with the main server being in the parent's bedroom, study, dad's den, or wherever it can be locked away without being to difficult for the parents to use, and with the kid's server not being able to access the internet without a password, or even not being able to access the internet directly at all, glue over any USB or card ports, and the kids probably won't be able to bypass all that until at least age 9.

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Who is John Cabal?

AppleTV by Swampash · 2013-01-04 13:35 · Score: 1

You're welcome.

myth, xbmc by stonebit · 2013-01-04 13:40 · Score: 1

MythTV has a rating system with password protection depending on rating. You can have Myth grab the MPAA and use that or set it yourself. I don't think xbmc has that, but you could try out Myth. It's a bit more trouble to setup than xbmc, which really 'just works' OOB, but i think it's GUI is way better than xbmc.

Of course they're just educational by Isara · 2013-01-04 14:02 · Score: 1

Why else would you feel the need to mount them?

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BOOP!

What I'm doing: by MMC+Monster · 2013-01-04 14:02 · Score: 1

I have a 6 year old son and a 9 year old daughter.

My NAS device exposes 4 folders: TV, Movies, Children's TV, Children's Movies.

In the only room the kids are allowed to watch unsupervised, the XBMC only has the children's 2 folders installed. In the family room and master bedroom everything's available (and the kids are always supervised in these rooms).

None of the computers hooked up to the TVs have keyboards or mice attached. The kids are allowed to control their XBMC using the iPad or old iPhone that runs the free XBMC remote application. (To keep costs down, their XBMC runs raspbmc on a Raspberry PI.) In our bedroom and family room we use a universal remote.

I suppose when the kids are old enough to mess with the configurations of the XBMC, I may need to be more careful. Though at that point, messing with the system would be considered a punishable offence.

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Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.

Re:What I'm doing: by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 14:23 · Score: 1

Hilarious. You "keep costs down" by using an ipad as a remote to a raspberry pi. Do you also keep costs down by putting your caviar in plastic tupperware?
Re:What I'm doing: by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2013-01-05 00:08 · Score: 1

A reasonable person who's not just looking for cheap laughs might actually read what the GP said, and infer that they (a) already had an iPad, which can be used to control multiple XMBC instances, and (b) bought the Raspberry Pi instead of a more expensive device to act as the kids' XMBC server.
But you go right on ahead and keep amusing yourself. I'm sure that's much more satisfying than actually bothering to understand what you read.

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Il n'y a pas de Planet B.

Trust & Communication by xushi · 2013-01-04 14:04 · Score: 1

Honestly.. I think you should (also?) talk to your kids and explain your reasons as well as have trust in them to do the right thing - of course, some form of prevention at that early age is also needed, but don't forget the latter. Like you said, any security you'll put will probably be eventually broken by them, but it's always good to let them know the reason you're doing it..

It's kind of like the other issues you'll eventually face, such as smoking, early parenthood, drugs.. no way you can prevent them with all the monitoring tools in the world.. but if you talk to them and explain it, you could be surprised at the results.

Hope this helps.. Good luck :)

Easy way to stop him... by buss_error · 2013-01-04 14:13 · Score: 1

sudo su -

useradd dad
passwd dad

useradd son
passwd -d son

cd ~/movies

chown -R dad:dad *
chmod -R 500 *
^D

--
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

Re:two choices by arth1 · 2013-01-04 14:16 · Score: 4, Insightful

The third one being the one the spouse doesn't get to see...

Different users by wgoodman · 2013-01-04 14:53 · Score: 1

XBMC allows different users. Have your network share set with multiple user accounts, only give access to certain movies on the kid account. Then you can watch any kid-safe movie without a password, and you can watch anything at all with the proper password.

Discuss what things are appropriate by musicon · 2013-01-04 15:23 · Score: 2

Unfortunately, children will explore and learn things you don't want them to regardless how much we will (or want to) shelter them.

That said, the solution my wife and I have is we tell them certain things are appropriate, and others are not. When they're older, they can view them, but for now it's not appropriate.

We have two Popcorn C-300s, and the media I don't want the kids to watch are in a separate directory called "Not Appropriate". That way, you don't have to go nuts with security and lockdowns, and your kids know what's there. Knowing the media is there but shouldn't be viewed also teaches them self-restraint.

Re:two choices by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 15:49 · Score: 2, Funny

I just don't have kids.

No one mentioned Truecrypt? by zuki · 2013-01-04 16:33 · Score: 3, Informative

Buy a humongous hard drive (3Tb is good). Make a giant Truecrypt partition, like at least 1 Tera, ensuring that it's the type that can accommodate files larger than 4 gigs. (NTFS for Windows, HFS+ for OS-X)

Copy all those movies to this partition while it is mounted. Unmount it... Then just mount it again with password when needed to either watch a movie or copy new ones into the partition.

If you run out of room, make a second partition on the same disk with the same password.

All done.

Use Mediaportal... by Fallen+Kell · 2013-01-04 16:47 · Score: 1

Under features: Add Config Filters i.e. for kids movies, documentaries, or adult films Password protection by config - protected films never display for other users, not even the cover or fanart! Only downside is that it is Windows only (but for me that is not an issue as my HTPC is also a gaming system, which requires Windows).

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We were all warned a long time ago that MS products sucked, remember the Magic 8 Ball said, "Outlook not so good"

Re:two choices by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-04 16:47 · Score: 1

First of all - the topic question doesn't seem the same that was in article, because I thought, that the question was how to keep data SAFE from kids actions - they can delete or move folders, as well...

If you are concerned about kids sanity, then passwords for prying eyes won't help. My parents had different approach - they told me quite frequently that I shouldn't rummage through their stuff and they didn't even looked in my stuff. So, buy a sever for your kid, that would keep him occupied - share him some movies from your collection and kindly ask to stay away from your stuff, otherwise the next question in slashdot should be to ask for professional advice what psychological problems controlling parents had in the past and what kids should do to deal with such grown ups who are big kids inside their minds.

Re:Two servers by Architect_sasyr · 2013-01-04 17:17 · Score: 3, Interesting

I mount and unmount the various age-shares automatically via cron - that way the teenagers can't even watch movies during the day when they have other things to do - but the smallest can watch finding nemo whenever they have free time and a movie is their option. They can see the movies there (no porn in folders!) but can't play them if the source files aren't there.

--
Me failed English...
FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...

Relax or get seriously bent, those are the options by VortexCortex · 2013-01-04 17:33 · Score: 4, Funny

Imagine it man, Kids running around nude in Africa have more knowledge about real life than your sheltered children. They know how babies are made because they got the water from the stream and helped out with some other birth, rather than some nurse. They know of the finality and consequence of death and respect danger because they've gutted animals to help their parents cook, or even killed beasts themselves. Hell, these 3rd world kids will be giving back to their community while yours will be throwing tantrums about not getting some worthless toy -- And you're worried about censorship? Damn, seek professional help or chill, the actual fuck, out.

You didn't turn out all fucked up despite knowing so much more about computers than your parents, and seeing the things you did that your parents wouldn't have approved of. Your parents didn't even inform you about masturbation! Why are you raising your children to be so damn ignorant about the world? Look, I don't really care why. Thing is, you're a parent now, time to man up and delete the damn movies if you don't want your kid to see them, and you can't be troubled to actually learn how to fucking USE *nix file system permissions or set up accounts on a damn multi-user OS. I mean, you come HERE? Asking US?! "What would Slashdot have me do?" Well, first off I'd have you neutered, you ignorant son of a bitch (that's right, I just called your mom a bitch -- it's for not being OK with what you wanted to watch when you were a kid), then secondly I'd ship your kid to a 3rd world country where they may die, but at least they won't be brain damaged by the likes of a lamer like you!

Re:two choices by noh8rz9 · 2013-01-04 18:02 · Score: 5, Funny

Am I the only one who infers an extensive porno collection, lovingly curated with covers and fan art?

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let's have a conversation! let me know what you think.

Create profiles by agendi · 2013-01-04 18:09 · Score: 1

XBMC supports user profiles. I have a Kids, General, Mature profile. The kids can watch whatever is in the Kids profile, no pin set, and so can any carers. The General is Kids+ the rest of the movies and TV shows which it is okay for the content to be watched while we are nearby to supervise/explain. General is what I would generally have loaded by default. Mature is any video/TV that I don't want the kids to watch yet - pin protected. So far it works really well. Just have three directories per set that hold the content as you decide they fit the scheme. Kids only reads from TV - Kids and Movie - Kids, General reads Kids + General, Mature reads Kids + General + Mature etc.

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I just can't be bothered.

Re:two choices by smallfries · 2013-01-04 18:17 · Score: 1

Are you assuming that Schrodinger never watched his collection?

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Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php

Re:two choices by ls671 · 2013-01-04 19:46 · Score: 1

Yep, when kid comes, you definitely need a third media server. I got along fine with 2 before that.

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Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.

Physical access trumps permissions by dbIII · 2013-01-04 21:25 · Score: 1

Then at twelve you find out the kid is smart enough to work out that physical access to the hardware can lead to full control :)
It's the old "put it on the top shelf" solution upgraded to the electronic age with a different ladder.
If it's really important to keep it away from the kids for a long time you need a locket gun cabinet style solution instead of just putting stuff on a difficult to get to top shelf. A portable drive in a locked drawer may do that trick.

Re:Physical access trumps permissions by DarwinSurvivor · 2013-01-05 00:26 · Score: 1

Then at twelve you find out the kid is smart enough to work out that physical access to the hardware can lead to full control :) It's the old "put it on the top shelf" solution upgraded to the electronic age with a different ladder. If it's really important to keep it away from the kids for a long time you need a locket gun cabinet style solution instead of just putting stuff on a difficult to get to top shelf. A portable drive in a locked drawer may do that trick.
Think again
Re:Physical access trumps permissions by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-05 02:08 · Score: 1

File cabinets are pretty easy to get into; they're not like gun safes.
So you have to be realistic at some point: If a kid is smart and determined enough to circumvent file restrictions via physical access, she or he can also likely work out how to open a locked drawer (or just steal the key), and should probably be able to decide whether to watch something or not. What you're mostly trying to prevent is inadvertently stumbling over unsuitable content while browsing, not a targeted and deliberate attempt to break the security. R-rated films aren't like guns, either; you can't shoot yourself in the face with one.

Re:Safe from kids? No problem! by dbIII · 2013-01-04 22:10 · Score: 1

I didn't even see a condom until I was over twenty, and I saw it when the Police had broken into a University toilet block to remove a condom vending machine which was against the law at that time. By then some girls I knew of the same age already had unwanted five year old kids and had never seen a condom either. Seeing a bit of porn may have helped my generation more than harmed it if we'd had the chance, and censorship extending to forbidding sex education and restricting access to contraceptives definitely did do harm.

Get your kid to value your opinions by YoungManKlaus · 2013-01-05 01:11 · Score: 1

Seriously, build a healthy relationship with your kid and tell them about why some films are not appropriate for them. Get your kid to value your opinions (_opinions_, not laws) and if they are half intelligent they will probably come and ask if a film they saw is appropriate for them or not. Also, tag your films with age recommendations (however you see appropriate) as a guide.

Re:two choices by azalin · 2013-01-05 01:21 · Score: 3, Funny

I'm not sure what fan art for porno movies would look like, but neither am I sure if I really want to know.

Re:two choices by azalin · 2013-01-05 01:25 · Score: 1

I guess that state would be locked UP - or strange maybe

Re:two choices by hairyfeet · 2013-01-05 02:58 · Score: 2

Actually its even easier than that, windows media Center has parental controls so you can require a password before it will play above a certain rating, and you can always hide the folders that have the R rated movies as WMC won't have any problem playing from hidden folders, just put in your password when it comes time to watch your R rated movies and tada! It all works easy peasy.

If you would like to have all the artwork and synopsis and the full nine yards but don't feel like doing all that work I'd suggest just following this simple how to which provides links to the two little freeware programs that will set the whole thing up and do all the work for you. if you want the movies hidden from prying eyes when you first run Yammm which is the program that takes care of all the metadata and artwork simply check "hide playlist members" under settings (if you forget you'll find the config in your all programs or can type yam from the start box) and that is all there is to it, if the kid goes to the folder all he will see is an empty folder, the actual video files will be hidden. Too easy and you really don't have to do anything, just let it run its service (less than 35Mb when its downloading the artwork) and ignore it.

One word for the impatient, because the dev didn't want to slam the free movie DB he has it take its time downloading artwork, I've found with around 300 movies it takes about a day for the whole thing to be updated, but of course you can fire up WMC right away, it'll just take about a day for all the artwork and data about each individual movie to be integrated into WMC. But once it does...wow, you have a full synopsis with art, date the movie was made, genre, its all filled out, and of course for young and old its easier to just click on the poster of the movie you want instead of reading down a list,

so give it a try, I've been using this on my HTPCs as well as my own PC for a few months now and its great and if you add more movies later simply rerun file2folderGUI again, takes less than 10 seconds and it'll put everything in the correct folder format so the metadata can be applied.

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ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.

Re:two choices by Hognoxious · 2013-01-05 03:04 · Score: 1

Typically with stories tagged askslashdot you need only read the submission itself. Or do you mean you have that esoteric abillity to answer questions you don't know?

He's clearly responding to just the title, you pompous assburger.

--
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."

Re:two choices by beowulfcluster · 2013-01-05 03:30 · Score: 3

Yeah I think we all know this has nothing to do with hiding Terminator from the kids but hiding the porn from the girlfriend.

Or from mum, since this is Slashdot.

Re:two choices by demonlapin · 2013-01-05 04:43 · Score: 2

There's a description here of how someone did this with Plex, basically you create a second library consisting of all kids' movies and make it a separate share. The kids' logins only get them access to those movies. You have a different library with all the movies. (You could even put the really adults-only content in yet another library, should you choose.)

You could do something similar with different shares on a NAS. I've got a Synology and the DS Video app is quite handy for iPads, etc., so I'd probably leave the kids' movies there and put the inappropriate stuff in folders I would access directly.

Re:Two servers by demonlapin · 2013-01-05 04:45 · Score: 1

All assuming the kids won't share passwords with each other... probably this is one for which the technical solution won't be fine-grained enough until the computer can recognize everyone in the room and shut down if there are any viewers who aren't allowed to watch this movie at this time.

Worry about more than your movies by mdf356 · 2013-01-05 04:50 · Score: 2

I wouldn't worry too hard about keeping your kids from seeing your movies -- they're too long to be interesting, mostly. The real issue is once your kid figures out how to click around on youtube. You'll start them with Sesame Street or something and when you turn back they're watching a kid pretend Elmo is being butt-raped, with graphic commentary.

YouTube "related video" links are the real problem in this space.

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Terrorist, bomb, al Qaeda, nuclear, yellowcake, kill, assassinate. Carnivore is dead... long live Echelon.

Re:two choices by unitron · 2013-01-05 22:01 · Score: 1

A real /.'er eschews the links, the article, and the title.

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I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

But Eve Online! by hendrikboom · 2013-01-06 03:54 · Score: 1

What if they play Eve online? Then they'll understand about banking cartels and sharp trading and all that stuff.

Re:But Eve Online! by readin · 2013-01-06 08:11 · Score: 1

That's another example of why I disagree on the "dumber and less capable" comment. Kids aren't dumber, they're just learning different things. As for the question of foreign policy - I'm not so concerned that they won't understand the intricacies of money and trading. If we compare banking and trade to gambling, I'm not concerned about whether they will understand gamblers working together to cheat the system, or that they won't understand the subtle probabilities presented by each hand, or that they won't understand that people will bluff and otherwise decieve. My concern is they will forget that a "Smith and Wesson beats four aces". Or just as dangerous, they may believe that they'll always be able to talk people into not bringing a Smith and Wesson to the game.

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I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.

Re:two choices by HornWumpus · 2013-01-06 04:53 · Score: 1

We infer the content of TFA from the posts.

--
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'

Re:two choices by RockDoctor · 2013-01-11 13:51 · Score: 1

... or maybe it's the Mum trying to hide her porn collection from her kid, the OP?

--
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"

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