Prior to having children I was full of opinions on how to be a good parent.
Only after becoming a parent and gaining some perspective did I realize I knew nothing at all.
My guess is most of the/. readers commenting on this article are as clueless as I was.
I do code reviews and performance reviews with a reasonable sample size. The difference in the product is based on the knowledge, experience, and professionalism of the coder.
I leave the double-blind studies to the academics or other people with free time.
I leave the proofreading to you.
Everyone uploading copyrighted material is fully aware they are doing it, and they know there is no penalty for their actions. YouTube can stop the copyright violations immediately by changing the terms of use.
Proposed terms of use:
To open an account for uploading you must provide a valid credit card name, number, and billing address.
Your uploads will be presented with your real name, not your account name.
You agree that if you upload copyrighted material your credit card will be billed $10/view with the proceeds forwarded to the copyright holder.
> And as a spanish speaker, I feel that it has taken faaar too long to get the "ñ" in domain names. And we only have one funny letter!
Thats exactly why this can't be given to an international political body. They will just turn it into an unusable mess. I'm a Greek speaker, should Greek letters and accents be in domain names?
I think you are showing very little faith in technology. Every day you rely on technology of all forms to make your life possible. There will always be imperfect implementations and imperfect usage. That's how we learn and improve.
I think my kids have a long way to go to catch up to my technical knowledge. If they prove me wrong then I'll be proud of their ingenuity - and then raise the bar.
So lets summarise the objections, mostly I'll bet from the non-parents
"I don't want to pay for it" - but you have no idea what it costs. That said, I would have no problem with paying extra.
"It's censorship" - it's a rating system and a means to apply filters.
"Technology will not solve anything" - interesting lack of faith from readers in a technology blog.
"It's not a substitute for parenting" - no one said it is.
"They will figure out how to circumvent it" - Maybe, and maybe not. Either way, it's not your problem.
"You can just turn off the TV" - yes, all or nothing, thats the right answer.
"They will just go elsewhere to do..." - When they are older. In any case I have to run my home as I see fit. Just because Timmy's parents let him do whatever doesn't mean I have to buy in.
"Teach them right from wrong, so they'll do what's good for them" - Yes, kids will always do what's good for them. Right.
Please explain the far reaching powers and the nature of the anticipated abuse.
As currently implemented it is a filtering technology that allows the purchaser of the product/service to establish filters consistent with the way they wish the product/service to be used. Expanding the capabilities of the filtering does not mandate its use.
There already is technology built in to my cable box that prevents me from obtaining content or services I did not pay for. Why shouldn't I be able to determine the access rights to content and services I did pay for?
Different ages, different solutions. My kids are all under 13.
I don't expect technology alone to completely solve anything. It can help though. No reason not to leverage the technology made available for the purpose. At this point I'm a lot more technically skilled then they are. My oldest already know that if they consistently abuse their privileges it will be easy for me to cut them off completely.
Just recently I put a new digital tuner tv in my kitchen. No premium decoder attached. My 5 year old is trying to find SpongeBob and instead gets 'HBO cathouse'. It seems that on-demand programming requested by your neighbors can get picked up by any digital tv on the block in a certain channel range. Leaving them unblocked makes no sense to me.
Just because I can't control what happens outside my house doesn't mean I shouldn't control what happens inside it.
I have four with a 12 year age span. I spend a lot of time with all of them. I can't monitor everything they do, all of the time, and I don't want to.
Just because they know what they are supposed to do doesn't mean they actually will do it.
So yes, I use the TV parental controls to keep them from surfing where they should not be.
I use McAcfee and SpectorPro on my computer to monitor and set internet access levels and time limits.
The technology gives parents the power to enforce the limits they wish to set. If you don't want to set any, or dont want to enforce them, that's your perogative.
We should all be in favor of using significantly higher gas and road toll taxes to discourage people from driving. It would save fuel, reduce traffic, cut pollution and global warming, and reduce the wear and tear on the roads.
As a side benefit reducing the number of poor people on the roads will make driving much more enjoyable for those us who can afford it.
It's a win/win all around!
Slashdot Mirror
Prior to having children I was full of opinions on how to be a good parent. Only after becoming a parent and gaining some perspective did I realize I knew nothing at all. My guess is most of the /. readers commenting on this article are as clueless as I was.
I do code reviews and performance reviews with a reasonable sample size. The difference in the product is based on the knowledge, experience, and professionalism of the coder.
I leave the double-blind studies to the academics or other people with free time.
I leave the proofreading to you.
I have lots of coders reporting to me. You can't judge the sex, race, age, sexual orientation, etc of the coder from the quality of the code.
Proposed terms of use:
Cell phones, texting, eating, etc are nothing compared to "Driving While Parenting". I keep hoping they will ban it so I can stay home.
Thats exactly why this can't be given to an international political body. They will just turn it into an unusable mess. I'm a Greek speaker, should Greek letters and accents be in domain names?
I think my kids have a long way to go to catch up to my technical knowledge. If they prove me wrong then I'll be proud of their ingenuity - and then raise the bar.
As currently implemented it is a filtering technology that allows the purchaser of the product/service to establish filters consistent with the way they wish the product/service to be used. Expanding the capabilities of the filtering does not mandate its use.
There already is technology built in to my cable box that prevents me from obtaining content or services I did not pay for. Why shouldn't I be able to determine the access rights to content and services I did pay for?
I don't expect technology alone to completely solve anything. It can help though. No reason not to leverage the technology made available for the purpose. At this point I'm a lot more technically skilled then they are. My oldest already know that if they consistently abuse their privileges it will be easy for me to cut them off completely.
Just recently I put a new digital tuner tv in my kitchen. No premium decoder attached. My 5 year old is trying to find SpongeBob and instead gets 'HBO cathouse'. It seems that on-demand programming requested by your neighbors can get picked up by any digital tv on the block in a certain channel range. Leaving them unblocked makes no sense to me.
Just because I can't control what happens outside my house doesn't mean I shouldn't control what happens inside it.
I have four with a 12 year age span. I spend a lot of time with all of them. I can't monitor everything they do, all of the time, and I don't want to.
Just because they know what they are supposed to do doesn't mean they actually will do it.
So yes, I use the TV parental controls to keep them from surfing where they should not be. I use McAcfee and SpectorPro on my computer to monitor and set internet access levels and time limits.
The technology gives parents the power to enforce the limits they wish to set. If you don't want to set any, or dont want to enforce them, that's your perogative.
I wonder if the difficulty in copying and sharing videogames is a factor.
The lesson is you don't know what you are talking about.
We should all be in favor of using significantly higher gas and road toll taxes to discourage people from driving. It would save fuel, reduce traffic, cut pollution and global warming, and reduce the wear and tear on the roads. As a side benefit reducing the number of poor people on the roads will make driving much more enjoyable for those us who can afford it. It's a win/win all around!