Another thing you can do to protect data is to install laptop anti-theft software to ensure that important data doesn't fall into the wrong hands. I have experience with this software because I did some work for the company that developed a product called Laptop Cop.
Laptop Cop allows you to remotely delete or retrieve files over the Internet in the event that a laptop gets stolen. You can also monitor and control everything the thief does by logging into the web-based UI.
Lots of companies are using it to protect their data and also understand why the laptop was stolen in the first place (to play video games? to conduct coporate espionage?) Because it lets you see all computer activity from the stolen laptop, you can know if the thief is trying to access confidential information or simply using it for their own personal reasons.
It also gives you a confirmation of the deletion of data so that you know it was destroyed. And it deletes it to a U.S. Dept. of Defense standard that makes it unrecoverable regardless of the techniques used.
I tested the product myself and it did what they claim. As long as the stolen pc gets an Internet connection, all is well which according to the FBI's crime statistics happens in 93% of the time.
As a mother of three kids (two boys, 1 girl) I'd like to throw my $. 02 in the ring here and say that being able to monitor my kids has been an amazing help.
First, let me say that there's no substitute for talking with your kids.
That said:
There are plenty of instances where the responsible thing for parents to
do is to also monitor their computer activities. Among other
reasons, here's why:
1.) Kids just don't always make the best decisions and often don't recognize the
jeopardy they may be placing themselves in. (Sure, a few people do always
make the best decisions, but that's definitely the exception and not the rule.)
2.) Youngsters and "tweens" are particularly vulnerable because
they just don't have the social bearings to grasp what their actions or
a predators words and actions really mean. There are *countless*
ploys and tricks predators use to lure unsuspecting kids into being
their prey. You would be shocked and amazed at the sheer cunning
involved by these folks. We're talking stuff that makes phishing look
pretty mundane. Don't believe me, just watch a couple of episodes of Oprah or Dateline's To Catch a Predator series. If you have kids, it these stories will keep you up at night.
...and last but not least:
3.) Monitoring can make the aforementioned discussions possible. How's
that? Often kids go to great lengths to hide their actions-- particularly
online--from their parents. (My oldest son had two Myspace pages. One that was really tame that he told me about, and one that was outrageous that he hid from me! - When he turns 30 I'll admit to him that I actually thought that was pretty clever. But not till he's 30.) What monitoring software gives you is the chance to see your kids in their natural habitat, and see what's really going on in their lives. When you know what's really going on, you start to understand your kids better, and it makes relating to them and talking to them much easier and effective.
Just to be clear, I don't monitor my kids because I think their bad - they're good kids. And I'm not spying on them and trying to catch them doing bad things. But I most certainly snoop around to make sure that they're safe. That's it. I just want to make sure they're safe. Period. And unfortunately, they're not mature enough to keep themselves safe. That's where parents and monitoring software come in.
God knows I LOVE my Mac, but resellers complaining about Apple stealing their ideas is like a hooker crying about the color of bed sheets. When you've got Olaf the thunder stud dumping STD's across your face, you've got bigger problems to conted with.
Apple's resellers need to stop wasting time in the court room and start selling some fruit. Apple's got less than 5% market share, and I can't hardly wave at people with PC's.
Vegetables might be nasty, but they're good for you. Researchers have found similar tumor-squashing results by injecting a brocolli compound directly into cancer cells. The brocolli composition disrupts the cancer cells ability to divide, thus neutralizing the cancer.
Only catch is, they're not sure yet about the effects of simply eating brocolli. For now, you'll have to inject. And mommy said needles were bad.
This is not a good idea at anytime. In fact, a draconian police force with instructions to crush science under their bootheels is the only sensible solution.
OK... I'm kidding, but only a little.
I love science, am completely fascinated by it, but its destructive potential is too great to be ignored. (For a nice little preview of the plethora of horrific possibilities read "Our Final Hour" by Martin J. Reese - a scientist) While I'm sure that we could all learn a lot from stem cell research and herds of cloned sheep and other assorted barnyard animals, are we really ready for what will follow once we have mastered gene manipulation?
First it's Dolly the sheep and curing muscular diseases, but next it's Dolly Parton and super models that stay thin by eating Big Macs and twinkies. Think what that would do to the all natural girls who have to barf to stay thin. Really, what happens to the human spirit when each generation is genetically superior to the one that came before it? For instance, what happens when you isolate the gene responsible for insulin resistance and create a person that can literally eat ANYTHING and stay thin? What happens when you mutate the myostatin gene and create a race of super-athletes who don't have to work out, but are still bigger, faster and stronger than the giants in the NFL? Or, even better, what happens when you identify the gene responsible for genius in problem solving? Why would an employer hire last year's model when this year's model thinks so much faster?
I know it sounds a little silly, but it's not. That's where science is headed if somebody doesn't apply the breaks. We will literally create a class system that is so brutally stratified that there is no way to move beyond the group you were born into. And if you are thinking that this is all too far-fetched, think about this: As reported in Discover magazine, scientists have already found a way to gene dope mice by placing altered DNA into a host virus and then injecting the mice with it. The injected mice grow something like 20 to 30 percent WITHOUT EXERCISE.
That's the science in its infancy. What happens when it grows up and we really figure some stuff out?
So, what do we do? I don't know. I feel just as bad about people suffering from diseases as the next guy, but handing out licenses to scientists to clone human embryos isn't the best answer.
For better or worse I think it's inevitable that Hollywood is going to start sucking face with the game industry. I think that the reason the two industries didn't blend well the last time was because games lacked the visceral qualities of film, so turning movies into games always fell flat. The games always felt like ten pounds of lame ass when compared to the bigger than life blockbusters. And the story lines of games weren't deep enough to turn into a film. Not to mention that a decade ago the average age of gamers was significantly younger than it is now, leading to more immature content. You didn't have the kind of hard hitting story lines that we are beginning to see in games today that could potentially make interesting film franchises.
Nowadays, games are getting pretty realistic. The visuals are more stunning by the day (so much so that one gamespot.com reviewer said an in-game stripper gave him a chubby - his words, not mine), and with more disc space, the stories are getting deeper and more impressive.
As Hollywood talent finds itself drawn more and more into video games (Bryan Singer - director of X-men 1 and 2 is developing a game, Vin Diesel got involved, and countless actors such as Samuel L. Jackson are making high-profile appearances in games) it only makes sense for the studios to follow the talent (and money, of course)
Now, I'm not saying any of this is a good idea, or something that gamers or film goes should be happy about, just that it makes fiscal sense. As games get even more photo-realistic on the next generation of consoles, the line between film and game is going to blur even further. And lord knows games make money.
All we can really do is hope that when Hollywood buys a game company, they give us the video game equivalent of The Shawshank Redemption and not Dude, Where's My Car?
Slashdot Mirror
Another thing you can do to protect data is to install laptop anti-theft software to ensure that important data doesn't fall into the wrong hands. I have experience with this software because I did some work for the company that developed a product called Laptop Cop.
Laptop Cop allows you to remotely delete or retrieve files over the Internet in the event that a laptop gets stolen. You can also monitor and control everything the thief does by logging into the web-based UI.
Lots of companies are using it to protect their data and also understand why the laptop was stolen in the first place (to play video games? to conduct coporate espionage?) Because it lets you see all computer activity from the stolen laptop, you can know if the thief is trying to access confidential information or simply using it for their own personal reasons.
It also gives you a confirmation of the deletion of data so that you know it was destroyed. And it deletes it to a U.S. Dept. of Defense standard that makes it unrecoverable regardless of the techniques used.
I tested the product myself and it did what they claim. As long as the stolen pc gets an Internet connection, all is well which according to the FBI's crime statistics happens in 93% of the time.
You can learn more if you're interested here:
http://www.laptopcopsoftware.com/
As a mother of three kids (two boys, 1 girl) I'd like to throw my $. 02 in the ring here and say that being able to monitor my kids has been an amazing help.
...and last but not least:
3.) Monitoring can make the aforementioned discussions possible. How's
that? Often kids go to great lengths to hide their actions-- particularly
online--from their parents. (My oldest son had two Myspace pages. One that was really tame that he told me about, and one that was outrageous that he hid from me! - When he turns 30 I'll admit to him that I actually thought that was pretty clever. But not till he's 30.) What monitoring software gives you is the chance to see your kids in their natural habitat, and see what's really going on in their lives. When you know what's really going on, you start to understand your kids better, and it makes relating to them and talking to them much easier and effective.
First, let me say that there's no substitute for talking with your kids. That said:
There are plenty of instances where the responsible thing for parents to do is to also monitor their computer activities. Among other reasons, here's why:
1.) Kids just don't always make the best decisions and often don't recognize the jeopardy they may be placing themselves in. (Sure, a few people do always make the best decisions, but that's definitely the exception and not the rule.)
2.) Youngsters and "tweens" are particularly vulnerable because they just don't have the social bearings to grasp what their actions or a predators words and actions really mean. There are *countless* ploys and tricks predators use to lure unsuspecting kids into being their prey. You would be shocked and amazed at the sheer cunning involved by these folks. We're talking stuff that makes phishing look pretty mundane. Don't believe me, just watch a couple of episodes of Oprah or Dateline's To Catch a Predator series. If you have kids, it these stories will keep you up at night.
Just to be clear, I don't monitor my kids because I think their bad - they're good kids. And I'm not spying on them and trying to catch them doing bad things. But I most certainly snoop around to make sure that they're safe. That's it. I just want to make sure they're safe. Period. And unfortunately, they're not mature enough to keep themselves safe. That's where parents and monitoring software come in.
I found this site with reviews on what's available: monitoring software reviews I ended up settling on this one: parental control software.
God knows I LOVE my Mac, but resellers complaining about Apple stealing their ideas is like a hooker crying about the color of bed sheets. When you've got Olaf the thunder stud dumping STD's across your face, you've got bigger problems to conted with.
Apple's resellers need to stop wasting time in the court room and start selling some fruit. Apple's got less than 5% market share, and I can't hardly wave at people with PC's.
Vegetables might be nasty, but they're good for you. Researchers have found similar tumor-squashing results by injecting a brocolli compound directly into cancer cells. The brocolli composition disrupts the cancer cells ability to divide, thus neutralizing the cancer.
Only catch is, they're not sure yet about the effects of simply eating brocolli. For now, you'll have to inject. And mommy said needles were bad.
This is not a good idea at anytime. In fact, a draconian police force with instructions to crush science under their bootheels is the only sensible solution.
OK... I'm kidding, but only a little.
I love science, am completely fascinated by it, but its destructive potential is too great to be ignored. (For a nice little preview of the plethora of horrific possibilities read "Our Final Hour" by Martin J. Reese - a scientist) While I'm sure that we could all learn a lot from stem cell research and herds of cloned sheep and other assorted barnyard animals, are we really ready for what will follow once we have mastered gene manipulation?
First it's Dolly the sheep and curing muscular diseases, but next it's Dolly Parton and super models that stay thin by eating Big Macs and twinkies. Think what that would do to the all natural girls who have to barf to stay thin. Really, what happens to the human spirit when each generation is genetically superior to the one that came before it? For instance, what happens when you isolate the gene responsible for insulin resistance and create a person that can literally eat ANYTHING and stay thin? What happens when you mutate the myostatin gene and create a race of super-athletes who don't have to work out, but are still bigger, faster and stronger than the giants in the NFL? Or, even better, what happens when you identify the gene responsible for genius in problem solving? Why would an employer hire last year's model when this year's model thinks so much faster?
I know it sounds a little silly, but it's not. That's where science is headed if somebody doesn't apply the breaks. We will literally create a class system that is so brutally stratified that there is no way to move beyond the group you were born into. And if you are thinking that this is all too far-fetched, think about this: As reported in Discover magazine, scientists have already found a way to gene dope mice by placing altered DNA into a host virus and then injecting the mice with it. The injected mice grow something like 20 to 30 percent WITHOUT EXERCISE.
That's the science in its infancy. What happens when it grows up and we really figure some stuff out?
So, what do we do? I don't know. I feel just as bad about people suffering from diseases as the next guy, but handing out licenses to scientists to clone human embryos isn't the best answer.
For better or worse I think it's inevitable that Hollywood is going to start sucking face with the game industry. I think that the reason the two industries didn't blend well the last time was because games lacked the visceral qualities of film, so turning movies into games always fell flat. The games always felt like ten pounds of lame ass when compared to the bigger than life blockbusters. And the story lines of games weren't deep enough to turn into a film. Not to mention that a decade ago the average age of gamers was significantly younger than it is now, leading to more immature content. You didn't have the kind of hard hitting story lines that we are beginning to see in games today that could potentially make interesting film franchises. Nowadays, games are getting pretty realistic. The visuals are more stunning by the day (so much so that one gamespot.com reviewer said an in-game stripper gave him a chubby - his words, not mine), and with more disc space, the stories are getting deeper and more impressive. As Hollywood talent finds itself drawn more and more into video games (Bryan Singer - director of X-men 1 and 2 is developing a game, Vin Diesel got involved, and countless actors such as Samuel L. Jackson are making high-profile appearances in games) it only makes sense for the studios to follow the talent (and money, of course) Now, I'm not saying any of this is a good idea, or something that gamers or film goes should be happy about, just that it makes fiscal sense. As games get even more photo-realistic on the next generation of consoles, the line between film and game is going to blur even further. And lord knows games make money. All we can really do is hope that when Hollywood buys a game company, they give us the video game equivalent of The Shawshank Redemption and not Dude, Where's My Car?