Protecting children from themselves

Do you really have an idea of what people, young and old, get up to whilst on the Internet? Over the last few years of working with home and business users I've seen rather a lot of interesting sites on the users PCs; there has been the "professional" who had a hankering for pictures of men dressed like the Les Dawson character Ada, the employee who spent his time pretending to be a woman on dodgy / swinging websites, and a colleagues 13 year old son's PC that was full of same sex images, to mention only a few, I've seen quite a selection. And no, I will never tell you who they were!

Thankfully for those who do search for the usual, and sometimes the slightly unusual, are many applications to help protect you from unscrupulous websites, emails etc. Protection software such as anti-virus, spy-ware and firewall tools can help prevent the user from downloading nasty little programs that can compromise your systems. But how ever hard the protection software tries to protect you, the hackers, or more likely now days the fraudster, is one step ahead.

For those who want to control what others get up to on their computers you can always put software in place to check each website your employee/family member visits; if it is on the "black list", which are predominately made up of sex, gambling, hacking and social networking websites, the software stops their request and shows a warning message accordingly. Well those who don't know how to get round it get a message!

I feel I am quite an open minded person and respect people as individuals and therefore I'm rarely surprised by what I find. But, what I do know is that you can not underestimate the lengths some people go to when wanting access to their desired places in the Internet or covering their tracks; the one thing that's the biggest tell tale sign (and I double checked this with a few of my IT colleagues) is no signs of Internet activity what so ever... Why would you need to clean the Internet history if you have been open and honest??

When you consider your aptitude with the computer you should also consider the aptitude of your staff/family. In most cases the younger generations have far more information available to them than you can imagine. Using Google for less than 30 seconds I came across the following solution for the average surfer Click Here. In essence its a link to a "Proxy" website. If you don't listen to the YouTube video I shall explain; When you browse the Internet your computer can monitor the websites you visit and restrict you accordingly (see above). If however you go to a website that looks, for all intents and purposes, as if it has just a picture on it, then the control software generally lets it right through. Now if that picture was say interactive, as in it acted as if it was itself a website browser, some people might find it useful to use this as stepping stone to their favourite places on the net.

What this means to you and me is that there is a way of getting round expensive protection software. It leaves no trace of where they have been, and you have no control over where they go and what they get up to!

You know what its like when you are looking for a surprise for your loved one, if you are like me and like to use the Internet for purchasing items I know I will find a quiet place to take my laptop, the bedroom, bathroom, out in the shed and find that desired item. The same goes with kids, when they want to chat privately; its now normal for them to hide in their bedrooms, shut & possibly lock the door. How many times have you walked in on someone to see a frantic movement of the mouse and the screen changes dramatically from one image to something completely inane? We can only imagine what they are getting up to, conversations about kids at school, forums discussing how dreadful parents are for not letting them do this, that or the other, but sometimes it gets more involved. What I have found disturbing is when I come across images from web cams or pictures that that quite frankly should not be on their computers. I will let your mind consider that for a moment....

I appreciate we all need space, and the ability to express ourselves, but a level of control is also needed to protect our less than wise loved ones. When your kids have their respective "loving" partners over, are you happy for them to share a bed at the age of say 13/14? Maybe the person they are chatting to is not physically there with them but with webcam technology, they might as well be... And yes they can be quite explicit.

So whats the answer?

You have a number of options, software that you put on the PC to prevent your kids/partner having access to these sites, chats, etc. but as I've explained that's not always as useful as you might think, you could ban them from using the computer but we all know that their academic research relies on this technology, so you could just tell them not to visit these sites, and yes, of course that will work while you are watching... simplest solution is to watch then. Not all the time but put them in a public space in the home where they have to be sensible.

Below is a picture of a coffee bar a kind friend sent me after we talked about this subject. She has three kids who all spend a lot of time on the Internet and she found herself in the same situation as I've described. So rather than making an issue out of it she had someone build this in their kitchen. Perfect solution from my point of view. Its somewhere that the kids or adults can sit comfortably, have space for homework books, but most importantly it does not give them the opportunity to explore the areas of the net we just don't want them to be going to!

So in short, if you want to protect your loved ones from Internet abuse, make it simple, make sure the PC is in a family area, and NOT in the bedroom. You have been warned.

What really grinds my gears....

Over the last few years I’ve found driving to be increasingly frustrating. Long gone are the days of enjoying gentlemanly behaviour and respect for your fellow road user. Now it seems to be about how quickly you can get from A to B but more than that its a competition, who will exit the roundabout first, who’s car can accelerate quickest and how can I protect the queue I’m in; I will not be overtaken! I’m sure you recognise the issues, vehicles give us a greater sense of invincibility, protecting us from face to face confrontation. I guess that’s why so many feel they can get away with being “rude, obnoxious and daft, and you feel like you’ve have quite enough.” But this lack of respect for others has taken away the pleasure of driving. Getting a wave let alone an acknowledgment, or thanks, from a fellow driver is now the exception, not the rule.

With this need to be more productive with our time comes the restrictions’ our nanny state inflicts upon us. A recent government announcement has suggested we reduce speeds even further, 20mph in most built up areas, 50mph on any road with a bend in it, and but thankfully we shall still be allowed to travel at 70mph on motorways, for now.

One insurance company was working on a “Pay as you Drive” system, using a black box fitted to your car containing Sat-Nav and mobile phone technology. It tracked your location, speed, and times driven and charged you depending on your driving habits. But from what I understood it was going to be prohibitively expensive to introduce so it’s been shelved, for now. Interestingly its main revenue stream was through of the sale of the collected data to such organisations as the government.

Recently I attended a Driver Awareness Course; yes I was caught speeding, 36 in a 30 if you must know, and I found the experience to be incredibly patronising, and ironically very much one way. It did however save me from 3 points on my licence and a £60 fine. The aim of the course is to help you understand why you need to reduce you speed; to increase road safety by not killing other people. I did learn a few things from the course, mainly don't cross your arm over the centre of the steering wheel; if the airbag goes off it will hit your arm and be less effective saving you. Now I appreciate the sentiment and there is a need to increase safety on the road but the increase in monitoring our activities though devices like speed cameras, and fining us for misdemeanours does seem to be disproportionally on the increase...

What I am building up to is that driving is getting to a point where it’s a chore not a pleasure. We seem to be in a downward spiral of bad behaviour, lack of respect and an increase in the technology to control us “being free willed humans.” What we need is a way to control our speed, reducing time spent travelling, improve safety, and a solution to the way we use vehicles to assert our superiority over others. There is a solution; "Driverless Vehicles".

Can you imagine the day when you step out your front door, climb into your car, or maybe one you have summoned via the "interweb." You tell it you need to get to London, the car asked you how much you are prepared to contribute to the Carbon tax, that determines’ how fast will arrive at your destination. The vehicle sets off, manoeuvres out of suburbia, joins the traffic train and is moving at the greatest pace for the conditions. Speed limits will be a thing of the past as computer control can compensate for road conditions, potential obstacles and fuel efficiency.

Once on the highway you will be travelling at say 130+ MPH, but that could increase depending on your carbon payment, you will be part of a train increasing aerodynamic efficiently and weave smoothly in and out of the slower freight and service vehicles. >You will relax whilst catching up on the latest blog entries, reading your email, or maybe trying to sleep whilst your passengers talk about the days when they used to be able to drive for themselves, the fights they had because someone cut them up and the freedom they thought they had...

These systems are already being developed; Jeremy Clarkson was driven round the Top Gear track recently by a BMW without touching the controls (try searching Google for "Driverless BMW Top Gear"), mind you I do recall a slightly more embarrassing example of a Mercedes that was demonstrating its driverless control - imagine the seen, driving into a foggy patch on a road and unbeknown to you there is a stationary car within the fog, another Mercedes as it was. Well the idea was the driverless car would spot this via various clever sensors and swerve & brake to avoid it. Well unfortunately it didn't and ran straight into the rear. Doh!

As you can see I have described just a few of the technologies that could be combined to make this new “transport system” work. >We already have driverless trains, there is talk of busses doing it, aeroplanes spend most of their flight in auto-pilot, so why not cars?

Despite it being some what in the distant future I do find the whole idea really exciting. Not having the stress of driving would be a pleasure, knowing you arrival time within a few minutes, having time to do other things than concentrate on driving, being able to take a phone call and not worry about being caught or just having a kip, how lovely would that be? Taking away the human element of driving, incompetence, inability, tiredness, bloody-mindedness, etc. will only improve safety.

But what about those who still enjoy driving; I'm sure we shall still see events like F1 and Touring car take place, Moto GP's etc. but maybe with different fuels, track days or skid pad events, not unlike horse jumping today, who rides a horse to work nowadays?

Maybe we will be monitored, but once parameters are set the vehicle does the rest, all under the “sensible controls” allowed by the highways agency or whoever’s in control by then?

It may be a long way off but the fundamental technology is there, all we need to do is apply it.

KERS: Could it save the planet?

Some of you know I am an great fan of Motor Racing; Its been in the blood since the days of James Hunt, but most significantly due to my little brother Shawn, of Shawn Taylor Racing, who I've followed since his first motocross outing back in 1989/90.

This year the FIA introduced the option of the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) for the Formula 1 race cars. KERS is effectively a battery and electric motor system that gives the racing cars a boost of power (80bhp if you are interested), improving overtaking and charging up whilst breaking (reducing brake wear). It does however penalise the car by adding 30 kilos and weight is a premium in any racing car. It's very similar to the so call hybrid car now on the road today.

At present Ferrari, Renault and McLaren have chosen to use KERS on their cars this year but I get the impression the teams are not gaining the advantages the system was predicted to give, and like the Chinese GP Ferrari decided to ditch it for that race.

Looking at past we have seen many technologies given a huge development boost when the governing body allow access to the technology in events, like F1. The one technology that springs to mind is Active Suspension; in essence rather than the car "reacting" to the lumps, bumps and corners on the road, with the aid of computer control, the suspension became proactive, in essence preparing the suspension, by changing its stiffness, height or rebound (OK to techie for some, sorry), to allow the car to pass smoothly and stably over the road. The sad thing was it was removed not long after its introduction as it gave to much advantage to the cars that used it. But it didn't end there; now a multitude of vehicles come with active suspension as standard, mainly mid to high end vehicles, providing better road holding, more comfort and more importantly improved safety. Need more info, try this PAGE

With the present focus on the state of the economy, and more importantly to me the wasteful way we use energy, fuel, petrol, electricity etc. we are aware that we need to find more efficient ways to use the finite resources we have. I do feel we are missing a trick if we allow F1 to give up on a technology like Kers. Effectively it could provide a boost we need for battery technology, which is still has a very long way to go if Star Trek is to be believed?

Why am I bothered about battery technology, well I assume you know that the "the sun is the source of all our power" quoting Monty Python, utilising this free source of power we could not only heat our homes, water, etc. but we could make more use of the suns rays and store more of it as electric energy. Now if we have cheap, high capacity, low weight batteries, who knows what could do? I feel it could be quite a significant step in the way reduce the massive fossil fuel consumption our society has and facilitate cheaper energy, and wouldn't we all be happier with that?

1st blog entry in 27 years!

Welcome to my first ever blog!

I've been working with technology and people for over 27 years now and thought it was about time to share some of my experiences with you. In those 27 odd years I've undertaken various professional courses, had lots of real-life experiences and have learnt loads along the way. Most importantly I have a passion to make the technology work for humanity, helping people understand and feel comfortable with "the beast". Hence why the strap line of my business is "Where technology's made simple..." (By the way, this blog is not an advert for my business, its about me, I guess that's one of the same in many ways.)

My hope is to be able to put technology into perspective; give you real life reasons why we should embrace the technology and not be afraid of it; explore a wide range of ideas & concepts and make sence of then without the jargon. Most of all I hope to inspire you!

So, why OmanDry you may ask, most of you clever types will see its an anagram of Raymond, that simple and as it seems to be relatively unique on the web so far I thought there is nothing wrong with that!

For now I shall wish you all a great week and hope to share more of me soon,

Raymond :-)