For the show broadcast between August 23rd and August 29th, 2008

One of the most important things that Benjamin mentioned in any show recently, was about keeping your kids safe on the computer.  Placing their computer in a well travelled area, establishing controls and boundaries, and using a web filter like www.Bsafeonline.com  were great starts.  He covered a wide range of things, being the parent of a teenager, and as promised, here's the source version of an Internet Contract his son has signed...

REMEMBER TO ADJUST THIS FOR YOUR YOUTH!

---

Internet Safety Contract / Rules & Usage Contract

KIDS: read the statements below out loud and then put your initials beside them.

1. Nothing said, written or posted on the Internet is Private.                    
2. People you meet on the Internet are not always who they say they are.                 
3. The things people say online are not always the truth.                   
4. I can always trust my parents to keep me safe.                      

    I                                          agree on       day of                 (month) in the year            

• Get my parents approval before I signup for anything on the Internet.
• Allow my parents to review screen names, user names, email addresses and passwords.
• Never give out our last name, address, phone number, or any personal information without 
  parental consent. This includes the name of my school, where I play sports or the names of my family members. 
• Additional "Never give out rules":  ________________________________________________   
• If asked where we live, we all agree to say : ________________________________________
• Never order anything online, without parental consent.
• Stop what I am doing immediately and get my parents, if someone asks to meet me in person. 
• Stop talking (chatting) if the conversation gets uncomfortable, or inappropriate language is used.
• Never give out my or my families age.
• Never use crude language online.
• Report anyone who bullies immediately to my parents. 

If this this Contract is broken or the internet safety rules are not followed the consequences to the person who breaks it will be:  ___________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
________________

We agree to follow the terms and conditions set forth in the above internet safety contract.

Parents signature:                                                                                

Children's signature:                                                                              

Signed this       day in the month of                                in the year                                

---

Laptop screening at the airport is getting easier, thanks to some of the advances, and Benjamin covered some of those.  E-mail snooping was also covered, with Benjamin reminding people that it's easy to get your e-mail, if you aren't careful.  Of course, various Cyber Cop laws may catch the bad guys, especially the new ones that Benjamin noted!

Benjamin covered other items, like the website www.whocanIsue.com , what might be a bad idea in a society that is already litigious enough to scare even the lawyers.  He did avoid the various lawyer jokes, much to the chagrin of his producer.  He also covered a Solar Bluetooth Car Kit from LG, a large manufacturer in San Diego... who decided to market their product only in Europe...  DOH!  There were topics of refresh rate, how to make sure you dropped an online service, and an online file conversion utility available through www.zamzar.com !

In a mad dash to cover e-mails and calls that came in, Benjamin covered a number of items.  Jim asked about clearing Bloatware, the stuff that comes preinstalled on your computer and burdening it down.  Caroline asked about taking apart her computer to clean it out, and Zack asked about some places for various online games.  Benjamin obliged by noting www.addictinggames.com , http://games.yahoo.com, and www.kongregate.com, as well as some other ideal places to spend time on the net.  Other sites noted included www.wetpaint.com , www.wikipedia.org , www.HowStuffWorks.com , and one of Benjamin's favorites...  www.imdb.com .

Joel quizzed Benjamin about larger hard drives in an older laptop, and Benjamin noted that some older laptops may not handle it.  In Joel's case, Benjamin did find out that the laptop was capable after some research, but it was running close.  Cheryl was about a problem with her USB drive, and it turned out that she had plugged it into the identical width Ethernet port.

Jordan asked about USB drives, and what the best size would be to get, given his needing to move some information from floppy drives around...  a little behind the times, it appears, as floppy drives have gone the way of the dodo bird.

Joseph wrote in, and was asking about a weird port that he found on his computer, which happened to be the very underutilized FireWire port, something invented by Apple, but it lost out when USB caught up in speed.  New advancements may make it popular again, but we'll have to wait and see!

WHEW!!!  LOT'S OF CALLS AND E-MAILS, and you can contact the show too!!!

Remember to tune in next week and to listen to this week’s show right now by using the links below!

AUDIO OF THE SHOW
You can download the audio from the show, right here!  Just click on the appropriate link, and enjoy!  The files are low bandwidth, so you don't have to wait for hours to download one segment!

Instructions:  Right click on the link you wish to hear, and choose "Save as..."  Save the file to your local hard drive, then run the file from there.  It's really the best way to listen to files that are on-line!

Computer Talk Radio Hour1 - 2008-08-23.mp3
Computer Talk Radio Hour2 - 2008-08-23.mp3