Google announced on its blog that as of March 1 you will need to agree with its new privacy policies to use its services (Gmail, Calendar, YouTube, Google+ and much more) with the exception of Google Books, Google Wallet and Google Chrome. Google says these changes will unify its more than 70 privacy policies across its product line and to streamline your experiences. You do not have the option to opt out of the changes. In many ways, this allows you to learn more about what Google “knows” about you. Google can see the content of your emails if you use Gmail, where you like to visit if you …
Many teens view themselves as quite sophisticated and may actually feel they need to shield their parents from things they see in their real-life or online worlds. They have navigated a course that allows them to get the good stuff and avoid the bad stuff.Of course, this isn’t much different from teens from many generations. We all believed that we were able to handle things on our own. But as it was for all of us, just because teens feel quite worldly and capable, they need their parents’ and other trusted adults’ help in protecting their reputations and their best interests.Two recent …
Many Internet providers will set up your home network when you first connect to their service, but it is a fairly easy do-it-yourself project or a simple job for an IT support company. Whether you set it up yourself or go with a pro, but sure to know the basics of how to connect to your network and how to keep it secure.First, as the WiFi Alliance explains, you need to enable the more secure WPA/WPA2 standard. This setting will make it harder for someone to break into your network. Second, change the default name and password that comes with your WiFi router. You would be amazed at the number…
Internet safety is important to all of us, but it is most important to educate all new users of online resources so that they can avoid common scams. We are careful to teach our children about the dangers of the Internet, but we need to remember that our older relatives might need some help in protecting themselves and their property while they are learning new technologies.Your grandmother or elderly neighbor might have recently joined social media sites such as Facebook because she got a new smartphone. Seniors are often targeted because they tend to have assets and they are thought to be …
The end of the year is always a time of reflection, which is what Facebook’s new Timeline feature seems to be about.You can preview how your Timeline will look by logging in at the introductory site. Once you activate the Timeline on your page, you have seven days to prepare how it will appear and update missing or incorrect information. You can choose a banner image, add significant dates, photos and decide what to share and with whom.All of your privacy settings remain the same when you start a Timeline. You can set up groups so that things you might want to share with your family can be …
We’ve all been stuck on what to give coworkers at the office gift exchange or how to thank coworkers for their help throughout the year. Starbucks gift cards and cookies are nice, but they are gone so quickly. The Fairfax County business ThinkGeek.com offers gifts that bring some fun into the office, which is needed on a Monday morning or after the vacation time runs out. LED USB lamp ($9.99). A small desk lamp powered through your computer’s USB connection (or 3 AA batteries) is handier than you imagine. Bright light where you need it. Badge Holders with some personality ($5.99). Washington …
As we have integrated electronic devices into our lives, have we lost something? Have we exchanged constant connection for the ability to truly experience a moment or to think deeply?I attended a conference recently where one of the speakers led us through an exercise called “the waterfall exercise.” He asked us to imagine every electronic device with a screen in a rushing river heading toward a waterfall. Which one would be the one item you would grab to save from the current? Why? What did that device provide you? Then we were asked to envision that it, too, would be lost over the same …
The Pew Internet and American Life Center released a study this month entitled "Teens, kindness and cruelty on social network sites,” that takes a look at how teens use social media and how it fits into their social lives both online and offline. The report is a must-read for parents, educators, concerned adults and teens.Teens flock to social media because it is an extension of their everyday social life, and the study found that they are likely to see both kindness and cruelty play out online. Teens do see, however, that there are differences between their online and offline social lives…
While using a local coffee shop’s Wi-Fi connection to login to Facebook or check your email, did it ever occur to you that you are on a public network and someone might be trying to steal usernames and passwords? These open connections in hotels and other public places are not secure. There are several tools hackers can use, such as Firesheep, that allow the bad guys—or the bored guys—to see what everyone is doing on an unsecured network. While many of us could care less if someone saw which restaurants we were browsing on Yelp or which stories we were reading on Patch, we don't want to give …
Walks in the Fall can be a little more educational if you use Leafsnap, an electronic field guide that uses your phone's camera as a visual recognition device. Simply snap a picture of the leaf against a light-colored background and it will search for the matching species in the database. The GPS information encoded in your iPhone photos also provides the app important species distribution information to the database.Leafsnap is free and was developed by Columbia University in New York, the University of Maryland and the Smithsonian Institution. It was a project that combined the talents of …
When summer temperatures change to the more pleasant fall temperatures, we all like to get outside and explore. Whether wandering in our own neighborhoods, going on fall daytrips to pick apples, climbing Old Rag or visiting museums downtown without the crush of the summer tourists, be sure to bring some portable tech to capture photos or videos of the scenery and friends enjoying themselves.You can use your cellphone to take pictures or video, but for the best quality you might want to bring along a dedicated device. Some smartphones have good cameras and are great to capture short videos for…
When was the last time you made a carbon copy or saved a file on a floppy disk? You may not do these things anymore, but the symbols carry on. When you “cc” someone on an email, you are copying them as a secondary recipient even though using carbon paper as an office supply is almost unheard of today. Carbon paper was used between sheets of paper to make a copy of a document typed on a typewriter. It was messy and after photocopiers and word processors came around it was one of those technologies we were glad to relegate to the history books.Even computer technologies have come close to …
FacebookThe leader in social networking sites reached a milestone with a half a billion people using the site in one day. It seems that each one of those 500 million people was complaining about the changes to the homepage. The way that we process information so quickly is reflected in that by the end of the day you were already tired of hearing complaints. After rolling out these changes, Facebook announced a bunch of new changes on the way, such as a Timeline and music sharing with Spotify. All of the changes are described on Facebook's blog.NetflixComplaints about the changes with Netflix …
What do you think a 4G network means?“4G” stands for fourth generation and refers to the latest technologies for mobile voice and data. Each major provider in the United States uses different methods to provide faster speeds of transmitting information on both uploads and downloads.Before smartphones, speed was less of an issue because the packets of information that needed to travel through the network were smaller. Now that phones are mobile Internet devices, the amount of data is much larger. The time it takes to download apps, music, videos or upload files can be frustratingly slow …
We've all read the news about cyber bullying, child abusers seeking out unsophisticated minors on social media and how easy it can be to access age-inappropriate material. Hopefully, parents have talked to their children about these issues. Parent teacher associations and school assemblies share information on the dangers lurking online and how to shield, track or record your child’s online habits. An entire industry has been built on selling parents products to protect kids from the world of threats on the World Wide Web, but arguably the one thing that all parents should do is to ensure …
Have you ever attended a conference or large event and couldn’t keep up with all that happened? Have you ever returned from an event and wanted to read what others thought of it? Maybe you are planning on attending an event and want to keep track of any updates, such as changes in schedule, locations or to be reminded of start times. Twitter users have discovered many uses of the “hashtag” search in making social gatherings just a bit more social. A Twitter hashtag is used to help people search for tweets by a common topic and it uses the number sign symbol #. On Saturday, my family attended …
We've all have had a scenario like this: You are out with friends and someone at the table is texting away like a fiend or is laughing at something on Facebook on their smartphone. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a meeting, in class or at a movie theatre, there are times when using your phone can be a problem for people you are with at the time.Smartphones and other portable devices are a great way to get information on the go and to deal with boredom. A recent Pew Internet survey said that 72 percent of smartphone owners used them when bored. Checking email, surfing the web, checking in to …
As a reader, I prefer physical books. They are easy to share, portable, donate-able and perfect for a sunny day or a rainy evening. I believe in bookstores as community centers and value the assistance of the staff and the ability to discover new books by browsing the shelves and tables.With all that being said, I am also a fan of e-books. And with the growing number of e-books sold, it is obvious that they have found many fans across the spectrum.My first experience with reading e-books for pleasure was when I had finished the first volume in the Hunger Games trilogy at 9 p.m. on a Sunday …
The amount of information available on the Internet is almost inconceivable. According to the figures on Royal Pingdom's Internet by the numbers 2010, people visited more than 255 million websites and some 2 billion YouTube videos each day. When students need to do research for their assignments they have access to more than what a physical library collection has to offer them. It shouldn't be assumed, however, that just because good information is out there that all students know how to find it.Inside Higher Ed recently published an article, "What Students Don't Know" that states many …
Most of us have lives that require filling multiple roles. We are responsible professionals at work who also have social lives and tasks that need to be finished each day.You could be a parent, a student, a volunteer, a caregiver for relatives, a coach, a choir member, a committee chairperson, an entrepreneur—it just goes on and on. Add in dentist and doctor appointments made months in advance and it can be a real challenge to keep all of this straight.Having trouble keeping track of everything happened to me twice this month. I missed two meetings that had been planned months in advance.This…
