Home Page for Kids

www.zsc.com/kids

I developed a very simple web page that has links to sites with games for kids (link above). I've had a few people ask me about it, so I thought I'd put it up here. It's a family friendly and convenient way to help your kids have a fun time surfing the web. At the time of writing, it's geared for kids about 3 - 10 years old. I change the page now and again, mainly based on what my own kids want to see.

Personally, I use firefox and turn off all toolbars so it's basically running in kiosk mode (can't type a URL in, can only click the links on the page). I haven't locked it down or anything, so you can easily turn the toolbars back on, but my kids haven't figured that out yet...although my 6 year old has figured out how to get to google and do searches. Keeping your kids safe online is a big topic, so I won't go into it here - just watch and be aware of what your kids are doing online. At least this gives me a (very small) amount of control.

If you want to get fancy you can turn active desktop on and embed the web page right in your desktop. Even a two-year-old can then pick the mouse up and single-click the buttons sitting on the desktop.

Keywords: Kids games,children web sites,web sites for kids,links

Business terms taken from the I.T. field

Have you noticed more and more I.T. terms finding there way into standard business terms? It seems to be happening more and more these days. I just got off a phone call where the person I was talking to said, "If you don't hear from me in the next two to three hours, ping me." Ping me? That was a new one. As an I.T. professional, it's obvious what ping means in the networking world, but I'd never heard it used to mean "get in contact with me - i.e., phone, email, page, text, IM, etc)." I guess it's now an all encompassing way of saying get in touch with me using any of a myriad of technologies now available. From my experience, using technology is the new way of making yourself sound smart. Instead of using fancy pants business buzz words like "synergy" or "paradigm" or "outside the box" (which are still way overused), people are using technology terms. Anyway, I think the concept is interesting, so I'm going to list terms that I've heard used - I'm sure there are more.
"Let's get the project online" or "Let's move this meeting online", means, "let's get the project officially started" or "let's take this conversation here at the water cooler into an official meeting."
"I'll upload that information" means "I'll take that information and get it to the appropriate people." I've also heard the term "download" used similarly.
Similar to online, is "sync-up". "We should sync-up to discuss the project.", or even used as a noun, like "We should have a sync-up or a a sync-session."
"Do you have enough bandwidth to handle the project?" means "Do you have enough time or resources to do the project?" This one is particularly annoying.
I know there's lots more - I'll post them here as I think of them.

Saw a relevant dilbert comic today, ©2006 Scott Adams/UFS, Inc - used without permission: