High Tech Household

Some of the most nefarious security problems on the internet are delivered to your browser via JavaScript. Likewise for some of the biggest annoyances, like pop-up ads. But JavaScript is the heart of many recent Web innovations as well. So what is a safe surfer to do? You can’t turn JavaScript off entirely, but maybe it can be controlled a bit better.

Using today’s web browsers, there is really just one big switch controlling JavaScript: it’s either on, or it’s disabled for your entire web experience. Pop-ups are usually blocked, but otherwise, that’s a pretty blunt control. I may not want some random site to potentially exploit some issue via JavaScript, but I can’t check my webmail without it. Disabling JavaScript completely isn’t a good option.

White-listing to the rescue! By explicitly saying which websites can run JavaScript in your browser, you can reduce your risk quite a bit. Unfortunately, in researching this post, I could only find one tool for this job: the NoScript add-on for Mozilla Firefox. I use it, but I expected to find similar offerings for the other web browsers.

So, here’s a new twist here at HTH. We’d like to know what our readers use for JavaScript control, if anything. Lots of folks also just block pop-ups (which is the default behavior in most recent browsers), or Flash, or plugins in general.

What do you use for JavaScript control, if anything?

Ars Technica posted a quick write-up about an Internet Explorer add-on aimed at helping children be safer while online. It sounds like it’s mostly just a custom search engine and some IE Web Accelerators, but something is better than nothing.

The most important note, in my opinion, is that parents must be aware of what their children are doing online. No software package can be a fool-proof child safety-net. This could be a useful tool, but it doesn’t allow a parent to be uninvolved.

• Ars Technica: Hands-on: Microsoft launches child-friendly IE8

Cool gadget? Apple’s first dud (recently)? There’s been a lot of buzz about the announcement last week of Apple’s new gadget.

• First, from the horse’s mouth: Apple’s official iPad page
• Some fairly mainstream press from CNN
• And a technical critique

In my own opinion, I think this is a disappointing release. I think it does everything that an iPhone or another smart phone does, but now it’s not big enough to put in your pocket. Also, the iPad might have been a great video chat device, but a camera was left out.

To carry it around, you’d need a bag for it, anyway So why not spend hundreds of dollars less, carry a couple of pounds more, and just use netbook or laptop? It’s definitely got the cool factor, but it just doesn’t seem usable enough to me to be of interest to anyone beyond the usual Apple enthusiasts.

For my money, I’d rather just use a smart phone. With today’s bright beautiful touchscreens, even reading for long periods is a pleasure on a smaller, more practical device.

Sensing the tone of this write-up, Mike’s wife found an interesting slideshow of prior Apple mis-steps.

There I was, in the check-out line at Target, when I overheard the lady in front of me chatting about the copy of Assassin’s Creed 2 she was buying for her grandson. “For my grandson. You know these kids, they always want these weird things,” she casually said to the checker. “You know, assassins and whatever else.” She smiled, as though this must all be light, harmless fun.

That struck me quite a bit. I’ve read about parents and grandparents not doing their homework in regard to the entertainment they purchase for those in their care. Getting people informed about these issues is part of the reason for this very website. Video games are not just for kids anymore. Truth be told, they never really were the exclusive domain of children, but a lot of people seem to think that’s the case anyway.

So, I said to her, “You know, that’s not really a kids’ game at all. It’s rated “Mature,” the video game equivalent of a rated-R movie.” She definitely had no idea what I was talking about, so I pointed out the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) rating icon in the corner of the game case. “M 17+” it said pretty plainly. She was pretty surprised and said she would discuss it with the child’s father.

Of course, the important thing is that you know what you’re getting for your child (or whichever relation). You may have an objection to a mild smoking reference in an E10+ game (“Everybody 10+”), but no problem with some mild swearing in a T game (“Teen”). With the ESRB’s information, you can make an informed choice. No major retailer will stock a game unless it carries a rating from the ESRB, so take note when purchasing. Their website is very informative, and gives a lot of detail on rated games. Case-in-point, here is their description of the game I mentioned above, Assassin’s Creed 2. See if you think that’s what you’d want your 13-year-old to be playing.

Have you ever thought about setting up a home server? Especially if there are more than a couple of computers on your home, it can make a lot of sense to have one machine where everyone’s data is stored. This also makes backups a whole lot easier for the local administrator, i.e., you. A NAS might be just the thing.

‘NAS’ is short for Network Attached Storage. Basically, it’s a machine on your network that serves as a big hard drive for the users of that network. They’re very common at large- and medium-sized businesses, and they’re popping up in small businesses and homes more and more. On a home network, you can give each of your users a chunk of disk space on the NAS for their documents and media. It’s not recommended to actually install programs to the NAS, but this stuff, especially photos, music and video, can quickly take up a very substantial amount of hard drive space. Having it all in one place reduces duplication, and allows to set up a workable backup regiment.

A consumer-level NAS works more like a little network device, rather than a computer, even though, deep down, it is basically just a PC. You usually don’t actually interact with the operating system on the device, but instead a web interface or a piece of software that you install on some other machine on your network. There are even some routers to which you can connect storage (via USB, usually) that can then act like a NAS themselves. Ars Technica recently had a quick write-up on NAS devices; it’s worth reading.

If you’re a little more technically savvy, you might consider just buying a smaller desktop whose sole purpose would be to store your users’ files. Then you could dispense with the web interfaces and whatnot, but you would have to be comfortable with configuring those file services yourself. Microsoft sells Home Server to help with that, as well. Any number of Linux distributions would be ideal for this purpose too. You could also be sure that it includes a DVD burner to make those backups even easier. A home server, though, is a bit more than a NAS. And it’s enough of a topic for a whole other article..

The next major version of Microsoft’s desktop operating system is being released into the wild soon, October 22nd to be precise. This will be a very important release for Microsoft, who have experienced increasing pressure recently from Apple on the high-end and Linux netbooks and nettops on the low-end.

So, whether you’re upgrading from Vista, you’ve been holding out since XP, or you’re thinking about jumping (back?) to Windows from Mac or elsewhere, there’s a lot to take in about this latest OS from Microsoft.

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Plastic guitars? Drums taking up the living room? Is a band video game a good family game night activity? Read on for a his-and-hers review by my wife and me of Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band.

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Ars Technica is one of my favorite sites on the web. They can be very technical sometimes, but when they post something relevant to our topic here at HTH, we’ll let you know.

Today’s link is a write-up they did in response to a recent FCC report on parental controls across all sorts of media. The report is very comprehensive, but the article boils it down nicely. It’s definitely a good read for the parents in the audience tonight.

• Ars Technica: A parent’s quick guide to content blocking technologies

One of the biggest rackets in home tech is audio/video cabling. I recently got a shiny new LCD HDTV, and I wanted to upgrade the connection on our Nintendo Wii from an RCA composite cable (three plugs: yellow for video, red and white for stereo audio) to component (five plugs, three for video, two for audio) for progressive-scan video. I walked in to Fry’s and saw the Monster-brand item for about $50. Digging through the store, I found the MadCatz cable for $16. Sold.

So, sounds like I got a good deal, right? Monoprice.com has the same type of cable (as of this writing) for $3.36. Even with shipping, that’s a pretty huge savings. So how do some vendors charge $50 or even $16 for the same thing? The only things I can figure are laziness or ignorance.

An audio/video cable is basically just a length of insulated copper, so any claims of high-fidelity super-quality-iousness are generally bogus, except perhaps in the case of very long cables (as in, way more than the six feet needed in most home setups).

My Wii cable anecdote may have limited applicability, but as bad or worse is happening in the sales of HDMI cables. In general, you’re better off ordering audio/video cables online rather than being gouged at a brick-and-mortar retailer.

Now that we’ve got a little history, terminology and use of Wi-Fi down (see our previous article), we can jump into the more practical matters of actually finding and setting up a wireless router.

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