I’ve written about working from home before, but this guy has taken the home office to another level. This is a command centre style setup with 5 monitors all powered off the 1 computer, allowing him to spread out applications across a big area. I’ve been a long time multi-monitor person going back to days where big CRT screens filled the desk, but I’ve rarely used more than 3 at once.
How much effort has been put into your home office design?
The current set of parental controls focus more on Filtering what your children have access to on the internet. The new version focusses more on monitoring what they’re up to and reporting to you.
I’ve talked about filtering your home internet connection on this site before, and mentioned that in the end it probably comes down to educating your kids about what is appropriate and what isn’t.
The new features offered by Microsoft are taking a “Monitor First Approach”. Giving you a dashboard of information about your family’s computer habbits. Items include which websites each user has visited and the amount of time spent on the computer (helpful if you want to limit your kids to a certain amount of “screen time” per day).
We expect you’ll find activity reports a great tool for teaching your kids about responsible computer use. Of course, you can also easily add restrictions by just clicking a link in the activity report. With the simplicity of activity reports, we believe more parents will adopt Family Safety, resulting in a safer computing environment for children.
A lot of baby monitor on the market these days are using the 2.4GHz or 5.6Ghz unlicensed spectrum. What’s that you say? Well think of it this way, all wireless devices (including your mobile phone, free-to-air television, radio, 2-way radio etc…) use the same kind of technology: radio waves. The government leases the different frequencies to different groups based on what they want to use it for and how much money they pay.
That leaves the rest of us with our Cordless Phones, Home WiFi, Wireless Doorbells and you guessed it, Baby Monitors, with a small range of frequencies to use that don’t require a license. This means that many devices you buy are competing for the airwaves.
Many devices are now digital, so you won’t actually get much audible interference… perhaps the odd drop out or two, but you may notice that while using your microwave oven (this actually sends out static in the 2.4GHz range), talking on your cordless phone or listening in on your baby monitor etc… Things like your WiFi might slow down.
So we want something like that fancy baby monitor that can send a picture to your TV, but not have it cause drop outs on your phone or slow your internet.
Most devices come with software that allow you to connect via an iPhone or Android app, letting you tune in when you’re out. Great for checking up that your kids aren’t running amok when being babysat by the grandparents!
The great thing is, these cameras aren’t any more expensive (sometimes a lot cheaper) than the standard video monitors you’re likely to find in a baby shop.
We’re first time parents going through this with a 9 month old that has just learnt to stand in his cot, crawl everywhere and no doubt starting to get separation anxiety when put in his room alone. We don’t think that we need to be this extreme.
We plan on taking in some of the advice common to most books, such as a defined and repeated bed-time routine of dinner, bath, story, lullaby, bed. But we’re not prepared to just let our son cry himself to sleep, but taking him into his room and preparing for bed and allowing him to protest and cry about being there while being held, then once he understands that we’re not giving in he tends to calm down and give in.
Once we’ve got to this point we will lay him down in his cot and gently pat an reassure him until he’s almost asleep.
Are we doing this all wrong? Is the all or nothing approach of these books the only way to go? Are we too nice as parents?
I’d love to hear your real life experiences in the comments!
Last night on the Angela’s Business Mix show on Eagle Waves Radio, Peter Black (of Peter Black Coaching) gave some great advice about dealing with your adult children and older teens.
Some topics covered were preparing your kids for financial independence and the realities of the “Small Business of Life”. As usual Peter is full of fantastic advice, most of which I hope to implement in the years to come as our son (and any future kids) get older.
Follow the link in the tweet below to listen in.
The Business of “Kidults” (12-25 yo) & Money as interviewed on @AngBizMiz #RadioEW ow.ly/aCh8g using @better_leaders experiences
— Peter Black (@PeterBlackCoach) April 30, 2012
