by Larry Magid

Unlike some of my fellow Internet safety activists, I think that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers did the right thing by rejecting the proposed .XXX top level domain designation. See Story

For the record, in addition to my work as technology commentator, I run SafeKids.com and Safeteens.com and am co-director of BlogSafety.com.

Despite years of advocacy on the part of its sponsors, I remain unconvinced that that the .XXX top level domain would have furthered the causes of child protection or free speech. It might have been effective had it been mandatory for all porn sites, but that would have brought up enormous free speech issues that many of us would not fathom. Because it would have been voluntary, there would continue to be porn sites with .com TLDs, possibly giving parents a false sense of security by believing that all porn was walled off. I don’t agree with those who say it would have promoted porn nor do I fully agree with those who fear that such a voluntary process would have been a likely first step towards government regulation. I do, however, understand why some adult site operators and civil libertarians would worry about that, especially if the voluntary xxx didn’t cut back significantly on the use of .com for porn site. › Continue reading…

by Larry Magid

Sometimes the best way to save money on printing is to spend more up front. That’s certainly the case with the new HP Officejet Pro L7680 Color All-in-One multifunction printer/scanner/fax/copier.

At $399, it has a relatively expensive upfront cost, but unlike many inkjet printers from Hewlett-Packard and others, this one isn’t all that expensive to use.

On average, black-and-white prints use up to about 1.5 cents worth of ink, which is a pretty good price, even compared with laser printers that are typically less expensive to operate than inkjets.

Even color is pretty cheap at an average cost of about 6 cents a page for business color (color photos use more ink). › Continue reading…

by Larry Magid

I don’t prepare my own tax return, but I do create a report for my accountant (who happens to be my brother). That means gathering all sorts of records about earnings and expenses. Fortunately, practically every bank on the planet now offers online bill paying, which, in addition to paying your bills, keeps an online record of your payments. That can be very handy at tax time.

Most credit cards also come with online access, which lets you view, print and in some cases even download your credit card usage records to import into Excel, Quicken or Microsoft Money. The trouble is that these services typically keep your data for only 90 days, which could be a problem at tax time.

If any entrepreneurs out there are looking for an idea for a new business, how about a Web service that scrapes all that data and stores it indefinitely for a small fee or for looking at ads?

One solution I’ve been using for years is Paytrust. › Continue reading…

by Larry Magid

The March 22^nd ruling by judge Lowell Reed Jr. heralds the end of a long and torturous battle over Congress’s ill-fated 1998 Children’s Online Protection Act. The law, if it had ever been allowed to go into effect, would impose a $50,000 fine to any commercial website that allowed minors to access material deemed “harmful to minors.” The idea was to require sites that had such material to require a credit card or other documentation that would establish that the site visitor was an adult.

I testified as an expert witness at the original trial on behalf of the ACLU. My job was to explain to the judge that there are other methods parents can use to control what their kids do on the web. Though imperfect, Internet filters are a relatively effective means to block kids from visiting sites that parents – not the government – deem to be inappropriate for their child. As founder of SafeKids.com (www.safekids.com), I had spent a great deal of time looking into effective and ineffective ways to protect kids on the net. I’m currently co-director of BlogSafety.com (www.blogsafety.com), a forum where parents can discuss child safety. › Continue reading…

Whether your goal is to influence an election, display your creativity or just have some fun, creating and editing your own video is easier than ever.

YouTube and other online video sharing services are all the rage — getting plenty of attention along with some hefty lawsuits, such as Viacom’s $1 billion complaint that YouTube has been allowing people to illegally post segments of the media company’s copyrighted programs from MTV, Comedy Central and other channels.

While it’s true that some users ignore YouTube’s admonition: “Do not upload copyrighted material for which you don’t own the rights or have permission from the owner” there are plenty of people posting their own video which is exactly what these services are designed for.

If you’ve ever been tempted to create your own video: take heart. It’s not that hard, and if you have a PC or a Mac, chances are you have all the software you need. As far as a camera is concerned, all you need is a digital video (DV) camcorder, a webcam or even a cell phone or a digital still camera that takes video.

Recently, I’ve been using Movie Maker in Windows Vista to create videos for personal use and for CBSNews.com. Prior to that, I was using Movie Maker on Windows XP. My son Will uses iMovie, which is a highly acclaimed video editor for the Macintosh.

There are also a number of third party programs available including Studio from Pinnacle Systems and Video Wave, the video editing tool that comes with Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite, as well as some higher-end systems including FinalCut Pro for the Macintosh. › Continue reading…

View Larry’s CBS News video for more details

The Daylight Saving Time switch took place early Sunday morning and as most experts predicted, the world didn’t come to an end. Computers that had been “patched” with the latest updates automatically adjusted to the new start of daylight saving time.

But just because your PC’s operating system is up-to-date doesn’t mean that everything will be OK. I worry that many people might be late for appointments because their calendaring software – specifically Microsoft Outlook – may not be fully aware of the time shift.

Here’s the problem. If, prior to the time switch, you made any appointments that take place between March 11 and April 1, Outlook might get the time wrong. For example, if you have an appointment for 9:00 a.m. on Monday, it might show up in Outlook as 10:00 a.m. That’s because Outlook’s calendar isn’t necessarily in synch with your computer’s clock. Appointments after April 1st should be OK because that’s when the switch would have taken place before it was changed by federal law.

It’s the same thing that happens when you change a time zone on your PC. Imagine you’re in California making an appointment on your laptop for a 9:00 a.m. meeting you plan to attend in New York a couple of days later. You set the meeting for 9:00 a.m. and as you’re about to get on the plane, you click on the clock in the lower right corner of your Windows screen to configure the operating system for Eastern Time so your clock and calendar will be accurate when you arrive in New York. › Continue reading…

A lot has been written lately about the switch this past weekend from standard to daylight-saving time – three weeks earlier than past years. Some PC and PDA software needed to be updated, but what about all those other devices in your home? Like most consumers, I have a microwave, DVD player, a couple of VCRs and plenty of other devices whose clocks need to be set. Most of these devices aren’t smart enough to update themselves; they have to be reset by hand, regardless of when daylight-saving time starts and ends.

I had no idea how to set the clock on my microwave oven, and I certainly didn’t know where the manual was. Ditto for my VCRs and DVD player.

Fortunately there’s a new Web site that can help. Retrevo.com is a search engine designed to find information about how to use and fix products, including online access to user manuals. When I typed in the model numbers for my VCR, microwave, digital camera, iPod and several other products, in most cases I was able to find the documentation – typically as a PDF file. To get the specific information, you can even type in the task with the model number. Entering “Magic Chef MCD990w set clock,” for example, took me directly to page 10 of the user manual with the information I needed.

Retrevo can also help find reviews, discussion boards and blogs about products. It does have shopping and marketing information, but it keeps it separate from documentation, reviews and other material, according to company representative Andrew Eisner.

Although Retrevo is unique in its ability to pinpoint the exact page you need, it’s not the only way to find documentation. You can often find it by entering the model number plus the word “manual” in Google or other search engine. Amazon.com has some manuals, and you can always go to the product manufacturer’s Web site.

Still, there’s something nice about having a site dedicated to the lofty purpose of helping us figure out how to use all those gadgets.

Now all we need is an easy way to locate model numbers. I’d gladly use Retrevo to find the manual for my cell phone, but to find the model number I have to take out the battery and I’m not sure if I can figure out how to do that without the manual.

This ZDNet Australia story is quite disturbing.  My first impression of OneCare was quite positive but I uninstalled it after having some problems with my video card that seemed to be related. But this story is horrendous. The idea that a security product could destroy your data is off the charts.  Security is necessary but does it also have to be evil?

Microsoft has admitted that its Live OneCare security suite has been accidentally deleting some users’ Outlook and Outlook Express e-mails.

Source: Microsoft’s antivirus deletes users’ e-mails: ZDNet Australia: News: Software

by Larry Magid

As the 20th century drew to a close, some prophets of gloom and doom warned that a Y2K technology meltdown loomed for that much anticipated moment when the calendar was to move from 1999 to 2000.

Disaster did not ensue. And regardless of whether Y2K’s dangers were overhyped or merely averted through many hours of prevention, the new millennium was ushered in with good cheer and very few computer glitches.

Now, we have something else to worry about.

This coming Sunday is the start of Daylight Saving Time. That, and the switch back to standard time in the fall, have been with us since long before computers were invented but this year it will be different. A 2005 federal law dictates that U.S. Daily Saving Time will begin three weeks earlier than before and extend a week later to the second Sunday in November. › Continue reading…

By Larry Magid
Special to the Mercury News

Move over MySpace — there’s a new social networking service and I’m running it. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. My new “service” (costcotips.ning.com) isn’t likely to attract the 100 million-plus users of MySpace, but like anyone else who sets up a service using Ning.com, mine offers all the basic features including the ability for anyone to set up their own profile on my site to post their own videos, photos, blog items and more. › Continue reading…