Anne

Kindergarteners and first-graders are now using technology to design things the way graphic designers, businesspeople, and scientists do, USA TODAY reports in an article about small technophiles in Arizona. In one class in Tempe, first-graders "learn terms used in geometry by first shooting everyday shapes in the classroom and playground with digital cameras, then loading the pictures in … [Read more...] about It’s elementary, my dear parents

I mentioned earlier this week that Apple had issued an unusual patch to fix Mac security problems that have come up recently. Well, CNET cites security experts at several different companies as saying it "failed to fix the underlying problem." And that security problem allows a hacker to upload and run a malicious program on a Mac - if the owner can be "enticed to go to a fake Web page on which … [Read more...] about Mac patch flawed

Parents are probably among the most aware of this: The law hasn't made it one bit harder for kids to stumble on porn spam, CNET reports. The people who send out those millions of pornographic emails apparently are ignoring a new FTC rule requiring porn emails to be labeled as such (under the US's CAN-SPAM Act of December '03). "Not only did illegal sexually-explicit spam fail to slow down after … [Read more...] about Porn spam still not labeled

Besides the more typical threats of getting eaten by monsters or murdered by fellow avatars, a new one is turning up in multiplayer games on the Web, Wired News reports: "addictive drugs that can incapacitate or kill their characters." For example, the creators of Achaea, "one of the biggest online text-based games," have introduced the highly addictive "gleam" into its story about a crime ring … [Read more...] about ‘Drugs’ in online games

Updates, or security patches, have been key to family PC security for a long time, but not for Mac owners. Until now. This patch for Macs is worth getting, Apple fans - the company recommends it. "The update fixes a pair of flaws that could be used to create a virus that spreads through a Web link sent via e-mail messages," CNET reports, adding the view of a computer security company that the … [Read more...] about Unusual security patch from Apple