• [google-translator]

Posts By :

Jason Stadtlander
  • Jason Stadtlander

As a Home User – Should You Move to The Cloud?
As a Home User – Should You Move to The Cloud? 1200 800 Jason Stadtlander

“Technology professionals (and retail software and service providers) have done a phenomenal job of seriously screwing up the perspective of what the “cloud” really is and how it should properly be defined. “

Let me first state that I am an Information Technology Security Professional with over twenty years of experience dealing with everything from high-level multi-site network communications down to the home user who can’t get their iPhone to connect to their computer. I have helped the State Police with child pornography investigations and I have taught foster parents how to protect their foster children online. So, I have basically seen it all.

That being said, when I am approached by my home user clients (most of whom I have known for years) and they ask me “Should I move to the cloud?” I cringe. Not because I have any problem what so ever with my home users, what I cringe at is the fact that this is a much more complicated question than they know.

What is “The Cloud”?

Technology professionals (and retail software and service providers) have done a phenomenal job of seriously screwing up the perspective of what the “cloud” really is and how it should properly be defined.

In short, all “the cloud” really is – is your data existing on someone else’s computer data center. It’s not sitting out there in some mysterious nebula where it has the ultimate protection. It is controlled and managed by humans, albeit humans who know technology better than most people (generally speaking). But there is still the human element of controlling how safe that data is, ensuring that it is protected from viruses, hardware failures, and even natural disasters.

Where In The World Is It?

First, let’s be clear. Your data is out there somewhere, physically. It’s sitting on a computer just like your computer at home but with a TON more power than your computer.

  • Amazon Prime Drive: If you are in the U.S. and use Amazon Prime’s Drive, your data is sitting in a server (or set of servers) in Northern Virginia; San Francisco, CA; Seattle, WA or Northeastern Oregon. If you are in Europe, your photos and documents are sitting on a server in Dublin, Ireland.
  • Google Drive: If you are in the U.S. and use Google’s Drive feature, your data is sitting on a server (or set of servers) in Dalles, OR; Atlanta, GA; Reston, VA; Lenoir, NC or Moncks Corner, SC. 
  • Dropbox: If you are using Dropbox to move files around or share files, then your data is sitting in one of three data centers in the U.S. or in one data center in Europe. Although I do know the location of these, I am not allowed to disclose the true location. It’s the same situation though, your data sitting on someone’s server in a physical location.
  • Microsoft’s One Drive: If you are in the U.S. and use the free drive software that comes with Office 365, then your data is sitting in Quincy, WA; San Francisco, CA; Cheyenne, WY; San Antonio, TX; Des Moine, IA; Chicago, IL; or in one of two locations in VA. 

There really is no way to know (unless you work at one of these facilities) exactly which location your data is actually calling home. Companies look at your IP address (the unique address that you use to connect to the internet) and determine your approximate physical location based on that. Then they generally try to keep your data physically close to that location, just so that you don’t have very many hops (a distance term on the Internet) to deal with.

Is My Data Safe?

Well now, this is the million dollar question, isn’t it? As evasive as it sounds, your data is as safe as the people operating the facility and the service. These companies are bound by privacy laws just like most companies in the U.S. and Europe. However, being bound to the laws and actually adhering to them are two different things. It takes a lot of manpower and a lot of work to ensure that encryption algorithms are kept up to date and maintained. We all know about the TJX data breach of 2007, the Experian data breach of 2017 and the Marriott / Starwood data breach of 2018. These are just three of the more than 300 data breaches that have occurred within the last 15 years in fortune 500 companies.

Keep in mind, those are JUST the fortune 500 companies. That’s not even looking at the thousands of companies that do not fall into that category. Here is a small list of known data breaches that have occurred just in the last 6 months: 2019 Data Breaches.

My Take on it All.

In my humble opinion, it is one thing for your private information to be stolen or destroyed out there in some corporate breach or disaster. It’s another for your priceless photos or documents to be irretrievable. It is my personal belief that no one can protect my data better than I can. I am responsible for maintaining these files. It is what I cherish and plan to pass down to my children. The photos of them being born, the articles and stories I have written. The interviews I’ve done of my family members on video. I frankly do not trust these irreplaceable files to be sitting in someone else’s hands.

I do have my data on “The Cloud”, but it’s my cloud. (I also happen to hold the data for most of my family as well) I am not oblivious to the fact that there could be a fire in my house or some kind of a disaster, so I work hard to make sure that it is all well protected. I back up all of my data to a special storage server in my home. That server replicates instantly with two other storage servers. One is located sixty miles from me at a friends house and the other is located seven hundred miles away at a family member’s house. I also connect (almost daily) just to make sure security patches are performed and that the data is replicating without any problems. The data is encrypted and cannot be viewed without a special encryption key that only I possess. Also, the people who do back up to my storage solution (such as my family members and friends) are the only ones who can see their own data. If I go look at it, it’s just a bunch of encrypted files that don’t make any sense without the encryption key (password) that is located on each of the devices that I back up.

It’s not a perfect solution, but I know that even if I have a fire or flood, I can still access my data and protect the data of my friends and family. I also have instructions in my will that state how to access the data and deal with it in the event of my own demise. This is the era we live in and it’s important that we understand the impact that a loss of data can have.

What Can You Do as a Home User?

First, check and see how much data you are talking about. Most home users don’t need more than 100GB to be protected. If this is the case, then my advice is – have two backup hard drives that will hold at least three times your data (300GB hard drive if you have 100GB of data). Then back up your data to both hard drives using software such as Acronis or EaseUS and keep one hard drive in a fireproof safe at home and take the other one somewhere that is at least ten miles from your home (take it to work and keep it in your desk or store it at a family member’s home). And here is the most important part: KEEP IT UP TO DATE!! Make absolutely sure you update your backups at least every thirty days.

Lastly, if all this seems too daunting, you can always reach out to me and I can do it all for you 😉
  • Jason Stadtlander

The Opinion Driven War of the Media – Fears for my Children
The Opinion Driven War of the Media – Fears for my Children 1600 784 Jason Stadtlander

The Great Media War is underway and we are their front line.

In the James Bond movie “Tomorrow Never Dies”, media giant Elliot Carver is attempting to take over the world through media (successfully I might add). Watching this back in 1997 I thought it was entertaining but found it hard to believe that anything like that could ever happen. I will also admit I never thought of the true implications that the filmmakers were making.

I’ve always considered myself open to listening to objective opinions. Especially more in recent years. I hear about a problem, I listen to the person telling me about the problem and then I seek out additional opinions or solutions and try to objectively come up with my own opinion.

Listening to (NPR) National Public Radio, Fox News and the BBC, it is becoming increasingly clear that there are no longer any objective opinions out there. Very few people are flat out stating the true facts of the world. I encourage you to stop and take a moment to listen to them. Not just your favorite news media, but all the other ones too. If you really stop and listen to what specific stories the outlets are choosing to tell you, whose opinions they are choosing to share and the tone of the reporter’s voice, it becomes quite clear – the leading that is going on. When you listen to them, does what they are saying rapidly anger you or irritate you? This is exactly what they are counting on.

This morning I tuned into NPR and listened to them talk about D-Day’s 75th anniversary (which was the one thing I was glad to hear about) as well as President Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexico. To listen to the reporters on NPR, they make it sound like the tariffs are a done deal and President Trump will be meeting with Mexico officials in D.C. to hopefully come to a resolution. Trying to decipher the truth, reading various outlets and trying to piece it all together I have found that the tariff threat at the moment is just that – a threat. To listen to Fox News the reporters are all talking about the “crisis” on the southern border. Their voices are quickened and panicked (nearly all of them). Just listening to them gets you feeling nervous.

The Real Point

My point here isn’t whether the Mexico tariffs or even immigration are indeed real threats. My point is the danger of the media itself as well as the lack of available non-opinionated facts to the public. We are living in a time when people are no longer making objective opinions based on educating themselves in the world around them. Instead, society is making ‘drop of the hat’ impulsive opinions based on a thirty second (or 280 character) blip of information. The more emotional the person stating the opinion can be on the news, in the tweet or on a Facebook post, the more they will sway public opinion. If they can even throw in some people that are in dire circumstances (and let’s face it – all over the world media can find someone in dire circumstances somewhere and convince the public that it’s related to their story), then they can garner strong opinions.

What I am most concerned with is our future as a community, a nation and ultimately a world society. How can we as a people, raise our children to come to their own opinions and objectively look at the world around them so that they can improve it? How can we encourage them to see out the real facts when they are so slyly hidden or camouflaged by those with money and power (and I’m talking about the media here, not specifically politicians)?

What can we do?

I think the most critical thing to do is to ensure that our children do not blindly follow any opinions. As parents, we need to encourage our children to listen to liberal views, conservative views, centrist views, and then read historical precedent on the issues at hand before they arrive at their own conclusion. We need to ensure that our children are reading, processing and reading again, as much as they possibly can. Because, if you look at all the opinions, the facts and compare them all together – the truth is hidden in there. It’s hidden in between the words and the emotions that are being blasted out at us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s buried under emotional outbursts and dramatic photos and videos and skewed facts. The Great Media War is underway and we are their front line. We just need to make sure that our children are well trained to see around it all.

  • Jason Stadtlander

Teaser Trailer Reveal Star Trek: Picard – Ties to Discovery?
Teaser Trailer Reveal Star Trek: Picard – Ties to Discovery? 150 150 Jason Stadtlander

Ok everyone, here’s the skinny on the newest franchise in the Star Trek realm; Picard (Courtesy of CBS All Access)

CBS All Access has officially released the trailer for its newest Star Trek show “Picard” featuring none other than Patrick Stewart. The retired admiral is now living a “radically altered” life thanks to the dissolution of the Romulan Empire (for details on this, see the last Star Trek movie featuring the TNG cast: Nemesis)

Picard writer Alex Kurtzman has revealed that that “Picard’s life was radically altered by the dissolution of the Romulan Empire”

In this clip, an unseen woman asks “Why did you leave Starfleet, Admiral?”. Now, they are not saying this anywhere… but to me, this woman sounds a lot like Sonequa Martin-Green (Michael Burnham from Star Trek Discovery). Those who watched Discovery know that the ship and crew are transported into the distant future. Perhaps a future with Picard? This is just speculation, but worth the possibility.

Check out the trailer yourself:

GAME OF THRONES – THE BELLS: AN ANALYSIS OF EPISODE 5, SEASON 8
  • Jason Stadtlander

Game of Thrones – The Bells: An Analysis of Episode 5, Season 8
Game of Thrones – The Bells: An Analysis of Episode 5, Season 8 3733 2100 Jason Stadtlander

SPOILER ALERT: There are numerous spoilers in this, so if you have not yet seen Episode 5, Season 8 – Please wait until you have seen it before you read this.

 

That being said, for those that have seen it… Here goes. In a word “Wow.”

I intentionally did not post anything earlier today or last night after the show because I really wanted to absorb the whole episode. I will admit, I was seriously pissed off by the way the whole episode really went down once Daenerys snapped. However, now that it has sunken in a little and I have thought about it, there are elements that do not sound as crazy as I initially had thought.

Before the bells have tolled

Grey Worm’s reaction to the collar that Daenerys gives him
Initially, I thought it made sense, to throw Missandei’s collar away, that it was a statement that she was dead and thus her belongings ceased to have a purpose as well. Or perhaps that his anger over the loss of Missandei was too strong. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that it was simply a foreshadowing of Kings Landing and what Grey Worm and Daenerys would do.

Tyrion releasing Jamie
I thought that this particular scene was poignant in their relationship and also Tyrion’s desire to look after both Jamie and Cersei. I must say though that Jamie leaving Brienne was just plain stupid. There are those that would say that his heart was with Cersei or that he was concerned about the baby, or even that he had come to terms with the fact that he was a monster (which I believe that Brienne did a good job pointing out he was not and that people change). But I personally, find it stupid that Jamie should make this forward progress, knight Brienne and realize his place in things and want to return to the insanity of Ceresi.

Breaking the city and destroying the Iron Fleet
The Red Army stands at the gates facing the Unsullied and we know that the shit is about to hit the fan and suddenly the gate explodes from behind them to find that the attack was actually coming from somewhere else. Great scene and I found us strongly cheering on the destruction of the Iron Fleet. I am a little confused why she didn’t just do this in the previous episode but I suppose they needed to show the isolation of Dany in the beginning of Episode 5.

The destruction of the scorpions, the reaction of Cersei, the battle of the Unsullied as they traipsed through the city and destroyed Cersei’s men. It was all perfect until the tolling of the bells and we all know how that went.

The breaking of the good queen
Here is this woman that we have been rooting for, hoping she will lead as well as she has tried to for so long and then it happens. She is sitting upon Drogon looking out at everyone as the bells are ringing, she has won the last war, she is now the leader of the seven kingdoms and then she snaps. Or does she?

This is the part that we all stand questioning. What happened? Why did she break? Was it Jon turning her away? Was it her choice to rule through “fear”? I don’t think it was any of this and now I’m not completely convinced she broke. I know, that sounds crazy but hear me out.

We have this woman who, yes she feels isolated and alone and now threatened by Jon to a degree.  But I don’t think any of this is enough to break her the way she appeared to be broken. She is much stronger than that. Think about the fact that we never saw her face after she made the decision. Daenerys takes a moment and as the bells toll, she looks toward the Red Keep and the entire city that layout before her. She looks out on a city that is not her city, it is Cersei’s city. A city built by her Mad Father, overthrown by the Lannisters and ruled by everyone that follows. The horrific things that Ceresi has done and all that has gone down with this. I think that she just wanted to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch.

Do I think there isn’t a level of insanity here given that she is killing men, women, and children? Yes. There is absolutely a level of insanity. But she also has no loyalty to these people. They have followed the Lannisters for a generation and she did not want any uprising from followers of previous leaders. I think that although she wants to rule over the seven kingdoms, she wants to destroy the iron throne and make a name for herself in all of Westeros and beyond.

Maybe I’m wrong?

Episode 6, Season 8 – End Game

Moving forward I think that it’s going to be some serious clean up that is going to have to occur next week. I have heard many people say that the writers are just sick of it all and they will kill everyone off. I don’t think it’s going to be that straight forward.

We still have Arya Stark who is trained as the faceless man. One theory I have is that she can appear as Missandei to Grey Worm, kill him, take his face and kill Daenerys. But I believe this would be trite and too easy (but hey, look how they killed off the Ice King).

Jon may retaliate on her as may Davos. It’s hard to tell. But we also can’t forget that now Sansa is in Winterfell and she is considered treasonous to Dany. So it really is hard to see where the next episode is going to go. I have a feeling we will see someone ruling that we would least expect. If the writers of the show have proven anything, they have proven to be less than predictable.

May 4, 1970 - The Kent State Riots - Massacre or Mislead by the Media?
  • Jason Stadtlander

May 4, 1970 – The Kent State Riots – Massacre or Mislead by the Media?
May 4, 1970 – The Kent State Riots – Massacre or Mislead by the Media? 1200 781 Jason Stadtlander

What they don’t tell you is that the students struck first.

“May 4, 1970 was a day that I will never forget,” begins my father, Pete Stadtlander with a story that I have heard so many times growing up. He is beginning to tell his story about the riots and shootings that occurred as he stood in his woodshop class in Van Duesen Hall, which faced the Commons at Kent State University. He has had told me many times over the years how he and several of his friends snuck to his car by the stadium by crawling from under car to under car to avoid State Police locked arm in arm sweeping people into the Commons after the shootings. How he had eventually made it to his car and began driving home to Mantua but while driving through Ravenna had a rock thrown at his window because he had a Kent State sticker on his window. But this time, when I am now almost forty-five, for some reason he chose to go into much more detail than I have ever heard before.

MAY 4, 1970 – THE KENT STATE RIOTS – MASSACRE OR MISLEAD BY THE MEDIA?He continued, “I remember working in my advanced woodshop class and at some point, the people outside were louder than our equipment. That’s when we shut it all off and opened the garage door on the Commons.

Let me also point out, that there were a handful of people in thier late twenties that were not what I would call real students. They were people who supposedly took classes but spent most of their time hanging around campus in the cafeterias with people gathered at their tables. They were the ones that were good at leading people to do what they wanted them to and they were never the ones in the middle of the crowds. They always stood at arm’s length letting the kids do the dirty work.

MAY 4, 1970 – THE KENT STATE RIOTS – MASSACRE OR MISLEAD BY THE MEDIA?The National Guard had stated earlier ‘No assembly on the commons. No more than a hundred students are allowed to gather in one place.’ after the students had set fire to the ROTC building. Well, there were at least a hundred people out in the commons when we opened that door and they were joined by fifty more, then a hundred, then four hundred and before I knew it there were a couple of thousand students gathering on the grass chanting and yelling as there frequently were during the [Vietnam] war. There were perhaps a thousand National Guardsman and another thousand State Police. That’s when I saw the kids coming in from different points on the commons, hundreds, then on the other end, I saw several thousand students flatten a huge hurricane fence at once. They toppled it as if it were nothing but paper and marched across it to join the main body of students already on the Commons. It was scary as hell to watch.

The media will tell you how the National Guard opened fire on the students, how they couldn’t control the situation and chose instead to shoot a bunch of kids.” My father paused, and this was when the story begins to take on a different color than it ever had before, “What they don’t tell you is that the students struck first. I stood there watching as students that had climbed to the top of several of the dorms began to hurl concrete blocks from the tops of the Stouffer Hall and Taylor Hall [dorms] at the Guardsman below. I even saw them throwing railroad ties off the top of the building! Railroad ties! Can you imagine that? Do you know how much a railroad tie weighs?”

“I’m not sure.” I respond, shocked at the story.

“Two hundred pounds. Imagine that you are tasked with protecting the university from riots, you are just kids yourself trying to serve your country and you see bricks and railroad ties coming at you from above. Tell me that wouldn’t freak you out and piss you off? ” he took a breath, “These men were going to be slaughtered. They opened fire not to control the crowd but in self-defense. It could not have been more clear.

Yet the media twisted it and they ended up indicting eight of the Guardsman. They all were acquitted, but I couldn’t believe that they even charged them with this. It was absurd.

One of the Guardsman [Ralph Zoller] that was indicted was a very friend of mine from Mantua. The Zollers owned a pharmacy in Mantua. His brother [Bob Jr.] was hit with a mortar in Vietnam shortly after and brought back in a plastic bag. His name is on the wall. That family endured far more than any family should. It shattered them.

History is in the eye of the beholder. I’m not recounting things I read about or heard about. I’m just telling you what I saw with my eyes on that day back in 1970.”

Secrets We keep and being authentic
  • Jason Stadtlander

Your Secrets and Being Authentic to Yourself
Your Secrets and Being Authentic to Yourself 3700 2467 Jason Stadtlander

A few years back I began thinking about my closets and the secrets that I kept. I’m not talking about sexual closets, I’m talking straight up about secrets because ultimately that’s what “the closet” is about. It’s about keeping something secret that you don’t want anyone else to know. But the real question I had to ask myself was; Am I keeping this secret from others or am I trying to keep it from myself? Am I trying to forget something that happened in my life that I wasn’t willing to confront?

Secrets can be easy to keep, but they can eat away at you in ways you never dreamed possible. These are the things in your life that you would Photoshop out of your life if you could, but you can’t – so you hide them. One person might say that they had a secret abortion or another person might say their secret was being molested. One person’s secret is not harder than any other, they are relative to that individual and they are just simply “hard”.

The most important thing when it comes to dealing with your secrets and learning to understand yourself is to confront your secrets head on. What are they? Why are you keeping them a secret? I am not saying that you should go and reveal your secrets, that is your choice. What I am saying is that you should sit down, write your secrets down – you may shred them afterward, but first stand back and ask yourself;

  • Why is it important that I keep this secret? Is it how I may be perceived by my friends, my family or my public image?
  • Is it to protect someone else? Does that person deserve to be protected or should they be confronted about the secret?
  • Is it to protect my job?
  • Is it to keep from losing someone close to me? And is my relationship with this person healthy if I can’t reveal this secret?

These are all questions that I confronted when I began to think about some of my own secrets and I kept coming back to a singular thought. Regardless of what the secret was or why I was choosing to keep it a secret and from whom, I needed to be authentic to myself. I needed to come to the realization that this is a part of who I am and face that fact.

The thing to remember about your secrets and being authentic is that people’s problems with your secrets are not your problems. They are their problems and their problem with how they perceive the world around themselves or perhaps their problem with their relationship with you. You are who you are and your secrets are not lies, they are simply something that is a part of yourself that you are choosing not to share with others. As long as you can be authentic, be genuine to yourself. Once you learn to be authentic to yourself, you will find it is much easier to be genuine to the people around you and they will start to see who the real you is and either accept it or deny it, but most importantly – it will be you.

 
  • Jason Stadtlander

The Dos and Don’ts of Monitoring Your Children Online
The Dos and Don’ts of Monitoring Your Children Online 1151 661 Jason Stadtlander

I have been asked about monitoring children for decades. It’s a very real concern that parents, educators and privacy advocates have. Although I do bring it up every few years here on my blog, I thought I would re-approach the topic and shed some light on monitoring today’s children.

Ethics

The primary concern most parents come to me with is “I want to respect my child’s privacy and I don’t really feel it’s ethical to monitor what they are doing.”

Let me be blunt here, and this comes from years of working with educators and law enforcement:

 there is and should never be any expectation of complete privacy when it comes to a child living under your guardianship.

If you are their parent or guardian, your primary responsibility is their well being and also teaching them right from wrong. Before the Internet did our parents just leave us to our own devices for days on end? No, of course not. If we were going out (even if it was all day) we would let our parents know where we are going and our parents, being responsible would reply “Ok, but I want you back by [fill in the blank].”

Why should this be any different online? In today’s world, social media and our online presence are just as important as our physical one and children are finding ways to assert and understand this online presence early on. We as parents need to understand that this is normal behavior and it is how our children are communicating with their peers and ultimately how they learn to communicate online will reflect how they function in today’s society. We as parents must know (and explain to our children) that we are not ‘dictating’ terms for their online use, but we are guiding and ensuring that they show respect and communicate in channels that are safe for them.

Reasons to Monitor

When I first started working in computers and parents first came to me, they had concerns that their child might be communicating with a child predator or visiting porn sites. We have moved way beyond this when it comes to our children being online. I’m not downplaying either of these concerns, but in today’s world, watching what children do online is more about understanding the people that they are becoming with their online presence. How they behave online can have long term repercussions with their future schooling and even their job employment.

We have moved from a generation of parents that don’t understand why or how children chat online to a generation of parents who not only understand chatting online but do it themselves. We are now not as overly concerned with our children being online as much as where they are going online and what they are posting. Monitoring your child is not solely about installing software on their computer or phone. It’s about communicating with your child, asking them up front, where are they going? What are they using the Internet for? And then checking yourself with their Twitter account, Facebook account or Instagram posts.

Here are some important facts to consider when monitoring your child:

  • Who are they talking to online? Do they know them in person? – This is one of my personal rules with my children (who are under 16). I have no problem with them chatting with friends. But they have to be friends that they know in real life (at least at this point). Stranger Danger is a real concern and it’s something that most schools teach. It’s important to know exactly who your children are talking to. There are times I have seen my children talking online with someone and I regularly will walk up and ask “who are you talking to”. If they can instantly tell me the name and it’s someone they go to school with then I am ok. If there is hesitation, then I know they are thinking up a lie and that it will need further investigation.
  • What apps are they using to chat with? Some of the more popular apps out there are Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, Kik, GroupMe, WhatsApp, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Tumblr, Twitter, Houseparty, Live.me, YouNow and MeetMe are just a few of the apps children are embracing for social connections.
  • What are they talking about? – Most parents that monitor their children’s online activities find they are completely innocent, searching for things that they are curious about, chatting with friends about other friends and activities at school. It’s about being aware, not reading every line of text that flows through their fingers.
  • What are they posting? Ensure that they aren’t posting anything in a public space that can reveal personally identifiable information. Make sure that what they are posting is age appropriate for them. If it is not, ask them to take it down.

Monitoring vs Awareness

As my two previous points have summarized, it really all boils down to you as a parent knowing where your children are going and what they are doing online. It’s not about watching their every move. Children do absolutely need a small amount of privacy, otherwise, they cannot discover who they are and how they fit into this ever-changing world.

Communication is key with children. If they know you will talk to them at any point about anything, then they will be more likely to make sure they aren’t doing something that would be inappropriate. In turn, they also will be more likely to come to you if they have a problem.

I monitor my children with a small piece of software that allows me to control what they access (if I choose) and it allows me to see what they search for online, and what chat apps they are using and even who they are chatting with. I do not generally look at it unless I have cause for concern (changes in their behavior or acting evasively). There are times I have gone in and quickly scanned it just to make sure it’s still on par with their normal online presence, but I generally give them their freedom to be themselves.

My children know I have monitoring software and that I can use it if I need to. But they also know that if they keep an open line of communication with me, I will give them more personal space.

Software Available

There are several good parental software on the market. One of my favorites is Mobicip as it forces all of their network traffic through a single VPN proxy (routes all of their online use through a single entry point). It’s not completely free, though it does have free options, I believe you get what you pay for when it comes to technology. It cannot be removed without the parent removing it (and believe me, my kids have tried). A few others that I have personally worked with are Net Nanny and  Kaspersky.

Generally, when it comes to software, you want software that will help you look back at a history of what your child has been doing online – not necessarily monitor them in real time. You also should look for software that has reviews from a reputable source such as PC Magazine or even check with your local law enforcement.
  • Jason Stadtlander

How to Boil The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg
How to Boil The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg 4032 3024 Jason Stadtlander

I make salads for lunch almost every day. Hard-boiled eggs are a perfect compliment to my (and your) favorite salad.

There are few things more infuriating (to me) than trying to peel that hard-boiled egg and being unable to separate the shell from the egg. Am I right? Admit it, it is the thorn of your existence. It is the one thing that you lay in bed thinking about until 3:00 AM, “How on Earth will I deal with that egg in the morning? How will I peel the shell and not go ballistic? How will I keep from throwing that egg at the wall and pulverizing it into a million little pieces?! How? How? HOW!?”

I have the answer to your dreams. The monumental recipe that will change your egg dealing days forever!

  1. Select your favorite eggs (No more than 8 if using a medium sized pan) and put them in a medium-sized pan.
    This is important If your eggs are too close to walls of the pan, the shell will cook into the egg. There should be enough room for 1-2″ of water between the egg and the pan.
  2. Fill the pan with water so that there is at least 1 – 2″ of water over the eggs.
  3. Heat up the water on high heat.
  4. Once it starts to boil, turn it down just a little and only then set the timer for 20-22 minutes.
  5. When the timer goes off, put the entire pan of eggs in the sink and run cold water over them for 2 minutes.
  6. Immediately after you turn off the water, pour a bowl of ice into the pan
  7. Let them sit for at least 10 minutes.
  8. Your eggs are ready!

 

 

 

 
  • Jason Stadtlander

Shows of the 1970’s and 1980’s Taking You Back
Shows of the 1970’s and 1980’s Taking You Back 2000 2000 Jason Stadtlander

Mom and Dad, this post is somewhat for you as some of my favorite memories are wrapped around the themes of shows you and I watched when I was a child.

I recently stumbled across the theme for Hill Street Blues the other day on YouTube, followed by M*A*S*H, The Andy Griffith Show, The Dukes of Hazzard and Magnum P.I. and it really got me thinking about how many emotions seeing these intros or listening to these themes brought back from my childhood.

The 1970’s and 1980’s were a pinnacle era in my perspective. They were the last age of humanity before the Internet. Before instant gratification and instant access to everything at your fingertips.

It really amazes me how much a song can evoke memories. I can recall laying in my bed and hearing down the hall my mother or father watching M*A*S*H or some other television show and the warmth of being lulled to sleep as it played in the background. Or tuning in each week (when you actually had to wait for television shows) to watch Michael Landon in “Little House on the Prarie” or one of my favorite actors Ernest Borgnine in “Airwolf” or better yet, David Hasselhoff in “Knight Rider”. These shows help to sculpt my childhood, helped to make me dream of other worlds or different places.

Where were you when Miami Vice came on, Magnum P.I. or L.A. Law? What was your favorite 1970’s or 1980’s show? (I know that The Andy Griffith Show below is a stretch, I just remember watching re-runs of it as a child)

Here’s a small selection of some of my favorite childhood show’s themes, if you think I should add one, let me know!

YouTube addition with children
  • Jason Stadtlander

What Your Child is Watching on YouTube Might Surprise You
What Your Child is Watching on YouTube Might Surprise You 2124 1416 Jason Stadtlander

Tech addiction is a serious problem and any parent in today’s age is aware of this. YouTube is the drug of choice for most children. Dr. David Greenfield, founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction explains that children (and anyone spending a lot of time on the internet) are often just “Looking for a little bit of dopamine.“

If you have a child that is old enough to hold a mobile device, you most likely have a child that watches YouTube. Children are not watching television like we did growing up, they are watching their favorite YouTuber. I’m not going to go off and be an old ‘fart’ and say “when we were kids we played outside all the time and we never would have been stuck to the screen.” for two reasons, 1. It would be a partial lie. One of my favorite past times as a kid coming home from school was putting on the TV and watching HeMan or Transformers. 2. No matter how much any parent wants to admit it, times change and so does the entertainment for children – almost on a generational basis.

Whether you have a little girl or a little boy, nearly all the kids like the YouTube stars that do silly skits, funny songs or real-time video game commentary. Often times (unbeknownst to parents) the YouTube stars (especially the more amateur ones) use inappropriate language or discuss things that are outside the realm of what a child should be listening to (topics, discussions, etc.).

Now there are plenty of YouTube stars out there that are respectable and work hard to make sure that they stick to their audience. It’s very important that parents look at what YouTube shows their kids are watching and that they watch some of them on their own time (at least a few minutes). I also highly advise installing a parent monitoring software such as MobiCip that will let you see what videos your children are watching when you’re not around or that you might have missed them watching. It does cost a little bit of money but it’s a small price to pay to help keep an eye on your children’s technology.

One important note on parent monitoring apps such as MobiCip: Tell your children that you are monitoring them. My son is well aware that I can see what he views on the internet, I don’t hide that from him but I also don’t hover over him either. I respect his privacy and only if I feel he’s being sneaky or might be viewing something he should not be viewing, do I actually go look through the history.

Words of Wisdom

  • MOST IMPORTANT: Talk to your child calmly. Ask them what they are watching and why they enjoy watching it. Diving straight in and stopping them from watching any YouTube is not the answer (no matter how much you might like to do that). That will just force them to go watch something on a friends device (when you’re not around) giving you no knowledge of what they are watching.
  • Google your child’s favorite YouTube stars. You are bound to find an overview of what the YouTuber talks about, what kind of language they use and what their target audience is.
  • There are several good video blocker extensions in Chrome and Internet Explorer that can be added to block specific YouTube channels. If you if you see something your child shouldn’t be watching, block it with one of these utilities.

 

Copyright © Jason Stadtlander - All Rights Reserved

Back to top