Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on January 13, 2010 by CyberNet.

The demand for parental controls on computers is rapidly growing as kids continue to get their own personal machines. That’s why Microsoft started to include some of that functionality in Vista and Windows 7, but it is generally pretty basic when it comes down to limiting the amount of time a user can spend on the machine.

Romaco Timeout is a free application that is a little different than other parental controls in that it doesn’t focus on filtering out web content or controlling what games a user can play. All it does is enforce usage time limits in a variety of different ways:

• Daily quota: Specify how much time the user is allowed to spend on the computer on any given day.
• Session time limit: Specify how much time the user is allowed to spend on the computer each time they login.
• Online usage restrictions: Specify how much time the user can spend online before their browser is locked. It considers you “online” when you have a web browser running. If you close the browser the quota will be paused.

If you’re going to use Romaco Timeout I highly recommend grabbing the Beta version because it has some extra features and bug fixes that previous versions don’t have. I don’t expect everyone to go out and grab an app like this, but there quite a few scenarios where I could see this being useful. The obvious use is if you have kids, but it may also be helpful for shared computers and/or kiosks that are in public places (which is where the “per-session” limits would really apply).

Romaco Timeout Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)
Thanks Tomas

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

Growing up my grandmother had a round rock inside her flowerbed. She had carted around that rock for eleventy billion years, otherwise known as her childhood. My brother and I used to bowl with it because it was round and pissed off our grandmother. Once day we broke the rock in half, which wasn’t as hard as it might sound, and realized it was a geode.

I have had a soft spot of wonder for geodes since then. An artist named Skullis creates life-size hand-carved skulls out geodes and they are awesome. It looks like a prop from an Indiana Jones flick. Each skull is intricately carved and is open on the top showing the crystals inside the skull.

Someone already bought this particular geode skull for $1560(USD), and I would say that is money well spent. If you’d like a carved skull of your own, be sure to check out Skullis’ online shop, which has many other stone and crystal skulls available for purchase in a variety of sizes and price points. The black obsidian one is especially impressive:

[via Lost at E Minor via Laughing Squid]

Photographer Peter Stackpole's 1936 picture of the cable spinning operation for the construction of the Bay Bridge, and the gallows that dot the catwalks. The photograph is one of dozens by Stackpole, along with other paintings, drawings, and lithographs included in "The Bay Bridge: A Work in Progress, 1933-1936," a new exhibit at the de Young museum in San Francisco.

(Credit: Peter Stackpole/Fine Art Museums of San Francisco)

These days, the Golden Gate Bridge is by far the most famous span in the world, let alone California, or even San Francisco. Yet, in 1937, when it was completed, it was considered an afterthought by many, overshadowed by a much larger and more ambitious cousin.

That other bridge, of course, is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, also completed in 1937, an architectural masterpiece that took the Depression-era world by storm.

Today, San Francisco’s de Young museum debuts “The Bay Bridge: A Work in Progress, 1933-1936,” a brand-new exhibit of about 100 photographs and other works.

According to the exhibit’s curator, Jim Ganz, the goal was to showcase not just the Bay Bridge — as beautiful and important a structure as it is — but also the 1930s, a period that was “such an exciting moment in American art.” As Ganz explained, America was just beginning … [Read more]

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Richard Clarkson, a student at New York’s School of Visual Arts, has used a combination of pneumatics and 3D-printed flexible-materials to create an artificial flower that “blooms,” and the result is pretty neat. When air fills a cavity in the …

Last year we talked a bit about the Soccket soccer ball, or football depending on where you are from, when it turned up on Kickstarter. At the time a pledge of $89 would get you one. If you missed the Kickstarter campaign and want to get your hands on one of the power generating balls, you now can.

It uses tech inside the ball that captures and stores electricity when the ball is kicked around. It’s designed primarily for use in developing nations which have limited access to electricity, and can provide three hours of light after 30 minutes of play, using the flexible LED lamp included with each ball.

https://vimeo.com/8103669

The power captured by the generator inside is stored in a battery pack. If you don’t need a light, the power can be used to charge a smartphone. Keep in mind that its USB jack offers only 6W so it’s not enough for most tablets.

The Soccket ball is now available to purchase for $99(USD).

[via EverythingUSB]