Today I've mostly bin...

[SparkOut]

that would be a brilliant solution - how do i do that sparkout.

I know that they tried it with facebook at school and the kids just went through a proxy server or something but perhaps that is different as we are stopping total access.

Well, just how computer savvy is he? Is he just interested in gaming, or does he know about things on them and how they work? There's a good chance you can put a metaphorical lock on that he will know how to "pick" in the blink of an eye. (Or one of his school friends.)
How does the PC turn on in the first place? Does it have a welcome screen with multiple users to choose from and a password for each? Or does it just load up and go straight into his account?
And that trick of going through a proxy is just one of those things that the kids will do - it's often part of the "challenge" to see how they can bypass whatever it is you put in place to try and stop them.

[Biscuit]

I will check. He says he is not very savvy but he seems to know a lot to me - he was saying that this was a good website people joomla or something and he said his friend let him write a website where he was employed but it was quite basic, and not sure how this compares to computer password hacking.

Incidently at his sister's school they actually paid one of the children to police the intranet as he had gone in and hacked it in all sorts of naughty ways and I think they saw it as damaged limitation. Another time a teacher let slip a password and got into terrible trouble when the computer people realised he was logged into facebook in about 20 different locations at once.

I will check tomorrow on his screen whether he logs in or is straight in.

Biscuit

[MBH]

Proxy Servers - yes, I've heard about these from my 13-year-old visitors A prime set of examples (this particular crowd I'm thinking of) which show that Cunning and Intelligence are two totally different things.

You know the ones - try to get on the bus for child fare... told they are not getting on with drink... claim they are old enough to drink.... refuse to pay full fare this is a real scene described to my by OH

Anyway - my group of 11-13 year old charmers know of a few video sites they should certainly not have heard of

[Bunnylump]

A particularly hideous group of would-be convicts I worked with in year 11 one year were told by the teacher they could do a project on "Anything they were interested in". Within about 5 minutes I found one with a mail order list for semi automatic rifles and another with a hideous picture involving a lady and an Alsatian. And this is with all the Herts County Council safety settings on full.

[SparkOut]

A prime set of examples (this particular crowd I'm thinking of) which show that Cunning and Intelligence are two totally different things.

Yes!
It's a problem made worse in this school authority type situation (and parenting) where the authority doesn't know what will be secure either. Eg fitting a nice lock on your front door, where the back door is wide open. And the windows. And the flat roof of the garage being a great staging point to get to the skylight. etc. etc.

[Scurra]

You remember that thing I posted about the three sorts of "problems"? Handling things like that is a classic level 2 problem; it's not straight-forward (but it's hardly complex) and it's very tedious, so in general people won't do it, especially as maintaining it once it's set-up is almost as tedious. That's why a lot of local authorities just rely on third-party site blockers, which (a) are easy to bypass and (b) block a lot of perfectly uncontentious sites for no good reasons.

[clvrlad]

of course re thinking the problem the soloution is to move the computer elsewhere
somewhere hes visible to you but out the way... and done as a well we know your not responsible enough because of me noticing you still on it after its been turned of and your supposed to be in bed....
so untill you prove your responsible enough... mommy will be looking over your shoulder

[MBH]

another with a hideous picture involving a lady and an Alsatian.

I would LOVE to have heard his clear and rational explaination for his interest in that! Perhaps at assembly in front of ths school? Definitely in front of his parents

The little beggers can know as much as they like about bypassing - but if they ask to go onto the internet, and I say "No", and they call up the browser anyway (when I haven't got the 3G dongle in) then they can try as many sites as they like and fail to get anywhere. It's surprising how many persist after the first couple fail

[clvrlad]

well they might be daft and think your on 247 like at school

[Bunnylump]

URgh. Back to work. And a really long day, doing child protection training... lots of lovely horror stories and a cautionary video about children suffering various hideous types of abuse. Very jolly.

I've popped in to say hi and then I'm going to bed for a bit!!! (Going to the pictures later to see The Time Traveller's Wife). Hope I don't end up snoring!!

[giraffe]

Let me know if it's good, I really enjoyed the book.

[Looby]

LAT and I went a couple of weeks ago. Didn't make me cry as much as the book and I thought it was quite well done.
It made clearer a few bit that were ambiguous in the book, but some other things were glossed over.
I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it if I hadn't read the book as I think it would have been a bit confusing

[Bunnylump]

It was ok, but a bit slushy for me. The main actress is very good at smouldering. The time traveler needs a damned good shave. Very average musical score, too.

[giraffe]

....trying to work out how to get a saxophone onto a birthday cake, and wondering if I will be able to find the gold icing paint when I have made the cake! (It might have to be an orange saxophone if I can't find it. )

[Laura]

I've done a sugarpaste violin, with strings made of cotton. The main problem was that I had to use so much colouring to get it the right shade that the icing got really thin and floppy and it started to collapse. A sax is much more intricate though - good luck with that!!!!!!

[giraffe]

I'm not making a sax, just painting it on the top of the cake. I've done some quite adventurous cakes before, but it's always worrying before you start.

[Laura]

The one that I did, I made with a girl I childminded, for her birthday. She insisted that me and every member of her family had to help make the cake! The violin for the top was my contribution.

[Bunnylump]

When I made a guitar cake for David I found some gold powder colouring, which you mix with clear alcohol ( like vodka) and just paint on. I got it from a cake decorating specialist, but it lasted for ages and of course didn't dry out. You wouldn't like to make another one for my daughter would you, Giraffe? It's her birthday in a couple of weeks and she's a saxophonist too!!

I'm so lazy these days. I just make cakes that taste nice for birthdays, with no fancy stuff on them. When the kids were little I used to make all sorts of things. An enormous grand piano complete with raised lid, strings and workings and licorice and white chocolate keys springs to mind, and my favourite was a barbecue cake complete with glowing "coals", sausages and beefburgers made out of chocolate.

Now I wonder how the heck I could be bothered!! I can't even be bothered to do proper cooking at all now. So we're living on things like fish cakes and salad and vegetable stir fries. If it takes longer than about 15 minutes to cook, forget it!! There was a time when I grew all my own veg, made jam and pickles, and home made wine. When the kids had birthday parties I would cook all the food (proper healthy stuff), hand make all the games and party bags. My daughter had a clown party once and we had tents set up in the garden all done out to look like a circus. I even hand made (and painted) wooden, clothed pop up clowns for each child to take home!!! Proper Earth mother. My, how things change! I now spend most of my time in a heap attached to a computer.

[Laura]

My favourite birthday cake as a child was a tortoise. It was covered in marzipan and its head was a solid ball of marzipan. I ate the whole head in one go! mmmmmmm!

[tricia]

I'm most impressed with the cakes - I've never tried a shaped cake before - I made a wedding cake for a friends daughter and made sugar paste lisianthus fresias and roses and carnation - cant do it anymore because the sugar affects my psoriasis and the fingers are no longer supple because of my arthritis - Would like to see a picture of the end result
Tricia