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September 10, 2018 by Arlene

Parental Control On Devices – The Pros

Being a parent is a difficult job, no questions asked, but what can be even more difficult is making sure your children do appropriate things and watch appropriate programming for their ages. With the advent of the internet and so many different things for kids to see online, there is no better invention than parent control on devices such as tablets, phones, laptops and smart TV. But what are some of the ways this is beneficial? Here are the top ways – and reasons – why more parents should think about installing some form of parental control on their children’s devices.

Serious Socialising

Parent control logiciel is a great way to ensure that your children are socialising on relevant child-friendly sites and apps with other children and not finding themselves in chat spaces that aren’t meant for children. Things like Facebook even have a minimum age of thirteen or so, so why not take away all temptation and block it until the child is old enough to access certain sites and control social apps that aren’t appropriate for certain ages. Not only that, but parent controls also allow you to set specific times for being online, meaning that your child will have to continually seek out permission to be online which you can deny in order to ensure they get off screen socialising in as well.

Play Now, Homework Later

An issue that many children struggle with in this day and age is the incessant desire to get online as soon as they get home to play games, chat with friends, surf the internet and more. While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to wind down after a long day, without parental controls in place your child could be spending most of the night online, neglecting school projects, friends, family and homework. By setting timers for, say, an hour after school to be online, you can ensure that your child will get relaxation time and not neglect their responsibilities..

Too Much Fun Time, Not Enough Family Time

Some parents find that if they control screen time they seem to have much more inclusive family time without people looking at their phones, still playing games or needing to make a call for whatever reason. In a world where we all seem to be so busy almost all the time, it’s important to have bit of off screen time with our loved ones, and that’s just what controlling screen time aims to instill in children. So how will you control screen time?

In all, being able to adequately control the time your children – both young and older – are online is a great way to ensure that their lives are being shaped by wholesome activities such as as going to the park, playing board games with family or friends and generally getting out of the house and experiencing life. With so many activities to get involved in off the phone or computer, installing parental controls has never been a better way to make sure your kids remember to put down the screens and pick up activities.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: children, devices, health, parenting, tech

January 24, 2018 by Arlene

What is Meltdown and Spectre and How to Patch It

If you haven’t already heard about Meltdown and Spectre, it is a vulnerability that will affect almost every computer. If your tech is out of date, you are more likely to be affected. However, if you keep everything up to date, you will be fine. Below you can find some more details on the vulnerability and how you can protect yourself from Meltdown and Spectre Ubuntu and other operating systems are getting affected by.

What are Meltdown and Spectre?

These vulnerabilities are complex and to fully understand how they have come about, you will need to understand the process called speculative execution. This process is used by the chips in your tech to allow the processors to run as they should. In the simplest way, it basically guesses what might come next and work ahead in order to keep the process running smoothly. It is almost preparing the computer for the next task that might happen.

This is where Meltdown and Spectre come into play. They use the speculative execution to essentially do something it shouldn’t. The even scarier thing is that there are actually three vulnerabilities between them.

What Can They Be Used For?

The end goal of using these vulnerabilities would be to gain access to the target machine/machines.

Spectre would involve the use of a single program. The chosen program, most likely a web browser, would become compromised and then be used to access other programs.

The Meltdown vulnerability is one that allows attackers to gain access to the computer’s memory. However, it allows access to a part of the memory that is not meant to be accessible.

What Can You Do (Non-Ubuntu User)?

The main way of combatting these vulnerabilities is to keep your tech up to date. Companies are regularly pushing out updates that patch this kind of vulnerability.

Apple has recently released an iOS and MacOS patch that protects users against Meltdown and Spectre. Other companies have also released updates or alternatively, a way to patch the vulnerabilities yourself.

So, if you are sitting on an older version of Windows, Android, iOS etc. then it is a key requirement to update the machine as soon as possible to prevent your devices from being hacked.

How to Patch Meltdown and Spectre on Ubuntu

In some cases, you may have already run this patch already. However, it is always good to check so in person. This is how you check:

Run the following command:

grep –i isolation /var/log/kern.log

If you receive an output similar to the following, the vulnerability has been patched:

[0.000000]! Kernel/User page tables isolation: enabled

If you have run the grep command and you have failed to find the output similar to the one above, you will have to update the system manually using the steps below:

Run the following commands in order:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install linux-generic intel-microcode

After running these, you will need to reboot the server:

sudo shutdown –r now

After your machine has booted back up, run the next command:

dmesg | grep “kernel/user page tables isolation: enabled”

Now that you have run the above commands, you should receive an output similar to the one mentioned above. Your Ubuntu machine will now be updated, and the vulnerabilities will be patched.

Vulnerabilities that can gain access to the machine’s core are scary. You wouldn’t expect it to be possible, but every day new bugs are being found and used to gain access to machines etc. However, keeping up to date will prevent the possibility of being hacked.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: computer, internet, Meltdown and Spectre, online, tech

January 22, 2018 by Arlene

Top Five January Sale Gifts

The new year is just getting started, and that means one thing for all of the shopaholics out there; it’s time to buy! Hundreds of retailers will have sales, so get online, get to the shopping centres, and snag yourself a bargain.

Here are five of the top January sale gifts you might want to take a look at.

Intempo Portable Party Unit

Price: £35 (RRP £89.99)

The Intempo is a great sounding portable speaker that will bring your party to life. It has crisp audio quality and built-in LED’s that will pulse along to the beat of the song.

No need to worry about an AUX cord, the Intempo has Bluetooth functionality, meaning you can connect on the go without the need of a wire. It also has a built-in rechargeable battery so charge it over-night, and you won’t have to worry about the portable party unit running out of charge for the day.

Weight Watchers 3.2 Litre Hot Air Fryer

Price: £60 (RRP £99.99)

Do you or a friend you know love eating healthy but miss fried food. Then the WW 3.2L air fryer is the perfect gift.

This hot air fryer can fry your food using no oil at all. You can add a little oil if you choose but this fryer will allow you to cook your favourite fried foods. One difference, the food will be a lot healthier!

So, if you want healthy air fried food and a massive bargain, get yourself a Weight Watchers Hot Air Fryer now.

Silly Story Book Collection – 5 Books with Carry Bag

Price: £5 (RRP £30)

If you have children aged 5 or more, or  know someone with a child over 5 or a family member, then this book collection is a great gift at a great price. At just £1 a book, you can’t go wrong.

In this set, you will receive ‘How the Leopard got his Spots’, ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’, ‘The Musicians of Bremen’, ‘How the Cow Jumped over the Moon’ and ‘The Open Road’. To make this deal even better, the books are stored in a stunning carry bag.

Despicable Me Monopoly Board Game

Price: £10 (RRP £24.99)

Most families will have the board game Monopoly laying around in a cupboard somewhere. It is a great game to bring out when you have the family over, and now you can include the kids too.

The Despicable Me edition of Monopoly features Banana Bucks to replace the original money. Spin the spinner to move your minion around the board and try to win. The game also replaces the original pieces with exclusive minion characters and tokens.

Intempo 400w Boom Speaker System

Price: £150 (RRP £499.99)

Do you love music but not have a huge speaker to express that love? Then you should buy yourself the Intempo 400w speaker. This impressive speaker really backs a punch putting out 4 x 100w. It also features a bass booster, a 5 band EQ with 5 pre-sets and Bluetooth. It also has an AUX function and a nice LED display. Buy this speaker now and blast your music out for the whole neighbourhood to hear.

January sales this year are massive with a ton of retailers cutting up to 80% off selected items. Act quickly as people start planning their January sale spending spree before the year has started.

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: gift ideas, gifts, January sales, tech

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About Seek Your Trip

Here at Seek Your Trip, we post twice-weekly articles that will get your travel juices flowing. The idea is to inspire you to get out there and explore far-flung places and unusual cultures.