Apple's iPad device is the big tech news for at least the rest of this week. Reviews from the pundits who have been watching things unfold have been rather mixed, but the word coming from the press and technologists who were in attendance and had a chance to use one of the devices yesterday is pretty similar.

The iPad is FAST, the iPad is more than just a giant iPod touch, and the iPad is the device that Apple has been building towards since the release of the iPhone.

The real hidden (or not so hidden) message of the iPad is that this is the computing paradigm that Apple is investing in for the long haul. In 10 years, I think Apple wants the iPhone/iPad UI to be the one most of us use most of the time we're at a computer.

So, while the iPad may release to mixed fanfare, and it may or may not be a breakout hit like the iPhone, the iPad is The Future™.

As you could probably guess, my house lives and breathes technology. My wife and I both spend far too much time on our computers for recreation. Our kids are also rather used to this and have always been using our computers for various games and other activities. The main problem I've always had with this is if my kid is using my computer, I can't.

So, I got to the point where I figured that my oldest was definitely old enough to get a machine of his own after using a discarded PowerBook G4 the last couple of years, and my younger while maybe not quite old enough couldn't be left out the equation. I spent some time last year thinking on the problem and planning out what sort of setup to get them. There were a few pre-existing conditions that colored my decisions, so for your household and your kids you may find some of the other options more suitable.

I upgraded from my old PowerBook G4 to a MacBook Pro about a year and a half ago. Shortly after the upgrade my oldest started using the PowerBook for a lot of things. Going to various websites, playing some games, watching movies, etc. He also subjected the PowerBook to an untold amount of physical abuse. The keyboard is currently in shambles (mostly due to my younger kid's zeal at pulling off keys and the little rubber things underneath them for a time), and after dropping it off his bed one night the display doesn't power up properly. However, it still works great with external mouse/keyboard/monitor. Go figure.

This state of the PowerBook was originally leading me to think that I should get the kids set up with some inexpensive desktop systems. This was the plan for quite some time. Every couple of months leading up to Christmas I would scour Newegg and build out a new system; trying for cheaper and more powerful. These would be the first desktop systems in the house for probably three or four years and in preparation we even rearranged the playroom to be ready for some computer desks.

Even though I was pretty set on the desktop solution, sticking with laptops in some form was still on the table. The portability would mean the kids could take their computers with them for car rides, over to grandma's, or just out and about for the day. While the desktop systems would have a lot more performance for the money, there was a strong case for portables.

Still, I kept thinking about the state of the old PowerBook and figuring it'd be easier to replace a $15 desktop keyboard or mouse. Especially if it happened multiple times.

In the end, when the Black Friday deals came around and it was possible to get netbooks for around $200 I figured that might be the best route to take. Inexpensive enough to not break the bank, ultra-portable, and a great size for a 4 and 6 year old.

So, I ended up over the course of Black Friday week getting a couple of netbooks for the kids. I ended up with a Gateway LT2022u Netbook for the 4 year old and a ASUS Eee PC 1000HA Netbook for the 6 year old.

Both of these have pretty similar specs, the ASUS has a bigger battery, but I put in a 2GB stick of RAM I had laying around into the Gateway, so it's running with 2GB of RAM instead of the original 1GB. I also installed Windows 7 on both of the machines. I've been very pleased with the performance of the various games that I've put on them, including Torchlight, Dungeons and Dragons Online, and World of Warcraft, to name a few of the big ones.

I ripped a bunch of DVD content and put it on their machines, since they lack an optical drive. I find this a good thing, since they can't scratch up the DVDs this way. I setup an easy bookmark into Netflix's Kids section on their streaming website, so that they can also watch content that way.

I didn't really do anything to lock down the machines. I did replace IE with Firefox and installed AdBlock+ to keep things a bit safer while their browsing the internet.

In Part 2 I'll go into some more detailed specifics of the set ups and some of their usage patterns over the past month, including a new preference the kids have for eating out at restaurants with free WiFi.

So far the netbooks have been an astoundingly good choice and both of the kids have been very good about treating their computers with care.

If you have any questions you can reach me on twitter @InfinityIT or just shoot me an email.

Facebook made a huge change to the way privacy works on their site. If you've logged into your Facebook account this week you were probably greeted with a cryptic message and some options that were poorly worded and didn't really convey the true sense of what was going on. Christian Zibreg at has an article explaining the change at Geek.com:

Note that the new “Everyone” setting includes anyone on the Internet viewing your profile, Facebook-enhanced apps and websites, search engines, and Facebook’s RSS feeds. It’s designed in a Twitter-like fashion, allowing you to expose certain pieces of content and information about yourself to public search engines, meaning it’ll pop up when someone searches for you on Google and other search engines.

Be forewarned and take the time this weekend to go over the new privacy settings. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had issues with the new settings.

Only a small number of people using the Internet ever really think about it or even know what it is. In simple terms computers use numbers (IP addresses) to identify each other. DNS overlays this system with domain names and maps them to the relevant IP address. So, you don't have to know the IP address for google.com to get there. DNS does more, but that's probably beyond the scope of this article.

Back in the early days of the Internet when you had to configure your dial-up modem connection manually, one of the many numbers you were given by your ISP to set things up was the IP address of their DNS server (actually, you were probably given two) These days, stuff like that is handled automatically when you connect to your DSL or cable internet connection.

So, what's a public DNS server and why should you care?

Well, DNS servers do all sorts of things behind the scenes to find out where in the world the server for the website you're trying to load is located. And in the case of large websites like google.com there may be hundreds of servers around the globe. DNS servers will direct you to the one closest to you so that page loads and other network activity will be faster.

Public DNS servers are DNS servers that allow anyone to use them. Your ISP has DNS servers, but only their customers can use them. To date, one of the largest providers of public DNS services is OpenDNS. Some of the reasons to use OpenDNS is that their DNS servers can be more reliable, are probably faster, could be more reliable (although I've never personally had a problem using ISP-provided DNS it does happen), and if you're using them you'll get the same DNS service whether you're at home or at the coffee shop (where you could possible run into issues). I've been using OpenDNS myself

In addition to OpenDNS, AT&T and Level 3 have had an array of public DNS servers for years, even tough most people have never heard about them. In fact, other than references to people using them, I've never really seen a definitive site that explains their usage. However, they are quite reliable and speedy. If you want basic DNS without all of the added features OpenDNS provides then using these servers is a great alternative. (Server IP's: 4.2.2.1, 4.2.2.2, 4.2.2.3, 4.2.2.4, 4.2.2.5, 4.2.2.6)

And finally, to the reason why the topic of public DNS is all of a sudden a hot topic, Google is now providing public DNS servers. You can go to the Google Public DNS page for an explanation and setup instructions.

DNS is one of those core technologies that keeps the Internet held together, but no one ever thinks about. The next time your internet connection seems to be fine, but when you hit enter in your browser and it takes awhile for the initial page to start loading, it could be your ISP's DNS servers being flakey.

It being the week of Thanksgiving we all know that everyone is more excited about Black Friday than about visiting with relatives and eating badly cooked turkey with cold mashed potatoes. My preferred hardware vendor, Newegg is getting in on the action early this week. So, if you're looking for some hardware upgrades, a new computer or laptop, or a tech gift for someone you might see what they have going this week. The best part being you don't have to camp out all day Thursday to be in line for the good deals at Best Buy and such.

with a 2 year Sprint contract, of course. Still, this is an amazing deal and if you're in the market for a smartphone you could do worse. And the price is quite nice. You can click here to see the deal.

Marco Armet takes a sobering look at the current DMCA takedown problem:

Anyone can force any content on nearly any site hosted in the U.S. to be taken down or removed from Google’s index, at least for a while, with no ramifications, liability, or traceability by filling out a simple web form or sending an email. An attacker could republish this post on another blog, give it yesterday’s date, and send an email to The Planet claiming that this is infringing their copyright. Within a couple of days, this post would be gone, and I’d have no recourse.

I bring this up here for two reasons. First, if you're posting content online you need to know that you may fall victim to such attacks, whether valid or not. Secondly, problem legislation like this is increasingly invading the technology and online areas of our lives. The particular problem with this aspect of the DMCA? It assumes guilt on the part of the accused, completely reversing the basic premise of our legal system.

XP is dead and while I don't think Vista was the flop that people want to make it out to be, it was never able to gain any traction in the business environment. Now, the Windows 7 release is only a week away and many people and organizations are still wondering if Windows 7 is it, or if it's still better to cling to XP. From what I've seen of Windows 7 so far and from the word on the street, it's time to ditch XP and look to upgrade. Ars Technica has a report from Gartner that strongly recommends the move from XP to Windows 7.

Gartner is giving enterprises five suggestions for their Windows computers. The most important one is "don't skip Windows 7." Gartner says Windows 7 is a release that polishes the architectural changes that came with Windows Vista, and polishing releases should never be skipped. Michael Silver, Research VP of Gartner, explains that organizations which skipped Windows 2000 and waited for XP had some problems, but organizations that adopted Windows 2000 and tried to skip Windows XP in order to wait for Vista had a much harder time. Since XP was a polishing release, according to Gartner, the company believes that Microsoft's most recent polishing release should not be skipped. Gartner analysts also note that "it's nearly inevitable for enterprises to move to Windows 7"

The bad news for everyone who stuck it out with XP and avoided Vista is that the upgrade path is going to be more painful. You won't be able to perform a simple upgrade and have your data remain intact. A clean installation of Windows 7 is going to be required and that means having to reinstall applications, and migrate other files and data to the new OS via backups. Microsoft has put together a tutorial that walks through the steps to help you out. However, that doesn't change the fact that it's going to be more tedious to get Windows 7 going on an XP machine. Either way, the hassle will be worth the effort if for no other reason that to get rid of IE 6 once and for all.

Brian Krebs from the Washington Post dives into the problem in this story:

The simplest, most cost-effective answer I know of? Don't use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online. I do not offer this recommendation lightly (and at the end of this column you'll find a link to another column wherein I explain an easy-to-use alternative). ...regardless of the methods used by the bank or the crooks, all of the attacks shared a single, undeniable common denominator: They succeeded because the bad guys were able to plant malicious software that gave them complete control over the victim's Windows computer. ... "I would strongly recommend looking at whatever systems you're using if you're doing electronic banking," the Gazette quotes Bernie Burns, the Arc's executive director. "And if it is a Microsoft system, perhaps looking at something different." Of course, a Mac computer would probably work just as well, but the focus here is on Windows users who may be looking for a cheap way to harden their existing setup to avoid malicious software.

Avoiding Windows can be difficult because of required software, or expensive to transition away from with new hardware and/or software costs. There are good and cheap alternatives and looking into them, such as booting off of a linux-based LiveCD while you bank online, is a good way to build up familiarity with alternative systems. As with anything, using your computer is like using any other tool. Choose the right one for the right job. Many times Windows is that right tool, but oftentimes there other tools better suited to the task at hand.

From Ars:

NVIDIA dropped a bombshell today with an announcement that it is freezing development work on future PC chipsets. The GPU maker is blaming this dramatic move on an ongoing legal spat with Intel, but the market realities are there for all to see.

In the short-term this is not good for people who are looking for an inexpensive, yet 3D capable PC or laptop. The Intel integrated video chipsets have so far been less than stellar. The widespread use of NVIDIA's offerings by everyone from homebrew system builders to Apple, Dell, HP, Acer, and other large PC vendors means this announcement is going to shakeup the PC industry for the next couple of years. It will be very interesting to see how all of this shakes out. I would also mark this as a win for AMD, as those system builders may find themselves looking at AMD/ATI offerings instead of going with sub-par Intel graphics. Will we see a rise of AMD computers next year from the big PC vendors? Probably not. However, I can see the AMD offerings looking very good for small system builders and the homebrew market. In fact, I've been favoring the AMD/ATI offerings for awhile now. You can get a lot more bang for your buck with an excellent upgrade path while saving quite a bit of money.