Ideas from Mark Stout

So many of us enjoy calling by Skype.  Chances are, your parents don't know about it, yet may have the equipment they need to do it. Help your parents grow close to far flung family with video phone calls via Skype and others. This is the topic of this week's Family Tech column .

I just contacted my congressman to express my strong opposition to pending SOPA legislation.  Briefly it would setup a firewall for the Internet greatly curtailing yours and my freedom of speech, neuter the power of the Internet to be a strong tool for economic growth and personal communication all in order to protect the interests of large corporations. I urge everyone to learn more about SOPA and then contact their representative to let them know your feelings. Time Magazine says "SOPA Won’t Stop Online Piracy, Would Censor Everyone Else" Protect the greatest equalizer to ever come to people.

HAL, the talking computer of 2001 fame, is appearing on a phone or computer near you. Computers you can talk to, and can talk to you, are the topic of this week's Family Tech column .

Like many people, I spend a lot of time in the car.  Unlike many, I do not find music soothing while driving--I'm missing the music gene I guess. Anyway, I enjoy the time in the car to catch up on Podcasts.  There are many out there, but I tend to favor the ones done by Leo Laporte's Twit.tv .   Leo is a professional broadcaster of many year's experience.  He has started an awesome online tech news network.  His professionalism makes for great programs. I tend to listen to two shows primarily.  " This Week in Google ", broadcast live on Wednesdays, with podcasts available for download on Wednesday nights.  And " This Week in Tech ", broadcast Sundays with podcasts available later that night. However, I spend more time in the car then the duration of those two shows.  Twit's other shows are excellent, but not as compelling to me as those two are. However, they do have one show I hadn't paid much attention to until recently. ...

Concerns about efforts to shape Internet Policy that might limit the freedom and power of the net, was the topic of this week's Family Tech column .

Taming your Inbox using Email Filters was the topic of this week's Family Tech column .