The Joys of Becoming COPPA Compliant

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One of the IRC Networks I work with (UCCN) is looking at a proposal drawn up recently to allow children under 13 to join us and chat on the network. To begin with, it looked very difficult to do this in a law abiding manner. Then it looked really easy. After studying the “How to Comply” page on the FTC site, it turns out it is somewhere in the middle.

While it will indeed require some changes in the network configuration, as well as in staff policies and such, the most difficult aspect is the consent phase. Ensuring that parents are who they say they are (or at least having a record that verifies to a legal standard that they are who they say they are) is the hardest thing to do.

All in all, the best method found so far is a signed form from the parent sent by post, or by fax. For our purposes, this will also hold some verification information, and technical details regarding the children in particular.

It also means network changes, only permitting underage users to do specific things, and blocking anything else that might endanger them, or that would be out of our control as administrators, and their guardians while on the network.

The other difficulty is going to be designing and building a secure database system for storing the personal information, that will log who accesses what. This is one of my areas of expertise, however, so it shouldn’t be too high on the hard-scale.

The Bright Night

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To the left of frame, is a street. About 150m down this street, to the right, is another street. Another 200m down this street is a house. This is where I lived for just shy of 22 years. To the left is visible a bus shelter, where I would wait having missed the first bus I should catch in the morning. Often missing the second one also.

This is Wellington Road, in Wainuiomata, New Zealand, looking roughly South, I believe.

Taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S5600 Digital, Shutter Speed 0.8s, a Focal Length of 14.8mm and an F-stop set at F/8, on ISO200.

Upcoming Photoblogs

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I haven’t been taking too many interesting photos recently, so I’ve decided that at least through to the end of the month I will blog a few of my old photos every couple of days. These were taken on my old Fujifilm Finepix S5600 (5.1MP) Camera.

I very much enjoyed owning this camera, (less than a year before I upgraded to an S9600, 10,000+ Photos later) and would recommend Fujifilm cameras to any and all. The S9600 has been described as “the closest to an SLR a camera can get, without being an SLR.”

I trust you will enjoy viewing these photos as much as I enjoyed taking and posting them.

Cold Morning

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For some reason that I don’t well recall, I was in Wellington City at 7am one morning, and while walking to work (on Waterloo Quay, at the time) I took this marvellous photo of the sun rising over the harbour, and the dockside.

Unfortunately I don’t have technical camera specifications for this particular shot, however I do know that it was taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S5600 Digital.

Backlit Treeline

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A cloudy sky, back lit, silhouetted trees against the black and white background.

Unlike the last photo I blogged, this is a purely black+white shot, taken as part of a set intended to be panorama’d.

Taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S9600 Digital, Shutter Speed 1/30s, a Focal Length of 12.8mm and an F-stop set at F/3.6, on ISO200.

AwesomeChristians.us Singles Site

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This is a shameless plug for a new site I’m helping out with (Yes, I’m married. Yes I have an account. It’s for testing. Really. Thats all.)

AwesomeChristians is a site that has been around for a while, and has recently been through a reorganization and refocus, and today was GoLive for the new AwesomeChristians Singles site.

If you’re a Single Christian, looking for your mate, this may (or may not) be your answer to prayer. Just a suggestion, you might want to give it a visit. At least make friends, perhaps find your life partner.

Cwiddle, the Goat King

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The joys of married life 😉

Earlier today, my wife decided that we were goats. Where this came from, I’m not sure. It happens often, we’ll make something up, and it’ll become the name for the week, or sometimes longer. It’s how Criddle (Or ‘Twiddle’, and other similar variations) came to be a common name among closer family and friends.

Tonight, I’ve been crowned, imaged, and uploaded to imageshack, as Cwiddle, the Goat King.

Behold my glory.

Unwritten Rules

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This is a rant, but it will be short.

What I’m fed up with recently, is.. “Law Enforcers” who enforce rules or laws that weren’t publicised.

A police officer arresting someone for doing something within the law is likely to face disciplinary action. However, police officers, parents, other authority figures regularly make requests regarding rules that they have never told their subjects about, and expect us to follow their requests, simply because they are in authority and we are not. That, I believe, is an abuse of power.

I made mention in my Letter to the Christian Internet Community, to a particular legal rule about IRC users under the age of 13. The network that enforced this rule has made no publication (as to date) of this particular rule on its website, on either of its widely advertised webpages of rules, or in its MOTD, viewable on connect.

I contacted the network, and they replied saying “Thanks for pointing this out” – another staff member followed up by saying “It’s in the Java chat, where most new users connect” – I still haven’t seen it, though I concede I wasn’t looking hard.

Today, it happened again. Same place, probably same op, this time asked me to remove a clone. I considered my options, and decided to save everyone some hassle and go with it. I then went and looked up the rules – and once again, there was no mention of it. The closest I could find was a rule against CloneBots, which, ladies and gentlemen, are not the same as a simple clone. The purpose of a clonebot (and the reason for banning them) is to make multiple connections from the same location, and flood a network or channel or server (not just IRC, can include web and mail sometimes also) – causing as much disruption as possible, whether it be by flooding text, flooding join/part, anything that prevents the server from being utilised as it was intended. The reason for cloning is that most flood protection systems will prevent against a single user, however if all the clones are individually not flooding, only causing disruption as a whole, they manage to stay online a little longer.

This is not my reason for cloning. My reason for cloning is simple, really. I have 2 computers that I regularly move between, one is a desktop, and is stationary at my house. When I’m at home, I use this in my living room. When I’m out, or in the bedroom, or anywhere I don’t feel like sitting in the desk chair, I use the macbook, and chat there. Sometimes, and this happens more than most might believe, I move between them quite a bit in short spaces of time. To save everyone disruption, and prevent my own confusion, I tend to leave both logged in at the same time.

This is going to be raised, once again with CCNet, and I will put to them two questions – if it’s for the purpose of saving problems rather than causing them, is it such an issue, and secondly, if it’s not a stated rule – why is it being enforced?

An authority figure making a request regarding a rule that they have never mentioned before, and expecting us to follow their requests, simply because they are in authority and we are not, I believe, is an abuse of power.

Light in the Darkness

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For the longest time, I’ve been somewhat of a purist with regards to my own photography. A “Take the photo, leave the photo alone.” type approach. More recently, however, I’ve been leaning back towards the idea of touching photos to gain a different feeling – whether it be cropping, framing, or in this case, selective colouring.

This is another shot from the EMU campus here in Harrisonburg, this time shot in colour, and selectively tinted so as the light is in colour and the rest of the shot is black and white. Generally when I do things like this it winds up looking tacky and/or cheesy, however I’m quite please with the turnout of this one.

Taken with a Fujifilm Finepix S9600 Digital, Shutter Speed 1s, a Focal Length of 17mm and an F-stop set at F/5, on ISO200.