ComputerTime Newsletter - March 2007

Win an iPod and Save Friends $5!

If a friend purchases ComputerTime from now until April 30th, you can win an iPod in our drawing. When your friend purchases, they must enter your email into the "Message to Seller" form on the Review Your Payment page during checkout.

On top of that, tell your friend to use Coupon Code MYFRIEND407 during checkout, and they will instantly save $5 off their purchase.

Hurry up and forward this to a friend because the coupon expires and they must purchase by April 30th.

For the legal stuff, see our drawing terms.

World's Richest Geek Limits His Kid's Screen Time

If you made billions of dollars in the computer industry, you might encourage your kids to spend a lot of time on the computer. But Bill Gates believes in limits.

I was at a soccer game with my son and I started talking to a parent who I hadn't seen in a while. In catching up, I told him how I was working on ComputerTime and how it's helping parents by allowing them to set time limits on their kid's computer use. This parent seemed interested at first, but then said to me, "I'm not sure I want a product like that. If I could get my kid on the computer 24 hours a day, I would!" Perhaps this dad thinks of his kid as a future Bill Gates and thinks that "spending time on a computer" is the way for his kid to attain that wealth and success.

Uber-geek Bill Gates, one of the founders of Microsoft, not to mention the world's richest man, strongly disagrees with this parent. Bill said his daughter was getting "hooked" on Xbox. Given freedom to choose their own activities, what kid wouldn't be hooked on video games? They're fun, challenging, cool, and... addictive. So Gates sets a screen-time limit of 45 minutes per weekday and an hour on weekends for his daughter's game play. Gates and his wife Melinda realize what many ComputerTime fans do - that kids need a balance of activities in their lives to grow up healthy and be successful.

Parents need to intervene and impose limits, ensuring kids spend time building other important life skills. Success in life requires a wide range of skills. Real leaders in any industry understand that there is much more than the core skills of their occupation that matter. They know how to communicate, have a good business sense, and know how to build teams. They take care of themselves physically, and have hobbies that are distinct from their work. They also understand the importance of friends and family time.

I wonder if the parent I met at the soccer game has heard this news and has changed his mind about limits. I sure hope so for his kid's sake!

ComputerTime Tips from Support

I Didn't Give My Child That Much Time!?!?!

"I know I set a one hour limit, but Sally is still on the computer. How can that be?" Before you decide ComputerTime is developing Alzheimer's, here are two explanations.

Time Tokens

Time Tokens is a feature of ComputerTime allowing you to easily provide extra time without changing the normal limits. Using ComputerTime Admin, you create tokens of any duration (e.g. 15, 30, 60 minutes). Then you give your child one of the six digit tokens for more computer time.

Time Tokens will allow Sally on the computer past her one hour limit. Also, unused time on a Token can be used across days. If you provide a one-hour token and only 30 minutes are used today, an additional 30 minutes can be used the next day beyond normal limits.

To see if your child still has extra time because of a token, simply move your mouse over the ComputerTime icon on the taskbar, and a tooltip appears showing something like:

Tomorrow Starts at Midnight Tonight

This next mystery even caught me off guard the other night. I use ComputerTime at home with a two-hour daily limit. At 10:20 PM I logged on and ComputerTime shows I have "3hrs 40mins" left. Wait, how could it be more than my two hour daily limit? My first thought was tokens, but when I hovered over the ComputerTime icon it didn't report any token time. Huh? Where is this extra time coming from? It took me a few minutes to realize what was going on.

Remember, my two hour daily limit gives me two hours every single day. Since the day ends at midnight and I logged on at 10:20 PM, I only had one hour and 40 minutes for that day. But what happens when the clock strikes midnight? Rather than turn into a pumpkin and get kicked off the computer, I get a fresh two hours for the new day. So, my one hour and 40 minutes today plus my two hours for tomorrow means I have three hours and 40 minutes left, just like ComputerTime claims, and I will still be within my two-hour daily limit.

If ComputerTime seems overly generous to your kids on occasion, consider those two scenarios.

ComputerTime on Windows Vista

We're updating ComputerTime as a result of many security changes in Windows Vista. The minor changes to ComputerTime for Vista compatibility will be released in the next few weeks. ComputerTime will automatically notify you when the update is available. In addition, you will receive an email notification from us. Until then, we recommend you do not use ComputerTime on Vista.

For those that have used Windows Vista, you have already experienced the "Cancel" or "Allow" messages from Vista. Those messages are a result of the security changes. This funny Apple TV commercial says it well.

Do you have any questions you'd like answered? Contact Customer Support.

If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward it to your friends.