ICU Version 2 Now Available

The latest version of ICU is now available for download. Version 2 is a major upgrade to ICU. On top of the normal bug fixes there are quite a few new monitoring features that I'm hoping most people will find useful.

1. Rolling Monitoring - Captures an image every 20 seconds which can then be played back using the custom viewer. This really helps when there is something a bit dodgy in one of the standard e-mail reports but you're not 100% sure. A quick flick through using the rolling viewer can usually clear up whether what you are seeing is a problem or not.

2. Program List - Records the programs that are run during the duration of the standard report. If you get an e-mail every half hour then it's the programs your child has ran in that half hour. Have they had a sneaky 5 minutes on a game whilst supposed to be doing their home work? More importantly this report will also show the titles of any browser windows open. This corresponds to the titles of the web pages they have been visiting.

3. MSN Messenger Conversations - Whilst ICU captures the screen in order to record MSN Messenger conversations in context this new feature captures who your child has been speaking to (not what is being said). I've already found this priceless. My daughter has a rule that she's not allowed to speak to anybody on MSN that she doesn't know in real life. This report has busted her a few times.

Besides these I've also added a "Stay Alive" version. This is aimed for parents of tricky kids who think it's funny to use the task manager to stop ICU running. This optional version doesn't allow that to happen. :)

All in all I'm quite happy to release version 2 now but be warned that it's not perfect. There are a few minor bugs in there and the interface will be updated at some point soon (hopefully). Truthfully I just wanted to allow people to use the new features that I've been using for months. Besides it's free software so there is no issue with just updating it as and when I make any changes!

Thanks and enjoy!

Paul

FIND OUT MORE AND DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY OF ICU

ICU Version 2.0 - A Sneaky Look

This is a bit of an exclusive sneaky look at version 2 of ICU. As well as the usual roll-up of bug fixes from the last six months the "thing" that makes this version 2 is some major new functionality. Welcome to the wonderful world of rolling activity:-








This new monitoring allows a constant capture of the last weeks activity of any users you select. This activity can then be played back as a slide show. Think of it is a motion capture of that users activity.

I've been testing this for nearly 7 months now can hand on heart report that it works fantastically. It's a great addition to the standard monitoring of ICU and gives you the ability to really double check. For example where you see something "iffy" on an ICU e-mail report it is then very simple to go back and check the rolling footage from around that time to see exactly what has and hasn't happened. It's an added step in clearing up any misunderstandings. The reason it's called rolling activity because it only retains the last week, I'm still very aware of the whole privacy issue and wouldn't want anything keeping longer than is really necessary.

I don't really like deadlines but all being well ICU version 2 will be available for free download by the end of October. If you are interesting in child monitoring software then I'd suggest you subscribe to my RSS feed, that way you'll know just as soon as I have it finished and available.

Australian Crack Down On Paedophiles

Australian cops have recently arrested 70 people in connection with under age porn on the Internet. The tip off came when the details of over 1500 suspected Australian paedophiles were passed on by Interpol following a six month investigation. Amongst those arrested were a police officer and perhaps even more worryingly a primary school teacher.

Details of how the details came out are nothing short of shocking:-

The Interpol tip off came after a respected European Internet site was hacked, and enabled the users to download images of 95 children in graphic sexual acts and positions. In the 76 hours of its run, the site recorded 12 million hits and was finally shut down


12 million hits, that's a whole lot of sickos!

Making A Little Extra Pocket Money

I don't think it's such a great idea to always play the bad cop, sometimes it's good to be the good one. The thing about the internet is that it opens up so many opportunities, some good and some bad. Instead of constantly telling your kids what they can't do sometimes it's nice to guide them through some of the good points of the internet.

Take my daughter for example, she gets pocket money every month. As with all 12 year old girls, it's never or will never be enough. I decided to have a look online and see if there was anything out there that was 100% child safe that could maybe make a few pound. Lets face facts here, she's part of the internet generation, getting a paper round is way out of the question! Whilst there are hundreds of ways of making extra money online there are very few (in fact none) that I considered OK for my daughter! That was until I stumbled across something called My Search Funds after a friend mentioned something similar. It's run by a registered company based in the UK. All their details appear to check out. The idea is that they pay you a percentage of the advertising revenue that is gained for doing the internet searches that you do everyday anyway. I tried it out myself, they require minimal personal details (no need to give your address/phone etc) and it only takes a few minutes to setup. There are no naughty adverts or anything else bad, they just pay you for using their search bar, it's really simple.

When I told her about it she couldn't wait to get started. The search bar in Firefox was how she searches the web anyway so it didn't require any changes to what she was doing. The results themselves are the same as what you get with Google. She just uses it for when she's searching the net, it's not mega money but it's worth about £8 a month for doing nothing more than what you do currently for free. It's already been more than £20 in her pocket that she wouldn't have otherwise. The internet can be a cool place, don't be afraid to find some of the good things out there and share them with your kids. I'm certainly back in the good books now :)

The Worlds First Free Child Monitoring Software

Just in case you haven't already noticed I suppose I should announce that ICU is now totally free. No TrialPay, no complicated forms, just click and download. There are a few reasons I've done this:-

1. I always wanted the program to be free to all parents, unfortunatly I had costs that needed covering. Those costs have now been met so the software is yours for free.

2. I wrote the program to meet my own needs. Having enjoyed plenty of feedback I can now see that there are other people who require a little "more". Whilst ICU will be updated with new features on a continous basis the fact that I'm now giving it away means I can look at some of the competitors in an open/ non biased way. I tried quite a few before writing ICU, now I can share those findings.

3. I like giving stuff away, especially when it's useful stuff!

So there you have it, seriously I suppose it's a combination of my initial promotion costs being met (I had to spread the word some how) and the fact that I wanted to talk about some of the other parenting solutions out there. Anyway, I hope that you enjoy your free copy of ICU.

A Big Thank You To Doris

When I agreed to take ICU from a personal project to something that would be available for other people to download one of the most important things in my mind was giving it a unique image. I really wanted the software to not appear daunting or "emotionless" and one of the ways I wanted to achieve this was through the use of comic strips rather than photographic images. It would have been really easy to use the usual "stern parent looking at computer screen" photographs that abound on the internet but luckily for me I had a secret weapon!

Doris, my artist friend agreed to create some comic strips for me with no more guidance than a brief explanation of what ICU was. I think she's done an excellent job and it's about time I gave her a plug! So if you're looking for somebody to create original comic art for whatever reason (Original birthday cards, posters etc) then please contact info at icu-software.co.uk and I'll pass it on. Her rates are very reasonable, the quality of work is excellent and besides Doris is a pleasure to deal with! The great thing is she's like an ideas factory as well so even if you're not 100% sure what you want I'm sure she can help.

One again Doris, thank you!

January 2008 Press Release

In this Facebook age of social networking websites and countless chatrooms and forums, one question hangs on the lips of every parent – what are our children doing on the computer, and who are they talking to?

It was that question, that same concern, which led Douglas man *** to create a new software application called ICU – ‘Insight into your Children’s Unaccompanied Activity’.

‘What started off as nothing more than a simple question from my wife – “What’s our daughter doing on her computer?” – resulted in seven months’ development and a software solution to a problem that most parents are going to have to face at some point,’ explained Paul, who was born and educated in Peel.

‘I didn’t know what our daughter was using her computer for. She was 10 at the time and had her own laptop in her bedroom. Although she had access to the family PC downstairs, she was getting to that age where she liked her own room far more than hanging downstairs with the “olds”!

‘But she was using a tool that would allow her to communicate with anybody in the world, and it didn’t seem right that I had no idea who she might be talking to. The switch had been flicked and I was curious – and nervous – about what she might be up to. I think if she had been a little younger she would have been happy to only use the computer when either my wife or I was with her. But all her friends were using their computers alone and so she wanted to.’

Paul researched the child monitoring program options, but wasn’t happy with what he found.

‘They all had at least two flaws – expensive and overly complex,’ said the 29-year-old self-employed software developer. ‘I wasn’t interested in our daughter’s passwords, what keys she’d been typing or restricting the websites and programs she was using, as she only wanted to use the social networking websites and instant chat, which presented the biggest danger as far as we were concerned. I didn’t want to block anything, just the ability to have simple screen shots of what she was looking at emailed to me.

‘To get this, I needed to buy all these extra features and install overly complex programs that wanted to take over my computer. So I decided to write my own software.

‘I had a very clear idea of what I wanted the program to do – and whilst running some tests on the screen-grab ability of the software, I had the misfortune of seeing some of the Bebo profiles that she had been browsing.

‘I have nothing against social networking. I’ve been using the internet since 1993 and have grown up with technology, but what I saw on the profiles of those 11 and 12-year-old girls gave me a massive wake-up call. There were comments such as “How sexy do you think I am?” and “What would you like to do to me?” – I was fairly sure that the parents of SuperHotAndSexy96XX had no idea what their daughter was up to online.’

When the program was completed, Paul installed it on his daughter’s laptop and the family PC and discussed it at length with her.

He said: ‘She completely accepted ICU, understood that I was only looking out for her, that I wasn’t interested in what she was discussing with her friends and that I wouldn’t ever mention what she was doing unless it was something that was worrying me. I made it a rule to delete the email of her online activity once I’ve checked it over.’

Paul then turned his attention to making the software easier to use for those parents who aren’t computer literate, reducing the number of options, making everything as intuitive as possible and creating a short demonstration video.

‘The most important thing is that it’s a solution to a problem that I’m happy to use,’ he said. ‘Our daughter is 12 now, using MSN Messenger to chat to her friends for hours at a time and she even has a webcam. Without having ICU, there is no way I’d be happy with this but now it’s not a problem because I know it’s easy for me to look out for her.’

The software is available to buy online at www.icu-software.co.uk. However, Paul has just teamed up with a company called TrialPay, which allows him to offer ICU free to parents.

‘This is a giant leap forward in child monitoring, as at last the ICU solution is totally affordable to all parents, no matter where they live,’ Paul explained. ‘ICU is now the first commercial-quality child monitoring program available for free download.

‘There is more detail on how TrialPay works on the ICU website, but in summary it allows us to offer our software for free, if customers accept an offer from one of a huge number of big name partners, a large percentage of which are also free. Of course, as you’d expect, all the offers are totally reversible. Having used TrialPay in the past to get other products for free, we’re sure it is the best way forward for ICU.’