A safer surfing experience

Kids and the Internet

School's out, and you're stuck at home with the kids, slogging through another stretch of wet summer weather. Thank goodness for the Internet, where the youngsters can immerse themselves in online role-playing games while you tell yourself it's better than watching a ``Backyardigans" marathon on television.

But there is no FCC to protect your children from the porn and predators roaming the Internet, not to mention all of those hackers and political bloggers out there. Razzul, a software package from Westborough-based Kid Innovation (www.kidinnovation.com) promises to do all of the policing for you. Aimed at parents of 3- to 12-year-olds, Razzul permits access only to a network of websites and applications deemed safe by Kid Innovation, as well as the Yahooligans kids web guide.

Don't fret if your kid really does need to study human sexuality for a summer research paper. Razzul lets you add and delete sites to its list, say the husband and wife team of Joanne and Tony Scamurra, who started Kid Innovation two years ago.

Razzul also comes with a book of net safety tips by a former Canadian cop and recent ``Dr. Phil" guest Rob Nickel, who worked online for seven years catching sexual predators.

Nutrition advice

I've never met a carb I didn't like, but I hear that some are bad for you. Now a service available to Sprint Power Vision subscribers is helping some clueless dieters to shape up, by analyzing the pics they take of their meals and snacks with their camera phones. For about $10 per month, MyFoodPhone's (www.myfoodphone.com) nutrition advisors create personalized feedback videos every two weeks, which you can view on the Web. The videos should encourage you to reach for healthier foods, or to start taking pictures of other people's choices, if you decide to cheat.

Alternative Energy

Brew your own biodiesel, aided by the crew at GreenGreaseMonkey
Actress Daryl Hannah and musician Willie Nelson are among the earthy celebs promoting biodiesel, which emits lower amounts of many pollutants because it is derived from natural fats and oils. The stars say BD is a more patriotic choice than gasoline because it increases the demand for soybean oil and other vegetable and animal products from America's farmers, while working (however slowly) to break our addiction to Middle East oil.

And BD is cheap to prepare: You can get one popular ingredient, waste vegetable oil, from local restaurants. Contractors charge restaurants to haul off their used cooking oil. All you need to do is offer to take the stuff away for free. But ready-made BD is hard to come by. So most diesel cars still consume petroleum fuel, although they can use BD with little or no modification to their engines.

Now people can brew BD in their basements, thanks to a new ``Brew-It-Yourself (BIY) Basement Biodiesel Kit" from GreenGreaseMonkey (www.greengreasemonkey.com). The kit costs $180. ``That includes the pump, the hard pipes, the ball valves, and the other assorted clamps and hardware necessary to make it work, and written instructions with photos," said cofounder Patrick Keaney. For an extra $220, the GreenGreaseMonkey crew will install the kit for you. The hot water heater and electrical work are your responsibility.

The thought of mucking around with electricity and new hardware makes some homeowners nervous. The process also requires that you use lye and methanol to make the final product.

But one early GreenGreaseMonkey customer has helped get the kinks out. Paul Kiefer, a cabinet maker, has been operating a prototype of the kit. ``There was a lot of trial-and-error and tweaking" of the equipment, Kiefer said. ``But for about six months it's been a fully functioning processor." His '77 Mercedes 300D and '98 Mitsubishi Fuso both run on the BD he makes every week, for less than $1 per gallon.