In the past the only way people were subjected to "news" or opinions were through the TV, newspaper or the water cooler at work. The nice thing about these mediums were you could turn off, ignore or avoid them if you didn't agree or didn't care about it.
In today's society the Internet is the ruling form of media for almost everyone. The problem with this is any idiot can put forth their opinion and push it out everywhere and there is little to no recourse if they are wrong or just plain ignorant of the facts (yes I see the irony of posting about this on the internet). With blogs, Facebook, Twitter and open forums on every website it has come down to the point where anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can put their opinion out there and can even call it fact if they want to. Society is at the point now where there is very little, if any, intelligent conversations that happen over the Internet when it comes to open forums such as Twitter or Facebook or even if you go to your favourite sports site and see all the comments below a story. People hide behind the anonimity of the Internet and say things that they would never say to you in person or if they did would probably end up getting in to a fist fight and then it would be over. The problem with this is there is no ending to it. People continue to squabble over things making rude comments back and forth to each other and the conversation becomes more heated and more useless.
So how do we change this? There are two ways in reality, remove open forums (not going to happen) or people need to grow up and either not post inflamatory things or if you see it don't engage the person.
Arguing with people on the internet will not enhance your life in any way and in fact will probably end up causing you more stress than it needs to. I constantly go on sport sites, forums, Twitter and Facebook and all the while I try not to engage people. Sometimes I get sucked into it but as I get older I realize that it just isn't worth it and I refrain from posting and just bite my tougue.
I will end it off with something I heard years ago when the Internet was first starting (this will probably make some people angry) "Fighting on the Internet and winning is like being the smartest kid in the dumb class, you are still in the dumb class, you have nothing to be proud of."
Monday, August 16, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Technology and security
Time for something completely different.
I am an IT guy and have been for almost 20 years now. I started before the internet, before colour monitors and before Windows. I have seen a huge change in everything technology and I have managed to keep up with it.
With all the new technology and how everyone stays connected I always get the question, "How can I make sure no one is hacking into my home computer?".
It's quite simple 99% of people will never ever be hacked unless they piss someone off. Hackers do not attack home users. What people fail to realize is they aren't really that important in the over all aspect of the computing world. Someone is not going to hack you to get your bank card information or your pictures of your pet/kid/spouse. They also make the mistake that if they get a virus that they have been hacked. If you get a trojan or a virus you have not been hacked, you went to a bad website and got infected. Buy a virus scanner clean your computer and move on.
The next question they ask is how do I make myself more secure. Well that's an easy one, put passwords on everything use different passwords for everything and make sure you have secured your wireless network. Will this prevent you from being hacked. Absolutely not. If you pissed off a hacker and he really wants to get your information or screw with your computer, he will.
The Pentagon spends billions of dollars on IT security every year and they get hacked about 10,000 times a day. Now before you say that is BS, people hack in but they don't get anywhere because the Pentagon also has watches on every part of their network and they shut people down as they get through security walls. So with that in mind do you really think you can spend any amount of money that will prevent people from hacking you if they want to? The answer of course is no.
The best security you can do is to watch where you surf, where you bank, and constantly check online to make sure no one has hacked your information. It's more about being aware of when something goes wrong then to prevent it from ever happening.
For those that say it is never safe to shop online or enter any personal information online I will ask you one simple question. Have you ever handed your credit card to a waiter or waitress and have them walk away from you? If you have how do you know they didn't just replicate your card and selling it or using it right now?
The internet is no more or less secure than everyday life, the thing is people are just more aware of things now.
So to end be safe where you surf and have fun on the internet.
I am an IT guy and have been for almost 20 years now. I started before the internet, before colour monitors and before Windows. I have seen a huge change in everything technology and I have managed to keep up with it.
With all the new technology and how everyone stays connected I always get the question, "How can I make sure no one is hacking into my home computer?".
It's quite simple 99% of people will never ever be hacked unless they piss someone off. Hackers do not attack home users. What people fail to realize is they aren't really that important in the over all aspect of the computing world. Someone is not going to hack you to get your bank card information or your pictures of your pet/kid/spouse. They also make the mistake that if they get a virus that they have been hacked. If you get a trojan or a virus you have not been hacked, you went to a bad website and got infected. Buy a virus scanner clean your computer and move on.
The next question they ask is how do I make myself more secure. Well that's an easy one, put passwords on everything use different passwords for everything and make sure you have secured your wireless network. Will this prevent you from being hacked. Absolutely not. If you pissed off a hacker and he really wants to get your information or screw with your computer, he will.
The Pentagon spends billions of dollars on IT security every year and they get hacked about 10,000 times a day. Now before you say that is BS, people hack in but they don't get anywhere because the Pentagon also has watches on every part of their network and they shut people down as they get through security walls. So with that in mind do you really think you can spend any amount of money that will prevent people from hacking you if they want to? The answer of course is no.
The best security you can do is to watch where you surf, where you bank, and constantly check online to make sure no one has hacked your information. It's more about being aware of when something goes wrong then to prevent it from ever happening.
For those that say it is never safe to shop online or enter any personal information online I will ask you one simple question. Have you ever handed your credit card to a waiter or waitress and have them walk away from you? If you have how do you know they didn't just replicate your card and selling it or using it right now?
The internet is no more or less secure than everyday life, the thing is people are just more aware of things now.
So to end be safe where you surf and have fun on the internet.
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