Unsought Input

The new book “The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It” by Jonathan Zittrain is about the history and development of the internet and looking towards the future were the internet is more controlled and regulated. The internet started just as its name implies as a network between users and their computers in which information was transmitted, using Zittrains analogy, like a person being passed around through a moss pit. In the past this was not much of a problem, but now that the internet had exploded in popularity safety concerns have arisen because of people that prey upon this free flow of information and try and use it for their own illegal purposes. Things like viruses, trojans and worms are commonplace now and it is worried that this fragile network might be in danger because of that.

(more…)

There is no reason to ever be bored on the Internet.

When I was young, I would get bored at school. I once had a teacher who hated the words “bored,� “boring,� and “boredom,� insisting there was no reason for any of us to say them – we either needed to think up ways to make the situation a little more interesting, or try taking interest in what we were supposed to be doing.

Maybe she had a point, but now it doesn’t matter. The Internet has made boredom obsolete. There are enough web pages and enough people making new pages every day that even if we limit ourselves to the subset that is actually interesting, we will never see it all.

But, you protest, you have Firefox and a DSL connection and you still get bored? Below are four things guaranteed to make boredom obsolete.

(more…)