Slashdot Mirror
Now We Have the Internet, But Why Do We Need It?
ReLik writes "BBC News is reporting on a survey carried out on the statistics of internet users in the UK, 'While the battle for digital access is being won, we now face a struggle to convince everyone the net is worth using' said Professor Richard Rose, of the Oxford Internet Institute. It begs the question why goverments around the world are encouraging everyone to use the internet, but is there really enough of a reason for everybody to need to? Is the internet suitable for everybody? Will it ever be?"
It's an endless supply of pr0n!
The Internet is a medium, being neither rare nor well done.
Somebody post some hot naked chicks to remind this guy why we need it.
We have to have a way to play Star Wars Galaxies
So what DOES the internet have to offer me? It doesn't cook me dinner, take out the trash, or even clean up its room. Screw this, I'm going outside.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
The question is on a website asking us why do we need it.
Well for one, news, second research, third communication, forth freedom of speech, fifth entertainment, sixth education.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Simply put, to give me a job! How could I make money doing web design if there were no web?!
Tea and kung-fu. Life is good. Rising Phoenix
Some people use TV to watch the Discovery Channel; some use it for MTV.
Some people use the Internet for research, discussion, and news; others use it for warez and porn.
Hey, I could take a screwdriver and deside to poke myself in the eye with it... does that mean we don't need screwdrivers?
Do we need automobiles? How about heart surgery, or any other tool created by humans since the dawn of history.
The internet is a great tool, and just like other tools it's not neccessary, but it improves the quality of life. Of course it not for everyone.
I think that the Internet is needed to offset the damage done by things like television and large newspapers - the "slave mentality" of only taking information in, never sending anything back.
The reason I love slashdot is that even though the editors fuck up every once in a while (don't we all?) someone else is quick to correct it in the comments. Same goes for wikis, usenet and so on. Everyone can chime in.
Sure, it creates a lot of noise, but it's better than the slick, mindkilling flow that comes out of the television.
That governments encourage the use of the net will be their downfall - they can never control it as well as they can control traditional media sources.
It begs the question why goverments around the world are encouraging everyone to use the internet, but is there really enough of a reason for everybody to need to? Is the internet suitable for everybody? Will it ever be?"
Everyone should have access to the internet. I know there is a lot of bad things on there, but there is so much more good. Wikipedia, Google, all that stuff; if it weren't for the internet, I'd know practically nothing. It makes research so much easier than driving all the way up to the library, sifting through books and magazines and not even finding the right info.
It allows for fast and easy gathering of information and images, and sharing of all kinds of data (and I don't mean just Kazaa...)
Of course, we don't need the internet, but, we don't really need anything besides food and water, either.
The internet is quick, you can learn about anything at the click of a button, you dont have to spend hours at the library looking through books,
Also you can communicate with complete strangers instantly. You get to communicate with guys like me who can tell you how the internet is useful, but I wont cook your dinner.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
this isnt a GNAA member
please disregard
--Penisbird
Research and communication in general, but here's a breakdown:
Personal research. Never before has it been so easy to find out if it's normal for your testicles to itch periodically. Not just great for sexual stuff either, it really helped me as a teen to understand social norms, and make me feel less abnormal.
Consumer research. I no longer drive to kmart, walmart, target, best buy, circuit city, etc when I want to buy something. I hit their respective websites to price check, feature check, etc.... then go to the store I plan on buying from. Not to mention the benefits of sites like newegg.com.
Communication. Duh. Email is awsome, so long as you can manage the spam. Instant Messaging is awsome. Internet(email/www/IM) to cell phone (sms) is awsome.
Resource sharing. Via the Internet, work and school I have instant access to countless various Unix/Linux computers and windows boxes. Usually I just leave my work up on a VNC server on a unix box and connect to it from wherever.
I can certainly imagine life without the net (and it's nice to try it sometimes)... but for computer use, I definitelly feel naked without it.
no comment
Of course, I do also see that it can be good for people. I just think that usually it's counter-productive.
The Internet has damaged me, but I've also learned everything I know thanks to it. And yes, that doesn't include the ability to write coherent sentences.
When I was a kid, all I had was a dated encyclopedia set and a yearly almanac, but I still loved all the information they provided. Occasionally, I'd also get a trip to the library, but in the end, there was just never enough information readily available to satisfy me. Now, when I want to learn about something I hear mentioned on TV or radio, or read in a book or magazine, I just load up Google, and type it in. The internet is the most valuable source of information in my life, and I think I'd have a hard time being happy without it.
I have been using the Internet before it was commercialized [1990]. It is'nt the 'fun' place it used to be and is getting less so.
Mass mailing viruses and MicroSoft worms aside, instead of it being an open and limitless frontier, it is now becoming more and more oppressive. With 'Trusted Computing' and DRM just around the corner, non-business usage of the Internet is becoming less and less appealing every day.
Truely sad..........
This is a great point, we used Solaris on the school networks and I used slackware at home.
MatLab gave students versions of their software for $10 with a license that was only good for a year. If Sun had done something like that, I'd probably have used Solaris instead of Slackware and I'd be paying full price for it now.
To communicate about new standards and protocols that will develop the internet further.
Have you ever thought of the interconnectedness of people in this digital era, while under the influence of some mind altering substance? It's a beautiful thought.
We don't know why we exist, but communcating must, if not be a reason, then at least a mean to finding a reason.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Google.
... handwringing about their "usefulness" doesn't exactly excite me as an important philosophical point.
Exchanging email with family.
Finding recipes.
Reading people's websites.
C'mon, "who needs the Internet?" is a silly question. The Internet is tremendously useful now (and offers lots of "unproductive" stuff, too -- quotes because the line between productive and unproductive is a mostly useless, fuzzy gray line not worth respecting in the way it's usually used) and will be more and more later on. People survived without it, just like you would survive without any of the foods you like best, or without recorded music, or without being able to read
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
I use the internet to much, I becomes a news junkie. I browse slashdot as often I can, I want news, I want to know, I need to know.. oh, nothing new this time.. darn, what nothing new for 2 hours? checks the other sites, nothing new there either, whats happening with the world?
/The man with own IPaddress
Im a news junkie, I beleave I was healthier before I had the net, I sure wasnt as stressed.
The one and only reason the Internet really exists.
This question seems almost filler nonsense. People appreciate choice in the media they use for news and entertainment, communication/connection, etc. Every technology invented to deliver it is still alive in some way, public houses, books, newspapers, HAM, Radio, TV. The internet is just another in the long line on methods to connect. Need it or not, the world will have it and use it.
mug
Use internet to watch Galileo spacecraft crashing into Jupiter
Galileo has less than two hours before crash and slashdot still hasn't report this ?
While the battle for digital access is being won, we now face a struggle to convince everyone the net is worth using
Not at the prices they charge here. I moved to London and was shocked to find that internet access is a small fortune in some areas. About $2 an hour for a slow modem or $35 for one gig of high speed wireless access.
The British are always asking stupid questions like this. Fortunately Sir Edmund Hillary answered his own people's questions about such things: "Because it is there".
Maybe the NET is useless to England because broadband is still expensive, and they want to stay technologically disenfrancished with the US.
In the mean time very few will become Net saavy and go on to build the Internet of the future, or even future applications for the Internet.
Look at the claims of SCO. If we didn't have the internet, or as quickly available a framework of information gathering, we couldn't all see for ourselves the veracity (or lack of it) of SCO's claims against linux. They paste some code they claim is infringing? We go find the true source of the code within minutes. Not days or weeks, but minutes. Then we can post articles that say "This is the truth" and anyone reading can verify what we say IS true.
The irony is that the Internet was built on the back of Unix, and the internet is what will be SCOs undoing LALL!!
Yeah, who needs that?
That's why!
The Internet has damaged me, but I've also learned everything I know thanks to it. And yes, that doesn't include the ability to write coherent sentences.
Uh... how has the internet damaged you??
It's not the internet that's important, it's the applications that are built on top of it. I certainly benefit from being able to access my bank accounts, find movie showtimes, research job-related questions, look for work when necessary, and (gasp) read slashdot. Could I live without the internet? Sure. My parents lived happy and constructive lives without it. But, in my world, it just makes a lot of things more convenient.
Several years ago, demand for broadband was basically driven by demand for pornography -- just like the demand for early VCRs.
Pornography is like the space program, we love to have it, it's hard to justify, and sometimes there are spinoff benefits for everyone not involved in it.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Now We Have Literacy But Why Do We Need It?
42!
In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.
Look at the graph. 100% of students use the Internet. Just wait a generation and everyone will be online all the time. Once you start down the internet path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.
Survey 2,000 people from anywhere, and yes, a large percentage of them won't have any use for the wealth of information the internet offers.
Nothing is suitable for everyone. Why is this still a surprise?
Very few things are really necessities (ie: water, air, food, etc.). I've always thought of the internet as a gigantic (uncensored) library of human knowledge. It's definitely a necessity if you're counting things like books and education. Just yesterday, I downloaded all 12 books of Vergil's Aeneid... in the original Latin! I'd say the internet is a pretty useful thing for just about any reason you can find.
Esoteric reference.
For me the value of Internet access comes down to two (very noble) reasons: Communication, and Information
I can communicate with anyone in the world over email, instant messenging, and newsgroups -- all free; remember that telcos would charge a fortune if you did this over long distance telephone.
The access to Information aspect is huge. I work in the Engineering field, and if I ever run across something I don't know it's only a Google, Yahoo, or AltaVista search away. Anything I'll ever need: historic publications, circuit diagrams, data sheets, research papers, discussion forums are out there for free.
I dropped it on my foot.
Simple, for exactly the same reasons as people wanted to set up virtual companies on the internet during the dot.con times.
Gov.uk wants to put all it's services in the net so it can close down bricks&morter offices.
But they are discovering exactly the same problems as the dot.con companies discovered. People just give up when presented with overly complex and unreliable web services.
Don't miss this important application. The supreme communitcation capabilities offered by the Internet helps democratic groups organise themselves better.
Take for example the recent successes in raising awareness against software patents in Europe. A bunch of people connected by telephone would have surely been less successful at reaching so many members of the affected group of society, coordinating lobbying efforts, etc.
Citizens' interest groups with members spread all over the place just need the Net...
I guess I *am* new around here, because I figured more people here would understand that the b2b uses of the 'net will make all the consumer-level stuff seem like a speck, a blip on the radar, miniscule and insignificant. A million dollars will be spent linking enterprises for every thousand dollars spent by consumers.
If you're only looking at web pages, you're missing 75% of the traffic that traverses the Internet today.
Intelligent Life on Earth
There, the topic ought to be clear enough. And by a failure I mean that it failed to achieve it's objectives. That includes the objectives set by ARPAnet aeons ago, stating the net should be able to survive a nuclear attack. It can barely survive a few badly written worms and it nearly crumbles when a few centralized DNS servers are attacked. It also failed as an academic network, because the internet is 90% bullshit*, 9% dead links and perhaps 1% of actually useful information.
The internet could use a good hard reset, along with the entire world of computer users.
* Includes pornography, which may or may not be bullshit, according to your state of mind. Even still, 99% of all porn is shit.
Hate me!
The Net has to be useful enough to compensate for rampant virus transmissions, spam 'n' scams, pop-unders, spyware, etc., etc.
I'm a Slashdot reader/ programmer geek and I'm not even sure it's worth it sometimes.
~
~
I see this all the time - "the internet is for losers" "I dont need the Internet" "The internet is for sad lonely people" - people saying those things simply illustrate their ignorance.
For starters I've observed that almost all the people who say those things when they say "internet" actually mean "web", and furthermore are basing all of that on the sites that they have seen or heard about. These people also typically do not read much I've noticed.
Secondly they dont equate email with the Internet.
Its like the people who say that computers are "useless" and "boring" then you point out to them that they use computers every time they pick up a phone or turn on the TV.
To say that one does not need the Internet is the same as saying that one does not need communication.
lall! mod up. That was truly funny
Well done indeed
It begs the question why goverments around the world are encouraging everyone to use the internet, but is there really enough of a reason for everybody to need to? Is the internet suitable for everybody? Will it ever be?
... and the Net as we know it for everything else. That technology exists already by the way : it's in France and it's called the Minitel. That's the reason this old inefficient 1200/75 terminal thingy is still alive and doing very well indeed : it's the only secure way to pay for anything electronically in France, and it's proven to work very securely, and French people trust it.
Governments want the people to use the Internet for several reasons:
- Their representatives can go to world conferences and claim "we're the most advanced country in the world"
- They want to save money on forms (read: let citizens print their own forms on their printers, or avoid having to pay millions on printing tax forms by having people file online)
- They generally want to lubricate the top-to-bottom communication between them and their citizens/subjects (good thing).
Individuals, on the other hand, need the Internet because it is one answer that helps satisfy one of the most basic human needs : communicate. People need to communicate, all the time, for good or bad reasons. That's part of the human psyche. Before the Net, there was (1) direct speech (doesn't go very far), (2) mail (slow but ubiquitous), (3) telephone (fast, ubiquitous but expensive). The Net can easily replace all three for dirt cheap, which makes it very compelling for everybody but the most rebellious hermits.
So, with all this goodness, why won't the Internet replace every other mean of communication? because it's inherently unsafe. No matter how you slice it, it is not safe. My general rule is to always assume anything you send to the IP cloud is public and never forgotten, which I have verified many times. Encryption helps secure things, but it's only a band-aid on a wooden leg. What the various countried in the world will eventually end up with, IMHO, is a secure government-operated data trunk for voting, tax filing, financial transaction,
The keyword is trust. The Net, all great that it is, isn't, and will never be trustworthy. It'll stay around for sure, but I believe it'll be supplemented by national physically-separate networks everywhere in the world eventually.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Information at our fingertips.
That information can be of almost any type or of any form.
Want to read about the mercury space program, or see the latest pictures of nebulae? Go search for it. In the old days you could have headed to the library and look for this stuff, but they would be unlikely to have Hubble photos released this morning.
You think your Aunt Tellie has Diabetes? Go search for the symptoms... and support groups too. In the old days tis was a trip to the library, a local clinic, or you had to wait for a doctor's appointment
Need to find out if someone is selling a 4 barrel carbeurator for your 1974 Chevy Impalla?
If your local shop doesn't have it, Go search on Ebay or another sales site. If not, maybe do a directory search of auto parts stores in the city next door. In the old days, you were SOL until your local shop got the part
Hey, there's a new Rush album and DVD coming out. Cool. Head over to their website and see if there's a clip or some photos.In the old days you were lucky to hear the guy on the radio announce that Rush was releasing a record..or did a week ago
This is all information that can now be obtained in a matter of minutes.
That's what the net gives us, instant information and knowledge.
p/g
Huh?
...and his proposal to give free computers to the poor.
I remember this township in South Africa that got this big box of computers for their school. Only problem was the electrification project hadn't even begun and there was only one working telephone.
I'm sure at the time they were very disappointed at not having the needed power and DSL line to connect to JenniCam.com, despite not having a proper sewage system, water purification or lights. Maybe they could have run an extension cord to the McDonald's three miles down the street (no joke, how messed up is that?).
Do you think I'd be able to be pro howard dean offline? nooooo, I'd have my re-elect george bush tshirt on offline because I wouldnt want to seem like a terrorist, or an un-american communist.
The Anne Coulters of the world will fire you from your job if you dont support the party they support.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
During those few weeks, it struck me how utterly useless the PC was without Net access. I couldn't get security fixes or any other software without actually buying it on CD via mail order or at a store. I couldn't check news, sports, music or computer-related sites whenever I liked and I certainly couldn't e-mail anyone with it (and who sends hand-written letters nowadays?). BTW, if you point out to the average person in the UK that CDs and DVDs cost up to a third less online than they do in UK stores, I'm sure they'd rush to get online :-)
The Internet itself has never been anything more than a communications tool to me. A very useful one, I grant you, but still just a tool. If, for whatever reason, the entire 'net evaporated tomorrow, it would mean only minor changes in the way I handle my life and side business. Some examples:
--Word processors and laser printers work quite well without the presence of E-mail. I would simply start using postal mail more than I do now.
--Web site? An interesting toy, but is it something I REALLY cannot live without? I don't think so! I would find other ways to advertise my side business. There are enough cheap print mediums specific to my chosen field that I think I could afford a couple of small, well-placed ads.
--FTP? Handy, but hardly indispensable. Before the advent of the 'net, manufacturers of electronic and computer equipment would maintain dial-up bulletin board systems containing docs, drivers, and other such goodies. I'd simply start using them again.
What do all three of the above have in common? One word: COMMUNICATION. What does one need to know to be an effective communicator? Good writing and speaking skills, and the ability to THINK CAREFULLY about what you're writing or saying to your intended recipient(s).
No one "needs" the Internet to develop such skills. What is needed is a lot more focus on teaching such things in the school system, as well as the skills of critical and analytical thinking.
Cliff Stoll has already written extensively on this same topic (I.E., does anyone really need the Internet). Check out his books 'Silicon Snake Oil' and 'High-Tech Heretic.'
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
You can steal plenty of music on the internet, or buy used CDs, You can also steal source code and porn thats under copyright.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
The internet has provided a crucial service-- it has prevented many a "Kirk vs. Picard" debate from coming to blows, merely by ensuring the participants are separated from each other. And if the internet didn't exist, what would we do with all those Pentiums that help to speed it up?
Finally, if we didn't have it, I'd have to go outside once in a while. And interact with real people! And someone could mug me, take my wallet, and use the information in there to impersonate me and open up credit accounts in my name. When I'm sitting at home on the internet, those kinds of things can't happen. I-- oops, hold on. It seems AOL has lost my account and credit card information, AGAIN! I'll finish this post in a sec, as soon as I fill out the form on the webpage they directed me to.
BRB...
~Philly
Will totally transform the way we use the Internet. Right now people's opinions are fragmented with regards to its import, but I believe that's because it's still a relatively esoteric medium. It's not hard to use, but it does demand a certain mindset, a "computer" mindset, in that you have to sit down at a flashing box with arcane input devices in order to access it -- this is something that intimidates a lot of people.
However, the way things are going, it's pretty clear that computers will eventually become a way of life rather than a part of it. Once IT successfully migrates into the background of our environment, and digital interactions are inherent in all interactions, the Internet will become an essential tool for the seamless and transparent communication and presentation of abitrary information.
Jack me in, fill me up, all the holes in my brain
Filled with new lover's joy, and a not-mother's pain
Show me the world, through another's eyes
Tell me of conspiracies, and corporate lies
Give me technical papers, on new giant machines
Give me heated discussions, on what truth really means
Give me heart-wringing tales, of a harsh man's young wife
Give me detailed accounts, of each day of your life
Show me amazing new worlds, of which I've never dreamed
And embarrassing photos, when your shorts split their seams
Show me mystic and magic, show me dull and mundane
Show me sense and confusion, and pleasure, and pain
Tell me your hopes, your thoughts and your fears
Whisper those secrets, you've held in for years
Tell me your big idea, the praise it deserves
Or just why your sister, gets on your nerves
I don't care what you tell me, I want to know it all
The latest stock prices, those new shoes at the mall
The sad tale of a town, at the edge of the sands
And the tale of new farms, that will reclaim the lands
Teach me how to create, a world of my own
I'll tell everyone else, what they need to be shown
Give me more, give it all, pour it down into me
A glimpse of your sunset, and sounds of the sea
Because I need to know, and I need to know now
I want you to shock me, and I want to know how
Shock me down to my core, with truths I can't face
The sickness of others, has its own private place
Throw my mind open, to what I've never seen
Broaden out my horizons, 'til the curve can't be seen
Plug me in, zone me out, of this boring little part
Of a world far too huge, for one brain and one heart
Show me how small I am, and make me feel dumb
Show me all the ways, that the universe runs
Find me new minds, and new thoughts I can share
Experience that can help me, and pain to help bear
Suck me in, spread me out, to a million places
I want to be everywhere, know everyone's faces
I need to know everything, shove it into my mind
Roses on the road, that I won't leave behind
Take me up, take me in, fill me in, spread me out,
Let my veins run with data, and information pour out
Because I crave to learn, and I ache to know
I burn for the knowledge, to help me to grow
I'm just a small piece, of a giant machine
But I am the piece, that will know what it means
Just a node in the net, a small cog on the wheel
But I am the piece, that will know what to feel
I will conquer the world, with the knowledge I get
The forests will grow, and the deserts will wet
I will solve all your problems, I will solve all of mine
Just by picking up roses, that we all leave behind
And it isn't just me, that will grow in this way
There's a million more minds, standing right behind me
We will storm all your keeps, and break all your taboos
You won't even hear about, all the battles you lose
For this is the net, and you would not believe
How much power it has, and what it can achieve
For you have no idea, of what I can be
When I make use of all, that the world can teach me
The Internet can survive a nuclear attack, it met it's design criteria.
You seem to have mistaken the World Wide Web for the internet and are clearly a complete numpty. It'd be nice if Slashdot had killfiles.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Take our jungle-bunny dirt farmer, for example. He will collect more international aid, due to the Internet. Maybe one of the aid workers will let him mess around with a laptop that has a satellite connection. Assuming said dirt farmer can read (and knows a language that doesn't involve clicking), he really won't get anything out of it. Even with some training, he still probably wouldn't get anything out of it.
Well, he could Google on "dirt" and find out that as a crop, it is very lacking in nutrition and palatability, and perhaps get some pointers on other crops that prove more beneficial.
...
We've only had the Internet since 1969 and the World Wide Web since 1993. Together, they are still fledgling technologies.
Imagine what the Internet could be used for in the future. The Semantic Web or something like it is set to revolutionalize the Internet of the future. Imagine being able to organise and sort information based on the qualaties - instead of quantaties - of the information (See Microsoft's qualatative search). The position the Internet is in today is that most of the information contained in it is quantative in nature, it is stored in a manner that reflects machine organization of information. Qualative information on the other hand is much more useful for performing searches and organizing information, it allows the retrieval of information to be based on attributes rather than specific-word-matches. Going back to the Microsoft search link, using qualatative information as the criteria of the search you could search for a base attribute of "cars" and refine the search using arbitrary attributes such as "sleek form", and "red". In this example, a web page that held information about "Ferrari's" would be included in the "car's" search results even if it did not explicitly contain the word "car" as part of it's web page text - in the semantic web XML markup, "car" would be one of it's attributes.
Shh.
(Posting as AC for obvious reasons)
The computer industry in China and Russia would collapse without pirated copies of Winbloze and Orifice 2000...
Mnem
"Running your computer without MicroSoft is like going to war without France."
This is why I need the internet.
This guy is a known troller and will stop at nothing to fool you. Just look at his comment history and their ratings. What we're dealing with here is somebody who uses their prominent User ID to gain karma in order to not get caught making ridiculous statements and fooling you into rating them up. This guy is a master of tomfoolery and is a walking contradiction. Nobody is so irrational, so he therefore must be a troller. Rate accordingly.
It begs the question why goverments around the world are ...
Aaargghh!!!
I can live without computers, but computers without the 'net are nearly just as useless...
http://students.washington.edu/djwatson
All prior media, from speech and the printing press onwards (including email) have been media wherein the transmitter attemps to force information upon an audience, many tune out.
Doesn't mean that everyone should want it. Yeah, sure, the interent is ghreat and revolutionary. I love it for all sorts of things. This does not mean everyone else will love it. If people see it and like it, then encourage them to use it. If people see it and don't see the point, it doesn't make them wrong. They just like to do things their own way. We shouldn't force our ways onto other people.
Who gives a shit what "your" definition of it is
The internet is shit.
there are a handful of people that i know that dont use the internet frequently, and i find that its not that they could not benefit much from the internet, its that they dont know what it offers and how to use it efficiently.
part of the problem is they dont know the breadth of information that is available.
and secondly, even though google makes internet search easy, many people arent in the habit of searching for answers to their questions. they are so used to proceeding with their lives without information.
it takes time to learn that you can find the answer to virtually any question that you have, and other information that you would benefit from.
so its not only using the internet whenever you have a question, its a mentality change that requires you to find all the areas in your knowledge that are incomplete and filling them. those of us that use the internet frequently are used to living in this way.
my mom, for example, went to a museum recently. they got partially lost on the way, arrived at the destination late (left only a few hours for museum browsing), didnt know of a good restaurant to go to afterwards, missed seeing the most important painting at the museum, paid more for parking than they needed to etc. all of these things could have been avoided with a 10 minute session on the internet, but it didnt even occur to her to do a search.
even if she called the musuem in advance, i doubt that the receptionist would have told her all of this information, because my mom wouldnt have realized all the questions she should ask - but of course, a visit to the museum's website would have provided all of this relevant information.
What kind of a dumb question is this? Maybe I should RTFA but the premise boggles my mind. Maybe I'm jaded because I spend so much time in front of a computer with a full time internet connection, but FWIW the Internet is MY FRIEND! I need to look something up, GOOGLE! I need to buy something, FROOGLE/PRICEWATCH/ETC! I need to talk to people EMAIL/IM/IRC/ECHOLINK! I mean, WTF? If it wasn't for greedy nearsighted corporations and governments we could already have broadband in everybodies home and not have to fuck around with archaic technology like telephones and fax machines and phone books and magazines and newspapers. Or music CDs and DVDs. All that shit could be consolidated into one resource conserving blinky blinky brain box and a phat internet connection. But NOOOOOO we've got to lobby congress to BAN FILE SHARING AND WEB SITE COPYING! AND GOD FORBID YOU SHOULD MAKE A PHONE CALL WITHOUT PAYING THE PHONE COMPANY SOMETHING FOR IT!!!! HURRRR INTERNET BAD!! NAPSTER BAD!!!! DURRRR!!!!
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
The internet is like a never ending open source project and code for life and everything man has ever learned. This will exponentially speed up advances in technology for humankind at a rate never seen before in history. I think this is a good thing unless it somehow hastens armageddon and the end to mankind.
Somebody used "begs the question" correctly! Way to go, Slashdot!
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I am an expert in electricity. My father held the chair of applied electricity at the state prision.
Somebody post some hot naked chicks to remind this guy why we need it.
Somebody link this guy to goatse to remind him why we don't want it.
Diversity makes the world go 'round, folks.
It's the only global forum for free speech. Period. The verbage of this article makes the internet sound possibly pointless, as if there were alternatives that better fill the bill.
There are NO alternatives.
The over commercialization and governmental restrictions are reducing its usefulness.
Once it becomes just 'another media portal', then its pretty much dead as far as I'm concerned. It will be nothing more then a cheap VPN tunnel for me at that point.
Sad to see, it had so much long-term potential.. its barely an infant at this stage.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If you use the internet for passive information consumption, you are getting maybe 5% of its true value.
You don't really absorb information by reading an srticle; the best learning experiences involve interaction and feedback. This is why teachers still exists, even though most information has been available in books for a long time. The internet provides a way to extend and accelerate your network of friends beyond what would ordinarily be physically possible. In a way, snail-mail could do this, but the process of searching out like-minded individuals and communicating usefully was impractical.
On the internet you can talk with a dozen people who may each have 1/12th of a solution. You can communicate with text, images, and sound. Publishing your solution for others to use is incredibly easy.
It's also a giant retail store, surplus store, garage sale, and swap meet. Just this week I needed a specialized high-voltage supply for an older industrial flat-panel display. There was no way I was going to find one locally. I simply posted my query to the appropriate Usenet group, and in one day I had someone ask me for a photo of the supply, because they might have one in a box in the attic. I already have the power supply and it works. It might have taken me months to find one any other way.
The internet is pretty easy to abuse, and just once I'd like to get my hands on the punk who put out this last email worm. It's probably not possible, but I wish there was a way to find a balance between anonymity and accountability.
...
Maybe I'm jaded because I spend so much time in front of a computer with a full time internet connection, but FWIW the Internet is MY FRIEND! ..... HURRRR INTERNET BAD!! NAPSTER BAD!!!! DURRRR!!!!
How'bout that? I think we just found a model spokesperson to convince the masses on the benefits of being online all the time.
Someone get this guy a sedative.
Before widespread Internet availability (and satellite), living out in the Weeds meant having to drive everywhere for information/books; (remember how expensive Wall St. Jr or Times?); television reception was/is a joke, your neighbors may be out of touch with the current acceptable fashion trends(read: clothing); you knew nothing about the newest song, movie, or career options or opportunity.
It means having access to the rest of our culture, especially at a pace and quantity that allows participation. It means that a song is known from one end of the planet from the other; remember when California had a distinctly different set of preferences than Wisconsin (or even the next town over?)?
I hated the limitations, but now live back in the Weeds, but at *my* choice and convenience all because of the technolgy(ies).
"a question begging to be asked". Grr, i see this in the mainstream press too. Begging the question is a fallacy that claims or assumes what you are asking is already true. Classic example: God must exist because the Bible says so, and the Bible was written by God, so it must be true. Or: Of course the Internet is important, if it wasn't important, we wouldn't be having all this discussion on Slashdot.
I certainly know that MY life would be incomplete without p2p. What other ways would I obtain tunes I like? CDs are certainly out of my price range!
Dustin - A different story...
Seriously - anyone asking these questions who really doesn't have an idea what the answers are hasn't taken enough time to learn from history, nor has much of an imagination!
The Internet is, quite simply, an entirely new form of mass communications. Arguments about the "Net being too centered around Americans to be very useful for " are invalid. *Anyone* can publish his/her own web pages once he/she is online! If the Internet currently offers nothing for you, then all you need is enough motivation to *create* some content that IS useful to you.
Perhaps too many of us have gotten used to all the passive forms of mass media (television, newspapers, magazines, radio) where the "end user" sits down and digests whatever the publisher/content creator chooses to feed you?
The Internet makes *everyone* a potential publisher with the ability to reach the entire world at minimal cost (practically free in many cases!). Write fluent Japanese and think there aren't enough sites in Japanese? Make some! Can't find a discussion board covering political issues in Zaire? Maybe you'll be the first to offer one to the masses?
Tell me again why this seems to be of little use to citizens of a country?
While this may sound like a luxury, throughout human history "free time" has been an indicator of wealth. Those who have to spend all of their time on day to day tasks have less time for leisure. Those who have mechanisms (servants, for example) at hand to take care of the myriad little tasks that pop up in daily life therefore have more time to spend doing whatever they like.
The Internet shortens the amount of time we have to spend on arranging the minutiae of life, and provides the *option* to spend more of our time on pursuits that we find enjoyable. How people spend that extra time (by working that much harder, by watching more TV, by going on a hike, etc.) is up to the individual. But if the duty of a representative government is to help improve the quality of its citizens' lives, then a robust Internet infrastructure is something governments should be pursuing.
The above points don't even touch on the *potential* productivity gains possible through true integration of the Internet into the fabric of business and government.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
telcos are chaking, right now its the internet, but will soon will be a wireless grid of free comjputer based communications that no one company can compete with
;)
of course you can get linux from the internet already
Friction matters! Or, put another way, enough quantitative change becomes qualitative change. (That those two are a dichotomy instead of two ends of a continuum is a persistent fallacy.)
The Internet may, strictly speaking, not make anything possible that wasn't possible before. So what? Neither did telephones, automobiles, or even writing. People were talking to each other before telephones. People were moving around before automobiles. People were communication information to each other, even across great time spans, before there was writing.
To diminish the Internet as much as I am diminishing telephones, automobiles, and writing in the previous paragraph is as naive as it is in those cases. By making something easier, more people do it, more often, to more benefit to all.
I find when my Internet dies, the least tolerable thing to me is that I loose Google, which isn't a public library but sure does help me find information now. Which has in turn increased the quality of my own writing as I can support things better.
Would we have free software without the Internet? Probably, but it would be a mere shadow of what we have now, because the harder it is to communicate, the more likely the project won't form at all. Hell, would we be having this discussion without the Internet, and would it be anywhere near as large or as comprehensive?
Boo hoo, there's no "soundbite" for the Internet, therefore it must be useless. Bah!
Almost anything (but not everything) can be found on the Internet. Sometimes more info about us that we wanted to make public. A lot of forums and groups are submitted to search engines and indexed.
Also companys are offering our information for sale, for $100USD I can buy my complete credit, criminal, medical, and court history from many different services. I can even buy a SSN and other information by providing a name, address, phone number, and the money. Big Brother lives, apparently and is selling our information.
If it wasn't for the Internet, the Windows Worms wouldn't spread so fast. But then they also wouldn't be detected so fast either. As opposed to sneakernet which used floppy disks to exchange files and info. That spread viruses slower.
I agree, some people shouldn't have Internet access, and others abuse it. Phishing is a very bad scam where someone spoofs an email from a company and claims the user has to reactivate their account by entering personal info into an email form. This includes bank account numbers, SSN, credit card numbers, address, phone numbers, mother's maidnen name, etc. All the info goes to the Phisher's web site and he/she can use it to steal the account and steal the identity of the victim. Not everyone falls for it, but those that do get ripped off and lose access to their accounts.
Nigerian Bank scams is another thing that ticks me off, pretending to be someone else and then asking for bank account numbers to deposit millions of dollars into and instead cleaning those bank accounts out.
Then all the Script-Kiddies and Kiddie Porn make matters worse. They should lose Internet access for doing those things. Too bad hardly anyone enforces that unless they get caught and go to jail for it.
I've had people steal my identity online by creating bogus accounts and putting my real information on it. I had Yahoo remove the post someone made using my real name and phone number, and I hope they have disabled the accounts they used. They put bogus info about me on those accounts that was just not true and is offensive to me. I also had people do this to me on Kuro5hin and other places. They usually get a slap on the wrist for doing that.
What we need is an Internet Police force and a set of rules for them to enforce. Everyone must follow those rules, or risk losing their Internet access. This has not yet been done, but needs to be done badly.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Well they're right, most of the Internet is useless, so maybe there isn't an overwhelming reason to get everyone online.
The web is filled with cute-but-contentless flash animations, news sites who really just promote advertisements, magazine sites who just reprint the same content that's already in their magazines, websites filled with bandwidth hogging graphics but very little content, etc. Email is filled with spam, newsletters we never read but subscribe to anways, and indecipherable messages from our friends who couldn't write a clear letter if their life depended on it.
Some may say that we get alot of value in having a cnn.com, an msnbc.com and a cbsnews.com , but I disagree. It's all stuff we see & hear on the TV & Radio already, and most sites just report the exact same stories anyways, or they report useless news. How many fucking times do I have to hear about Kobe Bryant or the Laci Peterson Murder trial? Give me a break.
It's really frustrating that few of websites take advantage the interactive potential of the internet. As a result, we basically have just another kind of one-way news medium where the big promoters push the products to the viewer, and the viewer just sucks it up. Not very different from television.
Really, we can do away with 80% of these least useful sites, and the Internet will still be valuable tool. Maybe even more so, because we removed the kruft. But I know this is just a dream, and that the net is going to be filled with more and more crap as time goes on.
Luckily, there are a few shining examples of new technologies which really to promote good information or peer-to-peer communication-- Google, Wiki's, some discussion websites, but most of those are only good for computer-folks or heated political debates. Most non-computer or non-political discussion groups have horrible content.
Some sites do make really good use of Flash to provide useful information about their product (I'm using tuffshed.com to plan my backyard shed right now).
But still, most of it is utter crap.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Houston, we have goatse! (NSFA)
>> ... It begs the question why goverments around the world are encouraging everyone to use the internet...
I didn't know anyone was asking that question, which is based on a doubtful premise.
But, the Internet is just a big network. By itself, it is empty. The real question is this:
Is the content made available by the Internet worth it?
My answer:
Content created by "old" media and made available via the net is worth it. E.g., having on-demand access to the best news reports around the globe is very much worth it.
But, content created by "new" born-after-the-Net media is largely useless, consisting of silly and hopeless attempts to mimic other media and with polished spins on old-fashioned bulletin boards.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
It sorta seems ironic that the government is promiting internet usage, because IMHO the the most overwhelming beneficial purpose is to bypass obsolete and bad government.
Be it unethical copyright imposition, overbearing controlls on finances and money, censorship, or myrad of other obselete rules from anything to gambling to free anonymous speech. It seems to me that the internet is the best bet to bypass restrictions imposed by poor governinment the world over.
Gimme a break. The Internet is such a powerful tool for information exchange. Of course we don't need it, but we want it.
But it used to be better. If you searched for information on a topic you would find it instantly. Nowadays you find websites that are selling books and things that contain that information you used to find for free. Only a few pages into the search results do you actually find what you're looking for.
We should have an information search engine that ignores commercial websites.
job of convincing people who wouldn't have otherwise used the internet to do so. I think the results of that speak for themselves.
- It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. Stupid Monkey!!
...I couldn't read slashdot without it.
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Support Indy Music. Buy
We need the internet so we can discuss about whether we really need the internet.
However, on the off-chance that ten good geeks can be found, thus appeasing the Net Gods, we need to think about what the Internet actually is.
None of these are exactly day-to-day requirements for Joe and Jane Q Public. Nor are they really that useful to the Government sector.
To industry (where time = money, so time saved = profit), to the financial markets, to researchers and academic institutions, indeed to anybody for whom current information is essential, and where the ability to manipulate that data on a global scale is extremely beneficial... These are the guys who want and need an Internet.
Most of these are either involved in the "Internet 2" project, because of the excessive problems of network abuse, spam, etc, or are underusing the network heavily, to avoid problems.
The military also needs an Internet, but they've long since discovered that it's better to keep their networks away from prying eyes.
IMHO, the Government needs an Internet only because the guys who bring in the Real Money really do need one, and can't afford to pay for it themselves. The Government only tries to get the public interested, because the public won't pay for something it won't get any benefit from.
The enormous problems of the existing infrastructure are because much of the backbone is in the hands of organizations that can't afford to pay for the necessary maintenance and updates.
Europe - which has a gigabit network linking the major institutions - may well be better poised to take command of the world's economy, because they have the better connectivity, where it matters. As real broadband becomes widespread there, allowing shops, libraries, schools and corporations to access gigabit+ speeds, these are the organizations that'll be able to respond to economic variations faster, and therefore be more resiliant to the sort of problems that has crippled the US for the past three years.
Information is valuable, to the right people. But when the right people can't connect, that information has no value at all.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
For all you computer addicts (like me) out there...go a week without using the internet. There you will find your answer.
I don't know about EVERYBODY needing the internet today, but that's the way everything is heading. The list of things changing over to the internet is endless. Convenience, functionality, convergence, and ease, that's what the internet brings
I don't think the question should be about the suitability (rock, a made up word!) of the Internet, but rather the usability. The article spoke about the government's involvement with the Internet. I think that this should be the top priority of each government because, due to our population, need to have some kind of connection with everyone in the country.
Imagine the democratic practice if every morning you had an e-mail, for which you had to read or be taxed for not exercising your right to vote, that spoke about the bills and laws currently on the table for a vote.
And that's just one of my ideas regarding the government and the Internet.
So actually, like I said before, I wouldn't worry about how much pr0n is available online, but rather if everyone knows how to search on Google and find the sites they want to find.
--If only there was a license required to use a computer.
How are they going to build that detailed profile database [to thwart terrorism/paedophilia/insert topical evil here] on every UK citizen if everyone doesn't join in?
How is the status quo going to monitor political association of it's enemies and harvest valuable insights and potential blackmail material of it's opponents, without widespread use of the internet and a few helpful pieces of legislation?
I am not and never have been a member of the tin-foil-hat-wearing association.
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
"Why do we need the Internet?" isn't a simple question anymore. There are many many different answers to that question depending on who it's put to.
There are many more uses than there used to be. There are many more users and as a result there are many more useful resources and many more bits of useless cruft.
Sometimes it's easy to let our technical biases make us yearn for the "good old days" when the frontier town wasn't so cluttered up with "city folk."
Quoth he
"It's all academic anyway..."
The net provides a soapbox for anyone with the ability to connect to it, and the distribution of information can now happen so rapidly and so widely that it can be nearly impossible to stamp out the information completely once it's out there. Without it, we'd be restricted to what could be spread by word of mouth, paper mediums, radio broadcasts, television- all of which take longer to put together and distribute, and none of which can reach an audience that can compete with the one online. And people can then instantly copy the information, guaranteeing that it can't vanish.
This is already happening in many places. As many have said- it's a tool. But it's a tool that many people can use interactively at the same time, and unlike television (where stations can monopolise the market, and amateurs rarely get to play) it's a tool that requires only a computer and a connection, not a whole broadcast setup of one's own. No printing press, no cameras, and if you say something that they don't like, they often have to try to trace you after the fact, with the info already released into the wild. The reason China, for example, has such issues with the internet is that it represents a flow of information that cannot be controlled. Nothing involving that many people can be controlled for long, and that's what the RIAA is finding out, too!
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
75% of internet traffic is p2p isnt it?
some other moron didn't post :
Is this a loosing battle?
And, as you can see from the other reply re "your definition", the retards get angry about it.
"You said it was on the left but there's nothing there"
"yeah, by *your* definition of left"
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
The web and filesharing could be two major reasons, email and instant messaging could be others... Seriously do you really have to ask this? The major IP industries are shitting themselves over the fact that i can get pretty much ANY of their products for free, the governments of the world are crying because they cant stop people communicating to anyone else in private! Christian fundamentalists are stabbing themselves to the cross with nails because now i can look at naked women more easily than ever before! The phone companys are practically begging for legislation because the technology and trend is going towards free international phone/video calls to anyone and even now its common place for people to use IM instead of the phone.
We don't need star-bucks or bad remakes, sequels and adaptation films, but we still have them right?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
So everybody could read silly articles on crazy websites!
People need food
People need cean water
People need shelter
People don't *need* the Internet.
It would be something for all these project to wire third world countries to remember - the Internet is great fun and all, but I don't think someone watching their child face malnutrition would find they need it quite as much as a good meal.
can there actually be more?
Maybe a better question, especially in these tought economic times, isn't "what is it good for?". But can people afford it? For a lot of non-geeks out there the Internet (and computers, etc) all come from discretionary income. Something in short supply. How will the Internet increase people's incomes (be it bring in more money, or let them keep more of what they have). Is the Internet the only way to accomplish those goals ( there's lots of free information, and services out there independent of the Internet, with none of the limitations)? The Internet really hasn't lived up to expectations [1](hence the discussion that breaks out everytime universal broadband comes up)
[1] If it were, then there would be more in place to make it a part of our lives. Be it legal, economic, or social.
The potential for the Internet to bypass corporate control of politically-sensitive information is the killer app of the Internet. This includes e-mail, mail-lists, personal www pages, special interest www pages, blogs, and especially the massive collection of small contributions for political candidates that will represent the ordinary citizen (hint: http://www.deanforamerica.com).
There are those who want to learn and do throughout their lives. They want to be something other than their 40 hour a week job. For those people the internet is useful. Just now, I needed to find out how to set up a bridge on a mandolin. My local library _might_ have a book on it, but the libary is closed today. But I found what I needed.
Those who just want to watch TV don't need the internet.
Slashdot!
I don't have a sig.
Imagine seeing the goatse guy in your July issue of Popular Science
You can live in caves and pee outside easily too.
But very few people want to do that all the time.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. Many people don't need or want to use the Web or much of the frivolous uses of the Internet, but email has long been and will long be the killer Internet app. My grandparents on both sides use email, though they don't use the Web or any other Internet application. They are the type of people that can't program their VCRs and even have a little trouble dealing with Juno, but the value of quick communication with their family and friends is worth it.
This must be the same person that asked if we needed fire, the wheel, the printing press and air conditioning. Of course, he wouldn't have had to ask if we had never invented spoken langauge. Gagh.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Dunno, Ask Google.
That's what I'd do!
TV and phones revolutionized the world. After WW2 the world shrank more and more, until now we're more likely to be aware of problems arising in other countries BEFORE the residents there.
The Internet is a revolution, because it allows new groups to form spanning the entire globe. People will discuss and spread new ideas that would never reach critical mass before. Slashdot is just one example of many. Believe me, out of all the noise, there is something revolutionary going on with the Internet. People are getting to REALLY KNOW eachother across the globe. This is unprecedented in our known history!
If you don't know who Scott Lockwood is, he's one of the most despised people on the internet. Hanzo San is one of his many aliases. Please mod him down, as you're all being trolled.
Getting more people on the 'net isn't the problem - the problem is making it user-friendly enough to appeal to those people. The more people who have access to the internet, more information can be shared, and society will progress. Chances are there are Einsteins out there who never got to touch a book, much less a computer. You give them access to about all the information available to human beings (the internet), and the rest is history.
So has the internet had a chance to shape society? Not yet
You seem to be confusing "totally dominating" and "shaping". Did radio and telephone shape society? Mail still exists. Did TV shape society? Radio still exists.
The internet has not replaced everything, but it has significantly altered many aspects of our society. It has vastly changed the nature of communication (heard of email? IM? A few people use them). It has changed the way we get information (could you get instant answers to very detailed, very obscure questions before the internet? No, because as good as reference librarians are, they don't have the sheer scope of details that Google can provide), the way we shop (Amazon? Ebay?), the way buisiness provide information (How often do you call a chain store vs. going to their website for price information, or to get location/hours), the way we get around (Mapquest)... the list goes on and on. The fact that most of these things are household words is evidence that it has, in fact, shaped our society. Not everyone has email, but almost everyone knows what it is.
I have to laugh at your assertion that the automobile is "vital for life", but that the internet has not shaped society. The automobile allows people to get together more quickly, get what they want more quickly, and generally make the country smaller, and less fragmented into isolated pieces. What does that remind me of? Oh right: the Internet.
The internet is "just another form of media delivery" the same way automobiles are "just another form of people delivery".
Folks, this is one of Scott Lockwood's (AKA Valdinator, et al) numerous troll accounts. Please don't mod it up because you've been had.
Yesterday a friend of mine was in town and wanted to hang out with me, so she had her boyfriend IM me and give me the phone number where i could reach her.
I realized that i hadn't been to the club we were going to meet at in quite awhile and wasn't sure i remembered how to get there, so i did a search on the name and got the address.
Then i went to mapquest and printed out directions.
Then i IMed my girlfriend to tell her i was going to be leaving work a little early and heading off to the club, so we needed to make the nightly call earlier than usual.
Then of coruse there are the more usual activites of checking up on news, paying bills, reading reviews of the newest games, chatting with friends, looking up random tidbits of information, etc.
Most of that stuff could technically be done without the net, given the necessary other resources, but the net sure made it a lot easier and more convenient.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Humans have a natural thirst for knowledge and new experiences, on all levels, the internet is full of shared information, thus, why people crave for it, why they need it. it's information.
No, I'm New Here
Easy to use. Entertaining. And contains lots of information which is either wildly inaccurate or at least apocryphal but has a nice reassuring interface. Just need to add the "Don't Panic" flash screen to IE and Mozilla I guess.
Bitter and proud of it.
Because I can't get laid and I need something to do with my evenings.
He says on slashdot.
*The* Internet is a proper noun, and so begins with a capital letter... if we can't get this right, the masses don't have a chance... Sorry, saw this /. discussion without a spelling whore and had to step in. I think it's mandetory for Rob's articles? :)
No--it raises the question. Begging the question is a particular type of logical fallacy which does not apply in this case, so far as I can see. This usage is an error, not a neologism.
Slashdot = "old-fashioned bulletin board".
Nothing here that didn't happen years ago, before the Net.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
I live in a third world country that is slowly gaining access to the Internet. We've really only had "significant" access since about 2000. (Incidentally, I was educated in the first world and cut my teeth on the Net as far back as 1994.) I currently do all my business and correspondence with international companies using the net. All my local clients do the same. The net is not just a matter of exchange of ideas for the sake of exchanging ideas. The net allows for the promotion of ideas that lead to business. In fact, I would say that quite a bit of business is coming into my country because of the net. Also, quite a bit of business is being generated because of the net throughout the rest of the world that might not have occurred without the net. So, to question its usefulness represents a lack of comprehension of how far the net has penetrated into the everyday lives of people not only on the intellectual level but also on the practical level.
With the Internet, I've:
- Gotten movie listings in a flash
- Obtained accurate driving directions
- Connected with women quickly and efficiently
- Found new clients for my business
- Avoided bad products and found great ones
by reading online reviews written by hoi polloi
- Purchased computer parts for a fraction of
their retail price
- Sold crap I didn't need to raise a bit of cash
- Looked up symptoms I've felt to see which
illnesses they mapped to
- Chatted with a locksmith who talked me through
swapping out the doorknobs in my apartment
- Tracked down and ordered countless hard to find
books and movies I would have searched for
countless additional years for.
Oh yeah, like it's really a tool in search of a job.
During those few weeks, it struck me how utterly useless the PC was without Net access. I couldn't get security fixes or any other software without actually buying it on CD via mail order or at a store.
.... Linux ISOs out?
Except that 99% of the fixes are for net viruses/exploits. The PC didn't need the constant patching until we got online... Not to mention it couldn't call home or set you up as a DDoS/0day warez/proxy/whatever, the worst it could do was wipe your machine, which is easy to notice and fix, *if* you have backup. On the other hand, an infected net host can go unnoticed for a long time.
As for other stuff, back in the good old days I could *not* multitask on my machine. I could use it for word processing/spreadsheet/games/whatever and just that. Now, I tend to cycle through bunch of stuff: New news on Slashdot? Any friends on irc? Those are those HDD prices I was going to check? Any important e-mail arrived? Any new
Of course you might say that the net has given me more options, and I could simply ignore all that until I felt that was the next "task" to be done, but in reality it doesn't work that way. Having distractions a mouse-click away requires self-dicipline to get anything done. All that being said, I wouldn't be without it for the world. But for some tasks, I seem to remember I got more done when slashdot wasn't in the other window...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
You think your Aunt Tellie has Diabetes? Go search for the symptoms... and support groups too.
My doctor friends tell me that the internet is the bain of their existence. Everyone now comes in with self-diagnosis when they have some unusual symptoms and they're usually wrong. The doctors now have to spend an additional 5 minutes explaining why they're wrong.
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
For open source projects of course.
#!/
If you want to be an ignorant dolt who believes George Bush and Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limburger Cheese about everything, forget about the Net and just listen to Fox News and Clear Channel.
Otherwise, get the fuck out of my face with this nonsense.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Just before the dot-com boom, my boss asked me "how can we make money with the internet?"
I told him - any time someone asks me that, or brings something like that up, I ask them to repeat their question, only replace the word "internet" with "telephone".
Now, the same thing here.
In the question "what do we need the internet for?", replace the word "internet" with the word "telephone."
Now, how stupid does that question sound?
The internet is a communication medium - that's all. It simply allows people to communicate.
Human beings are social creatures - and to any social creature, communication is probably the second most important need we have (behind air, possibly behind water.)
Yes, communication is more important than food (and possibly water) because we require communication to get food - without communication, we wouldn't be the dominant species on the planet - think about what separates us from the rest of the animals on the planet, and you'll find it's our ability for complex communication. (Some may say that it's our intelligence, but the counter to that is that the intelligence evolved from the need to communicate - although the reverse could also be true, causation isn't necessarily important to this discussion, but correleation is, and there is a definite correlation.)
To ask "do we really need the internet" is like asking "do we really need tools to communicate" - and if you have to ask that, then you haven't thought much about it.
That we like it is reason enough. Regardless, it is quite sad and shocking that the value of the internet is not obvious to most people.
Seems like all the responses to this question relate to the reasons that people on slashdot value the net. The question posed in the article seem different than that.
"Educational differences and fear of technology have little to do with why people do not use the net. Instead, they just cannot see why they should and what it will offer them, the survey of more than 2,000 people found. People who don't use the internet don't see how it will help them in their everyday affairs, said Professor Rose, the author of the report. For example, older people have been educated, earned a living, shopped and paid bills for most of their lives before the internet came along.
So, again, the question is being asked by academics who are convinced that the net is worthwhile but can't comprehend why some people just won't use it. These people are essentially a bunch of slashdot'ers who all believe that the benefits of the net are "Obvious! What a silly question! We just have to convince everyone else to believe what we believe."
Thing is, it's not a silly question. Lot's of people don't use it and don't want to. It's interesting to wonder why they don't use it (rather than trying to find ways to convince them of its usefulness). I imagine that, if one day everyone does use the net, it'll more likely be because they simply *have to* use it than that they see some wonderful abstract (or not-so-abstract) use for it. Same way people can't reasonably get along without a phone anymore. Technology drags some of us along even though we don't particularly like where we now must go.
Not saying I don't like Google 'n stuff and think it's neato and cool and seems to allow me to be a lot lazier than I used to be able to get away with (and get my bills paid on time more easily). But some days I do wonder if it's really as useful as we all think it is. Think of all the information I can't get to on the net, but because it doesn't come up on my google search, I assume it's not actually there. But I leave it at that - I don't go any further... Seems like maybe a lot of us have learned how not to go further thanks to the net.
Does anyone here remember Alvin Toffer's legendary book The Third Wave?
In one of the chapters of that famous book, Toffer mentioned the very concept of demassification of the media--the tremendous widening of choices to getting our entertainment and news. It started when the dramatic reduction in printing costs made it possible to have magazines that cater to more specialized audiences in the 1970's. By the 1980's, the rise of cable TV and videocasette recorders began to break the power of the television networks, along with low-cost desktop-publishing technology that really made extremely specialized magazines possible. In the 1990's, the rise of the commercial Internet, low-cost satellite TV and DVD's has caused a huge explosion in our choices of what we watch and read.
Think about it: the Jayson Blair scandal the brought down New York Times Editor-in-Chief Howell Raines happened because alternate means of disseminating news (the Internet and multiple cable news channels) made it impossible for the Times to squash the story, something they could have done as recently as ten years ago!
And if the Internet isn't neccesary for everyone, is that neccesarily a failing on its part?
it comes with my computer....
You can find out about things that might have otherwise been hidden from you. Countries that try and restrict knowledge that might be damaging the local government find that in many cases knowledge cannot be fully contained by those that seek it.
Even games are a form of interaction, hell, how else could you get your grandma in Europe to join in a family game of monopoly (or a cousin/friend in quake).
Oh, and for those with a little skill at it in real-life, the internet is a useful way to meet girls. It breaks the initial ice for people of mutual interests, which for many people is harder than a lack of basic social skills... and you may even meet a guy/girl who will cook you dinner (or you can cook for him/her).
This is asinine.
The Internet is what it is and will be what it will be. It's not a drink machine or a tax program or a city planning map. It's not something that needs its usefulness tested once a year in case the plug needs pulling or it needs a new mayor. People milking their tenures or stroking their egos trying to quantify, pigeonhole or 'define' it are just masturbating with both hands on the keyboard.
Just like the stone slate or punch cards, the Internet will cease to be useful when it ceases to be useful or practical to the people who are using it. That's us, you wankers. We'll tell you when we're done with it. And we'll tell you what we've moved on to afterwards (and Microsoft will resist, but then follow a year or two later).
Wankers.
- I am made of meat.
Or a written language, or a spoken one?
The internet is, in a generalized way, a medium for communication. In it's current form, despite all the crap that makes its way online (spam, trolls, etc) it's a way for communication to be global.
In a way, the internet is much like an upgrade to its predecessors. We have books, radio, television... the morning and night news... they're all ways of making the wide world a little more local. We don't need the internet, at least not in a survival sense... but there are a lot of things we don't need that do in the long run stand to improve the quality of our lives, and I'd put the 'net amongst them (at least for now)
If it weren't for the net, and these awesome sites you talk about, I wouldn't know that there are 152 TV episodes of the Fist. I also wouldn't have the 17 Disc DVD set for $129. I bought VHS tapes with only 3 ep per tape for 29.99, and only 8 volumes were ever released to the US by Manga. Thank goodness for the Internet. Porn, anime, (I've become a HUGE fanatic of alt.binaries.svcd [burning every movie that has come out in the past year, ocassionaly weeks before they're out in the theatres]) news, technical specifications, drivers, manuals, rfcs, and massive ammounts of reference material. The entire knowlege base of mankind is nothing to scoff at.
Where most people have to queue to share the village phone let alone download porn.
The internet is the best global resource of communication and information ever devised by mankind.
More importantly though, it has allowed people to interact with cultures far removed physically from their own without needing to actually be there.
It allows me to communicate freely with all the people of the world in a manner free of racial prejudice, although that prejudice does of course exist on some racial hate sites.
It allows me to route around censorship of movies in my own country to see those movies regardless of what some censor working for the government deemed was unfit for me to view.
It allows me to express my opinions and thoughts to all that care to listen, but none that don't want to by their own choice.
It allows humanity to have a common sense of community, to educate them and teach them that we are all alike, that our small differences should be cherished and not persecuted.
It is the biggest enabler of true freedom the world has ever seen. Getting it to the world's disenfranchised peoples should be one of our biggest commitments, so that we may become a globally tolerant society instead of one bent on destruction.
Visceral Psyche Films
I mean, do you realize how many more chinese men there are than women? It's in the tens or hundreds of millions. They REALLY need pr0n.
People who think they know everything really piss off those of us that actually do.
Here's just a couple of things I obtained over the internet.
1. My job. A company that sent me "thanks for playing" letters 3 times when I submitted my resume by snail mail suddenly found me attractive on monster.com. Go figure.
2. My lovely, charming, intelligent girlfriend who I met on match.com. I probably would never have met her otherwise even though we live in the same geographical location.
One more example: I played a golf match against a 7 handicapper who proceeded to shoot 2 under par. I was wondering what the odds of this happening were and posted a message on usenet. A few hours later I received an email from Dean Knuth, the former head of the USGA handicap committee who is generally regarded as the leading authority on the subject.
Do we NEED the internet? I don't know, but it sure is a useful tool to have around.
--If 50,000 people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
Or you catch mummy and daddy.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Is reading and writing for everyone? Do we need it? We're doing quite well after knowing how to read and write, but we could possibly do without. People in poorer countries find it easier to live without knowing how to read or write, compared to countries which depend more on written information. The same is quite true of the Internet. Some countries like South Korea are almost entirely dependent on the Internet now. When all voting billpaying communications official documents banking etc go online in a country, the Internet pretty much becomes a need. If you dont own a computer you'll need to visit cybercafes. If you dont know how to use one, you'll need a friend to help you through it. Chances are, theres no way in hell you can avoid using the Internet at least once a month unless everyone you know is Amish and you have occupations likewise.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
There are no trolls. There are no trees out here.
slashdot :)
Good point. I should have said, "since the development of agriculture," as it was really the development of specialization that let to our current shortage of free time.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ