That is true. Many people are different online than in real life. Myself included. From my own experience though I know that the longer a person is open online the more open they'll get to be in person. Being honest and open online has led me to be much more so in real life. Confidence is something that takes practice. The Net can be a good way to build up that confidence.
I'm still quiet a lot of the time (even online) but I feel able to say and do what I want when I want even in real life. Of course part of the reason I scare people is because I do say and do whatever pleases me.;)
The only thing that still impacts me as to making me more quiet in real life than online is that I like to think through what I'm saying before I say it. Online this comes natural as people usually don't see what your saying until you hit send or press enter or some such step. In real life I tend to think through what I'm saying before I say it and if it doesn't still have the desired meaning by the time I'm done thinking about it I just don't say it at all. Of course sometimes the conversation is linear enough that I can think what I'm going to say several steps ahead so that the conversation flows normally. I also have certain habits that are used mainly as distractions to how long it's taking me to answer.
Hrm. Any idea what the average calories burnt is for someone that walks 10-20 miles a day? If I had a bicycle I'd go further but that is about my daily limit on foot.
Real friends will pay your rent for you, interest free and without needing to be asked, if you get layed off and are in deep shit. That way you don't have to move.:)
I can't stand water so I figure a gallon or so a day is enough to force down my throat. I figure juice is probably better than soda of liquor. If cutting those out doesn't have the desired effect I guess I'll drop the juice and milk to eventually. I perfer whole milk but nobody around me does so I usually buy 2%. Even without the juice and milk I probably get more than the needed amount of vitamins and such so I guess that isn't an issue.
I don't like green tea. At least none I've had. I don't really see the point of drinking tea without caffine as it's just ground up leaves in water. Call it dirty water I guess. The only benefit is it often covers up the taste of tap water that many resturants use. I had the shit that is in the water most places. At home I only drink well filtered water.
What kind of soda is made with sucralose? That'd be interesting to me. I'm a Pepsi and Dr. Pepper addict but I don't like the sugar free caffine free kind. So pretty much I'm just leaving alone all sodas right now.
I should drink more water.. and am making an effort. Right now I drink about a gallon of water, a gallon of 2% milk, and a gallon of 100% juice a day.
I still eat some potatos.. just a lot less. No french fries for lunch and a baked potato for dinner with chips as a snack in front of the tv. Nothing I'm giving up am I giving up 100%. Those sort of deals I think cause you to fail. By giving up 99% I can maintain better self control. Before I was so addicted to caffine that I had to have 4-5 2 litters of Pepsi a day. Now I'm down to about a can or two a week.
I am already pretty muscular. I'm sure in raw muscle I have a lot more than the average. No, I'm not actually worried about the weight. I'm worried because my waste line keeps increasing.
My resolution for this year is to become optimal.. which means cutting back on anything that impacts my mind or body in the negative. Sort of pointing my perfectionist mindset towards myself. I get to be my own whipping boy.:)
True. But as I said in some ongoing discussions I don't think teenagers are minors. They might be in law but in fact they have the ability to make reasoned decisions about their own sexuality. I'd be nice if there was a way to base adulthood on some sort of test of maturity, wisdom, and so forth but as we can't I think a better line would be at about 14-15. If you don't understand what sex is by then.. well then your probably in special ed. Y'know once you've passed that "show me yours and i'll show you mine" stage into actively seeking out sexul encounters. Sure they'll make mistakes but that'll happen regardless of where you draw the line. Most teenagers, when I was a teenager anyway (not to long ago), are sexually active anyway so why criminalize it?
How can you be a victim if you went out seeking what was done to you? May as well hire someone to demolish your house and then sue them afterwards for having done so.
People are toys with buttons. Press the right ones and they do what you want.
You have no idea how long I've had that sig either. Probably since before Slashdot was even thought about. It's a slight mod to a different sig I used before the web existed.:)
I've tried others. I just don't like them. They can be very casual friends.. people you just know without really being attached to.. but not good friends or girlfriends. I'd rather be alone than annoyed. Non-geeks annoy me. I really like machines and animals more than people anyway. (Not for dating obviously.. just to be around.)
I used to want to have lots of friends but overall I found that a waste of energy. Maybe 1 in 1000 was actually there when I needed them. The rest weren't worth having. Of the thousands of people I knew (yes I can keep that many in my head at once) five years ago only five of them are still my friends. That's plenty for me.
I get lots of exercise and still was slowly gaining weight. I don't really eat that much either. I do drink a lot of liquids though which is one reason for cutting off the soda (all that needless sugar). Thus the reason I'm cutting way back on a few things that are likely to blame.
I don't date non geek girls. If she can't at least spell Linux and reformat a hard drive then she's not my type. Seriously, why hang out with or date people you have nothing in common with? Now and then I try it and am always unhappy with the results.
I don't especially try to convert anyone to OSS or get in their pants. The first I see as a waste of time (they'll switch when the software is good enough) and the later I'm typically to well behaved to do (I only say inappropiate things to people I don't know).
Umm you can pick up a date online without having talked to them just once. All the women I've met in real life after meeting online I'd known for at least several months. At least any I've had sex with. I have been known to let random people off the Net bum at my place though. Probably stupid but I really don't keep anything that'd be worth stealing and I'm a big scary guy so I doubt anyone is gonna try to kill me (and even if they did I'd not care).
For a while I was working on a condom mod to make them vibrate. Does that count?
People are idiots but they are trained by countless generations of evolution to recognize patterns. The same person that puts a toaster next to their shower could id her best friend even in a full body full face Halloween costume.
Not that there aren't exceptionally stupid people who can't even reach the abilities of a chimp. Again such people need weeded out of the gene pool and I feel no need to protect them. If you find any especially tastey women that need to be weeded then please share them around. I'm willing to lift my ban on vices (such as women) now and then.;)
Exactly. One reason I'm not religious. That and I just really don't care about how we got here or where we go when we die. No use worrying about such things. There are plenty of more interesting questions to waste my life answering.
I'm a sociopathic paranoid person. I trace people mostly so I can avoid them - not so I can meet them.
Yes, I'm probably the sort of person most people are trying to stay away from. Lucky for them I'm also trying to stay away from them. It depends on my mood swings though. Sometimes I might want to take care of everyone (much like pets) and other times I might feel like a god among brainless toys that I can do with as pleases me. Luckily, I usually avoid people when in the latter mood so I'm generally pretty nice.
At least I'm not a pedo or anything though. I might see people as pets instead of equals but at least I don't see them as worthy to mate with. If left with me the worst I'd try to do with your kids is make them smarter, more creative, and more independant.
I'm reformed. It doesn't mean I can't still do it. It just means I don't want to and therefore don't mind admitting to it. Still, I have sucked people into the story I was creating even after just having told them I was going to do so. I do hope people here are a little smarter and more aware than that though.:)
There is really no good age to consider people adults but the USA seems kind of schizo on the matter. You can be 40 here and still live with your momma and people won't think to much of it. That and the age of adulthood is so freaking fragmented. You have to be 15 to get a drivers permit and 16 to drive.. but in some places you have to be 18 for either. You have to be 18 to be considered an adult but some places you can be considered an adult earlier with parent consent (parent consent to be an adult!?). Then you can vote at 18 but can't run for most elected offices until your older. Depending where you live you usually can't legally look at nude bodies til you're 18-21 but it's okay to have sex as long as neither of the partners is on the other side of that 'consent' line. You can even be charged with child pronography for photographing your legal wife naked if she is under 18 or 21 (whatever the local line is). Depending where you live you can get married at anywhere from 14 to 18. You can't smoke or drink until your 21 even though you can vote at 18 (I can decide the fate of my nation but not drink a beer?) and in some places they are trying to push that line up to like 24. You can work at any age under certain conditions but have to be like 16 to work a normal job and 18 to work a full time decent job. You can be tried as an adult at 13 even though you have no real way to be treated as an adult for having done something good. And so on and so on.. really crazy shit.
I'd just say the age of adulthood is 15 and be done with it. At 15 you can do anything an adult can do. You can vote, drive, drink, smoke, have sex, get married, work, pay taxes, see nude bodies, run for office, be given life in prison, and all the other great things of being responsible for oneself. Let people bicker over where to draw the line if they want but at least make it consistant.
An authority figure can put pressure on someone of any age. I see no reason to make special cases. I don't really care if students have sex with teachers myself as long as both consent. I sort of wish certain teachers of mine would have taken advantage of me.;)
I haven't used MSN chat so I can't give any examples but I know at least the raw traffic is being logged in multiple locations.
I do live in an appalling area currently.. out in the middle of freaking redneck central in the rural midwest.. horrible I can tell you.
I don't like meeting new people or making new friends. Even clubs I've been an active member of for years I doubt you could say I have any friends in.
Clubs IMO are a much better and safer way to meet people than random pickups at a nightclub. Nightclubs IMO suck. Even without the risks of drugs and stuff your still making decisions while likely drunk that could have nasty results. Face to face is fine. It just has drawbacks compared to online chat. As you say it also has benefits. Either way I really don't care to meet new people.
I had the weird misfortune to once move into an apartment about a block away from a woman that had some sort of online thing for me (and I kept trying to shoo her away).. was sort of weird cus then I had to actually be sort of mean and tell her she couldn't come bother me at my place but if I walked outside she'd wave to me and about every day she'd icq me to ask if I wanted to come over. Probably was stupid of me since I wasn't actually dating anybody or anything.. I just didn't want to date her either.:)
Never been lucky enough to find out I lived really close to any geek friend. I do typically pick my roommates from people I've met online and that's worked out pretty well for me.
I don't really play games. I'd rather build stuff. That's where the real fun is. Now if my neighbors were up to our own local version of Junkyard Wars every weekend I'd be happy to socialize.:)
I've spent the time and money and got nothing from it so I no longer spend any more time or money. I don't really care if people love me or hate me or just don't notice me at all.. not anymore. If somebody decides to latch onto me then great but I'm not going to go looking. If I notice someone I'd like to latch onto then maybe I'll go looking for them and only them. I know what I'm looking for and there is very little chance of finding it but if I do it won't be at a nightclub.
I don't use online chat or instant messages or even personal email hardly anymore. A few mailing lists, Slashdot, and IRC when I feel like discussing something technical.
I've been online forever too and I still disagree with you.;)
I'm a stupid geek boy with the social skills of a turnip and even I can spot people who are full of shit. If someone can't pick out the shitheads then they probably will be hurt no matter how they go.
Besides I'm paranoid. I backtrace most the people I chat with for any length of time so that I can find out who they really are. Of course not everybody knows how to do that but it is a useful tool. I've tried to do that in real life but it takes more work. No useful IP addresses or other clues to let you trace them.
I can fool just about anybody in person. Sociopaths are very good at faking facial expressions, tones of voice, emotional responses, etc to fit their needs.
It's much harder to carry on such a dialog over the period of months without the aid of the emotional ploys you can use to distract people as in real life. It's difficult to even disguise who you are online. Even if you change your alias and try to change your style of writing and fake being someone else a good many people that know you will still recognize you. People seem to be very good at recognizing such patterns.
If people believe implausible claims without LOTS of proof then they are morons best weeded out of the genetic pool.
It's much easier to social engineer in person. Most people you can begin working on before you even open your mouth. Body language, cloths, etc are easy ploys to use.
Exactly why I'm working on giving them up. They are distractions. Though the caffine I'm largely giving up because it was inpacting my health and mental stability. Soda (with caffine) was making me fat so I quit it. Caffine in general was giving me cause to worry about my heart and was keeping me from sleeping and worsening my mood swings.
The hardest thing I've been finding to give up is potatos. I love french fries. Giving them up is rough. Of course a sane person would try giving up one thing at a time.. so of course I set out to give up my every vice all at once.:)
I guess that I don't consider teenagers really minors. I'm more of the mindset if you can go out trying to 'get some' then your old enough to consent. I'm more with some other countries (not USA) opinions that 14-16 is a better age to draw that line at. Just from remembering how I was myself at that age. At that age I had already blown my parents off from having any say in my life. I've had friends parents charge their boyfriends with rape because their boyfriend turned 18 a year or two before they did. Luckily in these cases there was usually some sort of years-differential clause in the law that held so it was just a hassle for the guys. I do find it odd that a 16yo can consent to having sex with an 18yo but not a 28yo. Isn't consent the same either way? Just seems wacky to me.
A lot of chat programs auto-log. Web-based chats also leave records in the browser, on the web server, in proxy servers, through many isp's bandwidth logs, etc. If someone wants to look they can track you down. I've tracked users down myself in these ways. If you use the Net to do something it's very difficult to keep from being traced. Not impossible but probably more involved than most pedos are likely to bother with.
Slashdot Mirror
That is true. Many people are different online than in real life. Myself included. From my own experience though I know that the longer a person is open online the more open they'll get to be in person. Being honest and open online has led me to be much more so in real life. Confidence is something that takes practice. The Net can be a good way to build up that confidence.
;)
I'm still quiet a lot of the time (even online) but I feel able to say and do what I want when I want even in real life. Of course part of the reason I scare people is because I do say and do whatever pleases me.
The only thing that still impacts me as to making me more quiet in real life than online is that I like to think through what I'm saying before I say it. Online this comes natural as people usually don't see what your saying until you hit send or press enter or some such step. In real life I tend to think through what I'm saying before I say it and if it doesn't still have the desired meaning by the time I'm done thinking about it I just don't say it at all. Of course sometimes the conversation is linear enough that I can think what I'm going to say several steps ahead so that the conversation flows normally. I also have certain habits that are used mainly as distractions to how long it's taking me to answer.
Hrm. Any idea what the average calories burnt is for someone that walks 10-20 miles a day? If I had a bicycle I'd go further but that is about my daily limit on foot.
Real friends will pay your rent for you, interest free and without needing to be asked, if you get layed off and are in deep shit. That way you don't have to move. :)
I can't stand water so I figure a gallon or so a day is enough to force down my throat. I figure juice is probably better than soda of liquor. If cutting those out doesn't have the desired effect I guess I'll drop the juice and milk to eventually. I perfer whole milk but nobody around me does so I usually buy 2%. Even without the juice and milk I probably get more than the needed amount of vitamins and such so I guess that isn't an issue.
I don't like green tea. At least none I've had. I don't really see the point of drinking tea without caffine as it's just ground up leaves in water. Call it dirty water I guess. The only benefit is it often covers up the taste of tap water that many resturants use. I had the shit that is in the water most places. At home I only drink well filtered water.
What kind of soda is made with sucralose? That'd be interesting to me. I'm a Pepsi and Dr. Pepper addict but I don't like the sugar free caffine free kind. So pretty much I'm just leaving alone all sodas right now.
I'm a big scary guy that mutters a lot about weird things. I know from experience that women get upset if I start talking to them without warning. ;)
I should drink more water.. and am making an effort. Right now I drink about a gallon of water, a gallon of 2% milk, and a gallon of 100% juice a day.
:)
I still eat some potatos.. just a lot less. No french fries for lunch and a baked potato for dinner with chips as a snack in front of the tv. Nothing I'm giving up am I giving up 100%. Those sort of deals I think cause you to fail. By giving up 99% I can maintain better self control. Before I was so addicted to caffine that I had to have 4-5 2 litters of Pepsi a day. Now I'm down to about a can or two a week.
I am already pretty muscular. I'm sure in raw muscle I have a lot more than the average. No, I'm not actually worried about the weight. I'm worried because my waste line keeps increasing.
My resolution for this year is to become optimal.. which means cutting back on anything that impacts my mind or body in the negative. Sort of pointing my perfectionist mindset towards myself. I get to be my own whipping boy.
True. But as I said in some ongoing discussions I don't think teenagers are minors. They might be in law but in fact they have the ability to make reasoned decisions about their own sexuality. I'd be nice if there was a way to base adulthood on some sort of test of maturity, wisdom, and so forth but as we can't I think a better line would be at about 14-15. If you don't understand what sex is by then.. well then your probably in special ed. Y'know once you've passed that "show me yours and i'll show you mine" stage into actively seeking out sexul encounters. Sure they'll make mistakes but that'll happen regardless of where you draw the line. Most teenagers, when I was a teenager anyway (not to long ago), are sexually active anyway so why criminalize it?
How can you be a victim if you went out seeking what was done to you? May as well hire someone to demolish your house and then sue them afterwards for having done so.
People are toys with buttons. Press the right ones and they do what you want.
:)
You have no idea how long I've had that sig either. Probably since before Slashdot was even thought about. It's a slight mod to a different sig I used before the web existed.
I've tried others. I just don't like them. They can be very casual friends.. people you just know without really being attached to.. but not good friends or girlfriends. I'd rather be alone than annoyed. Non-geeks annoy me. I really like machines and animals more than people anyway. (Not for dating obviously.. just to be around.)
I used to want to have lots of friends but overall I found that a waste of energy. Maybe 1 in 1000 was actually there when I needed them. The rest weren't worth having. Of the thousands of people I knew (yes I can keep that many in my head at once) five years ago only five of them are still my friends. That's plenty for me.
I get lots of exercise and still was slowly gaining weight. I don't really eat that much either. I do drink a lot of liquids though which is one reason for cutting off the soda (all that needless sugar). Thus the reason I'm cutting way back on a few things that are likely to blame.
I don't date non geek girls. If she can't at least spell Linux and reformat a hard drive then she's not my type. Seriously, why hang out with or date people you have nothing in common with? Now and then I try it and am always unhappy with the results.
I don't especially try to convert anyone to OSS or get in their pants. The first I see as a waste of time (they'll switch when the software is good enough) and the later I'm typically to well behaved to do (I only say inappropiate things to people I don't know).
Umm you can pick up a date online without having talked to them just once. All the women I've met in real life after meeting online I'd known for at least several months. At least any I've had sex with. I have been known to let random people off the Net bum at my place though. Probably stupid but I really don't keep anything that'd be worth stealing and I'm a big scary guy so I doubt anyone is gonna try to kill me (and even if they did I'd not care).
For a while I was working on a condom mod to make them vibrate. Does that count?
People are idiots but they are trained by countless generations of evolution to recognize patterns. The same person that puts a toaster next to their shower could id her best friend even in a full body full face Halloween costume.
;)
Not that there aren't exceptionally stupid people who can't even reach the abilities of a chimp. Again such people need weeded out of the gene pool and I feel no need to protect them. If you find any especially tastey women that need to be weeded then please share them around. I'm willing to lift my ban on vices (such as women) now and then.
Exactly. One reason I'm not religious. That and I just really don't care about how we got here or where we go when we die. No use worrying about such things. There are plenty of more interesting questions to waste my life answering.
I'm a sociopathic paranoid person. I trace people mostly so I can avoid them - not so I can meet them.
Yes, I'm probably the sort of person most people are trying to stay away from. Lucky for them I'm also trying to stay away from them. It depends on my mood swings though. Sometimes I might want to take care of everyone (much like pets) and other times I might feel like a god among brainless toys that I can do with as pleases me. Luckily, I usually avoid people when in the latter mood so I'm generally pretty nice.
At least I'm not a pedo or anything though. I might see people as pets instead of equals but at least I don't see them as worthy to mate with. If left with me the worst I'd try to do with your kids is make them smarter, more creative, and more independant.
I'm reformed. It doesn't mean I can't still do it. It just means I don't want to and therefore don't mind admitting to it. Still, I have sucked people into the story I was creating even after just having told them I was going to do so. I do hope people here are a little smarter and more aware than that though. :)
There is really no good age to consider people adults but the USA seems kind of schizo on the matter. You can be 40 here and still live with your momma and people won't think to much of it. That and the age of adulthood is so freaking fragmented. You have to be 15 to get a drivers permit and 16 to drive.. but in some places you have to be 18 for either. You have to be 18 to be considered an adult but some places you can be considered an adult earlier with parent consent (parent consent to be an adult!?). Then you can vote at 18 but can't run for most elected offices until your older. Depending where you live you usually can't legally look at nude bodies til you're 18-21 but it's okay to have sex as long as neither of the partners is on the other side of that 'consent' line. You can even be charged with child pronography for photographing your legal wife naked if she is under 18 or 21 (whatever the local line is). Depending where you live you can get married at anywhere from 14 to 18. You can't smoke or drink until your 21 even though you can vote at 18 (I can decide the fate of my nation but not drink a beer?) and in some places they are trying to push that line up to like 24. You can work at any age under certain conditions but have to be like 16 to work a normal job and 18 to work a full time decent job. You can be tried as an adult at 13 even though you have no real way to be treated as an adult for having done something good. And so on and so on.. really crazy shit.
;)
I'd just say the age of adulthood is 15 and be done with it. At 15 you can do anything an adult can do. You can vote, drive, drink, smoke, have sex, get married, work, pay taxes, see nude bodies, run for office, be given life in prison, and all the other great things of being responsible for oneself. Let people bicker over where to draw the line if they want but at least make it consistant.
An authority figure can put pressure on someone of any age. I see no reason to make special cases. I don't really care if students have sex with teachers myself as long as both consent. I sort of wish certain teachers of mine would have taken advantage of me.
I haven't used MSN chat so I can't give any examples but I know at least the raw traffic is being logged in multiple locations.
I do live in an appalling area currently.. out in the middle of freaking redneck central in the rural midwest.. horrible I can tell you.
I don't like meeting new people or making new friends. Even clubs I've been an active member of for years I doubt you could say I have any friends in.
Clubs IMO are a much better and safer way to meet people than random pickups at a nightclub. Nightclubs IMO suck. Even without the risks of drugs and stuff your still making decisions while likely drunk that could have nasty results. Face to face is fine. It just has drawbacks compared to online chat. As you say it also has benefits. Either way I really don't care to meet new people.
I had the weird misfortune to once move into an apartment about a block away from a woman that had some sort of online thing for me (and I kept trying to shoo her away).. was sort of weird cus then I had to actually be sort of mean and tell her she couldn't come bother me at my place but if I walked outside she'd wave to me and about every day she'd icq me to ask if I wanted to come over. Probably was stupid of me since I wasn't actually dating anybody or anything.. I just didn't want to date her either. :)
Never been lucky enough to find out I lived really close to any geek friend. I do typically pick my roommates from people I've met online and that's worked out pretty well for me.
I don't really play games. I'd rather build stuff. That's where the real fun is. Now if my neighbors were up to our own local version of Junkyard Wars every weekend I'd be happy to socialize. :)
I've spent the time and money and got nothing from it so I no longer spend any more time or money. I don't really care if people love me or hate me or just don't notice me at all.. not anymore. If somebody decides to latch onto me then great but I'm not going to go looking. If I notice someone I'd like to latch onto then maybe I'll go looking for them and only them. I know what I'm looking for and there is very little chance of finding it but if I do it won't be at a nightclub.
I don't use online chat or instant messages or even personal email hardly anymore. A few mailing lists, Slashdot, and IRC when I feel like discussing something technical.
I've been online forever too and I still disagree with you. ;)
I'm a stupid geek boy with the social skills of a turnip and even I can spot people who are full of shit. If someone can't pick out the shitheads then they probably will be hurt no matter how they go.
Besides I'm paranoid. I backtrace most the people I chat with for any length of time so that I can find out who they really are. Of course not everybody knows how to do that but it is a useful tool. I've tried to do that in real life but it takes more work. No useful IP addresses or other clues to let you trace them.
I can fool just about anybody in person. Sociopaths are very good at faking facial expressions, tones of voice, emotional responses, etc to fit their needs.
It's much harder to carry on such a dialog over the period of months without the aid of the emotional ploys you can use to distract people as in real life. It's difficult to even disguise who you are online. Even if you change your alias and try to change your style of writing and fake being someone else a good many people that know you will still recognize you. People seem to be very good at recognizing such patterns.
If people believe implausible claims without LOTS of proof then they are morons best weeded out of the genetic pool.
It's much easier to social engineer in person. Most people you can begin working on before you even open your mouth. Body language, cloths, etc are easy ploys to use.
Exactly why I'm working on giving them up. They are distractions. Though the caffine I'm largely giving up because it was inpacting my health and mental stability. Soda (with caffine) was making me fat so I quit it. Caffine in general was giving me cause to worry about my heart and was keeping me from sleeping and worsening my mood swings.
:)
The hardest thing I've been finding to give up is potatos. I love french fries. Giving them up is rough. Of course a sane person would try giving up one thing at a time.. so of course I set out to give up my every vice all at once.
I guess that I don't consider teenagers really minors. I'm more of the mindset if you can go out trying to 'get some' then your old enough to consent. I'm more with some other countries (not USA) opinions that 14-16 is a better age to draw that line at. Just from remembering how I was myself at that age. At that age I had already blown my parents off from having any say in my life. I've had friends parents charge their boyfriends with rape because their boyfriend turned 18 a year or two before they did. Luckily in these cases there was usually some sort of years-differential clause in the law that held so it was just a hassle for the guys. I do find it odd that a 16yo can consent to having sex with an 18yo but not a 28yo. Isn't consent the same either way? Just seems wacky to me.
A lot of chat programs auto-log. Web-based chats also leave records in the browser, on the web server, in proxy servers, through many isp's bandwidth logs, etc. If someone wants to look they can track you down. I've tracked users down myself in these ways. If you use the Net to do something it's very difficult to keep from being traced. Not impossible but probably more involved than most pedos are likely to bother with.