10 things the internet has completely replaced (or will)

Once again a blog post about the internet.  you know, it was not long ago when we had a lot of other things that used to do, very poorly.  Things that the internet does very well.  On the internet they call it disruptive, which of course was co-opted by suits and is now business speak (If your boss is a business hipster he or she will be able to use it in several sentences without breaking a sweat).  So here is a list of things the internet replaced.

- The Library - You remember the Library, It's that idea that since people can't copy books easily we will house a bunch of books and lend them to friends.  These days that would be called piracy, but that's a different issue.  The biggest reason we have libraries in the US is because people that got obscenely rich in their business life decided that they should probably give back or else God will invent a new level of Hell just for them.  Andrew Carnegie being chief of them made a bunch of houses full of books for all people to borrow a book and read it and bring it back.  I'm sure he felt much better about his overall pursuit of wealth.  Well these days it seems like most of the information you want is just available on the internet gratis.  Between piracy and actual online libraries, it seems like the regular library is just a place where you can access the internet.

- News - I love how the news is now so much more about people saying what they saw instead of Journalism students getting paid for their degrees.  People want news and they go online to their favorite one or two websites that tend to agree with their own world view and whatever news is printed there is the news.  Fox lies?  sure they do.  Why not?  People aren't looking for objectivity anymore, they are looking for people on their side.



- Private Investigators - Ah those lovable old PI's.  Sam Spade, Magnum, Inch High.  All of these folks would go and find people track down dead beats and shake down the local toughs on your behalf.  Now days you can find out nearly anything you want to on someone just using the internet.  Those few people that aren't on the internet somehow?  Yeah, they are visible because they AREN'T on the internet.  PI's I'm sure are alive and well but I'm guessing they are using the internet, and probably sites that you could use yourself.

- Phone calls - Wait, we use cellphones right?  yeah, that's true enough, but many phone calls are placed through the same internet that serves you great applications like skype and chat voice.  If you are going international you are probably using skype.  Ya know who the first users of skype were?  George Jettson and Jane his wife.  Yep.  Video phones were being used and I remember Jane even had a made up face mask that she would use on the video phone when she was called too early in the morning.  Seems like a pretty good idea.

- Local Access Cable - Back in the 80's when cable TV companies started becoming a thing because some people couldn't get their antenna high enough to get the local TV stations, another idea started coming to the fore.  Local Access or public tv.  Not public tv like PBS, but public like just some guy that gets free time on a particular channel to put up nearly anything they feel like.  Well now thanks to our friendly internet that's called YouTube and anyone can put up nearly anything.  It's even easier.

- Your Doctor - Surely you are kidding Mark, the internet isn't replacing your doctor right?  Well no, but how many people go to the internet first when they notice that green rash on their left forearm along with a mysterious 11th finger?  All of them.  Not only that, but you can order a lot of the same tests that your local super expensive clinic will run on you, for your own use.  You might have to buy in bulk but you can administer your own strep test just as easily as the clinic.  So maybe I'm stretching it a bit, but still a lot of the low end maladies are taken care of on line.

- Maps -  I remember driving across the country from city to city.  You'd get the map from the car rental place and then you would drive to the city you were aiming for.  It was kind of a skill to have the general direction and be able to find your way to your next destination with only a few stops along the way.  Fancy people would buy a regional Rand McNally road map.  It would contain all the information you needed to get through the streets to your destination.  After a while we got maps on compact disc and we made itineraries based on them.  They were amazing.  you would actually see where your home address was and it would print out instructions for you.  This made a transition to the WEB.  Finally it ended up on the cellphone which uses the Internet.  I think the only map people use anymore are the big directories at the mall.

- The Mall - I remember that everyone would go to the mall to buy nearly everything they needed that wasn't groceries.  It was great!  My first job was at the mall.  I was the weekend janitor.  Which basically meant while my friends were hanging out at the mall, I was cleaning up after them.   Well now thanks to the internet, you do most of your shopping online.  No more going anywhere, the stuff you want comes to you.  Sure people still go to the store, but more for convenience than anything else.


- Know it all's - There was a time when the guy with a great memory was really something.  Seems like that guy knew everything.  Well now that guy is the internet.   His name is Google.  That google guy knows nearly everything.  In fact, if you look up "box of my stuff" (not many people do) You'll see my blog quite possibly still at the top of the list and a few other references to boxes.  If you don't know what Google is, you are some kind of strange Luddite and I have no idea how you are reading this blog.

- Mail - You would think that the postal service is no longer necessary.  Not so!  Every Christmas, the Postal service roars back into existence.  No longer just a shill for junk and the IRS.  Every year the USPS gets on it's knees and thanks it's maker that Christmas cards are still best sent in meat space and not on that uncaring area called the Internet.  E-mail.  As far as the post office is concerned; the E stands for Eviscerating.  You can go to www.usps.com and email them from there if you want to offer your condolences.

Bonus

- Casino's - Time was, you wanted to make a wager, you had to do it in a legal establishment where gambling was legal.  This was LasVegas or later Atlantic City.  Later, casinos sprung up everywhere except Hawaii and Utah, because Native Americans realized that they can probably take money just as easy as states do.  Well now the internet is fighting a war to be the new place to gamble.  Your own home.  If you are a compulsive gambler, how scary is this?  On the other hand if you found gambling a diversion and a destination, you will still tend to want to go on a road trip for the spectacle.  But if you are looking for some action, it's just a keystroke away.

There we have it.  Another list.  Nobody is more surprised than I am.

10 Personal rules for the Internet

Back in the day, there was no internet.  Being on a computer meant trading disks and installing programs and the most widely used word processor in the world had a blue background and straight up text.  The concept of the internet or a network of interconnected computers was more or less science fiction.  We all thought it was possible, but we didn't really know how.  Thanks to the US government for giving us the framework for the internet and industry for embracing it, now we have communication on a incomprehensible level.  When I say incomprehensible, what I mean is that we more or less don't have the capacity to understand it beyond what it means to us individually.  The internet to each of us is our email and our social media sites and youtube.  That's about it.  Some of us use it for more than that, but not much.  The rest of what the internet is doing in the background, that we don't pay attention to, is really big and has to do with all of us.  When Edward Snowden released the NSA documents on what they were doing with our information it started with a bang and fell down to a whimper.  The problem wasn't that it was very serious what the NSA and other 'alphabet' organizations were doing, the problem was that there was so much information there that the public at large was too impatient to pay attention for a long period of time and the information gets to be so overwhelming everyone just assumes that it's what we have to deal with.  Of course it's not true, but the NSA is the benefactor of our own intellectual sloth.  Well all of that being said, I've devised a list of 10 rules I try to follow when using the internet and my computer.  You might like some of them.

- Incognito for travel/purchases - This isn't a rule as much as it is good advice.  Incognito mode is a way for your browser to not keep history or leave cookies for where you are browsing.  The benefit to this is that some industries know that you will use your browser to shop for lowest price for whatever it is you are looking for and will attempt to find and use cookies you get from other websites.  Example.  You are looking for a plane ticket to Otumwa Iowa.  You go to a travel site and search for your best deal of a ticket.  It looks ok, but not quite what you were looking for.  You go to the next site and the prices seem strangely familiar even though you are looking at other airlines.  The more sites you look at the less competitive they appear to be.  Every price seems to be within 20 dollars or so of the others.  That's because they are looking at your cookies to see what you've been looking at and are making sure they stay competitive but aren't giving away the store.  If you turn off the cookies via incognito mode, every site will assume their site is your first visit and will have to give you a price they hope will keep you from looking further.  This of course is just an example.  I couldn't tell you if that's the way that specific industry works, but I know that each website has the capability to look at what you've been doing to adjust their advertising so when you are shopping, be a secret shopper.

- 2 factor as much as possible - This is the world of passwords and password management.  2 factor is the process of establishing 2 separate verification's that make it virtually impossible for someone to hack your account.  The most simple example is when a website asks you for your password and then asks you to enter the code that they will text your phone.  That second verification makes it very difficult for anyone to be able to assume your identity for that website.  In the world of hacking nothing is impossible, but it doesn't mean you should make it easy for them.

- open source for a better tomorrow - Are you looking for software that will let you do things like create a spreadsheet?  Draw a wireframe?  Nearly anything you need software for has an open source counterpart.  What is open source you may ask?  Open source is generally software that does not cost anything AND will allow you all or limited use right for the software code.  That means if you are of a mind you could change the software for your own use.  You don't get to change the open source software without going through a community that maintains the codebase.  For the rest of us, open source software has a couple of advantages over private software.  The code is evaluated in public for weaknesses and flaws.  This means that the more people that look at it, the better the code gets.  All that and the code is free.  The best way to find open source software is of course to use your favorite search engine search for open source and the software you would like. The other good search terms would be 'open source alternative microsoft word' to search for a microsoft word open source alternative.  There are lots of them.  Don't like windows?  Linux is free, and surprisingly easy to use.  Drawing?  Database?  Chat?  You name it, open source has it.

- Nothing replaces local backups - Lately you are hearing about the 'cloud'  for backing up your files.  I have nothing against online backups, but what happens if somehow you are not allowed to access your cloud files?  You still need to have local backups.  Getting a couple of inexpensive hard drives that you can back up your data files onto in rotation is really as much as you need.  Some people advocate keeping a drive in a safe deposit box and a drive at home and one more drive that you are doing your backups on.  every week or so you rotate the drives so your backups are never more than a week old.  I believe that all you really need is 2 drives, one in your office and one in the garage.  Yes natural disaster could take both drives out, but I submit that if that's the case, you have bigger fish to fry.

- You might forget, but the Internet will remember - Once again with social media, but the internet in general.  There is no real such thing as privacy.  Between hackers and governments, everything you do is very likely to be public information at some point.  Behave that way.  If you are on social media, watch what you say.  Businesses are not above looking at everything you do online to see if you are a 'right fit'.  Of course you are not ashamed of what you have posted on the other hand you might be.  Just be careful out there, on the internet, you ALWAYS leave a lasting impression.

- Avoid your ISP through proxy.  Tired of your Service provider snooping what you are doing?  If you don't know what I'm talking about, your ISP (internet service provider) is Comcast, Qwest, etc.  If a company is providing your internet, they basically have the ability to look at anything that you are doing online.  If you don't like their eyes, you can search online for High Speed proxy.  What a proxy service does is provides a secure gateway that goes through your ISP to another address and behaves as though you are originating from there.  Yes, who you use as your proxy service can then see what you are up to, but it's not your ISP.

- Mostly they just want your money - Remember, they are tracking you so they can get your money.  That's not all bad.  As capitalist consumers, we have an innate sense of ads and what they mean.  From gradeschool, we are taught how media advertisements manipulate us into favoring one product over another.  The internet plays no small role in this now.  Before you put your luddite hat on and leave the interwebs forever think of this.  Never before has advertising had the power to focus only on things you want.  I don't mind that at all...usually.

- Your friends friends are thieves - Social media time again.  This has to do with your vacations.  When you are going out of town or just across town to an event.  People have a natural tendency to post what they are doing on line so their friends can see what they are up to.  Well, if your friends can see it, it's likely that their friends can see it.  Your friends picked you as one of their friends.  That's because they have good taste.  Those other people your friends have as friends?  They are at best hangers on looking for some kind of connection to humanity, at worst they are con artists looking to take advantage of all of your friends friends.  That means you.  They see that you are out for a grand night out, they understand that you are probably not going to have anyone in the house for the next 3 hours or so.  That's more than enough time to take the best stuff out of your house.  So, if you have homeowners insurance, right now, before you do much else, take that fancy cellphone and video your various rooms in your house and catalog some of your more irreplaceable treasures.  Do that every so often and you will be prepared to make an accurate claim when insurance is paying you off.

- LastPass is your friend.  - LastPass is a password manager that works specifically with your online accounts.  It remembers your passwords for you and puts them into websites as they request them.  It's fairly easy to use and then you only have to remember your one password for getting to LastPass.  When you do it that way, you can store longer and more complicated passwords instead of the fort knox of passwords 1234.  Once you have that, make sure your password to LastPass is VERY long.  It's the only one you'll have to remember.

- Never 'win' other peoples posts - You are on your favorite social media and you see some post you don't agree with.  You decide to log your displeasure.  That's fine.  The poster then rebuts your well worded dissent with points of their own.  Unless you have something genuinely new to offer the discussion.  Do not reply.  Do not try to win the post by having the last word.  It's rude.  You want to further the argument, make you own post and see how people react to your thoughts.  Don't cook your barbecue on someone else's grill.

Well, there it is.  My internet rules and advice.

10 Things I will do when I am made President.

When I say president, what I really mean is benevolent dictator.  Because everyone would agree with me and then institute my ideas as a part of a comprehensive change in the country.  I'm sure that my ideas have some problems, that's ok, I'm in no danger of being installed as Premier of the United States any time soon.

I know some of these things I've mentioned in prior blogs so forgive me if this sounds like a loop.

1 - All Death Penalties will be evaluated at the highest court - Not only that, but each death sentence will get immediate DNA review.  There have been far too many mistakes made based on an inviolate judgement of the court.  Too many people are dead based on a legal process built to protect the sanctity of the courts rather than the innocent.  That being said, if the appeals have been made and the evidence has been reviewed INCLUDING PERTINENT NEW EVIDENCE.  The death penalty needs to be escalated to immediate review at the highest level so the court can execute justice one way or another.

2 - Healthcare reform will not be citizen ID reform - if we are really going to have health care reform, we have to stop this idea that people need to be tracked by a government whose sole goal in this is not providing better service, but rather wresting economic control from the public.  The only things that need to be tracked are doctors and services.  The idea of insurance in general is really silly and based on fear.  So we pay more and more to avoid an inevitable end.  Eliminate health insurance and create government clinics that provide simple health services that support the 75% of malady's that we seem to run into.  The rest are medical procedures that are covered in the private sector.  Are we all entitled to them?  sure if we have the money.  What if we don't have money?  Then we can't afford it.  Just like it will be no matter who tries to 'fix' it.

3 - Laws of evidence need to change - it seems like the evil are protected quite well by the same laws that protect the innocent.  That's o.k. by me.  On the other hand, if law enforcement ends up breaking some law or procedure in the procurement of evidence that convicts the individual of wrongdoing, it is wrong to invalidate the evidence just because the procedure was wrong.  The evidence should be maintained and scrutinized, but those that made the improper acquisition of evidence will be held civilly responsible.  The criminal would be entitled to monetary damages based on the seriousness of the intrusion backed by the individuals as well as the government.  There would still be an incentive to do it correctly, but guilty criminals would not go free based on bad judgement.

4 - Internet is free for everyone.  - There is currently no real competition in providing internet access.  The Internet is informational and educational and encourages growth in the economy.  The government is constantly telling companies that they MUST store information that the government can use against it's citizens and each company gives you the same product at different prices that all tend to be mini-monopolies.  It falls to the best product provided for your area.  Right now, if you have fiber net available, you will take it above cable.  If you don't, you will take cable above DSL.  If you don't have cable available, you will take DSL.  If you don't have DSL, you'll take dial up or some other less consistent option.  This is not competition.  The internet is no different than the road system.  It is provided by our taxes and available for all to drive upon it.  If we pay for it the same way we pay for roads, we will charge people a fee for the modem device, and a small amount for how much access you use.  Wireless is freely available to all.   Individuals are responsible for their own security/encryption.  If you don't want people snooping on what you are doing, then take steps to prevent it.

5 - Campaign Finance Reform - Ok, so I think we all know about this load of steaming excrement judgement that says the money is freedom of speech and that corporations are in fact citizen entities of the country.  Well this is allowing wealthy companies to really pour on the influence peddling by spending as much as they want in ad's supporting various political figures.  Well that's all gonna stop under my regime.  I will establish how much money it takes to run a specific campaign in the country and give the candidates that money.  Sitting presidents get a little bit less than their new faced Mr. Smith counterparts since they are already known.  Then the race is on.  Debates cost nothing.  Everything else each candidate may spend in the pursuit of election and anything not spent is given back to the government.  Any ad's seen on tv NOT paid for by the candidate will be deducted from the candidates total allowable expenditures.  That should fix being hounded by campaigns for a year and a half prior to the election.  The same can be done on a local level.

6 - Companies are not citizens. - But if they are, then the heads or boards of these ersatz citizens should be put in jail for anything the company does wrong.  Corporate fees still apply, but prison will be more prevalent to those that run the citizen company.  If a company is afforded the rights of citizen then they should have the same exposure that being a citizen carries with it as well.

7 - Bankruptcy is a once in a lifetime thing - Bring back debtors prison.  Why?  because too many people take advantages of bankruptcy laws to the point that they are just reckless with money and believe that everyone else should pay for it.  I don't think so.  Bankruptcy should be rare and a well thought out safety net against a bad turn of events, not a fallback so you don't have to pay your due.

8 - ALL patents/copyrights have sundowns among other things - Sorry, one of the biggest problems with our country now is that competition is based more on not allowing your competition to compete rather than building a better mouse trap.  All of these copyright trolls (Yes, Microsoft and Apple, I'm looking squarely at you) that buy up copyrights just to keep other people from competing.  You get your 7 years, that should be more than enough. Any company that gets a copyright, but does not survive will have their copyrights immediately put into the public domain.  Laws will have to be drastically changed, I know, but I'm tired of innovation being stifled in the name of profits.  There would be some problems when dealing with iconic figures, but that might be covered under some kind of corporate identity provisions.  I'm not sure, I just know that the way it is now does not serve the public interest.

9 - Sorry, you don't play fair, you can't play in our playground - We used to be a HUGE dog in the world but now...oh yeah, we are still a big dog in the world.  EVERYONE currently wishes that they had our economy.  They don't.  So in order to get some of it, they sell their goods here.  If you are manipulating your crappy currency just so we can buy your crap even cheaper, stop it.  I wish it were this simple but obviously it isn't.  On the other hand we can certainly make things less comfortable for those that cheat into our economy.

10 - COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY - When I say that, I don't mean, some, I mean all.  ANY aspect of the government that is popularly elected will have a cellphone that is on all the time that records and transcribes every conversation.  There will be NO secret deals, NO backroom anything.  All of it is recorded.  What's that you say?  What about privacy?  what about National Security?  Oh, I have answers for those.  Privacy?  none.  If you don't like that, don't apply for the job.  Understand that the sweet nothings you whisper to your wife or your mistress will be a part of the public record.  Why?  Because you represent the public.  We don't expect that you will be perfect, but because we don't expect that, we need to know everything that you are doing or talking about.  When we do this, we eliminate the effectiveness of political action committees.  Everyone will know what you are being asked to do by anyone that is asking to do it.  National Security?  We will have an oversight committee that is made of citizens much like jury duty that is sworn to secrecy under severe penalty.  Those people will be allowed to evaluate pieces of your security based conversation so you aren't making shady deals or acting against the best interests of the nation.  Yes, I know that this will make a lot of people not want the job.  That's good.  Because most of the people we have in the job couldn't bear this kind of transparency and we don't want them there anyway.


There it is.  What I would do if I were installed as Commander in Chief.  It won't happen.  I have no ambitions in that direction.  But it seems the season for elections and what not.

As always, thanks for reading!  Don't do drugs, Stay in School.