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Posted By: Trumpy Is the Internet going forward or backwards? - 11/03/09 05:55 AM
Now, after having some years experience with the Internet in it's past and the current formation of it, I'm beginning to wonder if the "Internet" as it is these days, is actually going forward or is it just sitting there "navel-gazing" at itself.

We now have the Face-books, YouTubes and a variety of other things on the Net to do, but in all serious-ness, are things starting to stagnate?

Sure, I have found that doing a Google search is pretty much useless these days, unless you are looking to buy something directly involved with your search.

I ask the question, has the Internet lost where it's come from?
It was never meant to be about sales, it was supposed to be about dissemination of information.

As for Face-book and other places like that, each person to their own, if you want to put your own personal details in a place like that, expect it to be like a second resume', the same with YouTube.

Get caught doing dumb things or embarrasing yourself (or your prospective employer), count yourself out of that next job, because they will find these things.

Your opinion folks? cool
Posted By: twh Re: Is the Internet going forward or backwards? - 11/03/09 06:41 AM
Overall, it's an improvement. Just think back to how hard it was to get up-to-date information from an enclopedia. I would agree it's a little annoying to have advertising in my mailbox and in my in-box. On the bright side: I'm a quarter inch bigger, I can last all night, and I'm about to get 10 mil transferred into my bank account.
forwards or backwards?

i couldn't tell you if my biz is most days, let alone the WWW

~S~
It is an indespensible tool for me. Searching on the internet is easy if you enter the right data. Garbage in, garbage out. Search engines are a good tool if you use it right. A banana makes a lousy hammer.

I took the plunge and got me an iPhone. It is like a third arm. Because of the internet, I have access to a buttload on infomation all at my finger tips. I can forward pictures to my co-workers from the field. I travel a lot and weight is a premium so I need to be light and compact. Because of the internet, I can download catalogs and manuals. If I like them, I can save them for future reference, even without internet access. Currently I have thousands of pages of catalogs and manuals on my phone that I could not possibly lug around with me. All this because of the internet.

The internet I feel is moving forward still. Just like any other infrastructre, It can only grow as fast its existing system capacity. The original brains behind building the infrastuctre may not have had the foresite of what the internet would be today. It will eventully hit a point that will slow down progress.

Sure there is alot of junk on the internet. Someone's junk to you is someone else's useful info. You Tube for example, to me is 99% garbage. That 1% has given me excellent video for training purposes and cheap entertainment. Everything has a value to someone out there in the www. That is why it is there.

Just hired a helper for this winter. With all the red tape the govt lives in, without the internet, it would of been hell to shuffle all the paperwork between Minnisota, Alaska, New Mexico, and Wisconson.

A few years back. I was involved in a online meeting that lasted all week with coworkers from all over Alaska and one from Denver, CO. Instead of all of us flying to a meeting place at great expense for travel and hotels, we did it via video confrencing. At the end of each day, everyone went home and slept in their own bed thus saving thousands of dollars. It was made possible by the internet.

Because of the internet, we have email, links to remote offices, instant messanger, texting messaging and execellent information resources like this message board.

I feel it is still moving forward. It is all how you measure it.
My 9 year old daughter and I were doing some research together for her school project. She asked how we looked things up before the internet. I told her we went to the library and hoped there was a book there that answered the question. But mostly, when we didn't know something, we just lived without knowing it. I know she thinks we were all idiots back then because we didn't have the whole sum of human knowledge available immediately in our homes.

I don't know how we did it either. If my internet connection goes down for a few hours, I'm lost.


Originally Posted by maintenanceguy
My 9 year old daughter and I were doing some research together for her school project. She asked how we looked things up before the internet. I told her we went to the library and hoped there was a book there that answered the question. But mostly, when we didn't know something, we just lived without knowing it. I know she thinks we were all idiots back then because we didn't have the whole sum of human knowledge available immediately in our homes.

I don't know how we did it either. If my internet connection goes down for a few hours, I'm lost.


Maintenanceguy,
An interesting point you raise.
I think the Internet has made us lazy in that respect, that is however only my opinion, I still frequent my local library and you can tell by the sheer lack of people in there, the effect that the Net has had on libraries.

Sure it is good to have information at your finger-tips, but there are also a lot of things on the internet that they make you buy, that a library should have.

Take for instance, I was looking for a service manual for my Honda CR-V a few months ago, to find out where all the lubrication points on it are.

I found a LOT of sites that wanted to sell me a service manual, but nothing in the way of one on-line.
(Which is fair enough, that would be a breach of copy-right)

So to the local library I drove, found the Auto section, got the actual manual for my vehicle out on loan for 2 weeks, I read it from cover to cover twice.

However, I do have a problem with kids using places like Google to do thier homework, being able to comprehend what you are reading, is a very important skill that everyone must learn.

There will be kids around that will copy something rote from a web-site and submit it as thier answer, without actually understanding what it is that they are putting down on paper, that is a real shame.

One thing I will say though Maintenanceguy,
A big thumbs up for being involved with your childs education, there are a LOT of kids out there that don't have the help of an older, wiser person. wink

Our library has moved into the 20th century. They are now "lending" E books to people with a way to read them.

I suppose we will stop making hard copy books some day soon. They will go the way of the buggy whip. My grandchildren may be asking me to tell them about when we used to read off of piles of paper and listen to music recorded on bits of plastic.
"Do you know, people used to use a stick with ink in it to write on paper? They would put this in a paper wrapper and a guy would actually carry it across the country for them".

"well we used to have this stuff called paper"


BTW what year CRV? I have a 2000 book
As far as the availability and access of Documents, things are getting much better now... seeing that:

Back in early 1990's, there were lots of Documents available:
Readily accessible,
Saved for use across multiple platforms,
Available for no cost (contributions were always encouraged).

To obtain these Documents, one needed to be "Semi-Fluent" with FTP.
To locate the Server Space holding the Documents, one needed URLs or IP addresses, or browse through BBS.

Then came the popularity of HTML, which made HTTP searching "fun"

Things were nice up to around 1998, when the "Dot Com Rage" became popular.
The concept of "Internet = $$$" spilled over to some resources, and as a result - information previously available without major headaches (huge search + no longer for free) became almost unheard of!

One example involves my Wife's Genealogical Researching.
Prior to 1998, she could easily find the data needed, at no cost.
By 1999, the "Tease" sites overwhelmed any other sources with relevant hits and redirecting, making research futile.

Around 2004, I began to notice a change for the better per my research material "Hunts".

Currently, there are more sources for data, and more documents available at Manufacturers' sites.
The "Hunt" has become more intense, but thanks to "Tabbed Searching" I get lost in cyberspace once again! wink

So in a way, the Internet is going Forward Two-Steps, and Backwards 1.5 Steps... if that makes any sense...

Scott
In an effort to defy the spammers I try to gather things I fine interesting and put them on my web site.

gfretwell.com

so far I have avoided getting sued
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