Don't steal me!
According to the federal trade commission, “Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes”. It’s important to be very careful when using the Internet, as it common to have other people using one’s personal data; doing credit card fraud, for example. The best way to prevent such a fraud is to get suspicious with any website that requires credit card number (or even secret codes!). It’s important to always check if the website is secured. Personally, I only give my credit card number to buy things on big websites I trust, such as amazon.fr, or fnac.com. I never allow my browser (or the website) to memorize this number. I also check my bank account often enough to detect any suspicious activity.
A bad (booo, very bad) way to learn English
After a while in English class at school, the only way to improve your English is to practice by yourself. If reading books was very helpful, I also learnt a lot by watching TV shows I downloaded on the Internet… (ssshhh). It all started with Friends, Six Feet Under and Alias. I remember my sister telling me I would love this last show, but as I missed the beginning, my only chance was to find the season one on the Internet. And so I did. And so I continued. When you love a show, you want to watch it when it airs, and you don’t want to wait a year to watch it IN FRENCH on a French channel. So you download it – by the way, I would pay or watch commercials to watch legally the shows, if I had the possibility to do so – in English, and you learn to understand what it’s about, without the subtitles.
Well, for Friends, it’s quite easy, alright. But when it comes to Alias and their complex technical terms during their meeting, it’s not that simple to get! So I’m pretty sure this practice helped me a lot in my understanding, vocabulary learning, and even pronunciation (even if it’s still far from perfect, but I’ve been said it’s better to keep a little French accent!).
Now that these 3 shows are off, I’m not downloading anymore...
…
ok, right!
I advise the software Azureus, and the website Isohunt to get the bit-torrent links.
Six qualities for a better use of the Internet
Generosity: the Internet would not be as it is now if it wasn’t for generosity. Putting files, data, information or software online, it’s sharing with other people. If people only wanted to keep their knowledge, tools and tips for themselves, the use of the Internet would be very poor. Want to teach the whole word how to cook the best chocolate cake ever? Share your recipe! Discipline: especially self discipline is the key. It’s essential to show some respect, like being polite in forums for example. If self discipline doesn’t work, people can keep an eye on each other, and moderation is possible. But to what extent? When is censorship at stake?
Patience: well, right, it doesn’t work all the time. That’s what you g et with technology! Let’s try later!
Perseverance: That’s what I said; try it later, again and again, until you succeed! There is always another way to arrive where you intend to go. If you’re looking for information, there are multiple sources. If you want to build something, it takes time and effort to acquire the skills and tools.
Insight: Sometimes it’s just better to go to sleep. Very often, actually.
Comprehension: good with generosity, discipline, patience, perseverance and insight? Well, that’s it, you understand how the Internet works! You can now use it the best way, and create your own approach of it. Click on “personalize”, download extensions, and create the best tool for you.
Social Networks
A social network is a group of people united around something: an experience, a hobby, or just a desire to be connected to each other.
On the Internet, such a social network could be copains d'avant, a website that allows people who were in the same class to get in touch. At first, it was completely free, but now you need to pay to actually contact the person you found.
Another social network, which is both on the Internet and in "real" life, is Peuplade: people who live in the same area of Paris can meet to have a drink, organize diverse events and help each other. This is, according to me, a very good use of internet social networks: when it’s meant to create real encounters, in order to improve everyday life.
Digital Rights Management
DRM is a technology made to restrict access to digital data, and prevent illegal copying. It’s meant to protect the copyrights of data on the Internet or other digi
tal media by enabling secure distribution and/or disabling illegal distribution of the data. It protects intellectual property by either encrypting the data so that it can only be accessed by authorized users or marking the content so that the content can not be freely distributed.
There is a debate about DRM, as some people think it's absolutely necessary, and others believe it's "killing music" and is a mean for censorship.
This technology is discussed in this comics
Toward a Net Neutrality?
Net neutralityis an ideal about how the use of the Internet should be. In this ideal, no network should put a destination, or application, before others. For example, the World Wide Web shouldn’t be privileged.
Anyways, this concept is not very clear to me, even after reading the wikipedia article, so any details are welcome!
Expensive phone? Skype me!
One of the most important developments on the web could be the use of freewares like Skype that allow people to communicate for free. More and more people are using this technology now, and it allows me to keep in touch with friends who are now in Sweden, Italy, Canada or the USA. It was very useful when I was in Montreal, but at this time, only my parents had the material needed.
