The best things about the Internet...

[Pinball]

All too often we hear negative stories in the media about the Net. But I think it's fucking fantastic, and arguably one of the greatest developments in human history. Tim Berners-Lee - thanks (ok I know he's Mr html, but for most people the Web is the Net)!

But what do you like best? I rate:

- Shopping
- Communication/email
- News access
- P2P/file transfer

Of these, which is the best? Difficult! IMO it's a toss-up between email/messaging, 'cos that's essential, and P2P 'cos that's free. At a push I'd say P2P given the sheer volume of stuff I've accumulated :-) I can always phone or text my friends instead of emailing 'em, but P2P? What's the alternative (apart from hard disk meets!)?

As for negative aspects of the Net, saying it reduces kids' reading is bollocks, 'cos they spend most of the time reading webpages! As for paedos, well it's easier to catch them thanks to the Net. Good. And the presence of a few bastardos does not negate the huge benefits of the Net, which far outweight any downside I reckon.

What do y'all think?

[chand]

The internet is a fantastic invention. If nothing else, it's allowed me to find alternative news sources, and new ways to discover music other than waiting for something decent to come on Radio 1.

It also allowed me to have a simple and cheap way of distributing my own music, which is pretty cool. Everyone can have a website and a place to air their views, discover new things, or simply twat around downloding porn.

[nooneherebutuschickens]

Sounds corny, but being able to maintain our 5 a side footie team site. The fact that not many 5 a side teams have a website (well not a decent one anyway), makes it all the better.
I am inheriting it from the departing manager and now feel a sense of pride of being responsible for it's upkeep.

10 years ago this would never have been possible - in fact I wonder what managing a team was like in the pre-text message and website days.

The internet is effing great.

[mr rou-rou]

I read that the other day http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3628321.stm , I always thought the net came about from the US Millitary, oh well, he won a fair amount of money for his efforts and rightly so, he's opened up the world.

I like speaking to foreigners and pretty much searching out any train of thought I wish to explore.

God is an mp3

[chand]

I like speaking to foreigners and pretty much searching out any train of thought I wish to explore.

Yes, quite, it's been a joy talking to people from a ridiculous number of countries and cultures, and I've met some fascinating folk, not least my girlfriend.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

The Internet is rubbish and I never use it.

(Let's face it, the people here will be a little bias...)

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

I never thought anything would replace television, but the internet could do that one day.  

The worst thing about it is that I no longer read books anymore, which means I can't contribute to the Verbwhores Top 100 books!

I also regret that it wasn't invented just a few years earlier, as I could have gotten better marks at school/college/university with even less effort than I put in by plagiarising the stuff on the net.  I remember when I was writing my dissertation in 1993/94, I had to have a librarian search for source material and download and print it for me.  She told me I had over £100 worth of material!  Shame I used hardly any of it.  Now, it's all there, and (mostly) free.

[Jaffa The Cake]

Blah blah blah. I'm a twat. Made a comment without reading properly.

[mr rou-rou]

I spend too long in front of a computer and the net, so my thinking has taken on a sort of regimented 'search and query - input input must have more input' , I have no use for my body but leave me two senses, sight and sound.

However when I turn off the computer, I'm conscious of getting my organic self back and spaghetti thinking sets in.

thoroughly modern mr rou rou

[Rats]

I was watching that this morning with and so on when rich says "are you on the internet stew?" and he says "both red dwarf and child pornography don't interest me rich, so no, I'm not"
that was a good joke wasn't it?

It's pretty good but I can never really be arsed to look about for stuff, there's just so much shit out there. I like how you can download films and music and stuff and come here and talk bollocks at idiots. It's worth the price for that.

[weekender]

and come here and talk bollocks at idiots. It's worth the price for that.

You forgot abusing idiots, that's a favourite hobby of mine.

[chand]

I actually read more books since I got on the net, because I've found people who can recommend them. The internet is simply a great tool for finding out more about whatever it is you're into or wanna get into.

I didn't use the internet much for my dissertation though, I did end up needing to use books. I found some relevant stuff but it was all on subscription pages and it was easier to go to the actual library.

There'll still be a need for libraries, the internet is a bit too transient and not everything in libraries is on the net. Far from it.

[Gazeuse]

Communication is the main thing for me. I grew up with relatives in California and we'd write letters to each other, which took a couple of weeks to arrive, or book astronomically priced 'phone calls foe a few minutes to shout crackly platitudes at each other.

Now I can chat with my cousin in real time and do business with people on the other side of the world with ease.

Stunning.

[r smelly]

for me it's the fact that it's got the answer to everything. i do quite techy stuff for my job and the internet means that there are tutorials on anything i need to know.

and of course the porn.

[gazzyk1ns]

for me it's the fact that it's got the answer to everything. i do quite techy stuff for my job and the internet means that there are tutorials on anything i need to know.

Hehe it's good isn't it... some people don't seem to appreciate that, they'll look up holiday destinations and complex diseases relatives might have because "the net has everything"... then they'll have a PC problem and not know what to do. Very strange.

[Cheese Arse H Christ]

I read that the other day http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3628321.stm , I always thought the net came about from the US Millitary, oh well, he won a fair amount of money for his efforts and rightly so, he's opened up the world.

The US military did 'invent' the internet (DARPANET) a long time ago, Timmybabes invented the world wide web which is related, but not the same as

[Bill Oddie]

The best things about the Internet...


1) The Awful Forums at SomethingAwful.com

2) Bittorrent



(edit: FYI, Al Gore invented LOL NO intarweb)

[Mr Flunchy]

Aside from personal reasons I believe the Internet is a great liberational tool.  For the first time in human history the bulk of knowledge we have accumulated is avaliable at any time in any place worldwide.  Governments like China and Islamic states trying (and mostly failing) to stem the flow of information are afraid.  And when the censors are afraid their power is slipping away, well, that's what puts a smile on my face.

And that's just great.

[untitled_london]

#1 pr0n
#2 pr0n
#3 sharing pr0n
#4 dirty illegal pr0n you wouldn't normally be able to get w/o risking life and limb
#5 chatting to oher pr0naholics
#6 real people available in real time. (IM  etc)

seriously tho , porn is a huge driving force behind technological change,historically it  always has been too.

all the high minded erudite and whatever can stick it, they are simply trying to elevate themselves above the base human desires that  'actually' drive ahead.

the bloody thing was built to survive a 1st nuclear strike, not ducking very erudite if you ask me.

thatnk fuck for the berners lee, w/o him, it would have gone to some arsey private venture!

i.e. they stand very much on the shoulders of giants and say 'lewd pics are not worthy of my respect - my sentences on the plight of the humming bird in winter which can be extrapolated into several political paradigmatic references if you try really really hard, are much more worthy that you and your porn.'

sick of it - two degrees - and 'm sick of them - sick to the eye tooth of the 'i'm a worthy - and you deserve to suffer in squalor crowd'.

i'm drunk - i bet i edit this in the morning :P

[Regular John]

The best things about the Internet...
1) The Awful Forums at SomethingAwful.com

I spend about 95% of my time online in FYAD :)

The other 5% seems to be playing games

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

The best things about the Internet...


1) The Awful Forums at SomethingAwful.com

cough..cookdandbombd..cough

[Marcus Or Relius]

Online gaming, filesharing, classic reading material for when you're bored, porn, bomb-making-how-to's, news and the ability to confirm any bit of movie-trivia within five-seconds. In that order.

[gazzyk1ns]

I know it possibly wasn't why the thread was started, but my fave sites for absolutely going mental through laughter are:

www.playgroundlaw.com (Click 'Browse', then look up 'Darren Carrington')

www.rinkworks.com/stupid

Customer: "How do you spell 'Internet America'? Is there a space between 'inter' and 'net'?"
Tech Support: "No space between 'inter' and 'net'. It's spelled normally."
Customer: "Ok. A-M-E-R-I-C-K?"
Tech Support: "That's A-M-E-R-I-C-A."
Customer: "I-C-K???"
Tech Support: "'A' as in apple"
Customer: "There's no 'K' in apple!"

[9]

Its just a window into a bigger world. Access to information is the main thing.

In the last week i've downloaded over 200 books (yes 200!) on the occult in pdf format, some of which are impossible to find as hard copys. This sort of speedy information gathering is an amazing blessing for us modern types.

[blue jammer]

i'm drunk - i bet i edit this in the morning :P

You don't appear to be very drunk, as there are no obvious speeeeeling mithtakes etc etc

-

t'internet is great, especially for p2p progs, being able to discover new media of all formats at ease is great, and something that will always exist one way or another.

Forums are fantastic too, as there are always plenty to choose from, if you want something in particular, it'll be there, either as vague or as deep as you like.

[untitled_london]

i'm drunk - i bet i edit this in the morning :P

You don't appear to be very drunk, as there are no obvious speeeeeling mithtakes etc etc

-

t'internet is great, especially for p2p progs, being able to discover new media of all formats at ease is great, and something that will always exist one way or another.

Forums are fantastic too, as there are always plenty to choose from, if you want something in particular, it'll be there, either as vague or as deep as you like.

hehehehe
the spelling will giove in a mo or two, i just dropped my first flame too - woohooo :P

okies, i know thats not a good thing - but it has me riled enough to do so . anyways

yay @ P2P yeah at freedom of information way way beyond govt & corporate controls.

yay at boards too - god love em.

[chand]

I suppose the big disadvantage of the internet is that your drunken ramblings are still there the next day, and you're often saying them to sober people rather than other pissheads who'll forget it the next day.

[glitch]

I read that the other day http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3628321.stm , I always thought the net came about from the US Millitary, oh well, he won a fair amount of money for his efforts and rightly so, he's opened up the world.

The US military did 'invent' the internet (DARPANET) a long time ago, Timmybabes invented the world wide web which is related, but not the same as

ARPA only became DARPA fairly recently, so it was originally ARPANET.

thatnk fuck for the berners lee, w/o him, it would have gone to some arsey private venture!

Not true. Within a few years of ARPANET going on-line, the original network architecture was lost amongst a load of networks that had been added ad-hoc, and predating HTML by about 20 years.

Sorry, I'm being a pedant as I've had to write about the birth of the Internet for a uni assingment recently ;)

Aside from personal reasons I believe the Internet is a great liberational tool.  For the first time in human history the bulk of knowledge we have accumulated is avaliable at any time in any place worldwide.  Governments like China and Islamic states trying (and mostly failing) to stem the flow of information are afraid.  And when the censors are afraid their power is slipping away, well, that's what puts a smile on my face.

And that's just great.

Has put it far more eloquently than I ever could.

[Bill Oddie]

cough..cookdandbombd..cough

Yeah... that goes without saying though ;)


sup Regular John....

[Krang]

ahhhh surfing the information super highway!

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