For those who don’t know, Bitcoin is a digital currency used without central banks or other central authority. And it is getting popular and pricey!
Today, November 27, 2013, Bitcoin is worth around $900. Just two years ago, it was worth just $9.00. This was a time when one U.S. Senator called it ‘online money laundering’. Now, it’s being hailed as the currency of the future. Investors around the world are flocking to it. Some are calling it online gold. But why has it become so popular? I think part of the appeal is that it’s not government regulated. It’s person to person controlled. Imagine giving a car dealership 50,000 cash in a brown paper bag for a new car. Imagine giving a real estate agent a million dollars cash in a brown paper bag for your home.? Bitcoin allows people to do that online. It’s gotten some notoriety because Bitcoin is the only currency being accepted by Wiki Leaks for donations. More mainstream payment services froze their accounts in the wake of certain controversies.
I am not endorsing Bitcoin by any means. I just find it interesting this? is getting mainstream and so many investors are falling in love with it. I’m still as skeptical as ever about it. But I wonder…is this some kind of a sign for the global economy? Are investors jumping on this bandwagon because they know regular currencies are headed for a downfall? It’s just a question. I won’t be buying anything with it anytime soon. Will you be using Bitcoin on cyber Monday?
You ever see those Slowsky commercials, the ones about the slow turtles promoting faster Internet service? Maybe those turtles should advertise all online service.
The United States ranked 31st in Internet speed, according to website Speedtest.net. They study and rank consumer download speeds all over the world. They use Mbps, megabits per second, as a unit to measure data transfer. Some of the 30 nations above the US may surprise you, some shouldn’t. Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden and South Korea top the nations. Other nations that outdo the US in Internet speed include Romania, Moldova, and Uruguay. What?!
But how has a nation that laid the groundwork for the Internet fallen so short in online speed? One reason is the US size and population is so big that it’s nearly impossible to guarantee everyone fast paced Internet service. Note that it’s the small countries who made the top of this list. Many say there’s a lack of competition between service providers is a factor. Some are doing something about this. Google is putting Google Fiber in neighborhoods which has slow online access and in some cases, little online access at all. President Obama himself wants to get 99% of school students access to WiFi, and lightning speed WiFi. These are all great steps. But doesn’t more need to be done to get us where we should be as for as online speed is concerned? Are you really satisfied with being 31 in Internet speed?
Some time ago, I reported to you about certain airlines allowing passengers to use mobile services during takeoff and landing. Well, frequent fliers are going to love this one!
One airline is going even further than that. Southwest Airlines is the first major U.S. airline to provide gate-to-gate WiFi Internet service. Southwest is using different satellite technology from their competitors. Most of the others use Gogo, which only powers in-flight WiFi. But that might be changing. Gogo is upgrading Internet speed and adding talking and texting features.? Southwest uses technological services from a satellite WiFi company called Row 44.
From what I know about this, I doubt other airlines will follow this lead anytime soon. I know Gogo is trying to up the ante with their services. What I don’t know is whether it will contribute to gate-to-gate WiFi service. Back on Oct. 31, the FAA relaxed laws, making it doable for for your smart whatever to be used anytime during flight, including takeoff and landing. Plus, every airport I’ve flown in and had layovers in have had their own WiFi. So Southwest’s gate to gate service may or may not be necessary. Is Southwest’s gate to gate WiFi a good idea?
Online dating service Cupid Media, which gives you a choice of ethnicity and lifestyles while looking for a mate, suffered a major, major compromise.
An online break-in caused 42 million accounts to be compromised. This compromised included consumer records, password and email addresses. The breach took place way back in January 2013. According to Cupid Media director Andrew Bolton, they have notified those who may have been affected. He said they found the break in and took immediate actions to confront it. It’s also believed the same hacking group that got Cupid Media also got Adobe and PR Newswire, among others.
But there is a lesson to be learned here. Apparently, these hackers knew what passwords to use. Cupid users used passwords ‘123456’ and ‘111111’ over a combined three million times. Letter passwords, ‘iloveyou’, ‘lovely’, ‘qwerty’, ‘mylove’ and ‘iloveu’ were used a combined over 240,000 times. Now that pales in comparison to three million, but keep in mind this is a dating service website. So my conclusion is when you use straight number passwords or passwords retaining to the host website, that makes it easier for hackers to use and abuse. I’m glad many websites make you use a combination of letters and numbers to make you mix it up. That’s what I try to do anyway. And I know it’s hard to do, but try to get a different password for every site, or at least every other site. What tips do you have for password safety?
Recently, I logged on to a major hotel site to look for rooms in a city I plan to travel to. Then I go to a travel site to look up schedules on how to get there. The next time I check my email, both sites are advertising on that page! I learn it’s common for advertisers to track one website to the next.
But Google might be topping them all. Word is that Google is testing a smartphone program to find out what stores you’re traveling to and what time you’re visiting them. They’ll connect the visits to the searches on smartphones to boost mobile advertising. If I Google ‘Cadillac’, car dealerships in my town/city can bid for listing on my phone. They compare car dealer listings to my location data. They can see if I saw the ad and if I visited the dealership. It’s called passive location tracking. It’ll be easier to find this tracking on Android devices. They’re the smartphone leader as far as market share and units sold these days. Nobody at Google is commenting.
A few years ago, things like this would’ve totally freaked me out. Now, I say this could be a good thing, so long as it’s not abused. If I am in need of a store in a new neighborhood, I can find it. If there is a? store is better in the same neighborhood, I can go there. So maybe passive location tracking is a good thing. But I worry about the ‘big brother’ aspect. What’s there to prevent stalking, abuse, and corruption from coming upon this system? That’s the real concern. Is passive location tracking a blessing or curse?
I hear a lot about how computer technology is going to damage our society. In Holland, an activist group is using computer technology to catch the most dangerous participants of our society.
The group is called Tre Des Hommes. This activist group used a computer image of a fictional pre-teen girl. When the sting was over, over 1,000 suspects were rounded up. They used a warehouse in Amsterdam not only to catch the exploiters, but to expose yet another disturbing online trend called webcam child sex tourism. Males go into a chat room ( people who take part in this sure aren’t men!) and a child comes up. They’re told what age she is, as well as nationality and origin. A chat develops and the suspect tells the child what he wants to see. A deal is made. In one sting, a fee of only $20 to be wired to an account is agreed upon. Afterwards, the perpetrator is caught, and there’s the evidence on the computer.
Terre Des Hommes have worked ceaselessly to fight child abuse and exploitation. They’re putting a documentary up on You Tube addressing about such illegal and immoral sex shows. Thankfully, they’re not alone. Other organizations are using social media to combat this evil. So whether is child exploitation, hunger, bullying, fighting disease, or any other social ill, it’s inspiring to see people using the Internet to make the world a better place. So whenever you hear of people using computers for evil, like these perpetrators are doing, think of those who are using technology for good. What are you using computer technology for?
