Productive Internet Usage
 
What is the Internet?
 
This document to be heavily resorted... This is a highly simplified explanation, but you can find a more detailed article here on wikipedia. Simple stuff, but lots of information, and a lot of that information is highly redundant and given complex-sounding names for some reason. Let's get started.
Your PC (your personal computer) is part of the internet, when it's connected to other computers world-wide. Your PC sends and recieves multimedia, making it part of a larger system doing the same thing. Lots and lots of computers cabled together, sharing files. Like most technology related terms, there are too many names for the Internet! It's all the same thing, and so few actually know how it works! The web, the net, 'online', etc. Let's just figure out one name and stick to that. The Internet. So what is the Internet? It's all the connected computers in the world. Your computer is part of the internet when you are connected, via phone line or high speed cables, or even satilite. Your PC is one of the billions of other PC's all talking to each other. The internet is a collection of files and websites stored on all these computers. When you see a website, even a small one such as this, it's usually not stored on a home computer. Most home computers are not 'good enough' to store websites. Reason being, you'll need a very fast (and stable) internet connection if you want lots of people looking at your website at the same time. Every person looking at your website would slow down your PC and your internet. You can only share so many files before the line gets full! Websites are generally stored on Internet Service Provider "ISP" computers, because those computers have exceptionally fast internet connections. Their line is rather awesome and doesn't get bogged down as easy as home connections. When you have a website, usually you rent space from a really fast ISP computer. This way the world can see your website all at the same time. You can even pay Google to direct crowds of people to your website, guarenteed.
 
These ISP providers have enough storage space (hard drives) to back up your files two or three times, especially if you pay for website storage. Backing up your files is a REALLY GOOD IDEA, as your home computer could stop working at any time. Anyone can get a website, it's pretty streight forward. I use GoDaddy, personally, because it's a one-stop sollution. They don't pay me to say that, I just think it's a good service. If you like quick and easy websites, there is GooglePageBuilder.
 
The internet stores more than just public websites of peoples cats. It's used for many things. Such as; online video games, streaming music and video, private business files, video confrencing, phone calls, searching databases, and even transporting all sorts of files such as dental records and security camera footage. Hackers like to intercept some of this data, and sometimes go to jail because of it. Filesharing is popular, but often illegal, as people like to download movies from a service called "Bit Torrent", without paying for the movie. Percentage wise, very few people are punished for filesharing, and the whole 'illegal' aspect is often legally blurry. Don't do anything illegal, and you'll be fine! Buy your own music and movies, folks. If you want to sample media, there is always YouTube.com, which contains a huge assortment of video and music. There are MANY video serach websites, some which search other video sites. Such as MetaTube, and OnlineVideoGuide. Mostly fan submitted clips and samples. There are even spinoffs and spoofs of YouTube, such as GodTube for us Christians.
 

 
What is the Internet good for?
 
* Anything you can think of, quite literaly.
* Refrence. Researching for school papers.
* Online tax paying, banking, accounting, account checking, etc.
* Quicking filling out paperwork with your keyboard.
* Write a novel and access it anywhere in the world.
* Connecting with clients world wide.
* Advertising.
* Endless news of every sort and topic. GoogleNews has a search for news and for public "Blogs".
* Up to the minute editions of Encyclopedias and Dictionaries. Wikipedia is excelent, and dead easy.
* Online shopping and auctions. I LOVE discount/coupon websites for major chain stores. Half off, any ol' day.
* Time wasting multimedia.
* Sell cars or just about anything on Craigslist/ebay/etc.
* Photo albums.
* Video Watching. YouTube, Online Video Guide, MetaTube, etc.
* Music Listening.
* Emailing Friends and Clients.
* Resume.
* Photos of your Cat(or family).
* Chatting or even Video Chatting if you have a webcam.
* Stay in touch with loved ones.
 

 
What is a healthy way to use the Internet?
 
* Ergonomics.
* Taking Breaks: A good treadmill run, with water and something healthy in your stomach.
* Limiting your Online Time.
* Predetermining what information youre seeking.
* Asking questions in how-to site, so you dont waste a day 'searching'.
* Protecting your privacy.
 

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