 Chris Goh's "On the Net"
The Great Evolution
It is amazing how attitudes to technology have changed in the short time I've been writing for The Echo.
It was only six years ago that the major focus of my articles was convincing people that the Internet was a growing necessity and a good influence.
Now, the last few years have seen my focus shift to downsides.
The Internet, designed as an engineering tool, has been adopted by everyone in subcultures from chatters to gamers, hackers, the sexually frustrated and perverse. It has also developed a supportive environment for others, including the disabled and elderly.
An email address is now a standard part of business cards (and if it isn't the receiver wonders why).
And now literally millions of IT ‘experts' are out there offering advice on the best portals, search engines and sites for your interests. And your kids can't understand the world existed without it.
The Internet has changed my life. I don't have to visit the local library any more when I want to look up something in World Book or Encyclopedia Britannica. Now I can do a quick search on the Internet for, say, information on the first Christian Roman Emperor, and within seconds I'll have references for a weeks worth of reading.
There are larger challenges for parents in this information age, but the issues remain the same.
I believe the greatest difficulty is balancing a child's time with a broad range of experiences. If a child spends every day watching a computer screen, there's not a lot of social skills or health benefits gained. Computer literacy is becoming as important as basic literacy. A 21st century child will need to be computer literate to succeed in life.
HotNews
On the file swapping front, Kazaa has been forced to stop distributing its file swapping program on its site. But it's like that old fairground game of hitting chipmunks on the head – another one always bobs up – and after a million copies were downloaded just last week, the P2P (Peer to Peer) software can't be stopped. Unlike Napster, it doesn't depend on a site being up. To stop things like pirating music, you'd have to ban millions of people around the world from using the Internet. Sonic Blue, the makers of Morpheus, are now being sued by film studios for the first time, because films like Shrek and Lord of the Rings are being pirated using the P2P software.
January 28 is the cutoff date to acquire voting shares in either Compaq or HP before the voting slips go out to shareholders asking the big question – should HP acquire Compaq? It's been a long-lasting stand off – and there are stories of mixed feelings amidst the HP ranks that it will actually work.
The new Pentium 4, ‘Northwood', heralds a new generation in processors, using the 0.13 micron fabrication process that will allow Intel to develop a series of faster processors. The welcome surprise is that Intel has kept the same socket as in later P4s – a microPGA 478-pin. So if you're buying a Pentium 4, make sure it's the same socket type for easy upgrading. Avoid the older P4 socket with 423 pins.
The Philippines government is trying to find ways to stop students from truanting to Internet cafés to play online games. Apparently the boys' thoughts soon shift to other interests and then they're caught in lustful chat sessions.
While Intel, Microsoft, IBM and AMD faced profit losses, Compaq has showed signs of recovery. Much of it can be attributed to Compaq's growing solution services and entry into more innovative markets.
HotSites
 www.photographymuseum.com
If you're a photography buff, the American Photographic Museum has a number of exhibitions from ‘photo-surrealism' and the unbelievable, like photos of ghosts, to classic images from icons like Ansel Adams, to the best in contemporary photographers.
www.moreover.com/
Moreover.com allows you to search its vast news index for headlines if you're a newshound or chasing a specific story. Register and you'll be surprised at how big the results lists can get.
 www3.diarioelpais.com/muva/
The Virtual Museum El Pais is an excellent online tour and is surprisingly quick to load for the amount of graphical content it has. You can go to any floor, see any of the exhibitions.
www.kurtross.com/tn/
Kurt Ross has put together an excellent range of nature photographs in an online exhibition that is easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing.
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