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The Net - Computing News
with Chris Goh
Confessions of an Addict
An addiction nearly cost me my university degree. I had several jobs when I started uni, from piano player to supermarket checkout chap and assorted part-time work as a computer technician.
But when I came home, sometimes at 6am after stocking shelves, I would go online. It didn’t help that I ran my own bulletin board for several years before commercial Internet services became available in the Northern Rivers, and I found realtime chatting addictive. Somehow I could remain awake, with little sleep, doing it.
Then one day while I was stacking the shelves, I collapsed. I was fortunate, because if it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have realised what I was doing to myself.
For three weeks I could barely leave my bed and for the first time, I missed a crucial mid-semester exam and would have to remove myself from the course. It was the sickest I’ve ever been. From that day, I disciplined myself about how much time I’d spend on the computer for leisure.
I call it my pixel addiction. I had early signs when I was a child, watching television. Fortunately, my mother would set a strict curfew and bedtime. It was different when I became independent.
Since the mid-80s, the computer has been a natural part of my life.
Being online gave the introvert in me access to a whole new world, and it was addictive. The ability to communicate, compete and experiment with verbal metaphors in complete anonymity was exactly what the introvert in me needed. For nights I would stay up subscribing and corresponding in newsgroup, IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels, and subscribing to various lists, eager for any information. SPAM as a concept was yet to be termed and I couldn’t wait to learn what the world had on offer. Nothing was better than people accepting me for what I wrote, not what I looked like or how old I was.
Today not much has changed, I still use computers a lot, but I’m no longer in the minority. Computers are now part of our global communication system. I don’t chat online anymore, partly because of my fear that I’d get hooked again, but mostly because I’ve realised that the most important people in my life are right in front of me in the real world.
HotNews
The ACCC has launched proceedings in the Federal Court against Richard Chen, who set up the bogus www.sydneyopera.org site, which masqueraded as the official site of the Sydney Opera House. Chen is based in New York and has yet to respond to the charges.
Gary McKinnon, an unemployed public servant from London, is facing extradition charges for what the American military has deemed the most extensive hack into a military organisation to be detected. McKinnon’s mistake was using his girlfriend’s email address when registering for a software download, which he then used to remotely control military computers. Although the military said that the hacks used were common, the systems were breached. McKinnon faces an 80-year jail term and a $2 million fine.
In what I consider the best move for child safety on the net, the US Congress has approved the creation of kids.us domain, which will only host websites without objectionable material like violence and sex. Though the challenge is to encourage good content in this domain and keep the nasties out, it’s a step in the right direction.
One of the sad things about being on the web for a while is you see a lot of good material go. I remember two years ago I had to say farewell to my favourite search engine, Planet Search and settle for Google, which now has no real competitor.
The originals, like Webcrawler, Web Worm, Excite, have either disappeared or been redeveloped in a less effective manner. Altavista, once considered the best search engine, is now trying to wrest the crown from Google. It’s had a rough time, since its birth under the old Digital company, before being bought by Compaq and then offloaded. It has excellent tools like Babel Fish and niche searches for images and multimedia, which has kept it respectable.
New York’s JFK airport has become the first airport in the world to use Iris scanning as security for all its staff.
After years of deliberation, the W3C has proposed, in a discussion paper, that any contribution to this well-known Internet standards consortium will be rendered patent and royalty free. It’s had a mainly positive response from all areas of internet, including commercial organisations.
A production crew working on Star Wars Episode III in Sydney recently gave a journalist who had been stalking George Lucas and staking out his Sydney home a taste of his own medicine. The crew gathered outside the journalist’s house chanting, “This is what your Daddy does, do you like it?”
HotSites
- www.scriptpimp.com/home/
- Now that Mac Notebooks come with DVD burners as standard, quality edit stations like Canopus are accessible to the home user, and extending your movie making skills has never been easier. And if you have script you reckon has big potential, you can reach Hollywood via scriptpimp.com. (Read more about it in Wired at www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56320,00.html)
- www.fictionaddiction.net
- If you’re into writing fiction, this maybe the portal you have been looking for. If offers everything from writing competitions to handy tips. This site may just help you expose your hidden writing talents to the world.
- www.writing-world.com
- If you want more help in creating your novel synopsis or an early manuscript, Writing World is another excellent portal for the budding author.
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