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I go back on the 'net to the days of Mosaic, and earlier on Usenet and BBSs. I'm feeling pretty nostalgic, but also saddened. Between the crooks, the government, and fun loving pranksters it seems that there is no corner of the 'net that can be considered truly secure. I now routinely assume that nothing I do is safe.
I remember when the 'net was 90% thoughtful discussion, it was about web pages, pure HTML, and the content that they served up.
Now it seems as if no forum is safe from endless idiotic, threatening, and increasingly offensive trolls and bullies. Many good smart people just refuse to participate. In its early days the whole idea behind the 'net was the free sharing of information. Now you find things behind paywalls, registration pages, or removed after threats from lawyers.
Each week seems to bring another attempt by government or business to regulate the 'net, both what you can put on-line, and what you can look at. Add to that the many geographic blocks and other restrictions that keep out some of the people, some of the time. We rely on multiple layers of flash and java and other technology, each requiring some special software to make it work on your computer. Inevitably stuff breaks.
It was only a decade or so back that the very idea of marketing on the 'net was considered ridiculous. Now we're buried alive with ads, pop-ups, and stupid YouTube ads in front of every video - unless you want to pay them to remove them.
Increasingly using the 'net feels like more of a chore than a pleasure, and I can't see it improving. Is the Internet broken beyond repair?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2015, @02:45PM
i got a 10 Mbit LAN network (self cable) and hub working (crossover? straight-thru). i was not easy.
i got "the internet" working on windows workgroups 3.11 (PCMCIA net-card). it was not easy.
i got NT and Linux to do internet connection sharing or masquerading so me and my friend could share a dial-up modem. it was not easy.
i got samba file and printer sharing working so my friend and me could dump the sexy bikinis on a common share so we could share them on the "fast" lan instead of having to share internet links. it was not easy.
point is that we have to learn everything. problem however is that we learn from previous generation and then we add "stuff" and it inevitability becomes more complex. this is why we need good how-toes and documentation. else a time will come were all our technology (car, fridges, computers, etc. etc.) becomes so difficult that the next generation cannot add anything meaningful in their lifetime anymore but are stuck at learning, repairing and upkeep.
it seems, however, in the interest of some to make stuff as "complex" as possible as fast as possible because one single person cannot comprehend the whole "shabang" anymore and is thus reliant on specialists ... want a safe internet experience for example? just outsource (and pay) everything to google?
One might disagree and say that everything has become more simple thus everybody has email and mobilephone and such and such. but if something goes wrong then most of these "proliferated people" are standing on a incomprehensible mount everest of technology ...
maybe it is these people that have been kept of the internet before by technical hurdles but are now free to unleash their IQ levels on the whole interwebz and thats what makes the internet seem "broken"?