Internet General Discussion Thread

[Minoa]

In order to provide a home for Internet-related discussion that would not fit in the Computer General Discussion Thread (which is more about computers and software) or Thread for Gamers (computer gaming), I have created a Internet General Discussion Thread.

This thread is intended for discussion about the Internet in general, including the technology behind it, browsers, security, websites, website servers, networking, cloud applications, ethics, governance, social media, and so on.

To start off the thread, a poll for the ultimate question of the Internet, or at least one of them: which Internet Browser do you regularly use?

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An Internet-related story also popped up on my RSS feed today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/3 ... loneliness

I personally hate social media: aside from privacy concerns, there is so much s—t posting and fakery, and many users have accused social media sites of 'doing the bare minimum' to address it, with little to no positive effect. It is no surprise that idealised representations of other people's lives, real or not, may cause increased feelings of exclusion.

What do you think of social media? How has social media affected you if you use it?

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Future polls suggested by participants:

Past polls:

Which Internet Browser do you regularly use?
Chrome: 20 users
Edge: 1 user
Firefox: 8 users
Internet Explorer: 2 users
Opera: 3 users
Safari: 0 users
Other: 1 user

[Anollasia]

I use Microsoft Edge at home but Google Chrome at school. I don't really have a strong preference.

[Cosumar]

Personally, I dislike social media, but as a marketing professional I also recognize its massive value (data data data!).

I use Chrome on my Mac and IE on my PC.

Opinions on net neutrality for a future poll, perhaps?

[Minoa]

Personally, I dislike social media, but as a marketing professional I also recognize its massive value (data data data!).

I use Chrome on my Mac and IE on my PC.

Opinions on net neutrality for a future poll, perhaps?

Yes, it is something I can queue for a later poll when I think the browser poll has run its course.

Talking about Facebook doing the 'bare minimum': http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39187929

Now I can say Facebook isn't even doing the bare minimum in some areas. I find it atrocious that Facebook is dragging its feet into taking action against CP — but only after the BBC exposed their shortcomings.

[Anollasia]

Personally, I dislike social media, but as a marketing professional I also recognize its massive value (data data data!).

I use Chrome on my Mac and IE on my PC.

Opinions on net neutrality for a future poll, perhaps?

The only social media I have is Facebook, but I barely use it. You know those studies that claim people get more depressed after using social media? Yeah, that applies to me. My main use is for keeping in contact with people I don't often see.

[Valefore]

I use Internet Explorer at home, but I use Chrome at work.

Also, for other Americans what do you think about the newest batch of Wikileaks about the CIA spying on you? I hope you're taking some extra security measures where you can; even if you have nothing to hide.

[Minoa]

I use Internet Explorer at home, but I use Chrome at work.

Also, for other Americans what do you think about the newest batch of Wikileaks about the CIA spying on you? I hope you're taking some extra security measures where you can; even if you have nothing to hide.

Even though I am using a VPN every day, I actually wish to give up or significantly cut back the Internet soon, but there are quite a few things that I still want to do, yet my poor health is repeatedly delaying it. Things like building that OpenStreetMap server for a map of Minoa, which requires "wget" over GitHub.

[Ashihara no Nakatsukuni]

Firefox is my daily driver, with a sprinkle of Chrome and IE for work related tasks. FF has made many mistakes over the years but at least their underlying code of ethics is something that I align with.

[Minoa]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39246810

This in part, but we also have to address cyberbullying if social networks and similar websites are going to win the hearts and minds of the disabled. I have cited incidents of where some people just turn disabled people into insulting internet memes.

[Jetan]

The poll should really allow multiple choices. Anyhow, my browser depends on where I use it. During free time I use Safari because I mostly browse with my phone. At work I use chrome, and when on conputer at home IE.

[Apalacia]

I use Facebook to keep in touch with the guys I served with.
Aside from that I detest social media, avoid comment sections like the plague.

I use IE, chrome, Firefox, and edge don't work on my pc.

[Minoa]

Yet another blow for my trust on the security of the Internet, even though I am not affected in this case: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39292133. it is sort of pointless to have strong passwords with foreign characters if someone can figure out how to, for example, get to the administrator account.

And still a lot of trouble for Twitter regarding the security of accounts or third-party apps that connect to the Twitter API: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39295504. Yet there are sites which require you to have an account from a another site to register to do things like commenting.

[Minoa]

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39304468

Posted in this thread as it is mainly Internet-related.

No Google, I'm still calling out this is an advertisement to some extent, because it doesn't matter if it is "seasonal timely content", it is selling a specific film, not an established event like, as the BBC said, Black History Month and the Oscars.

What do you think about Internet-enabled smart speakers? In my opinion and aside privacy risks, it is simply superfluous for me, plus it doesn't help address my addiction to the Internet.

[Erutenia]

Internet fucked my life.

including NS, but that is other thing.

[Saiwania]

Forget discussing internet browsers for a minute, nearly all of the browsers are "good enough" these days for web surfing. What I'd like to know is what ISPs are available in your location and are you happy with the service you pay for? Unless you're piggybacking off of someone else's connection such as a business' wireless, ultimately someone is paying for the privilege of internet access.

The only choices where I live is strictly between cable and DSL. If you want faster internet, you have to go with cable. With only one cable provider, they really have the leverage to charge you more and give less. For 15 mbps, you need to shell out $40/month. With DSL, 10 mbps is going for $35/month. Most plans I see, come with a monthly data cap of around 1 TB.

The bandwidth limit, I can live with. But the pricing is more expensive than I'd like. Some locations I've researched, seem to have better prices because there is more competition but more rural places seem to be worse off in that regard. How is the ISP market in your location?

[Minoa]

Forget discussing internet browsers for a minute, nearly all of the browsers are "good enough" these days for web surfing. What I'd like to know is what ISPs are available in your location and are you happy with the service you pay for? Unless you're piggybacking off of someone else's connection such as a business' wireless, ultimately someone is paying for the privilege of internet access.

The only choices where I live is strictly between cable and DSL. If you want faster internet, you have to go with cable. With only one cable provider, they really have the leverage to charge you more and give less. For 15 mbps, you need to shell out $40/month. With DSL, 10 mbps is going for $35/month. Most plans I see, come with a monthly data cap of around 1 TB.

The bandwidth limit, I can live with. But the pricing is more expensive than I'd like. Some locations I've researched, seem to have better prices because there is more competition but more rural places seem to be worse off in that regard. How is the ISP market in your location?

Two providers? The EU's pro-choice legacy has given us, apart from BT (which sucks), Plusnet, TenTel, Sky, TalkTalk, Post Office, EE, John Lewis (the department store), Vodafone and Virgin (10 total). The lowest deal in my area is for £19 per month. The maximum bandwidth: 200 Mbits/s

And I don't think that is the full list.

[Minoa]

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-googl ... SKBN16U1O1

As you may be aware, there has been an escalation of advertising boycotts against YouTube, in response to concerns that their ads may have appeared on channels and videos that contain homophobic and anti-Semitic content.

Earlier this month, I stated in this post that I reported a bunch of Judaism-hating videos that denied the Holocaust and so on, and YouTube did nothing. Add the horrendous comments in (mostly from politics-related videos) and you can see why advertisers are concerned.

Now, be it clear that I am entirely in favour of freedom of expression, but freedom stops when it starts to negatively affect the rights of others. Freedom of expression was clearly done with constructive discussion in mind, and not an excuse to vilify certain ethnic groups.

How far will YouTube try to resist the understandable pressure?

[Immoren]

I use Opera at home. Apparently I'm in minority. XD

Forget discussing internet browsers for a minute, nearly all of the browsers are "good enough" these days for web surfing. What I'd like to know is what ISPs are available in your location and are you happy with the service you pay for? Unless you're piggybacking off of someone else's connection such as a business' wireless, ultimately someone is paying for the privilege of internet access.

The only choices where I live is strictly between cable and DSL. If you want faster internet, you have to go with cable. With only one cable provider, they really have the leverage to charge you more and give less. For 15 mbps, you need to shell out $40/month. With DSL, 10 mbps is going for $35/month. Most plans I see, come with a monthly data cap of around 1 TB.

The bandwidth limit, I can live with. But the pricing is more expensive than I'd like. Some locations I've researched, seem to have better prices because there is more competition but more rural places seem to be worse off in that regard. How is the ISP market in your location?

I pay 18.37USD for unlimited 100mbps connection, provided in by my landlord organization in co-operation with local ISP. One thing I'm going to miss once I move away.

[Saiwania]

I've recently become aware of this exciting new internet technology called G.fast- a potential replacement for DSL, which loses up to 90% of its signal before reaching it's destination. In contrast, this new protocol only loses 5 to 10% of signal. Best of all, this is capable of using existing copper infrastructure but can reach speeds of 750 Mbps. A major boost for telephone companies.

For a long long time, it simply wasn't possible for phone lines to deliver speeds anywhere comparable to cable internet, but this could potentially be a game changer in that copper might be somewhat competitive over fiber once again.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/16/technol ... et-speeds/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-this-a ... broadband/

Now the main question is, will it be happening anytime soon, if so- where and on what time scale? I don't think US ISPs will have much incentive to do this for at least 5 years if not a decade. And in the case of a less populated place like where I'm at- I think it could well be 20 years before I see any glimpse of that type of internet service.

[Industrial Republics]

I've recently become aware of this exciting new internet technology called G.fast- a potential replacement for DSL, which loses up to 90% of its signal before reaching it's destination. In contrast, this new protocol only loses 5 to 10% of signal. Best of all, this is capable of using existing copper infrastructure but can reach speeds of 750 Mbps. A major boost for telephone companies.

For a long long time, it simply wasn't possible for phone lines to deliver speeds anywhere comparable to cable internet, but this could potentially be a game changer in that copper might be somewhat competitive over fiber once again.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/16/technol ... et-speeds/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-this-a ... broadband/

Now the main question is, will it be happening anytime soon, if so- where and on what time scale? I don't think US ISPs will have much incentive to do this for at least 5 years if not a decade. And in the case of a less populated place like where I'm at- I think it could well be 20 years before I see any glimpse of that type of internet service.

For consumer endpoints? I don't see it happening in a long while, honestly. AT&T might utilize it for business connections, but they've been heavily, heavily pushing to get out of the copper game for a few years now. They've been wanting to be done with copper installations for a long ass time.

[Saiwania]

For consumer endpoints? I don't see it happening in a long while, honestly. AT&T might utilize it for business connections, but they've been heavily, heavily pushing to get out of the copper game for a few years now. They've been wanting to be done with copper installations for a long ass time.

What else would AT&T be doing? They're sitting on a legacy network which was put into the ground up to 100 years ago, that has newer sections added to it in a patchwork manner.

The appeal of G.fast is that it supposedly costs much less than deploying fiber. Fiber from one street to one building, can cost up to $100,000. G.fast- only $70,000 and there is no rewiring necessary for buildings. The protocol can allegedly run over dinosaur wiring which already exists in the typical home or business. XG.fast which is the successor to G.fast, can allegedly deliver speeds of up to 10 Gbps over phone lines.

I don't doubt that ISPs will be slow to take advantage of either technology, but from my standpoint- it could be a golden opportunity for phone companies to steal consumers away from cable internet and have them using their DSL based services instead.

[Gim]

I find Chrome most suitable for playing NS or any other Internet game. In addition, Chrome works the fastest when visiting Google or Google-related sites.

[Gristol-Serkonos]

I may dislike the telecommunications monopoly here in Canada, but damn... I love their fiber internet.

[95X]

(OT: ooh, I'm not the first person from my region to notice this thread!)

To start off the thread, a poll for the ultimate question of the Internet, or at least one of them: which Internet Browser do you regularly use?

GNU IceCat!

I personally hate social media: aside from privacy concerns, there is so much s—t posting and fakery, and many users have accused social media sites of 'doing the bare minimum' to address it, with little to no positive effect. It is no surprise that idealised representations of other people's lives, real or not, may cause increased feelings of exclusion.

What do you think of social media? How has social media affected you if you use it?

I can honestly say I tried it and didn't like it. Seriously, all the major "social media" services could vanish into thin air tomorrow and I'd be okay. And, those who know me personally and I want to hear from on a regular basis have my phone number and/or real e-mail address.

Personally, I dislike social media, but as a marketing professional I also recognize its massive value (data data data!).

I will say that if someone is selling a product and/or service, then it makes sense for one-way information. Also, I believe that comments on niche websites claiming a product/service is inferior to another product/service simply make the latter look worse.

Opinions on net neutrality for a future poll, perhaps?

Here's my take on it, no poll needed: it's been discussed on consumer websites as access to one website over another (as examples: an ISP could place a restrictive cap of a certain number of gigabites of general internet use, however access to certain sites don't count towards that cap; an ISP could prioritize connections to certain websites over others).

What I really see net neutrality about: ADS! Take here on NS for example, when someone visits the game or the forum their browser connects to not only to NS but also Google's ad service, which then connects to whatever ad based on whatever reason.

Let's say I'm an ISP or a website and I stand to make money off having some irritating HD video and audio play several times before the actual content of the page loads, while promoting that the user can instead pay a certain amount of money and let the content load instantly. Obviously in that case since money would be made ISPs and websites don't want net neutrality.

As far as adblocking goes, yes, I use it.

[Legod]

I use chrome.

I barely use social media, but my career is one that relies on networking, so I do have to maintain some social media presence. So I have facebook and instagram, and I don't post at all on facebook, but I try to update instagram every so often with pictures of current projects, etc, basically personal brand focused.