Category Archives: Technology

Citizen journalism about technology

Incentivized Free Websites

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The web is the fastest way to get rid of your money whilst trying to get rich. Your eyes are assaulted by pulsating, jumping, spinning images. Your ears ache from the carnies’ harshly shrill inducements. Sign up now! Special offer, today only! Quick, only 20 hours left! Only 31 kits/packages/programs left. I used to be broke. Here’s a picture of my mansion, my sports car, my boat. Step right up! Everyone’s a winner! Look at my bank account! See my gorgeous wife and happy, smiling kids. You can do it too! One time sign –up offer. And that’s not all! See the essential free gifts you’ll get! How can you lose? Don’t navigate away from this site! Buy now or sink into impoverishment and obscurity.

Don't Become a Victim of Incentivized Freebie Websites, Photo by mburtch, Flickr

Don't Become a Victim of Incentivized Freebie Websites, Photo by mburtch, Flickr

And that’s the polite scripts. Some of them sound positively creepy, delighting in detailing, verbatim, what they said to their bosses when they quit to live the millionaire lifestyle. Some exaggerate, some outright lie. They’ll do whatever it takes to get you type in that credit card number.

After the prospective investor has survived the initial onslaught of those shrillest of barkers, he starts to see that there may really be some systems out there that seem plausible, if not perfect. Usually the catch is that to get rich quick, you have to be online steadily, 23/6. But with Incentivized Free Websites, people do gain rewards and some claim to live well on the proceeds.

When someone visits an Incentivized Free Websites, he’s eligible for a reward. No, not a million dollars, but a small amount of cash, or a prize that he can sell. So theoretically it is possible to pull in cash from these websites. The problem is that the advertisers who provide the incentive are somewhat savvy. They have to protect themselves from low quality traffic, that being traffic that loads up on free stuff before disappearing into cyberspace. So a person may feel as though the advertisers are mainly out to get their credit card number and email address. And Yes! They are.

On many of these sites there are opportunities to get wads of cash. That sounds great, right? But to get the cash a person must complete offers. And you’d better hire a lawyer before signing up for offers. “Free Trial” sounds great. But when the Incentivized Free Websites customer fills in his information there is usually a demand for the Credit Card number. That’s for shipping they tell you. Shipping? $1.95 to send me an e-book? $18.00 by regular mail, if you prefer.

If a person doesn’t read the terms and conditions with a magnifying glass, he may find that his “Free Trial” was only for 3 days. After that, they’ll oblige the customer by charging his Credit Card a small monthly fee of $80.00 or so. By accepting the free trial, you authorized the advertiser to start charging you the regular monthly rate, after the free trial is over. The person doing the offer in order to get the gift must notify the advertiser if he doesn’t want to take advantage of the product. But is this ethical?

Are people taking advantage of the system by doing offers to get a prize? It depends on the customer’s intention. If he’s out to defraud the advertiser and has no intention of giving the product even a brisk try, then his scruple-checker is malfunctioning. But if he confines himself to offers which interest him, and which he may want to continue with, his conscience will be clear. He is then well within his rights to cancel his membership and to be exempt from further charges, if the offer doesn’t suit him.

Like most net based schemes, Incentivized Free Websites are a morass of small print and big promises. Are you brave enough to try one?

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5 Tips for Blogging in a Developing Country

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Social networking is providing never-before-seen glimpses into developing countries. Before, information about current events was limited to international media networks or first-hand experience. With the rise of social networking, including blogging, the rest of the world has a more complete picture of life and events there.

But you can’t tell your story if you don’t have the tools. Here are five tips for bloggers living in or traveling through developing countries.

Blogging on the Go is Easier with a Laptop, Photo by Anonymous Account, Flickr

Blogging on the Go is Easier with a Laptop, Photo by Anonymous Account, Flickr

1. Have Your Own Gear and be Prepared

Don’t rely on others and don’t count on having access to computers. Get your own wireless-enabled device (like a netbook or mini-laptop). It’s easier to find a wireless connection than to find an open computer in an internet café, library, or other public place. Plus, you won’t have a time limit or have to fight with other people who are waiting on you. Make sure you have an extra battery and a charger adapter (if needed).

2. Hang Out in Expensive Hotels

In many developing countries, only the fanciest hotels have a WiFi. Luckily, you don’t have to stay in one to enjoy the benefits of their connection. Check in to a gueshouse within your budget and then head out to a bar of an expensive hotel with your laptop in tow. Buy an inexpensive beverage and enjoy their WiFi while “patronizing their bar”.

3. Use Unsecured Connections

Unsecured wireless connections can be found everywhere, including developing countries. Even in this day and age, it’s amazing how many people just plug in their wireless router and without setting it thoroughly up, broadcast free wifi to the world. Mentally thank them for their contribution and fire up your laptop.

4. Copy-Paste

You don’t need an internet connection to blog – you only need it to post on your blog.

Write your thoughts beforehand – on the bus, plain, canoe, or wherever you are. When you finally have an internet connection, all you need to do is copy-paste your words. This is a far more efficient use of your time (and connection) than waiting until you have the internet to start brainstorming your blog topic.

5. Hide Your Gear

You can’t tell your story if you don’t have the tools – so take precautions to avoid getting robbed. Don’t carry a computer case. Instead, have a bag or some other kind of tote that doesn’t look like it’s intended for carrying laptops. At the same time, make sure nothing else – such as cables and adapters – give you out. Many would be robbers only risk taking a move at your belongings because they have no doubt the pull would land them a laptop. Shoddy bags that look like they’re full of stinky underwear don’t attract attention of robbers.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” so plan ahead to keep from being electronically stranded. The poorer a country, the more attention your gadgets attract. Blogging in developing countries doesn’t have to be any more difficult than blogging in the developed world, just don’t make yourself an easy victim and take advantage of many available wireless networks and you’re in the game.

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5 Disasters to End the World

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Why are we fascinated by apocalyptic stories? For some reason, we’re horrified and yet drawn to end-of-the-world scenarios. Here are five possible ways our planet will meet its doom.

Earth Tilt

Diagram of Earth's Axial Tilt, Image by Dna-webmaster, Wikipedia

Diagram of Earth's Axial Tilt, Image by Dna-webmaster, Wikipedia

Doomsday meteors have been part of our world’s myths forever. But what if a meteor hit earth that wasn’t large enough to cause complete devastation – but just big enough to change the tilt of the earth’s axis? Our solar system is very delicate balance: every body exerts a gravitational pull on every other body. If our planet’s axis shifts just a bit, it would soon wobble completely out of control, spinning towards the sun, the moon, another planet, or simply off into space. Not to mention the melting of the ice caps and death of nearly living thing in the interim.

Super Volcanic Eruption

Yellowstone Caldera - Supervolcano That Could End the World, Photo by Ed Austin/Herb Jones, US National Park Service

Yellowstone Caldera - Supervolcano That Could End the World, Photo by Ed Austin/Herb Jones, US National Park Service

Supervolcanoes are relatively new to scientists. There are only five known in the world. When the last supervolcano erupted in Indonesia in 1815, it changed the entire climate of the region, caused massive devastation, and killed nearly everyone in the area. That supervolcano is dwarfed by the one underneath Yellowstone National Park in California. Scientists predict when that volcano erupts, it will trigger the eruption of all the other supervolcanoes and a number of smaller ones. In other words, our planet will be one massive lava pool.

Nuclear Annihilation

Mushroom Cloud of the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, Image Source: US National Archives

Mushroom Cloud of the Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, Image Source: US National Archives

Although the possibility of everyone dying in a nuclear winter seems remote, it wasn’t too long ago that it was a plausible scenario. The Zone of Alienation surrounding Chernobyl offers a chilling glimpse of what life after nuclear holocaust would look like. There are still nuclear warheads around the world unaccounted for, and terrorism is on the rise. Those quaint bomb drills of the 1960s don’t seem quite so antiquated now, do they?

Freeze to Death

Could Global Freezing Turn Whole World Into a Place Like Lake Fryxell in Antarctica? Photo by Joe Mastroianni, US National Science Foundation

Could Global Freezing Turn Whole World Into a Place Like Lake Fryxell in Antarctica? Photo by Joe Mastroianni, US National Science Foundation

There are two ways this scenario could come to pass. One is that our sun will eventually fizzle out. As it dies, our world will be become colder and colder, until eventually all life will die away. The other is that global warming will melt the ice caps, disrupting the natural heating and cooling flows of the planet. The results would be largely the same, but global warming would be much more likely to occur in our lifetime.

Biohazard

Could a Biological Disaster Bring Upon the End of the World as We Know It? Photo by William Rafti Institute, Wikipedia

Could a Biological Disaster Bring Upon the End of the World as We Know It? Photo by William Rafti Institute, Wikipedia

We may all die from an epidemic, triggered naturally or released by terrorists. There could be any number of diseases spread, from the mundane to the truly horrifying. Where nuclear wars were the fear of the Cold War, bio-terrorism is the fear in our era.

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