Joy To The World?

by Bob Seidel

I was talking to my contact at the State Port Pilot, Laura Kimball, about a column for the Christmas week paper. I happened to mention that the paper probably wouldn't print what I REALLY wanted to say about a lot of things, warning her that I was a conservative, misanthropic curmudgeon by nature (thankfully balanced by my wife). But, Laura gave me a bit of encouragement to go on, so perhaps I will peek out of my shell a little bit.

I read a really excellent column yesterday in Computer Shopper by John Dvorak. He advanced the theory that there was a correlation between the downfall of the dot.com revolution and Beanie Babies. He pointed out, as we all knew, that Beanie Babies were mass-produced in China and had really no actual value. But the marketing hype surrounding them was picked up by the public in general and aided to a great extent by the Internet and Ebay-type auctions. People really thought that these things were investments, and drove the price up to ridiculous heights before the collapse. It was all a con, on the grandest scale.

In a similar manner, there were a lot of people in the dot.com era who thought they can sell junk on the Internet, sometimes even charging prices higher than what you would pay locally and giving far worse service, if any service at all. Private investors and companies funded these efforts with billions of dollars - they were mostly get rich schemes. Ebay and similar auction sites are hotbeds of scams and schemes - I don't use them and, if you do, I recommend that you be very careful as to what you buy and how you pay. But, behind every scam is a person who probably knows what they are doing, and that they are hurting other people.

Which brings us to the Internet in general. Blessing or curse? The Internet has literally tied the world together, and made vast amounts of information easily available. E-mail has replaced the Post Office - when was the last time you actually sent a personal letter to someone? We can communicate easily and quickly with family and friends, no matter where they are. We have access to news, literature, sports, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and almost anything you could want to know.

On the other hand, the Internet has become a forum, communications tool, and resource for every hate group, subversive organization, and twisted government in the world. Most of you don't surf to some of the hate group websites, but what you see there is really terrible stuff. And I won't even mention the pornography.

Our new enemies use the Internet to gather information and to communicate. And, don't think that our vast technological knowledge can monitor this. Using steganographic techniques, it's almost impossible to monitor or decipher hidden messages. (Steganography is the art of hiding a message within a message. For example, taking a photo of a written message. It's almost impossible for a computer to determine that the photo contains a message, or what the text of the message is, unless you knew beforehand that that image contained a message. And there are even far more devious techniques than that.)

The far right wing would probably close down or monitor the Internet if it could - or at least sever connections to other countries - and the far left would defend the rights of people to free use of the Internet to the bitter end. Where is it all going to go?

What it all boils down to, is that individual people have to do what they believe is right. And in the spirit of this holiday season, make a resolution to bring your measure of peace to the world - stay away from those hate websites, don't try to make a killing selling "seconds" on Ebay as first quality merchandise, and perhaps think twice when investing in Beanie Babies.

I wish all of us a Joyous and Peaceful New Year. Now, I will climb back into my shell…

(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).