Laptop Computers

[OakLeaf]

did anyone read about how offers change depending on the web browser you use?.

Not just your browser, but everything. Location (easy, from your IP address), content of your posts, everything they can correlate about your demographics from the above-referenced data mining. That's why Facebook and Google are worth so much money.

[Roadtrip]

Not just your browser, but everything. Location (easy, from your IP address), content of your posts, everything they can correlate about your demographics from the above-referenced data mining. That's why Facebook and Google are worth so much money.

Your IP is always going to be viable to the server your hitting when requesting a web page (they need to know where to return the request) and yes, a simple report can show that to the server owners, so it's really easy to see where your viewers are. If you enter your private information in the browser settings, yes, that info can be crawled by the server and captured.

NEVER put your information into the browser properties.

ALWAYS assume that anything you put out on the internet is just as good as placing an avert in the local paper.

As to why Google is worth so much money, they developed a very simple (easy to use) tool, with a powerful back-end that indexed and crawled the internet so that finding information was more intuitive. People flocked to the site and Google started to monetize it... ever do a web search for "Car Loan" and all of a sudden your seeing tons of ads for Car Ins, Lending Tree, eLoan, etc? That's how Google makes it's money, by charging a higher rate for ads because they can target you and the advertiser knows his ad is being see by a more interested demographic.

Think of a billboard and if you had the ability to know the demographics of the person walking by who would read that billboard. If you knew how they voted in the last election, how many kids, relationship status, what hobbies or special interests they might have. If you knew they were an avid biker, the LBS would likely pay a premium to get his advertisement seen by that demographic group, right?

Same thing goes on on a broader level all the time. Ever notice how those Lottery Jackpot billboards always are placed in poorer neighborhoods and the luxury car billboards are conveniently located near the mall or affluent communities?

Facebook is just evil and looks the other way while advertisers scrape the data of you and ALL your friends any time play a game or interact with a part of the site. Not all advertisers do this, but Zynga is the biggest and has made millions (and likely paid Facebook a good chunk too), while they collect data on you and your friends every move. Oh and yea, if one of your FB friends inadvertently opens up the private data cookie jar, because your linked as friends, your private information is out in the wild now too.

Shannon

[smilingcat]

Soo where are the internet explore based cell phones?? I think it would be really funny if someone were to write a hack to jail break all those cell phones out there ahem I would like a jail broken iPhone... I would like to use the iPhone on pay as you go plan with virgin mobile and use their flat rate 3G network.

No I don't use IE, I use firefox on Linux box. Less malware to contend with on Linux box. If you were a hacker, I think you would target an easy prey like those using IE. One can safely assume that those using IE are less sophisticated than those using Firefox, Chrome, Opera...

A bug in Windows 7 office suite: You need a service pack 3 to fix this ugly bug!! Well this is what I was told. Remember, I hate windows so I try my best to be a ignoramous when it comes to Windows.

If you create a graph in Excel spreadsheet and paste it into word document and print, sometimes the graph line will disappear and nothing you can do about it.

And when I tried to paste several different graphs into word, it literally froze up my computer (work computer).

I hate windows.

Linux anyone??? Cute Penguin for a mascot! He is very charming BTW

[moonfroggy]

linux is pretty cool. i used linux and nothing but for about 8 years. i have ben to lazy to install it on my current mac though. if my library would let me download audiobooks and ebooks in linux it would be installed but i need to be booted into mac to do that and a few other things.

[itself]

I am also looking for a netbook/small laptop. What I struggle with is the fact that many computers only "seem" to have a life of about 3-5 years.

So the new Macbook Pro is $1200. At Best Buy, you can get into a netbook for about $400. Samsung is making some really great netbooks, as is Toshiba, Acer, and Eec.

[NbyNW]

I am also looking for a netbook/small laptop. What I struggle with is the fact that many computers only "seem" to have a life of about 3-5 years.

Yep. That's why AppleCare is such a good idea. I have a 2006 MacBook Pro and the motherboard failed just a month shy of my AppleCare expiring. They replaced it, free of charge. Thankfully I did not lose any data. I'm usually good about making backups, but had gotten a bit lazy a few months prior.

I know I can automate backing up my computer, but a few years ago I was having trouble deciding between a remote server or an external hard drive. Maybe a good idea to revisit this!

[OakLeaf]

I know you know (and I don't do both, either ) but technically, you shouldn't "choose between" onsite and offsite backup - you really need both to be secure in case of theft, fire or flood, and yet have your backups most quickly accessible in case of a garden variety hard-drive failure.

I'm sure there's a level at which technology is rolled out more slowly than it ought to be, but honestly, I see more of the opposite (companies rolling out new technology that isn't quite ready for prime time). So I don't know that obsolescence in the computer world is really planned - I think it's more that technology is just marching on at an ever-quicker pace ... remember Moore's Law (yeah, I had to look it up to remember the name )? (The good news is that according to a cNet article cited in that Wikipedia article, the growth is expected to slow in a few more years.)