Other side of Internet...

As we all know, every technology has its own advantages and disadvantages. It is usually a risk-benefit tradeoff that populates a technology for widespread adoption. A while back, I watched the tamil movie "Boys"... Comedian Senthil plays a role where he has a list of all the temples and what will be served at various times in a day for the entire year. Long story short (assuming you all have seen the movie), Senthil will say that "Information is Power". If internet can provide every conceivable information you need, imagine the "power" you acquire. But, there is another side to it too...everyone in the system acquire power, the good and the bad...

I think that information revolution is slowly marching towards its pinnacle. That said, I feel that security of such information is not. Most of our information is available online. Websites like zabasearch.com can give a history of all your previous address with phone numbers and even birth dates. Google maps can pinpoint the address that you live in through their satellite picture. Sites like www.maps.a9.com can give you pictures of your roads (not the top-view like google, this is the regular view as if we were to walk on those roads). All these information, out in the public, sorted and documented. To be fair, sites like http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov gives the database of sex offenders in your neighbourhood with address and picture (california only, for other states, goto sexoffender.com and click on appropriate state). You will be surprised with the results. As I have written earlier, most of the websites you visit inject a cookie/spyware programs in your computer to monitor all kinds of transactions that you do. If you use one of those free spyware tools like http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/, you will know how many programs are running on your PC that you are not aware of. I hope I scared you guys enough... But, it is actually true.

I recently heard of this concept called positive sandwich. If you have to say something that could provoke bad feelings, apparently, it would be good if it is preceded and succeeded by a good note. This way, it will reduce the impact of the bad note. Let me try...If you belong to the group of people who dont check their credit history atleast once in a year, here is a good news for you. If you go to www.annualcreditreport.com, you can get your credit reports from all the 3 credit bureau for *free*. You can get a free report once every year. Do check it up and look out for any suspicious activities or credit card/bank accounts that you are not aware of. Information is Power. And to those who feed on information to cause disruption, information translates to "Evil Power" and aids the dark side...:)