There are many perspectives on using the internet. “Safety” on the net is front and center followed by the social impacts of internet usage with privacy concerns taking a lower, but steadily climbing position. Most books, articles, social commentary and even site privacy policies look at these issues from the perspective of the end user. Most media are focused on protecting each of us from one-another. There are site controls allowing one user to dictate what other users of the site can or cannot see of their information posted to the Internet. There are virus and malware protection softwares to keep out internet users that would indirectly invade another user's computer. Router hardware designed to keep out others that would attempt to get directly into another persons computer are in most homes now. Everyone from psychologists to alarmed parents are publishing some opinion on the dangers of the addictive and longstanding social impacts the network can have when used as a social life augmentation tool. Emerging now are opinions on the intrusiveness of corporate and government entities into our lives through the arguably illegal, and certainly unethical, harvesting of personal information from the internet.
In this book I rely on my 30 years of experience working in the computer industry, starting on mainframes and punchcards and evolving through the roles of accomplished network engineer, database administrator, software programmer, systems administrator and large systems performance analyst. My intention is to explain the most important, but least understood aspect of the internet, how the net works against those who use it and to the benefit of those who are building the rendition of it. This book is not a tome of paranoid conspiracy theories, but rather an explanation for how the technology evolution initiated by necessity and propelled by passion for innovation is becoming misguided by greed feeding on the justifiable naivete of the general populace. I also go further than simply sounding the alarm bells in the “Understanding The Map” section, but also provide insights for how to distinguish the hazardous from the helpful on the net in the “Fueling Up” section. Finally, in “Changing Course” I explain how to avoid the cited problems through means already available, though seldom recognized or understood.
I often say, as an obvious exaggeration, that “given a hammer, a saw and a screwdriver I could build a house, but give me a wrench and I'll only hurt myself.” I've done quite a bit to build and remodel the places we've lived in, but any time I try to work on a car I only seem to make things worse. America and the world around is full of talented people going about applying the skills they know best, but they don't know anything more about computers and the internet than it takes to operate them. Just like me going to a mechanic, the technically naive; those who can use their technology, but don’t understand the ramifications of its use, are ripe to be taken advantage of in this technology driven aspect of their lives. Unfortunately, unlike the mechanic who can only rip off the folks in his local community, the architects of the greatest con games the world has ever seen have global access across the Internet.
Whatever one may think of his politics Al Gore, an American Senator and Vice President, is credited with putting forth one of the great buzzword phrases of the modern age when he called the Internet the, “Information Superhighway.” My goal is not to be an alarmist and warn everyone off using technology, directing them to the nearest exit off the Information Superhighway, or “I-Way” as it has also been called. I am in fact a huge fan of technology, technology used properly. My goal is to educate people with the information they need to know without a bunch of technospeak. My biggest and most important goal is to get people out of the chauffeured vehicles delivering them directly to the charlatans they falsely trust simply for not knowing better. It is my intention to teach the Internet Superhighway rules of the road to anyone willing to listen, that they may drive themselves where they truly want, or need, to go.