I don't know how strong that elastic is but I am confident that the female dancing on it has complete faith that the men off to the side will save her if need be.

The Door

A door that takes a person in circles, or is it a wall. An interesting flash animation with a unique way of delivering a message.

Following Lines

An animation with lines moving around the circle in the center. This animation can also create amazing patterns which grow as you move your mouse away from the circle. A unique and inviting way to past time.

Crazy Rabbit

Give your mouse to this rabbit and it will hang on like a rabbit when it gets a carrot. An animation that bring together flash and interactivity right to your web browser.

Getting Across A Cliff

It may not be Christmas, but don't try to jump across a cliff with a trampoline or Santa may come by and get in your way. Also remember he knows if you've been bad or good.

The internet has rocketed forwards and what we once thought to be a great achievement of modern day technology has now become the dinosaur, yes a thing of the past. Businesses are being created and ran from home using computers and web sites all by means of this wonderful modern day technological advancement called the internet. The internet has bridged the gap and has eliminated the walls and miles that separate so many. With but a click of the mouse you can join and inform the entire world of news in a nana second. You can start your cam and within but a very few moments see your friends and talk with them almost as if you were sitting in their room with them.

If I were asked though what the internet has done for me and how has it changed my life? I would have to say, it has helped me to help others as well as myself. It has given me yet another family of great new friends. Friends that are always willing to sit and talk. Friends that share parts of their hearts with me that no other has seen. It has given me my life mate. It has taken me to all four corners of the world; giving me the tools and the means to see and reach deep into the hearts and mindsets of others. The internet has also brought me together with people of like mind and by doing so it has helped me to move forward on the walk of life I've chosen.

It has helped me to research many things and to catalog the results of my research. Yes, the internet has shown me that great endings often have small beginnings. It has become an ongoing educational part of my life and has helped me pass on the knowledge of my lifetime and the lessons I've learned along the way. Yes, for me the internet is a wonderful new concept.

Complex passwords make the cracking of your personal data by a hacker far more difficult and everyone who has even one online account must have them. A complex password is critical to online security. A complex password is different from a regular password in that it makes full access of all keyboard numbers, symbols and letters. A complex password is a strong password that is much more secure.

Creating Strong Complex Passwords 

1. Think of a sentence like:” My brown dog Ralph has 7 fleas.” Then the password could be MbdRh7f. This is a strong complex password and it won't be as hard to remember since it is connected to a sentence.
2. Intermix capital letters with numbers.
3. Avoid your name or screen name in the password.
4. Always use numbers, symbols, upper and lowercase letters in passwords.
5. The length of the password should be from 12-14 letters. The more symbols the higher the security strength.
6. Do not use passwords that are dictionary words, numbers or letter sequences, or names and dates.

Weak Passwords

1.  Using a wordlist with a number: “jet2008”, “forest1234” etc.
2. Using words such as: “password”, “computer”, “admin” etc.
3. Using identifying words like “tomsmith1234” or phone numbers.
4. Using sequencing letters or numbers on the keyboard: “asdfg1234” etc.
5. Using double words: “spiderspider, antant, dogdog” etc.
6. Using words with simple changes: “d0g”, “11ikeit” etc.
7. Using dictionary words like “camouflage”, “habitat,” "oyster” etc.
8. Using different passwords in each situation. This way if a criminal cracks your password they don"t have all your information on every account of which you subscribe.
9. Do not use shared computers to access your accounts. These include computers that are open to the public at internet cafes, kiosks and libraries.
10. Laptop computers may be less secure as you use them in different places, so make sure your laptop has strong passwords.
11. A weak password is better than no password but still not a good idea. It might deter a criminal for a few minutes, but not for too long.
12. Remember do not incorporate clever patterns into your passwords even though they are easy for you to remember. If they are easy for you to remember, they will be easy for someone to figure out.

Password protection is very important. Most security experts agree that you should never write down your password and keep the information in an easily accessible area. If you must write down your passwords then store the information it in a very safe place with your other valuables.

Another idea is to develop a code that will jar your memory so you can remember the password. This way the password in code won't make any sense to anyone but you. Also don't store your passwords online or reveal them to others through email requests or by telephone.

Always keep your passwords secret and change them ever 90-120 days. Always keep track of your banking accounts and monitor them regularly for changes you did not make.

Passwords are only as effective as the humans that create them. Even the best technology and Internet security is vulnerable to human error. So don't go online without your complex passwords!

Step 1: Build a "Resume Web Page" that Impresses Clients, not other Designers

The first and most important site in your portfolio is your own. Don't put this off: many of the designs you complete in order to do steps 2-5 will link back to this webpage. As a web designer, you don't necessarily hand out a resume, you will always hand out a link to a resume web page-a web page that will showcase your skills as a web designer, a web page that persuades a client to decide to pay you hundreds or thousands of dollars.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of this next point: design for an ordinary person, not other designers. Ask your parents or non-geek friends what they think of your designs. Professional web designers have somewhat cultivated, unique tastes that differ from the tastes of the people to whom you will be pitching your design skills.

Your showcase webpage should ideally:

• Be a functional webpage that a small business owner would feel is not overly flowery or unprofessional;
• Should avoid trends that the average business owner might not have the background necessary to appreciate, like minimalist web designs;
  
• Contain a "contact me" link;
• Contain a link to different WebPages in your portfolio. A link to "examples to my work" is better than a link to "my portfolio": a surprising number of clients may not understand the concept of a web design portfolio!

Step 2: Develop a Professional Portfolio by Submitting Your Work to Third-Party Websites

Once you have an appropriate web page, develop a portfolio by submitting pages to websites that distribute web design templates, often for free.

Submitting your designs to these pages affords you two main benefits:

1. Usually, the designer is permitted to leave a discrete link back to his webpage. The link shouldn't be too obvious, and should ordinarily be located at the bottom of the page, next to the copyright information. This allows anyone impressed with your design to easily locate you-and offer to buy your work. This will also improve the ranking of your search engine.
2. Once your themes are in use, you can link to them from your portfolio, and even tell prospective clients that your work has been used in literally dozens or hundreds of websites. If an end-user modifies your work, be sure to mention that fact.

So, where exactly should you submit your work? Here are some reasonably busy websites that will garner your work some attention:

• Free Site Templates: A good collection of workman-like websites that ordinary, paying clients might find impressive. Includes websites for: Web Hosting, Education, Industrial, and Café and Restaurants.
• Free CSS: Has the highest standards, features CSS showcase templates. But these templates aren't so ‘artsy' that a client would think them to be useless.
• Template Navigator: Allows you to link to your website, where you make the download available to visitors.

Content Management Systems

An often overlooked means of building a portfolio is by offering a web design for use with any of the various Content Management Systems. Most CMS systems have an active user base eager to use your free theme-and willing to properly credit you with a link.

For instance, Joomla's forums offer links to free website themes that are customized for Joomla. And, there are innumerable galleries offering free Wordpress themes. A successful WordPress theme can be used by hundreds of people, or more. A good example is wpthemesfree.com, which gladly accepts submissions from designers looking to make a name for themselves and build up a portfolio.

Step 3: Website Showcases: Websites about Websites

Website showcases are websites about websites. Typically, they feature screenshots of particularly good web designs, which designers review for inspiration and education. Some showcases feature hundreds of websites.

Potential clients are impressed when they learn that your web designs have been featured in a website showcase. They don't need to know how easy it is-some showcases will feature just about any reasonably well-designed website.

Here are some showcase websites that are willing to consider new designers, and which are not unreasonably selective. Click on the "submit" menu option to submit your design. It takes no more than 30 seconds, and the worst that can happen is that your website will be rejected.

• CSS Smooth Operator
  
• CSS Flavor
  
• eduStyle
• The Best Designs
• CSS Bloom
  

A more comprehensive resource is CSS Gallery List. It contains links to many top CSS galleries'' submission pages. You can send your work all over the internet in only half an hour!

Step 4: Working Directly For Clients

Now that you have a website and a portfolio you can point to, it's time to work directly with clients. This is, no doubt about it, the most difficult part of being a web designer. Many people have the technical skills required to design a website, but far fewer are able to successfully attract business.

The best place to find work as a web designer is (predictably) on the web.

• Script Lance is a good place to begin working directly for clients-these are less expensive projects. There is a wide variety of projects available for you to bid on. Since you have a solid portfolio by now, there's no need to offer to work for an unreasonably low rate. Based on what others are offering, pick out a rate that seems fair to you, and point potential clients to your portfolio.
  
• Get a Freelancer compares to Script Lance. It offers lower paying, entry level work. The work is easier to get than on some other websites.
• Elance is arguably the best place to find high-level work as a web designer. Potential clients can see a design company's feedback rate, showing the percentage of customers who were happy with their work. A design company's earnings are also posted-and some Elance design firms have made hundreds of thousands of dollars. Paying members receive special privileges. To get work on Elance, a well developed portfolio is a must.
  
• Guru is very similar to Elance, offering the same basic set of features. As with Elance, Guru posts the earnings and approval ratings of its web designers. Presumably, many designers use both websites.
• Craigslist can be difficult to find design work on Craigslist, but some people succeed. I personally know a designer who booked a high-paying gig on Craigslist within the past month. Be warned-competition for Craigslist jobs is stiff indeed.

Where not to go: Ebay

Many people attempt to auction off web design services on EBay, and virtually none succeed.

Don't believe me?

For proof, go to EBay, log in to your account, select "Specialty Services from the menu on the left, and in the page that opens, select "Web Design." EBay will then display all the web design work up for auction.

Now, select "Completed Listings" from the yellow menu on the left, and hit the "Search" button. The listings followed by red numbers didn't sell. The listings-if you see any-followed by green numbers were purchased.

So, why do so many people auction their services on EBay? Honestly, nobody knows...but one thing is for sure: EBay is where Web Designers go to die.

Don't even waste your money on a 10 cent listing fee.

Wrapping it up

If you are willing to work hard, you can develop a career as a web designer within three or four months, or even faster. Moreover, as you follow these steps, you'll develop a reputation, and clients will contact you directly, rather than through an intermediate website. Word will spread, and eventually, the momentous day will come when you will, finally, turn down a project because, well...you have too much work.

Congratulations. You've arrived!

Gizmodo

Gizmodo is a blog from Gawker Media, and gives up to date tech news with added humor. Besides keeping you informed, you'll get a laugh or two along the way.

Engadget

Often seen as Gizmodo's direct competitor, you may see some repeat news on this site, but oftentimes they will feature science related news stories that Gizmodo may pass up on. Another great daily.

Life Hacker

This may not be 100% dedicated to gadgets and technology, but the majority of the time this website focuses on tips and tricks to get your using your computers and devices more efficiently. Great downloads and How-Tos from lifehacker.

But what about other means of communication such as phone calls, chat rooms and instant messengers, emails and talking in person? Is the high use of Facebook really because it happens to be convenient or are people becoming too lazy and rushed to take the time to write a letter or email? People add supposed “friends” to their Facebook accounts but do they treat them like friends and talk like friends do? Would the person bother to take the effort to communicate with the supposed “friend” outside of Facebook? What we're asking here is basically: is Facebook taking over the world of communication?

Facebook is becoming increasingly popular among people young and old, but especially the young. Facebook is the latest fad, and it's becoming a huge part of pop culture. This is affecting our society because the meaning of true communication is deteriorating. “Facing Facts on Facebook: Are you really over him as you think?” written by Sarah Lolley discusses how people go on Facebook for three main reasons. Reason number one is being a popularity contest which can help raise or emphasize a person's status, number two is contacting old friends and number reason three is looking up your past significant others. This article suggests that Facebook is becoming a social utility for communication among adolescents.

The article “The Virtual Cutting Edge: The Internet and Adolescent Self -Injury”, written by Janis L Whitlock, discusses the prevalence of increased internet use among adolescents. The author believes that the rate is so high in adolescence because it serves the “purpose of connecting with others” (Whitlock, 2006). This article supports the fact that adolescents are using internet as a main source of communication thus taking away from the rate of in-person communication. “More then 80% of the American youth 12 to 17 years of age use the Internet and log on daily. Research shows that however adolescents use the internet mainly for social reasons,” (Whitlock, 2006).

In another article, written by Naomi S. Baron, it is argued that computer-mediated communication does provide opportunities for adolescents to increase their social interaction. However, in the end, it's solely in the hand of parents, how they were brought up and their traditional views about communication. The author argues that if the person is grounded in their family traditions, they will not resort to using online communication systems as their main form of communication.

The chosen independent variables are females versus males and full-time students versus full-time employees. We chose females versus males because females tend to very actively socialize in crowds, especially ones which enforce conformity, whereas males, although social, tend to be more laid back regarding social networks. The hypothesis is that females will be registered with and use Facebook more then males because it used as more of a popularity contest. It also allows for more diverse communication between friends and family.
Students versus employees was chosen because students have more time and reason to access the internet. Students normally have a more active social life and have access to the internet via libraries and computer labs whereas full-time employees have the tendency of not having time or putting time towards a social life. Accessibility to leisurely internet activities may be limited to these employees as well therefore they most likely use other forms of communication including phone calls and chatting in person. Therefore, the hypothesis for full-time students versus full-time employees is that students will be more likely to be registered with and spend more time on Facebook. Students will utilize Facebook more then employees because most students are young and are familiar with technology and online communication.

In this research study, a full-time student is defined as any respondent who is a registered student at Loyalist College and is taking over half of the required courses within the semester. We defined a full-time employee as any respondent who is working at least 30 to 40 hrs a week.

Fortunately for this research project, use of a questionnaire was chosen over other methods (interviews, etc) for being cheaper and because conducting them takes less time. General disadvantages of conducting questionnaires include possible irrelevance of the topic being researched to those being questioned, the inability to generalize the results, misinterpretation of questions by the participants and the possibility that respondents could record fake answers. Also, the use of questionnaires can have the inability to appeal to certain groups in society including seniors, children and the handicapped.

In our questionnaire, we used dichotomous questions including “your gender: male or female”, “are you a: full-time student or full-time employee” and “do you check your Facebook account daily: yes or no”. Dichotomous questions are multiple choice questions where there are only two options to choose from. This allowed for us to differentiate between the people representing our independent variables. It also allowed a simple analysis regarding whether or not a majority of responding Facebook users check their accounts daily.

One multiple choice question was used, see the questionnaire (question 4), regarding how much time per week our responding Facebook users spend on Facebook itself. This gives us a more in-depth look at how relevant Facebook is in our respondents' weekly timeframes. A rank-order question was also used, see the questionnaire (question six), to determine the ranking of Facebook as a main mean of communication versus other methods including talking in person, phone calls, emails, etc.

The people studied were those who represented our independent variables. These people included and were limited to male and female full-time students and full-time employees. To reach our full-time student respondents, twenty questionnaires were conducted in the Parrot Centre of Loyalist College during regular class hours. To reach our full-time employed respondents, the remaining questionnaires were conducted during a weekday in the early afternoon at the Quinte Mall, a time when a majority of the mall workers happen to be full-time. Because we had four independent variables (male versus female and employee versus student), our goal was to have a total of twenty females and twenty males. Twenty of these would hopefully be full-time employees while the other twenty would be full-time students.

To get our sample, stratified random sampling was used. From our populations of full-time students and full-time employees, we randomly chose twenty of each using their gender as the stratifying variable. A general advantage of stratified random sampling is that one can improve how well the sample represents a population.

Collected Data

Amount of respondents registered with Facebook

Time/week spent on Facebook, whether users check it daily

Facebook's percentage of priority in communication ranking

Previously, we hypothesized that regarding males versus females, the majority of Facebook registration and use would be done by our female respondents. This hypothesis turned out to be correct. All twenty of our female respondents were registered and active on Facebook. Our questionnaire found that 85% of the females, with males standing at 82%, spend more than thirty minutes using Facebook per week.

It was also hypothesized that full-time students would be more likely to be registered and active with Facebook than full-time employees. This hypothesis also turned out to be somewhat correct. Out of our twenty responding full-time students, 95% (19/20) were registered with Facebook. With our twenty responding full-time employees, 90% (18/20) were registered with Facebook. 84% of the Facebook-using students spend more than thirty minutes per week on the website. However, more than thirty minutes are spent on Facebook by 89% of the full-time employees who are registered.

Conclusion

To elaborate on the discussion of the results' correlation with the hypothesis, out of the twenty female users, 70% of them check and spend time on Facebook on a daily basis whereas only 53% of our male respondents do so. 63% of the registered full-time students take part in Facebook activities daily compared to 61% of registered full-time employees.
Despite previous research stating a majority of youth now use the internet as one of their main means of social interaction, our own research found that a majority of our female respondents (42%) and male respondents (32%) use Facebook as their 4th most commonly used communication device. Regarding our students and employees, our full-time students prefer to use Facebook as their 3rd and 4th (tied at 32%) means of communication but our full-time employees use it as their 4th (47%) and 5th (21%) ranked means of communication. Just by looking over the completed questionnaires, we were able to see that most of our participants preferred to use more personal means of communication including talking on the phone or face-to face.

With a majority of our respondents having some sort of income or financial assistance, most of them can afford to have phone lines which could be a factor in why such personal means are preferred. Another thing is that some of them can't afford their own computers so even though there is usually easy access to computers in labs and libraries, the amount of time one can spend on Facebook, and the internet as a whole, is effected

Regarding our sampling method, one could say we cheated the stratified random selection of our sample because we made sure we had twenty students and twenty employees. Then we made sure we chose an equal amount males and females. However, we can say that there was indeed randomization because once we found our students and employees and found groups of males and females from each category; we randomly selected males and females from those gender groups.

We believe the content validity, which is concerned with the coverage quality of the covered content (i.e. how much time is spent on Facebook), is decent because we cover a wide variety of dependent variables (number of hours spent on Facebook, which methods of communication are used). During the research study as a whole, we had a great amount of inter-observer reliability. Even though Deneem and myself worked independently most of the time and had different samples (she worked with the students, I worked with the employees), we gained similar, correlating results.

With there being hundreds of students at Loyalist, a few hundred Quinte Mall employees and only a total of forty respondents in our study, it can be argued that our study lacks generalizability. If we had a larger sample of chosen students and employees, our findings would be more applicable to larger populations of students and employees.

Some limiting factors during our study included time. Different aspects of research take more time than others so with a limited amount of time; we had to be very time-orientated. We also made our own, and tried to meet, personal deadlines to ensure everything would get done within an appropriate timeframe. Another limiting factor was the availability of the people within our samples. Most of our students did not hesitate to take the time to fill out our questionnaire. With the employees, some new respondents had to be selected because some of the originally selected employees were unable to participate because of being too busy or because of rules set by their place of employment.

Ethical considerations included anonymity. With the questionnaires being anonymous, respondents would be more likely to write down truthful answers than if they had to write their name with their answers. We also gave respondents rights of privacy by not asking in-depth questions such as what exactly they do or talk about when communicating with others.

 

Websites that help your children solve science and technology assignments

Can you fairly explain how digestive system works without pictures? How about when you're asked to describe planets, plants, worms and the like? It seems very simple to do but gets complicated when you need to answer follow-up questions right? Worry no more as I listed some of the most helpful websites to serve as a reference in exploring the world of science and technology.

Popsci

The only science and technology web tutor that includes exchange of predictions on different science and technology topics. This site is best viewed with adult supervision for ready explanation on some topics like do-it-yourself science projects among others.

Nine Planetsg

As the tagline states: One star, eight planets and more. This is the definite resource for everything that you would like to know about planets. This website includes pictures, statistics, sounds, movies and other related information about planets.

Sciencentral

Sciencentral offers in-depth information on science and technology news and videos. Includes an option to receive alerts upon subscription to emails and podcasts.

Science Mag

This is the ultimate resource for highly respected science and technology journals.

Inner Body

Unlike other websites, this web portal takes you to a fun and interactive tour on human anatomy. This is a very kid friendly website which can also be used by adults as additional reference on parts of the human body.

Hhmi

A fun and practical online resource for learning everything about science for kids. Includes a list of suggestions to guide the parents in helping their kids work on some projects and appreciate learning science topics.

Visiting an online community site, led one to observe the many functions, operations, and services that are available. One can register as a member or as a guest with little information about the character of the person entering the site. Wood and Smith also agree that, “The internet allows us to determine how much of an identity we wish to display as online presentations (p. 61)”. What are so impressive about these types of sites are its chat rooms, e-messages, and discussion boards. The site also offers many links to other areas of interests. These links are avenues to the community. They are loaded with infamous information ranging from government to where to find the best of any manufacturing goods. A virtual community tends to look like a real community of a small town but not in a literal sense. The focus of this paper is only to deal with a small fragment of its virtual conception such as the composition of its activities, the function or purpose of the community, its audience, and its effectiveness of such a community. The world is getting smaller and smaller within a virtual community.

The Composition of the Activities

The composition or make-up of any online community is unique. It consists of various links which also includes sub-links. Some of these links are individually created from other entities. And, with permission, they are incorporated into the one master field. When business links are added to the system, they become networking channels for the users. It is good advertising practice. Other links serve as library of information. Not only the links must be studied but the various programs written just to get things up and running are special. Cybernetic technology is really amazing. With support, portal information, and the display of the data, gives the audience a sense of great mechanism.

An online community has multimedia use, interactive use, and hyperlinks. Each one serves as a masterpiece within the society. As a non computer expert, it leaves me with a breath of awe just to see how much information in the form of texts, images, and other stuffs that are displayed. The administrators or designers must have taken on a tremendous load of responsibility to manage a site. Perhaps, the work may have been contracted out to small computer firms in order to set up and manage portions of the site. The electronic surveillance is also a challenge. Even the communicators are part of the make-up since they are relying on the users to work the system. Since the community is just booming, there are other areas such as laws and maintaining a site that are in consideration.

Purpose or Function of the Community

The function or purpose of an online community is to tightly bond people together in a virtual world. Whether they are living close by or in other parts of the world, they are given the same opportunity to find out all the factual information or share factual information. They may request information on its government, share ideas on political matters, and have a central place to see where all the festivals or activities are scheduled. Better yet, they can talk to relatives or friends via the chat lines. It even went as far as providing discussion message board and e-mail address services just for its users by having interpersonal relations via a computer mediated communicational avenues. The purpose may be broad but knowing people on a whole especially young people, they like to party, and having such a virtual intelligence would please them. Like what the above authors said, “Using the internet should be fun (p.73)”.

The creators or administrators make sure they cover the interest in-depth with every piece of information one can find on their agendas. According to one online community of its links' messages, it is a premier source of information on all aspects of its culture. It is putting a person in touch with his or her culture. It even professes to even have goods shipped to one's door. It provides door to door services by going beyond to do shopping services for its users or registrants and have it mailed or shipped to their homes. The business of commerce is well presented. It seems as if it has made an attempt to operate like a real community where it covers business and commerce as part of a strong economy within a city.

The Type Audience It Attracts

Because of such isolation and people been busy, technology has made it possible for them to communicate with others. The cyber rat's support group has provided a way to reach these loners by creating a virtual world for them to interact and bridge them together as a unit with a common interest. Some of them are loners, while others are psychologically out of touch with their roots. Many people who have migrated have left their homeland for more than five to ten years. Some have not gotten a chance to return home but using the online community, they can stay in touch with their roots if they choose. Wood and Smith discuss the possibilities of using the online medium for therapy (p.01). With the use of an online community, it appears as if the plan is to maintain a demographic composite of population than can be achieved whether they are living abroad or not.

Another type of audience is the surfers. They are not necessary a particular group but are bystanders in a sense who happens to find the site. Most of the people who fall into this category are people who spent time on internet and just want to end up somewhere. They are encouraged to visit and perhaps become a member. Some of these top of the line hotels within a site give virtual tours. Technology has gotten so smart that one can literally sit in his or her bedroom and view several hotels before one can be committed in making reservation for a particular hotel or travel destination. Other surfers are interested in places for business opportunities and they will scour a site for that type of information. What was so surprising is when a surfer posed a question on a discussion board. He wanted to know how to obtain a visa in order to visit a particular country. An administrator responded with all the pertinent information within the same hour.

After analyzing the online site, one can also see that a hidden audience is involved. This hidden audience is the administrator(s) or netizen(s) who is constantly at work. They have made their site very attractive, and in addition, they have maintained and updated their community with new information in a timely fashion. They also police the environment so that un-welcomed behaviors do not manifest among the registrants. On the other hand, these netizens appear to be friendly as they make the citizens of such community involved with their inputs by asking them to vote in polls.

The Effectiveness of the Community

An online community is a very effective community. It utilizes its skills by building a site that accommodates just about everything. The people are exposed to all sort of knowledge. The knowledge base area is full of very important information. What makes it so effective is that a response to any idea is posted in short interval from the time the question was raised. It seems as if the system is pre-programmed with the relevant answer to a typical question. A site can be very colorful. It is saying, “Welcome, I am here for you to see”. Another way the site is effective is by having the members participating in events. It poses poll questions where one can respond. It even suggests for members to post poll questions. When a community gets a person involved, that is an excellent community. Nobody wants to be left out or ex-communicated from a society. An online community wants everyone who engaged in it to become an active participant.

The virtual support group within the system is a type of social support that meets online and encourages participant to give and receive feedback from one another. Wood and Smith say, “It is like when a family must compensate for a family death (p.17)”. In a real community, the idea is to work together as a team. Well, it is the same with an online field. People are encouraged to assist one another as team members. Such effectiveness must be applauded because it is not easy for any group of people to work and share effectively together as a team much less via a machine - the computer. Some forms of feeling and care has to be manifested during such discourse. Much can be said of its effectiveness.

Conclusion

Since the focus of this paper is only to deal with a small fragment of its virtual conception such as the composition of its online activities, function or purpose of the community, its audience, and its effectiveness of such a community, it is very important to know that a virtual community has the capabilities of a real community. Other areas are been manipulated as well. Jamaica is also making an effort to create an online community to draft Jamaicans and surfers from all over the globe. The internet has become the most powerful force with information for this cause. Wood and Smith make it clear when they state that information properly channeled can ensure that individuals will act as a unit within a framework larger than themselves (p.31). Observing and understanding of an online community has proved that the world is getting smaller and smaller within a virtual community.

The Internet (or, informally, the Net) has neither an owner nor a single individual, organization, or governmental authority controlling its contents or governing access to it. Rather, it comprises many smaller computer networks that have been linked together; costs associated with the system are paid voluntarily by those who use and maintain it. Users typically access the Internet through a computer equipped with the software and hardware necessary to permit data to be sent to and received from other computers. An Internet connection is typically established by linking the computer through a telephone or cable line or by way of wireless technology, to an Internet service provider (ISP), a company whose computers are in turn linked to the Internet's hierarchy of computer networks. Host computers, such as those of an ISP, that provide connection to the Internet or other services are known as servers. Hosts receiving those services are called clients. In many cases a computer both gives and receives services, making it a server as well as a client.

History

The Internet's origins date back to the early 1960s, when the U.S. government began considering the building of a communications system capable of withstanding large-scale disruptions, even in the event of a nuclear war. It was reasoned that the system should have no central control or authority, so that were any single part of it destroyed, the rest of the system could continue functioning. Moreover, it was agreed that the system should be designed so that even if large portions of it were knocked out of service, the remnants could keep working and that any damaged sections, once repaired, could be quickly returned to service. Ideas formed in response to these requirements focused primarily on packet switching (breaking an electronic data file into smaller units, or packets, and transmitting them separately over the system) and the automatic routing of data.

An experimental packet-switching network went into operation in the fall of 1969, connecting computers at four institutions: the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Stanford Research Institute, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The system was called the ARPANET, named after the United States Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency, which funded the experiment. By 1972 the ARPANET comprised 37 host computers spread across the United States. While the network's original purpose was to allow remote use of the few supercomputers then in existence, most of the traffic on the ARPANET soon consisted of electronic mail (e-mail) sent person-to-person or to groups of users belonging to automated mailing lists. The system came to be used therefore not only as a means of scientific collaboration but also as a facility for the discussion of topics of technical and professional concern (for example, computer network design) as well as subjects of more personal interest (such as science fiction). This continued to be the case as the ARPANET expanded through the 1970s, reaching 213 hosts by 1981.

The ARPANET initially used a communication protocol (the set of rules employed by computers when transmitting information back and forth) called the network control program (NCP). This was replaced in 1982 with the more advanced TCP/IP, actually a combination of two protocols: the Internet protocol (IP) and the transmission control protocol (TCP). The IP is used to deliver the data packets that together make up a message file, carrying them from the sender's computer to their destination across a network. Once the packets reach the intended computer, the TCP reassembles them into the complete message file. The introduction of the TCP/IP allowed the ARPANET to accommodate the seamless interconnection of many different computer networks despite variations between them in size, speed, and technology.

The military elements targeted by the original ARPANET design separated from the network in 1983, forming MILNET. In 1986 the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) launched its own network based on ARPANET technology. Connected to the ARPANET, the NSFNET was meant to enhance communication within the academic and scientific community.

Although during the 1980s rising personal computer use triggered the rapid growth of the ARPANET, in 1990 the network ceased to exist, having been officially decommissioned and replaced by a much larger one. This new network, the Internet, had evolved from a combination of a series of networks, including the NSFNET. (The Internet took its name from the previously mentioned Internet protocol.)

IP Address

Every computer on the Internet is assigned a unique number, an IP address, that enables it to receive data using the TCP/IP. When packets making up a computer file are transmitted across the Internet, each packet contains the intended recipient's (as well as the sender's) IP address, allowing the packet to find its destination.

An IP address is made up of a series of numbers that are divided into four groups, or octets, separated from each other by a decimal point (an example being 216.182.167.200). The first (and sometimes the second and third) octet of an IP address represents the network on which the host is located, and the other octets identify the host itself.

Since the late 1980s the number of hosts accessing the Internet has grown so rapidly that by 1995 a new generation of IP was designed, primarily owing to the prediction that the total number of addresses that the current IP allows would be exhausted by the year 2000. The newer IP, officially IP version 6, can provide up to 2128 addresses, a virtually infinite supply.

However, in the late 1990s, through a combination of more conservative IP address allocation and the introduction of technology permitting the reuse of addresses, the demand for additional addresses slowed. Consequently, it was predicted that conversion to IP version 6 would probably not be needed until 2010 or later.

Domain Naming System

Rather than require users to type in an IP address in order to direct e-mail to a specific host or to locate a Web page (discussed below), the Internet employs the domain naming system (DNS), which transforms IP addresses into more easily remembered words and letters. Internet hosts are assigned within the DNS to one of several basic "domains," including government (abbreviated gov), military (mil), educational (edu), commercial (com), nonprofit organization (org), network operator (net), business (biz), information service (info), cooperative (coop), museum (museum), aeronautical organization (aero), professional service (pro), and individual person (name). In addition, there are several hundred geographic domains that exist, such as Canada (ca), Japan (jp), and Antarctica (aq).

A name within a domain is appended to the front of the address, as, for example, in whitehouse.gov (for the U.S. White House), ucla.edu (for the University of California at Los Angeles), and ibm.com (for the International Business Machines Corporation). Subdomains also are commonly used, to indicate a more specific address. For example, eecs.berkeley.edu is the host for both the electrical engineering and computer sciences divisions at the University of California at Berkeley. Once a user sends an e-mail message, the Internet utilizes a domain name server to translate the DNS address back into an IP address for the network computers to read.

Uses of the Internet

Tasks performed on the Internet, including the transmission of person-to-person e-mail and the transfer of files between computers, parallel those that are carried out on smaller computer networks. It is the vast size of the Internet that adds to the complexity of accomplishing these particular tasks.

E-mail. By the early 21st century, billions of e-mail messages were being routed over the Internet each day. E-mail transmissions utilize the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP). The addresses to which they are sent take the form userid@host, in which host indicates the name (assigned via the DNS) of the computer or group of computers that is receiving the message and userid identifies a specific individual or group accessing that computer.

File Transfer. Another significant use of the Internet is the electronic transfer of documents and other filed data between computers. This is accomplished using the file transfer protocol (FTP). The protocol can also be used to distribute both free and commercial software over the Internet.

USENET Discussion groups have thrived over USENET (short for users' network), also known as Netnews, a worldwide electronic system employed by the general public to post messages on topics of special or general interest. The messages, referred to as articles, appear in USENET discussion forums known as newsgroups, which are typically dedicated to specific topics. Although USENET articles are sent over the Internet, non-Internet computer networks transmit them as well. Therefore, while USENET makes use of the Internet, it is not, strictly speaking, an actual part of the Internet.

Each of the thousands of existing newsgroups has a hierarchically constructed name. For example, the newsgroup comp.arch, which is one of a large number of newsgroups about computers (comp), was created specifically for the discussion of computer architecture (arch). Similarly, the comp.lang.c++ newsgroup was devised for often arcane discussions on the C++ programming language, while the misc.computers group was developed for miscellaneous (misc), and relatively simple, computer-related questions and discussions. Other examples of newsgroup abbreviations include soc, for newsgroups oriented toward social issues (such as soc.culture.japan), and rec, used by recreation-related groups (such as rec.sport.hockey).

USENET operates by way of specialized protocols that transmit a news feed (that is, a batch of articles) to a server. A program called a news reader lets a client see the list of newsgroups available on the server and gives the client access to specific articles. It also enables articles to be sent from the client to a newsgroup.

Starting in the early 2000s, new technologies and softwares allowed the World Wide Web (see below) to become an outlet for discourse that had previously taken place on USENET. Chat rooms, weblogs (or "blogs"), wikis, and other Web applications allowed users to quickly share information. The new technologies also provided users with the ability to better personalize content to their needs.

World Wide Web

The Internet's content runs the gamut from current and classic scientific, social, and cultural material to family entertainment, commercial advertising, and even graphic pornography. However, once an individual has accessed the Internet through his or her computer, it would be a daunting task to find unaided the specific host among millions that has the content the user desires and then to locate that data in the host computer's file system. Various programs have been devised to ease the problem. For example, the Archie program, created in 1989, provided a searchable index of FTP-transmittable files.

Accessing Internet content was further simplified with the creation in the early 1990s of the World Wide Web, at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research; formerly, Conseil Européene pour la Recherche Nucléaire), the joint European atomic research facility in Geneva. The World Wide Web, or, simply, the Web, is a collection of electronic documents, or Web pages. A Web page, in turn, is a single file comprising text, multimedia material (such as images, video, and audio), or both that is created and accessed using the hypertext markup language (HTML), the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), and the uniform resource locator (URL).

HTML and HTTP. An individual constructing a Web page controls the material's appearance and organization using HTML tags, a set of codes that divides the document into separate elements, such as headings and paragraphs, and that controls where these elements are placed within the page. The tags also allow multimedia material to be inserted and positioned in the page and permit the insertion of hypertext links.

A hypertext link is literally a connection between documents. Following a link is usually a simple "point-and-click" operation, in which a computer mouse is used to place an onscreen cursor over the linked element in the page (such as a piece of text or an image); a click on the mouse button activates the link, sending the user to the targeted document. The HTTP enables a client computer (usually one running a browser, described below) to send a request to a server to retrieve a Web page.

Browsers. Web pages are displayed and their links accessed using a browser, a computer program that utilizes the HTTP to communicate with Web servers (servers that store and transmit Web pages). The Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers (from Netscape Communications Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, respectively) have been particularly popular.

URL. Each Web page is assigned a URL so that the page can be retrieved from among the hundreds of millions of publicly accessible pages on the World Wide Web. The URL is a text string that contains the name (as created through the domain naming system) of the server being accessed and the location of information stored in that server. A typical URL would therefore have the form www.scholastic.com/earlylearner, with www.scholastic.com being the domain name and earlylearner being a Web page. (However, just typing in a domain name without a file name attached will typically bring up a default Web page from the server rather than leave the computer screen blank.)

Hypertext links on the Web typically connect users to additional URLs, which means that by following a link, the user can easily be routed to a Web page stored on a server located anywhere in the world. XML. Extensible markup language (XML) is a newer and more versatile system than HTML for Web document creation. Actually a scaled-down version of a more complex tool, standard generalized markup language (SGML), XML permits customized tags to be placed in a Web page. In this way XML can be used to create more intricately structured Web pages than can HTML. Moreover, XML is better adapted than HTML for creating links. Although by 2003 XML had not supplanted HTML, the newer tool's popularity was increasing.

Commercial Impact of the Internet

Commercial use of the Internet has become widespread, as has Web-based advertising. The late 1990s saw a surge in the creation of new, publicly traded companies selling goods and services through the Web. Public confidence in the viability of Web-based businesses (referred to colloquially as dot.coms) swelled so greatly that the stock value of many of these companies quickly reached dizzying heights, even among businesses with little chance of becoming profitable. By the beginning of the 21st century, however, Internet stock prices had fallen dramatically as it became apparent that numerous dot.coms were not succeeding financially. Although the commercial potential of the Internet continues to be tapped, entrepreneurs and investors have come to better understand both the potential and the limitations associated with Internet-based commerce.

Social Impact of the Internet

The social ramifications of Internet use are not necessarily clear-cut. For example, in the mid- to late 1990s the American psychologist Robert Kraut and his colleagues found evidence that individuals who extensively use the Internet experience increased loneliness and depression. Moreover, heavy Internet use appeared to shrink, rather than expand, the individuals' social circle and reduce their interactions with family members. However, in later research Kraut discovered that these problems seemed largely to have dissipated in persons from the original study and that for individuals with a normally extroverted personality, Internet use could over time lead to increased community involvement and improved self-esteem. Nonetheless, Kraut found that, for reasons not clearly understood, spending a great deal of time on the Internet also appeared to intensify emotional stress in persons studied.