Having only been on the web for the past two years one of the things I've always found very strange are the assumptions a lot of folk seem to make in their posts that "everyone uses the web" and that "everyone has a mobile phone"...

Personally I've always thought that roughly about a third of the planet uses the web, which whenever I mentioned it was usually met with comments saying things like "nonsense, the vast majority of the world uses it". Which to me always seemed totally wrong but on computer forums that's an argument that is kinda hard to win...

So imagine my surprise when I came across this 2010 BBC documentary about the web which reveals just who was closest to being right in thinking the how many people actually use the web...

You don't have to watch it all (but it is a very interesting doc) as in the first few minutes it reveals the figures for the amount of people who use the web...

Before you watch it though, decide in your own mind first roughly the percentage of the planets population you reckon use the web and see how it compares to the figures given in this documentary...

Reckon a lot of folk will be surprised by it (I know I was), now I just need to find a reliable documentry like this one to see who's right about how many folk use mobile phones...

The Virtual Revolution (BBC Documentry)...

Last edited by Franko on 14-May-2012 at 05:27 AM.

_________________

@Franko

What would be more interesting, would be a survey on what the Internet is used for.
Here within EU, the surveillance increases dramatically, and seen figures from Germany, on how people started to use snailmail or do personal visits to doctors and other private personal stuff.

Internet as it is today seems more on its way to become just like TV, one way entertainment.

_________________
Site admins are people too..pooff!

@tomazkid

It does go into that sort of thing later on and while I'm not surprised by it's findings it's still scary nonetheless...

I will say this though it reveals that in certain areas of the UK 40% of web usage is used for porn...

It's too late now to worry about surveillance on the web, governments and their more shady departments already have all the info they want about any of us on the web and nothing will change that...

I suppose as long as you've got nothing to hide there is nothing to worry about as even without the web big bother has always had ways of keeping tabs on us all...

_________________

@tomazkid

in Norway that part is very important as "NAV" leaked all personal documents onto the web twice in the past and everyone (who tried) could check by a simple search what tablets*/medicine their neighbours/anyone use etc.

ofcourse the media decided that the playstation network hack was much worse so the media totally ignored the "nav" incident which they also did back in 2006 too when the very same thing happened.

_________________
Brand new website... www.amigaguru.com

@Franko

Quote:

I will say this though it reveals that in certain areas of the UK 40% of web usage is used for porn...

and 55% used piratebay.com after the media hyped the court case up , before that the site barely had 15%...

and now that they blocked it in the uk all the people who used to go there now hangs on piratebay.co.uk i guess ... , you know... the media put that on the first page of newspapers too so lol.

_________________
Brand new website... www.amigaguru.com

Spam removed /Tomazkid

Last edited by tomazkid on 14-May-2012 at 12:56 PM.

@toaks

As far as I am aware, the only ISP that was forced to block access to TPB was BT - and frankly who uses BT anymore? We only need BT for the telecommunications infrastructure - its what the mandatory landline tax is for.

_________________
Official AmigaOS Website
AmigaOS on Facebook
Lake Marketing and Events

Did anyone mention yet that significant part of web is spam?

Oh, too late...

Last edited by Jupp3 on 14-May-2012 at 10:42 AM.

@djrikki

Quote:

As far as I am aware, the only ISP that was forced to block access to TPB was BT - and frankly who uses BT anymore? We only need BT for the telecommunications infrastructure - its what the mandatory landline tax is for.

Me because they have a monopoly on fast broadband , well at least where I live

_________________
Amiga 4000T, CSPPC@233,50 , Amiga OS3.9 / OS4.1
Amiga 1200, Blizzard IV
CD32

Theres suposed to be a billion PC and compatibles, depends how many can access the net, and about 20 billion ARM cored devices, which only a fraction, so far connect to the net in smartphones etc, but are being aimed at every item uses some form of networking etc. Trouble is, in such small devices just how are you going to have the same three way hyperspeed encryption security that even desk/laptops dont have yet?

As for BTs monopoly, back in 2006 BT bought up a compny trialing a protoype MESH Wifi system in South Wales, UK, just because MESH alows high speed broadband while totally bypassing landlines.

It means BT can drop the patent lawers on anyone even attempting to bypass their monopoly, which is why I was working on the technique back in 1997.

_________________
The older and more respected a scientist is, the longer it takes to prove him wrong.

@RodTerl

Imagine if mesh networking was included in every router and enabled as standard, perhaps on a frequency just for that purpose. Cables might only be required for long range links and the internet could be safer from political interference. I`m not sure how stuff like DNS would work though?

_________________
Fraggle

- insert profound text here -

Eircom (the Irish equivalent to BT) also blocked TPB for its users, and lost many users because of that - not because people needed to use TPB, but because the prospect of your ISP deciding what you can and can't see is frightening.

As for the documentary, I can't see it here (in work and all that), but I would imagine it's a bit less than the vast majority, at least on the global scale. In the developed world though I *would* say the vast majority use the internet. Personally I can't think of anyone (or anyone's parents) who don't use the internet at least occasionally. I have an 80 year old grand-uncle who is on Skype, and even my own Dad, a technophobe, has become hooked once I gave him an old Mac to use a few years ago (he never bothered with the Windows family computer).

_________________
http://www.robthenerd.com

@Franko

Next door neighbours wouldn't use it AFAIK. Then don't even own a computer ever. Another friend I have doesn't have a computer at home either. But he is aware of modern things somewhat and did make a funny comment. I asked him if he took photographs of an old building he went to look inside and he said he doesn't have a modern mobile phone. He hasn't heard of a camera? Been around for years, you can still buy in shops. LOL!

Another Amiga guy I know has used the net for years now but doesn't have a mobile. Infact I avoided mobiles for ages until a woman influenced me to buy one.

I was a bit slow to the BBS scene and after using it on and off for a little while I upgraded to dial uo internet.

Last edited by Hypex on 14-May-2012 at 03:24 PM.

@Toaks

Quote:

Toaks wrote: @Franko and 55% used piratebay.com after the media hyped the court case up , before that the site barely had 15%... and now that they blocked it in the uk all the people who used to go there now hangs on piratebay.co.uk i guess ... , you know... the media put that on the first page of newspapers too so lol.

For some strange reason I've never managed to get a torrent from The Pirate Bay to work. All I ever got was a message in the tracker part of it that said "connection refused" whenever there was a Pirate Bay IP in the tracker part of the torrent...

What I find really odd though is why the Prate Bay gets all the media attention when there a literally hundreds of sites out there that when you search for a torrent for old PPC versions of software for the Mac for example, you are instead directed to these other sites where you have to join up and pay them a membership fee or monthly subscription to download what is after all pirated software...

Not sure why these sites don't get closed down or blocked as they actually charge money for pirated stuff and don't exactly hide the fact. Guess it's probably because those that govern such things most likely use them themselves when their at home to download stuff...

_________________

@Hypex

Most people I know still don't own a computer let alone use the net. I worked it out recently that about 65 to 70% of folk I know don't own one. Though most (about 80% of people I know) do own a mobile phone...

Myself, a mobile phone is the one thing I'll never own or use (not even for woman) and the internet is something I can take or leave...

Gotta say though I was surprised by that video to learn only 25% of the world uses the web as even I had thought it would've been around 30%. Although the way most businesses are run these days, they are definitely under the illusion that most folk use the web...

Noticed a new "trend" over recent times with TV adverts for everything from toilet paper to cars having "join us on Facebook" in them !!!

Wassat all about... surely no one would want to join a Facebook page about loo roll or chocolate bars and actually go there to discuss them !!!

Or would they !!!

_________________

@Franko

Yup exactly there are thousands of 'pirate bays' out there, like the vast majority of people on this earth I have my own favourite site too. Just about everyone I know uses bit-torrent, its perfectly normal-behaviour to download content online legal or not whether MPAA like it or not.

_________________
Official AmigaOS Website
AmigaOS on Facebook
Lake Marketing and Events

@djrikki

Quote:

djrikki wrote: @Franko Yup exactly there are thousands of 'pirate bays' out there, like the vast majority of people on this earth I have my own favourite site too. Just about everyone I know uses bit-torrent, its perfectly normal-behaviour to download content online legal or not whether MPAA like it or not.

Erm.... that would be the "vast majority of people on this earth" out of the 25% of people on this earth who actually use the net, would it...

If it wasn't for bit-torrents I wouldn't have been able to get much software for these old PPC iMacs I have now, as most software companies won't sell or supply you with their older PPC versions that are needed to run on my iMacs and instead tell you to buy a new Mac with an Intel processor...

To me they have no complaint about people pirating their stuff when they themselves (the software companies) could easily supply & sell these old PPC versions but won't or don't for whatever reason...

I'd rather but the original software than use bit torrents to be honest but don't have much of a choice with it as far as my iMacs go and I'd never use a bit torrent to download a movie just for the simple fact that movies are easy and cheap enough to buy and I prefer to have the genuine article (DVD) when it comes to my movie collection...

_________________

@Franko

Quote:

Erm.... that would be the "vast majority of people on this earth" out of the 25% of people on this earth who actually use the net, would it...

^.^ well done.

If I use bit-torrent its generally for movies that TV never really repeats anymore, but are still quality films - all TV does is play the Back to the Future trilogy all year long and James Bond - wake up ITV/C5!

I also discovered classics such as Metropolis thanks to the likes of imdb and bit-torrent that I would have not had the inclination to go out and purchase. Bit-torrent gives you the chance to try-before-you buy, if I love a movie that much - aka it was worth watching in the first place - I'd be quite happy to go out and spend my hard earner money.

Later after watching the movie I found the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSExdX0tds4

I cannot recommend this movie highly enough - don't let the fact that its a silent movie put you off - you will love this movie. This movie was so-far ahead of its time its amazing and was the pre-cursor to the entire sci-fi genre. Make sure you watch the 2010 reconstruction, the earlier reconstruction is missing a long scene.

_________________
Official AmigaOS Website
AmigaOS on Facebook
Lake Marketing and Events

@Franko

Quote:

I will say this though it reveals that in certain areas of the UK 40% of web usage is used for porn...

You should go for a carreer in politics or marketting. It says 40% of men have viewed internet porn.

so that's 20% of the internet using population ( assuming that women don't which was not stated) and I doubt that 40% only used it for porn., so that's even less.

statistcs 67.485% are made up on the spot.

_________________
BroadBlues On Blues BroadBlues On Amiga Walker Broad

@djrikki

Even though Metropolis is considered these days as the movie that started Sci FI, when it was released in 1927 it was panned by the critics for being too far fetched and simplistic in it's story line (kinda weird combination I reckon)...

Most of the best Sci Fi movie producers Speilberg, Riddly Scott etc... all claim to have been influenced greatly by Metropolis. I always remember seeing it in the very early 70's one Saturday afternoon on tv and have to say it's the movie that got me hooked on Sci Fi...

Clip from Metropolis have been used in countless other movies, TV adverts and even pop songs, If you've ever seen Queens - Radio GaGa music video then you've seen clips from Metropolis... and it's one of the few movies that is actually Public Domain now (depsite a court case in the USA trying to steal the copyright back)...

It's even been said that Hitler was greatly influenced by the movie and that is where the Nazi party got most of their ideas from for some of their secret weapons & research...

Shame there was a lot of the original movie lost that can never be recovered but who knows maybe one day in some old German cellar or loft they may find some more of the missing bits...

_________________