Purchasing online

I usually don't get scared when purchasing online. Fraud is usually covered by your credit card companies and so far (knock on wood) i haven't had any problems with them helping to retreive funds i didn't spend.
So is there anything i wouldn't feel compfortable buying? I think it would be more a question of "where" or "whom" i wouldn't feel compfortable buying widgets.
*A badly rated seller from Amazon or ebay.
*I won't buy from Abesbooks anymore because they won't put ratings or feedback options to identify bad sellers.
*Anywhere i get a bad gut feeling,
*I also probably wouldn't purchase from Craig's list if it were out of state and had to be shipped.
* I don't think i would ever buy information from say intellius, or people finders or places like that. I don't like what they are doing and i would hate to waste money for information that is wrong.
But all in all, there really isn't much that i wouldn't buy online as far as widgets are concerned. I find it convenient, most of the time faster. Spending gas and time driving all around town for the best price, model etc.. is usually slower than just finding it online and purchasing it. I like to look at places where people put ratings or feedback on products, you can't get that from a store front.

Vanity Search

How trippy is it to see your name on the internet? Much less associated with people you don't even know? It would seem there are many places to find my name, as well as maiden name, and another name i was happy to dump, but public records, Peoplefinders, intellius are not so willing to do. All had info on all the above, name, age (sometimes wrong), town living in, relatives )(as i mentined before are not related). However there is some small hope that no one wants to pay for the REAL meat of the information. And do they get all the names or just the particular block they choose? Some places i had up to three or four different blocks of names. Other than that vanity search was pretty uneventfull, alot of WSPTA newsletters posted, Volunteer list for the school district , facebook, my space, and classmates.com. All pretty much typical. I was suprised that my name didn't appear on geneology.com . As the last time i ran it, many years ago, it popped up there.
Address search: we have done before, google was so outdated, like by 5 years (we could tell by the tree that was pictured but had fallen many years ago.) They finally updated it last year. I went to msn and just searched the address and of course msn had thier own map too. Pretty much the same but horrible angle. Can't see much due to all the trees. But it has to be fairly recent. Which incidentally is the same one that zillow uses. But zillow has more information specificallty about the house. Some correct, a lot not. Like the space available, they don't count additions apparently, nor is it listed. Baseboard heating, nope, not even. They have the sale amount off just a tad i wonder if they round up? The same with property value, taxes and the like. I hadn't noticed but our land has more than doubled in value, woo hoo. They listed the wrong High School, it should have been switched in 1984 when a new HS was added.
My husband looks at this kind of stuff all the time, i really don't care, maybe when and if we ever sell i would, but for now we arent' going anywhere and the less they know or have correct i think the better, in most cases.

Epic 2015/ Future of newpapers

I thought the EPIC2015 was a very interesting perspective on the future of media. To be honest I had not given it much thought as to how our Internet and the WWW are affecting the media.. It makes perfect sense that the future of the newspaper in hard copy form will eventually cease to exist. I think it, like everything else will be accessible by Internet or by cable, probably will show the paper and they can either read it or have it read to them. Especially with the world going green, we will have to be more conscientious of our resources. As while paper is a renewable resource, it still costs money to make it renewable.
However, It would be hard to imagine the world without journalists. I can't see the profession being discarded by the rantings on blogging, for sure. I think we will still need the caliber of journalism to keep the readers engaged and informed. It is interesting that Professor Fry has sanctioned Wikipedia, when every other professor refutes it. If anyone can write in Wikipedia, and not everyone is an expert on the items that are being written on, then how can we know it is the truth or factual. Unless, like Professor Fry suggests, backing it up with other solid documentation. Like newspapers articles or professional journals. Which i would pose, why not start with the professional journals in the first place? Don't get me wrong, I like Wikipedia, it is the first place i go if i need it dumbed down for me (like statistics!) or I want a quick answer. It has its purpose.
But back to the future of newspapers or our current future that is. I think they are and have been moving to the Internet to gain more readers. However, most local papers do not ask for subscriptions or make the consumer pay for access to the site. But we all know of the Wall Street Journal and they certainly don't give out their journalism for free. Okay maybe a smidgen but not complete articles. Those are reserved to the subscribing members. Will they be free eventually? At any rate, I don't get the paper, we have tried, but it always piles up, unread. When I had to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, they gave me the physical copy as well as online access. I RARELY ever read the hard copy, I always went to the site online. I tend to agree with the student who said some of the demand for or lack of demand for the newspaper is heavily weighted on generation. I know my own mother and my in-laws still don’t have the Internet and probably never will. They only form of news they will ever get is in the form of the paper or TV.

email vs. postal

Although email and the postal service are similar, I don't think that one could replace the other entirely, nor should they. I am a greeting card sender by email, my friend is totally a snail mail greeting card sender. She argues that handwritten greeting cards are more personal and are genuine, she would never send an thank you card or birthday card by email EVER. I argue that email greeting cards are just as genuine and if it weren't for email greeting cards, I would never send a thank you or birthday card, my verbal "thank you" would have to be enough (possibly a hug with the "thank you" if local). It takes way more time for writing cards, looking up addresses, buying stamps, and then sending them off in the mail box. Golly forbid if you run out of stamps or the postage changes and you need a 1 cent stamp!! Now, if I had just bought the "forever stamp"!!!! It really is that long since the last time I mailed something. But finding the right e-card can be challenging too, but even then it wouldn't take you a fejw days like the postal service would take to send it. For sure email is quicker, more convenient and can be just as meaningful as a handwritten postal mail sent card. I still type notes on the e-card! But some people prefer to send and recieve by snail mail. So for my freinds sake, let there be snail mail!
What I don't understand why businesses and politicians send their ads in the mail, the money they spend on items that just fill the recycle bins and landfills are mindboggling. And I don't read them either, DOES anyone REALLY read them? There has to be something really good that catches my eye before I’ll look. Of course this is Junk Mail and I guess I don't really read the junk emails I get either, delete, delete, delete. In that way, they are definitely the same. I can at least hit delete on email, no landfills or recycling bin to fill.