Have you ever gone through the difficult, not to mention sluggish, process of suing somebody whether it may be about divorce or medical malpractice?

A newly established Californian website called SueEasy promises “instant” justice to your legal qualms. The website is said to be paired with lawyers and litigants thus, alarming some of the seasoned lawyers present in the country. Most of them question the quality of lawyers working for the website.

Some also are concerned about the people’s responsibility when it comes to suing someone. They said that since suing is now more “accessible” to just about everyone, then most likely, there are some who might abuse the system.

Photo taken from http://www.sueeasy.com/

Yep, those bloody pirates have struck again! But the British police were right to save the day as they conducted a dawn raid in Cardiff, Welsh and arrested three people suspected of involvement in Internet-based music and film piracy rings. Two men (one of which is the ring leader) and a woman were said to be part of the biggest suppliers of pirated music and films in Britain, earning about 3,000 pounds (6,173 $) a month. Now I understand how these cyber thieves find the piracy business a lucrative one. Too bad it�s considered illegal and unethical. But piracy is not going to end unless people stop buying from them. Just some food for thought, folks.

Source: Reuters

Poor old television has just lost to the Internet according to a survey released by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA). Apparently, a majority of the 7,000 survey participants in 10 European go online between five and seven days a week. Only 77 percent watch television just as often with 48 percent saying that their TV consumption has been reduced because of the Internet. A European teen spends an average of 11.9 hours of Internet time every week. 32 percent of the respondents cite the e-mail as particularly indispensable. Participating countries were Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.

I wonder what the results will be like in the rest of the world. I guess it must be the same. I myself don�t even watch TV anymore. And if I do access my TV, it�s to watch DVD�s. Ask me about the recent TV commercials and I won�t be able to answer you. I even get my news over the Internet.

Source: Yahoo! News

Consumersearch.com has released the top five anti-virus programs available on the internet as of January 2008. The list are as follows:

1. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0 (estimated cost to buy around $40.00)
2. ESET NOD32 (estimated cost to buy around $40.00)
3. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5 (free to download from their official website)
4. Panda Internet Security 2008 (estimated cost to buy around $40.00)
5. Norton Anti-Virus 2008 (estimated cost to buy around $40.00)

However, these sites also have online virus scanners (except for AVG) if you only wish to use the program once or you wouldn’t wish to buy their product (utilitarian purposes!). Their online scanners are as follows:

1. Kaspersky online lab
2. ESET NOD32 online scanner
3. NO AVG ONLINE SCANNER
4. Panda online scanner
5. Norton online scanner (Symantec’s online scanner, makers of Norton)

Photo taken from http://www.worldofstock.com

Face-to-face transactions over the internet may be limited only with the webcam (that is, if you consider this as face-to-face). Some believe that there is really no way a person can trace his/her online friend’s location, so it may seem to be easy (but not necessarily true) for fraudsters to lie about their real location (useful for anti internet scam too!).

Say goodbye to internet frauds since IP addresses are traceable. An IP address is a unique address, normally composed of four sets of numbers separated by three dots (i.e. 127.0.0.1). It works just like a house address since no IP addresses are alike.

Although IP addresses too change every time a person goes offline (through disabling the internet connection or turning off the router for LAN and WiFi etc.) and going online again, there will never be a time that your IP address will be exactly the same as another’s.

How to easily obtain the person’s real location through their IP address:
1. Go to http://www.ip-adress.com/ipaddresstolocation.
2. There is a tiny box (beside the “Lookup this IP or website” button) and type in the person’s IP address.
3. Click the said button and viola! The country origin of the said IP address is revealed.

Photo taken from http://www.cartoonstock.com

The internet nowadays is the best playground for business. Millions of people worldwide have access to it and since we live in an audio-visual culture, online markets have induced opportunity seekers with different splashes (programs made with Macromedia Flash), creative writing (such as excellently written ads) and videos to encourage them of venturing into their business.

Unfortunately, since the internet is an “all access” medium, many abuse it and many scams are continuously prevalent. If you have seen a “too-good-to-be-true” website, offering a relatively large paycheck for a “good-for-nothing” job (sites that offer “work from home and earn $50,000.00 per month while doing nothing!”), then might as well check the history of the said website.

How to do it:
1. Type in your address bar: http://whois.domaintools.com/
2. Affix the web address of the suspected website (i.e. if the website is http://www.website.info, then affix website.info AFTER THE SLASH).
3. You should now be able to see the history of the website, complete with the registrant’s name, how many other domains the registrant owns and how many times the said website has changed their domain name over a period of time).

Photo taken from http://theshadeswriter.wordpress.com

People who go on blind-dates sometimes have to lie about certain details about them to get their dates to like them. Internet socializing is just the same, it’s even hard to prove because you can’t see the person, maybe just with a picture and that’s it. People in the internet can lie about their age and even the gender. Some people will just do about anything to get your attention and hook up with it. Internet socializing sites are one of the best things these days, but warn the kids with extreme caution; you are not separating them from the computer until their 30, just advising them what’s right or wrong.

They may not have experienced growing up with the internet and the dangers it may bring, but similar events may happen to their kids even if it’s on the internet. Online chatting is one, be afraid when topics get into sex or physical details. It’s hard to warn the kids when it gets too late, and since they are curious (since they are growing up), they just might engage in it. So if you are a parent, it’s good if you talk these sensitive topics to your kids. In addition, there have been popular social networks that just about anybody can join; all you need is an email account.

Looks can be deceiving they say. Talk to a person on a street, later on he/she is being paid to get information from you (possible, it can happen). Looking at a person can deceive, what more someone you are talking to that you can’t see? Since kids have been more into the internet than the wiser ones, their curiosity explores the wide world of the web: internet. When will they know when and what they are doing is bad for them? That is why we have the wise people, to help the kids and teach them and keep them out of trouble based on their experience.

Carrie in the Sex and the City movie looked silly when she was in need for a phone to call her fiancé, and one of her friends hand her their iPhone, she just returned it admitted that she doesn’t know how to use it. Another scene there was when she was hiring an assistant, she ended up hiring someone who has a degree in Computer Science, and added a comment that she couldn’t even text message. They say that some older people are technically challenged, and the youth are tinkering with programming codes easy as pie. But one thing kids today can’t dig up on a search engine, experience.