Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Thanks for joining us! Let me know if there are any topics you'd like us to cover by sending an email to me at craigpeterson . com!

Jun 23, 2018

Today a short discussion on what is wrong with the internet.

These and more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com

---

Transcript:

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.

Airing date: 06/21/2018

What's Wrong With the Internet

Craig Peterson:[00:00:00] Hi, everybody, Craig Peterson, here. And today I want to talk about really what's wrong with the Internet. I think this is kind of crucial. It's critical really. When you get to it, you're going to agree with me. OK, so let's stick around because here we go. Do you know what the basic foundation of what's wrong on the Internet is, smart people and stupid people, get equal airtime? Think about that for a minute now. Well, you remember we had a policy that was in place under the Federal Communications Commission that required equal airtime for opposing views. So, let's say that you have an opinion about something, let's say you have an opinion that no one should live in the middle of an active volcano. OK, so well done, sir was something that I think is pretty darn obvious. Don't live in an active volcano. So, if I were to say that, on the air, and this so-called Fairness Doctrine was in place, what would happen? Well, they'd say, well you have to have an opposing view. So, they would find some idiot that believed living in an active volcano was just fine, right. Those people are out there; they're always out there, you'll see them out there. And, that's the biggest problem with the Fairness Doctrine. But, we're not talking about radio right now, we're not talking about trying to get Rush Limbaugh off the air, what we're trying about right now is what we're trying to understand, the Internet. Now, there's smart people and stupid people and just because you have degrees doesn't mean you're a smart person, right.

[00:01:47] Can we can we agree on that? There's lots of different types of IQ, if you will, Right. So, you've got the intellectual quota, you've got the ability to be able to analyze data in and pull it all together. Spatial, social right, there's all kinds of different types of smartness of these quotients that we can come up with. So, stupid people are the people who will argue against something that's just true. And, I don't know why? Many times, I think they're just arguing for the sake of argument. They don't want to be with anybody. They're like me, they're a bit of a rebel, right. Or maybe there are a lot of rebels, and here's the problem. On the Internet, stupid people tend to shout louder and shout longer than people who have wisdom and judgment. Ignorance generally prevails, and we see that all of the time. Look at what's happening. we've got antiphon out there. These people that are saying, hey listen, we're anti-fascist, and yet the tactics they're using are fascist, right. Am I wrong there, right. I'm sure to hear from somebody, right. Somebody is some stupid person. NSA, oh no they're not, you know beating someone because they are trying to exercise a free first amendment, free speech rights. That's not fascist. Well, what is a fascist thing? Well, get right down to it, it might be a little bit too cynical for you.

[00:03:23] OK, how about this one. Do you remember this e-mail? When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it, if you are a windows user, for a two- week time-period for every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you 245 dollars. For every person that you send it to, that forwards that ad on, Microsoft will pay you 243 dollars, and for every third person that receives it, you'll be paid 241 dollars within two weeks. Microsoft will contact you, for your address, and then send you a check. I thought this was a scam myself. But, two weeks after receiving this e-mail, do you guys remember that one? Do you remember, that e-mail? OK, did any of your friends fall for it? I know, I got it because, why? Because some friend of mine forwarded it to me. How about the one that's more recent? From Facebook and Zuckerberg. Hey, if you like this, you know what? Zuckerberg is going to track it. Facebook is going to track it, and you are going to get paid money. All right, it goes way back cobbled chain letters, you remember those things, Right. So, let's not, for everybody, the stupid will always be with us. OK, Stupid stupidity is not a function of capability. Frankly, I think it's a choice, OK. So, what's the point here? Well, the point is stupidity is cheap and plentiful with stupidity. Your opinions appear to be endlessly open, right. It's crazy. Wisdom is scarce and expensive and usually involved, with upfront commitments, upfront studying, and upfront research. 

[00:05:09] And, when I look at my business, I look at the security business that I'm in, I see stupidity, everywhere absolutely everywhere. I want to tell you a quick story here about a guy that I worked with in Chicago; his name was Miroslav. It was at least 20 years ago 30 years ago. Maybe, he and his family had emigrated from the full former Soviet Union. He knew what it was like. In fact, I had been up in Canada, and I bought a copy of Pravda. You remember that? That's the Russian, the Soviet, the communist, kind of like, Time magazine. And I brought it back, because I thought it was hilarious, because of the way they were portraying the United States, and how everyone in the U.S. was drunk, and they were on street corners, and everybody was homeless, and what a terrible thing capitalism was. So, I showed it to him, and he says I got to take this home, I'll bring it back tomorrow. So, he took it home, and his wife saw it and tore it to shreds. So, remember he promised to bring it back tomorrow. And about a week later, I sent him a slob where's my copy of Pravda, and he says my wife destroyed it and he said I'll get you another one. He never did. By the way, I never got my Pravda back, but he described how he used to have to stand in lines for bread in the Soviet Union.

[00:06:40] Yes that's what you had to do. The shelves were barren.

[00:06:44] I don't know if you've seen the Americans, on TV, but they do a reasonable job of showing what it was like. You can get as many boots as you want. They had so many boots, one style, and only a couple of sizes right. That was the only thing the government, the Soviet government was good at making, back in the day. But he'd stand in the bread line, and he'd have, like no choices. He had his family had to get the bread that was on the shelf, that was it. Right nowadays, you get to decide, do we want to go to Panera, and we can get this bread or that bread. Or, do you want to go to a pan and get some bread from them at the supermarket? And, you know. I’m at my local supermarket; the bread aisle is huge. There are at least a thousand different loaves of bread and different types of bread. So, in the Soviet Union, they had virtually no choice. So, these people would come over to America, and they'd go to a supermarket, and they wouldn't believe what they saw, because there were so many choices. It was everywhere, and that's the joy of true capitalism. It was everywhere. Now OK, I'll argue. Right. We don't have true capitalism in the U.S. anymore which is true. But Kim married to the Soviet Union. It was just incredible. You and I would think, oh wow, that's just a miracle isn't that the coolest thing ever. I love that. But the effect on some of these people that came from the Soviet Union cleared, including Miroslav, you could see it in him. It was overpowering.

[00:08:24] He was amazed, at how much better things were over here.

[00:08:30] Now that conversation happened more than oh 20-30 years ago now, but I still remember what he looked like, and you know what surprised me the most, that he said was that some people came over from the former Soviet Union. Their choices were so dramatic; they couldn't take it, they could not take it, they could not make the decisions. So, the one way that they would return, he told me about people, that returned to the Soviet Union. Well, of course, at that point it had pretty much collapsed because this was right after the collapse, of the Soviet Union, it wasn't very many years after, during the Reagan administration. But you know, we're talking about a thousand times more many more choices, and they were just overwhelmed, they couldn't deal with that. So, they went back. Well, today we have a similar problem. If you go on Google and you look for security, you're going to see you know, anti-virus, anti-malware. How do I get my training and security, that's required by law? How do I get it for my employees? You are going to be overwhelmed. There's not a thousand choices you will get million-page hits, when you do your search online.

[00:09:47] And, you know what, a lot of those people frankly, and then this is scary if you ask me, but a lot of those people, are stupid people

[00:09:57] Their saying, oh this software is the best, I've used it for years.

[00:10:01] There's no problems with the software, and they are completely ignorant of the subject matter.

[00:10:09] You know, in this day and age, we have a continual problem with what are called zero-day attacks. We've never seen them before. We have the president of Symantec, who pretty much got fired because he said that their antivirus software was useless. And yet how many people can you find out there that are peddling Symantec software, right. It's huge; you're saying, hey it's a mess just a mess. These are the stupid people, OK. Kalisz people's not going to help them get a faster internet connection; it is not going to help, a 60-inch widescreen monitor isn't going to help. Being motivated is not going to help. The number one skill you need is discernment, and that's the skill nobody talks about. How do you know, who knows what they're talking about? You have to discern, and that's the problem with the Internet today 

[00:11:08] How can you judge me, from somebody else that has a thousand posts that are all wrong 

[00:11:15] Right, where I've been on the internet since 1983 and doing security for major corporations down through small guys, right. How can you tell the difference? How can you discern? And, I want you to think about it too, from your business standpoint, if you are a business owner, how do you distinguish your business from the other guys that are online? The other guys that are shouting louder and longer than you are shouting, a little bit of food for thought. I appreciate you subscribing. Please make sure you take a second and give this podcast a rating on iTunes. Craig Peterson dot com slash iTunes. Let me know, what you think. Hopefully, I’ve earned five stars from you. You have a great day, and we'll be back with more tomorrow. We'll see. what tomorrow brings us, there's always something. Thanks again, Craig Petersen. Out.

---

More stories and tech updates at:

www.craigpeterson.com

Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating:

www.craigpeterson.com/itunes

Message Input:

Message #techtalk

Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at:

www.twitter.com/craigpeterson

For questions, call or text:

855-385-5553