- a boy with a computer
When I was a kid, my dad used to talk about how things would be in the future. He wasn’t talking about any of the distant things I saw in Return to the future like hovercars or self-drying jackets, but the real stuff we saw in the early stages of the ’80s. He once told me that the phones rich people kept in their cars would be available to everyone, but instead of being in our cars, we could carry them in our pockets.
See, my dad has always been on the lookout for technology, wanting to see what the latest and greatest products they had in store and, as they say, from like father to son. Since I was a child I was exposed to technology (I think we got the Apple II e in 1985 or 86. I would have had around 3). and as a result, I was involved with computers during the early days of the Internet. My brother and I first connected to some bulletin board systems (or BBS) in the early 90’s. I’m pretty sure the first modem we used was a 2400 baud modem. That’s 2400 bits per second. For comparison, if you have a download speed of 20 Mb, your speed is 8738 times faster than mine back then.
- Early file sharing and the advent of Napster
My involvement with computers was always pretty strong, all the way through high school, in the late 2000s. At that time the peer-to-peer file sharing craze was starting, and as a teenager with little to no money, music free definitely appealed to me. I was downloading music directly from other people on my 56k modem in 1997, searching through people’s files in chat rooms. And then came Napster.
Napster allowed you to search thousands if not millions of user computers for the mp3 file they were looking for. Although there were other services that did the same or similar things, Napster changed the game because of the reach it had due to a large amount of exposure.
Napster had some problems very early in its existence and I can’t say that anyone was surprised. The fact is, piracy is illegal, and Napster (and other peer-to-peer networks) made it possible to have an incredibly simple and effective way to get all that music for free.
Of course, the game evolved (and continues to evolve to this day. More on that later). Napster gave way to a number of other peer-to-peer networks, each with new ways to protect both the network and the user from getting in. issue.
- download south park movie
And, of course, also the types of media that are downloaded. Low-quality mp3s got better and we also started downloading video content. One day I decided to download South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut.
This opened my eyes. I downloaded a full movie and saved it to my hard drive. No VHS tape, no DVD yet, I could watch this movie anytime I wanted. Of course, there was a downside.
After downloading the movie, I didn’t have enough space for anything else on my hard drive. I had to burn the movie to a CD and save it there. Not to mention, of course, that it took over a month to download.
But it helped me see what was possible. One day we will be able to watch movies over the Internet.
- bittorrent and the MPAA
Jump to today. File sharing still continues, but it happens differently. Today, the preferred method of file sharing is bittorrenting. If you had talked to me a few years ago I would have told you all about how to do it.
Yes, until recently I continued to download mp3s and videos illegally. I would like to go on record and say:
I do not condone illegal file sharing.
I had a reason (I won’t speculate on whether the reason was good or bad) for illegal file sharing before. I couldn’t afford to buy the music and movies I wanted to watch, so I downloaded them. My justification was that whether I did or not didn’t matter; the company was not receiving my money.
But then affordable ways to get what you wanted emerged. Spotify, for music, provides me with a virtual music collection available to me anytime, anywhere for less than $10 a month. I used to buy two CDs a month as a teenager (before I started stealing music)… which means I would spend more than 3 times what I spend on music a month now.
how i watch tv today
And that also applies to television and movies. There are subscription services that allow me to access a lot of the stuff that I was downloading and rental services for the new stuff that subscription services don’t have.
Personally, I watch all my TV whether it’s over the internet on Hulu+, Netflix or a sports content provider like ESPN3 or mlb.tv or on a basic antenna if I want to watch local networks.
I bring the Internet to my TV through a computer. Well, really, to my televisions, plural. I have a 42 inch flat panel and a 32 inch flat panel both wall mounted. One is connected to the computer by HDMI, the other by a VGA cable. If those terms confuse you, don’t worry. I’ll talk more about that later.
I can hear some complaints are already forming.
No way do I want a computer in my living room. This won’t work for me.
Don’t worry. There are many ways to bring content to your screen. I choose to use a computer because 1.) it is the most powerful way to bring the Internet to your TV and 2.) I am very nerdy.
There is probably a better option for you. For example, many video game systems will do the job. Blu-ray players generally have the ability to stream content. And of course there are dedicated players like Apple TV, Roku, and Boxee that are cheap and easy to set up.
With all these options available, have you seriously considered how Internet content can help you lighten your cable bill?
