How to Take Good Care of Your Laptop Computer

How to Take Good Care of Your Laptop Computer

Hi Friends, I am back here for you to take care of your Laptop Computer

           It is important to take care of your laptop to keep it in good shape; prevention is always better than cure. There are a number of easy things that you can do to keep your laptop in great shape; following these easy steps will help to ensure that it lasts longer and will need less maintenance. As an added bonus, many of the steps will also maintain your laptop's speed.

Steps:

1) Keep liquids away from your laptop. As tempting as it might be to drink coffee, soda, water or any other liquid near your laptop, accidents can happen all too easily. Alternatively, use a cup with a cover on it, so even if it does spill, the liquid doesn't go anywhere. Spilled liquids may damage the internal micro electronic components or cause electrical injury to the laptop. Short circuits can corrupt data or even permanently destroy some parts. The solution is very simple: Keep your drinks away from your computer. Even if you're careful, someone else might bump into your desk or you.

2) Having an available antivirus software would help. Even if you know what you download, it may contain a virus that can lead to a circuit error or software problem in your system hardware or software. It may also slow down the system operations and performance.

3)Keep food away from your laptop. Don't eat over your laptop, the crumbs can go down between the keys in the keyboard and provide an invitation to small bugs. The crumbs can also damage the circuitry. Worse, it makes the laptop look dirty if there are crumbs and food stains on it.

4)Always have clean hands when using your laptop. Clean hands make it easier to use your laptop touchpad and there will be less risk of leaving dirt and other stains on the computer. In addition, if you clean your hands before use, you will help reduce wear and tear on the coating of the laptop caused by contact with sweat and small particles that can act upon the laptop's exterior underneath your wrists and fingers.

5)Protect the LCD display monitor. When you shut your laptop, make sure there are no small items, such as a pencil or small ear-phones, on the keyboard. These can damage the display screen when shut; the screen will scratch if the item is rough. Close the lid gently and holding from the middle. Closing the lid using only one side causes pressure on that hinge, and over time can cause it to bend and snap.

6)Hold and lift the computer by its base, not by its LCD display (the screen). If you lift it by the screen part alone, you could damage the display or the hinges attaching it to the base. The display is also easily scratched or damaged by direct pressure – avoid placing pressure on it.

7)Don't pull on the power cord. Tugging your power cord out from the power socket rather than putting your hand directly on the plug in the socket and pulling can break off the plug or damage the power socket. Also, if you have the power point near your feet, avoid constantly bumping into the plug or you could loosen it and eventually break it.

8)Don't roll your chair over the computer cord. Stick the cord onto your desk with tape or a special computer cord tie which can be easily undone when you've finished using the laptop. Always try to keep most of the cord away from the floor or your legs; sometimes you can be so engrossed in what you're doing that you move your legs and forget the cord is there.

9)Plug in accessory devices into their proper slots. Always look at the symbols on the laptop carefully before inserting devices. Jamming a phone line into an Ethernet port or vice versa could damage the sockets, making it impossible to use them again. It is very important to observe this step.

10)Handle any removable drives with care. Floppy drives or CD drives that have been removed from your laptop can easily get crushed, dropped or pressed if you are careless. Put them straight into a bag or a storage box/case for safe keeping if you are not putting them back into the laptop.

11)Insert drives into their slots carefully and at the correct angle. Pushing the wrong drive into a socket, or at an angle, or even upside down can jam it.

12)Check to see if labels are affixed securely before inserting media into your laptop computer. Media such as CDs, DVDs or floppy disks should not have any loose label parts that might jam inside the laptop drive. Never insert undersized CDs, as these can damage the disk player permanently.

13)Don't expose your laptop to rapid temperature changes. When bringing your laptop indoors during winter, don't turn it on immediately. Instead, let it warm to room temperature first. This will avoid any potential for damage to the disk drive from condensation forming inside the machine. Avoid heat from sunlight as well.

10 Ways to Get Your Galaxy Tab™ Going

10 Ways to Get Your Galaxy Tab™ Going :

Now that you have your Tab out of the box, check out 10 ways to start getting the most out of it. From setting up your email and enjoying an e-Book to changing your input methods, you’ll be full of ideas about how to harness the power of your new Android™-powered tablet. Go ahead: Feel Free to Tab.™

1.) Customising your Galaxy Tab

What’s better than having the world in the palm of your hand? Having all the information you need right where you want it and having it look the way you want it to. From wallpapers to widgets, there are unlimited ways to make your Tab an extension of yourself.

Here’s How

You may customise your Galaxy Tab by touching and holding anywhere on the Home screen to bring up the Add to Home screen menu. From this menu, you may add Widgets, Shortcuts, Folders or Wallpapers to your home screen. You may choose different wallpapers from the pre-loaded live wallpapers or from the wallpaper gallery.

2.) Set Up Your Email Accounts

Have several email accounts? Stay on top of them all wherever you go. Auto configuration makes it easy to sync your email inboxes with your Tab and stay connected to all your accounts.

Here’s How

The Tab has two email programs — Gmail™ for Google™ accounts and Email for all other types of accounts including corporate email. To set up an account through your program, open Applications > Gmail or Applications > Email. Enter your email address and password associated with your account. Touch Next. Give your account a name and enter a name to be displayed on your outgoing messages. Touch Done.
Note: Auto configuration is available for these types of email addresses: @google.com, @hotmail.com, @mac.com, @me.com, @live.com, @yahoo.com, @yahoo.co.uk, @aim.com, @aol.com, @aol.co.uk, @android.com, @btinternet.com, @gmail.com, and @googlemail.com.

3.) Read e-Books

Your Tab comes loaded with an e-Reader app that provides thousands of titles, including books, magazines, and newspapers, all within your super-light and portable device.*

Here’s How

Find the e-Reader app specific to your carrier. Kindle by Amazon is an example of an app that gives you access to books for viewing on your Galaxy Tab.

4.) Access Android Market^TM

Your Android powered device comes with access to more than 150,000 apps. You can find and download everything from Foursquare and Facebook to AccuWeather. Plus, your Tab comes with the Samsung Media Hub app, which lets you choose from thousands of movies and TV shows in an instant and watch them on your Tab.

Here’s How

Go to Applications > Market. When you open Market for the first time, read the terms of service and touch Accept to continue. Sign in to your Google account or create a new one. Navigate to the desired app. You can open the Application Details screen to find out more information. When you find an app that you want to download, touch Install. When the download is finished, the app’s icon will appear in your Applications menu. Touch the icon to open and use the app.

5.) Lock the Orientation

Use the Orientation Lock to keep the screen in the portrait or landscape mode no matter what angle you’re holding it at. Feel free to lounge around while reading an e-Book, knowing that once you lock the orientation, you won’t have to worry about the screen changing with your movement.

Here’s How

To turn on the Orientation Lock, open the Quick Panel by touching the top bar on the screen and swiping a finger down it. Hold your Tab in whichever orientation you want it to be locked in. Touch the Orientation Lock icon, which will turn green to indicate that it’s locked.

6.) Use the Digital Frame Feature

The Digital Frame acts like a dynamic picture frame that can display a photo slideshow or a clock, and it works in both the portrait and landscape modes. You can even play music while you’re using the Digital Frame display.

Here’s How

To set it up: Touch Applications > Digital Frame. Touch a blank space on the screen to access the popup menu. Select Clock, Slideshow, or Music. You can set a timeout option of 10 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour, or never. To access this option while in the app, touch the Menu key > Timeout. By pressing the Menu key in the app again, you can access the Music menu to listen to songs while viewing the Digital Frame.

7.) Protect Your Investment with Tab Accessories

Samsung has many accessory options to maintain the beautiful exterior of your Tab and to make it your own.

Here’s How

Explore online at www.Samsung.com/uk to find a variety of accessories to keep your Tab looking fabulous.

8.) Change the Keyboard Input Method

Did you know that you can tell your Tab how you want to type? You can use the traditional two-thumb style or Swype, which lets you enter a word by sliding a single finger from letter to letter.

Here’s How

To change the way you input text, go to Applications >Settings > Locale and Text > Select Input Method. Choose Swype or Samsung Keypad.

9.) Access the Quick Panel

The Quick Panel is an easy way to get a snapshot of your notifications and the status of your wireless connection — all on one screen.

Here’s How

To access the Quick Panel, put your finger at the top of the screen and swipe down. The screen will show your notifications, such as new emails and messages, the status of your Wi-Fi™ and Bluetooth®, and whether the sound is set to the silent or vibrate mode. Swipe back up the screen to close.**

10.) Multitask

The Tab is a multitasker’s best friend. It allows you to switch between apps without closing them.

Here’s How

To switch between apps, touch and hold the Home key. A box will appear, showing all your recently used apps. Just touch the app you want to switch to.


Shay Langley is a Retail Training Manager and a Content Developer for Samsung Mobile Product Education. She has been a valued member of the Samsung Telecommunications America Team for the past three and a half years and has worked in the retail/wireless industry for over 10 years.

Synthia Barber is a Training Content Manger at Samsung Telecommunications America. She has been a valued member of the team since 2007.

*The Tab does not come preloaded with an e-Reader.
**Quick Access Panel can be reached from any home screen and from selected apps. Not all apps grant access.

Tips to keep your password safe!

Download here

Ten tips to keep your password safe!

Download here

Messy desks spill secrets - a few good practices can keep PII from getting lost or stolen

Download here

We had a great Information Security Awareness Day this year.

Download here

Information Security Awareness

Download here

Social networking sites... let’s get personal?

Download here

If you Leave Your Computer, Lock It! See also Good Security Habits for more information.

Download here

Encryption Required for Laptops and USB Drives

Download here

The purpose of encryption is to prevent third parties from recovering information from lost or stolen laptops and mobile devices.

Download here

Never share your computer account or password - because we all want to keep our jobs, right?

Download here

Take the time to create Secure Passwords: Remember, your password unlocks private information!

We had a privacy and security contest this month with a prize drawing. The winners each received an Office Max Ultra Cut Shredder.

Thanks to the many who participated!
Tami Calder – CCTS Research
Tracey McGee – Plastic Surgery
Marci Wessman - CSS

Download here

Save Your Data To Network Drives: Avoid the risks associated with storing your information on your hard drive. e.g. computer crashes, theft, etc. Store your important information on a University network drive.

Download here

FAX machines are a major source of privacy breaches. Make sure you follow proper procedure when transmitting protected health information via FAX.

Things to do when bored on the Internet

What things to do when bored on the Internet

The possibilities of things you can do is endless when it comes to the Internet. There should be no reason you should be bored or can't find anything to do. Below is a full listing of our top suggestions to do on the Internet.

Learning and research
Multimedia - Music, radio, podcasts, videos, vlog, webcam
Games and entertainment
Improve yourself
Shop - Online stores and Auctions
Directions, Maps and Geographic information
Get fit, find a date, or locate a social event
Keep up with current events
Communicate - Chat, E-mail, Forums, IM, blogs, and VoIP
Surf and find popular pages

Learning and research

The Internet contains an endless supply of information, have questions, learn about something you enjoy, or learn something new, you will find it on the Internet. Using any popular search engine you can find anything.
Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) are all fantastic examples of community driven projects (wikis) that have an almost endless amount of information that is all generated by visitors.
E-books - There are hundreds of thousands of books that have been scanned and are available on the Internet. Visit this page to see sites capable of doing this.
Academic Earth and KHANACADEMY have thousands of online lectures that can be watched on dozens of different topics.
Multimedia - Music, radio, podcasts, videos, vlogs, and webcam

With more users using broadband, multimedia rich websites are becoming a popular destination. Although modem users can still do almost all of the below suggestions, these may not be as enjoyable if you're connecting to the Internet this way. Below is our favorite multimedia related pages on the Internet.

Videos

Videos are also now becoming a great source of entertainment on the Internet. Below are a few locations where you can watch videos of all types.
Google video ,YouTube, and Vimeo are great starting points for posting and viewing videos online.
If you're wanting to watch inspiring and educational videos we highly recommend starting at TED.
Watch TV shows and movies on the Internet - Full listing of sites to watch TV shows, movies, and other related videos on the Internet.
Sites like eBaum's World, Motherboard.tv, and VidoSift are other great places that have a community of users who find and vote on the best videos around the Internet.
Homestarrunner - A funny and often witty site that contains a collection of short animated comedy clips.
Where can I post my pictures, movies, or other files online for free?

Webcam

Online Webcams allow you to peer into almost any other part of the world. There are millions of online webcams around the world and many sites that allow users to communicate via webcam.
EarthCam - Our favorite and in our opinion the best place to find live webcams from around the world.
Stickam, Ustream, and Justin.tv are all examples of online streaming services that allow anyone to stream live video from their computers.

Images and Art
Flickr - By far one of the most used and respected image sites on the Internet that allows everyone to upload, share, and view pictures of almost everything.
deviantART - Fantastic page that contains a wide collection of community uploaded art and pictures.
Cuteoverload - A great site for those of you who enjoy viewing the cute things in life.

Radio or streaming audio

Internet radio and streaming audio is another fantastic service for broadband users. Today, many of the audio players, such as Microsoft Windows Media Player, Winamp, and the iTunes player, already include a radio function and opening these programs would allow you to play radio stations for almost every music type. In addition to these players, there are dozens of online services that list millions of different stations and users' play lists, and online radio for stations in your local area. Below is a short listing of some of these sites.
Pandora - A fantastic service that allows you to specify a song or artist you like and then generate a live radio station based on the songs you like.
Slacker, Radio-locator, and Live365 are all fantastic sites that allows you to find radio stations and top streaming music.
Last.fm - Yet another fantastic site for finding more about music artists, listening to radio stations, finding related artists, etc.

Create Music

There are several services online that can be used to create your own music. One of our favorites is Avery's Music Creator. With this utility you can create your own beats in a matter of minutes.

Find and purchase music

With the introduction of MP3 files, downloadable music is another very popular thing to do on the Internet. Below is a short-listing of some of the services that allows users to legally download music from thousands of different artists.
Amazon MP3, iTunes and Napster are all great music services to browse, purchase and legally download music.

Music lyrics

There are dozens of different pages to find the lyrics to any of your favorite songs. Try Lyrics.com to find your favorite songs lyrics.

Podcasts and Talk radio

Internet podcast and talk radio shows are radio broadcasts where one or more people talk about something they enjoy, something interesting, about a service, etc. See the dictionary podcast definition for further information and computer related podcasts.

Vlog

A vlog, or video log, is similar to a blog except it's a video. see the vlogging dictionary definition for additional information about this term and vlog services.

TV and Movie research

By far one of the most interesting an informative locations on the Internet to find information about movies such as cast names, directors, year made, awards, etc. isIMDB (short for Internet Movie DataBase). Want to browse through movie posters back to 1913 try IMP Awards. How about getting the full script of movies? try IMSDb.

CD research

Similar to the IMDB, the CDDB or Gracenote is a fantastic location to research and find more out about music artists and each of the CD's they've produced.
Games and entertainment

Online games are another popular Internet activity enjoyed by people of all ages. Many online games are played by visiting a website. Below is a listing of some of these sites.
Yahoo Games, Miniclip, Pogo, iWin, Shockwave, and Newgrounds are all great pages containing thousands of free online games for for users of all ages. These games are often Flash, Shockwave, or Java and can be played through your browser without having to download and install the game.
Second Life - A fascinating online world that you can connect to freely, where hundreds of thousands of other real people have created their own place to live, shops, clothing, worlds, and more.
FreeSlots - A free and somewhat addicting site that has dozens of different online playable slot machines.
Penny-arcade, Dilbert and xkcd are just a few of the thousands of different available comics online.
Google Fight - Another fun site that allows you to enter any two words or phrases to fight against each other. The winner is decided by the most results returned by Google.

In addition to the above examples, there are thousands of other online game sites that have dozens of other games. searching for "online games" or "flash games" will return an almost endless supply of games. Also see this popular forum post on our site for other free downloadable games.
Improve yourself

Improve yourself and your abilities by practicing what you're not good at or watch how to videos. Below are some different examples.
Sites like Howcast, VideoJug and Thisishowyoudoit have a wealth of fantastic how to videos on how to do pretty much anything. For example, learn a new language, how to play an instrument, how to dance, how to cook or make a special dish, how to do magic, or improve in your favorite sport.
HowStuffWorks - Ever wonder how something works, this is your site. HowStuffWorks goes into great deal on how things in the world work.
Mental_floss - Another great page that gives you fascinating tibits of knowledge every day, brain teasers, and more.
Learn to type - Type slow? Practice typing and read through our suggestions on learning how to type faster.
43 Things - Post and share your goals with others, see the most popular goals, and work with the community in completing your life goals.
Shop - Online stores and Auctions

Internet shopping is another popular and fun thing to do on the Internet. Below are a few examples of popular online stores, auction sites, and other retail related pages.
Giveaway of the Day - Great site that gives something away free each day.
Woot - Lists the best deal on the Internet daily.
FindGift - A fantastic site to get ideas or find unique gifts for anyone or any occasion.
CamelCamelCamel - Website and service that tracks and graphs the price history of products on Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy helping you get the best price.
EBay - The most popular auction location and web site on the Internet. Allows any user to buy and sell almost anything to millions of other users from around the world.
Amazon - The largest retail site on the Internet that sells books, DVDs, games, electronics, toys, clothing, and much more.
Craiglook - Fantastic site that takes RSS feeds from the very popular craigslist site and makes finding and browsing craigslist listings a lot more enjoyable.
RetailMeNot - Dedicated site that lists coupons to major retail and online stores.
Froogle -A free service provided by Google that allows users to search millions of different online stores for the best price on almost any product.
iTunes - One of the most popular destinations to download music for Apple iPod.
Directions, Maps and Geographic information

Finding directions and getting maps to almost anywhere in the world is also becoming another popular destination on the Internet. See the maps definition for a listing of some of the services.
Get fit, find a date, or locate a local event

Get fit

There are dozens of locations on the Internet that can help you get in better physical shape, track your fitness progress, suggest workouts, etc. One of our favorite sites isDailyBurn formerly known as Gyminee.

Find a date

There are dozens of online dating sites and sites that allow for others to meet new friends. One of our favorite places that does both is PlentyOfFish.

Away from computer

There are dozens of online services that lists local events, meetings, and reviews in your area of the World. Some of our favorites are Meetup, Upcoming, and Yelp.
Keep up with current events

There are millions of news sites around the world to keep up with current events. However, there are a few gems among them. Below are our favorites.
Google News - Yet another fantastic service from Google that uses bots to go out and gather news articles from everywhere on the Internet and then properly organize them into a page of easy to read headlines.
MediaStorm - Fascinating and interesting site that takes the best stories from TV and radio and puts them in an intuitive multimedia format.
Popurls - A site that brings all the most popular web pages articles to one large listing.
TED - Great site that brings the smartest people in the world to share ideas and thoughts that are both informative and inspirational.
Current - Another great site that brings a community driven site to find the latest news and interesting things going on in the world.
FARK - Great page that takes all the news headlines from around the world and puts them in an easy to read and follow format.
Newsmap - Fantastic site that takes Google news and prints it out in a map like format showing most popular stories in larger format.
Communicate - Chat, E-mail, Forums, IM, blogs, and VoIP

Communicating with friends, family, and other people all over the world is one of the most popular things to do on the Internet. Below are common ways to do this.

Social networking

Social networking sites are the most popular destination for Internet users of all ages. Not only are these places a great way to create a presence on the Internet but also a fantastic place to connect with all your current and past friends, family, and co-workers. One of the most popular Social networking sites today and a great place to start is Facebook and Twitter. See the social networking definition for other alternatives.

Chat

Chat is a popular method of having a live text communication with other users who are interested in the same things you are. See the chat definition for further information and examples of places to chat on the Internet.

E-mail

E-mail is by far one of the most popular methods of communicating on the Internet. Anyone who is connected to the Internet or has access to the Internet will have one or more e-mail addresses. If you do not have an e-mail address or want an additional e-mail address consider setting up a webmail account. See the webmail definition for further information and examples.

Forums and Bulletin boards

A forum is a place for users to post questions, messages, and other conversations and allow hundreds and even thousands of users to participate in something they enjoy. For example, the Computer Hope forum is a location where users can ask questions about computers and talk about computers. Search for a forum relating to a topic you're interested in an become a member. For example, a search for "acura car forum" would find results for forums relating to the Acura car.

Blogs

A blog, or weblog, is a location for a person to post a log or diary of their life, or about something they enjoy. Blogs allow you to create and run your own place on the Internet and will often attract other users interested in you or the things you enjoy. See the blog definition for further information about this term and examples of the services you can use to create your own blog.

VoIP

Users who have broadband connections can use VoIP to talk to other users all around the world, much like a phone. See the VoIP definition for additional information about this technology and some ser

vices that provide it.
Surf and find popular pages

Something most people will find themselves doing often on the Internet is going from one page to another page just randomly surfing the Internet. A fantastic site and service that helps you get the most out of surfing is StumbleUpon, which allows you to only surf pages people or other friends have found interesting allowing you to find the most interesting pages on the Internet.

Other great pages for finding interesting pages on the Internet is Reddit and Digg.

Finally, if you're just looking for something in general consider just searching for it. If you can think of it, it's almost a definite that it's on the Interne

Convert Any Document or Web Page to PDF

Convert Any Document or Web Page to PDF

Somebody just told you that you need to have Adobe Acrobat (Writer) to create a PDF file? Guess what, you can get away from that pricey piece of software if you just need to convert some documents to pdf, without a need of fancy editing the pdf document.
Here's how. Thanks to the BullZip, who provides a Free Pdf printer. With this free tool, you can simply "print out" your document or webpage to a pdf file, just about the same way as you print it out to a printer.

You can visit BullZip.com for more information about the software.

Here the direct link to BullZip downloads page: Downloads
To get started, first follow the link above and download Free Pdf Printer from BullZip, then install it to your computer.
Once you're done, you might need to close the program (or the web browser) which you're currently viewing the document. This helps refreshing the list of available printers on your computer.
Once you get back to the document you want to convert, perform the same steps are you print out the document, i.e. File > Print ...
When you see the Print window pop-up, select "Bullzip PDF Printer" under "Printers", then click "OK".
BullZip PDF Printer will then start to analyze your document and display a new pop-up window, where you can direct it to the location you want to save the pdf file.
Follow the pop-up windows and.. hola! The PDF document is created!

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts

Copy only active window to clipboard Normally, the Print Screen key copies the entire display (or two displays if you got them), ALT + Print Screen only copies the currently active window to the clipboard. Whether taking a screenshot to diagnose a problem, or just because you want to show something to a friend, this will come in handy.

Fix those little mistakes Did you know you can undo almost any action? CTRL + Z is the ultimate hot key, and for sure you knew about it already, however note that undo doesn’t just apply to typing. If you accidentally delete or move a file, you can hit CTRL + Z to bring it right back to where it was. In Chrome and Firefox you can also undo closing a tab using CTRL + SHIFT + T.

Cycle through open windows Pressing ALT+TAB allows you to cycle through currently open windows. This makes switching back and forth between running processes quick and painless. If you want a more stylish method of cycling through open programs, Windows + TAB will do the job for you.Interrupt all processes CTRL + ALT + Delete is one of the most common PC shortcuts, and one almost everyone is familiar with. The important thing to note is that it interrupts all processes, including the one that is bogging down your system, which can mean the difference between needing to restart or not.

Close the current program Typing ALT + F4 will close the program that is running. This is useful as it saves you time mousing over the "X" and clicking. People will often use this as a joke, telling you to press ALT + F4 to fix a problem. Don’t fall for it unless you want to close what you are doing.

Minimize all windows Sometimes you have a bunch of stuff running, and you want it all to go away so you can get to the desktop. Simply pressing Windows + D will minimize everything you have up, which will save you some time pressing the minimize button for each window. It should be noted that Windows + M offers similar functionality, but there is no undoing, so Windows + D is the more favorable approach.

Open the task manager directly If you want to bypass the interrupt that happens when pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL and jump right to the task manager, typing CTRL + Shift + ESC launches it directly.

Close the current window/tab Stick of moving all the way to that X button? Press CTRL + W and the current window will close. (Don’t do it now, or you will miss the rest of the tricks!)

Bring up the system information window This is so much quicker than digging this out the traditional way... Just press Windows + Pause/Break and the System Information panel will be ready to go. This might be the only use for the Pause/Break key you will ever find, so enjoy it!

Better multiple monitor control There are several useful keyboard shortcuts for controlling open windows on multiple monitors. Pressing the Windows Key + Arrow Keys will cause a window to quickly snap to each side of either monitor. Alternatively, hitting Shift + Windows Key + Arrows will cause the window to jump to the other monitor. Lastly, pressing Windows + P will allow you to quickly set up a second display or projector.

9 Million in Bitcoin thrown away on Hard Drive... OOPS!!!

Bitcoins disgust me, and the price increase disgusts me, because nobody really thinks about what it means.

Why would demand for bitcoins go up? Who would want BitCoins? Most people seem to wish they had them so they can sell them; so the question is, who is willing to pay this premium?.

It takes some thought. But what kind of people would be actively seeking a virtual currency on an unregulated, decentralized marketplace?

Probably the types of people that don't want to leave a paper trail in their transactions. It's a lot harder to associate a given Bitcoin account with a person than a credit card statement, especially when that transaction record is an encrypted set of blockchains.

So we have to think- the price of Bitcoins went up a lot recently. Most people are thrilled. "yay these bitcoins are worth more"; many people will state something like yourself, Calum, "oh you guys are just jealous".

But who is stopping to think about why demand is so high? Who wants these Bitcoins, and why?

One answer, and one answer only that I can think of. You know what it is. payment for illicit content.

Now I am of course not saying the people thrilled about bitcoin, purposely active parts of that. What I'm saying is that we have to think- why is demand so high? Who wants bitcoins, and who is willing to pay that premium, and why?" And every time I ask myself that question, the only answer I can think of is that they want to use the bitcoins for something they either cannot or do not want to use legal tender for. And the only thing that comes to mind when I think of that particularly in combination with the Internet is illicit content. The Biggest one in terms of illicit content appears to be Child Pornography. More recent busts, I seem to recall, showed evidence of bitcoin transactions and/or a bitcoin wallet on the perpetrators machine.

This has been a rather well known fact. Bitcoin has practically worked with Tor, a anonymization network that has been the go-to Child Porn Spigot for years. Worse still, in using Tor, Bitcoin transactions- which otherwise only identify via IP and Bitcoin Address- become almost entirely anonymous.

Then I got to thinking, well, this is pretty well established- one of the main users of bitcoins are those who have the most to gain from it's decentralized and unregulated nature. And they would probably be the only ones actually buying bitcoins- Most folks that are excited about this price jump are miners- they don't sell them. But one has to realize that in order for you to sell a bitcoin for ~100 dollars, somebody has to be willing to buy a bitcoin for 100$.

The only thing I can ever think about when somebody mentions bitcoins is that it's being used as tool to allow sick, twisted individuals to continue to abuse children and sell their twisted abuses which will scar those children for a lifetime with other sick-twisted individuals, in exchange for a virtual currency that by it's nature is more difficult for law enforcement to track or trace transactions with.

if I had any number of bitcoins, I don't think I could sell them for that reason. A million dollars would be nice but based on what I can learn about where you can spend bitcoin (there are like 10 placed in the world that accept it, it's hardly something you can use in place of a credit or debit card), the fact that there is actually a demand and people willing to spend that much money to get bitcoins makes me strongly suspect that the people paying for that million dollars are going to be living with the psychological trauma for the rest of their lives. Or, in a worst case, not living. And it's all made so much easier for those disgusting individuals due to the decentralized, unregulated nature of Bitcoin.

Now I'm not saying Bitcoin was designed for this. Nobody had this in mind.  It just happens that the goals of "a new virtual currency that makes it so the guv'ment can't track my spending habits" and folks that go, "golly, I'm a sick, twisted individual and I would like to watch disgusting videos were children are forced to perform acts that traumatize them for the remainder of their life, assuming the videographer doesn't kill them to eliminate witnesses, but I really don't want that to show up on my credit card statement" happen to coincide in implementation.

So when you go to sell your bitcoins, ask yourself what kind of a person would actually want to spend nearly 100 dollars for a single bitcoin. I cannot think of many legitimate reasons for a person to be willing to buy a single bitcoin for 100$; I mean, of course people want to sell them, most people mining are jumping all over the chance to sell their bitcoins, but few think about what motives a person would have to spend that much money on a Bitcoin and for what purpose they wish to have Bitcoins.