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One of the greatest things about the Internet is that nobody really owns it. It is a global collection of networks, both big and small. These networks connect together in many different ways to form the single entity that we know as the Internet. In fact, the very name comes from this idea of interconnected networks.

Since its beginning in 1969, the Internet has grown from four host computer systems to tens of millions. However, just because nobody owns the Internet, it doesn't mean it is not monitored and maintained in different ways. The Internet Society, a non-profit group established in 1992, oversees the formation of the policies and protocols that define how we use and interact with the Internet.

In this article, you will learn about the basic underlying structure of the Internet. You will learn about domain name servers, network access points and backbones. But first you will learn about how your computer connects to others.

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One of the greatest things about the Internet is that nobody really owns it. It is a global collection of networks, both big and small. These networks connect together in many different ways to form the single entity that we know as the Internet. In fact, the very name comes from this idea of interconnected networks.

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"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks"

- The Bitcoin Genesis Block

In October 2008, a pseudonymous programmer by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper in which he described a protocol for a decentralized digital currency. He called this protocol Bitcoin. A few years later, Satoshi disappeared without a trace, but the technology he created would go on to change the world.

Bitcoin is now a global phenomenon. But why was it created? Why did it take off when it did? And why did it succeed where its predecessors failed?

It's tempting to start a course like this by talking about cryptography or blockchains, but if we want to understand this stuff from first principles, we have to start even simpler. To understand why cryptocurrencies were invented, you first have to understand what problem they were meant to solve.

So we will begin by trying to answer the simple question: what is money, and why did it arise?

The origins of money

Imagine we are two Neolithic farmers. You have some grain, I have some cows, and we both decide to trade. This direct exchange of commodities is known as barter.

Barter sounds lovely in principle, but barter is terribly inefficient. This is because barter suffers from the so-called double coincidence of wants. For a trade to take place, both parties must want the exact item the other person is willing to trade. What if Jane wants a cow from Jim, while Jim wants grain from Joe, and Joe wants wool from Sally? In a barter economy, this market can't clear, and everyone is forced to wait until the perfect configuration of trades arrives on the market. This means many otherwise desirable trades will never happen.

Anthropologists believe it's unlikely that money actually arose from barter, but it's nevertheless instructive to treat barter as a base case.

Often there's a commodity in high demand throughout an economy, and that commodity starts dominating trade. This commodity could be cattle, yams-or, if you're in prison, cigarettes. If this commodity becomes widespread enough, it effectively becomes a form of money, known as commodity money. But most forms of commodity money are not very scalable, and the most valued commodities tended to differ across early societies.

The first observed proto-money took the form of collectibles. Collectibles are small, mostly homogenous items such as shells or beads. Collectibles tend to be durable, easy to store or hide on one's person, difficult to find or forge, and easy to appraise in value. This made them more robust forms of money relative to many commodity forms of money like cattle.

The adoption of collectibles as durable money was pivotal in human evolution. Tribes would often specialize in hunting a particular species, but because of animal migrations, a given tribe might have very little food during parts of the year. By foraging for collectibles while their prey was in low season, they could trade with other tribes whose prey was in high season and thus had excess food. Through trade of collectibles, food could be more uniformly distributed across time and all tribes were better off.

Some historians claim that money originated out of collectibles, and others claim that money originated from credit. Credit in this context refers to the simple human accounting of favors: I let you borrow something, and I trust that you'll pay me back later. Given the close-knit nature of human tribes, it's possible that credit dominated many social relations.

Even as human tribes settled down in the neolithic era, villages tended to be small and close-knit. Thus, most people knew each other's credit-worthiness. It was possible to have a long-running bar tab at the local tavern when the bartender knew you, your family, and your status in society. In time, credit relationships like these evolved into promissory notes, and traded directly in a local economy.

But informal credit systems do not scale up to cities, where it's impossible for everyone to know everyone. To orchestrate larger societies, you eventually need a mature system of money.

So this raises the question: what does it take for something to become money?

The properties of money

The mainstream economic definition of money was first proposed by William Stanley Jevons in 1875. According to Jevons, money has three primary properties:

store of value

medium of exchange

unit of account

When an asset serves as a store of value, this means you can reliably retrieve the value you paid for that asset. This disqualifies perishable assets like yams from serving as money. If your money can rot, it's a bad store of value. So for an asset to serve as a store of value, it must be durable.

However, durability is a necessary but not sufficient condition. To retrieve the value paid for an asset implies the ability to sell it to someone later at the asset's original price. Thus, a second condition for an asset to serve as a store of value is that it must be consistently valued by others in the market.

A medium of exchange is the asset we use to directly settle transactions. This is the easiest hurdle to clear. You can use Starbucks rewards points to buy a latte, so Starbucks points function as a medium of exchange. But of course, Starbucks points aren't a great store of value-people know this instinctively and don't store their savings into Starbucks points. This is not just because it's impractical; people are aware that Starbucks might modify their rewards program to devalue these points, and there's not a stable market for selling saved up points.

But as a medium of exchange to buy coffee, Starbucks points work perfectly fine.

A unit of account is the unit in which you denominate prices. This one's simple: how do you quote the price of a home? Is the price denominated in USD, in euros, or in cowry shells? That's your unit of account.

There are times when the legally recognized currency ceases to be a unit of account. For example, in 2009 Zimbabwean dollars were undergoing rapid hyperinflation. With the prices of goods skyrocketing, it became impractical for businesses to keep marking up their prices every day in the collapsing currency. So instead, businesses denominated prices in USD and simply listed the daily USD/Zimbabwean dollar exchange rate. Thus, the Zimbabwean dollar ceased to be a unit of account and no longer meaningfully served as money.

So what Jevons ultimately tells us is that, at bottom, almost anything can be money, but few things actually are. If you're looking for candidates, it doesn't matter whether it's physical or digital, made of metal or paper-if it's durable and there's more than one of it, it can be money given the right circumstances.

This might sound like an abstract point. But there have been many cases of humans converging on unconventional forms of money, and it's often useful to understand a concept by seeing it stretched to an extreme. So we'll turn next to one of the strangest forms of money: the Yapese and their Rai stones.

The Rai stones

The island of Yap is a small island in Micronesia. The Yapese have a strange practice that dates back to at least 1000 years ago: the Yapese use "stone money."

These huge, donut-shaped discs of limestone are known as Rai stones. The largest stones weigh up to several tons-far too large for humans to easily move, much less carry in their wallets. So how is it possible for the Yapese to transact with these massive stones?

Simple: the stones never move. Instead, the Yapese "exchange" the stones entirely through social agreement.

So long as both parties agree to perform a transaction with a Rai stone (or a fraction of one), the Rai stone is considered transferred. The physical location of each stone is not considered meaningful. This transaction is recorded solely via oral history.

Once, an esteemed Yapese family was ferrying a Rai stone across the sea. Caught in a harsh storm, the boat capsized and the Rai stone sunk to the bottom of the sea.

It was widely agreed that the family was too honorable to have their wealth diminished by such an unfortuitous event. So it was decided that this Rai stone was still valid, and it continued to hold value and "change hands" even though no one could quite pinpoint where it rested on the seafloor.

These days, the Yapese primarily use US dollars, and Rai stones are only exchanged in special circumstances such as marriages or political negotiations. But the story of the Rai stones illustrates an important lesson: anything can serve as money, so long as there is stable social consensus about its value. While it's nice for money to have some intrinsic value, it's not strictly necessary.

As Yuval Noah Harari puts it in his book Sapiens:

Why should anyone be willing to exchange a fertile rice paddy for a handful of useless cowry shells? Why are you willing to flip hamburgers, sell health insurance or babysit three obnoxious brats when all you get for your exertions is a few pieces of coloured paper? People are willing to do such things when they trust the figments of their collective imagination. Trust is the raw material from which all types of money are minted.

Or, as, Peter Thiel puts it:

Money is just a bubble that never pops.

The Rai stones illustrate an important point: the form that money takes is arbitrary. What matters is the underlying function it plays in a society.

But let's return to our world. Next, we will trace the story of how money historically evolved.

The evolutionary lineage of modern money really begins with precious metals. The first use of metals as money is believed to begin around 1000 BC, at the advent of the Iron Age.

It might seem obvious now that precious metals are valuable, but it's worth asking: why did so many societies converge on metals as a form of money? There are some intrinsic reasons why precious metals made better money than collectibles. Precious metals are:

visually striking for decoration and jewelry

scarce (which leads to low supply inflation)

durable and difficult to corrode

hard to fake

divisible (by breaking them into smaller quantities)

Initially, chunks of gold and silver metal were used directly as forms of money. Eventually coinage began around 600 BC in modern day Turkey. These first coins were minted out of a gold and silver alloy.

Why mint coins though? It's an awful lot of work. What's so bad about just using gold and silver pieces directly?

The obvious answer is that coinage standardizes quantities of payment. But this isn't the full answer-after all, most small societies operated on credit relationships, and settling via gold was rarely necessary in local trade networks.

Anthropologists like David Graeber speculate that coinage arose to serve the needs of organized armies and mercenaries. Soldiers travel far distances, and they do not have long-lasting credit relationships. So the only way for them to receive compensation is through forms of money that will be recognized in far away places. Even if a counterparty didn't recognize the sovereign backing the coin, they'd still be willing to value the precious metal in the coin itself.

Paper money, on the other hand, would not arrive until 1000 AD, a full 1600 years later. Paper money was first invented in China during the Song Dynasty and would much later be exported to Europe by Marco Polo. This paper money makes for an interesting case study.

The Song Dynasty's paper bills were supposed to be redeemable for fixed exchange rates in gold, silver, or silk. But in practice, conversion was never allowed. So the bills essentially traded entirely without any commodity backing. Thus, the first paper money was also arguably the first fiat currency.

What do we mean by fiat currency? The word fiat literally means "by faith." A fiat currency is one that has no intrinsic value, but is only valuable because the exchanging parties agree to its value, or because a third party uses its power to maintain that value. This puts fiat money in stark contrast with commodity money, which is intrinsically valuable. Absent the implicit backing of a third party, fiat paper bills would basically be worthless pieces of paper.

This begs the question: why didn't fiat money arise earlier? It's a lot cheaper to print fiat money than to mint gold coins. Of course, paper was invented in China and only reached Europe in the 13th century, but you don't necessarily need paper to create fiat currencies. Pennies and nickels are fiat coins today, since their underlying metals are worth less than their face values. Why didn't it arise earlier?

David Graeber speculates that the reason fiat money first arose in China is because it was the only government centralized and powerful enough to impose top-down control over their domestic economy. Keep in mind, history usually overemphasizes kings and their kingdoms-they dictate the history books, after all-but kings and their goings-on had little influence in most people's daily lives. As an ancient Chinese proverb puts it, 天高皇帝远: " heaven is high and the emperor is far away." Thus, it usually wasn't government-minted currency that circulated in a local economy.

Over time, governments would gain much more control over their domestic economies thanks to technological advances and more developed bureaucracies. And with that control came economic standardization onto the sovereign-backed currency.

The history of modern banking

Today, the majority of financial transactions are intermediated by banks. But banking is a relatively recent invention in monetary history. Money changers, loan sharks, and depositories have ancient roots, but the first modern banks were created in Renaissance Italy, run by merchant families like the Medicis. Bank failures were common during this time, and most banks did not survive long.

Paper money would finally arrive in Europe in 1661 in the form of Swedish bank notes. Prior to centralized banking, all banking was privately operated. Each bank would issue its own bank notes, usually redeemable for gold held in the bank's reserves.

As the US Dollar is now the reserve currency of the world, it's worth reflecting on America's monetary history. When America was founded, the federal government was responsible for minting silver and gold coins, with the US dollar defined as being worth a fixed quantity of precious metal. Yet most of money circulating in the economy was private bank notes issued by various commercial banks-at one point there were over 5,000 different types of notes in circulation. The US would briefly print fiat paper money to finance the Civil War in 1861, but afterward returned to money backed by precious metals.

Given that most bills were issued by private banks, the financial system was very loosely knit. This led to frequent panics and runs on banks. To stabilize the banking system, in 1913 the US established an independent central bank called the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve was given the exclusive right to print US dollars, with the explicit mandate of preventing banking panics and monetary crises. It was initially required to have gold backing 40% of its outstanding notes.

After WWII, the US rose to become the world's financial superpower, and it used that power to spearhead an international monetary system known as Bretton Woods. Under the Bretton Woods system, all major world powers fixed exchange rates of their own currencies against the USD (with about 1% of leeway), with the USD itself pegged to gold. This stabilized exchange rates between the world's major currencies.

But the enforced stability of Bretton Woods would not last. In the 1970s, against the US's booming economy and increased government spending on the Vietnam war, the Federal Reserve printed more USD than it had gold backing it. This made the dollar overvalued under the Bretton Woods system. Foreign governments began exiting the Bretton Woods system and converted their excess USD into gold, depleting US gold reserves. Nixon realized that if this continued, it would precipitate a crisis. So in 1971 Nixon broke from Bretton Woods, canceling the international convertibility of USD into gold, and permanently breaking the gold standard and turning the US dollar into a pure fiat currency.

With the US dollar now a fiat currency, the Federal Reserve had much more freedom to dictate the monetary policy for the country and, to a significant extent, the world. Since then, all major world currencies have also become fiat currencies, centrally managed by their respective central banks.

At first glance, transitioning to a fiat currency seems like a strange thing. One day, the US dollar was valuable because it could be exchanged for gold. The next day, it's valuable because... just because?

What gives a fiat currency its value? Is it like the Rai stones, where it's valuable simply because we all agree it's valuable?

That's partly correct. And certainly US dollars will be valuable because US businesses prefer to be paid in them, and lots of people want to buy things from US businesses. But what's to stop the US economy from standardizing on another currency? Technically, US businesses are legally free to accept payment in whatever currency they want.

The reason why the US dollar holds its value is because the US government makes two important guarantees about US dollars. The first guarantee is that the US government and Federal Reserve will take reasonable actions to preserve its stable purchasing power on the market. The second guarantee is that the payment of US taxes will only be accepted in the US dollar. Thus, because there are many people who need to pay taxes to the US government, there will be high demand for US dollars (this is also augmented by petrodollar demand). These guarantees, at bottom, ground the US dollar's value as a fiat currency.

Fast forwarding to the 21st century, a lot has happened since the end of the gold standard. In 2008, we saw a financial crisis threaten to destroy the global banking system. In response to cascading banking failures, central banks around the world bailed out financial institutions, printed huge amounts of money, and engaged in massive asset-purchasing operations-a practice known as quantitative easing.

Against this backdrop of financial chaos, a pseudonymous programmer by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto was whittling away on the Bitcoin protocol. And it was this headline during the midst of the financial crisis, printed on the cover of a British newspaper, that Satoshi would embed into the first block of the Bitcoin blockchain: " The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks. "

But we're not quite ready to get to Bitcoin yet. To fully understand why cryptocurrencies arose, we have to look not just at money, but also at the history of payments: how money has historically been transferred.

The development of payments technology

Since the advent of money, there have been many technologies that facilitated the payment of money: paper bills, cheques, and letters of credit all have ancient origins.

But the modern technology of payments really began to evolve with the invention of the credit card. Though credit cards existed as early as the 1920s, early versions of credit cards were issued by a single merchant for use at their own stores. The idea of a credit card as a universal payment scheme would not arrive until the 1950s.

The first credit card to achieve commercial success was Diner's Club in 1950. The original card was made of cardboard and was only accepted at 27 restaurants in New York. This number quickly ballooned as consumers began adopting cashless payments. Visa would be founded in 1958, Mastercard in 1979. Given that credit scores and financial surveillance were not as widespread in the early days of credit cards, many credit card networks bootstrapped adoption via direct mail campaigns, literally mailing a card to every address in an entire zip code.

By the 80s, credit cards had become ubiquitous in American society. They quickly spread to Europe and beyond, and have since led to a revolution in cashless payments.

The next iteration in payments technology would be launched by the Internet, which began gaining mainstream consumer adoption in the late 90s. In the early Internet, almost all payments took place via credit cards. This is because credit card networks were already quite robust, and almost everyone already had one. But Internet-native payment schemes would eventually arise, such as Cybercash and DigiCash. The first widely successful online payments company was PayPal in 2002, which went public and was later purchased by eBay for $1.5B.

Today, there's wide variation in how consumers make online payments. In most countries and in the US, consumers prefer credit cards or bank cards. But other common methods include Paypal, eWallets such as AliPay or Skrill, and in some countries, cash on delivery. With the advent of cryptocurrencies, this landscape has evolved even further.

The birth of Bitcoin

Human history has seen many evolutions in the forms and incentives around money. Of course, there's much more to the history of money than we could cover in this brief survey. But any history of money must now end with the same final chapter: the invention of cryptocurrencies.

Since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin has taken the world by storm. In 2010, one bitcoin was worth $0.003, and in December 2017, Bitcoin hit its all time high of almost $20,000 a bitcoin, an increase of 6,000,000x. Today the price of a Bitcoin hovers at around $7000 a bitcoin. It's estimated that Bitcoin has on the order of 25M holders worldwide -a small figure by global scales, but one that continues to grow.

It's a staggering story. But Bitcoin's story is about more than just price: its genesis is deeply rooted in ideology. We'll now turn to another aspect of how cryptocurrencies arose: from the subculture known as the cypherpunks. In the next lesson, we'll learn about the cypherpunks, their previous attempts at building digital currencies, and why every other attempt had failed-up until Bitcoin.

Assignment

At the end of every lesson there will be an assignment to test your comprehension. We strongly recommend you do every assignment, as it'll help you better internalize the material. Some of the assignments will be simple multiple-choice quizzes, and others will be full-on coding problems.

To start, the first assignment will be multiple choice.

Click here to go to the assignment! Once you've completed it, you're ready to move on.

Additional Reading

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"The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" - The Bitcoin Genesis Block In October 2008, a pseudonymous programmer by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper in which he described a protocol for a decentralized digital currency. He called this protocol Bitcoin.

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Five Ways to Help Protect Your Identity | Federal Trade Commission

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Sharing Information: A Day in Your Life | Federal Trade Commission

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Our new normal and coming of age in a pandemic

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Tweens, Teens, Tech & Mental Health | Common Sense Media

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Common Sense Media improves the lives of kids and families by providing independent reviews, age ratings, & other information about all types of media.

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If you ever wanted to know the meaning of WiFi, UX, UI, AI and many other digital or career related terminology, you will find it here. All definitions are contextual and easy to understand. Unless otherwise stated, definitions are from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

Unfortunately there don't seem to be any matching terms in the glossary

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If you ever wanted to know the meaning of WiFi, UX, UI, AI and many other digital or career related terminology, you will find it here. All definitions are contextual and easy to understand. Unless otherwise stated, definitions are from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

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The Joke's On You: Final Exam Covering Introduction to Internet Safety - Assignment at Teacher Made

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(Test Prep)

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Long before Myspace Tom forced us to pick favorite friends or Mark Zuckerberg tried to make "poking" a thing (it still exists, by the way), a software engineer named Tim Berners-Lee proposed a little something called the World Wide Web.

On March 12, 1989, the then-33-year-old British computer scientist detailed his vision for a unified computer network in a document called " Information Management: A Proposal." People weren't immediately stoked - but they were intrigued. Mike Sendall, Berners-Lee's boss at Switzerland-based large particle physics laboratory, CERN, offered the note, "vague but exciting." The following year, Sendall allowed the young Oxford grad time to work on his passion project.

The endeavor was born from frustration. Berners-Lee was just trying to troubleshoot an annoying issue when he composed his proposal. "In those days, there was different information on different computers, but you had to log on to different computers to get at it," he wrote in an FAQ to students. "Also, sometimes you had to learn a different program on each computer. Often it was just easier to go and ask people when they were having coffee." In an effort to solve the inefficiency, Berners-Lee suggested building a "large hypertext database with typed links."

By the fall of 1990, Berners-Lee had created a few important technologies that you might recognize by name: HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the formatting language for the web; URI (Uniform Resource Identifier or URL), the unique "address" used to identify each resource on the web; and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), which allows for the retrieval of linked resources from the web. He also wrote the first web page editor/browser with the not-so-catchy name, WorldWideWeb.app, and created the first web server, "httpd".

By the end of that year, Berners-Lee made the very first internet webpage, and by 1991, he started letting people outside of CERN into the new online world. "The decision to make the Web an open system was necessary for it to be universal," he wrote. "You can't propose that something be a universal space and at the same time keep control of it."

And so Berners-Lee and others advocated for CERN to permanently make the underlying code available on a royalty-free basis, and in April 1993, that vision became a reality. The rest (followers, trolls, memes, gifs, stories, snaps, etc., etc.) is history.

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Long before Myspace Tom forced us to pick favorite friends or Mark Zuckerberg tried to make "poking" a thing (it still exists, by the way), a software engineer named Tim Berners-Lee proposed a little something called the World Wide Web.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you ever wanted to know the meaning of WiFi, UX, UI, AI and many other digital or career related terminology, you will find it here. All definitions are contextual and easy to understand. Unless otherwise stated, definitions are from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

Unfortunately there don't seem to be any matching terms in the glossary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you ever wanted to know the meaning of WiFi, UX, UI, AI and many other digital or career related terminology, you will find it here. All definitions are contextual and easy to understand. Unless otherwise stated, definitions are from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

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Sure, we worked way too hard for that pun in the title, but it's a serious question: CERN, or the European Organization for Nuclear Research is one of the world's largest, most prominent centres for scientific research. The experts at CERN use the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the fundamental building blocks of matter, and over the years it's become the subject of numerous rumors, allegations, concerns and conspiracy theories. Join the guys as they delve into the fact, fiction and controversy surrounding CERN and the Large Hadron Collider.

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It's a bit like money ... and it's a bit like a financial bubble. It's Bitcoin, and it may be giving us a glimpse of the future of money.

Bitcoin is a type of virtual currency brought to life by the internet, very powerful computers and the willingness of lot of people looking to embrace new forms of monetary exchange.

Bitcoin shares some similarities with real-world currencies, particularly its growing acceptance as a form of payment with more and more merchants, retailers and individuals, both online and offline. You can buy Microsoft products with Bitcoin, buy airline tickets through Expedia, or buy gift cards to superstores like Walmart.

Yet Bitcoin is also very different from traditional currencies. Unlike dollars or pounds, Bitcoin isn't backed by any government. It's a completely decentralized form of money. Bitcoin isn't linked to any sort of central banking system or issuing authority, and that's a big part of its appeal - instead of being swallowed into a system that's often sullied by human greed and manipulation, this currency exists in an online world driven by mathematics and clever encryption protocols.

You can use Bitcoin for all sorts of real transactions. To do so, you first buy bitcoins however you like, either through your credit card, a bank account or even anonymously with cash. Then your bitcoins are transferred directly into your Bitcoin wallet, and you can send and receive payments directly to a buyer or seller without the need for a typical go-between, such as a bank or credit card company.

By skipping the middleman in the transaction, you pay far less in associated fees. Each party in the deal can also maintain a much higher level of anonymity, which has both pros and cons for everyone involved. Think of Bitcoin as a digital equivalent of a cash transaction. If you're so inclined, it's a nearly untraceable way to do business.

Spending or receiving Bitcoin is as easy as sending an e-mail, and you can use your computer or your smartphone. That simplicity belies the fact that there's a whole lot of complicated math protecting all of these transactions to maintain their legitimacy and security.

Keep reading to see more about the mysterious rise of Bitcoin, as well as the inner workings of the network that keeps this so-called "cryptocurrency" alive and kicking.

The genesis of Bitcoin is the stuff of internet legend. In 2008, a person (or persons) working under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a document outlining the feasibility of the Bitcoin concept. Nakamoto mentioned the 2008 financial crisis - as well as the failures of government-backed currencies and corruption of existing banking systems - as a motivating factor for inventing a new currency.

Bitcoin would be, according to its creators, a purer form of money, working for regular citizens of the world instead of being leveraged against them by the powers that be.

In 2009, Nakamoto released the first Bitcoin application, and also "mined" the first bitcoins for circulation. Then it was just a matter of spreading the word about this new currency.

To use Bitcoin, you need a Bitcoin wallet, which encrypts and maintains your bitcoin balance on your computer, smartphone or in the cloud. Then you can fill your wallet with bitcoins by using your bank account, credit card or other form of payment.

After that, it's just a matter of finding a vendor that will accept Bitcoin as payment. Although pickings were slim when Bitcoin first launched, these days there are many merchants that accept these newfangled coins. That includes restaurants, clothing stores, dentists and many others. Some people even use Bitcoin for property rental and vehicle purchases. The gift card website Gyft accepts payment in Bitcoin, letting you turn Bitcoin into store credit that can be spent at every major retailer and restaurant in America.

If you follow financial news at all, you already know that Bitcoin isn't just used for goods and services. A lot of the hype around Bitcoin has centered around speculation. That is, people are using online currency exchanges like Coinbase to invest their real-world dollars and yen in Bitcoin hoping that the latter will appreciate in value. Already, fortunes have been made (and surrendered) as the value of Bitcoin has careened all over the charts.

But how does this invisible, virtual currency wield so much financial power? How can a brand-new type of money be a workable concept? Well, it's complicated. Keep reading and you'll see how Bitcoin comes to life.

Bitcoins aren't like gold. No one can dig them out of the ground. They're not like paper money, either. No central authority prints hard-to-counterfeit, tangible Bitcoin bills for circulation. Instead, Bitcoin depends entirely on a decentralized computer network and some amazing feats of cryptography.

For starters, understand that the entire Bitcoin system runs on a P2P (peer-to-peer) network. This P2P architecture is similar to file-sharing networks like those that allow people to freely distribute data of all kinds, including copyrighted music, movies and more. It's a resilient system.

In other words, there isn't a central computer hub running all of the Bitcoin-related processes. Instead, each Bitcoin user's computer is part of the network, collectively sharing the computing burden of generating bitcoins and logging their transactions. It's this decentralized nature that makes Bitcoin impervious (so far) to government meddling, free of regulation and monitoring.

Before anyone can even use a bitcoin, the coins must be mined by a so-called Bitcoin mining process. Any computer can begin mining for bitcoins by using a free mining application. Mining requires the entire network of Bitcoin-participant computers to do a set amount of work before being rewarded with a bitcoin.

Basically, that work means a whole lot of number crunching - and the spoils go to the owner of the computer that completes the set of number crunching at hand. Some people invest many thousands of dollars in very powerful computers just to mine bitcoins. Mining has become a computing arms race, and only those at the leading edge stand to gain anything in the way of profit.

The exact amount of work required is variable. The network adjusts that workload so that the number of bitcoins rises at a steady, predetermined rate. It will continue to do so until the number of bitcoins in circulation reaches its ultimate number, which is 21 million. Currently, the mining process creates 25 bitcoins every 10 minutes. Every four years, the number of coins that can be mined will be halved, until the capped limit of coins is reached in the year 2140. After that point, the number of bitcoins in circulation will be static.

As we explained, you hold your own bitcoins in a digital wallet. When you send or receive coins, they are verified by a digital signature, called a public-encryption key, which prevents counterfeiting and makes coins recognizable to the network. In truth, you hold no actual bitcoins in your wallet, just the public encryption keys associated with each of your Bitcoin transactions.

One of the main features of Bitcoin - and all virtual currencies - is that the decentralized network shares an open ledger (called the blockchain) of all Bitcoin transactions. The blockchain provides a trustworthy and redundant way of maintaining the number of bitcoins in circulation.

All of this works thanks to Bitcoin's ingenious open-source (that is, viewable to everyone) code. Open-source software is commonly used by programmers who are opposed to corporate profiteering and control. Any skilled programmer can see how Bitcoin's programming works, and that's OK - it's not the code that protects transactions. Instead, it's the shared blockchain ledger that verifies the legitimacy of each transfer.

Once you have a stash of Bitcoin in your wallet, you can leave it there and hope that it appreciates in value. Or you can cash it out into local currency.

If you store Bitcoin on your computer, it's imperative to remember that there's no central company with a backup of your wallet. That means you have to create a backup record of your balance. It's best to store that record on a device such as a flash memory drive that can you keep in a safe location. Otherwise, if your hard drive dies and takes your wallet down with it, you'd lose your Bitcoin savings.

Another option is to use an online Bitcoin wallet that stores all of your encryption keys in the cloud. The advantage of an online wallet is that you don't have to worry about constantly backing up your data, but the downside is that you're putting your Bitcoin security in the hands of a third party. If they lose your keys, there's no way to get your Bitcoin back.

Bitcoin transactions are irreversible and generally fast, but not instantaneous like credit cards. Because the Bitcoin verification process must share data regarding the transaction with the entire network, sometimes you'll wait minutes before a payment is completed.

A big advantage of Bitcoin is its lack of transaction fees. Because there are no national or international regulations for Bitcoin, you can transfer the virtual currency into or out of any country without the steep wire fees that banks and services like Western Union charge. And because the system has no governing authority, your account has no limits and can never be frozen.

It's at this point that many people wonder about the legitimacy of Bitcoin. How can a currency just appear overnight on the internet and have actual value? Economists might offer a long, philosophical explanation about the history of money, but the short answer is this: all currencies have value only because people believe that they have value.

Bitcoin is no different in that regard. It's been embraced by libertarian-minded activists, financial speculators and people who simply no longer trust government-backed banking systems. These people trust the mathematics and encryption of the Bitcoin system, and their trust has proven contagious, lending even more legitimacy to this virtual currency.

Bitcoin is slowly gaining more legitimacy. But, there's the matter of people really trusting a currency. And that's where this new currency gets scary.

Rampant speculation has turned the valuation of Bitcoin into a neck-snapping roller coaster ride. In 2010, a unit of 1 bitcoin was worth just a few cents. Over the next few years, Bitcoin's value rose and fell from hundreds of dollars to just a handful. But nothing quite prepared investors for 2017, during which wild Bitcoin speculation drove the price of a single bitcoin from less than $1,000 to over $16,000 [source: Russo].

To many observers, the surging popularity and price of Bitcoin looks a whole lot like the dot-com and housing bubbles. Economists warn that the Bitcoin bubble, like all bubbles, will eventually burst and take a lot of fortunes with it. From this angle, Bitcoin sounds like a currency built only for suckers and speculators.

There's also the fact that online currency exchanges continue to be a hub for most Bitcoin transfers. The exchanges are necessary, of course, because they help you convert Bitcoin to and from local currency. However, in a system that's supposed to be decentralized, these exchanges offer up a tasty target for government regulators and malicious computer hackers.

Hackers, for example, may not yet be able to exploit Bitcoin's elegant blockchain technology to create fake coins or fraudulent transactions. But they can definitely attack the exchanges, which are as vulnerable as any other kind of website. In one widely publicized incident, hackers launched a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack on the popular exchange Mt. Gox in 2014, which resulted in the loss of 850,000 bitcoins [source: Gibbs]. Chaos ensued and Bitcoin's value plummeted.

Bitcoins are definitely a high-risk asset. And as you're about to see, there are other potential downsides to the Bitcoin system.

If Bitcoin seems a bit anarchist, well, that's because it is. Bitcoin dodges the traditional paradigm in which government regulators control and manipulate the money supply.

With Bitcoin, people all over the world can engage in online gambling, which the U.S. federal government seriously disapproves of. Bitcoin was also infamously and irrevocably linked to Silk Road, a black market website where people could anonymously purchase about anything, including illegal drugs. The original Silk Road was shut down in 2013 and its founder sentenced to life in prison, but plenty of Silk Road-style marketplaces have since popped up on the dark web [source: Greenberg].

Bitcoin's reputation was soiled by these early associations with Silk Road and other criminal networks. Media reports frequently highlighted the role of Bitcoin on the dark web. Need a kidnapper or hired gun? How about some compromising pictures of your political enemy? With enough Bitcoin and some investigative work, you could potentially find the right person for any job [source: Buterin].

But as more cryptocurrencies have entered the market, criminals are relying less on Bitcoin. In fact, Bitcoin's much-heralded anonymity can be compromised by law enforcement, pushing more cybercriminals to switch to fully encrypted currencies like monero and dash [source: Cheng].

The relative anonymity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is also a boon for tax evasion. Traditionally, hiding your assets in some offshore account takes some real legwork. With Bitcoin, though, you can potentially stash millions of dollars in your digital wallet safely out of view of all tax collectors, and you could complete this process in just an afternoon.

Governments and concerned citizens obviously take issue with these sorts of underhanded internet shenanigans. Governments don't want citizens skimping on taxes, and their drug-enforcement agencies understandably aren't happy about people finding high-tech ways to skirt their laws.

In spite of these sort of legal or ethical concerns, and even though their value is crazily unpredictable, Bitcoin has endured. That leaves a lot of economists and consumers wondering just what's in store for the future of currency.

The sharp peaks and valleys in Bitcoin's value are clear warning signs that this new cryptocurrency is anything but stable. Until more people actually use the currency to buy things, as opposed to speculating in the currency itself, it's difficult to say what role Bitcoin will play in the future economy.

Is the world really ready to ditch our centuries-old paper and coin, government-backed monetary systems for a purely digital currency? Or will the blockchain technology behind Bitcoin prove more revolutionary than the currency itself?

Bitcoin's success as a speculative commodity has opened the floodgates to hundreds of new cryptocurrencies, each competing for a niche in the market. As we mentioned earlier, some differentiate themselves by their deep encryption and anonymity. Others boast faster transaction processing speeds. But the most promising Bitcoin alternative to date is something called Ethereum.

Ethereum is less of a pure currency than a full-service financial platform. Unlike Bitcoin, you can't use Ethereum's currency (called ether) to buy stuff in the real world. The real power of Ethereum comes from its next-generation blockchain technology and robust programming language. Economists are excited about the potential for Ethereum to usher in an era of "programmable money" and "smart contracts" that run on cryptocurrencies. Again, the underlying blockchain technology may be the game-changer, not the currencies themselves.

Whether it's Bitcoin, monero, dollars or euros, our global economy requires all of us to trust a system of currency that makes sense. Perhaps the future of money is going to be a lot more fluid, with electronic transactions processed on a secure, decentralized blockchain in every currency imaginable.

But before that happens, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will need to address their energy problem. All of the computing power required to mine and verify Bitcoin leaves a huge carbon footprint. Environmental watchdogs calculate that a single Bitcoin transaction consumes as much energy as nine US homes burn through in a full day [source: Digiconomist].

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It's a bit like money ... and it's a bit like a financial bubble. It's Bitcoin, and it may be giving us a glimpse of the future of money. Bitcoin is a type of virtual currency brought to life by the internet, very powerful computers and the willingness of lot of people looking to embrace new forms of monetary exchange.

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Seems like your web browser knows more about you than your friends. It feels weird that you can be searching for trips to Paris and then ads for vacation packages to France start popping up on random web pages or in your Facebook feed.

Is it time to use the incognito or private feature on your browser? Maybe, maybe not. Privacy modes have limitations you should understand.

"Ever since private browsing was first created, users have been confused about the difference between protecting their online activity from other users of a shared device, from websites and ad networks, or from their internet service providers," emails Seth Schoen, a senior staff technologist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). "Private browsing mode does well with the first of these, sometimes partly addresses the second, and has absolutely no effect on the third. The browser developers have tried to make this clear."

How to Go Incognito

Let's say you want to use the incognito feature in the Chrome browser or Chrome app (The name of this feature varies depending whether you're using Chrome, Firefox, Safari or something else.) Here's what to do:

1. To the right of the Chrome address bar, tap the three buttons in a vertical row (which brings up more features).

2. Look for the New Incognito tab. Tap on that and a new window opens up.

3. Alternately, pressing Control+Shift+N will send you to Incognito mode in just one step.

4. You can tell you're in Incognito mode by the Incognito icon in the middle of the screen and at the top right.

In addition to the Incognito icon, you'll also see these warnings regarding private browsing on the home screen:

"You've gone incognito. Now you can browse privately, and other people who use this device won't see your activity. However, downloads and bookmarks will be saved. Chrome won't save the following:

Your activity might still be visible to:

Here's what this means: Browsers typically store the web addresses (called URLs) of the sites you visit. That makes it easier for you to find them again later.

In private (incognito) mode, your browser works a bit differently. Your search history won't be stored locally. This is great for concealing your browsing history from anyone else who's using the same device, such as when you're shopping for a surprise gift or if you're on adult-oriented websites. But that doesn't mean your activities are entirely private.

Your browser also stores cookies, which are little data files that have a plethora of uses. Cookies can automatically enter passwords, for instance, so you don't have to type them each time you visit a site. Or, they can provide tracking information for advertising companies that really want to understand how you browse from site to site, all the better to help someone, somewhere sell products to you.

"The original design of web tracking features like cookies was based around the expectation that tracking would be within individual sites only, and would not connect separate browsing sessions unless the user wanted it to," says Schoen. "Both of these norms have been violated massively by the internet advertising industry, which often creates detailed, comprehensive profiles of what people do online over time."

Schoen adds that in some cases, private browsing mode can temporarily disconnect someone's browsing from the technical means used to maintain most of those profiles. In other words, in private mode cookies won't provide advertisers with the detailed information they'd otherwise mine from your activities.

Private Mode is Not Anonymous Mode

But it's critical to understand that using incognito mode doesn't make you anonymous. It's not a sort of superpower of online invisibility.

It won't stop your internet service provider (ISP) or employer from tracking your web activities. It's not going to conceal your location from the sites you frequent. If you're logged in to your Google account, Google's still tracking your search patterns, even if you choose incognito mode. If you're surprised by this, you're not alone - one 2018 study showed that misconceptions about private browsing run rampant (Fifty-six percent of respondents thought search queries would not be saved in private mode, even though they were also logged in to their Google accounts and 40 percent thought their geolocations would be hidden. A further 27 percent thought the private mode offered protection against malware and viruses. None of these are true.)

Even though you're far from anonymous, private browsing still has a number of good uses. In addition to preventing other local users from seeing your search history, sometimes it's good for dodging paywalls that block you from reading content on subscriber-only news sites. And private browsing may reduce the odds that your web searches will be skewed by the algorithms that track your usage in an effort to anticipate the information you're looking for. It will also stop that annoying tracking by websites and ad networks, as in the Paris example we gave at the beginning. And let's say a friend wants to borrow your computer to quickly check his Facebook page; he could do that in incognito mode and log in to his own Facebook account without first having to log out of yours.

A Better Form of Online Anonymity

If you really need online anonymity, you'll have to do more than use private mode. "The most accessible options are virtual private networks (VPNs) and Tor, which route your communications through intermediaries in ways that decrease what your ISP knows about what you're doing online, and also decrease what websites you visit know about where you're connecting from," Schoen says.

But he's quick to point out that these are not magic remedies that make you totally anonymous.

"Both of these solutions also suffer from many myths and misconceptions. Although the technical details of who can see what are different from the private browsing mode situation, those details still exist and users should become familiar with them before relying on these privacy technologies for anonymity."

With a bit of research, though, you can begin the journey to better online privacy. In doing so, you can better guard your personal and professional life and have more peace of mind on a network that's full of potential pitfalls.

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What Does Browsing in Incognito Mode Really Do?

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Seems like your web browser knows more about you than your friends. It feels weird that you can be searching for trips to Paris and then ads for vacation packages to France start popping up on random web pages or in your Facebook feed.

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“You can turn on encryption on your Android, iPhone, iPad or Mac. Pick a long password made up of six or more random words to lock your computer, or six or more numbers as a PIN to lock your phone. Don’t reuse passwords! Use a password manager, or write down your passwords on paper and store it in your wallet instead. Turn on “two-factor” or “two-step” authentication on your Google, Facebook or other online accounts: this will help stop those logins from being hacked. Avoid clicking on strange links or email attachments. To send messages safely and securely, use an end-to-end encrypted messenger app like Signal or WhatsApp. If you want to be anonymous online, try using the Tor Browser.”

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Malicious attackers can take over your device-whether it's a laptop computer, a desktop PC, a smartphone or tablet-and use it to find out more about you, spy on you, or plant evidence. This animation explains a few of the ways computers get taken over (or "pwned," "0wned," etc.), and how you can protect yourself.

1. An email attachment that contains malware : You can get tricked into running a program by clicking on an email attachment that appears innocent, but is actually infected with malware. Malware can turn on your computer's microphones and broadcast your conversations, record your screen, watch what you type on your keyboard, copy files, or even insert false records. Be very careful opening strange email attachments and double check with the person who sent it before you open it if you're unsure.

2. A malicious weblink: It's possible to infect a computer with malware remotely just by visiting a webpage (sometimes called a "drive-by download"). If a link prompts you to install software, don't agree. And if your web browser or a search engine warns you a site may be malicious, hit the back button.

3. USB or Thunderbolt connector: Attackers can copy over a malicious program or otherwise take over your machine by plugging in a USB or Thunderbolt connector. The same goes for CDs and DVDs. Sometimes they will contain a program (autorun.exe) that runs automatically so your computer will be infected immediately if you insert the disc. So be careful what you put in or attach to your computer, and if you want it to stay secure, don't give strangers access to your device.

Remember, modern computers are designed to fend off these malware attacks. As long as we keep building them as such, you'll have a chance to fight back against being 0wned. Find tips for detecting attacks on your computer in our guide on malware.

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Animated Overview: Protecting Your Device From Hackers

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Malicious attackers can take over your device-whether it's a laptop computer, a desktop PC, a smartphone or tablet-and use it to find out more about you, spy on you, or plant evidence. This animation explains a few of the ways computers get taken over (or "pwned," "0wned," etc.), and how you can protect yourself.

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Software Updates and Why They're Important

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Malicious attackers can take over your device-whether it's a laptop computer, a desktop PC, a smartphone or tablet-and use it to find out more about you, spy on you, or plant evidence. This animation explains a few of the ways computers get taken over (or "pwned," "0wned," etc.), and how you can protect yourself.

1. An email attachment that contains malware : You can get tricked into running a program by clicking on an email attachment that appears innocent, but is actually infected with malware. Malware can turn on your computer's microphones and broadcast your conversations, record your screen, watch what you type on your keyboard, copy files, or even insert false records. Be very careful opening strange email attachments and double check with the person who sent it before you open it if you're unsure.

2. A malicious weblink: It's possible to infect a computer with malware remotely just by visiting a webpage (sometimes called a "drive-by download"). If a link prompts you to install software, don't agree. And if your web browser or a search engine warns you a site may be malicious, hit the back button.

3. USB or Thunderbolt connector: Attackers can copy over a malicious program or otherwise take over your machine by plugging in a USB or Thunderbolt connector. The same goes for CDs and DVDs. Sometimes they will contain a program (autorun.exe) that runs automatically so your computer will be infected immediately if you insert the disc. So be careful what you put in or attach to your computer, and if you want it to stay secure, don't give strangers access to your device.

Remember, modern computers are designed to fend off these malware attacks. As long as we keep building them as such, you'll have a chance to fight back against being 0wned. Find tips for detecting attacks on your computer in our guide on malware.

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Animated Overview: Protecting Your Device From Hackers

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Malicious attackers can take over your device-whether it's a laptop computer, a desktop PC, a smartphone or tablet-and use it to find out more about you, spy on you, or plant evidence. This animation explains a few of the ways computers get taken over (or "pwned," "0wned," etc.), and how you can protect yourself.

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Take cybersecurity into your own hands. In this Lab, you'll defend a company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Your task is to strengthen your cyber defenses and thwart the attackers by completing a series of cybersecurity challenges. You'll crack passwords, craft code, and defeat malicious hackers.

Video Intro About this Lab Educator Guide

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Take cybersecurity into your own hands by thwarting a series of cyber attacks.

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Trying to protect all your data from everyone all the time is impractical and exhausting. But, have no fear! Security is a process, and through thoughtful planning, you can put together a plan that's right for you. Security isn't just about the tools you use or the software you download. It begins with understanding the unique threats you face and how you can counter those threats.

In computer security, a threat is a potential event that could undermine your efforts to defend your data. You can counter the threats you face by determining what you need to protect and from whom you need to protect it. This is the process of security planning, often referred to as " threat modeling ."

This guide will teach you how to make a security plan for your digital information and how to determine what solutions are best for you.

What does a security plan look like? Let's say you want to keep your house and possessions safe. Here are a few questions you might ask:
What do I have inside my home that is worth protecting?

Assets could include: jewelry, electronics, financial documents, passports, or photos
Who do I want to protect it from?

Adversaries could include: burglars, roommates, or guests
How likely is it that I will need to protect it?

Does my neighborhood have a history of burglaries? How trustworthy are my roommates/guests? What are the capabilities of my adversaries? What are the risks I should consider?
How bad are the consequences if I fail?

Do I have anything in my house that I cannot replace? Do I have the time or money to replace these things? Do I have insurance that covers goods stolen from my home?
How much trouble am I willing to go through to prevent these consequences?

Am I willing to buy a safe for sensitive documents? Can I afford to buy a high-quality lock? Do I have time to open a security box at my local bank and keep my valuables there?

Once you have asked yourself these questions, you are in a position to assess what measures to take. If your possessions are valuable, but the probability of a break-in is low, then you may not want to invest too much money in a lock. But, if the probability of a break-in is high, you'll want to get the best lock on the market, and consider adding a security system.

Making a security plan will help you to understand the threats that are unique to you and to evaluate your assets, your adversaries, and your adversaries' capabilities, along with the likelihood of risks you face.

How do I make my own security plan? Where do I start? Anchor link

Security planning helps you to identify what could happen to the things you value and determine from whom you need to protect them. When building a security plan answer these five questions:

1. What do I want to protect?

2. Who do I want to protect it from?

3. How bad are the consequences if I fail?

4. How likely is it that I will need to protect it?

5. How much trouble am I willing to go through to try to prevent potential consequences?

Let's take a closer look at each of these questions.

What do I want to protect?

An " asset " is something you value and want to protect. In the context of digital security, an asset is usually some kind of information. For example, your emails, contact lists, instant messages, location, and files are all possible assets . Your devices may also be assets.
Make a list of your assets: data that you keep, where it's kept, who has access to it, and what stops others from accessing it.
Who do I want to protect it from?

To answer this question, it's important to identify who might want to target you or your information. A person or entity that poses a threat to your assets is an " adversary ." Examples of potential adversaries are your boss, your former partner, your business competition, your government, or a hacker on a public network.
Make a list of your adversaries, or those who might want to get ahold of your assets. Your list may include individuals, a government agency, or corporations.
Depending on who your adversaries are, under some circumstances this list might be something you want to destroy after you're done security planning.

How bad are the consequences if I fail?

There are many ways that an adversary could gain access to your data. For example, an adversary can read your private communications as they pass through the network, or they can delete or corrupt your data.

The motives of adversaries differ widely, as do their tactics. A government trying to prevent the spread of a video showing police violence may be content to simply delete or reduce the availability of that video. In contrast, a political opponent may wish to gain access to secret content and publish that content without you knowing.

Security planning involves understanding how bad the consequences could be if an adversary successfully gains access to one of your assets. To determine this, you should consider the capability of your adversary. For example, your mobile phone provider has access to all your phone records. A hacker on an open Wi-Fi network can access your unencrypted communications. Your government might have stronger capabilities.
Write down what your adversary might want to do with your private data.
How likely is it that I will need to protect it?

Risk is the likelihood that a particular threat against a particular asset will actually occur. It goes hand-in-hand with capability. While your mobile phone provider has the capability to access all of your data, the risk of them posting your private data online to harm your reputation is low.

It is important to distinguish between what might happen and the probability it may happen. For instance, there is a threat that your building might collapse, but the risk of this happening is far greater in San Francisco (where earthquakes are common) than in Stockholm (where they are not).

Assessing risks is both a personal and a subjective process. Many people find certain threats unacceptable no matter the likelihood they will occur because the mere presence of the threat at any likelihood is not worth the cost. In other cases, people disregard high risks because they don't view the threat as a problem.
Write down which threats you are going to take seriously, and which may be too rare or too harmless (or too difficult to combat) to worry about.
How much trouble am I willing to go through to try to prevent potential consequences?

There is no perfect option for security. Not everyone has the same priorities, concerns, or access to resources. Your risk assessment will allow you to plan the right strategy for you, balancing convenience, cost, and privacy.

For example, an attorney representing a client in a national security case may be willing to go to greater lengths to protect communications about that case, such as using encrypted email, than a family member who regularly emails funny cat videos.
Write down what options you have available to you to help mitigate your unique threats. Note if you have any financial constraints, technical constraints, or social constraints.
Security planning as a regular practice Anchor link

Keep in mind your security plan can change as your situation changes. Thus, revisiting your security plan frequently is good practice.

Create your own security plan based on your own unique situation. Then mark your calendar for a date in the future. This will prompt you to review your plan and check back in to determine whether it's still relevant to your situation.

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Trying to protect all your data from everyone all the time is impractical and exhausting. But, have no fear! Security is a process, and through thoughtful planning, you can put together a plan that's right for you. Security isn't just about the tools you use or the software you download.

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Here are some basic tips to consider when thinking about your own digital security.

Good security decisions begin with having proper knowledge about your own situation. To start, ask yourself the following questions:

What do I want to protect?

Who do I want to protect it from?

How likely is it that I'll need to protect it?

How bad are the consequences if I fail?

How much trouble am I willing to go through to try to prevent potential consequences?

Once you answer these questions you can better assess your digital security needs and create a security plan, or threat model . You already have more power than you think!

The old adage that "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" applies to security too. For example, the best door lock is of no use if you have cheap window latches. Similarly, encrypting your email so it won't get intercepted in transit won't protect the confidentiality of that email if you store an unencrypted copy on your laptop and your laptop is stolen. Think about every part of your information and computer use and try to identify any weak links in your digital security practices.

Simpler is Safer and Easier Anchor link

Some people are tempted by every shiny, new security solution they hear about. But soon they find themselves using so many tools, and trying so many things, that they can't keep them all straight! Having a complex security system makes it harder to identify the weak links. So keep it simple. Sometimes the safest solution may be the least technical solution. Computers can be great for many things, but sometimes the security issues of a simple pen and notepaper can be easier to understand, and therefore easier to manage.

More Expensive Doesn't Mean More Secure Anchor link

Don't assume that the most expensive security solution is the best; especially if it takes away resources needed elsewhere. Low-cost measures like shredding trash before leaving it on the curb can give you lots of bang for your security buck.

It's Okay To Trust Someone (But Always Know Who You're Trusting) Anchor link

Computer security advice can end up sounding like you should trust absolutely no one but yourself. In the real world, you almost certainly trust plenty of people with at least some of your information, from your close family or companion to your doctor or lawyer. What's tricky in the digital space is understanding who you are trusting, and with what. You might give a list of passwords to your lawyers: but you should think about what power that might give them-or how easily a bad actor could then access your passwords. You might write documents in a cloud service like Dropbox or Google that are only for you: but you're also letting Dropbox and Google access them too. Online or offline, the fewer people you share a secret with, the better chance you have of keeping it private.

There is No One Perfect Security Plan Anchor link

Make a security plan that works for you, and for the risks you face, and for the implementation steps you and your colleagues will take. A perfect security plan on paper won't work if it's too difficult to follow day-to-day.

What's Secure Today May Not Be Secure Tomorrow Anchor link

It is crucially important to continually re-evaluate your security practices. Just because they were secure last year or last week doesn't mean they're still secure! Keep checking sites like SSD, because we will update our advice to reflect changes in our understanding and the realities of digital security. Remember: security is a continual process.

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Here are some basic tips to consider when thinking about your own digital security. Good security decisions begin with having proper knowledge about your own situation. To start, ask yourself the following questions: What do I want to protect? Who do I want to protect it from?

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Basic security precautions for non-profits and journalists in the United States, early 2019.

1. Don't send any sensitive information by email.

2. Don't store sensitive information in cloud services like Evernote or Dropbox.

3. Don't use your fingerprint to lock/unlock devices.

4. Don't back up mobile messages to the cloud/iCloud/Google Drive.

5. Don't use your phone number for password recovery.

6. Don't use an Android phone, use an iPhone instead.

7. Don't take the devices you work on across the US border.

8. Don't plug your device directly into an unknown port (such as an airport charger) without the safeguards outlined below.

1. Use a long passphrase to lock your devices.

2. Make sure you apply all software updates. Turn on auto-updates where possible.

3. Use an iPhone 6 or later. Don't use an Android phone.

4. Set a keycode for your phone at least six digits long, or use a hard-to-guess passphrase

5. Use Gmail, with a physical security key on your laptop and Google Authenticator on your phone.

6. Use a password manager and have it generate random passwords for every site you use. A good password manager is 1password.

7. Turn on two-factor authentication on Twitter, Facebook, Github and anywhere else that supports it.
Don't use SMS to your phone number as the second factor.

8. Use Signal or WhatsApp on your phone to communicate with other people, rather than SMS or iMessage.

Follow this guide to secure your WhatsApp settings.

Follow this guide to secure your Signal settings.

9. Do as much of your work as possible on an iPhone or iPad rather than on a laptop. Use a bluetooth keyboard for easier typing.

10. Consider using a Chromebook. Chromebooks are secure options especially for opening attachments: you can safely open them on it.

11. If you have a Windows laptop, uninstall any antivirus products except for Windows Defender (from Microsoft).

12. Use Chrome as your browser. Avoid installing spurious, unknown or unnecessary extensions.

13. Turn on full-disk encryption on all devices.

1. Don't take devices across the US border. Have a dedicated laptop and phone for travel abroad, don't keep sensitive information on them, and don't use them anywhere else.

2. Never plug your device into an unknown port. Never plug an unknown device into your computer or mobile device. Carry a "USB data blocker" (either the whole cable or an adapter that plugs into your cable like this) to charge at airport or hotel chargers.

3. If you believe your hotel room is monitored, work under the covers on the bed. It is less conspicuous, and prevents video surveillance of what you're typing and viewing.

4. Don't use hotel phones for calls to sources. Assume that anything you say inside a hotel room may be recorded.

5. Don't leave your phone or laptop unattended; always carry them with you.

Last updated: April 5, 2019

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Basic security precautions for non-profits and journalists in the United States, early 2019. Don't send any sensitive information by email. Don't store sensitive information in cloud services like Evernote or Dropbox. Don't use your fingerprint to lock/unlock devices. Don't back up mobile messages to the cloud/iCloud/Google Drive.

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Courtesy never goes out of style. Which is why researchers at Carnegie Mellon University developed an automated method to up the politeness quotient for various communications. The method, aimed at applications such as chatbots, emails and blogs, involves what is known as politeness transfer. Here's how it might be put to use.

A company working to create a chatbot - a computer program that simulates human conversation and interactions with customers - may use this approach to train its chatbot to respond more politely. So, if the chatbot makes requests or gives instructions that are impolite, or carry a neutral tone, this new method will rearrange and/or add words to the chatbot's responses to improve the tone.

For example, if a chatbot gives the response, "I need more information," the program might teach it to instead say, "Would you please give me more information?"

When it comes to emails and blogs, a businessperson or blogger may use this automated program to check the tone of the email or blog entry before sending or posting.

Language technologists have been training artificial intelligence for years to change negative communications to positive ones. But training for politeness was a distant goal, in part because it's not as easy as it may seem.

"It's not just about using words such as 'please' and 'thank you,'" Shrimai Prabhumoye, one of the program's creators said in a statement. "Sometimes, it means making language a bit less direct, so that instead of saying 'you should do X,' the sentence becomes something like 'let us do X.'"

There was also the problem of defining politeness, which differs across cultures. In this inaugural version of the program, researchers used North American standards of politeness.

Ironically, to create a politeness response database for their method to use, the researchers culled 1.4 million polite sentences from emails exchanged by employees of Enron - the Texas energy company that went bust due to fraud and corruption. Thanks to lawsuits that came out of the Enron scandal, some half-a-million corporate emails became public, and now are being used for various research projects such as this one.

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Could Your Computer Help You Be More Polite?

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Courtesy never goes out of style. Which is why researchers at Carnegie Mellon University developed an automated method to up the politeness quotient for various communications. The method, aimed at applications such as chatbots, emails and blogs, involves what is known as politeness transfer. Here's how it might be put to use.

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In a way, big data is exactly what it sounds like -- a lot of data. Since the advent of the Internet, we've been producing data in staggering amounts. It's been estimated that in all the time leading up to the year 2003, only 5 exabytes of data were generated -- that's equal to 5 billion gigabytes. But from 2003 to 2012, the amount reached around 2.7 zettabytes (or 2,700 exabytes, or 2.7 trillion gigabytes) [sources: Intel, Lund]. According to Berkeley researchers, we are now producing roughly 5 quintillion bytes (or around 4.3 exabytes) of data every two days [source: Romanov].

The term 'big data' is usually used to refer to massive, rapidly expanding, varied and often unstructured sets of digitized data that are difficult to maintain using traditional databases. It can include all the digital information floating around out there in the ether of the Internet, the proprietary information of companies with whom we've done business and official government records, among a great many other things. There's also the implication that the data is being analyzed for some purpose.

We've generated lots of it ourselves by making online purchases and participating in social media, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Big data can include digitized documents, photographs, videos, audio files, tweets and other social networking posts, e-mails, text messages, phone records, search engine queries, RFID tag and barcode scans and financial transaction records, though those aren't the only sources. You're producing data every time you do anything online, leaving a digital trail that others can come along and mine for useful information.

The numbers and types of devices that produce data have been proliferating as well. Besides home computers and retailers' point-of-sale systems, we have Internet-connected smartphones, WiFi-enabled scales that tweet our weight, fitness sensors that track and sometimes share health related data, cameras that can automatically post photos and videos online and global positioning satellite ( GPS) devices that can pinpoint our location on the globe, to name a few. Don't forget weather and traffic sensors, surveillance cameras, sensors in cars and airplanes and other things not connected with individuals that are constantly collecting data. The large numbers of electronic devices that generate and upload data have given rise to the term "the Internet of things."

You'll find multiple definitions of big data out there, so not everyone agrees entirely on what is included, but it can be anything anyone might be interested to know that can be subjected to computer analysis. And these large, unwieldy sets of data require new methods to collect, store, process and analyze them.

How Big Data is Analyzed and Used

Big data has to be collected, massaged, linked together and interpreted for it to be of any use to anyone. Companies and other entities need to filter the vast amount of available data to get to what's most relevant to them. Fortunately, hardware and software that can process, store and analyze huge amounts of information are becoming cheaper and faster, so the work no longer requires massive and prohibitively expensive supercomputers. Some of the software is becoming more user friendly so that it doesn't necessarily take a team of programmers and data scientists to wrangle the data (although it never hurts to have knowledgeable people who can understand your requirements).

Companies take advantage of cloud computing services so that they don't even have to buy their own computers to do all that data crunching. Data centers, also called server farms, can distribute batches of data for processing over multiple servers, and the number of servers can be scaled up or down quickly as needed. This scalable distributed computing is accomplished using innovative tools like Apache Hadoop, MapReduce and Massively Parallel Processing (MPP). NoSQL databases have been developed as more easily scalable alternatives to traditional SQL-based database systems.

Much of this big data processing and analysis is aimed at finding patterns and correlations that provide insights that can be exploited or used to make decisions. Businesses can now mine massive amounts of data for information about consumer habits, their products' popularity or more efficient ways to do business. Big data analytics can be used to target relevant ads, products and services at the customers they believe are most likely to buy them, or to create ads that are more likely to appeal to the public at large. Companies are now even starting to do things like send real-time ads and coupons to people via their smartphones for places that are near locations where they have recently used their credit cards.

It's not just for making us buy stuff, however. Businesses can use the information to improve efficiency and practices, such as finding the most cost-effective delivery routes or stocking merchandise more appropriately. Government agencies can analyze traffic patterns, crime, utility usage and other statistics to improve policy decisions and public service. Intelligence agencies can use it to, well, spy, and hopefully foil criminal and terrorist plots. News outfits can use it to find trends and develop stories, and, of course, write more articles about big data.

In essence, big data allows entities to use nearly real-time data to inform decisions, rather than relying mostly on old information as in the past. But this ability to see what's going on with us in the present, and even sometimes to predict our future behavior, can be a bit creepy.

The idea of big data makes a lot of us uneasy. It sounds a lot like Orwell's Big Brother, and with ads from companies that seem to know what we're doing and the recent NSA domestic spying revelations, it is understandable that some people find the massive amount of information out there about all of us disturbing.

People can tell lots about you from this data, including your age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, income level, health status, tastes, hobbies, habits and a whole host of other things that you may or may not want to be public knowledge. They need only have the means and the will to gather and analyze it. And whether they mean well or ill, it can have unintended consequences.

We give up more information than we realize to companies with whom we do business, especially if we use loyalty cards or pay with credit or debit cards. Someone can learn a lot about you just from analyzing your purchases. Target received some press when it was discovered that they could pinpoint which customers were pregnant and even how close they were to their due dates from things like the types of supplements and lotions they were buying. In one case, Target began mailing coupons for baby products directly to a teenage girl, sparking her father's ire against the company for sending her what he considered age-inappropriate ads -- until he found out about her pregnancy [sources: Datoo, Duhigg, Economist].

Governments and privacy advocates have made attempts to regulate the way people's personally identifiable information (PII) is used or disclosed in order to give individuals some amount of control over what becomes public knowledge. But predictive analytics can bypass many existing laws (which mainly deal with specific types of data like your financial, medical or educational records) by letting companies conclude things about you indirectly, and likely without your knowledge, using disparate pieces of information gathered from digital sources. Some companies are using the information to do things like check potential customers' credit worthiness using data other than the typical credit score, which can be good or bad for you, depending upon what they find and how they interpret it. One worry, though, is that this type of personal information can lead to hard-to-detect employment, housing or lending discrimination. And worse yet, it may not always be entirely accurate.

It's also possible for patterns seen in big data to be misinterpreted and lead to bad decisions. Like any tool, the results all depend upon how well it is used. Even though math is involved, big data analytics is not an exact science, and human planning and decision-making has to come in somewhere. With huge data sets, judgment calls need to be made about what is important and what can be be ignored. But performing big data analytics well can give companies a competitive advantage.

Such analysis can be used for things that are obviously good, such as fighting fraud. Banks, credit card providers and other companies that deal in money now increasingly use big data analytics to spot unusual patterns that point to criminal activity. On an individual account, they can quickly be alerted to red flags like purchases of unusual items, amounts the customer normally wouldn't spend, an odd geographical location or a small test purchase followed by a very large purchase. Patterns across multiple accounts, like similar charges on different cards from the same area, can also alert a company to possible fraudulent behavior.

Huge data sets can aid in scientific and sociological research, election predictions, weather forecasts and other worthwhile pursuits. Social media posts and Google searches have even been used to quickly find out where disease outbreaks are occurring. So it's not all bad news. It'll just take a while to work out all the potential problems and to implement laws that would protect us from potential harm. Until then, if you're worried, you might want to revert to cash purchases and watch what you put out there about yourself. Still, we're probably too far down the rabbit hole for any of us to be entirely off the radar.

Author's Note: What is 'big data'?

Like anything, big data can be used for good, for ill, and for lots of stuff in between. Having ads and coupons targeted at us can be a convenience or a major annoyance. And it's more than a little unnerving the amount strangers can learn about us just because we're swiping plastic in their stores or using their cards.

Loyalty cards I'd always figured were ways to gather data on our purchases, but I hadn't really appreciated how much similar data was being tied to us individually through debit/credit purchases until now, or the incredible detail about our lives that could be discerned from it. And this isn't even including all the other information about us out there on the Internet.

The thought of my every move being analyzed makes me want to go off the grid somewhat, stop posting online and use cash for everything. Although most of us, including me, will probably continue on as we are for convenience purposes. I just might post and buy as though I'm being watched.

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In a way, big data is exactly what it sounds like -- a lot of data. Since the advent of the Internet, we've been producing data in staggering amounts. It's been estimated that in all the time leading up to the year 2003, only 5 exabytes of data were generated -- that's equal to 5 billion gigabytes.

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Many of us have dreamed of smart homes where our appliances do our bidding automatically. The alarm sounds and the coffee pot starts brewing the moment you want to start your day. Lights come on as you walk through the house. Some unseen computing device responds to your voice commands to read your schedule and messages to you while you get ready, then turns on the TV news. Your car drives you to work via the least congested route, freeing you up to get caught up on your reading or prep for your morning meeting while in transit.

We've read and seen such things in science fiction for decades, but they're now either already possible or on the brink of coming into being. And all this new tech is forming the basis of what people are calling the Internet of Things.

The Internet of Things (IoT), also sometimes referred to as the Internet of Everything (IoE), consists of all the web-enabled devices that collect, send and act on data they acquire from their surrounding environments using embedded sensors, processors and communication hardware. These devices, often called "connected" or "smart" devices, can sometimes talk to other related devices, a process called machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and act on the information they get from one another. Humans can interact with the gadgets to set them up, give them instructions or access the data, but the devices do most of the work on their own without human intervention. Their existence has been made possible by all the tiny mobile components that are available these days, as well as the always-online nature of our home and business networks.

Connected devices also generate massive amounts of Internet traffic, including loads of data that can be used to make the devices useful, but can also be mined for other purposes. All this new data, and the Internet-accessible nature of the devices, raises both privacy and security concerns.

But this technology allows for a level of real-time information that we've never had before. We can monitor our homes and families remotely to keep them safe. Businesses can improve processes to increase productivity and reduce material waste and unforeseen downtime. Sensors in city infrastructure can help reduce road congestion and warn us when infrastructure is in danger of crumbling. Gadgets out in the open can monitor for changing environmental conditions and warn us of impending disasters.

These devices are popping up everywhere, and these abilities can be used to enhance nearly any physical object.

The phrase "Internet of Things" was coined by Kevin Ashton, likely in 1999 as the title of a corporate presentation he made at his place of employment, Proctor & Gamble. During his time there, Ashton came up with the idea of putting a RFID tag on each lipstick and having them communicate with a radio receiver on the shelf to track sales and inventory and signal when restocking was needed. He posits that such data collection can be used to solve lots of problems in the real world [sources: Ashton, Gabbai, Simmonds].

Billions of connected devices are part of the Internet of Things. They use built-in hardware and software to send and receive data via various communication protocols. They might use our smartphones as their gateway to the Internet, connect to some other piece of hardware in our homes that's acting as a hub or connect directly through our home Internet service. They often send data to cloud-computing servers where it's then aggregated and analyzed. We can usually access the results via apps or browsers on our mobile devices or home computers. Some can even be set up to update your status on various social networks.

Despite the fact that most of us do not have smart homes full of interacting gadgets yet, the IoT is already quite huge. The estimates are all over the place, with researchers likely using different criteria for inclusion, but by some accounts, there are already between 15 and 25 billion connected devices, with the count expected to grow to anywhere from 50 to 212 billion by 2020 [sources: FTC, Intel, McLellan, OIC]. Some analysts even estimate that there will be around a trillion connected devices by 2025 [source: Wasik].

As huge as that number is, it seems less implausible when you realize that you can embed or attach sensors and tiny computing equipment to just about anything. Many of us have a smartphone, a device used as an access point for many connected gadgets, that's also an IoT device in its own right. Wearable fitness trackers are fairly common, too. And embedded processing, sensing and communication equipment is being added to nearly any device you can think of, from bathroom scales to refrigerators - even shoes. Smart thermostats, smoke alarms and security cameras can track your habits to help you save on energy bills, let you remotely see camera views of your home, send you a warning when something isn't right and make it easy to contact emergency services. You can even buy small tags to put on and track anything from your car keys to your pets and kids.

Lots more connected devices are either out already or hitting the market soon. Right now, we are likely to have a smattering of smart devices that we can interact with individually (often via separate phone apps), but that for the most part don't work in conjunction with one another. However, companies and industry groups are working to create standards and platforms to make it easier for all these devices to be programmed to work together more seamlessly, as well as to improve security. Outside the home, lots of industries and cities are adopting, or have already adopted, technologies that add to the Internet of Things, too.

Once there are more devices that can work with other devices, even those from different manufactures, we'll be able to automate lots of mundane tasks. We've essentially given common physical objects both computing power and senses. They can take readings from our surrounding environment (even our own bodies) and use the data to change their own settings, signal other devices to do so and aggregate it for us to peruse. A lot of them perform actions based on complex algorithms, not just the simple if-then directions of past embedded computing, that either occur within their own processors or on cloud servers.

There is still lots of innovation going on, so all these smart gadgets are bound to enable things we're not even considering right now.

The technology behind the Internet of Things has been a long time in the making, even starting before we had computers. Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication has been a thing for quite some time, perhaps starting with the telemetric systems of the early 20th century that transmitted encoded readings from measuring instrumentation over phone lines, radio waves or satellite communications. The first was used in 1912 to transmit data from a power plant in Chicago to a central office via telephone lines. Telemetry has since been used for things like monitoring weather and tracking wildlife, and it's even used to monitor the occupants and equipment on the International Space Station (ISS) [sources: Llewellyn, TechTarget].

We have been living in the computer age since the middle of the 20th century, and we've been in the age of the Internet since ARPANET was created by the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1969. It wasn't until Tim Berners-Lee unveiled the World Wide Web in 1991 that a lot of people began hopping online, and now it's more unusual not to be connected to the Internet. The web grew, high-speed Internet entered the home and wireless networking became ubiquitous. And all that time, microchips and other computing equipment were getting smaller and smaller until we finally started putting them in mobile devices. Our smartphones of today can hop on the net via cellular or WiFi signals and talk to other devices through Bluetooth and other local communication methods. And thanks to the same technology, so can a lot of other electronic gadgets.

The processing of data on web-connected servers in large data centers, what we refer to as the cloud, has also contributed greatly to the ability of everyday gadgets to become part of the IoT. These devices may connect to the Internet by sending data to your phone or some other dedicated hardware in your home that acts as a hub over a local communication method, such as:

That connection can be made directly through your router or modem via WiFi or wired methods like Ethernet, cable or power line networking (signals sent directly over your home's power lines). It could also bypass your home network entirely via cellular communication. They may also communicate with other smart devices in the vicinity.

The connected gadgets of the IoT contain computing hardware, including processors with embedded programming telling them what to do, sensors that gather various sorts of readings (such as temperature, moisture, light, motion, chemical levels, heart rate and body movement) and communication hardware that can send and receive signals.

Some connected systems may be able to use other nearby devices to gather data, like city road systems that signal smartphones to help monitor traffic conditions. Smart devices can work in conjunction with tagging technology including RFID tags, QR codes, barcodes and the like to obtain data about items. The devices also need a power source, which can include a connection to a power outlet, a solar panel, or even replaceable or rechargeable batteries, provided the embedded hardware is of the low-power variety. Companies are also working on wireless power for a possible future power source.

The devices may be run mostly via their own embedded software or firmware, but they can also offload a lot of the processing to cloud-based software via the Internet, where they can crunch more data. Some use advanced algorithms that let them learn from and adjust to various stimuli and patterns (letting them program themselves, to an extent). This sending and processing of the sensor data is often nearly instantaneous (thanks to the usually lightning-fast speeds of Internet communication), allowing the devices to react in real-time.

At the moment, a lot of connected devices can talk to the Internet and to our phones, and maybe even some related products, but most of them can't talk to one another because of proprietary hardware and software with differing standards, languages and communication protocols. For most of the current remotely controlled smart household items, you'll need to use a different app or website to interface with the device or look at the data, unless they were specifically designed by the manufacturer to work together. In other words, the alarm clock talking to the coffee pot isn't easily achievable just yet unless you are an electronics hobbyist or the same company makes smart versions of them.

There aren't any universal standards or platforms to allow seamless interaction between all smart gadgets and enable you to control them from a central app, but several groups are working on creating standard protocols and software to make interoperability of multiple devices from different manufacturers a reality. The AllSeen Alliance, created by Qualcomm and joined by other companies, is working on an open-source, platform-independent software framework called AllJoyn. Cisco, Samsung, Intel and others are also working on their own open-source platform called IoTivity. The Thread Group, headed by Nest, ARM and Samsung, but comprising more than 160 members including Qualcomm, released the specs and documentation for their IP-based protocol for networking low-powered connected devices in July 2015. And CableLabs is reportedly looking into making cable boxes work as hubs to connect multiple devices.

There are a number of other smart device platforms out or coming out, including Apple's HomeKit, Google's Project Brillo, SmartThings, Ninja Blocks, Evrythng, Samsung Artik and Wink. Some of these are hardware hubs and software, and others are just software applications or platforms (either to be set up by a user or implemented by the manufacturers themselves). Some require licensing, and others are open-source. For the most part, they are compatible with multiple types and brands of devices, but none are all encompassing. Having a variety of equipment accessible from a central point of entry would add ease, convenience and security to automating your smart home.

Another major issue for the Internet of Things is a conundrum for the Internet itself, too. The standard identifier used to route Internet traffic to and from networked devices is the IP (Internet protocol) address. In its first and still-prevalent form (the IPv4 32-bit standard created in 1981), an IP address consists of four numbers separated by periods, each between zero and 255 (that's 256 possibilities for each of the four slots). Because of those limitations, the maximum number of available addresses on this standard is capped at around 4.295 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. will run out of IPv4 addresses in 2015, and that some other countries already have, making companies scramble to buy up unused addresses from others or move to the new IPv6 system [source: McMillan].

IPv6, a 128-bit standard, could allow for more than 340 undecillion addresses (that's 340 followed by 36 zeros). Its format consists of eight sets of four-character hexadecimal values separated by colons. In the cases of IPv4 and IPv6, fewer addresses than the maximum number are publicly available because of related rules and set-aside blocks, but in the latter case, the available number will still far exceed the number of devices that will be available in the years to come (or maybe ever). This means each device could be assigned a unique IP address. Organizations need to put money and effort into making their hardware, software and networks compatible with the new IP addresses, although lots of newer equipment, operating systems and browsers can already handle IPv6 [sources: Fiveash, Hardiman, McMillan].

An interim solution that a lot of entities already use is network address translation (NAT). NAT allows you to map whole networks of devices to a single IP address, which allows the Internet to see the network as its destination device. Then the network servers differentiate between the devices within that network to get data to and from the right places. This scheme is better for computing equipment within organizations than for gadgets in peoples' homes, however.

The devices that contribute to the Internet of Things span personal, household, public, business and industrial spaces, and any area that's not affected by them now likely will be in the future. The smart gadgets that many of us see and interact with daily are our Internet-connected smartphones, which have sensors including accelerometers, gyroscopes, GPS and sometimes heart-rate monitors, but those are just the tip of the iceberg.

In the personal-item sphere, we have wearable devices like fitness trackers and heart monitors that use our phones to send and receive data. Smartwatches, like Apple Watch and Pebble, perform those tasks and many more in conjunction with our phones. Sensors and microprocessors on clothing aren't far behind (and are possible to create now with sewable boards and sensors from Arduino and other companies). Even pets can be added to the list of "things" we can add sensors to for tracking purposes. We also already have cameras that send pictures to the Internet, scales that can share our weight on social media, toothbrushes that monitor our brushing habits and gaming systems that listen for verbal commands.

A lot of household appliances, including thermostats, water heaters, security cameras and lights, can gather data, be accessed remotely and communicate via the Internet when there's a problem. Some even learn your patterns over time to change their settings or alert you when something suspicious happens. Connected garage doors and digital door locks can let you into your home with data from your phone instead of a traditional key. WiFi-enabled stoves and ovens can be monitored or turned off or on remotely. One theoretical appliance that people bring up a lot is a refrigerator that can track its contents and let you know what you're out of or what you could make for dinner with your current ingredients. Be assured, someone is working on it.

We're in the early stages of smart cities, where entire metros are being covered in sensors and other tech. Devices that can take sensor readings and transmit them are ideal for things like utility usage monitoring; in most areas this still requires workers taking meter readings from individual houses. Smart devices could enable monitoring for hazardous road conditions, pollution levels, and water and energy consumption. Roads will (and in some cases do) have sensors to detect potential headaches like traffic and road conditions. Smart cars or smartphones in the vicinity can be alerted to traffic delays. Other potential uses include adjusting traffic lights to suit real-time conditions, monitoring garbage cans to know when they need pickup and providing information on available parking. Scientists are working on tiny sensors to place in cement and other materials so the physical condition of the infrastructure itself can be detected before structural issues lead to disasters such as bridge collapses.

Cars are getting smarter, too. GPS in cars has been a thing for years, and we've had attachable toll tags that pay automatically as we pass through toll stations, but we're starting to add more sensors and computing functions to automobiles. Smartcars can act as entertainment and information hubs, provide WiFi to other devices and track driving metrics (including speed and fuel efficiency). And one day soon, we'll likely have self-driving cars that allow hands- and eyes-free driving, all the while monitoring the road and nearby vehicles to prevent accidents. Already there are cars and services that allow you to start or locate your car and unlock doors remotely, as well as contact emergency services and roadside assistance.

There are already a lot of connected devices in use in the healthcare industry, and many more are in the works. Doctors and other caregivers will be able to monitor patients' vital signs, activity and other important metrics remotely, saving lives and perhaps allowing elderly people to live independently longer. Embedded sensors in hospital beds and garments can also gather important data about patients, and researchers are working on things like carpets that can detect falls and tiny computing equipment that can be injected into the human body.

There are even more smart devices in manufacturing and other businesses where unmanned monitoring can save a lot of time and money. GE experimented with various sensors in the ceramic mixing process for battery manufacturing. The researchers analyzed the data to determine what they needed to monitor to know when the ceramic mix was just right, which has allowed them to get predictably even consistency and greatly reduced defect rates [source: Wasik]. The status and condition of products can be monitored from initial materials all the way to the end of production. Similar monitoring can apply to just about any business. In retail, inventory can be tracked and alerts can be sent when items need restocking. In agriculture, soil and crops can be monitored for irrigation and other needs, and livestock can be tagged and located. In office buildings, environmental controls can be automated to reduce energy waste and cut costs. The possibilities are endless.

A lot of us perform monetary transactions and place loads of information about ourselves online, so we're probably aware that there's data about us floating around in the cloud. But now our inanimate objects are starting to generate and transmit even more information about our daily lives, raising both privacy and security concerns.

Already the analysis of big data is used to target us with appropriate ads, and connected devices like our phones enable the ads to follow us around, alerting us to deals as we're nearing a particular store, for instance. Data is also used to discover things about us, like our purchasing and traveling patterns, our income levels and our health status.

The retail chain Target once angered the dad of a teenager for targeting baby related ads at his daughter. He confronted a store manager, asking whether they were trying to encourage her to get pregnant, only to later discover that she already was. Target had used data analysis to target ads at people they could tell were likely pregnant because of their purchases [source: Hill]. Such data can also be used for things like detecting and stopping fraudulent use of credit cards and bank accounts. But most good things can also be used for ill, and data analysis might enable hard-to-detect biases in awarding credit, jobs, housing and other needs. The amount of surveillance made possible by systems that can recognize faces or identify us by our phones, cars or other smart technology is also a tad frightening.

There's also the danger of connected devices being hacked. That familiar sci-fi plot of our machines gaining sentience and turning against us is unlikely to play out in the near future, but outside entities are another matter. Our machines are gathering and transmitting a great deal of information about us, such as video from inside our homes, our location and activities, health measurements and the like, and ill-intentioned people can potentially break in and steal data, spy on us or wreak havoc on our systems. Imagine people being able to see into your home, turn your stove on all day while you're at work, or shut down or divert your smartcar while you're in it. There have even been some really creepy cases of people using a software vulnerability to hack into web-enabled baby monitors to shout obscenities at small children [source: Hill].

Security flaws have been found in smart devices like security cameras, light bulbs and health monitors. Some security breaches might be minor annoyances, but others could be unsettling or downright dangerous. If personally identifying information is involved, security gaps could lead to identity theft or other financial loss. Security issues can also be costly to manufacturers if they get sued or fined over breaches, or if customers lose faith in the brand.

Heavily testing devices' security, frequently updating firmware and software, and using lots of data encryption will be paramount. Adopting industry standards across manufacturers and devices could also help reduce security issues. Industry businesses can shore up their own internal IT security and put safeguards on who has access to collected data. They can also give consumers options on how much data is collected and kept, and how it's allowed to be used. Some experts also suggest limiting the amount of collected data to only what's necessary to run the devices, deleting old data frequently, programming gadgets to automatically update software, and even programming them to eventually die, especially when they are no longer supported and are likely to get more vulnerable.

There are lots of ways the devices of the Internet of Things may affect the economy. Connected mobile devices have already caused some disruption by allowing small businesses and individuals to easily take payments without expensive registers or credit card processing equipment; rather, all they need is an app on a typical tablet or smartphone, a simple card reader and an Internet connection. Services from companies such Square and Paypal process these payments, taking a small cut of each transaction. The IoT is also poised to disrupt other industries, such as insurance, where the ability to have sensors on just about anything can mean early detection of all kinds of risks and dangers, and could allow them to reward customers for adopting these devices, or penalize them for what they consider risky behavior (like speeding).

The IoT will further automate processes and increase efficiency, which will affect companies' bottom lines. With embedded technology that can communicate conditions immediately, there can be great reductions in waste of perishable goods, materials lost to manufacturing issues, time lost to unexpected machine or system breakdowns, and energy consumption, resulting in cost savings. The increased access to data that can be gathered in real time can also lead to better and more timely business decisions. Companies have been known to monetize data, and now they'll have even more.

These new disruptions, efficiencies and automated systems could potentially reduce jobs, such as the manual labor required to take and stock inventory, monitor manufacturing processes, read utility meters and the like. All industries will be affected as more devices become connected. But although automating tasks has caused job losses in manufacturing in the past, often when automation takes over a mundane task, the skills required for a job just shift to more complex tasks. And sometimes jobs even increase because of product demand. Despite the ubiquity of ATMs, which first came online in the mid-1970s and do a lot of tasks formerly performed by bank tellers, the Bureau of Labor Statics discovered that there was an increase in teller jobs from 1999 to 2009. This is in part because banks opened more branches to reach more customers once lower staffing requirements made each one cheaper to operate [source: Bessen].

The IoT should greatly increase other types of jobs, especially those related to the gadgets themselves and the data they gather. This includes sales and maintenance of the related hardware, development of devices and analytics software, and data analysis (although some are working on programs to do a lot of the analytical heavy lifting). More IT staff and customer service representatives might be needed for monitoring services connected to a lot of these devices. The data centers necessary for cloud computing may also have to expand or increase in number. Cisco estimates that the data created annually by IOT devices will rise from 113.4 zettabytes (ZB) in 2013 to 403 ZB in 2018 [sources: Cisco, McLellan].

Machina Research reported in April 2015 that the value of the Internet of Things was around $900 billion in 2014, and they predicted it will rise to $4.3 trillion by 2024, an amount greater than the economies of many countries. Some other analysts put the potential value at $6.2 trillion by 2025 [source: Intel]. Getting on board with the Internet of Things may take large IT investments from companies and require changes to business processes, new equipment, and lots more Internet bandwidth, storage capability and staff to deal with the new technology. But hopefully the return on investment will be just as great, if not greater.

Costs aside, smart cities, buildings and homes enabled by the Internet of Things can also go a long way toward cutting waste, pollutants and greenhouse emissions, making our modern lives more sustainable over the long run. The devices of the IoT can also provide us with lots of conveniences that save our efforts for more professionally and personally rewarding tasks. Or more nap time. Who's not on board with that?

Author's Note: How the Internet of Things Works

Researching this article has been illuminating in terms of all the things we can do because of the Internet of Things - not in the future, but right now! Being a gadget junkie, I'm already aware of some of them. Just today I started using my fitness tracker to control the music on my phone, which I have beaming to a nearby Bluetooth external speaker. It's not that much easier than picking up my phone, opening my music and flipping through the songs. But it could be a godsend while on the treadmill. That is, when I'm not watching shows thrown from my phone to the Chromecast connected to my little treadmill-facing TV.

There are a number of household items that the tech-savvy or money-laden are already using to automate their lives. You can buy existing ecosystems of devices that work together or buy sensors and tiny computing devices and make some of your own. If there's one thing I could always use, it's more time to write, work or play. All these smart, chatty machines just might help achieve that.

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Many of us have dreamed of smart homes where our appliances do our bidding automatically. The alarm sounds and the coffee pot starts brewing the moment you want to start your day. Lights come on as you walk through the house.

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You have 140 characters remaining. Your fingers are poised over the keys as your mind mulls over the message you want to send out to friends, coworkers and a whole bunch of strangers you've never met. The character counter stares up from the screen, issuing a tacit challenge: Cut out unnecessary words. Shorten that hyperlink. Use contractions. Your message is complete, and the character counter has turned red. Four characters remaining. Success!

Twitter is a social network like no other: It encourages brevity and operates on a system where popular and/or interesting people have many followers. While some use bite size Twitter messages to quickly inform the world every time they eat a banana, the tweeters with thousands of followers use the medium to entertain or spread interesting information and commentary.

Part of being a popular Twitter personality comes from recognition. What have you done? Who do you know? Can you comment on the technology industry or crack a great joke? Do you draw comic books or work for a popular company? If people have a reason to follow you, it's up to you to give them a reason to stick around. That's where learning to tweet comes in.

Post messages with poor grammar and boring content and your follower count will probably stay fairly stagnant. But post on trending topics, put thought into your tweets, share stuff you find really cool, and you might be surprised by how much your social circle grows. Know your audience: Do they expect Indiana Jones references or sharp analysis of Wall Street trades? More importantly, find a good rhythm for tweeting. Tweeting infrequently is fine, but you may not see much follower growth if you're only posting a message a day or every several days. Posting too often is much worse: No one wants to see their Twitter feed clogged up by a single person, especially if that person is repeatedly spamming the same link over and over again to drive traffic to a Web site.

Don't worry too much about making a mistake -- though Twitter messages go out instantly, they can easily be deleted and re-posted with a correction. Over the next three pages we'll break down the important elements of a tweet like links and hashtags, explain how to compose a good tweet and list a few tools that can help you become a better tweeter.

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You have 140 characters remaining. Your fingers are poised over the keys as your mind mulls over the message you want to send out to friends, coworkers and a whole bunch of strangers you've never met. The character counter stares up from the screen, issuing a tacit challenge: Cut out unnecessary words.

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Encouraging Ongoing Learning and Engagement

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Have you ever wondered how a Web page works? Have you ever wanted to create your own Web page, complete with titles and text and graphic icons? Have you ever heard the word "HTML" and wondered what it means? If so, then read on...

In this article, we will look at the art and science of Web pages and experiment with a number of techniques that you can try out on your own machine today. We've even created a tool that lets you try out HTML and view it instantly. As it turns out, Web page creation is both incredibly easy and a lot of fun, and totally within your reach. By the time you finish reading this article, you will be ready to start assembling your own!

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Have you ever wondered how a Web page works? Have you ever wanted to create your own Web page, complete with titles and text and graphic icons? Have you ever heard the word "HTML" and wondered what it means? If so, then read on...

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It was February 1981. Nearly half of the Apple II engineering team at Apple Computer had been fired the previous day, and now the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, was peering over the wall of programmer Andy Hertzfeld's cubicle.

Hertzfeld was typing code for Apple II's operating system when Jobs rounded the corner, yanked the computer's power cord out of the socket and carted the machine -- with Hertzfeld in tow -- from the corporate campus to a small office overlooking a Texaco station in Cupertino, Calif.

Hertzfeld wasn't fired; he was promoted.

He would spend his days authoring code for Apple's new Macintosh project [source: Hertzfeld]. The team had only a few months to create a new operating system that would be faster and more efficient -- and become the predecessor of today's iMacs.

The abrupt reassignment and truncated schedule were a workplace phenomenon Apple employees knew as a "reality distortion field." This Star Trek term was used to describe Jobs' ability to convince nearly anyone to do nearly anything -- and deliver it according to an unrealistic timetable [source: Hertzfeld].

Regardless of whether Jobs really could bend the time-space continuum, his drive and personality helped Apple Computers change the way people use technology. It was one of the first companies to transform the computer from an imperceptible mass of vacuum tubes stationed primarily at universities and government offices to a manageable-sized machine for ordinary people.

Today, Apple is as relevant as ever, thanks to new releases of Apple operating systems, software and hardware, and related products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Apple products are vertically integrated; the company makes its own hardware, software and accessories, and delivers the product whole to the consumer [source: Dalakov]. Instead of making decisions about what components and software to use and then manually installing them, Mac users can simply power up their computers and use them right out of the box. And if they have a problem with any component -- from keyboard to hard drive -- there's a single point of contact at Apple's customer service.

By contrast, PCs have hardware and software components made by multiple outside vendors. Users may need to communicate with several vendors to diagnose and fix a PC problem. However, being able to pick and choose components also makes PCs easier to customize than Macs in terms of both cost and capabilities [source: Nutter].

The ability to migrate information between Macs and PCs can be challenging because of each system's inherent differences. Macs are considered a "closed" system because their components -- software, hardware, operating systems -- are not compatible with non-Macs [source: Chaffin]. However, non-Apple-developed apps, accessories and even operating systems are becoming increasingly Mac-accessible.

Macs have a reputation for being more expensive than PCs, but feature-by-feature breakdowns have shown that show the fees are quite comparable. Building a laptop with similar features as a MacBook Pro, for example, may cost as much or more [source: Finnie].

For some Mac fans, however, price is not the point. It may be the lingering effects of reality distortion, but Apple's managed to create a computer with a virtual federation of loyal fans.

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Why are Macs thought to be better than PCs?

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It was February 1981. Nearly half of the Apple II engineering team at Apple Computer had been fired the previous day, and now the company's CEO, Steve Jobs, was peering over the wall of programmer Andy Hertzfeld's cubicle.

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If you were to wade into the middle of any large technology conference and shout out "Macs are whack" or "Apple rules, Microsoft stinks," you could start a riot. The conflict between Apple supporters and Windows fans has raged on college campuses, social networks and Internet message boards. It's a discussion that invites flame wars. Put on your fireproof britches, we're going to wade right into it.

Before we throw caution to the wind, we need to establish some definitions. In this article, we're comparing Apple computers running Mac OS X -- no hackintoshes to be found here -- and computers running the Windows operating system. While the term PC stands for personal computer and could apply to Macs, Windows machines and computers running other operating systems alike, we're using it in the common vernacular as shorthand for a Windows machine.

Given the passion often displayed by owners of both brands, you may be surprised to learn what a small share of the global computer market Apple actually controls. While the sales of iPhones, iPods and iPads provide a strong boost to Apple's overall earnings, Macs account for less than 5 percent of computers worldwide [source: Cyran and Gu]. However, the Mac boasts an impressive growth rate: Shipments increased 27.7 percent in the first quarter of 2011 over the same period in 2010, even as overall computer shipments dropped 1.2 percent [source: Elmer-DeWitt].

So, which is better -- Mac or PC? Click through our list of 10 differences between Macs and PCs and decide for yourself.

If you grew up in the 1980s, the concept of design might seem like a superficial and unimportant aspect of a computer. But design is a big differentiator between Macs and PCs. For the better part of three decades, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs focused on the outward appearance of his company's products with an enthusiasm unmatched by his competitors. The unique designs that resulted from this obsession have given Mac products the "hip" image that they enjoy today.

This unconventional focus on design began with the very first Macintosh, introduced in 1984. Like many of the computers in Apple's current line, its CPU and monitor were housed in a single unit, reducing the number of cables necessary for operation and creating a sleeker profile. Perhaps Jobs's and Apple designer Jonathan Ive's most significant success was the iMac, introduced in 1998. With its translucent, candy-colored shell, this model reversed Apple's flagging fortunes and represented the start of its rise to present-day popularity. Today, some PC manufacturers are attempting to create more design-oriented models, but none have achieved the popular acclaim commanded by Mac products.

On the flip side, PCs don't come from a single manufacturer. There are hundreds of different designs of PCs on the market, ranging from the utilitarian design of most business PCs to the space-age aesthetics of Alienware's gaming PC line of computers. You might find some designs more compelling than Apple's approach, but there's no single vision guiding aesthetic choices when it comes to the design of the PC. That's not necessarily a bad thing -- if you don't like one design, you can look to a different manufacturer to consider other options. If you don't like Apple's design, you're out of luck if you absolutely have to own a Mac.

One of the most frequently cited differences between Macs and PCs is price. Few Mac products sell for less than $1,000, while there are dozens of PC models that fall within that price range. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Macs are more expensive than PCs with similar specifications. Rather, in general, Apple has chosen to build its Mac line around higher-end computers with better -- and more costly -- components.

The problem with comparing prices between Macs and PCs is that the computers are rarely comparable. Even if you did find two computers with the same processor speed, RAM, hard drive capacity, graphics, memory, number of USB ports, and so on, each of them would be preinstalled with vastly different software packages. The user may have to purchase additional software for whatever computer he or she chooses, like a virus program for a PC or Microsoft Office for a Mac. The bottom line is this: The relative value of a Mac or PC really depends on the consumer's needs.

If you just need a computer to perform basic functions like Web surfing or word processing, it might be hard to justify buying a Mac. There are plenty of PC choices out there that are less expensive. And this is where Linux fans can chime in -- even someone unfamiliar with the Linux operating system can buy a cheap computer, install a simple Linux distribution and access basic computer functions.

The technical specifications offered by Macs and PCs can be very similar or very different, depending on which brand and line you're comparing. While they both have similar internal parts (processors, RAM, hard drives, video cards), the speed and capacity of these components vary. Macs will generally outperform low-end PCs, because the Apple product lines typically boast more expensive and better-quality parts. Comparing Macs with higher-end PCs is a little more difficult. Generally, though, Macs have faster processors than their Windows counterparts but tend to skimp slightly when it comes to RAM, hard disk space and USB ports.

The kinds of connections and optical drives found on Macs and PCs also differ in certain ways. Macs offer a pretty standard selection of such features, including a SuperDrive (reads and writes CDs and DVDs), audio in and audio out, USB, FireWire (data transfer), Thunderbolt (video output), Ethernet, and a magnetized power port. PCs offer comparable features, plus a few more, like Blu-ray players, TV tuners, touch screens and HDMI ports.

Perhaps the most obvious difference between a Mac and a PC is the number of configurations available for each brand. Currently, Apple offers just five computer lines: the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, the Mac mini, the iMac and the Mac Pro. Even if each configuration of these models is counted individually, as of this writing Apple only offers a total of 18 unique computers. This limited selection is not a sign of weakness, but a part of the company's "less is more" approach to marketing.

PCs, on the other hand, come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Consumer Reports reviews 11 distinct brands of Windows-based computers, including Acer, Asus, Compaq, Dell, eMachines, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba, each offering numerous configurations of desktop and laptop models. Many consumers see this large selection as a benefit because they're more likely to find a computer that meets their exact needs.

When it comes to third-party retail stores, Apple is more selective than the PC manufacturers about where it will sell its products. The California company's flagship retail outlet is the Apple Store, which first opened its doors in 2001 at the Tysons Corner Mall in McLean, Va. Since then, Apple has opened more than 300 additional stores in 43 states and 11 countries [source: [source: Apple]. Because these outlets are generally built only in large population centers, Apple has entered into several on-again off-again agreements with electronics chains like Best Buy, CompUSA, Computer City, Fry's Electronics, Micro Center, Office Max and Sears to reach a broader customer base. Still, Macs aren't available at many of the stores that sell PCs -- namely the world's largest retailer, Walmart. Of course, you can order Macs and Windows machines from stores on the Internet, as well.

Microsoft has a very different strategy. The company doesn't make hardware -- it licenses its Windows operating system to other companies. Most of those companies push their products into as many stores as they can. So while you might not see an Apple computer in your local computer shop, you'll see dozens of Windows PCs.

The operating system has been a long-standing difference between Mac and PC; currently, Mac computers are preinstalled with OS X Lion, while PCs come with Microsoft Windows 7. Between 2007 and 2009, when Windows Vista was Microsoft's operating system, OS X was widely regarded as the better of the two software packages. Vista was sluggish, prone to crashing and plagued by pop-up dialogue boxes. However, Microsoft has made significant improvements in the stability and performance of Windows 7, making the current choice more a matter of personal preference in terms of functionality and layout.

A significant development in this debate occurred in 2006, when Apple announced the release of its Boot Camp software, which allows users to install Windows on their Intel-based Macs. Today, there are many programs that facilitate the installation of Windows on a Mac, including Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion and VirtualBox. In contrast, you aren't supposed to install Mac OS X on any Windows PC. Getting Mac OS X to work on a non-Apple computer is tricky -- we call such machines hackintoshes. They tend to be unstable, and selling them is bound to get you into trouble with Apple.

Apple has worked very hard to craft a fun and hip image for its line of Mac computers, while simultaneously portraying PCs as dull and nerdy. This strategy played out most famously in Apple's recent advertising campaign featuring "Mac," played by the younger, hoodie-wearing Justin Long and "PC," played by the older, bespectacled John Hodgman. But is there actually any truth to these stereotypes?

In April 2011, the Internet was abuzz with the results of a survey on this very topic, conducted by Hunch, a Web site that makes recommendations based on user preferences. It asked users to identify themselves as a Mac or PC person, and then questioned them about a number of self-identifying factors. The results were comically stereotypical. Among the findings were that Mac users were more likely to be liberal, eat hummus and read The New York Times. PC users, on the other hand, were more conservative, had a better grasp on mathematical concepts, and, unlike their Mac counterparts, would rather ride a Harley than a Vespa [source: [source: Hunch]. While these results are certainly interesting, they can't be taken too seriously -- Hunch made these conclusions based on an admittedly unscientific survey.

One thing that both Mac and Windows PC fans have in common is passion for the brands themselves. Get a diverse group of computer users together and introduce the subject of Macs versus PCs and watch the sparks fly! Mac users will bring up concepts like security, usability and design. PC owners will counter with price, software compatibility and choice. It can get really ugly really fast (but it's fun to watch).

One of the most important reasons Mac hasn't captured a larger share of the computer market is the lack of software written for its operating system. This insufficiency is most obvious in business computing, where most applications were standardized on Windows PCs years ago. Even if a business did determine that Mac offered a better product, it would take a tremendous amount of time and money to make the switch. Mac has made some inroads by collaborating with Microsoft on the popular Office Suite, but the shortage of specialized business software remains a concern for many companies.

It's not just work that is hindered by Mac's limited software selection -- it's also play. Most computer gamers gravitate toward the PC, thanks to the wide selection of recreational software offered for Windows systems. Mac has slowly expanded its offerings to include popular games like Civilization, Duke Nukem, Starcraft and World of Warcraft, but it still lags behind the PC in selection. A search on the online gaming platform Steam reveals about 180 games for Mac and more than 1,300 for PC [source: Steam].

Another big difference between Mac and PC is the level of security you can expect from viruses and other unwanted intrusions. Because the vast majority of the world's computers run Microsoft Windows, most attacks focus on PCs. Malware like Trojans, which trick users into installing them by pretending to be something desirable, like antivirus programs, and botnets, which quietly enlist computers into an army of zombie machines designed to distribute spam or advertise fraud, are now common threats to PCs, but rarely harm Macs.

This doesn't mean that Mac users should completely ignore security. Recently, a Trojan known variously as Mac Protector, Mac Defender and MacGuard has been showing up on Apple machines. A window claiming to be the "Apple Security Center" pops up and indicates that it has found viruses on the computer. It then prompts the user to download Mac Protector, a cleverly disguised piece of software intended to steal your credit card information. As Macs become more popular and begin to claim a larger market share, these threats will inevitably increase. However, as one observer puts it, "a Mac owner who runs no security software is vastly less likely to be the victim of a successful attack than a Windows user who's protected up to his eyeballs" [source: McCracken].

Probably the most striking difference between Macs and PCs is in customer satisfaction. In the most recent surveys conducted by both PCWorld and PCMag, readers chose Apple computers over every single brand of PC available. Macs scored high marks in categories like reliability, service experience and even phone hold time. The only category in which Mac scored low was percentage of laptops needing repairs. It didn't seem to matter, though, as Mac also topped the category, "likelihood of recommending."

These high rankings are probably due in part to the way that Apple provides service. At a time when many PC manufacturers have shipped their service centers overseas, Mac users can get face-to-face assistance from a technician at the Genius Bar help desk located in any Apple Store.

It also helps that Apple has a centralized identity. If you have a problem with a Mac computer, whether it's the hardware or the operating system, you can go to the Genius Bar. But what happens if your PC is on the fritz? You might have to speak to two or more companies just to identify the underlying problem.

In the end, the choice of PC or Mac depends upon you more than anything else. Declaring that one is better than the other is like saying oranges are better than -- well, you know.

Originally Published: Aug 8, 2011

Mac vs PC FAQ

Which is better: PC or Mac?

PCs and Macs have their respective qualities. However, Macs are exclusive to Apple products and have limited options for customization and upgrades. On the other hand, PCs are easier to upgrade yourself. Some people find Macs more user-friendly.

Do Macs slow down like PCs?

The speed of a computer depends on the hard drive and RAM. No matter what kind of computer you have, free up at least 20 percent of the hard drive to keep it running smoothly.

Is a Mac more reliable than a PC?

PCs are more susceptible to getting hacked and more prone to viruses than Macs. That said, Macs often require a trip to the Apple Genius Bar to be fixed, making PCs easier to upgrade and fix without professional help.

Why is Windows slow compared to Mac?

Windows has a higher resource usage, making it slower than macOS. The NTFS file system in Windows also contributes to its slower speed.

What's better for college: a Mac or a PC?

If you've got the money, a Mac is a better device for students as it is faster and tends to be more user-friendly.

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If you were to wade into the middle of any large technology conference and shout out "Macs are whack" or "Apple rules, Microsoft stinks," you could start a riot. The conflict between Apple supporters and Windows fans has raged on college campuses, social networks and Internet message boards.

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As personal computers became affordable, must-have Internet gateways in the late 1990s, individual models took a backseat to larger brands. Dell didn't bother advertising special model names. It just advertised one major selling point: cheap. When Apple made a comeback with iMacs, and later MacBooks and MacBook Pros, you were either a Mac person or a PC person. Whether that PC was a Dell, or an HP, or an ASUS didn't make much difference.

But when the PC market was younger, smaller and much more expensive, things were different. Your PC was everything. In the late 1970s and 1980s, buying a computer was a huge investment, likely costing thousands of dollars and determining what kind of software you'd be running for the next several years. As a result, computer hobbyists picked favorites. And they stuck by them.

The wars between IBM fans, Tandy owners, Apple devotees and Commodore diehards were fiercer than any Mac versus PC argument. As a result, those early systems had an immense impact on those early home computer users, creating a generation of tech-savvy programmers. Ask any of them about their first (or favorite) computer, and they'll be able to tell you exactly what it was.

A few extremely popular breakout models sold millions of units. These are 10 of the most popular computers ever built. Your favorite may be among them.

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In the early years of home computing, buying a machine was a huge investment. Many models sank, but these 10 broke sales records and gave many of us our first glimpse at the digital world. Did your favorite computer make the cut?

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The Mac mini is a tiny computer with enormous capabilities. Measuring just 7.7 inches (19.7 centimeters) square and 1.4 inches (3.6 centimeters) high, this small machine can be connected to almost any large display screen and numerous peripheral devices. Introduced by Apple in 2005, the Mac mini was marketed towards people switching over from PCs to Macs. The upgraded 2011 model, priced at $599 for the most basic version, is the perfect computer for a budget-conscious computer buyer who wants to move on from PCs but who also doesn't want to splurge on an iMac [source: Apple].

Because the targeted audience is former PC users, the Mac mini is sold without a mouse, keyboard or screen. PC users can use all of their old accessories with their new Mac mini while enjoying a new easy-to-use software package. Because of its small size and multiple ports, many Mac mini customers use the system as the hub of their home media center. It's nearly silent when running, stores easily and is less susceptible to viruses than a PC.

The 2011 Mac mini includes a new innovation, Thunderbolt. This upgraded display port supports both video and data connections and is capable of transferring data at 10 gigabits per second [source: Apple].

One possible downside to the Mac mini is its lack of an optical drive, a cut that might be a deal- breaker for people who frequently use their computers to read CDs or DVDs. Although this move cuts down on Apple's costs in production, and CDs and DVDs might soon become the next floppy disk (replaced by streaming data), the lack of a CD drive may isolate customers who primarily want to use the Mac mini as a part of a media center. On the upside, you can use the DVD or CD sharing feature of the Mac mini's operating system to wirelessly borrow the optical drive of a nearby Mac or PC. In other words, you can install applications from CDs or DVDs without having an optical drive in the Mac mini.

Read on to learn more about Mac mini specs.

The Mac mini is available in three versions, and these specs are for the most basic computer. The Mac mini is 1.4 inches (3.6 centimeters) in height, 7.7 inches (19.7 centimeters) wide, 7.7 inches (19.7 centimeters) deep and weighs 2.7 pounds (1.22 kilograms). It is equipped with a 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with 3MB on-chip shared L3 cache processor and has 2GB of memory and a dual 500GB hard drive [source: Apple].

In terms of available storage space, the Mac mini is configurable to dual 750GB hard drives, single or dual 256GB solid-state drives or 256GB solid-state drive and 750GB hard drive. It features Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor with 288MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory [source: Apple].

What sets the latest Mac minis apart from other home computing options is the addition of Thunderbolt port, which Apple says is 12 times faster than the previous FireWire 800, can handle several peripherals at the same time and allow 10 Gbps of throughput in both directions. There is also an HDMI port to connect your big screen HDTV, an HDMI to DVI adapter, and support for dual display and video mirroring [source: Apple].

The Mac mini also has a FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps), four USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps), a SDXC card slot, a gigabit Ethernet port and audio in/out connections [source: Apple].

On the next page, we'll discuss Mac mini software.

The Mac mini comes equipped with all of the software included in the OS X Lion bundle, Apple's newest operating system released in July 2011. We'll take a look at just a few of the highlights.

If you're already familiar with Macs, you'll recognize many of the features of OS X Lion and catch some new additions to Apple's newest operating system. The OS X Lion software bundle includes all of your favorite Apple applications. You can access your iTunes library, talk with friends on iChat, make video calls on FaceTime, take pictures in Photo Booth, play GarageBand, make an iMovie and view a QuickTime video [source: Apple].

The package also includes all of your communication and organizational applications such as Mail, iCal and Address Book. The Mac mini comes equipped with Time Machine, an app that allows you to back up all of your data. You can access the Mac App Store to purchase and download additional apps for your Mac mini. You also can surf the internet through the Safari web browser. All of your apps are stored on your Launchpad start screen, giving you quick and easy access to them. Some new features and upgrades to the Mac mini include AirDrop, a Lion-to-Lion sharing feature that uses a WiFi connection, vertical text displays to support East Asian languages and multiuser screen sharing [source: Apple].

Even though the variety of apps might seem overwhelming, OS X Lion is user-friendly and intuitive. Its simple design and interface should make the switch from a PC to a Mac mini pretty effortless. In general, reviews for the operating system are very positive: MacWorld gave the system a 4.5 out of 5 rating [source: Snell].

Although the Mac mini is significantly less expensive than an iMac, you have to provide all peripherals and accessories. If you don't already have a screen, keyboard or mouse, you'll have to buy them to operate your Mac mini, and you might end up spending more than you would if you bought an iMac. The 2011 iMac comes with a camera, more powerful processor and hard drive, speakers, keyboard and other accessories for $1,199 [source: Apple] .

Depending on how and where you plan to use your Mac mini, you might need a mounting kit. For instance, if your Mac mini is going to be mainly used as part of a home media center, you could mount the computer on a wall or ceiling. You could also choose from a variety of Mac mini table mounts. These mounting systems will securely affix your Mac mini to the surface that you choose so that you can easily access your device and not worry about it falling and breaking. When choosing a mounting system, keep in mind that you won't want the mount to cover important ports that you frequently use.

Although the Mac mini comes with four USB ports, an extra USB hub might come in handy if you're connecting multiple devices to the computer. Once you plug in your mouse and keyboard, you've used up two ports already and you haven't added your printer or other peripherals yet, so this could be useful.

Finally, since the Mac mini does not come with an optical drive, a good accessory to have on hand is the MacBook Air SuperDrive [source: Frakes]. Although it's designed to be used with a MacBook, it's compatible to the Mac mini and is a good option if you plan to play CDs or DVDs on your computer.

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The Mac mini is a tiny computer with enormous capabilities. Measuring just 7.7 inches (19.7 centimeters) square and 1.4 inches (3.6 centimeters) high, this small machine can be connected to almost any large display screen and numerous peripheral devices. Introduced by Apple in 2005, the Mac mini was marketed towards people switching over from PCs to Macs.

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Back before 2006 (which is like 100 years ago in the technology industry), there was a clear dividing line between Macintosh computers and PCs. Mac OS couldn't run on PCs, and Microsoft Windows couldn't run on Macs. This created a great rift between users of each system. It wasn't unusual to hear heated arguments between two users about which was the better system. A few brave souls tried to take an all-inclusive approach by trying try to run both using virtualization software, but even that presented limitations. If you wanted to use the full features of both operating systems, you'd have to buy both a Mac and a PC.

But in 2006, that all changed. Because in 2006, Apple began moving away from its PowerPC processors and offered Mac hardware with Intel processors like those used in PCs. This introduced the possibility that Windows and Windows-based applications could run on Mac hardware just as they run on PCs. At the same time, Apple released Mac OS X Tiger (10.4), the first Mac OS to support running on Intel processors [source: Apple, Buchanan].

Boot Camp is software developed by Apple, in cooperation with Microsoft, designed to effectively run Windows on Mac hardware. By using Boot Camp, you don't have to choose whether to install either Mac OS or Windows. Instead, you can install both, and you can switch between them just by rebooting and selecting the other OS.

This article covers how Boot Camp works and how you can set it up on your Mac. Boot Camp has been available as part of Mac OS X since Leopard (10.5), released in 2007. The latest version of Boot Camp as of this writing, Mac OS X Lion (10.7), supports Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate editions [source: Apple].

Before we dive into Boot Camp, let's look at how the partitions work on your Mac's hard drive, and how the Mac knows which partition to use when you boot.

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Back before 2006 (which is like 100 years ago in the technology industry), there was a clear dividing line between Macintosh computers and PCs. Mac OS couldn't run on PCs, and Microsoft Windows couldn't run on Macs. This created a great rift between users of each system.

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The iMac could not have come at a better time for Apple. Steve Jobs, who founded the company out of his garage in 1976, lost an internal power struggle and left Apple in 1985. By the time he returned in 1997, the company was losing cash hand over fist and fighting for its very survival. Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computers, even suggested he'd liquidate the company if it were his call [source: Singh]. Jobs was given the job of CEO and in the coming years, he and one highly talented designer restored the company's prestige and built the iconic reputation Apple is known for today. A big reason for the change in fortune lay in a clean-looking series of machines, called iMacs, first announced on May 13, 1998 [source: Levy].

Before the iMac, Apple had limited success selling its line of PowerPCs, which were somewhat uninspired boxes looking not unlike their Windows-based competitors. While the PowerPCs weren't especially exciting, Apple nonetheless still had a loyal user base among those who prized Macs for their perceived superior graphics capabilities.

The original iMacs were totally reimagined personal computers, geared toward that relatively new phenomenon called the Web (the lowercase "i" in the name initially stood for Internet). These desktop machines incorporated simplicity and clean lines throughout their design. Their signature characteristic was the merge of the tower (that big rectangular box containing the CPU, CD drive and ports) and the monitor into one curvy unit, along with one notorious mouse that we'll look at more closely later on.

iMacs have garnered a lot of publicity for Apple over the years, though the press has not always been good. While they have more room inside than MacBook laptops, which are notorious for running hot, cooling problems persist. Initially, the small space also meant they had limited processing power. Better design and technology helped with the speed concerns, but have not completely resolved overheating issues.

The story of the iMac is a good one, so let's look at the iMac's not-so-humble origins. From the perspective of anyone outside of Apple, the original iMacs were a big risk. If the market didn't like the translucent half-egg shaped machine, Apple was toast. But they didn't need to convince everyone -- just enough people who were tired of the ugly beige boxes that were flooding the market at the time.

Could they pull it off? What was it about the iMac that pulled people back to Apple?

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The iMac could not have come at a better time for Apple. Steve Jobs, who founded the company out of his garage in 1976, lost an internal power struggle and left Apple in 1985. By the time he returned in 1997, the company was losing cash hand over fist and fighting for its very survival.

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Like many other successful tech companies, Apple, Inc. is a myth magnet. There's a simple reason for this: The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is shrouded in secrecy. Press and social networking Web sites are always rife with rumors about Apple's next big product release -- a secret guarded more closely than "The Hobbit" film production.

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In its brief history, the Internet has been constantly and rapidly evolving. Part of this evolution has been driven largely by two opposing forces:

Internet authors and readers always want to be able to transmit more elaborate sorts of content over the Internet.

To reach most users, the file size for Web content has to be small enough to transmit quickly over standard Internet connections (telephone modems).

These factors have forced Internet innovators to come up with a number of clever tricks for delivering complex content over limited connections.
A Flash animation from our nuclear radiation article. This is a fairly complicated figure, but it fits in less than 7,000 bytes!
In the following sections we will look at how each technology and how they handle these competing forces.

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In its brief history, the Internet has been constantly and rapidly evolving. Part of this evolution has been driven largely by two opposing forces: Internet authors and readers always want to be able to transmit more elaborate sorts of content over the Internet.

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The best thing about the Web is the fact that anyone with an idea can create a Web site practically for free. A simple Web site costs about $1 a day to operate. That means that there are millions of different ideas out there being tried every day. Web sites broadcast to a gigantic world-wide audience instantly -- at no other time in the history of the world has a single human being been able to reach so many people for so little money.

So let's say that you have an idea for a Web site. What do you need to do to get started? There are a couple different levels for your idea to be operating on. Let's take a look at them.

Let's say that you have an idea for a Web site, and you have a cool domain name that you want to use. You aren't sure when you will be able to get started on the site itself, but you want to make sure that nobody else gets the idea and takes that domain name. For example, let's say that your domain name is MyIdea.com. What you want to do is check the domain name registry and make sure it's not already taken. If it is available, you want to register that domain name (also known as "reserving" or "parking" the domain name). Registering the name gives you ownership of it. In order for you to park the domain name, it has to actually live on a server somewhere. It will usually have some sort of "Under Construction" notice that shows up when people try to access that domain name.

You need to register your domain name. There are many companies that will park your domain name on a server, and a number of them charge a fee. Verio is one of the companies that will park your domain name, and it provides a nice form that makes it easy to check for domain name availability. It only takes a couple of minutes to check and reserve a domain name.

Let's say that you have an idea for a content site and you want to get started right away. A content site is a site that contains information for people to read or look at. The information might be words, pictures, links, etc. Yahoo! is essentially a gigantic content site. To create a content site, you need to learn HTML so you can create your pages, and then you need to find a company to host the site. That is, you need a company that will operate the Web server for your site:

Or maybe you have an idea for an e-commerce site. An e-commerce site lets you display the things you want to sell, take orders, process credit cards, etc. An e-commerce site is a bit more involved to set up because you have to apply for a merchant account and other commerce-related services. However, it's not that much trouble.

Good luck creating your new site!

These links will help you learn more:

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If I want to create my own Web site, what do I have to do?

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The best thing about the Web is the fact that anyone with an idea can create a Web site practically for free. A simple Web site costs about $1 a day to operate. That means that there are millions of different ideas out there being tried every day.

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The Internet is just a few decades old, but in that short span of time it has experienced significant changes. It grew out of a hodgepodge of independent networks into a global entity. It serves as a platform for business, communication, entertainment and education. And you can connect to this enormous network through dozens of different devices.

What's next? When you can call up minute trivia about the most obscure subject you can think of with a couple of taps on a smartphone screen, where else can you go? The answer isn't entirely clear, but the possibilities are exciting.

One thing that seems certain is that data transmission speeds will increase globally. According to Akamai Technologies, which publishes a quarterly state of the Internet report, the average global data transmission speed in late 2009 was 1.7 megabits per second [source: Akamai]. Compare that to the record for data transmission speed set by Bell Labs: 100 petabits per second [source: PhysOrg]. That's equivalent to 100 billion megabits per second. At that speed, you could transmit 400 DVDs worth of data every second.

That's an enormous gap between what's currently possible and what's commercially available. But as time passes, the costs of producing ultra-high-speed networks will decrease. Eventually, the average consumer will be able to download a high-definition movie in a second or play cloud-based video games without a hint of lag.

Even as wired connections reach unprecedented speeds, wireless technology continues to evolve. Technologies like LTE and WiMAX give us the ability to access the Internet wirelessly at speeds comparable to broadband connections. It also opens the doors for portable devices like smartphones, laptops and tablets to plug into the Internet without the need for wires.

We believe that the Internet will be faster and more pervasive. What else might the future hold?

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The Internet is just a few decades old, but in that short span of time it has experienced significant changes. It grew out of a hodgepodge of independent networks into a global entity. It serves as a platform for business, communication, entertainment and education.

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Note: This site is now being maintained by the people who created BroadbandNow.com

"An elegantly organized tour of the Internet, both fun and informative, a rare combination!" - Steve Crocker, invented the Internet RFC's.

This site provides a comprehensive reference about the Internet. It also includes the most detailed description of the Internet's history available online, collected in the late 1990's before it started disappearing from the net. It is also the first web-published book, going live on January 7, 2000. Many thanks for the assistance from many of the people that actually helped invent the Internet!

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Internet history, design, advanced use, help, security, important features... | LivingInternet

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Note: This site is now being maintained by the people who created BroadbandNow.com "An elegantly organized tour of the Internet, both fun and informative, a rare combination!" - Steve Crocker, invented the Internet RFC's. This site provides a comprehensive reference about the Internet.