Schools are meant to enrich student’s lives and give them knowledge that may become vestigial at some point, but serves to enhance intellect while it is being encoded. Teachers are a large influence on every student they teach, and this is why great measures and tests are made to (hopefully) pick the best teachers. After all, our kids, the ones they are teaching, will be the future of our unstable nation, and maybe the solution to our economic crisis. This could all begin with an inspiring lecture in economics class; the teacher could have just created the godsend the United States has been looking for.

A ton of work goes into the successful running of a good school. There is so much information that must be spot on in order to keep a contained and safe atmosphere. If a teacher teaches about seven classes, with about twenty kids a class, this is a large amount of grades to be done! The papers must first be graded, the put into the grade system, then given back to the students, and then every student’s final grades must be calculated at the end of the grading quarter. For large schools of about a thousand students, attendance must be entered every day and every child missing has to be accounted for and possibly an inquisition if the story doesn’t check out.

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Being too safe, it seems like a contradictory concept in today’s civilization. How can one be too safe in these days of economic hardship, impending threats of terrorism, and more nuclear firepower than we know what to do with; we could probably blow up the entire galaxy with our combined stockpiles. It has even permeated to the social aspects of our lives: at one point in the idyllic fifties perhaps young kids were allowed to roam free and play parking lot baseball until dinner time, a period of about fifteen minutes where all kids would be scurrying home to avoid missing curfew. This curfew was only imposed because the rest of the family didn’t want to wait on the rambunctious youth while they succulent food got cold; it did not cross their minds that perhaps a child predator would be sweeping the streets once the streetlights illuminated, looking to abduct their kid. These kids did not have cell phones either, the radio and the television were opulent luxuries that not everyone enjoyed, and featured no communication abilities either. These parents relied on and trusted their kids, and the neighborhood or social establishment to run them home before dark. No one knew anything about cell phones, and certainly if anyone did have such a thing, it would not be in the interest of a child to lug the old “brick” around while engaging in the suburban ball games.

These days every child carries a cell phone, and is on call everywhere they go. For what purpose? Society seems to have tried to obfuscate the matter by making a cell phone something important in the cultural zeitgeist; even the old calling features have become obsolete with the new text messaging capabilities of these micro-computers. These devices have cameras installed, music players, you name it, some cell phone has it. This takes away the fear and anxiety that every parent feels, and instead of making the phone seem like a security tool to the naive child, it is now just a hip fashion accessory.

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Whether you are trying to get your laptop hooked up to your router or you are in a place where you want to learn more about your computer and how it connects to the outside world in general, you will find that one great way to start is to consider your IP address. When you are looking at computers and what allows them to connect to the Internet, the term IP address is one that comes up fairly often, but you might be at a bit of loss as to how to explain it; even asking someone who knows how they work will not necessarily give you an answer that is satisfactory. When you are thinking about what an IP address is, there are a few things that you need to keep in mind.

The first thing that you need to understand is that the term IP address is short for “Internet Protocol.” It is a label that has been assigned to a user that allows them to connect to a larger network. An IP address is something that every site on the Internet has, however keep in mind that it is something that serves multiple functions. It has been stated that an IP address is a location as well as a route. If you want to get online, if you want to make sure that you have access to the information that is on the Internet, you will find that you need to have an IP address; essentially, it acts as your “passport.” At the most basic level, if your computer cannot find an IP address to use, it is not going to be able to get online As an Internet user, you will get your IP address from your Internet service provider, which is often abbreviated to ISP. When you hook your computer up to the Internet, whether you are using a cable modem or a direct Ethernet connection of some sort, you are putting your computer on your ISP’s network. In most cases, you will find that your computer is immediately given an IP address that you will be able to get online right away. At the beginning, you might need to go through a procedure where you confirm who you are and that you have service with the company in question, but you will find that in many cases, you can simply plug your computer in and get connected right away.

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Usually, any Internet controversies are reserved for the interest of ISP presidents, software programmers, and other computer savvy individuals. Lately though, some Internet news has been making headlines with everyone. It pertains to Internet neutrality, which is the act of keeping all things regulated and equal on the Internet. ISPs have lately come out of the woodwork and into the limelight about their practices of regulating Internet speeds. They take some applications and websites which require lots of bandwidth and are usually quite slow to load, and they speed them up. By doing this though, they decrease the speed at which all other sites go. There is only so much bandwidth to go around, and when they allot more to one thing, another has to give.

This makes the public a bit uneasy. For one, the Internet is supposed to be a free place, void of many tyrants who might wish to control it or pull the strings behind the scenes. Second, with decreased browsing speed, their favorite sites and games could take much longer to load. Sure, there are other things that will be expedited, but there are other programs that will be slowed to a crawl.

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Around the world, the United State has men and women serving in the military and deployed. These very brave soldiers are defending our country under what can be extremely harsh conditions. While it can be said that they chose to serve in the army or navy or marines freely, we still owe them our gratitude. It’s up to us to make sure that they have everything they need to be secure when deployed. Security however, is not only making sure they have the military equipment, it also means that we need to provide a way to let off steam. The USO does an amazing job at this with entertainment right at the front line. Remember, a soldier’s best defense is his or her mind. If they are well cared for, they will be better able to cope. Years ago, all the military had was R & R, letters or packages from home and, of course,  the USO. Now soldiers who are overseas also have access to other forms of entertainment via the web.

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So what do they do on the world wide web? Believe it or not, many of them watch television. Sure, they might be able to watch television using a television set, but the shows available in country are either in a different language or they are old reruns of old American television programs. While I’m sure that “The Honeymooners” is still a favorite, and who doesn’t want to watch “Three’s Company”, current US television programming is not usually available. On the Internet, they can stream television shows from the various cable and broadcast networks. They could have watched the last episode of “Psych” or the new “White Collar” program on the USA Network. Or maybe they want to watch some sports program. The web makes this all possible.

Instead of TV, they might be on social networking sites like FaceBook or MySpace or Bebo. For those who have not served in the US military, you can’t imagine how much of a gift these sites are to lonely young men and women far from home. With a click of a mouse button, they can see friends and loved ones online. They can catch up on the latest happenings in their immediate families or circle of friends. They can see videos, pictures and general updates. And maybe, just maybe, some of the loneliness might go away. Yes, they are still at the front. Yes they are still in harm’s way. But they have a connection back to their normal every day lives. Unfortunately, they can’t always connect back to these US based sites. You’d think the world wide web is available everywhere.

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Most everyone person who has a computer these days (and who doesn’t?) probably is on some type of social networking site. What was once deemed a silly fad that narcissistic children engaged in is now a world wide phenomenon. People use these services to communicate, post pictures, post information, and most importantly, create their own personalized profile. There are a multitude of sites to use also. Most people only commit to one, (MySpace, FaceBook, Xanga, etc.) but some people will have multiple sites to upkeep with multiple sets of friends. While these sites have good intentions of bringing people together and giving them a place to congregate, there are people who spoil it for everyone.

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First of all, these people wouldn’t be able to spoil it if everyone simply checked their privacy options when they loaded up the site. Just as people click “I accept” blindly on the terms of service agreements, they also overlook their privacy settings. These extra features could allow random people not to send virus filled messages to them, or people who aren’t their friends to access their profile. Oftentimes, even to send a friend request, you must know some personal detail about the person that only a real friend would know. This stops impersonators from pretending to be someone else and making the victim think they are friends. This is all great but useless, no one uses it or even knows it exists.

Also, people need to start reading their terms of service agreements. These are often pretty basic, and just say stuff about no copyright infringement, and other legal stuff, but sometimes they hide insidious information in their banal text. For example, when one logs onto the “Cash For Clunkers” website to try and get some extra money for their old beater cars, in the terms of service agreement neatly packed in where no one can read, is that once logged in, your computer is property of the United States government and can be accessed anytime even after logging off of the site for any information they want. That was something you didn’t want to miss before hitting accept!

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