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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A groundbreaking new project to collect all of the world’s written materials and assimilate them all into one place is under way; the result has come to be known as Google Books. Instead of having to sift through a giant library of books in order to find one little one you want, and then having to lug it to home, school, work, or where ever, you can simply access it online. A subscription to Google Books would allow you to access any book by any author anywhere while online. Some people wonder why this is useful though, because no one can have a computer while they are out traveling. They are mistaken though; most everyone has a computer on them at all times; simply enough, we disguise it as a cell phone. These cell phones used to be bulky car units used as a last ditch attempt to communicate, but have grown into quite intuitive instruments. Consider today’s cell phone; texting, games, camera, video, many apps, and for many, a web browser. That’s right; a web browser to access the Internet and to access your Google Books account.

You can see how Google Books is going to be quite a useful and economical resource, but it doesn’t come without its downsides as well. Many privacy advocates have eyed the service with suspicious glances, for the software holds the capacity to track and maybe accidentally release sensitive information. As it stands right now, a customer has to release a large amount of their personal information to sign up, and the service will keep meticulous records as to who is reading what and when they are doing so. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has released many papers to the court that is still figuring out the logistics of these agreements between authors and companies. They say that this Google Books software is potentially very dangerous, and the public needs to be alerted, or they at least need to change things.

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Every one can remember the old days of online advertisements when you would have all sorts of ads pop up on your screen that had absolutely nothing to do with you, your interests, or your life. Consider the sports enthusiast; if while surfing his fantasy football account, making some tweaks here and there, he encounters an ad for the latest new miracle grow for your garden. Likely this ad will simply be getting in the way of him and the screen, so away it goes. Advertisers wised up though, and they can’t make any money unless you buy their stuff, so they have to sell better.

Thus came the advent of the behavioral advertising. These advertisers are a bit more invasive than the previous pop-up ads, which were just annoying. These systems actually scan your browsing history without your consent or knowledge and determine your likes and dislikes based on them.

It works like this; let’s use the fantasy football user again. The program will sift through his browsing history, and upon seeing many sites related to sports (perhaps ESPN and its affiliates) will determine those would be the best things to throw at him. Gone are the gardening and baby doll ads, and here are the new custom football gear ads, meet a player ads, etc. This man is much more likely to click on these than he is to order ten bundles of miracle-gro garden solution.

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