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authormjfernez <mjf@mjfer.net>2024-07-23 01:04:29 -0400
committermjfernez <mjf@mjfer.net>2024-07-23 01:04:29 -0400
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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta charset="utf-8"/>
+<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
+<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
+<title>how-to-use-the-internet</title>
+<style>
+ code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
+ span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
+ div.columns{display: flex; gap: min(4vw, 1.5em);}
+ div.column{flex: auto; overflow-x: auto;}
+ div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
+ /* The extra [class] is a hack that increases specificity enough to
+ override a similar rule in reveal.js */
+ ul.task-list[class]{list-style: none;}
+ ul.task-list li input[type="checkbox"] {
+ font-size: inherit;
+ width: 0.8em;
+ margin: 0 0.8em 0.2em -1.6em;
+ vertical-align: middle;
+ }
+ .display.math{display: block; text-align: center; margin: 0.5rem auto;}
+ </style>
+<link href="../../static/main.css" rel="stylesheet"/>
+</head>
+<body>
+<nav id="TOC" role="doc-toc">
+<h2 id="toc-title">Contents</h2>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#why" id="toc-why" target="_self">Why?</a></li>
+<li><a href="#how-to-use-a-web-browser" id="toc-how-to-use-a-web-browser" target="_self">How to use a web browser</a></li>
+<li><a href="#how-to-use-a-search-engine" id="toc-how-to-use-a-search-engine" target="_self">How to use a search engine</a>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#basic-search-syntax" id="toc-basic-search-syntax" target="_self">Basic
+search syntax</a></li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#how-to-read-and-find-scholarly-articles" id="toc-how-to-read-and-find-scholarly-articles" target="_self">How to read and find
+scholarly articles</a>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#how-to-use-wikipedia" id="toc-how-to-use-wikipedia" target="_self">How to
+use Wikipedia</a></li>
+<li><a href="#how-to-find-articles-with-google-scholar" id="toc-how-to-find-articles-with-google-scholar" target="_self">How to find articles
+with Google Scholar</a></li>
+</ul></li>
+<li><a href="#advanced-topics" id="toc-advanced-topics" target="_self">Advanced
+Topics</a>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#how-to-use-tor-to-browse-anonymously" id="toc-how-to-use-tor-to-browse-anonymously" target="_self">How to use tor to browse
+anonymously</a></li>
+</ul></li>
+</ul>
+</nav>
+<h2 id="why">Why?</h2>
+<p>Why <em>would</em> anyone want to use the Internet, really?</p>
+<p>There is actually purpose to connecting all the computers in the
+world with near-instant speed beyond just streaming television, phishing
+scams, pornography, punditry, and Fortnight competitions.</p>
+<p>Unfortunately, almost none of us use the Internet for it's intended
+purpose: finding infomation.</p>
+<p>Writing an angry tweet to a celebrity or posting a picture of your
+cat seems to be second nature for most people, but converting a picture
+from a PDF or looking up a study (or even a word!) you saw in an article
+is something else entirely.</p>
+<p>While that's in part the fault of our laziness, it's equally the
+fault of what the Internet has become.</p>
+<p>For one: there's just so much more <em>stuff</em> now; it's hard to
+know exactly where to start and who to trust. And so much of that stuff
+is now <em>garbage</em>, either in the way it's presented, with
+disruptive ads that don't close correctly, or in the way it's written:
+vague, misleading, or straight incorrect.</p>
+<p>For two: no one really teaches you how to use this thing do they?
+There are no courses on "How to use a search engine" or "How to find
+good posts on a forum," and definitely not on "How to <em>write</em>
+good posts on a forum." But these are exactly the kinds of skills you
+really need if you want to navigate the modern world without getting
+constantly distracted, misled, or totally lost.</p>
+<p>There are of course, countless guides on "netiquette" geared towards
+every possible internet subculture you can find. While many of them have
+influenced this document and give many helpful tips on writing good
+informative posts, none of them really go over what I think is most
+important: what to do with the information you're reading.</p>
+<p>This will probably be an evolving document as new services and
+websites become available (or go down), but much of this material in the
+beginning should be pretty generally applicable no matter what services
+are available.</p>
+<h2 id="how-to-use-a-web-browser">How to use a web browser</h2>
+<p>This is your main vehicle to the information super highway (remember
+when they used to call it that?)</p>
+<p>Almost everyone knows how to use a web browser to click links and get
+to where they need to go, but use only a fraction of the software's
+power. Web browsers at this point are as complicated as operating
+systems. Aside from basic HTML and javascript rendering, most web
+browsers are expected to provide:</p>
+<ul>
+<li>A PDF reader</li>
+<li>An image display</li>
+<li>A history database with tunable settings</li>
+<li>Support for hundreds of languages and emojis</li>
+<li>A password manager</li>
+<li>A video and audio player</li>
+<li>A scripting language for extending functionality</li>
+</ul>
+<p>And that's only what I can think of...</p>
+<h2 id="how-to-use-a-search-engine">How to use a search engine</h2>
+<p>As for which search engine to use: you should use all of them, until
+you get the results you need.</p>
+<p>In my experience, none of the major search engines are particularly
+good and I get inconsistent searches on all of them depending on what
+I'm searching. There is a lot of preaching these days about privacy
+concerns, but I don't really believe any service is more "private" than
+another. These are all privacy nightmares, arguably by design. Your best
+bet is just to search often and as many platforms as you can.</p>
+<h3 id="basic-search-syntax">Basic search syntax</h3>
+<p>Searching for specific pieces of information is rather simple.</p>
+<p>"Who is the prime minister of England?"</p>
+<p>"When did World War 2 start?"</p>
+<p>"How many roads must a man walk down?"</p>
+<p>"Funky Kong talks you through your divorce"</p>
+<p>All of these queries entered as is will get you the result you're
+looking for. But how about something we can't boil down to a single
+question? Like how to do calculus? Or how to learn Python?</p>
+<p>You could try those phrases as a start. But you're not likely to get
+a specific answer out of this.</p>
+<p>...</p>
+<p>What if we wanted to bring up a funny cat meme we saw on a forum
+three weeks ago? Searching for "funny cat meme" is not going to get you
+very far.</p>
+<h2 id="how-to-read-and-find-scholarly-articles">How to read and find
+scholarly articles</h2>
+<h3 id="how-to-use-wikipedia">How to use Wikipedia</h3>
+<p>A common complaint lodged at me whenever I recommend Wikipedia is
+that it's not a source of truth since they found X mistake somewhere, or
+made Y edit when they were a teenager that's still there. No one has
+ever (or should ever) claim Wikipedia is a source of truth on it's own.
+But you can use it to find more sources and maybe get a little
+closer.</p>
+<h3 id="how-to-find-articles-with-google-scholar">How to find articles
+with Google Scholar</h3>
+<h2 id="advanced-topics">Advanced Topics</h2>
+<h3 id="how-to-use-tor-to-browse-anonymously">How to use tor to browse
+anonymously</h3>
+<p>Many in the advertising world will boast about using a VPN for
+anonymity, or using a VPN in conjuction with Tor to "increase privacy."
+This is simply a misunderstanding of terms. A VPN provides
+<em>privacy</em> of the user's connection since it provides
+encryption--only the VPN provider can "see" what is searched. The goal
+of Tor is <em>anonymity</em> not privacy. Anonymity means "no one knows
+who you are" not "no one knows what you're doing." Technically, traffic
+is encrypted between nodes of the Tor service, so some level of privacy
+is provided as well, but this is most effective when using hidden
+services, not using Tor in general.</p>
+</body>
+</html>
+