The Dark Alleys of the Internet

Internet has gradually become a major need of modern man. A vast number of people depend on the world wide web to carryout their daily chores. Internet in general is accessible to anyone with a computer. However there are aspects of the internet that are unreachable to the average citizen. A very few know about the existence of such a dimension of the so called internet. There are deep and darker places hidden from the surface web, hidden from the reach of the general public and websites that cannot be contained by any sort of cyber law. I've been meaning to share this knowledge for a while now but I chose not to upon a moral conflict within myself. So let me just say you and you alone are responsible for your actions.

There exists a much bigger part of the internet known as the deep web, hidden web, dark net or sometimes referred to as the under net. These terms refer to websites that are not listed in normal search engines. The content of the deep web is unreachable to the web crawlers of the usual search tools of Google, Yahoo etc... Hence it is impossible to monitor the activity of sites in the dark net. This opens up endless opportunities for good as well as for bad.

If you want to get something stolen or someone killed, there are websites in the deep web that provide such services for a fee. There are sites from where one could purchase almost anything, from weapons to drugs. Terrorist organizations use the dark net for communication. Child pornography is a common interest among the regular users of the deep web. Apart from these perverse applications of the under net, there are many uses of it too. Many activists and journalists share their ideas with the world while enjoying complete anonymity. There is endless knowledge in the depth of the internet.

According to a study in 2004, the deep web contained approximately 7, 500 TB worth of data. This is nearly 395 times larger than the 19 TB of data on the surface web. These figures are sure to have risen if a study is conducted today. The sites of the dark net contains random content that are included in self contained, simple pages. This makes it even harder for search engines to detect their existence. The url of a dark net website would have a string of alpha numerals that ends with a .onion. For instance www.kpds8dsw.onion could be the address of a hidden website.

Hidden websites are not accessible through normal web browsers. There are specialized browsers for this purpose that ensures anonymity. My personal favorite is the Tor Browser. Follow the secure link to download the Tor browser bundle if you are interested in taking a peek at the deep web at your own risk.

kpvz7ki2v5agwt35.onion is a popular page to start your hidden web expeditions. You could also 
obtain a list of working hidden webs by googling "onion sites".

The Futility of Comparing Yourself to Others

This is a really inspirational article written by Leo Babauta, writer of the blog zenhabits.net. I found it very helpful to enrich my morale at a time of need. Hence I thought of sharing it.

One of the biggest reasons we’re not content with ourselves and our lives is that we compare ourselves to other people.

Picture it: you see photos of what someone else is doing on Facebook and think your life isn’t exciting enough. You see someone else who has a cool job and think you’re not doing that great in your career. You see someone with a hotter body, and feel bad about yours. You see someone who has created an awesome business, and think you’re not doing enough. You read about people who are traveling the world, learning languages, going to exotic resorts and restaurants, and wonder why you’re not.

Of course, you’re comparing your reality to an ideal, a fantasy. It’s not a comparison that makes sense. You can’t compare apples to apples when you compare yourself to anyone else. Which means it’s a dumb comparison — why would you compare how tangy an orange is compared to a beach? They’re not similar things.

Let’s take an example: I’m out running in the park, and I see someone running past me. Obviously he’s a faster runner, and better than me! Oh, that makes me feel horrible about myself as a runner!

Except I can’t compare myself to that faster runner, because I don’t have all the information. I don’t know:

• How far they’re running (I might be running 12 miles and they’re running 2)

• Where they are in their training plan (I might be starting out on my plan, while they’re in week 20)

• Where they are in their particular run (I might be warming up, while they’re at the hardest part of their workout)

• How many years they’ve been running (maybe I’ve only started, and they’ve been running for 15 years)

• Their injury status (maybe I recently injured an ankle while they’re not injured)

• What event they’re training for (maybe they are training for a mile race, or a bike race, and I’m training for a 50-mile race)

• What else is going on in their lives (maybe they have nothing else going on, while I’ve been working hard, socializing, and moving to a new house and getting little sleep)

• What motivates them (maybe I just like the peace of running mindfully, while they want to beat everyone else on the path)

Given these and a bunch of other factors I don’t know anything about, why would I compare my speed at this moment with the speed of another runner? They’re irrelevant to each other. We just happen to be both running on the same path at the same time, but that’s coincidence, and nothing else is the same.

And even if everything else were exactly the same (would never happen), how would the comparison be useful? It would be meaningless even then.

The only thing I should focus on, as a runner, is myself. Enjoy the run. Learn about myself as I run. Keep going, and in doing so, I’ll get better — compared to myself.

And that’s the only thing we should focus on in life — enjoy the walk, learn about ourselves, keep taking steps and drop the comparisons. You’ll love the journey even more.

Source: http://zenhabits.net/comparing/