The Deep Web - What Exactly Is It?

Regular internet users know more or less what the internet has to offer but apparently, people actually know nothing. I have heard of the "deep Web" or "dark Web" before, about three or four years ago but I did not have any interest in wanting to know what it is or how it operates. That has changed with Wikileaks becoming more prominent and, of course, Edward Snowden. Now I want to know absolutely everything. The deep Web came to my attention once again, explaining how is trivial, but I wanted to know more so I did a bit of research. 

According to an article written by Jose Pagliery for CNN (@Jose_Pagliery), we interact with about 1% of the internet everyday. That's your common sites that you open up every morning, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Buzzfeed, etc, the well-known ones which search engines would have no trouble finding. The most bad ass thing I've done until now on the internet is understand how Reddit works and browse through Wikileaks. Pretty lame, I know. The way search engines work are really interesting but you can research that for yourself when you're done reading this.

Have you noticed that search engine results are more or less the same? Ok, maybe not Bing but, you get the idea. I noticed this in high school whenever I did research for a project. I would use Google and Yahoo! and, most of the time, the results I got were the same. This is because all of the results that pop up have links between sites which are a breeze for search engines to recognize and find in a matter of seconds. Search engines index data and then trawl through this information to help you find what you are looking for. The results which emerge from searches are referred to as static pages. The pages which are not indexed is what's interesting here. 

The pages which search engines are not capable of finding because they cannot access deeper content make up the other 99% of the internet known as the deep web. These pages are known as dynamic pages. Dynamic pages include private databases. Think along the lines of intranets (universities) or company sites (academic journals). These sites require special access in order for you to view information and search engines will not be able to collect data from these sites. Private pages are the tip of a vast, unknown, exciting and dangerous Web. 

The largely unexplored deep Web is often referred to as Tor. Let's just say that Craigslist has nothing on Tor. Tor is the darkest part of the internet. It's a network comprised of a collection of sites that end in .onion (I know right, why bring a vegetable into this mess?). Special software is needed to access the stuff on Tor, which also ensures that you remain completely anonymous while you browse, or do other stuff which is probably illegal. If the software does not ensure your anonymity, do not fear for Tor will be there to shield off the authorities. It's like an extra layer of protection (.onion?). Tor runs on a system which bounces signals off various computers all over the world, which means that you'll be practically impossible to find when you access it. You're invisible but not invincible, please remember that.

As for the content which is available on Tor, you'll be able to find anything from hackers to do your dirty work, lots of stuff to illegally download, various message boards, stolen credit card numbers, illegal pornography, drugs (all sorts of drugs and almost every type), illegal organs and even assassins. Tor is like Craigslist on steroids, only you might go to jail if you aren't careful enough. There are loads of stuff which is legally available and legal transactions take place all the time but, most of the stuff on Tor is illegal, which is why anonymity is stressed. 

I accessed Tor for research purposes. I did my research before doing this, obviously. Accessing Tor is not illegal. To say that accessing Tor is illegal would be to say that accessing Google is illegal. It is a part of the internet, no doubt a huge one, and all you're saying to the world by accessing it is that you're aware of it. What you do on Tor determines whether you've been naughty or not. I downloaded the Tor browser bundle, protected my IP address and I was good to go. I'm not going to explain the entire process of how I accessed Tor, it's really quite simple and anyone can do it. Once I had accessed the Tor network, I began exploring .onion sites. Let's just say that there are parts of the internet which are better left hidden.

If you decide that you would like to explore the Tor network, I must stress that you should not disclose your identity or location to anyone. Be smart. There are loads of creeps out there, the ones who typed a nasty reply to a comment that you left on a post do not begin to even scrape the surface. There's loads of information about the deep Web available on Reddit and Google, I've just included the basics. Surf responsibly guys.

No Ordinary Joe

It's been a while since I've written. Informal literature, that is. I've been caught up with academic life, writing papers and doing tests, the things which are expected of an academic. I've also been reading a lot, not just academic literature, but I've started to re-read Charles Dickens novels and let him captivate me with his words, again. It's important to re-read books at different stages in your life, the stories don't change but your perspective does. The last time I read Dickens, I was a naive adolescent.

I've decided to write this blog post because I'm procrastinating and because it's a good story. The story that I'm about to tell happened a couple of months ago, on a cold and rainy day, when I had least expected it to. I didn't feel like getting sopping wet when my destination was not home, so I ducked into a cafe on the university campus just as a storm was brewing.

I sat down at one of the empty tables just outside the cafe, with my overpriced cappuccino and started to read. Alas, it was not Dickens, but rather a boring journal article which I was struggling to get through. Surprisingly, I concentrate rather well when I'm alone in a noisy, crowded environment. I then spotted a tall figure in the periphery of my vision but thought nothing of it, assuming that they were looking for a table to sit at. I was so engrossed in trying to make sense of all the long words and unnecessarily long sentences that I could not look up until he said, "Excuse me, may I sit down?". "May," I thought. Well mannered. Well spoken. Well dressed. Not a student. 

I assumed that I had known enough about him by what I had seen and heard so I said, "Yeah, sure". He looked like he was in his mid-20s. I got back to reading my tedious journal article, not paying much attention to the person sitting across from me. He decided to disturb me, not that I was terribly annoyed. He asked what I was reading and I replied that it was nothing and that it wouldn't interest him (To be honest, I myself was not sure about what I was reading). I asked him if he was a student, even though I knew the answer. He said that he wasn't, and that he was waiting for his sister. I decided to pursue my line of inquiry and asked him what he did for a living. He said that he was in between jobs (he was unemployed at the time). I asked him if he had been a student at Wits (the university) and he said that he had never attended university, or bothered with any form of tertiary education. At this point, I was rather taken aback. "Rich boy," I thought. 

He switched the conversation and asked me about what I was studying and asked what year I was in. We then got to talking about my honours project. After I had explained the foundational concepts to him, he made some really great suggestions which just added to my surprise. They were valid, completely sensical ideas. Here was a person who knew nothing about archaeology, nothing about the concepts which I had just explained to him, letting me see how his brain works. I think by then I was more suprised that he had paid attention to what I was saying more than anything else. Our conversation broke when I heard someone excitedly call my name. It was his sister.

She's a really good friend of mine, someone I've known since first year, but someone who I hadn't seen very often because she studies something that requires her to be on a different campus to the one where I've been based for the past 4 years. She left with her brother after our general catch up, and by this point I was confused. My friend was by no means rich. I then remembered her telling me about her brother who made a fortune for himself by thinking for big companies. I made the connection, and I could not believe it. I had just sat down with probably one of the smartest people in South Africa and discussed my little honours project with him.

I had been wrong. Rich boy. I now scoff at the thought. He might have been rich, but not in the pretentious way I was thinking of. I thought that he was unemployed because he had mommy's and daddy's money to keep him company. Observation is a tricky thing. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it terribly wrong.

Top 10 Sexiest Footballers 2013

Whether you're a girl who loves football, like me, or whether you don't get what's so interesting about men kicking around a ball, this list is for every woman who appreciates sexy athletes.

10. David Beckham

From a scrawny, Manchester United loving 17 year old to one of the biggest sex symbols in the world, Becks has it all. Good looking, charming and philanthropic, at 37 years old he could very well be the next George Clooney of football.

9. Gerard Pique

This Barcelona man has always been one of the sexiest footballers of the decade. I know that the older ladies, like my mom, will appreciate this one :P Moving from Manchester United to Barcelona proved to be worthwhile and Shakira's baby daddy is not losing our attention any time soon.

8. Tim Cahill

Once an Evertonian, this Austalian hottie has the body to match his personality. Often overlooked on most lists, he ranks in at 8 on mine, and it isn't hard to see why.

7. Francesc Fabregas

I just had to. He was once the hottest Spanish player in my eyes and his good looks have not let him down one bit.

6. Iker Casillas

Yet another Spanish player makes it onto the list, it seems like Spain is becoming the new Italy. That jawline is enough to make any woman go insane.

5. Niko Kranjcar

Oh Niko, those of us who do watch football don't get to see him enough unfortunately, even when he did play for Tottenham Hotspur. Not one to be overlooked.

 4. Fernando Llorente

Another Spaniard. Enough said.

 3. Cristiano Ronaldo

You simply cannot have a top 10 sexiest footballer list and not have all of this on it. Just like David Beckham, he arrived at Manchester United as a scrawny 17 year old but a couple of years down the line, he developed  a body to die for

2. Mats Hummels

Wow. Just wow. This Borussia Dortmund centre back doesn't look like a defender at all but rather like he belongs on the cover of magazines with his charmingly good looks. He's like the German version of a younger Orlando Bloom. Let's hope that his gorgeous face doesn't get damaged too badly.

1. Yoann Gourcuff

The first time I noticed all this hotness was last year during the Euros since I don't watch French football. I distinctly remember rewinding a France game to see the name at the back of this hottie's shirt. Yoann is a player who frequently models at Milan Fashion Week and if you watch him in action, you'll know why.

Greetings, Earthlings :)

Hello all you awesome people. I know I've been away for a while but I've had to fight an epic battle with that  annoying social construct called exams. Yes, it's amazing how much of time something which you're probably never going to use or remember takes up. Also, I realised how awesome I am at remembering random stuff that I read in readings which would probably impress the person marking my exams so that's one positive thing I can take away from this tormenting experience.

Enough about my hate for exams, what I really want to blog about is books. I was recently forced to read The Heart of Redness by Zakes Mda because I'm doing English 1 as an elective this year. I had to read it because it was coming up in the exam and since I don't go to English lectures, I was kind of nervous. Plus, there weren't any notes or summaries for the book available on the internet. I have to say that I quite enjoyed the book, Mda is a brilliant writer as many South Africans will know and his ability to integrate the past with the present is quite remarkable.

I love books just as much as the next bookworm. There's nothing quite like feeling the weight of a book that you just took off the shelf or breathing in that familiar mustiness of a book which is more than a century old. My mom, from the time since I knew how to read, always encouraged me to read books. I can't say that I fell in love with books immediately, in fact, I found them quite boring at first but then I started reading The Famous Five series, I guess I have Enid Blyton to thank for my adventure tendencies.

Books are evolving, not only in terms of genres but also in terms of technology. As many of you know, eBooks are the future. As it is, kids in parts of Europe are already using iPads instead of  good old heavy textbooks in school. Yup, you heard right. Parents are asked to buy their kids iPads so that they can have more effective means of learning and doing work in class instead of having to lug around textbooks and writing pads. I mean, I'm all for technology but I still think that education needs to stay consistent until it's ready to take that leap to a technological level.

I literally have hundreds of eBooks on my laptop which I'm in the process of converting to an ePub format so that I can put them all onto my iPad. Don't get me wrong, I love conventional books, there's nothing like having the whole Harry Potter series or Hunger Games trilogy on your bookshelf but eBooks are really convenient. You literally have hundreds of books at your disposal to read on a device with just a touch of your finger, it really is amazing. Plus, carrying around an iPad is much more pleasant than breaking your back carrying around a 500 page book all day. The best thing about eBooks? You can download thousands of them for free. No cost whatsoever. Free. The latest books, the books which you've always wanted, anthologies which you would pay a fortune for, all for free. It's illegal of course but so is downloading music or games without paying for it.

I don't think that eBooks are threatening conventional books just yet but it is getting to that stage, and fast. With devices such as Kindles and iPads and eReaders, it's only a matter of time before people start downloading books instead of walking into a bookstore and purchasing one. I'll always buy books, especially books which are a part of a series or books by one of my favourite authors but sometimes downloading an eBook is just so much more convenient.

There's nothing like snuggling up with a book under covers on a cold day but I have to say, eBooks are quickly taking over the industry and I'm curious to see the long term effects that it's going to have on life in general. Good luck to those of you who are still writing exams, remember that you could always drop out and become a rock star, or a hippie, don't tell your parents that I encouraged you.

The Right to Freedom

On the 2nd of September I attended, what was largely believed to be, the event of the semester. The Engineers Breakfast is basically an event which is created to relieve some of the stress which engineers carry around with them all year round. Created for engineers but attended by mainly Bachelor of Arts students, the Engineers Breakfast has always been one of the most epic annual events held by students at the University of the Witwatersrand.

A day created for partying from 6 a.m-2 p.m flowing with lots of alcohol and of course, food! I, for one, did not expect to get as drunk as I did, but hey, freedom is an amazing thing. I did have a lecture to attend but guest lecturers aren't really exciting and besides, I got to see loads of people and meet lots of new people as well. So, the question is, should students be granted the right to unrestricted freedom? I say, hell yeah! How else are we going to learn to handle life in general? Having freedom comes with making mistakes and by making mistakes, we ultimately learn more and become more responsible. I'm a very responsible person and even though I did get really drunk, I had friends around me who took care of me, that's where responsibility comes in. Some people were getting really sick and there was no one around to help them, that's very irresponsible. If you know that you're going to be drinking to the extent of possible alcohol poisoning, you should make sure that you have at least one sober friend with you or be around responsible friends who will take care of you, even though they've had a couple of shots themselves.   

Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand, a student knows this better than anyone else. You know that you shouldn't be doing certain things such as partying the night before a test or getting drunk before attending a lecture and often, 85% of students take on this responsibility. As for the other 15%, they simply just need a shove in the right direction. University, if not high school, is supposed to teach you to be more responsible, when to have a good time and when not to have a good time, when to work and when to play. Everybody fools around in University, no doubt, even the nerdiest student, but we know when to buckle down and get our lazy butts into gear and actually work. Passing is almost inevitable if you're responsible enough to attend lectures and tuts regularly, simple as that. How responsible you actually are will determine how successful you'll be in your varsity career.

Parents who shackle their kids in high school and don't let them go out often enough are going to have real problems when their kids go off to varsity. Also, giving your kid a curfew is not going to teach them to be more responsible. My parents never ever gave me a curfew but I had enough sense to know what time to go home and that at the end of the day, it was my mom and dad who were coming to pick me up and I certainly was not going to call them at 3 in the morning. This taught me to be more responsible, not a stupid curfew. In varsity, there's no such thing as curfews or bells that ring in between lectures, the school system is no longer there, freedom is everywhere. So, parents who might be reading this, I'm not saying don't keep your kid on a leash, I'm saying expose them to the real world and let them grow up before they're so sensitised that they actually don't know the difference between the real world and their world. Varsity is a whole new experience and you certainly don't want your kid to be antisocial. 

Freedom to a student is the best thing in the world, especially to students who live in residences or in flats and students who own cars. The thing is, students are adults. Most of us can handle the great responsibilities which come with freedom. Bunking lectures or tuts is only done if you know you can afford to miss it. Bunking tuts might not be a good idea but if your lecture slides are going to be on WebCT and if you know that the lecturer is just going to stand there and repeat everything that's on the slides, you can afford to miss that one lecture but you also realise that you have to work super hard to make up for it as well. 

I love having freedom. Freedom is amazing, especially when you're 7 hours away from home and your parents aren't there to question you about your various whereabouts. It's always good though to give your parents a phone call and tell them that you're going to a party or event, which is what I still do to this day, just in case anything serious happens. That again is showing responsibility. My parents don't ever tell me not to go somewhere but in the unlikely event that they do, I will not go, because I know it's for my own safety. Lots of freedom with lots of responsibility, yes, quite amazing. 

The right to freedom is just that..a right. You can not deny anybody the right to freedom, unless you live in a communist country. Some people possess freedom with great difficulty while others handle it with ease, it just depends on your upbringing, morals and values, parents and all that jazz. Love life, love freedom, love responsibilities, it will make you a stronger person at the end of the day :)

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves"

-Abraham Lincoln

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."

-Mahatma Gandhi

"Freedom is the oxygen of the soul."
-Moshe Dayan

The Flip Side

All of us say that we're going to do certain things before we die. We have goals and aims and dreams but we don't see the flip side of the coin. Many people think that the flip side is all about disappointment  and the failure to not make something of your life or be something great, but, ask yourself this, what if the flip side is actually about self-realisation? self-discovery? the exploration of different aspects of your life. What actually makes you the person that you are? If you discovered new things about yourself, would you change?

We rush through life. If we aren't dealing with personal matters then we're studying or working an 8am-5pm job, too busy to take note of what's actually happening around us. How many times do we stop and ask a friend if they need help? Or take notice of someone who's struggling to get ahead in life? We just simply switch off and say "Oh well, you've gotten yourself into that posistion, I can't help you, you have to deal with this on your own." The reality is that we have a responsibility to everyone and everything on this planet because like it or not, we're all interconnected. Why do doctors become doctors? To cure diseases and to treat people right? They have a responsibility to take care of their patients and make them feel better. So, in a way we're all doctors, we help each other get through life's toils and troubles. Your friends and family are your support system, take notice of them and give them the attention which they deserve because it is these people who ultimately make you the person that you are.

You only ever take note of your morals and values when you're in a situation that requires them such as giving a friend sound advice. You don't take note of your morals and values in everyday life. To all you philanthropists out there, how about actually giving that beggar on the street some coins every time you rush past him? Everyday life doesn't require us to use our morals and values. We simply get up in the morning, head out the door and are then so engrossed in our own lives that we fail to notice prejudices or hate speech which are against our morals and values. Only when we are trapped in a web of peer pressure and snide comments do we say to ourselves, "Wait a minute, this is against my morals and values". The only moral and/or value which I practice everyday is vegetarianism, because I have to, but that dirty politician or that dishonest businessman is laughing all the way to the bank simply because he forced himself to forget the morals and values which he was brought up with. The morals and values which your parents instill unto you is the basic foundation of your personality. How you choose to build upon that foundation is up to you.

Ever since technology has evolved, and continues to evolve, we have more and more crap to keep ourselves occupied with. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google, etc. Then our phones have these neat little applications as well to divert our attention from what's really important. I am convinced that  Mxit, BBM, Whatsapp and various other chat applications were created to just cause more and more drama in our lives. Sure, it's a good tool to have for chatting to old friends or friends in another province but when problems arise, suddenly, it's not so much of fun anymore. All of this takes up whatever valuable time we have in our lives. Yes, it is good to chat with friends who you can't see because of distance but do we really need to spend all of our time in the day doing just that? I am guilty of this, I will admit, I LOVE the internet and Mxit and Facebook chat. What ever happened to being constructive? And not doing that assignment the night before? All of these things flew out of the window as technology has evolved and so we need to integrate the idea that time needs to be spent with friends and family on a regular basis and not just cyberspace friends, for the well being of our physical and mental state. Our life is the most precious thing that we have, so why not live it to the full?

Another thing in life which we fail to realise is that material wealth is not important. Yeah, that guy who you see everyday driving that Mercedes and wearing those expensive clothes might have everything that he needs in order to make him popular but do you think that he's happy? Do you think that he's passing all his classes? He won't get far in life and you know it. That nerd that everybody picks on? The one who wears clothes from Pep?  Yeah, the one who's less better off in other words, he's the one who will be the most successful out of everyone who picks on him. Material wealth is nothing. It means nothing. At the end of the day, it's your intellectual ability which determines who you are and who you will be. Life is way too short to worry about material wealth. As long as you are happy, nothing else matters.

In saying all of the above, I urge you to once in a while, flip the coin. Take a break from life and just focus on yourself and what makes you the person that you are. We get caught up in life and it's demands that we don't put aside time for ourselves. Self-realisation and self-discovery can be powerful things. You might want to change a few charactersitics of what makes you who you are but change is good sometimes.  We've been blessed with a beautiful thing called life, how we choose to live it is up to us.