Internet Forum Addiction, Anonymous

[Mike Swearingen]

My rabid DIY forums addiction has gone very well with my insomnia ever since I got my first computer back in '98.
Been doing all kinds of DIYing for more than 50 years now, and I have spent untold midnight hours on various DIY sites...either as a newbie, a junior member, a senior member, a moderator and once even as a so-called "super moderator", whatever that was.
I currently have a total of more than 14,000 posts (for real) on various DIY sites (is THAT nuts or what), but I've drastically been tapering off, what with the senility setting in and all. It's getting harder to remember if the red or the black wires clamp to the copper water heater pipes for instance.
Everything slows down when you hit 65, which I just did, but NOW I'm on Medicare if I hurt myself again. LOL
Mike

[tonykarns]

Last month my brothers, uncles, aunts, daughters, sons, grandparents, neighbors, my parish priest and my ex-wife all showed up at my house with a camera crew from the show intervention. As they all sat in my living room surrounding me in a circle they began to express their concern for me and brought to my attention that I was in fact addicted to the internet and said they would all stand behind me if only I would check into the computer addiction rehab center. After much denial on my part but persistance on theirs, I began to weep and finally admitted that I was addicted to the internet. My priest called for prayer and as he laid his hand upon my forehead everyone else embraced me. I was led out the door and into a waiting van that had two large armed men inside to escort me to the rehab center. Well 60 days in the center for computer addiction made me come to my senses and I was cured! However during my time in rehab I met a group of wonderful women that visit me all the time at home on a regular basis. My neighbor sees all these women coming and going from my house and my sister now has called me asking what is going on over here. Do I now have to live in fear of another intervention because I will be considered to have an addiction to women? Geez, why cant I just be able to live my life the way I want to. I think that I should go back to my computers and all the forums to throw everyone off track? What do I do? What would you do?

[got_nailed]

Shhh rugged don’t tell them I’m one of your altered egos. This was to be kept between you and me.

[Herk]

My name is also Steve, and I am not an addict. In fact, as soon as I get the bunker built and the razor wire stretched and the T-1 line in place, no one will bother me about the time I spend online anymore, you betcha.

[cwhyu2]

Put me in a cave.

[got_nailed]

Steve they would toss a bunch of us in one cave. We would need more than a T1 because a T1 is just a POP. We would need a T3.

[Herk]

This morning, I'd settle for a T1. My internet connection is off and on and I never know if it will load a page or not. Since we got about a half-inch of snow, the cable system can't cope.

[got_nailed]

DSL with the upload for me. The one thing I hate is when I go to a slow web site. I have had one internet outage and that was a few years back.

edit
Is it a node problem or farther down the line.

[Ian Gills]

I have just realised that I spend an awful lot of time on this forum. In the order of several hours each and every day.

Who's the most dedicated/crazy/addicted?

[FloridaOrange]

I get on here quite a bit but then again I work on a computer with 2 monitors. Sometimes I'm waiting for an answer to the project I'm working on or some other similar reason.
I would say if it were clocked it would be a couple of hours a day but some of that time I'm not actually paying attention to that monitor.

[Ian Gills]

Well, I'm still pretty impressed that you give this forum an ENTIRE MONITOR!

[FloridaOrange]

Nothing but the best.
Seriously though, once you start using two monitors it's hard to go back to a single. Prices of monitors and vid cards have come down alot in the last couple of years.

Right now I'm watching a show on Hulu.com on the other monitor.

[Peanut9199]

Never heard of Hulu.com.
I tried to watch something but it says because i'm not in the US i cannot download.

My question, how does it know?
When i set anything up on my computer i never put in personal history.

Does anyone know where to go to see that information?

[Ian Gills]

It's looking at your IP address. That narrows you down to specific area where the server you are connected to is located.

You can get some software to hid your IP address. I wonder what would happen then?

[FloridaOrange]

I was under the impression that it wasn't truely a "download", more like streaming. In any event I would be suprised that it wasn't available in Canada.

Like Ian said, it's reading your IP. Lots of sites do that so they can tailor advertising to your specific location.