That’s natural, and according to recently gathered stats not at all uncommon.  If you are curious to know the top reasons people find themselves defriended on Facebook, they’ve been compiled in an easy to read infographic (see below) that shows the responses of a variety of users in a survey.  What do you think?  Are these reasons you have unfriended people before?  Have you yourself been unfriended for similar reasons?

This is Apple’s own introductory video.  It will explain everything you need to know about iCloud and how it can improve your digital life. Syncing and having storage space are not all there is to it.

But first,  a message from our Sponsors:

Recently the activity of hacktivist groups like Lulz and Anonymous have compromised the Internet, making certain forms of its use seem to be a threat to homeland security.  As you read over the information below, also be thinking about your own home security system and whether it stands up to the trials of the modern times we currently live in.  Guarding your home from outside crime is just as important as keeping your anti-virus software up to date, or your mal-ware scanner current.

“We didn’t see any big problems or slowdowns today. Things went much as they had the day before,” a spokesman said.

Another added, “We take this to be an encouraging sign that IPv6 adoption is growing and more users are finding IPv6 access, and in particular more users are able to access the Internet via native IPv6 as opposed to being forced to use one of the tunneling protocols to get through IPv4-only portions of the Internet.” ADT security systems

If you have no idea what IPv4 and IPv6 are, you are probably beyond baffled by all this talk of tunneling protocols and security.  Why is it even important?  Who cares what communications protocol is used, as long as I can get from Google to the New York Times in less than 12 parsecs?  Let me explain:  all web sites you visit are hosted on servers located somewhere.  Those servers might be rack space the site owner pays for monthly, or they could be sitting in the site owner or company’s own controlled server room.  Wherever they are, all machines connected to the Internet are identified by a number, and that number is the device or computer’s IP address.  IPv4 has only a limited number of available IP addresses because of the way the numbers were allocated when the protocol was defined.  There are only so many combinations of numbers separated by commas that you can come up with — and we are fast approaching that moment in time.

IPv6 is different, since it allocates a lot more characters for assigning IP addresses.  No longer are the IP addresses restricted to just numbers, but can also include letters.  There can also be more than just four sections of combined characters.  There are enough IPv6 IP addresses for every person currently living on the planet Earth to have more than 50,000,000 unique IP addresses.  That is substantial.  It ought to last us a while.

So that’s the story on IPv6 day.

1. More devices: Internet connected devices are expected to outnumber the world’s population of human beings by 4 to 1 as the number of tablets, smart phones, PDAs, and other connect.
2. More people. By 2015, more than 40 percent of the world’s total population is expected to be online.  That’s more than 3 billion people, an all time record.
3. Faster speeds. The average broadband speed is expected to jump from the current 7 megabits per second to 28 megabits per second in 2015.
4. More videos. In just four more years, over 1 million minutes of video should be able to cross the Internet every second.

Computers account for the majority of current web traffic, but mobile technologies and Internet-enabled devices of all kinds continue to gain a share.  Web enabled household appliances and other forms of entertainment (such as Web enabled TVs) will be more numerous in homes than traditional PCs soon.  Not everyone may have a computer in the home, but most everyone will have possibly more than 2 Web enabled devices in the form of TVs and related accessory devices, gaming consoles, and information assistance stations.

In the post-PC era that Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs announced last spring after the release of the original iPad, the role of the traditional computer continues to diminish as smaller, lighter-duty, and even specialized task devices become more commonplace.  So far, Jobs’ prediction appears to be coming true.

In a bid to remain viable in the post-PC era, Intel recently announced the forthcoming arrival of what it describes as Ultrabooks that offer up thin and light computing with tablet computing features built in.  They will be like laptops, but able to function like tablets, and will cost less than $1,000 USD.  This, Intel claims, is the real future of computing in a post-PC era.

Google has yet other ideas about the future of computing. cable internet bundles Google’s Chromebooks, coming later this month, will run Google’s Chrome OS — a cloud based operating system that integrates all of Google’s cloud services like Gmail, Docs, and its world renowned search engine.  Some privacy advocates worry that Google can virtually take over the entire Internet by offering too many services, then putting its operating system out there on a hardware lease sales model that many will jump to take advantage of.  The affordability will entice more people to willingly surrender their privacy to Google, which will go on to profit on information stored about its customers and used in targeted advertising.  Google Wallet is yet another example of the company’s ambitions.

Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to drag along at the back of the line, struggling to make it’s Windows Phone platform something worthy of consumer interest, to keep its Bing search engine afloat in an economy driven by sponsored and pay per click ads and search engine rankings — in which Google rules all it surveys.

These will be some exciting years coming up, between now and 2015, when so much is expected to boom so quickly in terms of Internet speed and usage.

Imagine starting a conference call with four friends to plan an evening out simply by thinking about it.  Or how about writing a 500-word reflection paper for English Lit without typing a single word of it?  The days are coming when you will be able to think directly to most of your electronics with impulses generated by your own thoughts. There are far more promising uses for this technology than just playing video games and making phone calls, however.

Recently, a young man from Oregon who became a paraplegic following an automobile accident, participated in an experimental treatment.  Partially developed by researchers at UCLA, this treatment involved using a pacemaker-like device, sending electrical impulses through 16 electrodes to effectively re-teach his lower body how to move.  His spinal cord injury was the most common kind, where the entire spinal cord was not involved.  This could potentially help millions of partially paralyzed people around the world. directsat.com

Still, there’s nothing ignoble about controlling a video game with your thoughts either.  Consider the possibilities of making quick-as-thought moves during your next LAN party!  How cool would that be?  Controlling your customized character in World of Warcraft just by thinking about it might just add an extra dimension to the game.  The only drawback would be that people who are not as quick thinking on their feet might lose valuable moments and lose the power of surprise if they have a slower response than other players.  By the same turn, this style of interaction with video game technology would train the mind to think faster, or to express the thoughts more readily than before.

How do neural interface devices work?  By translating patterns in brain waves to programmed tasks.  Case in point:  the NeuroSky Mindwave.  This is the first mass market headset that can allow human/computer interaction via a relatively inconspicuous looking getup.  It’s not actually the person’s thoughts controlling the software, but his brainwaves. The NeuroSky Mindwave, according to its website, “It uses EEG (Electroencephalography) from a single sensor to record brainwaves and outputs the data as proprietary algorithms (for focus and relaxation), power spectrum bands using FFT distribution (alpha, beta, theta, delta and gamma) and the raw brainwave (including muscle movement such as blinks).”

The implications are amazing, and the sky seems to be the limit.  It appears we are fast approaching the brink where technology takes a quantum leap into the realm of seeming magic.  Either way, I know what’s on my Christmas list this year.

Still other parents completely restrict Internet use, both at home and at public schools (by opting out of the availability to use the Internet as part of classes  or in the media centers at the schools.)  Many parents are unaware that this option exists, and therefore do not ask for it at their child’s school.  These requests must be made in writing  to the school, where it must be filed anew each year.  Some school systems may not actually offer this opting out, but many do.  Check with your school district.

Some religious organizations have marketed software that can filter the Internet that makes its way into your home network.  These can be controlled by a root user who can single out certain websites to ban, or construct elaborate keyword filters that will keep certain words and phrases from showing up in search results, and prevent a web browser from downloading inappropriate sites at all.  These can be costly solutions, and they do have their drawbacks.  For instance, these filters can frequently be bypassed using proxy servers.  Once teenagers discover how to route the system, there is pretty much no way of locking it back down — and teenagers do share these secrets.

There are some free, open source URL blocking and internet filtration software programs with parental controls for both Windows and Mac, but they can take some skills to configure properly.  Reading message boards and instructions will help you set them up in your home.  Some of the best known software of this kind includes K9 Web Protection (http://www1.k9webprotection.com/) and SquidGuard (http://www.squidguard.org/) — and they both have something of a learning curve, but are not impossible to figure out.

If you are truly determined to prevent your children from encountering the wrong information on the World Wide Web, there is no better protection than your direct supervision of your child.  It may be tempting for parents to use computers and tablets as baby sitting devices, leaving their children alone to “play on the Internet” while dinner is being cooked.  But this is not a good plan, especially when a simple misspelling of an innocent word can lead your child to places best left unvisited.  Make sure you are actively involved in your childrens’ early experiences with the Internet, and that they understand you have rules and expectations for their behavior online.  This will be the best help by far.

The good news is that there are some jobs that are always open for whomever wants them; fast-food restaurants, selling insurance, being a greeter at the local motel, or stringing beads with the elderly. For these jobs, you’ll need more than a high school diploma, you’re gonna need a college degree. Probably a degree in pathophysiology, criminal justice, RN or LPN, or communication.

Think of it, you have graduated college, you strike out on your own to secure your future and pay back some loans, and the best jobs available are jobs that any junior high school student can secure. What a world! Meanwhile, the loan company is nipping at your heels and the first people you turn to for help, yet again, are mom and dad. But this time, mom and dad are trying to secure their own futures.

Dad has been dreaming of buying a boat since 10th grade. He wants to sail the high seas with his work buddies, and his brothers. He’s been dreaming about the adventure for so long, it almost seems an impossibility. But, he has saved up enough to do it. Now mom wants to travel with her women’s group to Ireland, home of her birth, and she has been planning for this trip since she got married. In fact, that’s were they were supposed to go on their honeymoon, but their parents got sick and needed tending.

Fast forward to today. They wake up, go down the hall to the bedroom that you used to reside in before college, and find you there again. A sinking feeling comes over them and they hang their heads all the way back to the kitchen. Mom starts breakfast, and dad makes the coffee. The bedroom door opens and out you come, down the hall, into the kitchen because you smell food.

Being an only child, who would say where you went if your parents decided to lock you in the basement until they returned from their respective vacations? After all, they have been waiting to take them your whole life; you have only been out of college for four weeks and the drain on them has exceeded their expectatios.

Bottom line is that the education is complete. The Internet is open and ready for business. The classifieds are free for everyone, and jobs are jobs. So take the first one that comes your way that pays enough for you to look for housing and an automobile, and get moving. The ride has ended, and it’s time to get off the merry-go-round at mom and dads. Because mom and dad are going on one of their own!