When was the last time that you said “grace” before a meal? When was the last time that you or someone that you know read the holy bible out of curiosity or fun? I personally don’t know but along with the majority of PC users, I could tell you what version of Kazaa is out and when the next update is expected to be available for download. Is the computer taking over as our way of life? These file sharing applications are the most common programs on the Internet With computer literacy becoming more and more common, it will be essential that the next generation be totally computer literate.

It seems that P2P (peer to peer) file sharing software has become the most common piece of software out there next to an operating system. There are thousands of P2P file sharing applications out on the market, majority of them freeware or shareware with spyware contained inside. A lot of the programs have advertising on their software to pay for itself, the others have secret programs enclosed that install upon installation of the primary program. Some of these programs include Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster and Gnutella. All of these programs slightly different to the previous with Gnutella and Grokster working across networks and Kazaa and Morpheus working across the Internet on a user connection based network.

There was a significant element that with computers meant flashy games for the home and word processing to the house of the eighties. In the nineties the computers upgraded, the Internet became a household tool and consumer ease of use was the primary objective as this attracted profits. But P2P is not the only way to transfer or find Mp3 files across the Internet. There are many Mp3 servers out on the Internet as well as Mp3 files scattered on various sites across its servers. To combat this format of downloading, the industry has introduced new codecs (compression – decompression) that have made the file unable to save. This method is called streaming and when the user begins to download the file, they don’t have to wait for the entire file to download before they can begin to hear it. The file generates a “buffer” with the media playing software and once there is enough of a buffer, the file begins to play as the rest of the file downloads. This is a great idea for radio stations across the Internet and other music sites. Of course consumers aren’t going to pay for something that they can’t keep a hard copy of (with the exception of food and supplies). Why is that you ask? Because in the end, the user doesn’t get something out of the purchase. If they were to keep the Mp3 file, consumers would receive something reusable for their purchase.