Can the internet really be profitable?

Can the Internet really be profitable?

I know that's a funny question. All kinds of people have made their millions at least with the assistance with the internet. But I mean more in a realistic sense, a situation where (money.earned == (effort.spent/time.spent)). That, and not everyone has the heart to scam money out of those with better constitutions. By this I mean MLM scams etc.

I've been using the internet for years. At least since mid 90's. In the last week, I've earned more money online than I ever thought possible. It's true. On this blog alone, though advertising, I have raised almost 10 dollars. And by completing some of those web perspectives surveys, I've raised yet another almost 10 dollars. This is crazy... just crazy..

Now to be fair, I think I'm receiving payment for surveys completed months ago... It really begs the initial question, is it worth the time and effort?

If a survey takes I dunno, 30 - 40 minutes to complete, and you have to wait for at least a month for payment, there isn't much point in taking the survey at all. Not unless it was your spare time.

Now that being said, How much is your spare time worth? I'm a professional software developer, and while I won't get into exactly how much I make, I will tell you that the difference in value is outstanding. If I work outside my normal work hour's I'd consider that eating into my spare time. Yet at the least, I bill my regular hourly rate, or take time off to make up for it.

This blog post is going to take something like 20 minutes of my time; because I don't really care if I look a little rough on the edges. I'm not sure how attractive the advertising will look from it, and subsequently how likely people are to be attracted to any of it, but if I were to look at the statistics, this post could potentially generate 4 dollars worth of income over a few days.

So this is a lot more effective than completing surveys. But still, is it worth my time? Does the fact that I'm doing this out of interest make a difference? Maybe that should fit into the initial equation somewhere....

(money.earned == (effort.spent/time.spent)) + satisfaction ???

or

I enjoy it, so.. (satisfaction + money.earned) == super bonus

obviously I'm no mathematician.

Has anyone out there actually found practical things, that you don't hate doing, to be profitable on the internet? But let's just rule out selling all your belongings on E bay right now.

I'm all for hearing stories on various ventures. However, I'm more interested in hearing if the internet is actually profitable in this way, not to be sold in some business opportunity.

An intrusion a firewall wont protect you from...

So I sit down here after getting the kiddos to bed. And I read my email. I get these newsletters from a few places, that keep me somewhat up to date in the technical worldly happenings. One story struck me as funny, and I just had to share; because this story really made me think.

A few years back I was awfully concerned to do my online banking over a wireless network connection, especially the first few times I used a wireless network connection. Even now with encryption and security features, you can't help but think that it would be a better idea to transmit sensitive data over a wire, and not through the air right?

Apparently one doesn't even need a network connection to be snooped on. Apparently a couple of guys from a Swiss research laboratory have discovered a way to remotely key log directly from the keyboard. No, I'm not talking about a wireless keyboard either. Apparently they are decoding electromagnetic pulses up to 20 meters away, and through walls. And apparently USB, PS/2 and Laptop keyboards are all affected. I wonder if wireless keyboards are affected...

Tin Foil hats anyone?

Oh, http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10072967-83.html
There is a link in there you can follow with video footage of these attacks.

Hello, World!

So, I'm a 26 year old Canadian developer. I've been practically raised online, and I've never had a blog. Of course I think I missed a few other big things as well. As a matter of fact, do you people still read these things?