Internet

The world of 'the Internet' versus 'computer users' (realized as separate entities) is amazing, but I've found that attitudes on both sides tend to polarize folks. For example, you have The Browser Wars: Internet Explorer vs Netscape with Firefox as ... the latest Mozilla contender and Opera watching from the wings with an aloof cultured shrug; or The Operating System Wars: Apple vs PCs (IBM and clones), Windows vs Linux (pick your distro); add to this, GTalk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AIM, Trillian ... and your head starts to get dizzy. From my seat over here in the Old Newbie corner, I ... (view more)

I just got a sneak peek at a new and fascinating communication tool called Stickam , which officially launches on February 13th, 2006. In a nutshell: Stickam brings live streaming video, video conferencing, and multimedia to web pages and blogs. ... Stickam is a very powerful video communications player, offers unlimited bandwidth, and best of all: there's absolutely nothing to download! Simply cut and paste the Stickam JavaScript or HTML code to an area of your website and bingo bango, you're ready to go! All this, and it's free, too! ;-) Here's the breakdown of what Stickam has to offer: Easy ... (view more)

If you haven't checked out Gtalkr lately, it's time to rewind! Gtalkr is a tool used to log into your GoogleTalk account online (via their website), in place of using the GoogleTalk program. When you use Gtalkr to chat with your buddies, your ... Instant Message (IM) conversations are saved and are then searchable... so it's like you can Google your IMs! But Gtalkr is so much more than just instant messaging. You can also add content, like RSS feeds, to your Gtalkr page. Several popular feeds are already available to add with a click of a button, or you can add your own. Other Gtalkr extensions ... (view more)

The past week I've been BOINCing around with a new (to me) program that does a wonderful thing. Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing: an open-source software platform for computing using volunteered resources. Stay with me now, this is ... really very exciting. Remember I've told you before that computers are not very smart, just incredibly fast and able to do the same thing over and over and over without getting bored with the repetitiveness? In fact, most of the time your computer is waiting to do something and it would be quite happy to have something, anything to break the ... (view more)

Godzilla, the monster, is well known for his powers of destruction but FileZilla , unlike Godzilla, will help you construct. I use FileZilla as my FTP client several times a week while building websites. Over the years I've tried many free FTP ... programs. They all did the job, but FileZilla is the one that I finally kept. It's easy to use and does everything I need. Its dual pane views make dragging and dropping files between the web and my PC a simple task and it connects to my FTP sites with a single click of the mouse, as it remembers all of my FTP logins and passwords. FileZilla downloads ... (view more)

Here are two questions Internet users commonly ask: " What is the best way to download very large files? ", and " What is the best way to distribute very large files? " The answer to both is a file transfer protocol called BitTorrent. A typical ... download is from a single website to your computer. BitTorrent allows you to connect to all the people currently downloading a large file, and get pieces of it from them. In other words, you are downloading from many places at once. This distributes the load so that no single computer is overloaded and it makes for very fast downloads. Most ... (view more)

In the world of computing, especially home computing, one of the things we enjoy most is gathering new and interesting programs to make a difference in our lives. Generally, we go to a download site (you all know my favorites by now) and browse the ... lists looking for the one thing that will make the entire day. We find it and click the file we want. We get connected to the server that is storing the file and the file is transferred to our system. From there, well we know what goes on. It's really easy. The entire transaction usually involves two computer systems. The server and the client ( ... (view more)

So you finally decide you want to purchase your own computer and have it custom built just for you. Reasons for this could be that you don't want all the extra software that comes bundled with major manufacturers such as Dell, or you want to have a ... nice high-end system built with the specs just the way you like it. Here is a little advice based on some of my experiences. Ask yourself the following questions and think about them: What kind of computer do I need? Will it be used only for email and Internet access, or as a business computer or both? Do you have specific applications you want to ... (view more)

Big news from CESweb.org ! Yahoo announced Yahoo Go . Yahoo Go is actually a combination of 3 items: Yahoo Go Mobile, Yahoo Go PC and Yahoo Go TV. Yahoo Go Mobile integrates Yahoo's services with a phone's built-in email, messaging, address book and ... calendar applications. So, if you lose your cell phone, your contact information isn't lost forever -- it's available online and can be synched with a new mobile phone. Now that is a NICE feature. Yahoo Go PC will initially include a Yahoo Go Desktop dashboard that will allow you to keep your friends, contacts, news, mail and more, right on your ... (view more)

As I reminisce about the year gone by, I realize that there was a lot going on. What really stands out for me as the top tech stories of 2005 are as follows: 1. Google. Google becomes a powerhouse company, rolling out beta after beta. Some bomb (Web ... Accelerator); some are so fantastic I wonder how I lived without them (Gmail/Gmail Mobile), and some just confuse (GoogleBase). Still, Google makes it known they are a force to be reckoned with. Watch out for Google's online office suite in 2006. You know it's coming. 2. Tagging. Everyone is tagging now. Tag photos on flickr. Tag bookmarks on del. ... (view more)