Internet

Google lets you add customized content to your personalized Google homepage once you sign into your Google account . It's a great feature that allows you to really customize the page with favorite RSS feeds, weather, stocks, etc. And now there's ... Google Modules : an unofficial website that offers up many modules you can add to your homepage. The modules are small widgets that go beyond what Google offers (as far as just adding a feed or a link). For example, there's games (including Pac-Man!), Del.icio.us modules, to do lists, translators, images, and more. All you have to do is click "Get ... (view more)

Flock is getting some negative attention as of late. People wonder why they need to use a browser like Flock now that Performancing Firefox plugin allows them to blog from Firefox using many different blogging platforms. Recently, Flock's Chris ... Messina , addressed some of the Flock backlash on his blog. It's a good post . He said: Here's the thing. We've actually been pretty certain for some time that most of the features that we build into Flock will be eventually be ported back over to Firefox as extensions. Or become commodity features in other browsers. That's the way open source should ... (view more)

Protopage may want to be the new homepage (or for Firefox users, one of many homepages!), but it won't be mine any time soon. Protopage lets the user put personalized news, sticky notes, and bookmarks all on one page. This is very Web 2.0. The ... personalized news stories are RSS feeds, of course, and the sticky notes can be anything: a to-do list, reminders, whatever a user would like. An interesting thing about Protopage is how it shows off the power of page AJAX. It was fun to plan around with ( see my page ), but I don't need it. I don't need sticky notes on my homepage. I'm perfectly happy ... (view more)

Mercora has a cool offering called IMRadio for Google Talk . You can search, find and listen to the music of thousands of artists in near-CD quality sound. The music is provided by other Mercora users, disk jockeys and artists from all over the ... world through Google Talk. Mercora has a large music catalog that you can search. This will help you build your own music library by adding files, folders and songs that you like to listen to. Then invite your friends to listen to your collection -- you'll have a ton of fun! Read more tech news at SarahInTampa.com! (view more)

Have you ever seen the Server Code pages flash on your screen? So have I! In fact, I got curious as to what those three digit codes really mean. I was surprised to find so many. Anyway, I decided to make a list and share it with you, so here it is, ... the entire Web Server Code list. Print this out and save it for when you'll need it. 100-199 SRCs provide confirmation that a request was received and is being processed. (silent) 100 This is good. The request was completed and the process can move along. 101 Request to switch protocols (like from HTTP to FTP) was accepted. 200-299 SRCs report that ... (view more)

In Part 1 we talked about some general purpose text editors. All good tools and you really should have one on hand for use. But, since we're thinking of writing HTML code, why not use a Web Page Editor? These editors are designed specifically to ... make web page development easier. Some of them even provide a browser function that allows you to write a little and then look at it as though you were using your web browser with out loading it. There are a lot of them available, some are quite expensive and have a learning curve (time to learn) that is really long before you become proficient. I ... (view more)

It occurs to me that there are a lot of folks that, like me, enjoy using the computer. It becomes more than a fancy typewriter or a games machine or even a jukebox for playing music. We start thinking about how much we would like to make the ... computer do what we want. We want to 'program' the machine! Strangely enough, it doesn't take years of education at the college level to do that. There are tutorials and free software available that we can collect and use to become the magician. Not to mention the thousands of books that are sold in bookstores that cover the subject. So, exactly what ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Morris K. writes: " Dear Dennis, Whenever I click on my EarthLink icon to start the Internet (and to launch Internet Explorer), my computer freezes up for a few minutes -- and then all the sudden, I have 50 or 60 copies of ... Internet Explorer (IE) sitting in my task bar! The odd thing is that if I try to close some of the windows, more IE Windows start re-launching. I am stumped how to solve this. Is there a way to reinstall or repair Internet Explorer? " My response: It's possible that your computer was infected with Spyware and the Spyware infection wasn't ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader 'theMick37' writes: " Dear Dennis, There is so much great info on your web site! Thanks for that. I was wondering if there is any programs (freeware preferred) that can record Internet radio [audio]? I have WinAmp and there are ... some great radio stations. I'd like to record the audio to my hard drive so I can listen to that same music later or in WinAmp later on. Thanks for any information you can provide. " My response: According to zdNet.com, "recording Internet radio still remains in legal limbo, and there's some precedent for it being legal, since you can ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Janice C. writes: " Dear Dennis, I use Outlook Express as my primary email program. I also use Yahoo email via my web browser for a secondary email account (mostly to subscribe to free online draws, lotto's, etc). If possible, I'd ... like to hook up my Yahoo email address into Outlook Express. I've tried to add my yahoo email address into Outlook Express, but it doesn't work. Can you please tell me how to this? " My response: I've answered this question before (but it's worth going over once more). In a nutshell, Outlook Express only supports POP3 and IMAP mail ... (view more)