Though these cooking shows may not be Barefoot Contessa or Ace of Cakes, they’re pretty darn good.
What I’m talking about is Rouxbe, a long-living but recently-excelling video-based cooking site. It’s part YouTube, part DIY site, and is a great way to get some help with cooking. You’ll have to create an account to really enjoy the site’s features, but it’s simple, free, and worth it. Continue reading
What the Internet is could be, and is, the subject of an enormous number of books. Amazon can help you out there, I’m sure. For our purposes, though, I’m going to give you a quick overview of what the Internet and the World Wide Web are.
The Internet is, at its simplest, a network of networks. Networks are private (in your house, your work, your coffee shop) and public, pushed together using a standardized Internet Protocol Suite. That protocol suite, called TCP/IP, is essentially a standardized way of pushing small packets of information (which everything you do is broken down into) between networks. Continue reading
For those people who’ve been around the Web for a relatively long time, who are “early adopters”, who take “geek” as a compliment, some of the following may not be of particular relevance to you.
What I’m realizing more and more, though, is that the above description fits a smaller portion of the world than I realized. For instance, a study was done that showed that 58% of people didn’t know what a “social network” was. That really surprised me, but also got me wondering.
The Internet is a tool whose capabilities go far beyond that which people use it for. Though email, Google searches, and news reading are revolutionary, and have changed the world forever, they’re only the tip of the iceberg.
My guess is that the biggest obstacle to people using the Web for all it has to offer is a simple lack of understanding of what the Web is, what it offers, and how to use it well. The Internet is a wonderful and alluring place to waste time, but it’s also a place to make your life easier, better, more fun, more efficient, and more productive.
In the coming weeks, we’ll begin a discussion of some of the Web basics. Definitions of Web-lingo like “RSS”, “Social Networks”, even “Web 2.0″. I’ll give you definitions as best I can, as well as practical ways to implement them into your lives, as well as some tools with which to do so. I’ll borrow liberally from sites like Wikipedia (arguably the Web 2.0 paradigm) and others, and will cite them as best I can.
Here’s what I need from you all: I don’t know everything about everything. I don’t know everything about anything, for that matter. I need your help to catch my mistakes, to better my definitions, to educate those who need it.
I started this blog to help those who are at a low ‘Netting level to catch up to those who use it more and understand it better. I need your help to level the playing field, and bring the wonders of the World Wide Web to a level everyone can understand and take part of.
For the sake of not making this post ridiculously long, I’ll start the real stuff with the next post: our first definition, “The Internet”. Welcome to Web 101.
Digg is one of the most popular news sites out there, and it’s so popular largely because it’s user-generated. People vote, or “digg” stories they like, and the popular ones make it to the front page. It’s a trial-by-fire process, where the theoretical best content gets weeded out and pushed to the top.
There’s another site out there, though, called Newspond, that’s looking to give you the most popular news, but doing it in a different way. According to the developer, “As a news story surfaces across one or more of these sites, Newspond notes every detail about it – from how fast a story spreads throughout the internet, to the amount of discussion surrounding the story, to even things like the rate at which people click on or bookmark the article and the size of each of the sites reporting it.” Continue reading
For any web ninja, file conversion is a constant issue. You’ve downloaded a file to put on your iPod, but it’s a WMA! Oh no! Or you download a movie, but it’s .mov, and you have a PC! Oh no!
Fear not, my friends. FormatFactory has created an easy, fast, free, and robust file converter to solve all of your problems. FormatFactory works with your audio, video, and picture files. Anything beyond that, there are other tools, but those are the big three. Different players require different formats, different applications need different formats to work properly, and so on. Continue reading
Though this is a couple of days after the anniversary of 9/11, one of those events that during which everyone can still tell you where they were and what they were doing, I wanted to point you to a wonderful 9/11 resource the History Channel is putting together.
The flagship feature of History’s anniversary coverage is their brand-new documentary, “102 Minutes That Changed America.” It aired on Friday, and was in such popular demand that it was re-broadcast tonight. The documentary is a gripping compilation of footage- some from news broadcasts, most shot by people nearby- of the nearly two hours between the first tower being hit and the second falling. The raw emotion of the people’s reactions, the mix of confusion and fear, is incredibly compelling, and an extremely intense story. The footage is frightening at points, but only as much as the event itself was. One image in particular, of the smoke clearing the area of the Trade Centers, revealing nothing but blue sky, brings up some pretty intense emotions. It’s a detailed, accurate and interesting look at the events of the morning that changed the future. Continue reading
Since it’s Sunday, and you shouldn’t be doing anything productive anyway, here’s a little something to tickle your funny bone.
Every year, the Washington Post holds a “Neologism” Contest, in which they ask entrants to do one of two things: either supply an alternate definition for a word, or add, subtract or change a letter and then redefine the word. The results are equal parts intelligent and funny. Here are the 2007 winners: Continue reading
In about 5th grade, it seems like most people are told to write letters to themselves. To their future selves, to be more specific. What do you want to tell future you? you were asked. Though that’s an awfully deep question to ask a 10-year old, and I think my answer was something like “The Yankeez Rule!”, it’s an interesting thing to think about.
What would you send future you? Don’t think about it, go do it! Futureme.org is giving you the chance. All it does it let you send yourself an email, that will be delivered in the future. Now, there are two potential uses for this. The practical use is to send yourself reminders and such, things that you don’t need to know now but will need to know in 10 minutes, 10 days, or 10 years. Maybe it’s “Eat lunch, doofus!” to remind you to go have lunch. Continue reading
Most Web pages, even the ones with the most useful content, are too wordy (except this one, of course). Sometimes you’re reading an article, all you want is nine words that you think are important. Instead of taking notes, and having to write down what you want to remember, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to highlight the page?
The Awesome Highlighter (here) thinks so. With Highlighter, you can highlight any page on the Web, and save it to get back to it later. Using either a Bookmarklet (which I use) or a Firefox Extension, you call up the application, and then highlight away. Highlighter gives you a link to the page you highlighted, which you can save. Continue reading
Does the title of this post make you cringe as much as it does me? I hate waking up. I set 3 alarms every morning, and whether or not I’ll get out of bed is still a mystery. I’ve discovered recently, though, that having my alarm clock online is actually the best way to go.
I didn’t used to think this- what if my computer breaks? What if I go offline? One app solved all my problems, and I want to share it with you. Continue reading