Web Guide One

So you’ve missed your favorite show once again, and have decided that enough is enough? Without purchasing a digital video recorder, there are a number of ways to watch television and movies online-depending on what you’re willing to pay. There can be benefits to watching online, though. With clear wireless internet service, you can connect your computer with a portable modem and watch on your laptop anywhere you want to.For those who only want to pay for internet service, Hulu.com is the best option. Watch the latest episodes of most network television shows the day after they air. Most of the time only a limited number of episodes are available, with the oldest ones being deleted as new ones are added. For 7.99 a month, you can subscribe to Hulu Plus which offers access to all episodes of the current season and (for some series) earlier ones as well. Hulu Plus can also be streamed to a connected TV, Blu-ray player, set-top box, and certain mobile devices. In recent years, the website has also added a selection of older movies to its library. Read the rest of this entry »

Online shopping is convenient. There is no need to get into a car, drive to the store, and walk through aisles of shelves to find the right product. With online shopping, all that can be done with the click of a mouse. If one online store doesn’t stock an item, it’s easy to find another one that does.

There is a larger selection online. Brick-and-mortar stores are limited by the amount of Read the rest of this entry »

Online storage provides an alternative solution to buying expensive hardware when the need for a large storage capacity is limited to only a couple of times per year. Working with video or other forms of multimedia on special projects often takes huge amounts of hard drive space. If a company only produces a couple of such major multimedia projects per year, they do not need to invest in the expensive hard drive capacity that just those specific projects require. For a fraction of the cost one can rent space on an online server when this Read the rest of this entry »

Online banking is incredibly useful and safe. Take advantage of the services provided to you that will solve many of your problems!Need to check your balances to see if you’ve paid this or that bill? Instead of wasting time calling the bank, ruffling through your papers, or trying to pull some mental math, just go online. A few clicks later, you will have all your numbers before you, neatly organized. Can you afford that new pair of pants? If you just spring for them, you might regret it later if you didn’t have enough money on your debit card to cover the cost. In this economy, banks are squeezing every last dollar out of you– an overdraft fee might add up to hundreds of dollars. If you simply check your accounts online, you will see exactly what you can afford and when.How annoying are those monthly bank statements that pile up on your desk, creating clutter and wasting paper? With online banking, it is so easy and simple to check your statements anytime. Best of all, your online statement is updated regularly so that you don’t have to wait for the next month to see how much money you’ve spent. Switch to online banking and the dwindling supply of trees will thank you.

Looking closely at the internet is like looking through a microscope at a petri dish sample: you see all the creepy-crawly things that are hanging around just out of sight. The problem is that these bugs have the potential to cause a lot of damage to your computer. Let’s take a look, shall we?

• Adware automatically displays advertisements on your computer. These can provide access to spyware and keyloggers that come bundled with adware programs.
• Spam is the junk e-mail (or other message types) that your inbox gets flooded with, which can be used to spread viruses or steal identities. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re tired of being shushed by friends every time you try to review a new movie or lay down some political commentary, it might be time to start a blog. It’s quick, easy, and fun, and provides a free and uncensored arena for you to share your opinions. The upside is it’s much easier to find people interested in what you want to say online. The hard part is that you will have to differentiate your blog from everybody else’s.If you’re a neophyte to the blogosphere, a site like WordPress is a great choice. Starting an account is literally a matter of minutes. You can select a basic theme and customize it with your own images and logos, or find a user-created theme in their library. Once you get more familiar with the interface, you can add templates and “widgets,” or chunks of HTML code that can be installed anywhere without additional modification. Read the rest of this entry »

Computers are becoming larger and larger repositories of data. With ever-growing libraries of music, spreadsheets, and more, consumers are looking to computers with more RAM, and sometimes even relying on external hard drives. While these are useful in their own way, they all suffer from the same concern: what happens to all that data if the drive is damaged or malfunctions?There is an ever-increasing amount of sites on the internet where you can store and back-up your data in case of this eventuality. Another benefit these sites have over hardware is that access to the sites is often free. It’s important to understand the difference in terminology between storage and back-up, though. Backup programs keep the data offsite and are accessed by a desktop client. Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook has gotten a lot of flak in its time for the damaging effect it can have on a job application. While it’s true that that picture of you with no shirt on pushing your friend into a vat of pickle juice might not win you any awards with potential employers, networking can still be an important part of getting (and then keeping) a job. Luckily, you don’t have to change your Facebook entirely (although you should never have pictures showing illegal or less than proper behavior). LinkedIn provides a professional alternative which has caught on around the world.Around the end of June, LinkedIn had more than 70 million users across 200 countries. The site is translated into English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Founded by people with backgrounds in social networking and PayPal, the company’s current CEO is Jeff Weiner, who previously worked at Yahoo! Inc. Read the rest of this entry »

If you remember reading newspaper strips like Dilbert or Peanuts when you were a kid, but haven’t found any modern strips or comics that give you the same pleasure, you might be looking in the wrong place. Many modern comic artists are moving online and creating what are called webcomics. Although many are similar to the three- or four-panel gag strips of newspaper strips, they also have the potential to move in many other interesting directions.Scott McCloud, a well-known comic artist and theorist, has discussed the fact that as opposed to a regular newspaper or comic book page, the digital page is infinite, and can be portrayed in many ways. Swiss artist demian5′s When I Am King is a perfect example, since it not only scrolls continuously across the page, but also occasionally features animationanother benefit of webcomics. The strip has garnered praise from Wired, The Independent, and Salon. Be warned that some webcomics may occasionally feature content you wouldn’t see in a newspaper comic, since the web is relatively uncensored. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s no end to the benefits that can come with online shopping. Being able to search for exactly what you want, pay in whatever manner you want, and have it delivered directly to your doorstep is definitely attractive. However, the list of risks is also extensive. Identity theft, fraud, and privacy concerns have all been issues in previous years. Luckily, online shopping has gotten more secure, and also more knowledgeable about some of the easier-to-avoid risks. These tips can only help you in keeping your online shopping excursions secret.

1. Research the company to ensure they’re secure. Big-name companies like Amazon.com have their security notices easily accessible on their home pages. If you’re dealing with a company you’ve never dealt with before, investigate them to make sure they have phone numbers and contact information. Start with an inexpensive order. Read the rest of this entry »