Web Guide One

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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. (more…)