Paul's Internet for Beginners Blog April 2007 Archive

You've just downloaded an .avi or .mpg movie from the Internet. You double-click to launch it, but all you get is sound with no picture. Your media player lets you ... Read More

The key to an addictive game is that 1) it is quick to learn, and 2) it offers a fun challenge, without being frustrating. Towards these two goals, these 15 Flash ... Read More

Over 50 million people play online games every day.  12 million of those people are serious gamers who participate in massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Why is this virtual world of ... Read More

AIM, Trillian, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger... if you haven't tried these tools, then maybe it's time. Not only a good way to have personal chats with your buddies, "IM" instant ... Read More

These are two very common questions. At only a few years old, web logging is still a very young phenomenon, and only now are people discovering how to blog for ... Read More

Matt Harding is another example of why I love the Internet. You see, Matt is a deadbeat and a slacker who has been blessed with the chance of a lifetime. ... Read More

Internet cookies are quite harmless, actually. "Cookies" are special small files that store business information about you. The intent is to make your repetitive visits to shopping and commercial web ... Read More

So you're trying eBay chat, a new discussion forum, or an online poker game. You see other users chatting to each other with these odd expressions! What exactly do these obscure ... Read More

Every 24 hours, eBay transacts over $70 million dollars in goods for over 190 million registered users. Most everything trades hands through this online flea market: digital cameras, car parts, ... Read More

Yes. This is so powerful and so sad. The US Holocaust Museum and Google Earth have teamed up to show us the crisis in Darfur, Africa. Using the power of ... Read More

His name is Chris R., but the RIAA calls him "music pirate". The MPAA describes his work as "copyright thievery". Lawyers label him "an outlaw in the digital world". Yet despite the ... Read More

Spyware, part of what we call "malware" or "scumware", is the stuff of nasty dust bunnies...the unwanted things that collect inside your computer as a fact of the life. The ... Read More

If you are a P2P downloader in the USA or Canada, yes, you are at risk for getting sued by the Recording Industry Association (RIAA), or the Motion Picture Association ... Read More

Perhaps you've just downloaded a "zipped" movie, or maybe your sister has just sent you zipped photos of her new motorcycle. In either case, the "Zip" files do not automatically ... Read More

If you have highspeed Internet, then you definitely want to try Internet radio this new year. Unlike the boring local stations you are used to, Internet radio offers thousands upon ... Read More

So, you're participating in an online discussion forum about motorcycles, and you keep seeing this weird expression "FTW". People post up phrases like "slipper clutches, ftw!" and "full face helmets, ... Read More