Internet
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The Internet in a nutshell
- The Internet is a worldwide network of computers that enables instant global communication. This communication takes several forms: the World Wide Web, email, newsgroups, instant messaging, and IRC, among others.
The World Wide Web
- Because of its massive popularity, the World Wide Web is often mistaken for being the Internet itself. However, it is just one of the many protocols for communication. Below are two lists: my favorite web browsers and some of the most useful websites.
My Favorite Web Browsers
To use the web you need software called a browser. While most computers ship with the Internet Explorer browser by default, there are better alternatives that will lead to a more enjoyable browsing experience.
- Firefox
- A popular Free open source browser.
- Opera
- Another free browser. Very fast and lightweight, favored by web developers and power users.
- Squidoo's Browser Lens
- This lens provides an excellent comparison between many popular web browsers.
Useful Webpages
These are a few of the webpages that I have personally found very useful over the years.
- The best search engine on the Internet. It ranks results by how useful other people have found the pages instead of merely matching by keywords, making it more useful than other traditional search engines.
- Wikipedia.org
- A Free online encyclopedia. A good reference source.
- Peacefire
- This site details how to get around popular censorship software used to block certain webpages.
- Mapquest
- Get driving directions from anywhere to anywhere.
- Amazon
- Buy books and other products online. Great for otherwise hard to find items.
- Ebay
- A popular Internet auction site.
- Email is the second most popular use of the Internet after the World Wide Web. Below are two lists: some good free webmail services, and some good free email clients.
The Best of Webmail
- Google Mail
- Google offers over 2 gigabytes of free email storage. It has a slick interface and a highly effective spam filter.
- Yahoo! Mail
- Yahoo has made huge improvements to their email service in recent years. It has gotten to the point where it is highly competitive with Google Mail, with some users reporting that they like Yahoo!'s service even better.
My Favorite Mail Clients
Desktop clients for checking and storing your email
- Thunderbird
- From the makers of Firefox, this email client is my favorite for general email use. It has been criticized for lacking an integrated calendar, however such a calendar is currently is in development.
Usenet
- Usenet is a collection of "newsgroups" where anyone can post articles and questions about any topic. Below are two lists: My favorite usenet clients, and some of my favorite usenet groups.
Newsgroups
- Rec.humor.funny -- The best of the jokes on the Internet
- Rec.humor.funny.reruns -- Reruns of the best jokes on the Internet
- Alt.comedy.standup -- Learn how to be a standup comedian
- Rec.gambling.poker -- Where some of the best players in the world have learned about poker
- Alt.history.what-if -- A place to discuss what would be happening now if various historical events had turned out differently.
- Rec.food.drink.tea -- A place to discuss looseleaf tea and tea culture
- Alt.dumpster -- An amusing newsgroup dedicated to dumpster diving
IRC
Internet Relay Chat
- IRC is a protocol which allows users from across the Internet chat in various chatrooms, called channels. Below I list some of my favorite IRC clients:
by beta21
Alex Krupp is a graduate of Seth Godin's alt-MBA. He is currently doing a Y Combinator backed startup.
@alexkrupp on Twitter
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