Check In On Pete

As I mentioned in my first post, I spend alot of time on the internet (not having life-sucking cable televison or a video game addiction allows for this, not to mention living in a rural area without much immediate excitement)... and doing so requires alot of customization to make sure that I dont spend half of this time searching Google if thats not what I want to do. Mostly, I use the internet to stay current on the news, find interesting art that people are creating, and just general amusing shit that I find funny and/or informative. Of course I also like to share this stuff with other people who either don't have the time or wherewithall to dredge through the large and mostly cumbersome internet.

So what I'd like to do is not only share the specific items (videos, stories, topic-driven sites) that I find on the internet, but how and where I find these items. So in this entry and at the sidebar to the right you can find a ton of stuff to better your internet experience.

Firefox
Purpose: a free to use internet browser that currently, in my opinion and in the opinions of many others, outperforms all other browsers out there.
How it Works: Just download it and start using it to surf the web like any other browser.... only better. Tabbed browsing and the outstanding variety of extensions and themes allow you to customize your browsing experience in ways that other browsers just cant compete with currently.
What I Do With It: I have a ton of stuff modding out my Firefox at home... currently a dictionary utility, a program that lets me use my mouse to perform certain common browser functions, the google toolbar, a video downloader, an extension to optimize my del.icio.us usage, and a powerful and fun browsing utility called StumbleUpon, all operating in a Halloween Theme for the month of October. While all this customization is great fun (and trust me there are tons more extensions out there to suit your needs) its also far more secure than IE, less intrusive than AOL, and better supported than Opera.

Pageflakes
Purpose: creating a home page that offers exactly what you want every time you get online without any other boring crap.
How it works: simply create an account and use the intuitve interface to begin adding content to your pageflakes page. then simply make it your browser home page and whamo! you've got everything you want right there.
What I do with it: Basically, I make sure that everything I could want when coming online first thing in the morning is there... including:

BBC World News Headlines
Think Progress Liberal News Headlines
Digg.com User-Powered News Headlines
Steelers Team News and Scores
My Netflix Queue
The Web-comic Penny Arcade Feed
A Quote of the Day
A Joke of the Day

All immediately viewable the second I open my browser without having to click links or even scroll down the page!

Now there is really no end to the kind of information you can display on your page. From customized flakes created by other users for individual entertainment outlets, news, games, and reference materials.... to more general flakes then can easily be modded to include any feed or website you desire. I have included a pic of my pageflakes page... just so you can get the full effect of its usefulness.



News Feeds
Purpose: to allow individuals to view headlines and sometimes a brief synopsis of stories so that they can quickly learn about events going on, and click on the specific stories they want to learn more about.
How It Works: simply embed the feed into your own site.... as mentioned above I use pageflakes.... and simply visit the page with the embed to get a quick update on whatever your feed is based on.
What I do with it: Frankly, I hate most AP writing and also have a strong disdain for most corporately run US media outlets. So while I am exposed to such uninformative, generalized , sometimes neo-con reporting by watching what little TV I do and listening to the radio.... I use news feeds to get the flavor of news I want (in my case specifically liberal news groups and the BBC.... The BBC, I think, does a much better job of reporting international news then say CNN or Fox News). I also enjoy User-driven news sites such as Digg and Slashdot as they obtain their stories through user submission... so you get access to stories from many more news outlets than you'd be able to browse on your own. Plus.... these sites have comment sections which can be amusing to check out if a story is particularly important or interesting to you.

Del.icio.us
Purpose: a social bookmarking site where you can share your bookmarks with other people and they can share theirs with you.
How It Works: By storing your bookmarks in their databases you can not only share your bookmarks with others and visa versa more easily... but you can also access your personal bookmarks from any computer thats online.
What I Do With It: Basically if I find anything interesting I bookmark it with del.icio.us the way I would with my browser's favorites utility. This way I can organize them with keywords for easier retrieval later and reference them at work if its something that might be useful for a job or just taking the stress out of the day with a favorite funny video or online game.

StumbleUpon
Purpose: to provide interesting websites that you may not find otherwise, at the click of a button.
How It Works: Simply sign up for an account, choose the types of sites you like to look at on the internet... and away you go.
What I Do With It: When I signed up I chose the following categories:

Animation
Arts
Bizarre/Oddities
Drawing
Guitar
Humor
Internet
Internet Tools
Liberal Politics
Movies
Multimedia
Online Games

Now anytime I want to I can click on one of these topics in my drop down menu and StumbleUpon will instantly take me to a site in their database that relates to my chosen subject matter. Its an absolutely fantastic way to find new sites about your favorite subjects that you probably wouldnt have found any other way. In addition to feeding sites to you based on your preferences, it also allows you to rate the sites you view on the internet thereby adding them to their database or affecting their ranking if they're already listed. I cant tell you how many cool things I've seen or learned because of StumbleUpon.... probably one of the best extensions for Firefox.

So that's a pretty basic rundown of the stuff I use on a daily basis to help optimize my browsing experience. If you're interested in using any of this stuff yourself I suggest you check out the sidebar for links to these utilities.

Thanks.