the web
well, i guess we'll have a little session for all the newbies out there. take a second and explain how the web works. when the average person thinks about the internet, they're usually speaking about the world wide web. in reality, this is only a fractional part of the internet, but it's an easy mistake to make.
the web is huge, it's flamboyant and colourful, and it's very commercialized. there's actually a whole lot more to the internet than google and hotmail.
...but that's not what this article's about. we're gonna talk about the bright, animated, click-powered collage that is the world wide web.
the web makes things easy for people for several reasons. it's claim to fame is the easy point and click navigation that makes it such a breeze to move from page to page to page (and trust me, there's an endless supply of new stuff to look at).
all you need to experience this magical world of wonder (seriously, folks, you can find anything you want out there if you look hard enough...) is a program called a web browser and an internet connection.
the connection part could come in a variety of flavours--a modem and a phone line, a dsl modem (which also needs a phone line), a cable modem, a direct fiber connection, wi-fi, cellular or pcs card, or a host of other choices. like with anything, different options have both pros and cons.
and likewise, you've also got choices on the browser. firefox is my personal favourite. it's available, for free, and it's open source (which means you can see the code which makes it up, see how it works, and change it if you want) which is cool. another thing that makes firefox cool is the extensions platform. the developers created a way for other developers to make extensions (sort of like plug-ins) for pretty much anything you wanna do. very cool. and useful.
microsoft has their own browser, internet explorer, which comes bundled with windows. personally, i've never been a huge fan of ie, but it has a devoted following (not to mention a lion's share of the browser market...).
there are many other browsers out there--mozilla (what firefox is based on), lynx (a text only browser), opera, etc. different browsers offer different features, are open to different exploits, and have their own strengths and weaknesses just like anything else. pick the one that works for you.
now, obviously, if you are reading this, you've already had some experience with the web and web browsers in particular (even if you didn't realize it), because this is being published on the web, but many people don't think about these kinds of things and they should.
your browser is like your ride on the web. some have muscle, some have style. different strokes for different folks, but you wanna make sure that you get the most out of your time, right?
the other side of the coin--so, after a few clicks, it becomes clear how easy it is to get from place to place on the www (actually finding what you're looking for is a different matter) and how much stuff is actually out there. one of the main reasons it exploded like it did is the ease of creation.
html. it stands for hypertext markup language, and it makes the web go 'round. at one point in time, it was cake to learn (still pretty easy when compared against a traditional programming language...), it doesn't take much to get it going, and it's (at least in theory) a universal language.
the world wide web consortium is the organization which releases the standards which define html (which is the language of the web). they've also got a lot of documentation which can help you learn how the web works. another great site is html goodies.
now, for those of you who want to publish a web page and don't want to commit the time it takes to learning html, there are many programs that will do it for you. and oftentimes, you can find a free site which will not only host your page (actually make it publically available on the 'net...) also provide free or inexpensive tools for developing the site for you. blogger or geocities both provide (very different) services which fall into this category.
i'll get into more details about html (and other markup languages) in a later post, but just remember kids--the internet comprises much more than just the world wide web...
--theAdmin
the web is huge, it's flamboyant and colourful, and it's very commercialized. there's actually a whole lot more to the internet than google and hotmail.
...but that's not what this article's about. we're gonna talk about the bright, animated, click-powered collage that is the world wide web.
the web makes things easy for people for several reasons. it's claim to fame is the easy point and click navigation that makes it such a breeze to move from page to page to page (and trust me, there's an endless supply of new stuff to look at).
all you need to experience this magical world of wonder (seriously, folks, you can find anything you want out there if you look hard enough...) is a program called a web browser and an internet connection.
the connection part could come in a variety of flavours--a modem and a phone line, a dsl modem (which also needs a phone line), a cable modem, a direct fiber connection, wi-fi, cellular or pcs card, or a host of other choices. like with anything, different options have both pros and cons.
and likewise, you've also got choices on the browser. firefox is my personal favourite. it's available, for free, and it's open source (which means you can see the code which makes it up, see how it works, and change it if you want) which is cool. another thing that makes firefox cool is the extensions platform. the developers created a way for other developers to make extensions (sort of like plug-ins) for pretty much anything you wanna do. very cool. and useful.
microsoft has their own browser, internet explorer, which comes bundled with windows. personally, i've never been a huge fan of ie, but it has a devoted following (not to mention a lion's share of the browser market...).
there are many other browsers out there--mozilla (what firefox is based on), lynx (a text only browser), opera, etc. different browsers offer different features, are open to different exploits, and have their own strengths and weaknesses just like anything else. pick the one that works for you.
now, obviously, if you are reading this, you've already had some experience with the web and web browsers in particular (even if you didn't realize it), because this is being published on the web, but many people don't think about these kinds of things and they should.
your browser is like your ride on the web. some have muscle, some have style. different strokes for different folks, but you wanna make sure that you get the most out of your time, right?
the other side of the coin--so, after a few clicks, it becomes clear how easy it is to get from place to place on the www (actually finding what you're looking for is a different matter) and how much stuff is actually out there. one of the main reasons it exploded like it did is the ease of creation.
html. it stands for hypertext markup language, and it makes the web go 'round. at one point in time, it was cake to learn (still pretty easy when compared against a traditional programming language...), it doesn't take much to get it going, and it's (at least in theory) a universal language.
the world wide web consortium is the organization which releases the standards which define html (which is the language of the web). they've also got a lot of documentation which can help you learn how the web works. another great site is html goodies.
now, for those of you who want to publish a web page and don't want to commit the time it takes to learning html, there are many programs that will do it for you. and oftentimes, you can find a free site which will not only host your page (actually make it publically available on the 'net...) also provide free or inexpensive tools for developing the site for you. blogger or geocities both provide (very different) services which fall into this category.
i'll get into more details about html (and other markup languages) in a later post, but just remember kids--the internet comprises much more than just the world wide web...
--theAdmin
posted by cid at 2:39 PM
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