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VideoJug: Communicating On The Internet

This guide is designed to be a concise introduction to the Internet for people who, more than likely, ambled onto this blog from a random search. It will cover some very basic topics and will hopefully provide some guidance for those who are trying to get a grasp of what all of this technology is good for. This is that gift basket you get when you move into a new house. It’s not going to fill you in on every little detail, but it will point you in the right direction and give you the tools to get out there and start exploring on your own.

If you understand the finer details of RSS, have been blogging for years or have Diggnation loaded up on your iTunes — this guide probably isn’t for you. Even so, take a look around, you might be surprised.

Email

Email is the most commonly used application on the web. There are a thousand and one ways to get access to your email account, but for this guide we are going to assume that you aren’t using any of them. Choosing the email provider that is right for you can be tedious process, but for our purposes let’s start with Gmail.

Gmail is Google’s email provider. Why are we using it? Here are three good reasons:

• It’s easy to set up and use.
• It does an extremely good job of filtering spam (unwanted, commercial email messages).
• It costs nothing.

To set this account up, start by going to Gmail.com and follow the onscreen instructions. Enter the required information, choose your name and in about five minutes you should have your very own email address.

More Tips On Email

“E-mail is not secure. Just as random pedestrians could easily reach into your mailbox and intercept the envelopes that you send and receive through the post office, a curious hacker, a malicious criminal, or the FBI can easily intercept your e-mail. In some companies, the e-mail administrator has the ability to read any and all e-mail messages (and may fire you if you write anything inappropriate).” –Seton Hill

“Be aware that when you send an email in rich text or HTML format, the sender might only be able to receive plain text emails. If this is the case, the recipient will receive your message as a .txt attachment. Most email clients however, including Microsoft Outlook, are able to receive HTML and rich text messages.” –Email Replies

“Write less - Stop imagining that all your emails need to be epic literature; get better at just keeping the conversation moving by responding quickly and with short actions in the reply. Ask for more information, pose a question, or just say “I don’t know.” Stop trying to be Victor Hugo Marcel Proust, and just smack it over the net—especially if fear of writing a long reply is what slows your response time. N.B.: This does not mean that you should write elliptically or bypass standard grammar, capitalization, and punctuation (unless you want to look 12 years old); just that your well-written message can and should be as concise as possible. That saves everyone time.” –43 Folders

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