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Welcome to the 23-Mar-2000 Column
In this issue, webDotWiz introduces some sites where you might find an answer to some question or problem you've got with your PC or Mac. There are some important points about Netiquette to ponder, where you might learn HTML so you can develop your web page skills and what's happening to webDotWiz Online. Of more importance to some will be a couple of sites from where you can download free games.
Have fun.
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| Answers to Problems |
You've just upgraded your graphics card to enjoy the latest game in 3D but it's not working as it should. Where do you go? Your new office suite has several annoying bugs and frustration point has been reached. What do you do? For these type of problems, start with the manufacturer's online site for help with your problem, whether it be hardware or software.
If you're still not satisfied, there are several sites which offer technical support, either through email, or because others have met similar problems to yours, the site has an FAQ (frequently asked questions) section. NoWonder.com, FixWindows.com and Expertcity.com are such sites for Windows, Mac, MS Office, modems, utility programs, graphics, games and Internet and email. Winfiles.com and FixWindows.com in particular are excellent resources for the latest drivers you might need for your printer, graphics card, sound card or CDROM. |
| Netiquette |
Picture the scene: you've uploaded your first page to your new online site and you're sitting back with a large smile because you've become an active participant in the global online community. But the first email you get from a visitor to your site doesn't praise you for the wonderful look and content of your site. No, this poster has found a mis-spelling in your opening paragraph and how could you be so silly as to make such a simple mistake.
At this point, you need to call on some netiquette - posting off a fiery reply to the sender to point out that this is how we spell "colour" and not "color" won't help. You have to now realise you've joined an international community which consists of different cultures and backgrounds, and they even might spell some of our words differently. Of course, the original poster didn't show much netiquette in the first place.
If you've joined a mailing list or want to participate in newsgroups or chats, take your time before jumping in on some discussion (lurking is the term used). Watch for how discussions are conducted and try to find the list's gods - those who've been contributing to the list for a long period with their expertise and have the respect of the list's membership.
A final piece of advice: if you're posting to people in other countries, avoid our Aussie colloquialisms - even use of a simple "G'day" can cause confusion and embarassment.
The full text of one version of netiquette is at webDotWiz Online - well worth reading - click here. |
| Learning HTML |
| Those readers who started their days of using computers with document formatting programs (later called word processors) that required the user to enter all the codes by hand to start a paragraph, indent a line, break a line, and so on, will be quite at home with HTML (hypertext markup language). The art of inserting a code or tag and visualising the final outcome is alive and well (unless you take the easy way and use some simple WYSIWYG HTML editor). Further, you don't need to buy any elaborate new programs to write your first HTML page: users of Windows have NotePad to enter text and the browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape ) to view the page is also free. As your first project, why not put together a page that's got links to your favourite sites and pages on your hard drive and then make this page your homepage in your browser? |
| Sample HTML Page |
Here's a simple template you can use to start writing your first HTML page:
<![CDATA[<html>
<head>
<title>My Homepage</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Some Heading</h1>
<p>Some text in a paragraph.</p>
<p>Your content always goes in the <body> section</p>
</body>
</html>]]>
<![CDATA[<html>
<head>
<title>My Homepage</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Some Heading</h1>
<p>Some text in a paragraph</p>
<p>Some more text</p>
<p>Here's how you'd write a link to an online site:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.crosswinds.net/~webDotWiz/">Click here</a>
to go to webDotWiz Online</p>
<p>Here's a link to one of your pages on your hard drive:</p>
<p><a href="my2ndpge.htm">My other page</a></p>
</body>
</html>]]>Copy and paste the first template into your favourite text editor (for example, Windows NotePad), save the file with a name of your choice but with extension ".htm", load up your browser and in the address bar, type the folder and name of your first HTML page. Then repeat the process for the second template above. As you'd expect, there are numerous sites offering tutorials on writing HTML. You can either work online or download samples to work with in your own time. |
| Free Games and Free Stuff |
| You don't need to feel left out because you haven't the latest whiz-band 3D game with surround-sound. Visit FreeGamesWeb.com to see the huge variety of games for download - action, adventure, classic, card and puzzle games are all there. You may need to check that some of the old games from DOS days will run under Windows, but, regardless, you should be able to find something to challenge your gaming skills. TheFreeSite.com is another site you should visit, not only for free games, but all things computer and Internet related: fonts, graphics, screensavers and sounds, for example. If you're looking for some images to put on your website, then try TheFreeSite. |
| webDotWiz Online News |
| You can now obtain your own email address from webDotWiz Online and soon there will be a chat room. These free services have been obtained from various sites and they're at webDotWiz Online so you can not only make use of them but experience how they work before you decide to add similar features to your own homepage. As well, webDotWiz Online has a mirror site at Geocities. If you're considering putting your site there, visit http://www.geocities.com/webDotWiz/ to decide if you're happy with Geocities' way of advertising. |
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Brief Headlines
(to articles you really didn't want to know about) |
- Intel board bug hobbles laptops
- Star Wars game nears earth
- Peapod fails to deliver financing
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