Friday, February 24, 2012

I Wonder What Will Happen If I Push This Little Button...


                                         http://comics.dp.cx/dailystrips-2009.11.27.html

So… after reading Chapter 2 – Browsing the Web in the class text, I come away realizing how little I really understood as far as even the most basic workings of a simple web browser. While as a rule, I don’t use Internet Explorer; I do have occasion to use it at certain times; mainly if I am using my net book while at my store, or if I am using my work computer at my office.  At home, we mostly use Firefox, mainly because it seems to run more efficiently out here in the back-of-beyond where I live and is the majority favorite in my family.

I’m probably the only uber-dork who actually followed along with the book and went through all the practice exercises. For a visual learner like me, the process of going through all of the steps, simultaneously reading and doing, is actually quite helpful, although I’m feeling even more amateur-ish than usual now that I know what many of those little icons actually represent! Prior, they were just a bunch of scary things that I was afraid to click on lest I (1) launch myself into some great abyss in the internet ether, never to find my way back to where I started, or (2) blow up the darned computer. How happy am I to learn that neither of those things was going to happen??

I am shaking my head over how much time I can save myself now that I know about some of those handy-dandy browser shortcuts. While I did use the Favorites and History options quite regularly, I now know about Web Slices and Accelerators! Those were buttons I would previously never touch, for the reasons mentioned above! The RSS Reader is a tool that I would see on sites as I surfed, but again…never willing to go there. If I am going to be spending time in the blogging world, I think that particular tool will be extremely helpful!

Because I am a self-proclaimed privacy-lover, and because I recently had my personal e-mail address hijacked (and for the record, I was NOT peddling an ED pill to everyone in my e-mail address book), the section on the various risks and safeguards while using the Web was helpful to me. I think I will definitely do as the textbook recommends and make a point of deleting and restricting acceptance of cookies, as well as check out the opt-out features of more web sites. Anyone besides me like to keep their "biz-ness" as private as possible?




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