In a few short months it’s going to be 2009, and a ton of stuff has changed in the world of computing over the past almost-ten years. Some of the modern advancements have proven to be a notable improvement while others still produce the same crapola they did nearly ten years ago.

In this installment we’ll be taking a look at blogging. The history of blogs has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs, authored by those of every age, race, creed, color, nationality, religion and whatever else you want to throw in the list. All emotions pour out in blogs and they are – said very simply – the best reading there is on the internet.

Where did “blog” come from?

Blog comes from weblog which is a shortened web log. This word originated to define a written series of web events, journal style. For example, some of the early web logs were simply internet technical journals outlining the progress on projects. These journals had more of a a personal touch and were easy-to-read compared to a manual (which was the whole point). In addition they could be updated at whim, and people genuinely appreciated this.

Web log turned into weblog and then simply blog for whatever reason. It is unknown when this happened or even why it did, but the word stuck like glue once it became blog.

Blog used to be only a noun, meaning “the journal itself”. But now it is also used as a verb where it literally means “to write on my online weblog”. So if you said “I’m going to blog that”, people know exactly what you mean.

Let’s take a look at how blogs have changed over the years.

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In a few short months it’s going to be 2009, and a ton of stuff has changed in the world of computing over the past almost-ten years. Some of the modern advancements have proven to be a notable improvement while others still produce the same crapola they did nearly ten years ago.

In this installment we’ll be taking a look at something called netiquette. This is the word etiquette with an n on the front to symbolize internet etiquette.

Netiquette is a word that’s been around a very long time. It is known to those that understand how to be polite and courteous, and that excludes the vast majority of the internet populous worldwide.

Let’s take a look at how netiquette has and hasn’t changed.

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Etiquette is easy enough to understand; the word is literally defined as “Rules governing socially acceptable behavior”. However as far as your online behavior is concerned there are “rules” so-to-speak that only apply to the internet.

These rules I speak of aren’t technically rules. Netiquette is not like written law where you must obey it else you will be penalized. Rather it’s a set of online social guidelines. These guidelines change periodically as online technology changes.

The best way to exemplify netiquette is from what’s happened with text communication (particularly e-mail) over the years.

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In a few short months it’s going to be 2009, and a ton of stuff has changed in the world of computing over the past almost-ten years. Some of the modern advancements have proven to be a notable improvement while others still produce the same crapola they did nearly ten years ago.

In this installment we’ll be taking a look at fixed disk drives (which you know as the hard disk drive or just hard drive).

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In 1999 a “really big” hard drive (in reference to how much data capacity it could hold) was 20GB. An HDD of that size was prohibitively expensive and most people didn’t have anything that large. Remember, this was a few years before Microsoft Windows XP came into existence so most people used a 1GB and 2GB drive for a variety of reasons.

The first reason was volume limitations.

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In a few short months it’s going to be 2009, and a ton of stuff has changed in the world of computing over the past almost-ten years. Some of the modern advancements have proven to be a notable improvement while others still produce the same crapola they did nearly ten years ago.

In this installment we’ll be taking a look at e-mail.

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The first experience I had with internet was in the late 1990s with web browsing. The second was e-mail.

E-Mail is one of those forms of communication that will exist as long as computers do. Through thick and thin, e-mail has survived the test of time and is still considered to be an absolute vital means of internet communications.

Electronic mail does predate the internet all the way back to 1966 when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wanted a means to send electronic messages from computer to computer – and did so successfully.

The internet as we know it today still uses e-mail widely and shows absolutely no signs of slowing down.

Let’s take a look at how e-mail has changed from 1999 to 2009.

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In a few short months it’s going to be 2009, and a ton of stuff has changed in the world of computing over the past almost-ten years. Some of the modern advancements have proven to be a notable improvement while others still produce the same crapola they did nearly ten years ago.

In this installment we’ll be taking a look at portable media.

Portable media

Everyone knows what a hard disk drive is, abbreviated HDD. However this is what’s termed as a “fixed disk”, i.e. one that stays within the computer that is not designed to be moved from place to place.

In the portable media arena there are four types that most people remember:

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