10 Things I Love: The Internet

No, it has not been four months since I last posted. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Moving on…

Continuing with the series of “10 Things I Love” we reach the next item on the list, something that without which you would not be reading these very words:

THE INTERWEBS.

Yes, as lame as it sounds, I love the Internet. It’s completely changed my life and managed to make things both more efficient AND take away hours of free time at the same time.

Where did it all begin? Where did this fascination of wanting to be online and interacting with complete strangers come from?

Follow me as we take a short detour to my teenage years.

My first exposure to the open publicity of the Internet was before it was even widely available outside of college campuses. I was an avid user of Dial-Up chat boards, back in the days of the BBS - Bulletin Board System. For those who have no idea what that is, it was basically either a single person or a small company who allowed people to call into their computers via the phone lines. Once connected, it was a small site that had message boards or text games.

The larger systems had multiple phone lines so that you could chat with other users, and the chat boards were born. In Houston we had a few that I would regularly call and stay online with until the wee hours of the summer mornings. Off the top of my head the ones I visited most were: Houston After Dark, Houston Teen Beat (once we were all kicked off HAD), and later on Colors of Chat. There was also Matchmaker, but it was not only expensive but also was a haven for the dark side of the scene (there always is one).

Once dial-up Internet hit the world, and I’m not talking about America On-Line, I had a whole new world to explore. At the time there wasn’t much but E-Mail, Usenet, and IRC, but then Netscape Navigator debuted and gave us the World Wide Web and it was a whole new game.

Over the years I’ve found new obsessions birthed by the Internet: Napster, Blogs (since 2002!), YouTube, MySpace / Facebook, Social Networking, MMORPG’s, and much much more.

Here’s a few of the things that I primarily do because the internet allows me to better than ever before, and the tools I use:

Balance My Bank Account & Pay Bills

Mint / Yodlee

Online Banking? Whatever. I need more than just my bank balance. I need to be able to enter in manual transactions, see how I’m doing on my budget, set saving goals, and reoccurring transactions. And I also need this available wherever I am going.

Enter Yodlee Moneycenter and Mint, both really good applications that are taking online banking to the next level. I’ve been testing Mint for about eight months now and it’s pretty great in its beta stages, but lately I’ve been gravitating over to Yodlee simply because it offers much more.

Mint and Yodlee both allow you to set budgets, see your spending habits, and set budget/account alerts, but Yodlee allows you to import not only your bank account but also Loans, Electricity and Utility bills, and even reward systems like the Best Buy Reward Center.

If you have doubts about security, then fear not: Yodlee is the major engine behind almost all of the bank’s online banking. The security to login is almost annoying but understood; this is my money we’re dealing with.

Keep My Life in Order

Remember the Milk

I am a complete scatterbrain. If I don’t write something down, typically I’ve forgotten it by the time it’s crossed my — ooh look, a bunny!

Uh.. nevermind. The moral of the story is, I need something to help me. Not just remember things like my friends and families birthdays, but also things like thinking I need ketchup, only to discover the two other bottles in the pantry upon return from the grocery store.

Enter Remember The Milk. This simple task service allows you to make any list you wish, whether its just a simple grocery list (with priorities), birthdays, bill payment due dates, or simply adding upcoming events.

While opening Notepad and writing a list is easy enough, RTM allows interfacing through several methods: through a plugin for Firefox/gMail/Google Apps, text messaging services, Twitter direct messages, and even a Google Talk account.

Find Old Friends

Facebook/MySpace

I check my E-Mail about ten million times a day, and probably check Facebook and MySpace about half that. When I joined MySpace I was suddenly being contacted with people I hadn’t spoken to in 5-10 years, sometimes more. The list only grew once Facebook opened up for more than just college students.

It’s been a little easier and less time-consuming with great tools like Digsby, which allow me to update my status and check on friend updates without making me go to the websites. Facebook I don’t mind so much, but MySpace — new design or not — looks like ass, so I avoid it as much as possible these days.

Watch TV

Hulu / Windows Media Center / iTunes Store

Remember the days when if you happened to miss an episode of your favorite show, you had to wait until summer to watch the rerun? I do, and it was terrible. Luckily there were a lot more non-linear shows around back then, but it was still a hassle to deal with.

With the internet, if I miss a show I can pop on one of the network websites and watch it the next day, sometimes hours after the original broadcast. Miss an episode of LOST? Pop on ABC.com and watch it in HD. Want to take it with me? Go on iTunes and download the episode for $1.99 and I can watch it on my iPod anywhere.

Not only does this apply to new shows, but older shows are finding new life on the internet. Recently several networks joined together and created hulu, which catalogs both new and old series ranging from fan (and personal) favorite Arrested Development to classic television like Buck Rogers.

Also available on Windows Vista and Windows Media Center Edition is the Media Center application from Microsoft. The Vista version has direct links to several online providers of television and film content, as well as full-length movies.

Play Video Games

World of Warcraft / Halo 2

As I spoke about in the first “10 Things I Love” list, I do so love video games. Even more than playing them by myself, I love to play them with friends even more. The social aspect of playing games always makes them that much more fun, whether you are fighting against each other, or helping to achieve a shared goal.

MMORPG’s are the ultimate in shared experience games. I’ve made several friends among those in my World of Warcraft guild, many of which live hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away.

Video game consoles have also benefited from online multiplay. Halo is a fun game, sure, but it’s so much more fun when you can play with four of your friends online from the comfort of their own couch, and you don’t even have to share the screen with your opponents. It’s even brought the “trash talk” element to the console with voice chat.

Discover New Music

Last.fm

Music, which is going to be the feature of its own “10 Things” article, is something else that is very important to me. There is hardly a time in the day where I don’t have music playing, either in concentration or just simply background noise.

I’m pretty good about discovering new artists and new songs on my own, but there have been times when I’ve used the aid of one of my favorite social networks, Last.fm. What started out as Audioscrobbler, a tool for sending your music listening statistics to show how much you listen to what, eventually became Last.fm, a full social network for people who love music and want more of it.

It started with recommendations. A click on the artist profile you are listening to shows you “Similar artists” based on the listening habits of other users who listen to the same band or song. Then came the playlists and user radio, which played back streaming songs picked right out of your own tracks and other artists like them. Last.fm’s latest allows paid subscribers access to full-length tracks and videos by several recording artists out there.

I’ve so firmly immersed my life with the Internet it’s difficult to imagine a world where it doesn’t exist. The one thing I haven’t decided on though, is if my life would be more or less productive. While I’ve been good about listing productive services (not counting Facebook/Myspace) I use, I also spend an equal amount of time on sites like Fark, Twitter, and my Google Reader RSS feeds.

Regardless of productivity or not, the Internet continues to shape and change the way I do ordinary tasks. I don’t want to be part of a world that isn’t connected.