The stuff on this page has nothing to do with my hobbies, passions, interests, or life. It's all about useful computer stuff, and internet sites where I go quite a bit. I'm not a cybergeek (or computer nerd, or whatever is an acceptable name where you're at [my brother is a self-titled computer geek, while my old roomate preferred the term, 'computer nerd']), so while I spend quite a bit of time on the computer at the moment, I don't consider it to be a big part of my life. I consider computers a means to an end, and not the end in itself. But since I do use the computer, I've decided to provide any useful information that I can for those who would like some help in some basic areas. Note that this page is made for low to average users, so if you're very familiar with every aspect of computers, this page will probably pretty useless.

A PacoGuide to Useful Computer Stuff

Contents:

Web Page Editing

Download Sites

Downloading Assistant

Free E-mail Services

Yahoo! Online Community
Chat Rooms
Yahoo Messenger
Yahoo Mail
Online Briefcase
Yahoo Photos
Clubs
GeoCities
My Yahoo

Web Page Editing
When I started creating my web page, I knew nothing about HTML. I needed a program that would help me learn how to do it, but at the same time, I wanted a program flexible enough that I wouldn't be limited by the program's own limits. My roomate at school suggested Arachnophilia, and I have to say that it does make creating my page a lot easier than trying to type everything by hand! The way the program works is it has all the codes you'd need for any aspect of designing your page, and all you do is click a button and it puts the text on your screen. Once it's on there, you can edit, copy, or paste anything you want. So it's a very basic program, which I like. It's basically one step up from typing everything in by hand. But that's what makes it powerful as well. It's customizeable, which means that you can make it work any way you want it to. Another nice feature is its built-in page browser. It can be set for instant view which means that you can see what your page will look like as you're working on it.
From my personal experience, it's not the easiest way to design a webpage. There are programs out there that are easier, but I've found them to be very basic in abilities. If you aren't very good with computers, I'd suggest a different program, but if you have some experience, or are good at figuring things out, or are looking for a program that gives you lots of freedom to do things your way, I'd reccomend this one. The final advantage to this program is that it's freeware, which means that you get the full version without any cost whatsoever. For that price, I'd have to say that you're getting a bargain. It's a good program, and if you want to design a web page, I'd highly suggest it!
Click here to go to the Arachnophilia home page, where you can download the program for free.

Download Sites
When it comes to free programs, the Web is full of them. But which ones are worthwhile, and free from viruses? Well, the best way to know is go to one of the major download sites. My two favorites are CNet and ZDNet. These two sites have basically anything you'd need in any category. I'm pretty sure that any programs I list here can be found on these sites. Want to find some cool games? There's plenty. How about a music player? There are many of these as well. Basically, if there's something you can download from the Net, you'll find it here (except for MP3's, but there's plenty of sites for that as well). I haven't really downloaded that much stuff, but to me, it seems like ZDNet has more stuff on it. The advantage to CNet, however, is that you can look through downloads by category. For instance, if you want to olny look in freeware, you can specify that. On ZDNet, everything is categorized together. But my brother just told me that ZDNet just got bought by CNet, so I don't now how this will affect things in the future.
Cnet (or download.com)
ZDnet

Downloading Assistant
Got a large file that you want to download, but are afraid that you'll be disconnected before it's through? I'd suggest using a program like Go!Zilla. This program lets you resume broken downloads, divide downloads into different categories, and even schedule to download things in the middle of the night! I really don't know much about these programs, but my brother said it's the best program he's found to far, and it's free, or as my brother calls it, 'adware,' meaning that there are banners on it advertizing different things. But it's free, and still fast, so I'd still suggest it. It can be found on any of the download sites. *One note* My brother (yes, he know everything) said he's found a download accelerator that he might like even better, but he doesn't know yet. I'll keep you informed as much as I'm informed.

Free E-mail Services
It seems like everyone and their dog is offering free e-mail these days. So which are the best? I'm here to tell you that I have no clue! There are so many out there, and I really haven't seen much of a difference in the different ones. So I went purely for the name. Sure, you could go with Hotmail, which seems to have a good reputation, but that's just boring! Everyone uses Hotmail! So I went with ones with cooler names. My favorite overall is Mail.com. Why? Just think: Bob@mail.com. Car_54@mail.com. It just sounds cooler than Bob@Hotmail.com. And while my roomates used Hotmail, I really didn't see much difference in the service. Plus, Mail.com comes built in with a organizer, which lets you schedule events, and has a calender which you can customize to show national or international holidays. I think it's a pretty cool little feature.
Another one I like is WWW.com. Once again, it's just for the name. WWW.com is actually an internet radio company, but they offer e-mail on the side. I had a few problems with WWW.com, but nothing serious. More like minor inconveniences.
And one other that I like, once again just for the name, is Unicyclist.com. This is a little more specified, and I just joined yesterday, but it seems like a decent e-mail service provider.

Yahoo! Online Community
Looking for online clubs to be part of? Want to chat with people? Want to put your webpage on the net for free? I was wanting to do all of this about 2 months ago, and I ended up at Yahoo. Yahoo is a place where, just by signing up once, you get access to all sorts of different services. I signed up for Yahoo so I could enter their chat rooms, but after a while I began to use it for many other services:

• Chat Rooms
  The chat rooms at Yahoo were fun for me at first. They are set up so that you can talk to anyone who happens to be in the room at the time, and if you start taking to someone that you'd like to know better, you can click on their name and view their profile, which says a little about them (age, sex, occupation, and even a picture). You can also chat with someone in private. It shows up on the same page as the rest of the chat, but it only shows up on your screen and the screen of the person you're talking to. There are quite a few choices of chatrooms to choose from, but don't expect to only talk about the subject of the chatroom. It is, still, a place for people to hang out online. The drawback to the chatrooms is that some people use them as a place to advertize their porn sites, or even worse, use them to scream obscenities or just act completely stupid. But usually, they're pretty fun to use.
• Yahoo Messenger
  This is the only thing that needs to be downloaded from Yahoo, but still is an optional thing. It's not very big, and I have found it to be a great little tool. Yahoo Messenger allows you to instantly talk to people outside of the chat rooms. You can carry on as many different conversations as you want to with whoever happens to be using Yahoo Messenger at the same time. Another nice feature of this program is that once you set up a list of friends, it will tell you when they are online, so you can start talking to them. Plus, if they aren't online, you can still send them a message that will show up when they open Yahoo Messenger. And if they happen to be in one of the chatrooms, you don't actually need to enter that chatroom to talk to them. It also has a conference mode, which lets you basically set up your own chatroom with only people you invite in. As you can tell, I like this program a lot. Plus, it's a small file and it's free, so I highly reccomend it if you're going to be using Yahoo.
• Yahoo Mail
  This is one more web-based e-mail service, and isn't much different than any of the other ones. I just put it in this section because it's one of the services that Yahoo provides. I just like using it when I'm already going to be using Yahoo and want to give my address to someone. Plus, if you are using Yahoo Messenger, it will automatically tell you when you have a new mail message (in Yahoo Mail).
• Online Briefcase
  This is nice feature. Do you have some files that you want to be able to access anywhere you're at? Yahoo's briefcase allows you to do exactly this. Put it in this briefcase (it can be private-- accessible only with your Yahoo ID and password, public, so anyone can view it), and you can open it again, wherever you have internet access.
• Yahoo Photos
  Not interested in creating a whole web page, but you've got some pictures that you want people to see? Stick them in Yahoo Photos! It's a part of Yahoo Briefcase, and allows you to put pictures online in three different sizes, as well as letting you say a little about each one. So if someone asks what you look like in one of the chatrooms, you can give them your photo album address. I used this feature before I got my webpage going.
• Clubs
  I spend most of my time in the clubs now. The clubs are basically like a miniature version of the whole Yahoo. Each club has its own chat room, its own photos, and instead of mail, has a message board where any member can post whatever they want. Anyone who has signed up for a Yahoo ID can start their own club. Be forewarned, however, that there are more clubs than you can shake a stick at, so don't expect a club to become immensely popular all at once. There are both public and private clubs, or clubs that anyone can join and clubs that you have to get an invitation to join.
• Geocities
  Geocities is where I put my webpage. It's a free service, just like everything else, and it gives you 15 megabytes of space for your page. To give you a feeling of how much that is, my page is approximately 2 megabytes so far, and I've got quite a bit of stuff. So, for any reasonable website, that's plenty. The drawback to Geocities is that it's somewhat slow, and it puts a little popup window in the upper right-hand corner (I'm sure you've seen it), but it works good enough for me for now. Eventually, I'll probably put my webpage somewhere else, but while it's under construction, I'll leave it here.
  Go to Geocities
• My Yahoo
  My Yahoo is a way to customize a homepage. Since I use my dad's computer, I can't exactly do what I want to configure the internet to the way I want it, but with My Yahoo, I can have my own site that has everything on it. Every time I log on, I have the weather show up from Oregon, Utah, and Campinas, Brazil. I also have links to my e-mail services, Geocities, and my web page. Plus, I have the local movie listings posted, as well as different topics in the news. But the feature I like most about My Yahoo is that it lists all the clubs I'm a member of and lists the three most recent posts. So if there has been a new message since the last time I checked, I'll know without even going to it. And of course, I can enter all the clubs through this page, so it makes it much more convenient than going to each club individually. My Yahoo is customizeable, so you can put anything that they have on this page. Basically, if there's some feature you want, you can probably put it on My Yahoo.
  Go to My Yahoo