The Wonder of the Internet ...

Anyone who knows me knows I love brainiacs of any nature. My guy is a super geek dynamics engineer who works on amazing projects out west. My friends are mostly techies. My sister is an education major with a Master's degree - literature being her strongest focus, tho right now she's teaching High School ESOL students. Her new hubby is a software developer. My stepfather is one of those people that is knowledgeable on just about any subject ... and if you ask him something he hasn't studied yet, he'll study it and get back to you on it.

Surrounded by geek ... the way I love it.

My newest experience has led me to a major increase in things I'm following ...

My friend "n8k99* dragged me over to Twitter, where I set up my profile and started chatting with him & added a few personal friends that Twitter let me know were already signed up (yanno, through the "find your friends" client). Before long, n8k99's friends started following him to me, because they wanted to see our whole conversation & not just his side. That led to even more followers (whom I always follow, cuz I think it is silly to have followers you're not following, or vice versa), and more conversation. Before long, a few different people kept mentioning the same websites/programs/ideas, so I started looking stuff up and following all kinds of links. One of my Twitter buds, jacklhasa, has been most helpful in guiding me around and helping me install and/or figure out various things, despite being a busy writer. So, Thanks, jacklhasa!

Now, in the last few days I have subscribed & signed up to several different services. I've already emailed some of you or grabbed you in chat to drag you along with me, because I get excited about sharing new things. But I figured I'd put them here too, and you can follow wherever you want.

Basically, I looked for an excuse to blog, so that I learn to make a habit of it. :)

These are not going to be listed in the same order I started using them, because I basically got into everything in the last 5 or so days. So a timeline isn't that important (at least, that's what I'm telling myself!).

The "social network" is apparently the new wave online. Several of the places I have found myself lately (including Twitter) are focused on this concept.

Last.fm (my profile) I know many of you have probably heard of Last.fm before ... but have you signed up & tried it out? I didn't sign up before, and now I wish I had, especially since I just plug my account info into my music player (Exaile) and it sends the updates to Last.fm for me (meaning, I don't have to dl anything from Last.fm to utilize the service). I don't know if that works for non-Linux users. But you should all be using Linux anyway. :D

Xoost - (my profile): The social network search tool. It searches in Google, and Yahoo, and several other popular search engines. But it enables you to share your searches & your favorite findings. It seems pretty incredible, and I hope to become more of a part of it in the near future. So far, I have only dabbled. BTW, the guy that started Xoost found me through his Twitter account.

While we're talking about sharing information, lets talk about Digg. (My Profile.) I'm sure you've seen the "Digg this" tags on news & information websites. Here's what Digg has to say about themselves:

What is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online.

Read the rest of what they have to say here. I've been meaning to get around to a Digg account for a long time, and finally signed up the other day, after I started following searches on Xoost.

Flock - the social web browser. I wasn't sure about getting this, because I didn't really think it would benefit me. I was wrong.
Here's what they have to say about themselves:

Flock is a consumer Internet business which has developed a free, next generation web browser. The web, and the way people engage online, has evolved dramatically over the past decade. But web browsers - the application that fundamentally enables online experiences and services across ones' connected life - have not kept pace.

Flock is focused on fundamentally evolving the browser, bringing a refreshing new approach to how people use and participate on the web and simplifying social and web-based applications by bringing them one step closer to the user and integrating them directly into the browser.

When using Flock, people can easily discover, access, create and share videos, photos, blogs, feeds and comments across social communities, media providers, and popular websites.

Not only does it make it easier to keep track of my current memberships, but it made it easier to sign up for a couple of things I'd wanted to sign up for anyway, because they're built right into the browser's tools. Woot! Which leads me to ...

Flickr - Photo sharing website. Here's Flickr's Wiki entry to explain more. One of the things that encouraged me to go ahead and sign up for Flickr (despite already having a few Photobucket accounts) is that there is an upload tool located within my Flock browser!! (My Flickr profile.)

While I'm thinking of multiple accounts, I should mention Gmail. Email the better way. Their tagline: less spam, mobile access, more space. I can attest to two of the three ... I haven't needed the mobile access yet. I love the ease of using gmail. I love having an "archive" option. I love putting tags on things instead of filing them in folders. I love the search option. And I love the way it collates your emails so that if you send out an email and receive 50 replies from 50 people (or even one person), they all stack within the same subject, instead of cluttering up your box. Lovely. Beautiful. Wonderful. If you want an invite, lemme know. I don't even think you need one anymore though. Just go, sign up. :)

Let's see ... what else was there? I can't seem to think of anything else, tho I swear there was more. If I come across anymore 'welcome' emails, I'll add to the list. For now, follow & enjoy.

And, Beav, if you don't start following me on Twitter, I'm gonna withhold hugs for at LEAST a week! Dammit.