Getting Started in the E and I World...

This has got to be the best part...

I've been hovering around this subject for years, just watching; too scared to sample the goods, because I know, with my obsessive-compulsive tendencies, that it would take me far too long to get it where I want it. So here we are-

After owning a domain for years and using it only to provide my own personal, well-controllable email account, it's time to finally set up the damn website and learn to fully use everything technology has to offer. I need to build a web page, join some networking or social sites, get connected, learn to compose and create, find a way to get all the accounts linked easily together, tell all my friends what rock I've been hiding under, and so on...

To give you some background into my wrecked personalilty, I'm the kind of guy who takes forever to purchase a new cellphone as the other one's dying because I don't want to learn all the different features of the replacement. When I actually did get the last one, I was regarded at the store as setting the record for the longest memory transfer from phone to phone! I have over 950 numbers stored between family, friends, business (local and networking throughout the country), and clients. That may not be a record, but it's a damn lot for me to look through when I forget someone's name.

"Delete some of those unused numbers", I always hear from people. Right. I already did... I removed all the contacts that I have no use for, and this is what's left over; all the ones I expect to hear from and want to recognize on the CID, or anyone I fully anticipate calling again in the future. I travel all over the country, so there's numbers for people and places I'll be going back to see yet.

Oh, and one more thing; yes, my VCR is still flashing 12:00... And I was the last person on the block to buy a DVD player--my first brand-new unit was $40 for the top model, not $300! WTF is Blu-Ray?!?!

So anyway, business has been so busy the last few years (coupled with my insatiable need to travel constantly for pleasure more than business) that I didn't feel I had the time to do more than simply answer the cell; I hated even checking for emails. Now I've made the commitment to 'get connected', and I will. So, God help me, if you have any suggestions, please let me know, because I'm not going to stop until this is near-complete (at least by the time I'm set up, I'd like to be operating in this millenium--year 2004 technology will be fine with me :)

I've made this decision after spending countless hours recently dabbling with reloading my OS, networking a friend's new office, installing new memory, and learning to write a little basic HTML. For a guy like me, I went through that brief phase where I thought I could take on the cyber-world! You know, the big 'IT-WannaBe' head on my shoulders, handing out advice to my non-geek friends who think I'm a god now, phase?...
"Sure, give me that new DVD-Rom drive you bought--I can install it with my eyes closed!"
"Of course I can install the drivers for your scanner." and,
"Let me tell you what notebook you might need"
Yeah, that lasted about two weeks or so... I do know one thing: no matter how much I learn, I still don't know squat!

After putting up with my PC running slow from all the crap I had accumulated on it over the last year, I decided to clean up and start over. Hard drive speed's ok for now, so I need more RAM, less redundant software, and better protection [since my PC and I were surfing the net like a teenage boy who just received a high social accolade to date the world from his newly-ex girlfriend, and a pack of 3-yr old Trojans that his friend's older brother found under the seat of his Vega]; I had no idea where my desktop's virtual hands have been. All the other devices are suitable for now (I think--it's only a year old, right?), so I saved what files I needed and rebooted with a copy of Pro I just acquired.

Wow, do I love a clean install! Got my new memory, my new OS, and only what programs I need right now; my control panel and fragmentation never looked so attractive ;-) Now, I'm ready to take on the world! After doing all this myself, I learned some very important lessons: Wrap your ports, know what you're downloading before you just click 'ok', and XP stands for 'eXtra Problems'.

{My next computer will be a Mac!}

Ok, enough with the damn hardware--I'm not an IT guy, and don't care to be yet. I already have my own business, and that's what I need to get back to. There's not always a benefit to the 'do-it-yourself' philosophy if you're only going to do it one time. Now, it's time to move on to mental-connectivity, or social and business networks to reach out to the world! My brother, an IT Consultant with Bill Gates as his arch-nemesis (he just got his iphone and Mac now), had always talked about Cali Lewis, Leo Laporte, and a few others, so I wanted to chase them down to see if I could benefit from some i-time with them through a little e-osmosis.

Now, here comes Twitter, Blog, YouTube, Pownce, Facebook, MySpace, RSS, Jaiku, Linkedin, Friendster, Blogger, Blogspot, Blogrover, Bloglines, Blogsmith, your-blog-here, whatever... Jesus! How the hell can I manage all those accounts, do I even need them, or which one is the best that everyone should be on?!? *I'm not going to have time for all this* I know this doesn't even scratch the surface, but I have some work to do...

I'll comment another day on my personal review of the sites I am using right now; I signed up on many, but like very few, and will only focus on a couple. Next step is hosting my site and learning how to build my webpages--again, the DIY'er in me wants to do it right the first time, so there's much research to do. Stick with me as we get this thing going... I think I just Plurked all over myself :-)

"Measure Twice, Cut Once"


--steve