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The kit, or not

Posted by Mike Sugarbaker at 7:48 am on 1/22/2003

I’ve been thinking about what to post about the promised “kit” - the standard set of Internet software that one should use for maximum safety and comfort - and there isn’t much to say, I’m finding, besides “use Mozilla, filter your spam somehow and try not to use Outlook.” I’ll have more to say about spam filters soon, but peep this:

Second-Order Digital Divide: Differences In People’s Online Skills

Sooner or later, this will percolate up to the mainstream press in a much bigger way, and computer makers will be forced to answer for the egregious lag in user interface across the board. Or at least that’s the current fantasy.

link here

2 Responses to “The kit, or not”

  1. mikewang Says:

    Mozilla 1.3 is going to have spam filtering built-in, so that’s killing two birds with one stone. Although personally, I still love good-old Eudora for email. But there’s plenty more stuff I would consider necessary for a comfortable desktop configuration. Of course, nobody needs all this crap, so in rough order of increasing geekiness:

    • Multimedia players and plugins. RealPlayer, WMP, ShoutCast, PDF, Flash, Shockwave, Quicktime. Plus instructions on how to configure them to avoid giving up personal information.
    • Instant Messaging. Pick your favorite protocol, or use one of the multi-protocol clients, if you can stand the interface.
    • On-line games. Whether a bookmark to a simple java/flash game site or hardcore FPS/RTS action.
    • P2P programs to easily pirate (or “liberate”, depending on your political bent) content. And to do it without getting stuck with spyware or annoying popups (e.g. Kazaa Lite)
    • (For broadband users) A hardware router+firewall, preferably with a browser-configurable interface. Wireless capabilities optional.
    • More advanced content aggregation. Usenet reader (with a good binary decoder). An RSS reader. AvantGo or Plucker to sync content to a PDA.
    • On-line content creation tools. Some sort of blogging software, a way to publish a photo album on-line, etc.
    • Programs for accessing and serving various protocols: SSH/Telnet, FTP, VNC. Even if you don’t know how to use it, it might make your support person’s life easier.
    • Unix-style CLI tools and scripting languages to automate and post-process the stuff you get from the Net.
    • Run your own server or your own hosted domain. Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, etc.

    Of course, for normal people the most important part is to find (or hired, or married to, or have sired) someone to set it up, teach you how to use it, and then support you when you have problems. Good luck.

  2. misuba Says:

    Had a feeling you’d show up here, Mike. Give him some love, people!

    Anyway. Thanks for being my personal LazyWeb. Following up on IM tools is a good idea. But does anyone really need Usenet anymore?

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