Welcome back to the Internet, Kevin Mitnick!

 

 
 

  Yeah, you heard right, Kevin Mitnick is back on the Internet after not being able to log on for three years!  Don't know how he did it.  I'd be having major withdrawl symptoms after a couple of days!  LOL

  Please note that he spells his name Kevin Mitnick, not Kevin Mitnich or Kevin Mitnic.  Why is it that people want to nit-pick about the spelling of Kevin Mitnick's name with me?  Sheesh!
 

  Well, they did a thing on the TechTV site asking what we'd do during our first time using the Internet if we couldn't get on the Internet for three years.  I posted it, but I doubt if they put in on their site.  It's not that I don't trust humans, but...  Er, wait a second.  I don't trust humans!  Okay, I'm pretty sure they'll not post it based on what I know about humans.

  I'll repeat it here, just in case:
 
 
 

  What I would want to do for my first visit to the Internet if I hadn't been on it for three years:
 

 Virtual Retinal Display, VR office, caffeine, broadband.  Order of importance is a personal choice.

  Specifics:

  Use VRD when using the Internet.  VRD would use low-powered colored lasers to 'paint' a full colored and full motion video feed onto your eyes, allowing you to fully immerse yourself within your Internet experience.  Short of downloading your personality onto the Internet to become a type of AI (Artificial Intelligence to those who don't sling the lingo, yet), this would be the closest you can get to it.

  Set up a VR office.  Maybe like that experienced by those in the book Snow Crash.  Allowing others to meet you in it would enable you to conduct business on the Internet, save time and money having to travel across the country for face to face meetings and they, like yourself would be in their home environment with access to what they need if they had neglected to bring it with them on the trip.  Update:  I've kind of experimented with this idea on my own computer, but I'm not ready to share with people yet because it's not too stable.

  Caffeine = consciousness fuel.  'Nuff said?  While I realize that most won't want to mix taurine, guarana and ginseng with large doses of their favorite form of caffeine whether it's the Dew, espresso, or very strong iced tea (my personal fave so I can make it as strong as I like), it's the fix of choice for some of us addicted to the Internet like myself.  ;-)  Getting the claw marks out of the ceiling above your desk is your own problem...

  Broadband is something you should get if you can afford it.  I started off with a 486 66 computer and a 14.4 modem feeling like I was riding a tricycle in the picnic lane of the 'Information Superhiway'.  :-P  Now that I've gotten a much faster system and connection, there's a lot less stress and I don't have to wait so long for stuff to download, giving me more time for other things, like building Websites or working on my 3D world.  :-)  The Internet has grown a lot in the last three years, so there's a lot more out there to explore.  If you absolutely have to Web-surf in the ultra-moldy-oldy fashion with a 2D Web browser, I recommend Mozilla and to stop those annoying pop-up ads, un-check the box saying "Open unrequested windows" in the Preferences > Advanced > Scripts & Plugins.  That way, you can avoid all those annoying pop-up ads.  Cool thing about Mozilla is that you can also right-click on ads in Web pages and select "Block Images from this Server" if they're from places like doubleclick.  Hee hee hee

  Oh yeah.  Best search engine IMHO:  Google!

  If you get extremely bored, check out my own site at cyberwolfman.com if you like.  :-)  Hopefully, you'll have Flash installed.

  If you're looking for something cool to do, try a 3D chat program.  I did a review of each and put the info on a Web page comparing the costs, how many people they each had, how many worlds in each 'universe' as most of them are called now, whether you can customize your avatar or just choose from a list, privacy concerns, and what I thought of the people in each so you and anyone else interested in trying one can enjoy without having to download and try each and every one of them out before you find one you like.

  As for e-mail:  Making a filter before checking for e-mail so that anything that doesn't have your e-mail address in the To: field gets sent directly to the Trash folder should be your first step.  Then, if you need to catch up on three years of e-mails, compose and send out a form letter saying you're back on-line rather than writing to each and every person you've got an e-mail address for.  Those that don't bounce back because the e-mail address is invalid you can always write to in more detail later after you've taken your first long ride on the Internet.

  Firewalls, anti-virus, and patches:  Assuming you're using someone else's computer, they'd have likely kept up to date with udpates and patches for krufty operating systems, virus defintions for their anti-virus program and firewall configurations themselves so I won't need to go into mind-numbingly boring detail on it all.  You can get caught up on the latest info later when you have time.   Asking Woz may be a good first step...

  Most of all, I hope you enjoy yourself.  Like I've always said "If life isn't any fun, then what's the fun of living?"   :-)

  Howl @ ya later!
 

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