Essential Technologies

Here's my list of technolgies every nerd... err... computer savy user should have at least tried:

1. Blogs
2. News Agregators/Syndication (RSS/Atom)
3. Wiki
4. AJAX

Blogs

You are reading a blog. It probably only took me 5 minutes to write this post and the whole world can read it instantly or rather, the 2 people in the whole world who actually do read it. Lots of people out there have interests like yours or know stuff you want to know and they just might be blogging it. Google even has a special search just for blogs. Create your own blog here.

News Agregators and Syndication

You get email. You might read newsgroups postings. Now, get updates on all your favorite websites, blogs, netflix account, newspapers and more. It's all syndicated and when it changes you will be notified in your news agregator. Download and install RSS Bandit. Now right click the link on the right side of this page that says "site feed." Now select "Subscribe in default RSS reader." You've just subscribed to my blog. When I make another post it will show up in RSS Bandit like an email does.

Wiki

A Wiki is a web site that anyone can edit and therefor contribute to. The best known example is Wikipedia, a online encylopedia created by people like you and me. Hey, we're all experts in something, right? I used the same software to create a Wiki for Peachtree Corners, Georgia. Everyone can contribute and the changes appear instantly.

AJAX

AJAX is the technology that makes Google Maps and the Google Personalized Home so slick. It lets the web page communicate with the server without posting the whole web page. Only the little chunks that matter get sent and recieved. Makes web pages more like Windows forms. Microsoft is working on an "enhanced version" called Atlas, but it seems half baked to me. Compare http://www.start.com to the Google personalized home page.