Instant Communication

A nice application to put on your computer is a program called Skype. (Other competitors are Yahoo Messenger.)

With Skype, you can talk to anyone on a computer who also has Skype, or you can call them via Skype, and it only costs 4 cents a minute or so.

But as long as the people you are commicating with have skype, and a camera on their computer (either embedded or one you've purchased) you can watch and talk to each other at the same time.

This is called "instant messaging." You type a message to your friend, who can type a response to you. Some people like to use "text messaging" language, like How R U for how are you, but if you're a decent typist, I recommend typing out all your words. Let's keep some standards!

Go to www.skype.com to check out this application.

there are some things you need to beware of with Yahoo Messenger. I'll talk about that in my next post.

Virus and anti-spyware

If you plan to do any kind of work on the web, it is necessary for you to put anti-virus and anti-spyware on your computer.

Unfortunately the world is full of dishonest people who spend all their time thinking of ways to steal money from others.

You can buy programs, such as Norton Anti-Virus Software or Macafee, or you can download free ones. The one I use is Cloud Panda.

http://www.cloudantivirus.com/en/

Even with these anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, you must be very careful about what kind of websites you visit and what kind of emails you open. (I will write more fully about dangerous emails in my next post.)