Well, I've started Activity 4 with Abdallah and Adam. Adam, however, seems to be taking his time. I'll get it up here in time. Also, I've been checking out ebay. I was looking for some good headphones, but  i couldn't find any. More on that later as well.

Before I forget, I should probably mention somethings about blogs. This is, believe it or not, probably my first time posting so many posts. I've started many over the past few years, but it was mostly pressure from annoying friends who wanted me to join in their "fun". This is the only one that looks like things will work out. Its really easy to use for anyone who knows anything about word processors and email. Just the regular stuff, you know it all. 

Different Fonts for a bit of personality.

Sizes and Colors.

Hyperlinks

Italics and Bold text

So yeah. Basics. Nothing too difficult. Later.

Email. The standard in web communication. I think...

We all have used email, I'm sure. Well, at least I hope you all have. :)

Email stands for electronic mail. It was first used somewhere around 1971. Basically, you would type your message and send it to an online server. That server manages the sending and storing of it for you, and will make sure it gets delivered to the right person. Remember, this is my most basic form of definition/explanation. I'm not sure whether I should get very detailed on the blog or not so.. Email, can be accessed nearly anywhere you have access to the Internet. Of course, there are different types of emailing. Sometimes, you'll have to use an email server that's saved on your computer. You would download your email to your computer and then you would read them, and later send all your replies at the same time. This was more popular a few years back, when the cost of connecting to the Internet was much higher than it is now. Nowadays, Internet access is easier to come by, and so most of us can use online email clients such as Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail.

I actually have a Yahoo! account, as well as a hotmail account, Gmail account and even a gawab account. A lo-fi review follows:

Yahoo!: Not bad, but not one that I'm particularly into. I haven't used my account in ages, and its probably been shut down. However, it comes with a Yahoo! Messenger account, but I don't use it really.

Hotmail: Hotmail isn't all that bad. It has a pretty heavy interface, that could really get annoying sometimes, and their service crashed on me quite a few times. One upside however is that it comes with a Windows Messenger account as well. Download the program and you're ready to go. Great way to keep in touch with friends online. 

Gmail: My absolute favorite. It works extremely well and I haven't experienced a single crash or problem as of yet. Its very simple to use, and can easily be accessed from my phone via POP3, IMAP or even just by the built-in web browser. It comes with Google Talk. Useful. Also, they provide more storage space than any others I know of and are continuously adding more.

Gawab: My first. Not so popular but still well built. Crashes every now and then. And is a bit tedious to keep clean, but besides that, it was convenient. 

So. Hope this was enlightening and I'll get back up here later. More on IMAP, POP3 and IM later. Bye.

Just the beginning...

Hello all. Or well, the lucky few privileged enough to recieve a link to this blog. This is a blog I setup to help me keep track of all the explorations I'll be doing later on this year. I'll mostly be concentrating on online services and the like. So, incase I don't already know you, I'm Ahmed Umar, and I'm studying Applied ICT for AS at Alrowad International School. 

Well, I'm not sure where to start, but I guess I'll talk about the blog for now. I'm using Blogger.com because it was recommended by Edexcel and because its a Google product, and being such, has a certain amount of credibility as far as reliance is concerned. Also, ease of use, I guess. It was pretty easy to setup. I did it using my Gmail address. Also a good service. Email. But I'll talk about that next time. So for now, later.