GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE INTERNET
WORDS BY RHYMER RIGBY

It’s a fair bet that you will have been online in the last 24 hours. Your job probably requires extensive use of the internet. You probably use it to stay in touch with friends and to generally make your day to day life a little bit easier. Yet vast swathes of this electronic landscape remain alien to the casual user. Granted, some of its darker corners are probably best left unexplored, but with just a little know-how your current usage can be optimised and expanded.

LEISURE: GAMBLING
If porn was the internet’s first big ‘driving vice’, then gambling is surely its second. The world’s biggest online gambling company, Party Gaming, recently floated on the London exchange and was valued at £5bn (€7.3bn). Such valuation may seem high, but the net does have many advantages for punters: no more grubby bookies, a far wider range of events and the opportunity to play casino-style with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Try www.partypoker.com or www.pokerroom.com

TALKING: VOICE OVER INTERNET
Telephone calls across the internet have been possible for some time with services like www.vonage.com and www.skype.com counting millions of users. In theory, they should be great: rather than using phone lines, voice is sent across the internet as data, meaning that calls are either free or very, very cheap. Indeed, many have suggested that such services will spell the end for the traditional telephone system. But as anyone who’s used them will know, they are still plagued with teething troubles – and the quality’s just not good enough for important calls. Definitely one to watch, but it will be a while before we all believe the skype.

WRITING: BLOGGING
Blogs – or online diaries – have been the media darlings of the last 18 months. Easy enough for anyone to set up, they allow individuals to have their musings seen by a potential audience of millions and have covered topics ranging from events in Iraq to the adventures of a London call girl. Both of which, incidentally, have resulted in book deals. Technology is also pushing blogs in new directions: camera mobiles with net access allow ‘mo-blogging’ (text and photos) and v-blogging (video). To start blogging in five minutes, go to www.blogger.com

ENTERTAINMENT: DOWNLOADS
For a few years it looked like the music industry was living in denial, fiddling while all their profits burned as tracks were being illegally downloaded. But with Apple’s iTunes having just sold its 500 millionth song, the corner may have been turned. Why bother buying a CD when you can just download it to your iPod? Next in line for this treatment is likely to be films. At the moment, the size of movies makes downloading them very time-consuming, but with broadband getting cheaper and faster, this will change, and soon. www.itunes.com

HARDWARE: AN INTERNET OF THINGS
Slowly but surely everything electronic in our world is hooking itself up to the web – the two key enablers here are wireless / Bluetooth connectivity and the growing power of the ‘embedded’ computers found within ordinary electronics. The net’s tendrils will snake not just into PDAs and phones but into home appliances, the house itself and vehicles. On the plus side, this means that the fridge will order its own milk, while on the minus side it also means that the day is just around the corner when your Lexus catches a virus from that clever fridge.