Ok! Here is a very brief description of the web basics. Most households in the U.S.A. have computers now and in fact many do throughout the world. And for those who are connected to the web (World Wide Web) or Internet, they are all basically connected together through their phonelines. Yes, there are now even some wireless connections out there!

Most just use their computers for e-mail or to view the web but many are building web pages to be viewed by the world. I think it is pretty amazing that normal people can publish documents that can be instantly viewed on a global basis.

How does this work? Easier than you might think. Once you know basic HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), you can use Notepad, Wordpad or even Word (and many others) to write the HTML code, save it as an ASCII (text) file and then upload those files to your web server space. And now you are on the web.

The interesting thing is, for the most part, not many websites look alike. They run the gambit from commercial sites to educational sites to personal sites and beyond. Unfortunately, there aren't many laws that regulate the web so there is a lot of junk out there also. Personally, I think we need some laws that delegate adult sites to certain extensions so we all don't need to see them. By extensions, I am refering to .com, .net, .org, etc., - maybe they should have a .smut extension?

Another problem is the spam we all seem to get on our e-mail now. I really hate spam and for those of us who use e-mail to run our business, spam is more than a headache. Spam is way worse than junk mail, or the calls you get around dinner time. Hopefully it will be regulated soon.

Getting back to it, one of the subjects I want to talk about is file size. Purely text files take up very little space. And the smaller the file size, the quicker you can upload you files to your web space and the quicker visitors can download them from your web space to their computer. Many folks are still on dial-up modems, so the longer it takes them to see your file, the sooner they will get bored and go elsewhere.

Files that are strictly text can be viewed at the drop of the hat, but once you start adding graphical elements (photographs, clipart, fancy buttons or other images), your file size blossums to the point where it can take forever for many folks to actually see your web page.

Some folks are lucky enough to have DSL or a Cable Modem or a T1 line, etc., but for those of us still on a dial-up modem, transfer times are critical. Web designers need to hold back a bit unless their target audience has fast connections. There are some tricks to keeping graphical elements to a minimum and these should be employed at all times.

So get your voice out there. It is time to be heard. Make your opinion known. There is a World Wide Web out there and it is a lot of fun to be on it.