Do you know what netiquette means? It means network etiquette. Do you think you have it?

Netiquette varies depending on your level of authority and activity on a specific network. This means you should behave within your limitations and with integrity. Do not compromise your online identity as well as another person's privacy, where restricted.

The entry goes on to say

Be courteous. Also, don’t use capital letters it’s known as SHOUTING OUT LOUD.
• Post: Those with vivid imaginations are often unreliable in their statements.
• Shea: Make yourself look good online: Know what you're talking about and make sense.

Basically what it is saying to me is, think about what I write before I post a comment or anything publicly. And do it as proudly as I can. Originally it had it's function, now it is more complex with the ever-changing ways of the web.

Here are a few relevant netiquette examples I could think of that apply to us at MyDL.
Feel free to add more that helps us improve our blogging experiences.

Commenting
The author usually asks a few questions in their post if its based on discussion material and sometimes the post is just funny, interesting or worth saying something to. Reply with something useful please or whatever is appropriate... I'm still learning that one.

I like the way The Source lays his comments out with a space in between for better readability. I'm gonna copy The President's style. I sometimes become too childish and lose my formal style of posting or commenting. Learning that one too.

The commenting system has a bug. The bug sneaks up on you like eskom ;) Solution would be to refresh the page when you see a name that isn't yours. I sometimes have to cut, refresh, paste and send.
Please fix ?

Response Time
I will reply sometime, just be patient! Sometimes, when I get a new comment, I tend to blurt out whatever I can just to get it over with but from now on you can give me time to respond. ASAP is ideal though!

Smileys
A smiley counts as a comment. Sometimes I don't feel like typing. A smiley is my comment. I use too many smileys. From now on I'm limiting it to one a day.

Posts
Some people can do quick posts with spaced out lines others can write stories and several paragraphs. I do not care about the amount of text. If its proportional to me learning something, then its acceptable! Just don't bore me halfway through, I'd close it off!

Rate it!
So you're the first one at a post and maybe you're going to leave a comment?
If you don't like the post, rate it low!
If you like it, give it a high five!

Now, the second viewer to hit the page will see a rating instead of the usual grey zero. They will then add their rating. It's more effective when used, rather than not used. You see those ratings you just got? It's probably me or that anonymous person who rates mine. Rate it! ;)

Shoutbox
I dont want to use it any more... I might drop a hi or a lo there. I expect to have a conversation in full view. Maybe getting us a real chat room will draw more discussion to topics.
Note to self: Refresh homepage to see if user is still online.


So are there anymore little factors you think we should take into account?

<...

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free email client that allows you to integrate your GMail account, as well as feeds that you wish to subscribe to, into it's account area. I use it for both the MyDL feeds ie. posts and comments. I also have my GMail public account in there.


If you know how feeds work then you can search the web and find clients you think are your favourite for ease of use and visual appeal. I have used most of them and for me, Mozilla Thunderbird has the best interface for viewing posts and sneak-peeking at the comments.

If you feel you do not wish to use a software client as a feedreader, you can choose from these popular online readers... Pageflakes, Google Reader, Yahoo Reader.

A fellow citizen emailed me, asking me how I use the feeds in this post and I responded with a screenshot of my Mozilla Thunderbird in full view along with a simple procedure to use it. The response I got was very positive and that led me to make a more visual post for those who don't know what they're missing.



It's logical enough to understand that by using this method, you can choose to go to the page you desire instead of waiting for that automated message.


Here is the method that I use to add feeds to Mozilla Thunderbird (assuming you already have Mozilla Thunderbird installed).

1. Firstly, you will need to create a new account to store your subscriptions.

Click on the Local Folders and proceed with steps 1 to 3 as depicted.



2. Secondly, click the account folder you just created (eg. MyDigitalLife), and proceed through the steps below.

You will need these feeds...

Posts: http://www.mydigitallife.co.za/index.php?option=com_myblog&task=rss

Comments: http://www.mydigitallife.co.za/index.php?option=com_akocomment&task=feed



Step 1
Click on Manage Subscriptions.

Step 2
Click Add to add a feed URL.

Step 3
Right-Click and Paste the URL into the Feed URL box. (or Ctrl+V)

Step 4
Press OK to download the feed items.

Step 5
Repeat steps 1 to 4 to add the next feed.

Click 'Get Mail' and you are set! It will get 10 of the latest posts and every post thereafter.

Thats all!

;)

NB. If you want to add individual Authors' feeds, go to their profile, copy their feed link and subscribe to it.

Now if you love moving around with a flashdrive, try the portable version of... you guessed it Mozilla Thunderbird!



Do you have a feed-reader, email client, software or web service that you use often?

Pageflakes is quite cool BTW!

For those of you who use Mozilla Firefox and like to open alot of tabs, here are a few shortcuts worthy of saving you click-time!

CTRL + T – Open new tab,
CTRL + W – Close current tab
CTRL + Page Down – Next tab
CTRL + Page Up – Previous tab!
CTRL + SHIFT + T - Re-open the last-closed tab.

CTRL + L – Address bar focus
CTRL + K – Search Focus
CTRL + J - Downloads


Some other handy keyboard shortcuts

F1 – Help
F5 – Refresh page
F11 – Fullscreen
TAB - Jump to next focus point.
Enter - Submit/Go


Anything you would like to add on dear reader?

Checkout my post on Mozilla Firefox Add-Ons that will make your browsing easier.

Don't forget to subscribe to my RSS feed by Email!

What an awesome game of head-popping proportions. For a 1st/3rd person shooter I thoroughly enjoyed lining up the hordes of infected and releasing their inner demons.


Characters
Leon is an agent sent in to rescue the President’s daughter, Ashley.

Ashley is a well-articulated girl who helps Leon on some tasks and is mostly the damsel in distress for those rescue missions.

Luis helps you but dies! He got seduced to death. LOL, no surprise there.

Ada Wong is an agent of the Umbrella Corp and is a side-character to the game. She is playable in other unlockable side-games... after you complete the real game. She appears and helps you (Leon) when things get sticky.

Krauser is a general with genetic modifications to his arm. When I play as him, I use his arm to exterminate about 10-20 enemies in one blow. I really enjoy watching the HUD counter tallying my kills up.

There are more characters you can unlock at the side-games but you can do that in your own hardcore sessions.

Plot
The game takes an unchartered twist and further explores zombies, monsters and genetically-engineered mutants. The guns and upgrades had me buying, selling and progressing with more power each time. The shotgun is undoubtedly my favourite for smashing through monsters brains, sometimes 5-in-1 shots. I mean literally 5 heads in one pull of the trigger. Awesome to see the dead walking without heads. And then sprouting a new thinking-cap that slices at you. Gore makes any game enjoyable if it has the right sound effects coupled with it, its uber-fragalicious. I also loved collecting items, combining them and selling them to upgrade my artillery. Capcom sure bust a cap on its earlier Resident Evil games.

I liked the action-figures that can be collected after achieving the maximum points needed in the ‘shooting gallery’. Those figurines are in a 3D viewer style with added voice-overs. You can win the main characters (with varying weapons) and also enemies bosses or those that stand out. Like the Chainsaw sisters.

Music & Sound Effects
Brilliant! Well done Capcom! I thoroughly enjoyed the ambience and head-splattering sounds. Guns had cool sounds :) The save theme and the nearing end of mission theme made me stand near the typewriter for a while and listen to it :)

Movie vs Game
I saw the movie ‘Resident Evil: Extinction’ recently and it compared a bit to Biohazard 4. The Mutant enemy we see in the end of the movie is way harder and more interesting in the game. That’s as easy as I could explain it because... for an epic game to be turned into a monotonous predictable movie, really sucks!

I can’t wait to play Resident Evil 5!

This is how I read all your posts and comments. I took the main feed and the comment feed and added those to my Mozilla Thunderbird. No need to search for your posts. The post and comments come to me!


Posts
http://www.mydigitallife.co.za/index.php?option=com_myblog&task=rss

Comments
http://www.mydigitallife.co.za/index.php?option=com_akocomment&task=feed


Simply add those two to your feed reader that you should already have.
Now you have instant blogs sent to you instead of you missing the morning rushes.

Muti is a Digg-style article/link submission. I dabbled with Muti over it's existence and found a tricky situation when I needed to submit. I wanted it to open in a new popup so that I can submit my millions of tabs without leaving my page. (because I have other sites to submit to also!)

So I dabbled with the javascript and came up with an almost perfect popup script. Almost perfect because, the popup doesn't get focus only one link submission at a time!

Try it out!

All you do is:
Drag the link below onto your Firefox Bookmarks toolbar as a new bookmark.
When at any page you wish to submit, simply click the bookmark you created to submit and it's on Muti.

Now drag this Muti This! (Pop-Up) or simply Muti my post :)

Please note you have to already be a member of Muti and be logged in for it to work without complications.
As with any bookmarking site.

Enjoy Muti'ing