Note: This column represents the opinions
of the writer and as such, is not purported as fact
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My average day on the Net goes something like this...
At around 7:30am I log on and start surfing about two dozen news websites
on the search for interesting stories that can be included in the newslinks
section of this page and possibly fodder for this column.
I also give my email a very quick scan -- just browsing the subject and
sender address fields in case something really important has come in overnight.
Most nights I receive around 50-60 messages while I'm asleep so reading
them all is left until later in the day.
Once I've collected the best of the day's stories I set to editing the
code for the news section by hand (it's just quicker and easier than setting
up and working with an inflexible template system).
The daily commentary (the bit you're reading now) comes next and I spend
maybe 30 minutes typing this up and thrashing the backspace key to fix
most of the errors.
Unless I forget, I pull up the forums site and add an entry for today's column
so that readers can provide feedback and opinions.
Then it's time for a biscuit and refreshment, which I scoff while I'm
checking out more general news and current events by way of three or
four of the best websites.
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By now another 10-15 emails have drifted into my mailbox so I delete the few
spams that have made it past 2Day.com's excellent email filtering and
start reading/replying-to all those messages.
By most days I've got all this done by around 11:00am so it's then time to
log-off for a couple of hours while I do a few more pages on the two books
I'm presently writing.
Over lunch I take a moment to scan a few of my favourite discussion websites
that deal with such things as engineering, videography etc.
Then it's time to check out the newsgroups for interesting or relevant material,
something that's easily done by keying a few key search terms into Google
Groups. If anything interesting pops up I'll fire up my newsreader and
post a response or make a note for possible inclusion in tomorrow's column.
If the weather's not too cold and it's not too late, I'll log off again
and head off to the workshop I rent for a peppercorn sum and do a couple of
hours work on my jet engine projects.
When I get back I check my email again, browse the news sites for any breaking
stories and then log off in time for dinner.
I'll usually check my email once more before hitting the hay at night.
Yes, I'm probably a rather boring Net user. No IRC chatting, no P2P networking,
no Instant Messaging, no online gaming -- yet I still manage to spend a good
6-7 hours per day bathed in the glow of my monitor and watching the flickering
of my modem's lights.
How many hours a day (on average) do *you* spend actually using the Net and
what are your main activities?
And what are the to three or four sites that account for most of your
websurfing time?
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