Yes, it is that time of the season again, the time of the season when I begin to spout off about mindless happenings that I have seen around campus, life, etc. And, since I am the systems manager here at The Observer, I begin my tirade by nominating my favorite web site of the semester.

This web site is none other than www.mrwakeup.com. The real beauty of this site is that you sign-up for free, get called for free, and get woken up for free. Go there; well worth the time it will take to sign-up.

This may not seem like something that is worthwhile to you, but bear with me for a moment. Imagine that you are pulling an all-nighter, and you need to get up in like three hours for that big physics test. With this site, you can make sure that you make it up for the test by having it call your room in successive 15-minute intervals! All for free.

(Now, you might have already stopped reading this, unless you know me, but since you stayed I will give you the real point of this column, FREE STUFF.)

For instance, surf to Scour.net. Now I know what you are thinking, "Mike, you are a boring. I already know about this site, and it is no big secret!" Well, have you ever bothered to use the advanced search, and look for ASF files? Because if you had, you would know that this site helps you get all the latest movie releases that are currently in theatres. No joke!

Also, have you ever bothered to use the little known chat program known as Mirc, or Internet Relay Chat? It is a great little program to find MP3s, movies, etc. And, it is also a great program to just chat with. If you like that sort of thing.

Understand this, the point that I am trying to make with this drivel is that, if you are going to use the Internet, USE the Internet. The best thing that this University ever did was grant the students of this campus access to the outside world.

So many times here at ND, I have found myself out of touch with the world around our little bubble. And the Internet, with all it brings, is a medium that I can definitely get behind. As a "techie," I have been privileged to have a front seat to the happenings of the Internet during my four years here, and now I can not imagine my life without it.

The birth of MP3s, and now full movies online are just the beginning. I attended the speech by Don Tapscott, who recently spoke in the Jordan Auditorium about "Growing Up Digital."

He spoke about how we, yes you and me my friends, are in the digital generation. We are in the most exciting time for technology, and it is time to embrace it! The world hopefully will end up where I would like to see it: Sharing ideas as fast as they can leave a person's fingers. Until that happens though, I will just sit back in awe, at my digital domain of free music, movies, and "dot coms."

The views expressed in the Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.

• Digital Alchemy