So You Wanna ...

By: Charles Bowen The capacity of the Internet for education -- especially self-study -- is staggering. Of course, that doesn't mean the medium actually is being used for education to any great extent. On the contrary, from the start, the Web was won over by all the quick-hit artists who speak (if only rapidly) to our society's ever-shorter attention span. I admit I'm one of them. In my other life as a Web designer, I show my clients how the Internet can be used as a remarkable marketing vehicle. But I tell them we generally have only about 15 seconds to grab prospective customers' attention and make them stop before they surf off to other sites.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with this message -- all successful Web designers think that way -- but it does contribute to the growing notation that the Web is primarily a dodge-and-dart sort of place where nobody lights on any site for long. Such high-tech hustle is not conducive to study, but the beauty of the Net is that the same medium that gives you one-minute purchases of everything from books and CDs to vacation packages also can support sites meant for a much slower pace.

One such self-study site that I've recently become addicted to is called SoYouWanna.com. It's a fun site that is out to teach you all the things you never learned in school, such as how to paint a room, pay off your student loans, make your own beer, manage your hay fever, or become a model, spy, teacher, sitcom writer or scuba diver.

At soyouwanna.com, you'll find 16 different categories including Apartments, Food & Drink, Work, Travel, and Entertainment. Each section contains answers to a wide array of questions. The lists of questions are sorted categorically and alphabetically.

Also, the site contains a section on "Mini-Wannas" that you can search if you are looking for a quick answer. An added bonus of the site is its collection of Top 10 lists that make for interesting reading or great trivia.

Another way to browse the site's extensive contents is alphabetically. Click the "SYW'S A to Z" link at the top of any page and the resulting screen lists hundreds of topics from "abs, tone and flatten yours" and "ace a job interview" to "yoga, learn the basics of."

Other self-study sites you might be interested in exploring online include:

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HowStuffWorks.com invites you to "upgrade your brain" with online articles on computers, autos, electronics, science, home, entertainment, money, travel, and people. The site, which has won Time magazine's "50 Best Web Sites" award for two years in a row, offers an online newsletter, surveys, trivia and in- depth articles.

2. For home-repair and household stuff, it's hard to beat the "Answers @ Ace" service from the Ace Hardware folks we featured here last summer. Located at acehardware.com, the site provides help files and interactive online movies on everything from installing and repairing gutters to calculating grass seed, as well as repair projects such as painting a room, waterproofing basements, and conserving energy.

3. For legal questions and online help, check out the old-timer, Nolo Press. This publisher specializes in "self-help law" for laymen. There you'll find no-nonsense background on how it feels to face an audit, why there's a difference between tax cheaters and tax protesters, when IRS inefficiency can affect average taxpayers, and what others have done to win "the IRS game."
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