A little late . . . my answers to the Friday Five:

1. What do you have your browser start page set to? I use Opera and have multiple browser windows open each time I start up the program. Windows for my portal page, my livejournal friends page, and DHAK. Thanks to the greatness of Opera, I've Google kinda built into the browser or else I'd probably have it open automagically, too.

2. What are your favorite news sites? I don't visit many, to be honest. I did once upon a time. These days, I usually check startribune.com about once each day or two. They aren't the best news site online, but it's very familiar (as I worked there for two years) and covers some local stuff I might be interested in. I also visit Salon every so often.

3. Favorite search engine: Google. Though for certain things (like searching for song lyrics, quotations, etc.) I sometimes still use Altavista.

4. When did you first get online? I first used Compuserve and Quantum-Link sometime in the early-mid '80s, I'm not sure when. And soon after that, I started calling a whole slew of BBSes. And via some BBSes, I accessed Usenet where I distinctly recall reading SF-Lovers and a Star Trek newsgroup and some other stuff; I rarely posted and I have no idea what account/name I posted under so even if it is available at the big DejaGoogle archive, I haven't been able to find that stuff. I also started reading FIDOnet via BBSes in the mid-late '80s, mostly just the science fiction related discussions. I was on Q-Link for a long time, at some point I got on GEnie and was a regular for a while in the Science Fiction Round Tables there (SFRT). I got full internet access first in 1990 or '91 (I think), put up my first webpage in 1993. I know, I am so old school! Or at least I like to think so.

5. How do you plan to spend your weekend? Not sure. Well, tonight I went out and saw some friends play a show at a local irish bar, with some other friends. Was fun. Saturday and Sunday are still up in the air.