OK, so yeah, I'm late to the HOLY SHIT party, too, but here goes. In addition to everything mentioned above ('cuz the new stuff it what is going to interest you guys, not me being a yes man to previous posts):

* Dial-up local multi-line BBSes. You can call in with your computer, establish an online identiy, then go into chat rooms and MEET PEOPLE NEAR YOU, that don't go to your school, live next to you or work with you. You can talk to them. You can arrange to meet them, and they will show up! And then smoke you out and drink beer with you. Cool! And forums... online political discussions and heated debates about religion and the meaning of life!! Way better than high school, for the most part.

* Geography (the science). The most all-inclusive discipline. Take any other science. Relate it to a location. Boom -- a geographer out there, somewhere, has specialized in this field, and can now relate that science to any other science and say what their locational relationship is. WAY COOL.

* Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Take any piece of data about pretty much anything. Attached a location to it. Overlay it with any other peice of information about anything else that lies anywhere near the first location. Do an analysis. Draw your own conclusions. HOW THE FUCK COOL IS THAT? I live here. The closest bus stop is there. There are 12 porn stores, 15 strip clubs, a supermarket, 10 pubs and 13 endangered species within a mile of my house, according to this map, which also says that my house is allowed to be up to 30 feet tall with a second unit above the garage, also allowed up to that height!! Wow!! What are the possibilities here?!?!

* Google (I could stop with that -- it was a Holy Shit unto itself, but I will go on to:) Earth and Google Local. GIS for the masses. Free. Online and/or a downloadable application for your desktop. Cool. But then... there's a community? People ALL OVER THE FREAKIN' WORLD are posting shite here? Like where their favorite fishing holes are, their favorite pubs, where every last location in every Shakespeare play actually was, and also you can check out Chernobyl from space? And watch the glaciers melt in Greenland? WTF? Holy Shit!!!!

Related to this last post: I declare 2005 the Year of the Geographical Revolution.. read this post for more. http://undergroundscience.blogspot.com/2005/11/2005-year-of-geographical-revolution.html

cheers,

~Garlynn