I recall the times of the browser wars. I was one of the bastards who supported Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as I think the whole Netscape thing is a total piece of crap.
Now, Netscape is eaten up by AOL which turned into AOL Time Warner by including Time Warner and later rename it to Time Warner. This is called business strategy.
Oh well. While I never agreed that AOL and Time Warner should ever come together, I see the buying over of Netscape as a good idea. Then, everybody talks about Mozilla, Gecko engines and stuff. Frankly speaking, I don’t quite get it. I want to see products that work well and serves my needs, not some technical babbling about Gecko this and that. [1 point added for selfishness.]
Then Firefox came. It is a wonderful browser. It is more secure in my opinion, although they did have their share of set backs some time ago. But it’s alright compared to Internet Explorer who has lots of security holes since… let me see… since ActiveX technologies are incorporated.
Internet Explorer is the winner in the browser war. People say Microsoft cheated and stuff. Yes, they did include the browser in Windows. I understand that is not fair. But still you got to admit that the then Netscape was pretty buggy and lots of customers are displeased. Firefox managed to gain users without cheating. But I do want to criticise one thing. I don’t like web sites that supports Firefox and condemns Internet Explorer.
I use both. I use Internet Explorer more though. I want to surf the internet, I don’t need to be syntax-correct to surf the internet when all I want to do is to read a bunch of text. Web developers are worshipping Firefox and Safari. [Firefox is an excellent choice to worship, but Safari...] But don’t forget your purpose - do develop web sites that can be viewed and enjoyed by people.
A web site with a bunch of icons to get you to download Firefox or Internet Explorer [Stop that annoying animated GIF of MSIE!!] is a sin.
Now Firefox goes by the tagline ‘Take back the web’. I see their percentages increase. Good for them, but don’t forget their is another browser which currently still has like a 90% crowd although it’s dropping.
I can feel the browser wars reigniting. That’s great, because competition is seriously need for the sleepy giant Microsoft to wake up. And they have.
Announcing at a keynote address at RSA Conference, Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect at Microsoft Corp., announced continued innovation and technology investments including future enhancements for safer Web browsing, such as plans for a new version of Microsoft® Internet Explorer for Windows XP Service Pack 2 customers. [copied this, hehee...]
So Internet Explorer 7 is coming. Watch for it, I hope they will finally support PNG transparency properly and support CSS 2 fully. Good luck Microsoft, because seriously, at this point you may need it. To me, the web development and designing, viewers should be taken into more consideration. Not some browser. It’s not suppose to dominate us. It’s supposed to assist us only.
Maybe Internet Explorer 7 can try the tag line ‘Take the web back again’ or something.
Tags: beta, browser, firefox, internet, internet explorer, microsoft
Internet Explorer 7
by JRB Technology (Feb 17, 2005 at 4 AM)Bill Gates said beta versions of Internet Explorer 7 will be out this summer. He said the new version will be built on the work they did in SP2, and other things. Gates mentioned they will go further to defend IE users from phishing and other deceptive…
Now I’d like to comment on the bit you said about web developers ‘worshipping’ Firefox. You see, I’m a developer and been in this line for more than 5 years. I use Firefox most of the time but that doesn’t mean I worship it. As far as I’m concerned, Firefox and other browsers adhere to web standards and IE just doesn’t fully embrace it - yet. While it is ethically professional to develop sites that display well in all browsers, it is truly annoying to have to write additional hacks just so IE can display them properly as intended while other browsers have no problems dealing with them. Firefox (and other browsers) recognizes application/xhtml+xml types but IE doesn’t unless you do something to it.
Developers these days don’t write codes like it was 1997. Nobody wants to be stuck in a time warp. They don’t ‘worship’ any browsers. If only IE could have adhered to standards, there’ll be lesser disgruntled developers.
by Event Horizon (Feb 18, 2005 at 2 AM)I don’t like IE because it doesn’t have tabbed browsing, which pretty much every other browser has. Once you start using tabbed browsing you don’t want to go back to having several windows open. Plus, Microsoft stopped developing IE for Mac and encouraged people to use Safari.
by Jessica (Feb 18, 2005 at 6 AM)Event Horizon: IE failed to keep with the standards. During year 2001 when Internet Explorer 6 is released for Windows XP, everyone knows that version is going to expire real soon with the lack of support here and there. The whole set back is due to Microsoft insisting to release the next version during Longhorn, that seriously is a mistake. What I meant about developers ‘worshiping’ Firefox is that they placed this ‘Take the web back’ thing in blogs and stuff. It’s almost like putting a cross to symbolize Christianity. No, actually the tagline ‘Take the web back’ is more like Jihad.
Jessica: Tabbed browsing is available in Internet Explorer as some plug in. It’s more like a program that is powered by Internet Explorer. Ironically, that plug in to allow users to browse in tabs first appeared in Internet Explorer and not in other browsers. I am interested to see how Microsoft implements tabbed browsing though. I’ve got a feeling that they won’t do a good job somehow, hahaa..
by Mr. Dew (Feb 18, 2005 at 9 AM)I use neither of both you have mentioned.
Instead I use Opera, I also use its RSS newsfeed reader and its email client (M2). Especially the email clients’ APs and SPAM filter with AI convinced me.
And I have very seldom compatibility problems with homepages.
what is your opinion about Opera?!
by Nafcom (Feb 19, 2005 at 4 AM)Nafcom: Oh, Opera. I used to use it last time. I like Opera’s tabs. That time, I wasn’t using Mozilla browsers, what I use was Opera. In fact, I like Opera so much, I almost given up on Internet Explorer. The problem - I didn’t pay. There’re advertisements which I can’t get used to even after months.
I haven’t tried the new Opera though, I can’t speak much about it. If I want a standard-compliant browser, I go for Firefox. I trust it more.
I do notice Opera does have a great renderer.
by Mr. Dew (Feb 19, 2005 at 10 AM)@Mr. Dew:
First, thanks for your comment on my blog
Second, Opera has no longer compatibility problems like it had like 2 years ago.
By the way; Did you notice that your “Archive” link doesn’t work in either browser?
by Nafcom (Feb 19, 2005 at 7 PM)@Mr Dew:
Since the posting of comments on older blog entries appear to not work at all (it displays nothing!), I copy and paste it here with the blog entries’ URL.
(I even didn’t find any email address of you, otherwise I would have emailed you to let you know).
my comment to http://beconfused.com/blog/2004/05/01/smartfools/ :
“Very nice story!
Let me ask you something: Is the fact that posts which are linked to catigories, links to trackbacks that don’t exsist, the non-working archive link and the missing 2nd part of this story all on purpose? (So to fit the “Be Confused” which is your blog’s title.
And so where is the 2nd part of this story?
by Nafcom (Feb 20, 2005 at 10 PM)And do your friends meanwhile believe you?!”
Nafcom: I’ll give Opera a try again soon. I miss the mouse gestures, lol.. I think Firefox can do that with some plugins too.
By the way, what do you mean by the archives not working?
Your comment has re-surfaced from my ‘Awaiting Moderation’ list. Sorry that I took long. I don’t really know how my anti-spam plugin works. It traps some legitimate comments too.
by Mr. Dew (Feb 21, 2005 at 12 AM)@Mr Dew,
first of all sorry for posting my comment 3 times, I didn’t know it was to be moderated! Yesterday, my comment appeared very quickly, so I thought it would be the same today!
Please delete my double comments…
About Opera: I very seldom use mouse gestures, I know maybe 1-2 but seldom dig into that.
the spam filter with AI is set on my side to learn from the emails I add/remove to/from the filter and when I have been using it for about 6 months it began to work 98% correctly.
> By the way, what do you mean by the archives not working? <
I move mouse over ‘Home Blog Archives’ and they all point to http://blog.beconfused.com
instead you should get some archive link. I didn’t know the categories links where meant as an archive.
I guess Blogger can do cats too with some 3rd party help
I have added quite some features this way to my blogger’s template.
By the way; I also found the trackback function of your blog you have mentioned.
I promise to not to spam trackbacks! O:-)
The rest I will comment on at smart//fools.
by Nafcom (Feb 21, 2005 at 1 AM)Nafcom: That’s okay, I have no idea how the anti-spam plugin works too. It appeared to have performed an extra service. I hope Opera’s filters for the email would work much better. I don’t use POP features much, usually I just read from my browser. As for mouse gestures, it’s quite an interesting feature. I use my keyboard more now though. My keyboard has those ‘Back Forward Stop Mail Search Favorites Home’ type of buttons right on top.
The top part? Oh, that is my mistake. My ‘Home’ is forever under construction. As for the archives page, I don’t know how to make my archives show. I originally linked it here. It doesn’t work the way I want it to.
You can trackback to me as long as you’re not a website that deals with casinos which is where all my spams origins. I hate those bloody casinos!
by Mr. Dew (Feb 21, 2005 at 7 AM)@Mr. Dew:
Oucha! web based email! Did that before M2 (email client of Opera) too, but since I use M2, I will never go back to webbased email! It’s perfect! The spam filter is really perfect. like I said, the rate got to 98% after 6 months (conclusion: the more spam you give it and the more emails you mark/unmark as spam, the faster M2’s spam filter AI will learn).
The internet keyboard kyes: I have those, too, I don’t have the keyboard driver installed, so it works nowhere, except in Opera! Correct, it works in Opera native. That totally amazed me when I have figured it out! (I pressed the keys in Opera accidently, once!).
I hope you will fix your archive pages, very soon!
You have seen my blog, does it look like a casino blog to you?!… O:-)
by Nafcom (Feb 21, 2005 at 8 AM)Nafcom: I found web-based emails useful actually. I use Gmail (the one you have been writing about) and it works pretty well. My compliant would be that my emails are delayed as much as 12 hours before. That is not good for work as someone did send me a message to initiate a meeting at 3 and I didn’t turn up as I didn’t receive the message. Ever since that, I always have the habit of confirming that I saw the message reach time I receive one. Gmail also has a big problem, it eats up my .exe attachments and didn’t even report to me that it has eaten that up. That’s pretty disappointing. A tiny report would do, but Gmail doesn’t offer that.
I have my keyboard driver is installed, it works in Firefox. At first I thought it wouldn’t since it’s a Microsoft keyboard (and it’s a cheap one).
Your blog is certainly not a casino blog! I have nothing against casinos, I just receive too much spam from them. You know, it’s really depressing to sight 70 plus spam comments or trackbacks that is awaiting moderation in just a day. It actually happened to me before.
by Mr. Dew (Feb 21, 2005 at 10 PM)About gmail: Will you email me your email address?(I have asked this many times, this will definately be the last time!).
Yup, I had once forwarding my @c64.org address to GMail but since I had that access problem with GMail’s Spam Folder & Trash and I had to terror email the GMail Team till I have received any reply at all, I asked the @c64.org email forwarding provider to undo those changes.
So he changed that address, so now it forwards to where it did in past…
This address delays up to 12 hours too, and once it has been even for a day as you can read here but at least it has not my real name in it
But I never send emails from that address (M2 does not support alias sendings) (which is good, because you never could confirm the ownership in an local email client (unlike web based who just send you an email to that and ask you to click a confirmation link).
Gmail Attachments: Gmail does not support .EXE Attachment, as well as certain types of .ZIP archives (Mac people send them as a different string, which GMail does support).
I love the GMail Drive feature; I just throw crap from my desktop on it, and fetch it with M2, which autosorts it due to their APs
I have also a very old keyboard; Logitech Cordless Desktop PS/2 and it works!
Casino blogs: My blog is worse than casino blogs!
by Nafcom (Feb 22, 2005 at 1 AM)Nafcom: I forgot about mentioning my email, it’s at dew@beconfused.com. I’ll send you an email soon. I keep wanting to encode my email in some format the spammers won’t pick up. I am using d etc to represent my mail now, hahaa..
That mail is forwarded to my Gmail. I know Gmail doesn’t support .exe and .vb files. But I have to send .vb files sometimes. People send me .vb files (for Visual Basic .NET stuff), I will not be able to receive that mail. I have nothing against the blacklisting of that arrangement. I understand it would be of better good to lots of users. But I do hope to at list see the message without the .vb file. That would help a lot because I seriously don’t know that I am supposed to receive this .vb file. At least, tell me that the mail is deleted or something, I can get back to the person so it won’t be that bad.
Well, the other way is to rename extensions. But most people won’t bother to rename for my sake. I wish Gmail can do something about that - to inform me of the deletion of such mails instead of doing it quietly.
by Mr. Dew (Feb 22, 2005 at 1 AM)Mr. Dew:
Of course, wether you send me an email is your personal decision! O:-)
Like I said; I don’t bother wether somebody picks my email up!
I didn’t know .vb files were blacklisted, as well! thanks for letting me know
that is why I give away my @c64.org forwarding address, it allows any attachment’s type, but only of 4 mb of size :’(
suggest the informing feauture to gmail team?..
by Nafcom (Feb 22, 2005 at 1 AM)Nafcom: Yes, they are. At least I believe so. I was sent a .zip file that contains .vb (Visual Basic), .sln (Solution file), .resx and a whole bunch of strange extensions. It may not be .vb but .sln or others, but I suspect it’s .vb because I’m pretty sure .vbs (Visual Basic Scripts) is a disallowed extension in Hotmail. The mail got deleted even though it is zipped.
I’ll suggest it to the Gmail team. I think it’s quite an essential feature, at least to me.
by Mr. Dew (Feb 22, 2005 at 1 AM)Mr. Dew:
at least I only know zip and exe. never tried vb,
suggestion form for gmail is here
I have used hotmail & msn messanger for 1 week and ceased both. I only use ICQ as IM.
by Nafcom (Feb 22, 2005 at 2 AM)Nafcom: It has been done. I sent them a message.
I sure hope Google do something about it.
by Mr. Dew (Feb 23, 2005 at 12 AM)@Mr. Dew: Yes. my email provider does retain the message and delete the .exe file if it’s a virus
by Nafcom (Feb 23, 2005 at 1 AM)Nafcom: That should be how it is done. Please copy that, Google.
by Mr. Dew (Feb 23, 2005 at 7 AM)@Mr Dew: It’s pretty silly to disallow .ZIP archives anyway.
by Nafcom (Feb 23, 2005 at 10 AM)unlike .vb & .exe, .ZIP’s are non-exec…
Nafcom: They do allow, but not when I have a .vb file in it.
by Mr. Dew (Feb 23, 2005 at 11 AM)Mr. Dew: So it depends on the contents of the .ZIP file, only?
by Nafcom (Feb 23, 2005 at 7 PM)I thought that is a general mustn’t send/receive rule….
Nafcom: Yup, they scanned the contents.
by Mr. Dew (Feb 24, 2005 at 3 PM)Mr Dew: You live and learn
(i.e. me!).
by Nafcom (Feb 24, 2005 at 7 PM)peaking About Opera 8 - Beta 2
Inspired by the internet//seven post from Be Confused blog which speaks about the upcoming 7th version of MSIE, I want to write about the Beta 2 release of Opera 8 which just found its way on my HDD today
I found it on an ex-classmate’s PC in fo…
by Nafcoms Crap Blog (Feb 26, 2005 at 5 AM)