//beconfused

Something made me quite pissed off this week. I had this friend who is nonsensing (yeah, I know there is no such word) a commander right in front of me.

The commander was having some troubles with viewing a particular web page, he cannot log in. I went in to explain to him that the javascripts are not properly loaded due to the army’s network sending a completely blank javascript to the user’s computer. It happens a couple of time and is probably caused by some security settings that they applied.

My friend came in and played around with the commander’s commander and identify the problem as an Internet Explorer problem. I told him it’s not and he insisted that it really is.

Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer

Generally true. But if you hold the latest Internet Explorer, it is quite secure too. The commander’s computer does not have the latest version of Internet Explorer and Windows updates.

Firefox automatically corrects Javascript mistakes

He pointed out that Firefox can fix the Javascript errors found in Internet Explorer as it is more intelligent and is able to correct the web developer’s mistake. I then told him the web developer didn’t make any mistake because the commander can access the web page through his home computer. He insisted on installing his Firefox. He then launch Firefox and told the commander that there is no Javascript errors. I told him, Firefox is likely to have hidden the errors as it is not helpful to the end user. He insisted that Firefox fixed the web site.

There are more people using Firefox now

And the commander asked him why install Firefox. He tells the commander that more people are using Firefox so website work better with them. Er… Did his twelve-year-old brother tell him that? As far as I know, Internet Explorer is still the browser more people use.

Firefox comes bundled with Javascripts so you don’t have to download them

He then suggest that the web developer didn’t do a good job and he says Firefox has some Javascripts that comes preinstalled so Firefox don’t have to download additional Javascript. Oh my god, what the fuck is he smoking?!

And so I left the room

“Sorry sir, please excuse me, I need to attend to some work. Maybe it’s better to view this website from your home computer.” I left, quite pissed. Firefox browser didn’t make that web page work too. He doesn’t even listen to my explanation. I load up Firefox browser and go to the same web site in another room. It seems that whatever browsers I am using, I am receiving empty Javascript files. If you want to promote the Firefox browser, please don’t feed false information because I’ll be damn pissed if I hear it. I use the Opera browser and I am happy with what I am using, do not recommend me another browser, thank you. I believe in sticking with whatever browser interface you are comfortable with so long as you own the latest version.

[On a side note, take a look at this strange Microsoft article - The words "Friendster," "Klum," "Nazr," "Obama," and "Racicot" are not recognized when you check the spelling of English-language text in the Office 2003 programs.]

Watch how much Web 2.0 has actually evolved. Long ago, there was only simple hyperlinks done with HTML. Today, web designers embrace CSS, AJAX, XML and more.

Web 2.0… The Machine is Using Us

“Web 2.0″ in just under 5 minutes.

I considered releasing it as an “eternal beta” in true Web 2.0 style, but decided to let it stand as is and start working on future projects. Many of my future videos will address the last 30 seconds of this video (the “rethink …” part).

The video was created by me (Michael Wesch), working alone from my house in St. George, Kansas. I used CamStudio for the screen captures and Sony Vegas for the panning/cropping/zooming animations. Someday I might make a video tutorial for those who are interested.

It’s just something that made me feel inspired.

I’ve got so much YouTube videos to post! I am afraid I might just flood the whole blog with videos I wish to share. Now I’m “time-capsuling” it to release for further dates.

YouTube videos are by far the easiest way to fill up your blog and it’s fun too. And thanks to the use of flash movie, little code maintenence is required on my part.

My only wish is that the code can be shorter. I wish it would be even neater. Today the code is posted this way

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/whatever"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/whatever" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

As you can see, it’s pretty messy due to browser compatibility and web standards.

If only it can be something like this:

<code><object type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/whatever” rel=”wmode-transparent” width=”425″ height=”350″ /></code>

Well… Just an opinion.

Come on, show some love okay? Even if it’s your rival.

_(IE team congratulates Firefox team for shipping Firefox.)_

So far, no Firefox employee has had a tummy upset and no cockroach found too.

[via Fredericiana]

I’m quite disappointed today. My graphics card’s VGA feature didn’t seem to work anymore. Now while editing this blog post, everything looks so different for me.

At first I thought it’s my BenQ monitor that went wrong. I plugged the monitor into the lap top and everything looked fine. I am able to extend the laptop desktop to the monitor. So it means the culprit is probably my graphics card.

(My graphics card VGA feature works no more. Now I use DVI.)

I used to run my display setting at 1280 x 768. I am one of those few people who uses this screen resolution. Now I use DVI instead of VGA. And I can’t set to that resolution! Presumably, my graphics card probably doesn’t support that resolution for DVI. It’s a horror!

Now I run my screen resolution at 1440 x 900 which makes my text quite small. Most web pages don’t support resolutions like this. Even my blog is set to favor people using 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768.

So I zoom the text with Opera to 120%. It doesn’t look right. The borders are 2 pixels instead of 1 sometimes. There are problems with the kerning of the text too. I see several underlining faults. These minor errors degrades my internet browsing experience. Sighs…

Maybe I’ll try Firefox or Internet Explorer 7 next week or something.

Microsoft just released the beta version of Windows Internet Explorer 7 (previous known as Microsoft Internet Explorer). It’s Beta 2. I decided to give it a try since my Internet Explorer 6 is giving me so much crash problem. I don’t really bother that it would crash in Windows Internet Explorer 7 (WIE7 I suppose).

(The new Windows Internet Explorer 7. Click to see larger image.)

Indeed, WIE7 crashes lesser. At least it didn’t crash at the moment I read my web mail. In a way, WIE7 seems better. Unfortunately, my WIE7 is plagued with a horrible bug.

(Oh no, the Dial-up connection dialog box just keeps popping up!)

Everytime I surf the internet, the ‘Dial-up Connection’ dialog box just keeps popping up. Sure, it would auto reconnect. But it gets annoying. It just reconnects about 2 times or so each time I load something. And when loading Windows Live Messenger 8, it reconnects up to 10 times.

When it reconnects, the application focus shifts to the ‘Dial-up Connection’ dialog box and it disturbs you when you’re typing in another application.

As far as I checked, very few of them had this problem with Windows Internet Explorer. But it doesn’t stop me from wonder - how the hell do I solve this problem?! I did not see any possible solutions for it at the moment.

If you want to give a try to Windows Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview, you can download it here. It is free to try. You just need to be using a valid copy of Microsoft Windows XP. I am not sure about language-wise. I think you may need the English copy of Windows XP to test out this beta version.

If you do have the same problem and has some leads as to how to solve it, do comment. I love to solve that problem too. Asides this pesky bug, Windows Internet Explorer 7 is a fine browser and is up to standard to fight with Mozilla Firefox already. I love competitions.

*Flock Developer Preview is now available. Our code couldn’t wait any longer to be free!*

But! This preview ain’t for the faint of heart! If you’re the bleeding-edge type and don’t mind a few scrapes and busted knees from time to time, feel free to give it a whirl.

We’ve got interesting ideas in this thing. We want to know what we’ve done right how we could improve. And we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us!

So if a bucket of source code and developer binaries sound enticing, head over to our Developer page now.

Source: Flock

You guys can check out a new browser called Flock. It’s based on Mozilla Firefox and I think it’s actually better than Firefox. It has a more Internet Explorer feel to it. It does look Mac-ish too. Maybe you guys can check that out. Download Flock Developer Preview directly.

I am most excited to try the blogging tool in Flock, unfortunately it didn’t work as I wanted. It’s kinda screwed up support.