Freelance Software Developer, C/C++, VB, C#, VB.NET, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, Internet Sites & WEB programming
Update your browser!
You are using such an old version, such an antique item Microsoft Internet Explorer, that is a wonderful thing if you can read this page. How did you get this browser on your PC? Using a time machine?
Update your browser!
You are using an outdated version of Microsof Internet Explorer, that is to say, as old as old can be. Your Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6, that you are using to reading this page, is no longer supported by Microsoft itself. If you want to insist hurting yourself by using Microsoft, at least upgrade to the latest version available.
Or better yet, change your browser.
Update your browser!
You are you using an old-fashioned internet browser. Your Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7 (beware, it could be version 8, please read below), making you able to read this text, is not the latest, and has many serious and well-known problems, both with W3C standard compliance (Micrososoft is not the standard, no sir), and with safety. If you want to insist hurting yourself by using Microsoft, at least upgrade to the latest version available.
Or better yet, change your browser.
Warning: If you are using MSIE 8 and can read this text, it is a bit complicated (but if it were simple, it would not be Microsoft). As MSIE 7 was a piece of junk filled with bugs and errors and compliance problems (even Microsoft is aware of this), web developers were forced to provide different features in their pages for the darn MSIE version 7. It happened that version 8 of the same browser corrected some of these errors (introducing other, different errors, of course).
Therefore, Microsoft has introduced a compatibility mode, activated by a button with a picture of a torn sheet of paper (if you want to see torn balls, that's okay, and a better fit), just left of the address bar (note: this button is not always visible). If you are using MSIE 8 and are reading this text, it means that this site is listed for display compatibility (the expression is not mine, it comes from those geniuses working in Redmond). Disable this option, and the site will be managed as it should be when viewed by MSIE 8 that functions as 8, not as 7 (which is not true then, because it works in an intermediate way).
After reading this, do you insist on using Microsof Internet Explorer? Well, clear and indisputable example of masochism. You've been warned, take care.
Why you should not use Microsoft Internet Explorer
Actually, nobody should never use it. Actually, it should be banned by international law. Of all the crap Microsoft has made and makes, Internet Explorer, or MSIE, is probably one of the worst. It is too bad because the user, ie, you, does not realize the ugliness of the product.
First, MSIE is dangerous to the safety of your PC: it seems that in Redmond a bunch of clumsy amateurs are at work, and, judging by the results of their work, totally incompetent, starting from the big boss Bill Gates, who is great at making money, but then nothing else: bullshit, hazardous assertions, broken forecasts; and even the money he was able to make, was made with debatable systems, to say the least, there are books on the subject. That MSIE is dangerous is a fact, to the point that the federal government of Germany warned its emploiees not to use it at all for office work.
We need to dispel some myths, that Microsoft created, or let them grow:
- Microsoft DID NOT create information science or information technology
- Bill Gates DID NOT invent the personal computer: the first thing that one could call this way was an Amiga, and just after the Apple MacIntosh came. IBM created a PC in competition with the Apple, and they would surely succeed, if they would not have the unfortunate idea to adopt the Bill Gates' operating system, who, very properly, began to distributed his OS to any competitor of IBM, provided they pay.
- Internet existed when Bill Gates was pretending to write programs in a cellar, and his mother provided him billionaire contracts by her "friendships" within IBM. Of the nature of such friendship, you may thing what you want.
- Internet WAS NOT created by Microsoft: it is the development of ARPANET, a US military network, it is an open structure, independant, and ruled by an independant international committe, named W3C.
It is the W3C, among other things, defining the rules to write web pages, and how a browser should read and render them. A web page contains text, images, references, and instructions to render those elements. This text, for example, is boxed, has a font size and color, and the box size and face are well defined.
Well, Microsoft does not care a bit of the W3C. For years, Microsoft attempted, and still attempts, to establish and enforce its rules, making power of its dominant position. This forces the authors of web pages to a double effort: the page must work according to the standard, of course; and, it has also to work with the darn MSIE bullshit self calling browsers. And the great thing is that every version of MSIE changes its rendering. MSIE 5 works very differently from the 6, which works differently from 7 and 8. And then there is the great news, that version 8 can be configured to operate like the 7, but this is not entirely true, because it works a bit so and a little the other way, and then some.
If MSIE did not exist, the web pages would cost half or even one third. In fact, if to write a page takes, say, one day, to render it correctly, or at least acceptably, on all versions of MSIE still in use, it takes two more. And it is not always successful.
For all these reasons, and many more, you should install and use a browser other than Microsoft Internet Explorer. Any one. Because nothing can be worse than Microsoft.
A very short list of some of the most popular browsers follows. There are many more.
Firefox
So far, my favorite browser, and certainly one of the most popular, if not the most popular after MSIE. It is considered fully W3C compliant, however, this is incorrect, in some details it is passed by Opera.
When installing Firefox, you can import bookmarks, cookies and much more, from MSIE: very handy.
The one drawback, is the needing to install by hand most of the plugins, including Flash Player, which runs so many sites now. Not a big problem, when Firefox needs a plugin it usually can point you to the proper download site.
Opera
I installed Opera to test sites, and I'm liking it more and more. It starts very quickly, it is definitely W3C compliant (and this is the reason why I use it for testing sites), although some Firefox graphic effects are nicer. It leaves much room on the page, avoiding extraneous and unnecessary tool and status bars.
Unlike Firefox, I had not to install the Flash Player. But this could be because I have installed Opera on computers where it was already installed Firefox with all the required plugins already installled.
Google Chrome
I do not know it very well, I am using it only for testing pourposes. From the user point of view it does not seem very different from Opera. However, the graphic rendering looks better to me.
W3C compliance is very good
