Browser Requirements

For the whole site

• If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer 3+
  • You might be delayed 30 seconds (28.8) for the automatic download of the 60K ActiveX control for my popup menu on your first visit. The default install has everything else you need:-)
  • If you did a IE3 minimum install on or did not install the HTML Layout Control you will need it to play “16 Golden Questions” (see below.)
• If you use Netscam
  • Use it to download Microsoft Internet Explorer.
  • Netscam does not support table border colors nor the marquee tag. In fact, it does not do a lot, but it does have one killer feature — this blink is for you!!!
• If you use AOL
  • You must have AOL 95 to use all of the site — KEYWORD UPGRADE.
  • The Win 3.x version is due soon. Look at the table below to see if you are using the latest AOL browser. If not, go to KEYWORD IEBROWSER. This browser will let you see colored tables and animated GIFs as well as other things you have been missing. However, until the final version is out you will not be able to play the 16 Golden Questions game or use the pace calculator. For these you must be using Windows 95 and AOL 95.

    Older versions of the AOL browser will NOT display a black cell below

    If you can read this, you do not have the latest browser for AOL

16 Golden Questions Game

• If you use Microsoft Internet Explorer 4+
  • The default install should have everything you need:-)
  • If you did an IE4 minimum install or did not install the HTML Layout Control, the automatic download will take about 6 minutes at 28.8.
• If you use Netscam
  • Use it to download Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• If you use AOL
  • You must have AOL 95 — KEYWORD UPGRADE.

Return to 16 Golden Questions

Matt, you seem to leave Netscape users hanging, what is up with that?

Let me start by saying that it is not as much the browser that I dislike as it is the company. I actually read on the Netscape website that we should buy and use their browser because it is not a Microsoft product! The concept that “Microsoft is the antichrist” running throughout the industry just turns me off! I base my purchases, or downloads, on rather or not I like the product, not who makes it. I think that Netscape should do less whining to the justice department and spend more time working on their product. It is awful hypocritical for the company that got their market share by giving their product away to complain that Microsoft is being unfair by giving it’s product away. Also, why is it that when Netscape had a 90% browser market share it was OK to “bundle/tie/integrate” an e-mail program with a browser yet claim that Microsoft should not be able to “bundle/tie/integrate” a browser with the operating system?

That being said, the NS browser IMHO, does not compare well to the IE browser. I spend a good deal of time using NS4 at the school where I volunteer so I feel I have a valid opinion compared to a NSer who bashes IE4 but has never used it!

• I live by favorite places (bookmarks to the NSer) and the NS system stinks! All favorite places get stored in one drop down list:-( Yes, you can manually create folders and move the links into those folders, but this is stupid. When you find a new link, it can’t be put into the new folder. Instead it gets thrown into the main drop down list where you have to manually move it again... Crazy! Compare this with the IE method where not only can you create folders on the fly, you can save the links in any folder as well! You can also rename the link anything you want while it is still fresh in your mind.

• The way I learned most of my HTML, DHTML, VBscript and JavaScipt is to look at other people’s code. Using the “view source” feature of Internet Explorer has taught me more than most of the books I have read. What is that you say? NS has the “view source” command! True but the simple fact is NS does not show you the real source code — it shows you “pseudo” code. An example:

  That line was compliments of a simple JavaScript that checks what browser you are using and writes it down for you. If you use “view source” in NS this is what you will see:
  

  <FONT FACE='Arial, Helvetica' SIZE=2><B>You are using Netscape.</B></FONT>

  If you use “view source” in IE this is what you will see:

  <SCRIPT language="JavaScript">
     <!--
     document.writeln("<FONT FACE='Arial, Helvetica' SIZE=2><B>You are
     using " + navigator.appName + ".</B></FONT>");
     //-->
  </SCRIPT>

  You tell me which one will help you learn how to code!

• I like the user interface better on IE. Screen real estate is one area NS can’t touch! While NS4 did copy IE3 with the easy to hide bars, they did not copy the best part — being able to drag them side by side to take up even less room! Even better, IE4’s new full screen mode leaves nothing (NOTHING) on the screen except the web page you are viewing! Move the mouse to the top of the screen and down drops the navigation bar so you can continue on. I like all of the functions that can be accomplished with a right click of the button. I was glad to see that NS4 finally brought the “view source” option to the mouse. I live by that one even though NS’s “view source” should be called “view what we think you should see” — see above!

• The search bar is another cool feature. Do an Alta Vista (or whatever) search in NS and you get a list of results. You select a result look and if it is not what you want you go back. Back and forth, back and forth. If you dig too deep on the pages you then end up doing who knows how many “backs” to get to your search! In IE it keeps the results in the left search bar so you can fly down them and see the stuff in the main screen on the right. No back and forth, no lost searches! This is the same thing for the History files too. You can have all the places you have visited on one side and see them on the other.

• I feel the ActiveX control is far superior to the Java applet. The key here is how ActiveX works compared to a Java applet. Once you accept an ActiveX control it is part of your system! If you came to my site using IE and accepted the PopUp Menu control (if, in fact, you did not already have it) you have that control for all the sites that use it. You never have to download it again unless it is updated and then it updated automatically! Net effect, ActiveX is a one-time download no matter who’s site you visit — it is VERY efficient. A Java applet is just cached so it is doomed to be downloaded again and again. In fact, even if you do NOT purge your cache, every time you go to a different site, even if it has the SAME Java applet, the Java applet is going to get re-downloaded! Because some people keep their cache setting fairly low, they can surf for a couple of hours and go back to the SAME site and have to download the SAME Java applet again! Net effect, Java applets are not efficient. If you go to six sites with the ever popular 35k ticker applet, you get to wait a total of 3 minutes (28.8) to have six copies of the thing on your hard drive:-(

  Identification and security are two other areas where ActiveX and Java applets depart in approach. Only with ActiveX does the user get to make an educated choice! I do not accept unsigned ActiveX controls! If a control has a certificate but I am unfamiliar with the author, I click on the link to learn about the author and the control and then I might accept it. Because the certificate also tells me what the control is going to do, I might not accept the control even if it is from MS just because I might not need that function! Further, if a signed control does not work, we now have a means to let the author know about the problem. While in THEORY Java applets are safe because they are restricted to the “sandbox,” you still never know what you are getting or who wrote it. Do NOT confuse this with getting an applet warning if you set your security on high. You still must trust that the applet is going to do something good and you still do not know what that good is or who wrote it. An applet warning is like coming to a street and seeing the asphalt but not being allowed to look for traffic. An ActiveX certificate is like getting to look both ways as well as having the destination and license plate number of each vehicle you see.