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Please note: Older issues may contain information that is now out of date. How To Subscribe
and Unsubscribe is at the end of this note. Mailing List Trouble? See http://www.langa.com/help.txt Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000 !) An easier-to
read formatted HTML version of this newsletter is available on line at The LangaList 2000-11-16 A Free Email
Newsletter from Fred
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Finally, after almost three years in
the oven, Mozilla 5/Netscape 6 is out of beta and available for download at http://home.netscape.com/download/
. We've discussed N6 a number of times
in previous issues (see http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=netscape+6&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000
); I'll be downloading a copy of the released version as soon as the servers
clear enough to let me in. The extreme delay in shipping the
browser may mean this is Netscape's last chance to be a dominant player in the
browser wars. If they got N6 right, and the browser really is the smallest,
fastest, most-compliant browser out there, then maybe Netscape can get back in
the race. But if it's buggy or falls short in important areas, then the
computing community may give up what hope remains for this browser. AOL' s involvement is a complicating
matter. Because of a deal it struck with Microsoft, AOL uses a modified (some
might say "degraded") version of Internet Explorer as its default
browser; in return, AOL gets its setup software shipped with every copy of
Microsoft Windows. If AOL terminates its deal with Microsoft, AOL could make
Netscape its default browser and force-feed it to all AOL users, perhaps as one
of those involuntary software updates AOL users suffer through. AOL's membership
size would make Netscape an instant force in the browser market--- but at the
cost of AOL losing its association with Windows. It will be interesting to see how
this all plays out. In fact, it's *already* having an effect, as several other
browser-related items in this issue will show. Click to
email this item to a friend Standards are a funny thing:
In one way, they're enormously important because they allow products from
different vendors to work together. Although the issues of browser standards
compliance may seem arcane, it's really no different than issues with other,
more obvious standards: For example, almost all consumer
appliances in the US are made to work on 110V/60Hz electrical current. You can
buy appliances from any vendor, plug them in and they'll work. That shows the
power of standards at their best. But it's easy to overestimate the
power of standards. For example, appliances made for the UK are designed for
220V/50Hz electrical current and won't work in the US (nor will US-standard
appliances work in the UK) without some kind of converter. But even those two primary
electrical standards aren't entirely, er, standard: tolerances and local
conformance varies, such as with the funky hybrid 127V/50Hz "standard"
used in some Caribbean countries. And areas where the voltage and frequency are
entirely standard still may use plug shapes and types that appear to be designed
by Klingons, to the eternal confusion of international travelers. Worse, standards can be an
impediment to progress, in part because standards-setting bodies work very
slowly, and in part because innovation--- which involves doing things
differently--- is the antithesis of standardization. To continue in the vein
above, imagine what your nights would look like now if, a century ago, the
then-prevailing gaslight standard had prevented the adoption of electrical
lighting. So, while standards compliance is a
very good thing, it's not the only thing. That's one of the reasons why, several
issues ago, when speaking of browser standards, I said "I urge you NOT to
buy into anyone's chest-thumping. Ideally, you should make up your own mind by
actually testing the software for yourself, and seeing what fits your needs
best. Whatever is that "best fit" software is the right choice for
you, no matter what any pundit--- including me!--- says." In that recent issue (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-11-09.htm#3
) we also spoke about how Netscape had made a huge issue about N6's standards
compliance, and yet the beta version of the browser was noncompliant in some
areas. At the end of that discussion I said, "Of the shipping major
browsers, IE5.x supports more W3C standards than any other browser." Now that N6 has shipped, we'll have
to re-evaluate that. But even so, my comment brought several interesting emails,
two of which appear below. Click to
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Writing from Ontario, Canada,
"Jules" said: Fred: I take issue with
your statement that IE is the most compliant browser... If you were trying to
say that IE is more compliant than Netscape 4.x, I certainly agree but I use
Opera 3.62 (the current version is 4.02 which I have not yet downloaded or
purchased) and I find that I can do more with Opera with respect to tags and CSS
than I can with the other two browsers. Furthermore, Opera 4 is to be more
compliant than 3.6, and the new Linux browser, Konqueror, is to be fully
compliant with HTML 4 and CSS1, etc. No slight to Opera intended. But I
specifically referred to "the shipping major browsers." According to
BrowserWatch (a browser-tracking site), Opera has about a 1% usage rate, and
Konqueror is at about 0.27% (27/100th of one percent). They're out there,
but not yet as major players. Please note that BrowserWatch isn't
the final word on what browsers are in use (it may over- or understate some
browsers), but it does at least give an indication of the shape of the market.
See http://browserwatch.internet.com/stats.html Click to
email this item to a friend My comments on the N6 beta's
compliance issues also brought an email from Eric Krock, who is the Group
Product Manager for Tools and Components at Netscape. I absolutely share your
desire to see browsers comply with standards. That's why I've been working so
hard for the last 18 months as the Gecko Product Manager to make sure that
Netscape 6 will be the most standards-compliant browser ever released. I'm happy
to report that independent analysts conclude that we've succeeded. Netscape 6.0
will be hands-down the most standards-compliant browser ever released. It will
support more web standards, more deeply, more consistently, across more
platforms than any other browser available. In particular, it will have better
standards compliance than any version of IE or Opera. But we're not going to stop
there! We're going to keep making the standards compliance of Netscape Gecko and
Netscape 6 better and better over time. I'd encourage you and your readers to
join us in testing Mozilla, filing bugs at http://bugzilla.mozilla.org
, and participating in the Bugathon at http://www.mozilla.org/newlayout/bugathon.html
to help simplify bugs down to test cases so they can be fixed as soon as
possible. Also, please encourage your
readers to check our list of pointers at http://sites.netscape.net/ekrock/standards.html
to make sure that their *web sites* are standards-compliant and ready for the
coming generation of standards-compliant browsers (like Netscape 6) and
appliances (like the AOL Gateway browsing appliance) that will be based on
Netscape Gecko. Browsers need to support standards--and so do web sites! Further references on the
topic of standards compliance Netscape Standards
Challenge My public essays on
"zero bugs" vs. time to market Many thanks for your work
for standards compliance! Click to
email this item to a friend I'm sure it's no coincidence that
Microsoft has also just now released SP1 for IE 5.5. It's available at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/ie55sp1.htm
and via Windows Update. Microsoft says: The newest version of
Internet Explorer includes improved support for DHTML and CSS, which gives Web
architects greater control over browser appearance and behavior. Enjoy the
ability to preview Web pages exactly as they will appear when printed. Internet
Explorer 5.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) makes it easier than ever to connect to the
Internet and find the information you need. With Internet Explorer 5.5 SP1, you
can use Connection Manager as your default dialer when Dial-Up Networking is
already installed. I'll be testing SP1 alongside N6
over the next few days and weeks. If you do likewise, please share any
interesting findings with us all! Click to
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Several readers--- Leslie Smith was
first--- wrote in about an item called "WindowsME Resurrects
Viruses/Worms/Etc.?" in a recent issue (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2000/2000-11-09.htm#5
) in which "System Restore" kept reinstalling a virus a reader was
trying to eradicate. Leslie suggested an easy workaround for that problem, and
also offered other tips on managing the System Restore function: In the 11-9-2000 edition, a
reader wrote in saying that WinME had added a virus to his System Restore
archives and was in danger of reinfecting his computer. Microsoft may need to
tweak System Restore a little more, but the very fact that it doesn't try to
pick and choose what to save, instead saving everything system related, is
actually a plus. (Imagine WinME scanning your registry every time you booted up
and deciding what it and not you considered important.) His solution was to
completely overwrite his WinME install with a fresh one. Bad idea and time
consuming too. A quicker way would be the following 1. Go into the Control
Panel and click on the System Applet. The Restore folder is now
completely flushed out on reboot. (On my system its reduced to about 10kb with
no System saves. And no place at all for viruses to hide. I've experimented.)
Alternatively, if you find that your Restore folder is starting to bloat (It
will use any space you give it.) but you want to keep your last System Restore
files, just go back into the System applet and then back to the File System
button. Look underneath the Read Ahead Optimization slider and move the System
Restore Space Use slider all the way down to the bottom. Your hard drive should
now start thrashing like mad if your Restore folder has gotten huge. Now put the
slider all the way to the top and close the applet. Only the most recent files
(and System saves.) will be in your Restore folder. A handy trick before that
defragmentation or thorough Scandisk session. But wait! I'm not finished
with the Restore folder yet. If you find that you're getting bogged down by
frequent disk access from the automatic System Restore saves or have limited
disk space you can obviously turn off the System Restore altogether. Just be
careful though because when its off completely, so is Fusion. What's that you
ask? Fusion is a little talked about system Microsoft first started adding in
small chunks way back in Windows 95. Its job is to try to not overwrite older
versions of files on top of new ones. Now you might have heard that this is a
big feature in WinME and its one of my favorites. But no one tells you that its
tied directly into System Restore. (If System Restore is completely off you'll
still get warnings if you try if install an older driver on top of a newer one,
but your DLLs, .COMs, etc., won't be protected anymore.) A better way if you
dislike the frequent disk access of System Restore is to just turn down the
System Restore Space Usage as mentioned above and things will quiet down a lot. Thanks Leslie--- and all who wrote
in! Click to
email this item to a friend If you think the
LangaList is a worthwhile read, just use the following link to recommend the
LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful
information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win $10,000 for
your trouble (full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1 Or, win a copy of
"Poor Richard's E-Mail Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Bulletins,
Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communications Tools." This book has
been described as "An excellent, straightforward manual on email
publishing, banner ads, driving traffic and especially ethics." (Full
details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 Either way, thank you,
and good luck! Click to
email this item to a friend They Just Keep Coming
And Coming and Coming... View A Randomly-Chosen
Reader Site United States Search and
Rescue Task Force SeptemberHouse Free Information Library QuickLinks Peter Dunn Ancient Epidavros Greece HomePage of Shameless
Self-Indulgence Suzanne's World Home Page From Carlsbad, CA POCB Scituate Harbor Online Click to
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More and more people now have more
than one PC at home, and almost all offices of any size have multiple PCs.
Reader Jordan Freedman asked an increasingly-common question: Fred, Maybe you would point me in
the right direction. I'm looking to build a small network at home between
WIN98SE, WIN95C and NT4 SP4 server. I would like to put a cable modem on the
line. What type of additional software, hardware and other considerations must I
consider? Thanks for a great newsletter. Building a small network requires no
deep-geek rocket science, but it does involve a number of small steps that must
be done right for the whole thing to work. It's the sort of task that, while not
hard, can be somewhat exacting and tedious. I've written several columns on some
of the issues involved: http://content.techweb.com/winmag//library/1999/0602/bui0006.htm This site has good "getting
started" info, especially on software issues: This also is a good place to start,
especially on the hardware issues (such as cabling): <curmudgeon mode on> I was
glad to see that the author of that last tutorial is--- as am I--- a fan of
simple, cheap, hubless coax networks for small-scale LANs where all you're doing
is stringing a few PCs together. Alas, these nets are out of fashion, and the
more common approach these days for nets of any size is to use phone-style
cabling and a "hub." I know the advantages of this approach, but for
small networks doing limited file- and print-sharing, or sharing an Internet
connection that's almost surely gated or throttled to 10Mb/s or less, nothing's
cheaper or faster than a small coax-based network. But I know I'm in the
minority in holding that view. </curmudgeon mode off> In any case, if you're looking to
build a small LAN, the links above will get you going. Click to
email this item to a friend There are several versions of this
going around, so I combined some of the elements from one sent by Jonathan Sturm
with another sent by Bruce Davis: NOTICE TO AMERICANS OF
REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE To the citizens of the
United States of America: In the light of your failure to elect a President of
the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation
of your independence, effective today. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II will resume monarchial duties over all states, commonwealths and
other territories. Except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new prime minister
(The rt. hon. Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been
unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a minister for
America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be
disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any
of you noticed. To aid in the transition to
a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate
effect 1. You should look up
"revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium".
Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have
been pronouncing it. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable
levels. Look up "vocabulary". Using the same twenty seven words
interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you
know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up
interspersed". 2. There is no such thing
as "US English". We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. 3. Arrest Mel Gibson for
treason. 4. You should relearn your
original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully
carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way
through. 5. You should stop playing
American "football". There is only one kind of football. What you
refer to as American "football" is not a very good game. The 2.15% of
you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed
that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be
allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would
be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave
enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American
"football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty
seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies). We are hoping to get
together at least a US rugby sevens side by 2005. 6. Stop referring to the
"World Series" of Baseball and instead call it the "USA, Cuba and
Japan Championship" 7. Learn to enjoy warm flat
beer and steak and kidney pudding. Train waitresses to be more aggressive with
customers and not to tell you their names before you eat. 8. July 4th is no longer a
public holiday. November 8th will be a new national holiday, but only in
England. It will be called "Indecisive Day". 9. Driving on the
left is now compulsory - recall all cars to effect the change immediately. 10. Please tell us who
killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy. Click to
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See you next issue! Best, Please recommend
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