MS Claims Fried Rubber Eggs

From the Microsoft Typography site's WEFT 3 Overview page:

Font support in Web pages

Microsoft pioneered font support in Web pages by including support for the FONT FACE tag in the very first version of Internet Explorer released in 1995.

Ha! That's hilarious.

Analogy for those non-web-developerish-minded: it's like all the dorky Microsoft kids put on their starched blue chef's caps and cooked up a big batch of rubbery fried eggs. No one will want them, but that doesn't stop the boys bouncing them around the office in delight as they gibber financial algorithms to each other wildly and plant dry, dry kisses on each other, claiming this new breed of inedible googlies are the next best things since sliced bread (and no, not just because they can be used as sliced bread) and that they, the creators, the MicroSoftMarvellous, will never be matched for originality and innovation.

Ten years on and the pile of rubber fried eggs is... well, still a pile of rubber fried eggs, rubber having particular age-resistant (and if it's MS-manufactured, use-resistant) qualities. Yet visit http://www.MS.com/rubberfriedeggs/history.aspx and you can still read up on the heady days of MS RFE's conception. See a grinning Gates shaking hands with a bespectacled, nervous-looking guy holding up a signed copy of MS RFE 3.1, circa 1884. (The caption's smudged... that may be a '9'.)

Heh. ;-)

Enough of my never-ending anti-Billy daydreams for today, much work to be done! Busy finishing off the backend to a site I'm developing for a local - sorry - THE local hotspot, thevineyard.com.au, plus Juxt have sent through some testing, five hours total for two separate projects, and my dog is clambering to be taken for a(nother) walk. (Spent an hour lying in Catani Gardens this morning, soaking up the sun and wishing that Magnus wasn't quite so ball-mad. Heavenly.)

And as per usual, I'm over-budget already on the first job above, actually halved my quote for them as (1) the owner has been a friend for about twelve years, and (2) it's a high-profile job. It's also a small job, and still a relatively good price. One can't whinge too much when one can say 'Stuff work!' and spend all day at the beach whenever one wants, can one?

Ciao for now, mon chers et ma cheries
xx

Microsoft and Sun to take on Linux?

Microsoft is paying its debts, and polishing its boots in order to take on major rival Linux. In fact, they're allying up with Sun, also Linux-phobic, and in the process saving Sun's ass from the burn of Unix.

So says C. Marc Wagner in this interesting article discussing possible tactics behind recent Redmond moves.

Busy but Hungry

So much going on at the moment... working on some new stuff, refreshing some old stuff, learning a heap of good stuff... and there is just so much more that slips right on by.

Firefox is still powering on full steam ahead, with no movement at all from Redmond in defense, making me think Gates has already given up on IE, realising that it's a dead, rotting carcas of a browser not worth anyone's time.

(Dreaming again.)

There is talk that Google are making a browser based on either Firefox and/or Gecko core code (both from Mozilla), And you see, that is one of the beautiful things about Mozilla -- it's all open-source, which fosters innovation, invention and collaboration. MS likes to pretend to be a team-player, but it's not, ohhhhhh man is it not. (Anyone remember Communicator?)

XUL is beautiful.

I had a heap to say two hours ago when I started this, but now, 3 coffees, innumerable quickly-scanned web pages and an uncomfortable backside later, I really need to get some work done...

(Has anyone invented a Time Reversal Machine yet?)

Go, Go, GO Firefox!

The best online source for browser usage stats today is showing that of their five quite diverse sources, the highest percentage reached by IE6 is just 79%. Seventy-nine!! That's down from almost 95% at the start of this year. And the reporting site itself, the fifth of the five sources, is seeing only 45% of users with the accursed browser. Hee hee!!

The Firefox marketing campaigns are working, people are starting to really get it, and the world is looking more and more beautiful every day.

My prediction is that Microsoft will be but a memory in thirty years... have I said that here already? They've got so many baskets, with so many eggs, but they aren't actually dominating in any of them. Sorry - except perhaps with Office, but even that is coming to the point now (surely!) at which development potential is limited, and improvements more and more tend to be merely cosmetic.

The silly old boys at Redmond did come up with a solution (and a good one, so they thought) in charging the earth every year for use of said software... however, they are silly, these old boys, and their idea -- as with all things Microsoftish -- came far too late.

So where do they go from here? They can keep buying up innovative companies and good ideas, but the problem is the fact that there is a dominant player in every market Microsoft has attempted to enter, and each with a product preferred by the public to the Redmond offering.

The most popular web server has always been Apache, with IIS claiming only 20-30% of that market. MS is trying to tout Windows Server 2003 as an application server, with SharePoint linking seamlessly into Office (of course), but who are they kidding? With IBM's WebsShere, BEA's WebLogic, JBoss, JRun, Sun Java Server, Oracle, Sybase, Zope and ColdFusion just some of the major names playing on that field, Microsoft is really just sitting on the sidelines.

And then there's the Playstation. Playstation rocks my world. Does anyone actually own an Xbox? I mean, anyone who doesn't also own a Playstation?

Give up Gatesy. We've got it covered!

Idiocy

After sporadic days of anguish spent on the previously mentioned Recent Docs list problem, I just did a quick Google for "windows MRU list missing" and found a MS KB article about the very thing.

Turns out it's a TweakUI setting. "Add document to Start Menu", which I'd turned off as I don't really use the Start Menu.

Duh.

Office Plays Bad

My "recent documents" list -- the ones that appear at the top of the Task Pane in MS Office apps -- has gone. Been a couple of weeks now, but today I (yet again, and yet again fruitlessly it seems) attempted to fix out the problem.

Went to Tools > Options > General... and the "Number of recent docs to keep..." option is actually greyed out now.

Why? Why? Why?

Spent the best part of today squinting through trillions of menu options, reinstalling, uninstalling, fresh installing, repairing, searching... going batty, basically. What on earth has caused this?!

Plurry Windows. Dying to get a shiny new G5 iMac... yum.

Be Wary of the Google Desktop

I know, I know, it's been ages. My apologies, and thanks for still reading, huh! Life has thrown me a series of curve-balls this year, as they say, and while I'm plodding on, some things have lapsed a little. However, I will always be back when there's something important to say!

And on that note: to today's entry. Franci Penov, (an MSDN developer, it must be noted, and quite possibly one of those working on MS's own, rival, "soon-to-be-released" version of Google's Desktop search) has prepared a fantastic list of reasons to worry about Google Desktop.

In brief -- it's doing things it shouldn't, and if you ask it to stop, it won't. Read the article for the rest, well worth a few minutes of your time.

And if you're in Melbourne tomorrow afternoon, come down to the St Kilda/Port Melbourne beach -- the dog beach at the end of Catani Gardens, specifically -- and look out for myself (in orange bikini) and my Jack X Foxie pooch, Magnus, and let us know what you think!

New Zealand News - Technology - Kiwi leads effort to build a better browser

Ben Goodger is a star. This NZ native's name has been intertwined with Firefox's since its inception. And now, as he leads his small team -- and the rest of the switched-on web -- on to the much-anticipated IE-trouncing victory, his name is not likely to go away either.

Go you good thing!

Art and Flash

I've just come across two interesting Flash sites showcasing artists' work.

The first, Ron Berg Photography, is essentially a simple yet clever gallery site for this distinguished photographer. The design makes use of vertical scrolling, strange for a Flash site, however it works well, with the words taking second place, and second space, to the gorgeous pictures.

Other clever Flash elements are incorporated without fanfare -- as it should be -- each fitting perfectly in its context. The site design and interface as a whole has a smooth, clean feel to it, and the copy gives it all quite a character: he's a photographer, so "just look at the pretty pictures man". Love it.

The second site is Encore Magazine, one of three online mag's from MagWerk, a German design house, sponsored by heavyweights Sony and Diesel. An extremely cool "art and design"-focussed offering, the interface comprises a magazine lying open on grass, with birds merrily chirping in the background, as you may find on a lazy summer's day. Pages of the mag house the site content, and a subtle bottom navigation bar allows the reader to move around within it.

The content here is excellent, featuring cutting-edge and upcoming artists from various media in a magazine-style layout enhanced with Flash for animation, interactivity and interest. The future of magazines? Possibly -- this would surely be cheaper to create than a printed version, and with the web, your market becomes limitless.

One small gripe -- they make use of a Flash technique that Juxt has been employing for ages -- allowing the user to "turn pages" by clicking the page corners -- but they don't do it as well as Juxt, who also add a drag functionality to their works so you can drag the page across -- as quickly or as slowly as you'd like -- by pulling on the corner, as well as by clicking it.

That said, however, the main navigation is great. I love the gelling of preloader with navigation, which works really well here, and the fact that it is down the bottom, out of the way of the pages and the meat of the mag.

It's a pity, then, that the bottom navigation only takes us to page 82, while the net mag's last page is actually on 102. Poor planning there, the nav needs to be scalable to be completely usable.

Overall though, Encore Mag is refreshing and entertaining. Issue #2 hits the web October 2nd. Definitely worth watching out for.

Firefox Extensions Rock the Web World

Melissa Ray has converted to Firefox. She writes:

Most everyone I know - including myself - is switching from IE to Firefox.

She's found faith now due to her discovery of SpellBound, a spell-checker extension, and the essential Google power-user tool, GoogleBar.

I have my own favourite extensions for Firefox.

• Digger - adds a right-click menu to the address bar's Go button that allows you to jump straight to a higher directory of that site, or the ftp site equivalent. Brilliant.
  
• Paste And Go - can't live without this. Right-click context menu in the location bar allows you to paste a URL and load it automatically, no Go button or Enter key required.
  
• Tabbrowser Preferences - essential for tabbed browsing, enables you to customises when tabs/windows open, what the open with, where they open... get it.
  
• ConQuery - brilliant, adds a right-click "Query To..." menu that opens out to a list of all search engines you've added to the Search Bar, allowing automatic searching of your highlighted word at that engine.
  
• Web Developer - essential tools for coders and designers
  
• Plain Text Links - open links that haven't linkified
  
• ChromEdit - edit user preference files
  
• SuperScroll - smooth scrolling
  
• IE View - check a page in IE
  
• Cookie Culler - protect selected cookies from deletion
  
• MiniT - drag tabs around
  
• UndoCloseTab - undo the last three closed tabs
  

Which extensions are your favourites?

Styling file selection input fields

Ok, one for the web coders, and something I've banged my head against walls about in the past: <input type="file"> fields. Impossible to style, right?

Wrong. Yay!

Created by Michael McGrady, and wrapped up in JavaScript goodness by the eminent PPK, check out his clear tutorial on how to stop those pesky form elements from lowering your style.

Bloggers Love Firefox

The linked site above is currently running a poll on "Your choice of browser", and, with 43 votes so far, the results are overwhelmingly in favour of Firefox: 79%, compared to IE's 9%, Safari's 6% and Opera's 4%.

Whether or not this site is indicative of the global population is hard to say. I'm keen to find more personal -- or other -- sites currently running polls on browser usage, including non-blog-related sites. A broader data sample is essential due to the sheer density of web logs around -- blogs could easily gain niche popularity, but are they then representative?

For that matter, are blog users typical of web users in general? Would the average 9-to-5 worker, who only checks their email and reads their favourite gossip/sports sites, ever be likely to hear about blogging, or Firefox?

Firefox may gain favour quickly amongst bloggers, but if said bloggees are an introverted, parochial lot -- or, worse, leading a double life and not telling "real" friends about their blog -- then it'll stop there.

However, Firefox 1.0 is imminent and the excitement is palpable -- and it's no longer constrained to just net geeks. The Firefox tide is still coming in, and we've only just started making waves. Watch out IE, you're starting to leak...

Coffee spillage

Spent half the day yesterday cleaning my laptop keyboard after spilling coffee on it. Took the keys off the sticky area, which was thankfully contained to the just the keyboard, and it was a mess. All the dog hair had stuck and dried hard.

Gotta make sure I do that again soon. Lots of fun. (Not.)

Friendster Doesn't Get It

A warning to bloggers everywhere. Be careful what you write.

UserFriendly.org - for Geek Laughs

Excellent daily comic about all things geek, with particular emphasis on current events from a geek perspective.

Great stuff.

Mozilla's got a new jacket

And it's bolder, brighter and better. Why?

The masses need info short, fast and to the point. The old design, and Firefox's page in particular, was wordy and confusing for new users. IE plays for the masses, and to get the masses back, Mozilla needs to do the same.

The KISS method was required -- and as usual, Mozilla and its band of supporters have stepped up quickly to the task, making the necessary changes and getting the product out for all to learn about and enjoy. The new site is clean, fast-loading and full of the latest information in easy-to-read bullet-point form, enabling visitors to find exactly what they're looking for super-quick.

The web comes alive with Firefox. What are you waiting for?

Firefox is Sizzling

The link above is for one of the many articles springing up all across this here wide web about the growing popularity of my beloved Firefox -- such as this one asking "Are the Browser Wars Back? How Mozilla's Firefox trumps Internet Explorer" on Microsoft's own msn.com.

If you haven't tried it yet, go download yourself a copy. I'll be posting more about the why's and how's at later dates, so watch this space. For now, get it, install it and run with it. You will be impressed with the speed, just wait till you start playing with the features. Be aware that it's not IE. Therefore things are different. And that means better.

Tarantino -- so is it, or isn't it?

As reported on CNet, there is a relatively new blog site currently causing a bit of a storm in the blogosphere at the moment.

Quentin Tarantino's diary, or QT's Diary as the site is titled, is purportedly by the Oscar-winner himself, although so far no official source has confirmed this claim. On the site, "Quentin" advises us to go ask Miramax if we want proof, neatly avoiding the task himself.

The most recent post (from the 22nd of August) has an almost too smug Disclaimer, in which an adoring "fan from LA" reports a sighting, and "QT" backs this up with a few more facts from the event. If you believe it.

Personally, I'm waiting for something a little more concrete. The internet is a godsend for those who like to put on faces, but if you are silly enough to choose the mask of a public figure, it surely won't be too long before the world catches on and said figure is bailed up against a wall for that all-important question: "Is it you?" followed by mass shouting, rampaging and terrorising as the people learn the truth and seek to vilify and destroy those who've misled them.

Mannn... I just love the internet!

John Howard -- Australia's Anti-Anti-Spam Crusader

Yeah, he's a good one, our Johnny. Approves all these great new laws to help fight the spam epidemic, then hire's his son's company to show us all just what the law in Australia is all about: total ignorance.

Or idiots in suits getting paid too much money to know nothing, perhaps? Given the recent spate of massive, and massively embarrassing, Australian Government screw-ups, (the children overboard affair, the push for the war on Iraq, Johnny here), one could definitely be forgiven for thinking so.

Blogger vs. Wordpress

It's been a few days since the last post... has her enthusiasm died off already?!

No, despite the ongoing abandonment of blogs, I'm still here! Never one to do something by halves, I was ultra-enthused after the first couple of days, and thought obviously the next step is to move this to my own site.

But if I'm to go live at Miinx, do I want to continue using Blogger? Now would be the time to change, if not.

With Blogger, I (a blogging newbie) am so far loving:

• the compatibility with Firefox
  
• the keyboard integration in the Edit HTML mode
  
• the simple and clear user interface
  
• BlogThis! is awesome. I had planned to say here that I didn't like that Blogger lacked the ability to blog something instantly via a toolbar button (without installing the Googlebar for Firefox, which I didn't want to do) -- however, in researching this I discovered that the BlogThis! button can be just dragged onto the toolbar in any browser. (Except IE, of course, as it's a dangerously antiquated piece of crap. Do yourself a favour and Browse happy.)
  

However, there are also some features I am not loving:

• no access to database/server-side stuff
• no categories!
• poor/few community features
  
• in Compose mode, some keyboard keys don't work - such as lowercase e, for instance, although capital E works just fine. (or is that just me??!) Haven't yet emailed customer support, easier just to blog it, really. ;)
  
• few good, pre-made templates
  
• the fact that after Saving or Republishing to see site changes, Blogger always returns you to a default page under Posting. This is particularly annoying if, say, you're modifying Settings and click to Save the changes, as it plonks you out of Settings and back into Posting, so you then need to do a further 2 clicks to get you back to your spot.
  
• no hacks :(

So -- possible discontent means further research is required, and after a bit of that, I'm leaning towards WordPress. So much so, in fact, that I've set one up somewhere and am playing with that there.

WordPress from the outset seems to do more of what I want, although I'm not as impressed with the admin interface. (Georgia is the default font, which I really don't understand. Maybe they're going for the newsprint look? Bleugh. It's the Admin Panel, give me cleanliness, please.)

Apart from that I haven't really got into WordPress enough to be fully able to compare these two products yet, but I'd be very interested to know what others think. I'm a coder, so love to tinker... and it seems, in that sense, that Blogger falls short.

Or am I missing something?

The Stepford Web

I sent a good friend a couple of books recently, from Amazon -- some short stories and Cocaine Nights by J.G. Ballard. One of my absolute favourite reads. He's known more as a sci-fi author, a genre I'm not particularly into, however this book is just sensational (which is not to pass any judgement on any others). Keen to hear what my friend thinks; she's a reader too.

We also saw The Stepford Wives recently, which I'd been thinking would be like Cocaine Nights. (It wasn't. I'd expected it to be kinda surreal, more subtle in its execution of the weird goings-on of the town than the movie ended up being. Had some excellent lines, and top-notch actors, just went awry on something, somewhere, and wasn't quite as good as I'd expected.) However, in hunting down the link just now, I'm loving the website -- check out the Stepford IQ Quiz in the Online Extras section. (Would link to it, except the site's been authored in Flash -- and that is one of Flash's main problems as I see it, lack of ability to externally point to specific parts of the application. Unless I'm missing something.) Nevertheless, great stuff, and the quiz pinpointed me to a T: "Stability and equality are your top priorities. Finding a man who is comfortable letting you wear the pants in the family will make you much happier than the thrills of coupon cutting!"

Although perhaps, given the fact that I am currently single, there was only the one answer for us staunchly independently but fruitlessly hopeful, die-hard romantics. Damn.

Incidentally, and quite strangely, on the Stepford IQ Quiz I scored 16. Love to know what that means... 16 men perhaps? (Bring it on! Heh.) The site also houses a Domestic Bliss Guide, with Fitness Tips, Beauty Secrets and Recipes, all served with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

Birthday Cake for One
with white mountain frosting.

Love it. And he'll love you for it. Which is more important, of course.

The Power of the Web

If you've been following the dispute between Katie Jones, owner of Katie.com domain since 1996, and Penguin Books/Katie Tarbox, who published a book in 2000 called Katie.com, you'll be similarly rapt to hear that it looks as if Penguin is finally going to do the right thing and rename the book. And about time.

If you haven't heard about this tale yet, read up sharp -- had this ever gone to court, it would have set a precedent for all cases involving ownership of "virtual property" -- domain names. Even now, with Penguin backing down, the word is out and and the people are wise. Other domain name thieves wanting to employ similar heavy-weight tactics to shunt out the little man will definitely want to think twice these days.

This story perfectly illustrates the power of the web at its best. Don't mess with the /.ers, hey. And I can't help but comment on the delicious irony in abuse survivor (Tarbox) becoming abuser. (And then doing a talk-show round or two, becoming "an authority", getting a nasty lawyer, and assuming all else is ripe for her taking too.)

However, as Katie Jones says on her site -- "Wait and see". We're waiting, Penguin.

FUCMonline

Fresh Underground Culture Magazine, you see. FUCM.

Nick Vasey, the interminably sardonic wordsmith behind Please Spike My Drink (Lifestyle section), is in person just as he writes. The intellectualisations, theories and arguments never end, but the passion and articulation of his delivery necessitates your inclusion, guaranteeing non-stop entertainment.

And Nick's passion is typical of the FUCM bunch, the rest of whom I've just been reading for the first time as I delved a bit deeper into the zine beyond his column. There's some entertaining stuff in there -- such as the comic strip Apartment 210 by Chris 'Cap' Karaffa. A slightly left-of-centre look at your typical group of guys sharing an apartment, where the timing and words of the cartoonist from frame-to-frame are spot on. Love it.

Do not miss the Global section either. Some brilliant and enlightening writing from around the world on global issues that matter with the unifying perspectives of age and passion. Excellent writing, excellent reading, check it out.

That said however, the site as a whole seems to be severely lacking in direction. Not navigational devices-type direction, (although again, that could be significantly improved with some method of jumping between the sections, currently impossible), but more of the what-is-this-all-about? kind. Perhaps mystery adds excitement in some places -- but here is definitely not one of them.

I've never visited the front page of FUCM before, having only ever really checked out Nick's pieces, but when I finally did take a look I was disappointed to see not a scrap of a peep of an inkling about what delights I could expect to find inside this online mag. Instead, just a single, wordy editorial is offered there, sharing the page area with only the standard nav and side bar. Top that off with some in-yer-face political evangelism, as is in the article, and I was turned off quickly. (Not that I don't like politics per sé, just not a six-million-and-eight-word essay about on the front page of a lifestyle magazine, please. Even if it is hip and underground.

Nevertheless, if you persevere with the entre article, you will discover that FUCMonline is actually the online version of a street mag, currently available in Melbourne and Sydney and soon to hit the world. Now this is the sort of thing that could be in a little feature-box, instead of buried in the second-last paragraph of a ranting editorial on another country's election. It's important in understanding the Why-factor: why is this website here and what is it all about? And besides that, boasting over seventy reporters from across the globe, surely there are at least a few other items in the latest issue of FUCM that could be slapped on the front page to tempt us further into the site? Apart from a rant on US/global politics? A few more tidbits of insight here are desperately required - the web is not the printed page. You can be cool and helpful.

Couple of other niggly things:

• The font size is tiny in good browsers. FUCM, get with the program! ;)


• The navigation is entirely Flash-based. Ok, now this may look cool, but not in any way that couldn't be replicated without Flash, and therefore also without the disadvantages that come with Flash nav's. Take the statusbar. People use the statusbar, however most Flash sites do not seem to be able to get statusbar text happening for links. Now, in boring, old HTML, even if you script-it-up to say simply "yep, click this one" over every link, it is still useful for visitors in deciding where to go next. With the FUCM menu, however, you get none of this. Nothing, nada. Very annoying, as browsing then becomes a matter of click-and-miss.

In summary...
Despite the UI flaws, the site offers up thought-provoking writing and viewpoints from around the globe to keep you arguing into the wee hours. Hopefully one day the FUCM web team will take another look at that nav and spend some time on a decent homepage template to give the excellent FUCMonline brood a decent chance of being heard and seen.

Who, What and the Why-factor

Welcome, and thanks for reading. :)

Who is Miinx?
Melbourne-based geek grrl, picky wench, owner and director of Miinx, sometime-hermit through ongoing net addiction. Miinx works with Juxt Interactive and 10th Degree doing quality assurance and site reviews. Miinx also builds web sites for other people, and loves the colour orange.

What is this?
An outlet for a passionate web devotee, a lot of linkage, web news and site reviews, the occasional spot of ranting, and mainly just a heap of irreverent rambling about generally net-related stuff. The good, the bad and the ugly, as it may be.

Why should I read?
Boredom; curiosity; affinity with anal retentive geeks; web fanaticism; love of Firefox and the open source initiative; empowerment; information; insight into the mind of an always-active net freak. Any or all of the above, really.