Help with question about web page access

From: Fred Cisin <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
Date: Wed Aug 18 14:54:07 2004

> >> complaining that your 1957 Morris Minor can't keep up with modern
> >> motorway traffic.
> > While it may not be very practical for high speed freeway,
> > where does one get off suggesting that it be banned from
> > city streets?

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
> Didn't say it should be banned from city streets, did I?

You certainly didn't. Nor anything else objectionable.

But banning the Minor from city streets is an apt analogy
for websites that are for dissemination of text information
that will not permit last week's versions of the browsers.
[YES, that is exaggerated. But why should a textual information
website be inaccessible to TEN YEAR OLD browsers, either?]
Some websites, for no apparent reason, are inaccessible with
"obsolete" versions of Netscrape and Internet Exploiter on Win2K
machines. That isn't old enough to have had a chance to become
"obsolete"!


> > BTW, have you ever replaced the brake master cylinder on one?
> Yes. Very recently, in fact. The scratches in my forearm are still
Wasn't the finest example of service accessibility!
It's been 30 years since I did one.


> >> Why? I've never understood this obsession with cookies. I mean, *why*?
> > Because it is RUDE to store your crap on somebody else's machine,
> > without identifying what is in it.
> Actually they're storing *your* crap on your machine.

These days, it seems that way too many sites want to store crap,
when there is NO rational reason to do so. Do certain
"web page creation for incompetents" programs have "store a cookie"
as the DEFAULT?


> > And some companies make browsers that are so demented that the
> > default settings permit "cookies" that are executable code!
> Don't use them then. Use a proper browser like Firefox or Opera.

A significant portion of my time online is in computer labs
at the colleges where I teach, where I literally could be
fired if caught installing or using software other than what
incompetent administrators have approved.
Sorry, but that means I'm unable to comply with some excellent advice.


> I know we all like big, clunky, old computers, but does that mean that
> every single piece of software we use has to meet the 10-year-rule too?
The objection is to websites that set an arbitrary and unreasonable
bar of recency.

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Wed Aug 18 2004 - 14:54:07 BST

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