Striver

room

You might consider killing active x while you are at it...it is rather unsafe. Unfortunately it is an MS product so every time you encounter a web site using it you may get a pop up warning but I just put up with that rather than risk my computer security.

I was just checking out some of the pics in the foal cam section. No problem. Lee

I just googled some of the text from that pic and found the site. I brought up the exact same page and there was only blank space where those ads are in your picture. Those ads are inserted by a script. I have my browser set to ignore all scripts so I don't see the ads. I do see a lot of blank spaces like that as I surf. I'm sure I am missing a lot of the internet but I'm not losing any sleep over it Lee

No problem, Weezy...I'm always happy to spout off Lee

Because!

That is a reasonable question. There is so much hype and BS flying around today it is almost impossible for the average person to know who is telling the truth and who is just pushing some unseen agenda. For the record, I use MS windows, MS word, MS FrontPage, MS Publisher, MS PowerPoint, MS Excel, MS Access, MS Outlook Express and MS Internet Explorer. I like them and I have even contributed to the development of some of these products. In fact part of the reason I have all this MS software is that they basically handed me their entire product line as a perk for some of my contributions. So I have no agenda against Microsoft. But I have also been on the inside of the computer industry in the Seattle area throughout the development of the personal computer and I have seen a lot of this first hand. One of the biggest problems is that, in the process of stifling competition, Microsoft often screws up their own products to the point where they aren't even usable on a professional scale any longer. Their products are good but watch out for the Trojans. I am very careful about what I allow FrontPage or IE to do without close supervision. It is best to keep in mind that Microsoft is not an altruistic entity working for the good of all mankind. They are a ruthless competitor with one agenda...making money. Under the best-case scenario, government agencies and the judicial system would keep things fair but that system has broken down in this case. Your best defense is to educate yourself. Lee

You touched on one of the main reasons people don't like Microsoft. They tend to add their own proprietary elements to open standards like JAVA and HTML so that everyone else's products look inferior. They also tend to implement the open standards in ways that make other browsers look broken. I found it rather interesting that they have carried this so far that, in the Microsoft Word spelling dictionary there is no plural for "browser". That may have changed since the version I am using but I somehow doubt it. Anyway, this is just another aspect of HTML that web designers need to be aware of. Lee

Firefox is a good browser, but it simply is not as refined as IE in many respects. And before the firefox fans go off on me let me say that I am a veteran of such wars all the way back to IBM vs DEC before they ever even invented the PC. I have been through too many such battles to pledge allegiance to any product or reject a product simply because it works differently. Where firefox got it's recent boost in popularity is in two factors. First, Microsoft has been the bully of the tech world for quite a while and people resent that. Second, there have been some serious vulnerabilities in IE and not all of them can be patched. There is an active X script floating around that will format your hard drive without any input from the user. All you have to do is hit one wrong web page. Last I heard there were no plans at all to patch that. Quite simply, if you are browsing with IE with scripting enabled it isn't a matter of "IF" but "WHEN" your computer will be taken over. In fact the department of homeland security last year issued a warning for people to find alternatives to IE. Most people aren't that internet savvy to understand any of that and even among those who are, there is a certain amount of inertia that keeps them with the product they are familiar with. I have seen cases where a computer savvy individual (no names please) switched friends to firefox, connecting it to an IE icon and telling them it was the latest version and they accepted it no problem because they simply didn't know any better. But when you tell them it is a different product they don't like it. Actually, Firefox only seems more secure because it isn't as popular with hackers either...yet... If it were as popular, we would see just as many vulnerabilities and attacks. I use Internet Explorer because I simply cannot work any other browser into my workflow system without major inconvenience. But I also keep all scripting shut down and I would advise doing that no matter what browser you are using. and that is something to consider whil;e building web pages as well. Lee

Sister

All of my pages look exactly the same in Netscape, Firefox and IE and it doesn't take much to accomplish that. All you need is to learn a few simple expedients. I outline many of them in my HTML tutorial. And my pages aren't always simple either. Take this page for example: http://www.verchi.com/prose/wind.htm Those Doric style columns are actually tables and they look exactly the same in all major browsers. As to the idea that you needn't bother with only 10% using a certain browser...Perhaps that is fine for a personal site but I certainly couldn't get away with that attitude with my serious business customers. 10% is a rather large portion of your customer base in this competitive world. Businesses can't afford to portray a sloppy image to that many potential customers, not if they want to compete. Lee

The biggest problem I found was using netscape on Linux. I could not get my pages to look right in that browser at all. I just decided to draw the line there. That might have changed, since it has been a couple years since I have surfed from Linux. but I agree with abinidi, a web designer should have at least IE, FF, and Netscape installed to test your pages. I have gotten so used to the differences I hardly ever have to test in mor than one browser. But sometimes another browser will show errors that your main one doesn't. If you miss some end tag somewhere the page might look fine in IE but not show at all in FF.

I run mostly IE with all scripting shut down and add sites as needed to the trusted sites list if they have a legitimate need to run a script. That is really the only safe way to go with ANY browser. I also run firefox and an older netscape to test web pages. I haven't seen a popup ad for years and I never have to worry about the latest vulnerability because 99% of them are in the scripting functions. As far as ads go I like the way google has theirs set up in all text. I do click those occasionally. I have run into sites that take a topic, grab the DMOZ section for that topic, link to a forum on that topic, etc...using everyone else's content and plastering it with ads. I have wondered if that actually works. Yeah...it tics me off but so does spam email and that has made some people millionaires. People have actually recommended such sites to me as the greatest place they have ever found, totally unaware that the site itself has absolutely no original content. If you look at a lot of the big sites today, though, you will see a definite shift away from the flash bang plaster with ads school. Look at craig's list. I think that is a forerunner of a new breed. I have seen estimates that they are making about $17 million a year. They don't even have any image files on their home page. Not a graphic in sight and no scripting at all. That is the main thing I hear from the people using it. They want their information plain and simple without all the special effects. Lee

red

gloom

Barbeque

mode

train

Birds

time

clown

The first row in your table consists of a single cell that contains a table set at 100% width. The second row of your table contains two cells, the first with your nav sidebar. This cell will automatically expand to match the first cell in the first row of your table. So that will make your sidebar cell 100% width. The next cell will start where it ends. You can solve this by splitting the two rows into two seperate tables. Here is a good refresher on tables: http://www.verchi.com/tech/html/tables.htm Lee

Great! Glad I could help The layout looks nice Lee

What is the version number? Before version 6, Photoshop wasn't quite geared to the web yet. You might take a look in the edit menu of photoshop under color settings and see what you have there Lee

what version of PhotoShop are you using? Lee