Please Upgrade Your Browser

Use of this old browser is harming the Web--please upgrade to one that follows the standards correctly, so you can enjoy the modern design of this site.

The best modern browsers, in order of quality, are:

• Mozilla 1.3
• Netscape 7
• Opera 7
• Internet Explorer 5.1/5.2 (Macintosh)
• Internet Explorer 6.0 (Windows)—as a last resort, since it doesn’t even come close to supporting many parts of the 5-year-old Web standards.

I know you're fond of your current browser, but the reason you're seeing an upgrade warning and this page is because it doesn't even come close to following the Web standards that have been in place for years.

Designing a Web site that looks the same in these older browsers would force me to use a design that doesn't work as well (or look as good) for newer browsers, takes far more time for me to maintain, and limit the content and features I could offer.

Your old browser is the equivelant of old cars that used leaded gasoline--and designing sites that look nice on it is just as bad as pumping leaded gas into an unleaded automobile.

The image above gives you a good idea of what you're missing.

• A layout that automatically adjusts to any size screen, from PDAs to 24-inch wide monsters, without any horizontal scrolling.
• Pages that print without being cut off or you having to click on a “printer-friendly” page.
• Images that are color-corected.

Now, you don't have to upgrade--all of the text is still visible to you. But please don't pester me about "strange characters" on the page or when you copy and paste text into e-mails--it's your software that is broken, not my coding.

Lean on the vendors who made this software that doesn't follow important modern standards if you want to, but don't blame me for your decision to use outdated software that didn't even work right wen it was new.

There are plenty of fine browsers you can choose from, including the latest from Microsoft, Netscape, and Opera.

Browsers that have problems include:

• Internet Explorer 4.0 and earlier (incomplete standards support)
• Netscape 4.0 and earlier (completely wrong and buggy standards support; can’t handle style sheets well at all)
• Netscape 6.1 and 6.2 for Windows (display bugs)

Trust me--you really don't know what you're missing.

This page was last modified on Monday, 11-Oct-2004 20:07:20 PDT.

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