Three posts (none mine) from another list + article on browsers from NY Times:
>I want to thank Peter Wayner for his terrific
>article today in the "Circuits" section of the
>NY Times. After five years of my trusty G3, I
>bit the bullet and got an iMac G5 -- it arrived
>on Tuesday. Oddly, AOL's OSX won't work my
>"peer-to-peer IP address range" (I'm quoting
>Jesse at AOL Tech Support), which is supplied by
>our Airport Base Station. For me to continue to
>use AOL, I have to change each of our computers'
>IP addresses manually, a proposition that fills
>with terror the little men running up and down
>my bloodstream, and me too.
>
>So, I'm saying good-bye to AOL, at long last --
>and Wayner's thorough, smart, clear, and
>fun-to-read review has given me the final push
>to do so. I never heard of half of these
>browsers! It's exciting. A "custom-tailored"
>world awaits.
>
>Thanks, Peter.
[>>===> article at end of this post]
=-=-=-=
Congratulations on your new G5! I switched to OSX
almost two years ago with my new powerbook, and
if your experience is anything like mine, you'll
soon find OS 9 ("Classic") programs almost as
distasteful as Windows... I still have to use an
older version of QuarkXPress for a
publisher-client - and I hate it!
As far as browsers are concerned, I can't imagine
you'll want to use anything other than the one
that came with your machine: Safari.
Now that you have OSX I would definitely
recommend you take a look at the fantastic
writers' program Ulysses, which Jonah Keegan
recommended on this list last October. I acted on
his advice almost immediately (thanks, Jonah!) -
it is simply fantastic! They're in Stuttgart, by
the way, so you can practice your German with
them when you register it if you want to. Come to
think of it, the program is in German, too - at
least mine is. But I assume they also have an
English version.
Re female leads: I agree with Brad Burg. I've
often wondered if Julia Roberts isn't a long-lost
member of the British royal family. It's often
been said that the Windsors' affinity for horses
might have something to do with family
physiognomy... But I must say that she has an
absolutely lovely voice (the one I'm familiar
with at least - her German voice is the wife of
an old friend of mine, a TV actress from East
German times who magically manages to supress her
strong Berlin accent in the sound studio. She's
also Ally McBeal...)
=-=-=-=
For the Mac-o-lytes on the list. I just found
this program http://www.blue-tec.com/ulysses/
which is being sold as a stripped down
text-editor for creative writing folks. It's
called Ulysses :o)
- no need to worry about upfront formatting
(which is something I have yet to learn how to
ignore in
"all-things-to-everyone-equals-universially-hated"
MSWord)
- notes window for each doc that will hold just
about anything (rich text, images, sound, video)
- files are "projects" so you can easily create
multiple documents (this is, in fact, the point)
eg. chapters, acts, stream-of-conscoiusness rants
etc. and they are all held together (and
organized) without the need to make 50 new
folders in the finder that you are just going to
lose track of anyway....not that it's ever
happened to me
- and finally, my FAVE-o-rite feature, hit
shift-openapple-F and the screen goes black,
leaving you with nothing but a cusor and whatever
you happen to have written thus far in pleasant,
low-eyestrain amber....as their marketing
material states, just you and your text? :D
It's been out for a year so maybe this is old
news, and it's not terribly cheap 100 euros, but
you can try free for 30 days, and so far I am
thinking I might just have to buy it next month.
=-=-=-=
the article >>===>
Custom Tailor a Web Browser Just for You
By PETER WAYNER
Published: January 27, 2005
T used to be that Internet Explorer, the
one-size-fits-all Web browser bundled with every
copy of Microsoft Windows, was enough for most
people. It worked well and cost nothing. Who
needed anything else?
That attitude is fading these days as consumers
begin to realize that other browsers offer more
features, better security and greater freedom.
Bells and whistles, perhaps, but some of them can
be surprisingly useful.
The number of competitors to Internet Explorer
is surprisingly large and diverse. The most
commonly mentioned alternatives are Mozilla and
its cousin, the recently released Firefox 1.0,
two browsers descended from Netscape, the early
Internet company that is now part of AOL. Firefox
is a Web browser pure and simple. Mozilla uses
the same basic core (known as Gecko) and adds
tools for reading e-mail, chatting and composing
Web pages.
Both are open source tools freely distributed and
subject to modification by programmers worldwide.
If you are considering making the leap to a
different browser, there are other choices, too.
A Norwegian company, Opera, is selling its
browser (though a free version that displays
advertising is available as well). Apple has
Safari, which builds on one called Konqueror,
from the world of Linux.
If that's not enough to choose from, there are
dozens of browsers out there like Amaya and Dillo
that cater mainly to people with particular
interests ("Star Trek" fans, for example).
There are also hybrids like Netcaptor, Phaseout
and Avant that use Internet Explorer's core and
add new features. Microsoft encourages software
developers to revise and extend Internet
Explorer, and maintains a catalog of such
offerings at www.windowsmarketplace.com. Some,
like Netcaptor, which offers a popular feature
called tabbed browsing and sells for $30, cost
extra, but many are free.
This mix-and-match nature is echoed by Mozilla
and Firefox, which also help users create their
own features, known as extensions. There is a
large collection of extensions at the Mozilla
update site (update.mozilla.org), including tools
that add weather forecasts to the margins of the
Web browser, let you control the music playing in
the background, or make it easy to look up a word
in a dictionary.
In general, all of these browsers display the
images and text from Web sites in much the same
way. (There are some exceptions, mainly because
some Web designers do not test their sites on all
browsers. In cases where the layout is mangled or
the page simply behaves oddly, the solution may
be to use another browser.) Which one is right
for you may come down to personality, aesthetics,
security concerns and your work environment. Here
are some of the major distinguishing
characteristics.
Features
One of the most popular new browser features
displays multiple Web pages behind different
tabs. The idea is so simple - it is similar to
the tabbed dividers in a binder - that it might
not seem like much of an innovation, but devotees
wonder how they got along without it. A set of
tabs at the top or bottom of the window allows
you to switch among open pages.
The big advantage comes when browsing Web sites
with many links, like the headlines on newspaper
sites. If you hold down a key - usually Control -
and click on interesting links, the browser will
load the stories in pages behind the one you are
reading. By the time you are done skimming the
main page, the images and text for the next
stories will be ready for reading. Clicking on
the correct tab takes you there instantly.
Opera was one of the first to offer tabs; now
Mozilla and Firefox do. Internet Explorer does
not offer the feature, but it can be purchased by
installing Netcaptor.
Web search is another area in which browser
makers have sought to distinguish themselves.
Nearly everyone relies on search engines like
Google, so browser designers have tried to make
this job as painless as possible. In Firefox,
Opera and Safari, there is a search field at the
top of the main browser window next to the field
holding the address of the site you're visiting.
Type in search terms and hit return, and the
results appear immediately. There is no need to
go to the search engine's main page.
Opera takes this one step further and offers
other fields for a price search of stores or a
direct search of Amazon. Mozilla has a special
sidebar dedicated to displaying the search
results where you can see them while you browse
through the recommended Web sites in the main
part of the window.
Internet Explorer users can get some of the same
capabilities with a third-party toolbar from
Google (toolbar.google.com). Firefox enthusiasts
have duplicated the Google toolbar for Firefox
(addons.mozilla.org).
Security and Privacy
The last year has been difficult for the team
responsible for the security of Internet
Explorer. There has been a stream of reports of
loopholes and backdoors in the Microsoft browser
that could expose users to data theft or the loss
of control over their computers. Microsoft has
dutifully fixed the holes, but some computer
professionals have observed that fewer such holes
affect other browsers.
Some of these professionals suggest that users
could increase their security by choosing another
browser and that alternatives are built with more
attention to detail.
The authors of Mozilla, for instance, argue that
contributions from the open-source community help
eliminate loopholes. Microsoft, by contrast,
maintains tight control over Internet Explorer
and relies on its own programmers to fix problems.
(Others counter this by pointing out that all
software is flawed and that attackers choose
Internet Explorer because it is dominant. If
other browsers become more popular, the argument
goes, they will become targets.)
Blocking outside attacks is just part of the
challenge. Many Web browsers help users by
storing information like addresses, passwords and
lists of recently visited Web sites. In the past,
clearing this information out of your computer
required navigating to several menus, making it
harder for people to use public machines, share
home machines or donate them to charities.
Apple's Safari was one of the first Web browsers
to offer a single button, prominently displayed,
that gets rid of stored information. Mozilla,
Firefox and others now incorporate similar
cleanup features.
Safari, Mozilla and other browsers also offer
compact tools for examining and, if you want to,
deleting the small tracking files called cookies
that are stored on computers by Web sites.
Mozilla's (also found under Tools, Options,
Privacy), for instance, lets the user select from
among various policies for managing cookies and
also examine the data hidden inside them. This is
one area where Microsoft has been a leader, and
Internet Explorer offers an extensive system for
cookie management.
Customization
Many browsers are adding features that give users
some power to customize the display of Web sites.
Opera's extensive View menu will soon include a
feature known as Fit to Window that will
automatically shrink a page that is too big to
fit on your screen until there is no need to
scroll to see it. If this leaves some parts too
small, another feature lets you zoom in on one
region.
Opera also lets users substitute their own
layout guides for pages known as Cascading Style
Sheets. This powerful feature can create
outlines, change colors, eliminate large images
and give general control over the look of the
page.
Safari, Mozilla and Firefox take a more limited
approach and let you change the size of the fonts
used to render the page, a nice feature if the
fine print is a bit too fine. Holding down the
control key while pressing the plus or minus key
activates this feature.
The new browsers also offer tools to block parts
of Web sites. Opera, Firefox, Mozilla, Safari and
others can prevent a Web site from opening new
windows, which often contain advertisements.
There are hundreds of other tweaks and
enhancements fighting for attention. The open
platform offered by many of the browsers
encourages any programmer to convert an idea into
a working bit of code.
Some of these enhancements are practical. MapIt,
an extension for Firefox, for example, lets you
select an address on one page and immediately
find a map of that location.
Some are fun. One called Gnusto lets you play games in Firefox.
And some cannot be classified. If you want to
track the current color of the threat level
announced by the Department of Homeland Security,
one extension for Firefox will monitor the
announcements and display an icon in the margins.
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