[Bitscape, fairly lathargic and not quite sure what to type next, powers up his DVD viewing system. Pink Floyd. Another Brick in the Wall. Pt 2.]

The lad reckons himself a poet!

....

Ahem. Tonight's episode of Star Trek Voyager was most excellent. Featuring Jeri Ryan's hilarious impression of Robert Picardo. lol. I suppose it could also be considered something of a hallmark for those of us members of the Male Wannabe Lesbians Society. Or... maybe not. Hehe. (I wonder if anyone in the nutforum crowd still wanders over here to read... Been so long since I've posted there... Hmmmm...) And was it just my imagination, or was there one scene that was not double, but TRIPLE entendre? I thought so, anyway. Quality Television Programming on all counts.

...

Hmmm.... I suspect the content / time ratio has a tendancy to go down when I ramble with a DVD going. Big surprise there.

So, let's see. Everyone talking about the Netscape 6 release, of course. Varied reviews coming in. Personally, I attempted to try it at work yesterday after it came out, but the POS installer kept crashing on me. Whose brilliant idea was it anyway to make people download one program -- the installer -- which then pulls the "real" Navigator off their server? (Server is probably bogged as hell on release day, which may have been why the installer kept freezing on me. Not sure though.) Just distribute a tarball with the actual executable and put it on a bunch of mirrors, for crying out loud. Common sense and marketing departments don't mix, I guess.

Personally, I've been using Mozilla M18 at home ever since it was released. Works fine and dandy for me. (I did download a Netscape PR release to do SSL transactions a while ago, though.) I might have to grab Netscape 6 and try it for myself just so I can give a first hand review. For some reason, there are some people who will only accept software that has been blessed by a commercial entity, even if the "unofficial" version is technically superior. Funny how that is. Linux a few years ago, anyone?

Sadly enough, at work, we still plod along with ugly old 4.7. The Firewall of the Future! <fine print>Only works with obsolete / non-standard web browsing technology</fine print> Oops, did I just make fun of the company I work for? Ho hum. So it would seem. Well, being the mindless peon that I am, I wash my hands of the entire mess. I have attempted to bring this, ahem, minor problem to the attention of management on more than one occassion, and have been summarily ignored. When customers complain that the box will not work with their brand new, fully w3c compliant web browser (not that w3c matters to the brainless masses, but the fact that it's being pushed by AOL might), I want my name to be clear. "I am NOT responlible! I am only a mere sellout." Thank you.

Hmmm, was the above paragraph really a good idea? Ho hum. In these areas, I speak my mind. If I didn't, I have a feeling my sanity -- my center -- would gradually drift away. Gotta be frank here. Otherwise, how do I know I haven't lost myself? It just so happens that it's a rather public forum, and brings with it potential consequences. (Bitscape remembers a time in the past when one CS instructor browsed into these ramblings. Ya. That was tricky.) Guess that's why I'm not the corporate climber type, nor do I feel the need to be. :)

Let's see.... any other good shit to talk about?

Okay, here we go. Another by-tangent of the Netscape 6 release. It would seem that I have developed something a love/hate relationship with AOL. Trying to put a finger on it. On the one hand, I have long despised them for what I think are obvious reasons to most people. The dumbing down of the net. Releasing massive hordes of idiots into the cybersphere (scuse the language) without bothering to educate them about the basics of netiquette. And of course, the annoying, dumb ads on tv.

OTOH, they have allowed many people to come online who might not have otherwise. (Yes, I know it can be debatable as to whether that's really a good thing.) Ever since buying Netscape, they have continued to fund the Mozilla project with minimal meddling, by all accounts I've heard. How can you argue against that?

Now, in another stroke of mixed blessing, they (perhaps a bit prematurely) release Netscape 6. In many ways, it is the web's last best hope for freedom. Freedom from an eternity of Internet "standards" dictated by the almighty billg. Freedom for people to view web pages using any platform they like. Even if not everyone wants to use Mozilla (any Konquerer fans here?), if a browser that adheres 100% to w3c is adopted widely enough, it will insure that web developers have a reason to pay attention to doing things the Right Way. Sites that might otherwise eventually become accessible only to those who pay homage (and licensing fees) to the evil empire will be viewable in any browser conforms to the spec. Competition will flourish. Innovation will continue. Freedom will reign.

But then we go back to this unsavory fact: It could not, and cannot continue to happen without the help of AOL. It takes an evil giant to battle with an evil giant. But are they really that evil? I mean either of them? Seriously, Microsoft is also working (we can hope) to improving the partial standards compliance of IE. IE5 implements some of it. Not nearly as far along in that department as Mozilla, but where would we be if MS decided to truly make an ass of themselves, and refuse to support the W3C DOM at all? Given the clout they have, there would certainly be more splintering. And anyone who tries to develop anything using JavaScript/DHTML knows what a pain in the as that is. As it is, there is at least a good chance that we will be able to write one batch of code, and have it work on everything. THAT would be a dream come true.

(If it does become a practical reality, I may even reconsider my anti-JavaScript stance with regard to this page's code. A standards-based, fully implemented, browser-supported ECMA-compliant language that one could write and not worry about having it break and make things go haywire on other platforms/browsers would, IMO, be very cool.)

Anyway, there's my rant for the night. I'm going to bed. Maybe read a bit too.