We met yesterday with a professor using Mac OS 8.6, running Netscape 4.7 and IE 4.0. Needless to say, he was having problems browsing some web sites… for example, every time he visited a page running our current template – his machine would lock up, in either browser he used (javascript and css complications I presume).

Previously, we had issued a blanket statement to older browsers that said something to the effect of, “Free browser upgrades are available, download one and enjoy all the features you’ve been missing out on.” Similair to the ’saw-it-off’ message ESPN.com sends to pre 5.0 browsers.

But for this professor, upgrading was not an option. He uses imaging software that only works on Mac OS 9 & older, and an upgrade to IE 5.x conflicts with the system and extensions he’s using. In addition, he claims that many potential ‘customers’ of his call him stating that they cannot get onto the site to apply to the graduate studies program.

While it’s difficult for me to believe that of the less than 2% of people running Netscape 4.7, they are all trying to apply to the graduate studies program, apparently this is a bigger issue than I thought.

So now we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place – pushing forward with the CSS based templates we have in the works (and sending an unstyled page to old clients), or going back to the dark ages of text-only versions of the site.

I’m sick of all of these browser compatibility issues… when will it end? If we have to support Netscape 4.7 and IE 4.0, why not Netscape 2 or IE 3?

The whole time I’m thinking of a quote from Tim Berners-Lee, “The web must remain a universal medium open to all” and asking WHY!? WHY?!

Oh well, off to debug.

I’ve been carrying my camera around with me just in case there was a moment that needed to be captured… and today, it finally paid off.

There I was, walking to class when Tommy Lee hops on his bike and starts cruisin’ around. He’s got a nice little peddlin’ chopper. So I couldn’t help but snag this shot:

After which he circles around and says to the dumb kid taking pictures of him, “You hear my motor rockin’!?”

Beautiful. That made my day.

At work, the boss got a new G5 Mac (”Lucky!” – Napoleon Dynamite)… and because the lackeys get the hand-me-downs, I got his old machine. Nothing too fancy, but its a Dual 867 G4 w/ 768M – which is about 4 times faster than my previous Mac – so I was pleased.

Anyways, now we come to the problem of moving all my data over to my ‘new’ Mac.
I’ve never been too fearful of upgrades, and because almost all of my work is on the web anything I create is usually ‘backed-up’ on our servers. But when it comes to Macs, this was the easiest move I’ve ever done.

• Connect the two macs with firewire cable.
• Boot up new mac, and hold down ‘T’ for target/firewire disk mode.
• Boot up current mac, and wait for the firewire drive to show up.
• (Use disk utility if necessary to wipe the firewire mounted drive.)
• Use Carbon Copy Cloner (free) to clone current drive to the firewire mounted drive.
• Boot up new mac and enjoy the added MHz and Mb, just like you never left home.

Wow. Apple rulez.

Ok, so I lied. He’s not in any of my classes (yet). But if he were taking Computer Science 428 Automata, Computation, and Formal Languages – I suppose I’d let his camera-(wo)man sit next to me… so as to get a better shot of Tommy in his bewildered state.

For those of you not privvy…. Tommy Lee has started taking classes at UNL, for a new REALITY TV show for NBC.

Let’s be honest… what good can come of this? One things for sure, it will definitely be comedic, as long as the University’s image isn’t tattoo’d permanently, and his spousal abuse doesn’t rub off on any more football players than we already have.
Your thoughts?

What better way to start off my favorite month than a huge plume of steam from our northwestern sister Helen. Could this be one of John Titor’s predictions coming true?
Let us all pray that there isn’t so much ash that Pierce Brosnan can’t get Linda Hamilton away from Dante’s Peak…… er, wait.

I welcome you October… and all the cold weather you can bring.

Now let us all go inside and drink some warm Chai tea, and play with our DINOzaurs.