Microsoft Internet Explorer Seems More Broken than Ever

I know that I rant about the uselessness of Internet Explorer and the virtues of Firefox. That has not changed but it would seem that Internet Explorer is more broken now than it ever has been.

You might be wondering why I have said that. Since my discovery of Firefox I have not used Internet Explorer, for anything. I mean nothing, if a site does not let me view their content in Firefox; I don't bother. Or if I really have to I use the IETab extension for Firefox. So lately I have had cause to test a webpage using Internet Explorer and a few other things, much to my disgust. What I have noticed is that there are so many images, icons, logos, pictures and other elements that just will not load in Internet explorer, they display the box with the red X in the top. The big one being the cool new player we have on the podcast homepage fails to load! When the majority of people surfing the web are doing it in IE that's a big deal!

Is this because the Microsoft boys are concentrating on the up and coming release of Internet Explorer 7 and neglecting this version. Or perhaps it is the fact that the sites that I frequent are sites that "geeks" use and therefore the sites are optimised for Firefox. I just have no clue really. I will say that when I was writing the Global Geek Podcast Homepage, it was much easier to code it for Firefox than Internet Explorer, by a long shot. We are currently doing a rebuild of the site and that continues to be the case. Suffice to say that the site will be optimised for Firefox, yes you will be able to load it in IE but it will not be as pretty.
Having said all that the things that refuse to load in IE are not critical to the site but eh, it is a browser; it is supposed to do it! This is however what we have com to expect from this browser.

So to this just adds to reasons not to use IE, along with the fact that Firefox is a superior browser, both for functionality and form. In addition to the fact that it is highly customisable and is more secure.

Be smart, make the switch.

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Is this a PC or a Vacuum Cleaner?

Today a mate of mine who will be known hence forth as Webby was “donated” a computer that “would work if the power supply was replaced”. Webby thought this little number might be good for something so he set about dismantling it and making it work.

He knew something was up when he spotted the rear end of the Compaq… mmm a bit of dust is okay but I am not sure about all this rust. Upon inspection of the power supply it is little wonder that it was not working. All the vents were practically rusted over! I would hate to see what the guts of it looked like. But hey that is what was stuffed so it did not matter right?

So onward to the internals of the computer which was like trying to break into Fort Knox, these babies are just not meant to be modified or taken apart. How you are supposed to clean inside it is a mystery. The reason that I mention cleaning is once inside there were enough “dust bunnies” to make a coat! Or a small village of dust mites to take up residence! This might have been a contributing factor to the fact that it was stuffed, you think?

Just check out that main-board it is little wonder that the CPU fan was even going, let alone circulating the air. The whole interior of the case was filled with dust and rubbish from a life of neglect.

Even the peripherals were shot.

Check out this floppy drive picture. Not sure if this thing would even read a disk. Check out the light, yep it is getting power!

Let this be an advertisement for occasionally lifting the hood and cleaning the fans, boards and vents of your PC. Still very funny result that has given me some material to blog about.

Taking it apart was as far as Webby got. Not surprisingly the PC would not boot, it tried a few times and croaked a bit of a last gasp. The PC will now be put-down for reasons of kindness and humanity and the war dust bunnies. It is undecided if there will be a cremation of said dead computer.

Webby would like to receive actual computers rather than flowers. Or just send cash so he no longer has to try to resurrect dead computers or ones that are on their last legs.

Watching him deconstruct this thing on Skype was a laugh a minute (or more).

Update: The images for this post have been “lost” by the WordPress server. I am in the process of trying to find them again.