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Weighing In on IE7

October 25, 2006

With the imminent release of Windows Internet Explorer 7, it's time to weigh in on the next generation of the world's most popular browser.

First the positives.... IE7 implements RSS/Atom feed support, including the ability to search and sort. Also, as promised, CSS support in IE7 is much improved. I was surprised to learn that in addition to improving the rendering engine, Microsoft actually provides support for a wider variety of CSS selectors. Of course, it remains to be seen whether Microsoft will continue to work on the CSS implementation, as (understandably) it isn't perfect.

IE7 also introduces native support for semi-transparent PNGs, something Web designers have wanted for years.

IE7 Alas, none of this makes me want to use IE7 as an every day browser. One of the features of IE7 that Microsoft has been touting is "add-ons". I have not investigated them too much. This is due in part to a lack of interest and in part to awareness of Microsoft's lax attitude to security when releasing software.

Of course, the presence of a feature I'm not going to use is not reason enough to avoid the browser. A good reason is the utter lack of common sense displayed by Microsoft in the visual design of the thing. IE7 is ugly. What's wrong with it? Let me enumerate:

  1. The buttons are fixed.
  2. They aren't grouped together.
  3. The silly "New Tab" button looks like a tab itself.
  4. For some reason, the "File" menus are hidden by default. Oh that's right, they wanted to save screen real estate by cutting down on unnecessary clutter, but...
  5. There appears to be a button for each of those afore-mentioned menus.

Finally, for whatever reason, IE7 is slow. I understand that my machine is getting up there in computer years (going on four years old), but IE6 opened Web pages considerably faster.

Frankly, all this seems like a blatant disregard for usability. Given that fact, and given the fact that Mozilla Firefox is far superior in terms of standards compliance, appearance, customizability, and load time, it's hard to recommend the upgrade to IE7. Just get Firefox.

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Thinking Movies

October 23, 2006

Every so often I come across a movie that really makes me think. Although I'll often watch a movie for the express purpose of not thinking for awhile, I must admit that I'm never disappointed when I wind up thinking anyway.

I went and saw "The Prestige" over the weekend, and although somewhat disappointed that there was no "real" magic, the movie did something nearly impossible. Normally when presented with a cast of unlikeable characters I find that I couldn't care less about the movie or its conclusion, but even after this movie was over, I couldn't help wondering about some of the plot details.

In the end, I've decided that the movie doesn't entirely make sense (and wouldn't, even after a second viewing), but I can't help feeling that there are some subtle (and interesting) things that I might have missed. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing the movie again.

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