The Logics

When building websites I use a dual monitor computer with 19” and 15” monitors so that I can see how the websites will fit different sized screens. I also use Explorer®, Firefox®, Google Chrome®, and Opera® browsers to ensure that the websites will display properly in each. Microsoft’s Explorer continues being favored for its quality of display, and though I frequently use Firefox due to its speed and choice of skins, I have been pleasantly surprised with the new Opera version 10.10.

Opera’s turbo mode is said to use Opera’s own servers to compress a web page’s file before sending it to your computer. In my experience the turbo mode does work well, typically increasing load speeds two to three times normal. Although I have not yet actually timed page loads, I am almost certain that Opera is sizably faster than Firefox. The only known drawback of the turbo mode is that graphics arrive with a fair bit of distortion due to being compressed at a high percentage. Nevertheless, the distortion is of little concern since it is a simple thing to turn off the turbo mode and refresh the screen to download a page’s graphics in their best quality.

Most noticed by me is that Firefox and Opera both have recently improved their ability to properly display text. The browsers can now accurately display a tabbed first line in a full-justified paragraph, a thing that only Explorer was able to do previously. Too, Explorer, Firefox, and Opera appear to be handling tables well, but Google Chrome completely fails to display tables that are empty of content but used for coloring of the page’s design. An example can be viewed at http://repoman.websitedesigningamarillo.com/. The red and blue lines display properly in Explorer, Firefox, and Opera, but are not displayed at all in Chrome. I suspect that very few users would ever know of Chrome’s limitations since the errors may not be noticeable without the user viewing the same web pages with Chrome and other browsers. To ensure the web page is properly displayed in all browsers, in the future I will replace the colored tables with fixed lines sized to a similar thickness.

Chrome now has a few choices of browser coloring, but Chrome is still somewhat primitive in feel, look, and use as compared to the steadily increasing refinements of Opera. As soon as I import all of my bookmarks from Firefox and Explorer, Opera may become my main browser.

Opera’s full-screen command (F11) works well, and it also hides the vertical scroll bar. I am accustomed to undoing the full-screen mode by moving the mouse pointer up to the top of the screen on Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome where a click can restore the screen to normal size. Opera is a little different, your only needing to right click anywhere on the screen which results in a menu popping up with the option to toggle the full screen mode. Opera has a lot of added features like mouse gestures, some of which I believe are worth having like the ctrl + scroll acting as page zoom.

At present I am so pleased with Opera’s layout and function that I thought it would be a good thing to sing a little praise for the good work done by the Opera people.

http://www.opera.com/

Favored Skin: ibis_inspire-2_91

The Logics, , April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November
MS Explorer, , 58.7, 35.5, 10.8, 60.7, 57.4, 56.4, 59.7, 55.9
Firefox, , 28.7, 57.4, 86.8, 27, 30.4, 29.9, 25.1, 27.7
Unknown, , 0.5, 0.5, 0, 0.4, 0.3, 1, 0.6, 0.7
Opera, , 2, 1.4, 0.3, 2.1, 2, 2.4, 2.4, 3.5
Chrome, , 4.5, 1.8, 0.6, 5.1, 4.4, 4.8, 5.1, 6
Mozilla, , 1, 0.7, 0.6, 0.8, 0.8, 1.3, 1.2, 1.2
Safari, , 4, 2.3, 0.4, 3.3, 3.8, 3.5, 5, 4.4
Netscape, , 0.1, 0.1, 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.1, 0, 0.1
Sony/Ericsson, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
UP.Browser, , 0, 0, 0, 0.1, 0, 0, 0, 0
Others, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.1, 0, 0, 0
Omni Web, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Wget, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
K-Melon, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.2, 0, 0.1, 0
Nokia, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

The Logics Blog, , April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November
MS Explorer, , 50.2, 57.7, 39.2, 29.9, 56.5, 26.8, 37.1, 32.9
Firefox, , 33.4, 21.3, 34, 38.7, 23.4, 14.7, 19.9, 19.5
Unknown, , 6.5, 8.6, 9.6, 5.5, 7.3, 12.8, 9.1, 14.4
Opera, , 5.3, 0.9, 5.7, 3.3, 2.1, 33.5, 22, 8.8
Chrome, , 1.7, 4.5, 2, 8.6, 2.1, 4.2, 4.1, 7.1
Mozilla, , 1.4, 3.1, 7.2, 9.6, 3, 4.6, 4.3, 11.5
Safari, , 0.9, 2, 0.8, 3.4, 2.9, 2.2, 2.5, 4.6
Netscape, , 0.1, 1.4, 0.8, 0.7, 1.9, 0.4, 0.2, 0.8
LibWWW, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Acrobat Webcapture, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.2, 0
SIE, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Others, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.1, 0, 0
K-Melon, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.4, 0, 0, 0
Nokia, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Phoenix, , 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.2, 0, 0

Worth playing on repeat:

Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola
Andrea Marcon – conductor
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Archiv Produktion
Total time – 60:53
#5191993

Emphasis is on cut #8 – Concerto in D minor, RV 514 Adagio

http://www.musicalheritage.com/product/Vivaldi-Concertos-for-Two-Violins/5191993

Listen once for free at http://www.lala.com/#album/432627039258750618

The Logics Blog

Firefox 38.7 %

MS Internet Explorer 29.9 %

Mozilla 9.6 %

Google Chrome 8.6 %

Unknown 5.5 %

Safari 3.4 %

Opera 3.3 %

Netscape 0.7 %

LibWWW 0%

The Logics

MS Internet Explorer 60.7 %

Firefox 27 %

Google Chrome 5.1 %

Safari 3.3 %

Opera  2.1 %

Mozilla 0.8 %

Unknown 0.4 %

Netscape 0.1 %

UP.Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 0.1 %

Nokia Browser (PDA/Phone browser) 0 %

As seemed logical on my blog entry of April 19th, Google has now announced (July 08, 2009 http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html) that it is interested in developing an open source operating system. The next year or so will surely be an interesting era of seeing whether Google will find the soft-spot in Microsoft’s Windows OS, and whether Google will use the advantage to create a new OS that the public will want.

Linux lovers have tried for years to build a public following, and though Linux has numerous advantages over Windows, Linux is simply too complex for beginners, too blah for graphics designers, and not yet matured enough to compete against multi-billion dollar companies like Microsoft that can afford to hire design specialists. Regardless of how well a device may work, if it is psychologically displeasing to the public, then the public will not use the device. Yes, it is common for egg-heads to have little concern for aesthetics, and yes, Linux geeks are egg-heads of the favorite kind, but that which is attractive to a geek is not attractive to the general public.

Microsoft has maintained its lead in the OS competition by hiring design specialists, and my curiosity is currently asking whether the favored egg-heads in Google will recognize that Google Chrome’s future depends almost entirely on how the product is presented to the public. In my city, a business district has had almost no business in thirty years, even though it used to be the number one spot in the tri-state region. The city planners still today cannot understand the one tiny thing that they did wrong thirty years ago, and the ghost-town district remains as evidence of what near-sighted planning can cause. The ‘little thing’ is a portion of Microsoft’s weak spot, which could easily be manipulated to any other OS’ advantage.  The big question is; will Google approach the new OS with foresight, or will Google make the same simple mistake that thousands of other companies have made, which cost them the loss of business?

It is my current belief that the new Google Chrome operating system will likely be pretty good regardless of how the OS is presented to the public. My concern is whether Google will waste many millions of dollars to create a product that is no more popular than Linux. And not to be unexpected is that Linux developers will copy-cat some of Google Chrome’s ideas, effectively limiting Google’s rise in ranks. Yes, I am confident that Google will profit from the Chrome browser, but a few million here and there is nothing like tens of billions.

It’s going to be an interesting year or two!