ROBERT SAYRE wrote in a message to GREG EASTHOM:

GE> CA> My complaint is that I really don't _want_ all that extra code
GE> CA> when I am browsing the WWW. If I wanted cartoons I'd watch
GE> CA> early morning TV or rent a video.

GE> Yeah, don't you just hate those people who insist on putting silly
GE> things on their pages like multiple bouncing balls that follow your
GE> mouse around?  ;)

 RS>  YES I DO!!

This might be pertinent...

From Risks Digest 22.45:

Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 04:13:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Geoff Kuenning 
Subject: Browser incompatibilities cost business

I have noticed a trend in the past 6 months of increasing numbers of Web
sites that will not work correctly with my browser.  The most common
symptom is a blank page, presumably because some bit of JavaScript failed
to execute the way they assumed it would.  (In one case, I took the trouble
to diagnose the failure and found that a null URL was expected to load the
referring page; replacing it with a proper URL cured the problem.)

What amazes me is that most of these bugs are caused by unnecessary use of
new (i.e., not widespread) features, and that they cost companies business.
 For example, this evening I tried to buy Kevin Mitnick's book, as
recommended by Don Norman in RISKS.  Try as I might, I could not get
buy.com's site to allow me to enter an updated credit-card number.  I
finally gave up, started the search over, and purchased the book elsewhere.

One has to wonder how much business has been lost because gadget-loving
programmers are more fascinated with the latest features than with
compatibility.

    Geoff Kuenning   geoff{at}cs.hmc.edu   http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~geoff/

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