123a05c495c3
tech



Hello Roy - 

CA>> --8<--cut 

WC>> I could use the Knoppix CD you sent to surf the web in
WC>> Randrive mode saving settings to diskette but would lose
WC>> fido offline capability. 

WC>> In fact I'll _have_ to use Knoppix in ramdrive mode to
WC>> even make sure the Siig and Seagate items I want are in
WC>> stock at the local CompUSA because Netscape 4.08 no longer
WC>> displays their web site AT ALL. 

CA>> Business websites seem to want to have all the
CA>> 'bells-n-whistles' that only newer browsers will display
CA>> properly. 

RJT> Or they make unwarranted assumptions about which platform
RJT> you're running, and which browser you're using, and target
RJT> their development in that direction. That, and the fact
RJT> that nobody who does this stuff likely tries loading a
RJT> page from a typical slow dialup connection... 

Webpage design requires a good deal of FTP'g of files to the
server(s) and then testing the pages with at least IEx to be
certain it's all there (style sheets, linked portions,
graphics, etc.). Eventually anyone serious about doing this as
efficiently as they can will go with a cable connect to speed
things up. It _is_ very fast when compared to dialup (I have a
cable connect here). 

I also have dialup access at 56k which is _also_ faster than
some users have and can test with that as well. All dialup
users get different _actual_ connect rates from below 40k to as
high as 50k which means even on dialup I'm not seeing what
_everyone_ sees in terms of delays. I also have a 33.6k setup
here for my W31 machine and can test with that using Netscape
v4.08 which I consider close to the "bottom line" for business
webpage designs. 

My own personal webpages for tech and entertainment are more
'anybrowser friendly'. I have compressed the HTML files and
optimized all of the graphics to keep load times for pages as
fast as possible. I do test them with LINKS and an older IEx
v3.0f that is also on my 33.6k machine. Using LINKS I would
guess even an old 14.4k modem on dialup would be useable when
viewing my personal webpages. 

Server stats show that the majority of users are using Windows
XP and IEx v6 even though my tech website is a 'legacy' website
for W31 and DOS users (with a few Linux pages added recently).
My guess is that users are accessing the website from their
workplace then taking the information/files home to use on
their personal computers? 

Newer versions of DreamWeaver MX have built in 'validation'
icons for testing webpages for accesibility for impaired
persons etc. which tells me that the business of webpage design
is growing up and begining to be more user oriented than it has
been but there is room for improvement as you and Wayne have
pointed out here. :-) 

RJT> I tried to load a page from the state of PA earlier this
RJT> afternoon. Waited a while, went and read some emails and
RJT> responded to them, went back and looked, went and played a
RJT> couple games of solitaire, and went back and looked again.
RJT> By that time, _45 minutes later!_, it had only gotten
RJT> about 60% of the way here. I gave up at that point. 

Years ago I tried using NewDeal on an old 80286 machine with an
old 14.4k modem to browse the Internet using SKIPPER the
included graphical browser. I recall waiting 15 minutes once
for a page to fully display and being a bit discouraged. I
thought about this for awhile and realized that if the only
place to get the information I needed/wanted was on the
Internet and I was in a third-world country I would be better
off with NewDeal than with nothing? NewDeal was sold some time
after that and AFAIK there are no trial/demo versions anymore
but it is/was really quite a nice package IMO if you had no
other options. 

There is a registry 'hack' for IEx to increase the number of
sockets open at one time from 4 to 8 (or more) and this same
change can be applied to OPERA and to Netscape by editing the
INI files (if I am remembering this correctly). I haven't
looked into changing this for Mozilla as yet. This is what
those download speedup programs attempt to do to speedup
download times and it can be applied directly to the browser
with no need for the third party software addons. :-) 

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

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