The Daily Teaser — 6-8-2013: The World Wide Web … !

You know, I think the Cyberpunk future’s getting nearer.

The idea — in several different novel, William Gibson being most prominent — is that the future would be grittier, grimier and a hell of a lot more expensive.

And one in which all sorts of technology would be easily harnessed: the internet — appropriately, given today’s them — amongst them.

Body part replacements another: whether by artificial parts, or artificial made organic replacements.

Then there’s other things.   After all, the logical extension of artificially grown organs for surgery … is artificially grown food.

Like the grown in the lab, stem cell burger announced, yesterday.

I know shades of artificial human organs are possible: and realise for many that’s a very worthwhile thing.

I think stem cell burgers — and other such foods — will be, too.   After a lot of arguing … 

~≈Å≈~

Yesterday’s Teaser saw Debbi* — squeezing in one last teaser before she heads off to Oregon — putting in her answers: AND bagging five out of five.

Let’s see — while she’s off — who’s interested in today’s themed questions, shall we?

Here they are: along with the ‘How To’, License and video …

Q1) 6th August saw Sir Tim Berners-Lee release the code that formed the basis of the World Wide Web.   In which year of the 1990s … ?

Q2) At which lab was Sir Tim working at the time: JPL, CERN or Goonhilly Downs … ?

Q3) Many web addresses start with the prefix, http: what does the p stand for … ?

Q4) Berners-Lee’s first web server — the computer use to host the first web pages — was as computer produced by which Steve Jobs led company … ?

Q5) Finally … Sir Tim’s first web browser was called WorldWideWeb.   What was the name of the ‘world’s first popular browser’ … ?

Here’s yesterday’s questions and answers …

Q1) 5th August, 1962, saw the death of Marilyn Monroe: in which 1948 film did she make her first (credited) appearance … ?

A1) Ladies Of The Chorus.

Q2) The first film she made with John Huston was called The Asphalt … what … ?

A2) Jungle.

Q3) Marilyn famously sung I Wanna Be Loved By You in which film … ?

A3) Some Like It Hot.   (It’s an entertaining film: but I always think of the Power Station song … )

Q4) What name had Marilyn been born under … ?

A4) Norma Jean Mortensen.

Q5) Finally … The coroner listed Marilyn’s death as a probable … what … ?

A5) Suicide.

I’ll leave you with this tune from Kraftwerk: it seemed appropriate, somehow.

And with this thought from Sir Tim Berners-Lee, himself …

“I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and — ta-da!— the World Wide Web.”

Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

Have a good day … 

*        Give my regards to Nancy and the family, and Rick, Debbi!   And enjoy the time off.

About A Browser …

You know, I have to admit, I’ve had a (comparatively) busy couple of weeks.

What with scanning in the family photos.

Which, to be frank, is my slightly sneaky way of telling you that I meant to get this post done a couple of weeks ago.

But have only just now got round to starting it.

I would say Cie La Vie.

But that usually gives me too many mental images of Irish girl bands for my comfort, frankly … 

At ANY rate … ?

At ANY rate, you’ve probably figured I like following the tech news: frankly, I can’t afford as much new bits as I’d like, but that doesn’t stop me watching the BBC show, Click, to give you an example.

So, when I noticed this piece on the BBC’s site, about an Australian company charging customer’s extra for using the almost antique — in IT terms — Internet Explorer 7, I paid attention.

Especially as I’d also seen this article, about how Google were phasing out support for older browsers.

Which got me thinking.

The Work Programme I have to attend uses older PCs running Windoze XP and IE7.

As does my local job centre.

As far as I can tell, so does Brentwood Council.

As — keep following me, here — does Essex County Council: and their library services.

You can imagine what I did, can’t you … ?

I fired up Mail.app and sent an email off to the relevant person.   (The Interim Head of Libraries and Culture, Martin Palmer.)

Here’s what I said …

Dear Sir, 

My name is Paul, and I’m a blogger has taken something of an interest in technology.

And am a keen user of my local library, here in Brentwood.

Indeed, I’ve occasionally written about it: both favourably and otherwise.
And I have to admit, there’s something  I’d like to know.

As you may or may not know, Google has recently announced it will be dropping support for older web-browsers: including, but not limited to, Internet Explorer 7, Safari 3, and Firefox 3.5.

Mostly on the grounds it finds those — and earlier — to be both slow, and insecure, compared to more modern browsers.

Additionally, Microsoft has marked the fact Internet Explorer 6 is used by less than 1% of the world’s population.

What you may not ALSO be aware of, is the fact that Australian retailers, Kogan.com, have recently introduced a surcharge of 6.8%: specifically on users of Internet Explorer 7.

The company has similar security issues with the aging browser: but has introduced the charge in order to encourage users to switch to more modern browsers, as it found redesigning its site for IE7 took up more work than designing it for Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

Now, I have to admit, I’m raising this with you, as I cant help notice Brentwood Library is still using IE7.

Now, I’m sure you’ll remind me that the library’s copy of Internet Explorer 7 usually makes use of Bing as it’s default search engine: and that — as we are in the UK — not everyone will be using the Australian equivalent to Amazon.

However … ?

I’m very aware that accessing my Facebook account at Brentwood Library is becoming tricky.   What’s more, accessing my blog — hosted by Google’s Blogger service — is well-nigh impossible: something I’d expect to apply to other Google services, like YouTube or Googlemail, although they’re not something I’ve used from the library.

I also believe that other search engines — Yahoo, Jeeves and Microsoft’s own Bing service — will soon join Google in stopping support for IE7 and other aging browsers.
I also feel that I can’t be the only person to have been affected, this way.

So I have to ask a question, at this stage.

When will Essex Libraries be replacing Internet Explorer 7 with a more modern browser … ?

Now, I realise that many use mobile devices to access the web at their local library: and that upgrading Essex Libraries service will cost.

But I’m also aware that there’s equally as many — if not more — who rely on the computers at their local library.

And while I realise there’s a manpower cost involved, and that this needs to be done across Essex County Council services as a whole … ?

I also think not upgrading — at least to Internet Explorer 8 — will affect services for the people of Essex: AND for the councillors and council workers that serve them.

Yours,

And THAT’S possible one of the longest letters I’ve sent.

As soon as I get an answer to that … ?

I’ll pass it on.

That’s assuming I don’t get distracted … 

Oh … Firefox is Out …

Hmmm …

I’ll be frank, this is a bit of a weird experience, right at the moment …

You’ve probably realised, over the past few year’s, that I’m something of a Mac fan, haven’t you … ?

More fool you, if you haven’t.

And generally speaking, I tend to stick with OS X’s default browser,Safari.

Mostly … ?

Mostly because I happen to prefer the way it handles text. And how one can use the cursor keys — ▲, ▶, ◀ and ▼ — in conjuntion with Shift(⇧), Option(⌥) and Command(⌘) to both navigate, highlight and even delete both words and phrase. Indeed, whole lines and paragraphs as needed.

⇧, ⌥ and the Up or Down cursor will highlight a line, for example.

Not the case in Firefox, I know that much.

I’m using it, now, to write this post.

Mostly because todaysaw the release of Firefox 4.0.

The thing that caught my eye … ?

Was the simple little fact that Mozilla, the open-source project behind both Firefox and Thunderbird, the email client you can get as part of the Mozilla suite, have seemingly mae Fire look a touch more like the Mac version of Chrome, from Google.

Not that much, I grant: the Mac version of Chrome is still a touch more Mac-like, something I know is appreciated by Mac users.

The one thing that HAS caught my attention is that Firefox 4 now has any tabs one has open above the URL bar: unlike Safari, which has kept them below.

Another is a small point, again relating to tabs.

I’m not sure if you can make it out on the picture, but each of the little ‘x’ shaped buttons used to close each tab — in Safari — is on the right hand side: deliberatly, I believe, to make moving a mouse easy for the majority of us: the 90% or so of the planet’s population who are right handed: it’s why I think the Red, yellow and green buttons — the Mac OS X equivalent to Windoze and Linux’s Close, Minimise and Resize buttons — are on the left hand side of a given window in OS X.

Windoze and Linux, of course, have those buttons on the rightof a given window.

However … ?

For whatever reason, the little ‘x’ button’s I’m on about — in Chrome and Firefox — are on the right hand side of individual tabs.

Handy for a southpaw like me.

Head’s Up

Yes, a Head’s Up!

And literally a quick one, at that.

After noticing a couple of things on the Technology section of the BBC’s news site.

First off … ?

And one that grabbed me, after switching on the first Safari extension I installed … ?

Was all about how extensions and add-ons for modern-day browsers can — potentially — interfere with the Private Browsing feature.

Not a big worry for me, as Safari’s Private Browsing feature isn’t something I use often, but something to be aware of, I think.

‹‹‹•›››

The second … ?

Was the news that a worm aimed at jail-broken iPhones — ones owned by users in the Netherlands, with accounts with Dutch bank, ING and that had SSH (secure shell) installed — that directed them to a fake version of the banks website.

Then stole their details.

I know at least two iPhone users: and I’m willing to bet you know at least one.

And am going to suggest you and I put the word around.

Someone over here will think “THAT’S a good idea,” at some point …

‹‹‹•›››

Oh…

Hmmm …

No, just hmmm …

Just as a general thing …

No, don’t worry, I’ll get round to it … !!

At any rate, I do know I’ve been intent on doing a quick post, in between, watching all sorts of let’s call it Festive Programming, on TV …

What CAN I tell you … ?

But I do know that Tim, bless him is going to be tottering over, tomorrow, but has managed to change browsers: from Firefox to Opera.

He’s been having some serious freezing problems, with Firefox 3.5, which meant switching. Hopefully, it’ll be something that Mozilla issues a fix for, fairly soon.

Although Tim has told me that he’s pleased with it, as Opera 10.10 seems to be running much more smoothly than Firefox 3.5.

•••••

Ooh, just as a side issue, here, back in early November, about keyboard shortcuts?

I’ve just been emailing the shot’s I did for that post, but felt it worth me while to post them up again.

Just in case …

•••••

Oh, now as a last thing …

Here’s what I was ‘Hmmm’ing about, earlier.

The Charts Show, on BBC Radio One has announced that this year’s UK Christmas No. 1, is Rage Against the Machine’s re-issued Killing in the Name.

I think congratulations are due them, and the husband and wife who — over on Facebook — organised the campaign to get the song to the top, ahead of this year’s X-Factor winner, Joe McElderry.

But, while I think it’s nice that Killing in the Name has got there, after having heard the song, I’ve got to admit, I’m not stunned with it.

I think I’d’ve gone for something a touch less … heavy.

Cie la vie.

Never any accounting for taste, is there?