underdogishere

Where I work, the official Web broswer and the only one that anyone is supposed to use is IE6. Yes, I know.

I loaded Mozilla on my work computer a while ago, and then switched to Firefox back when it was still version 0.9. But a year or so ago the I.T. Trolls decreed that FireFox and Mozilla were banned, because -- get this -- they were security threats. Like IE6 isn't already the buggiest and most vulnerable browser out there. Anyway, the I.E. Trolls set up a regimen through SMS that automatically deletes FF or Moz from any computer where we try to install it. :(

But at that time I found that there was a beta Safari for Windows, so I loaded that. And I liked it. A lot. There were some things that seemed odd -- in an Apple kind of way -- to this Windows user, but it was fast. Fast, as in blazing. And it had tabbed browsing, which was the thing I missed most in IE6. Yay, Safari! Yay, Apple!

Well, this week it looks like the I.T. Trolls' SMS script has been updated to delete Safari. Every morning it's gone and I have to reload it. So... I am trying Opera. I don't know if that will get scrubbed or not. I used to use Opera years ago (Opera 5), but when I upgraded to Opera 7 I didn't like the changes in the the user experience and gave it up. The latest Opera, 9, seems pretty good though. And it's fast. Fast, as in blazing. And it has tabs. Yay, tabs! Let's hope it's still loaded tomorrow morning....

If I have to have tabs, what about IE7, you ask? IE7 is also banned. Yes, in this IE6 shop we are not allowed to upgrade to IE7. Why? Because the I.T. Programmer Trolls have invested countless person-years in writing software that is riddled with the non-standard features of IE6, and their software, much of it critical to our company, might or might not run in IE7. And IE7 replaces IE6 completely when installed.

Q: Can anyone say "standards compliant"?

A: Not in our I.T. Department.

Anyway, I know none of you care about this. On a completely different note, I did learn something last week: That if you average only three visitors a day to your blog, you can really pick up the pace -- to between ten and twenty -- by mentioning the Os.car May.er Wein.ermo.bile. But it doesn't last. ;)

I know I've been scarcely posting lately, but posts to come soon about happenings in the Butterfly Garden (including some pictures that might be called scandalous), and something about Shakespeare (you can go ahead and yawn now).

Since this is Tuesday, some Haiku:

No Mozilla. No
FireFox. Tears fall to the floor.
IE6 sucks eggs.

I'm free of colon
cancer, but would rather not
speak of how I know.

Labels: Haiku, Inner Geek