WHOA, NESSIE!!!

I see you're using a Netscape browser that's over six years old. This is an unfortunate situation. I'm afraid that my web-site is hardly usable with your browser.

I don't want you to think I'm being snooty or selfish. It would appear that there is a no-sum game between the convenience of a web designer and the convenience of a web-surfer.

However, no-sum games are so fun for a scholar to refute, I thought you might enjoy a further explanation.

In the last three years, a consensus is beginning to develop that it is important to make a standard web language, through the use of CSS, XHTML, and other languages which ensure that information remains accessible across all mediums (not just on computers but for cell phones and Palm Pilots, etc.) Even at the expensive of Netscape 4 users.

This web-development strategy departs from the days when web-designers would, quite literally, spend twice the time and money on development because the goal was to cater to the proprietary quirks of browsers of the "4" generation. Of course, not only are there people with browsers of the "4" generation but also of "3" and others who do not have Windows, and others who could not use a mouse, etc. Web-developers were stuck with the morally taxing decision of deciding whether to code for all of these parties or to put their resources towards accessibility for the handicapped. Obviously, that is an unfortunate rock and hard place.

The separation of style from content when making web pages (which Netscape 4 was never designed to translate) is what eases this burden on many handicapped Internet users and provides a more universal web language (which means you need to know less about how your browser works.) In essence, we are victims and benefactors of a technology which is maturing.

This situation is why it is important for you to upgrade your browser, because it is easier for you and me to download the newest free browser than it is for a blind person to find another means of reading a page.

I hope I haven't carried on for too long, but it is a debate which needs a greater awareness, and I believe that you will see the value in it and hopefully inform others as to this necessity.

For your ease, here are links to the newest versions of Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Mozilla - an open-source browser with no corporate strings attached. Each of these are designed to display the web intelligently and responsibly.

IE6:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/ie6sp1/default.asp

Netscape: (now an AOL company which runs a rebranded Mozilla browser)
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/download.jsp

Mozilla: (on the right)
http://www.mozilla.org/

Thanks,
Buck