Sunday, February 22, 2009
Here a window, there a window, everywhere a $)(*&^ window!
| In the beginning of the web a "home page" was different from what it is now. These days a "home page" is the face YOU present TO the rest of the world. People come to your home page to find out about you. (You could be a person or company.) In the beginning, your home page was your "launching pad" to the rest of the world. you started there and then moved out onto the web. People don't seem to believe this, but if you go to your Internet Options in Windows Explorer, look at the name given to the page that is automatically displayed when you start your browser. My starting page has been Alta Vista for years. They won awards for being a top search engine about 8 years back and I have been a fan ever since. Why a search engine as my starting page? My insane curiosity causes me to search for stuff on the Internet constantly, so I find myself on search engines more than anywhere else. Of course this is moot now that the newer versions of IE already have a "search" box to the upper left that can connect you to your favorite search engine. (Oddly enough I still have Alta Vista as my home page, but Google as my Browser search engine. That gives me flexibility.) Anyway, I do in fact have a personalized home page in the traditional sense. I have a web page with 14 links on it that I check almost every day. Since I need to be able to change the list at the drop of a hat, the page is stored on my desktop, not on the web. When I get up in the morning, I crank up that page, hold down the control key and start clicking. In the prior version of IE, before they had tabbed browsing, I'd hold Shift and click, which opens links in additional windows. It was a memory drain and a bit clunky, but that's all there was. Tabbed browsing (with control-clicks) makes things MUCH easier. Then I got Vista. As I mentioned previously, Vista is all about security. Even if you don't want it. My old Dodge Dynasty (formerly my mother's old Dodge Dynasty, and currently my Grandmother's old Dodge Dynasty) had automatic door locks. When you get above about 10 miles and hour it automatically locks the door. Nice security feature. If however it was the new Dodge Dynasty with Vista technology, it would lock as soon as you put the key in and wouldn't allow you to unlock the door while the car is running. In fact, to unlock the door, you have to have someone climb up under the car with a hex-head screwdriver and loosen two bolts. Sure, it's secure, but honestly, is it better?!? When browsing the web there has always been a way to classify web pages. Basically they get grouped into good, bad, and unknown. They're all considered unknown until you move them into one category or the other. The only difference is that Unknown pages can't do stuff without your permission. Bad pages can't do anything at all. Good pages have pretty much free reign to do as they please. I can accept that. Vista can't. The morning after I cranked up my new computer, I started my home page from my desktop and started control clicking links and chaos erupted on my desktop. Apparently, Vista FORCES windows from different "zones" to open in different windows. Since my file is on my desktop it is in the "intranet" zone, and EVERYTHING else is in another zone. so am back to have 8 windows flying all over the screen for no apparent reason. This is clearly an example of "one step forward and two steps back." It took me about 10 minutes of prowling the web to find a solution to this problem. I found the REASON for it very easily: "This is to protect you and your computer." Well thank you very much, Microsoft. Got a hex head screwdriver?   |
