OFF: JUST BROWSING, THANKS (today's new toy)

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On tor 22 apr 1999 06.06 +0000 DASLUD at AOL.COM wrote:
> but i
> guess i thought one routinely grabbed browsers as they were "upgraded" and
> dumped the previous one..

     Well, in an ideal world, yes.  Where software makers could
be relied on to produce a new version which really _was_ an
improvement and in which I had enough money to shell out for
new hardware to keep up with the software ;)

     Software and hardware advances drive each other.  Faster,
cleverer machine mean one can run bigger, fancier apps, which
mean people want faster, cleverer machines which then ....
Market heaven!

     Developers--especially web developers--who are equipt with
all the latest and fastest often forget that there are a _lot_
of obsolete machines out there being used by institutions (schools,
etc.) and people who can't afford to (or don't care enough) to
upgrade their stuff so regularly (especially outside of the States).
I am regularly amused by the steady trickle of email complimenting
me on having a web page without snazzy browser-crashing gimmicks
(my most advanced stuff is transparent gifs and tables :)

     And there's the "right tool for the job" issue. I still use
Mac Word 5.1 for word-processing, simply because I don't need
anything fancier.  It's quite small and fast by today's standards!
(Being back from when Microsoft was still making relatively decent
software).
      After all, you can still make a damn fine guitar amp with
obsolete stuff like vacumn tubes :)

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/