[WEB4LIB] Re: More MS sabatoge of Netscape?

[Matthew Theobald]

I've never been a strong anit-MS person.  I use an NT workstation and find it very
useful.

If  you convert a Word doc to HTML it sets a fixed table width to 640 pixels.  This
doesn't account for the several pixels that frame the browser. So the last
character-and-a-half are lopped of and you a horizontal scoller pop up.  You need
to go in a change the table to 636 pixel width to break that little bug. No
automated way of changing it.

My other story is related to metadata. I consult a bit on the side working up small
companies metadata and ensuring accurate and widely based submission to
directories/engines.

This particular client has a development company that uses Front Page.
FP extracts metadata from the root index.html file or other home page and places
that metadata on every page of the site.  It does not make tailored metadata for
each pages.

My method is to run an extraction tool on each page, add misspellings/alternative
vocabularies to each page.  Sometimes repeating words on every page.  If there is
already metadata there then the tool just extracts that metadata, not the page's
text.

So I have been trying to contact the developer to have the metadata temporarily
moved, otherwise the cost of creating the metadata goes above my hourly rate.
Either too expensive for me or the client.  I don't know what too expect from
developer about the ease of disabling/removing the metadata with FP.

It's a pain for me, but I see this as a typical MS scenario.  most pages do not
have metadata, so having it as part of FP is a good thing.  However it is mediocre
and not as value added as my service. (which is based on what I learn at WEB4LIB,
Search Engine Watch and with Dublin Core)

It may have been said here, but I read recently that MS creates its software at the
level of the knowledge of the average web developer.
I've tried to carve a niche in providing a service to small companies, but Gates
has created barriers to doing this through the mediocrity of his product.  Not
angry, I always think of it as learning.  I'll know when I run into the problem
again.

I think these kinds of problems are the symptom of the larger addiction to MS
products. I do understand that not everyone has the time or desire to learn the
foundation of web development.

Thanks for reading,

-Matt




Judy McBrian wrote:

> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> --------------36FF7B3ADC9F20345E74788E
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> Leo Robert Klein wrote:
>
> > At Wed, 25 Aug 1999 Alicia Abramson wrote:
> >
> > >Has anyone else experienced difficulty viewing Microsoft sites with
> > >Netscape browsers?
> >
> > Sabotage would imply that they were doing it intentionally.
>
> Well, maybe and maybe not.  We choose to run Netscape as out patron browser,
> and had to tweak things so that to only way to get Hotmail was to send them to
> msn.com the have them go to the bottom of  the page and use the login there for
> Hotmail.  Today I find that has changed ("they" must read out lists) so that
> you can click an icon for Hotmail but NOT login.  This, ofcourse, with our
> configuration of Fortres and Historian locks the machine up very neatly. (As it
> did BEFORE we discovered the little "go to msn.com...."  trick.)  Ofcourse IF I
> use IE patrons have no problem getting their Hotmail.
> Grrrr......
>
> Judy McBrian
> Boonville Public Library
>
> --------------36FF7B3ADC9F20345E74788E
> Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii;
>  name="jbrian.vcf"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> Content-Description: Card for Judy McBrian
> Content-Disposition: attachment;
>  filename="jbrian.vcf"
>
> begin:vcard
> n:McBrian;Judy
> x-mozilla-html:FALSE
> org:Boonville-Warrick Public Library
> version:2.1
> email;internet:jbrian at evansville.net
> title:System Admininstrator
> x-mozilla-cpt:;0
> fn:Judy McBrian
> end:vcard
>
> --------------36FF7B3ADC9F20345E74788E--