Need I say more?

Back two or three years ago I was a solid Mozilla browser user. Mainly for the built in popup blocker and Java script controls, when Firebird (forerunner to Firefox) emerged I switched over to using that since I didn't need Mozilla's mail/news client etc.

However when Microsoft released Service Pack 2, I switched back to IE, I much prefer the way IE renders pages, it's much nicer to have everything sized out first then rendered than having things chucked around the screen like Netscape based browsers.

Just yesterday I came across my first PHP script that blocks IE, why? No reason what-so-ever, it all works fine in Internet Explorer.

It seems over the last few months the ravenous swarms of Microsoft haters have been propping up Firefox - this script forced me into wasting several seconds while I wait for slow Firefox to load up (at least Mozilla had a tray application that kept it in memory reducing the dreadful load delay). OK not a big problem - but to then insult me by saying my browser is not modern enough and refusing to work. That's just childish.

Who do they think they are?

The big case against Internet Explorer was always that pages were written specifically for it and many web designers just didn't bother ensuring their sites were compatible with everything else - obviously not a good way to do things.

Now I've come across pages and scripts specifically designed not to run on Internet Explorer - and for no good reason at all - once the browser check is removed they worked fine.

That is just going too far, ok some web designers may be lazy and not bother ensuring their pages work on something other then IE - but purposely blocking Internet Explorer and then trying to advertise some other browser is just madness.

This kind of fanboyism and total ignorance is really starting to turn me very anti-Firefox. They're the same kind of people as the Apple cult - they refuse to accept that Firefox has bugs, trust me it has loads, more then IE, I come across them every day, bugs that have existed for years and years and years that probably won't ever be fixed - inconsistent rendering and blockquote spacing issues. Then we come to security - the same ignorance again, "we're immune to security problems" they chirp on, only a few days ago was a vulnerability addressed that became public months ago. What kind of security is that?

It's a real shame I'm so annoyed now, Firefox is a good browser, I recommend everyone to try it, but the kind of scum that try and push it down your throat, purposely block other browsers have thier heads up where the sun doesn't shine that seem to believe it's "perfect" really, really put me off.

A few days ago now, while I was at work. Someone came up to me with a copy of Dead or Alive Ultimate, he said he'd like to return it because the graphics aren't "smooth".

OK so I wandered over to the till area and checked the discs to make sure they were in mint condition, while I was doing this, he looked up and said, "I only played the first disc, didn't even touch the second disc".

Now Dead or Alive Ultimate, includes both Dead or Alive, the original near decade old Saturn game, which is a direct port and is really just a bonus disc. The main game itself, is Dead or Alive 2, ported from the Dreamcast and totally recreated with the Dead or Alive 3 engine, which brings it up to the best looking game on the Xbox.

So this guy wonders why the graphics aren't smooth? You're playing a ten year old Saturn game mate. Here, look Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate - this is the bloody game you dimwit!

Last month Demon, my ISP, introduced a new 1Mbps product range. HomeOffice 1000, priced at only £1 more then I'm currently paying for 500Kbps. Good deal if you ask me.

Within a week I fax of a upgrade form. I wait 3 weeks hear nothing. Get onto them last night only to find out that the upgrade was put onto their system - but removed 2 days later. Phone them up today only to find out that 'Demon Express' cannot be upgraded to HomeOffice 1000, despite the fact that Demon Express Total (the newer product that is identical to Demon Express) can be.

So apparently my only option is to cancel, which would probably leave me without a connection for 2 weeks may be even more and order HomeOffice 1000. I'd probably lose my hostname, my e-mail addresses, my IP address. Pretty much everything.

I must say BT's business 2Mbps uncapped ADSL line at £29.99 looks tempting.

Anyone know of any uncapped and unrestricted, 1Mbps or higher, static IP products priced at around £30? I'd rather not go with BT as they do have a habit of kicking people off for no reason.

Ken Livingstone is once again under attack by the right-wing press. In this case the Evening Standard and it's sister paper the Daily Mail.

What's he done this time? Called a journalist who had been pestering him and trying to get some kind of rise out of him someone who behaves like a "concentration camp guard".

It turns out the journalist is Jewish, well so he claims, I wouldn't be surprised if it was entirely made up just to try and get some kind of story going on. Apparently he's offended, he really sounded offended during the incident. Even more the Board of Deputies of British Jews has demonstrated it's total stupidity by lodging an official complaint.

Somehow, Ken's remarks are "racist". What frakking bullshit is this? Racist? How on Earth is likening someone to a "concentration camp guard" racist? Even if he used something anti-Jewish in what he said, the Jews aren't a race, they're a bunch of religious people like any other bunch of religious people, Christians, Muslims whatever. BUT he DIDN'T say something anti-Jewish, he said something anti-"concentration camp guard" which I don't think anybody would have a problem with, they weren't the nicest of people - much like this journalist.

It's also interesting to point out that the Daily Mail was probably the most pro-Nazi paper in the country, always supporting the Nazis in Germany (well until the war started) and the British Nazi Party and showing lots of similarities with today's British National Party. So who the hell are they to talk?

I dug out an old application I wrote for RISC OS the other day, if you knew me back when I was 12 or 13, you could well remember this massive un-finished project of mine.

It was called The Night Sky (yes obvious infringements there) it spanned about 10, 1.6MB floppy disks, and what did it do? It was a simple astronomy program that spouted out lots of information about constellations, and various major objects in the sky.

It was never completed, Windows 95 was pushing it's way onto the scene and I found myself with a PC, bye bye RISC OS. The application was stuck on a hard drive and put away in the cupboard. Where it stayed about 70% complete.

Then it hit me, why not re-develop the application for Windows? Well it's got some bad points, it would have to be totally re-rewritten, I'd have to think of a new name. But then it has some good points, it'll run in a window and you'll be able to use a mouse!

I'd guess it would take about 150 hours to develop the application for Windows. Should I, or shouldn't I?