December 30, 2007

End of Support for Netscape web browsers - The Netscape Blog

I can't help blogging this news from Netscape. I was surprised when version 8 of the Netscape browser came out because I thought all of Netscape's browser development had been turned over to the Mozilla Foundation. Version 8 was neat, though. It let you switch between the Firefox engine and the IE engine, so in one browser, you could check how a page would look in those two browsers. Version 9 removed that feature, so I really did not see a reason to use Netscape over Firefox. And I guess few others did either.

Still, the end brings back memories of the excitement of the early days of public access to the Internet. Netscape was not only significant for bringing graphical browsing to the public, it was also the beginning of the tech boom of the 90's. The Netscape IPO was the start of the idea that there was a ton of money to be made by financing Internet applications. I remember seeing Marc Andreessen being interviewed the morning of the initial offering after he had just become a multi-millionaire, or maybe a billionaire.

The thing about Netscape that scared Microsoft was the idea of the browser as a platform for applications, making the operating system irrelevant. That idea is still being pursued. One can only wonder what might have developed if Netscape could have maintained its market share and stayed independent instead of being subsumed into AOL.

December 23, 2007

January Meeting Rescheduled

Please note that due to a scheduling conflict at the school where PACS meets, the January meeting will be held on Saturday the 26th, one week later than previously scheduled.

December 13, 2007

December 15 Meeting Announcement

The next session of the PACS CSS Workshop will be this Saturday, December 15, at 9 - 10 am.

We finished up on styling tables at the last meeting. This month, the topic is IE Hacks. I will use an example that I picked up at a seminar to show a couple of problems with Internet Explorer when it comes to positioning elements using CSS. I thought the presentation was a good overview of a subject that I keep hearing about but never really had a good handle on.

See you Saturday.

December 09, 2007

Bookmarklets, Links and Favelets for the Busy Webdeveloper | saulrosenbaum.com

Saul Rosenbaum is a frequent guest speaker at the PACS Web Design SIG. He will in fact join us at the December 15 meeting.

Saul showed us a number of interesting online utilities and resources when we was last with us, and he was good enough to share with me his list of Bookmarklets, Links and Favelets for the Busy Webdeveloper. Some of these he demonstrated at our meeting, and all of them will give you great ideas and save you lots of time and effort.

Thanks, Saul.