You’ve been listening to me whine about changing from Internet Explorer to Firefox. In this post, I’ll give you a comparison of browsers.

Okay, you need some background knowledge to read this post first.

• Internet Explorer is widely used because it comes with your computer/notebook.
• Internet Explorer is NOT the only tool that you can use to surf porn the web.

Browser Market Statistics

Now, here’s the browser market share (in the world, how many percentage of people uses which browser) statistics.

May 2007:

May 2008:

As you can see, Internet Explorer stands at a dominant 74%, with Firefox tailing behind at 18%. However, major usage of IE does not mean that it is good. Over the past year, 4% of the worldwide population has switched from IE to some other browsers. (Hint: Firefox.)

Here’s a web poll you might be interested in.

I snapped this image at 4.43AM on 13 June, 2008. So if you want the latest statistics, you can check it here yourself.

Alright, 55% of the entire population worldwide chose Firefox, followed by Opera, Safari, and then Internet Explorer.

Browsers’ Pros and Cons

Clockwise direction from top left: Internet Explorer 7, Safari 3.1, Opera 9.5, Firefox 3 RC2. Now, let me talk about all 4 of these browsers.

Internet Explorer 7

Above: Internet Explorer 7, the most well-known browser among the rest.

Why it rocks:

• It succeeds in annoying you and playing with your patience
• Windows Live Hotmail works correctly
• You can play catch with it

Why it sucks:

• Windows Live Hotmail loads like a snail
• A lot of porn-ads pop-up (it doesn’t suck if you like this part…)
• Not customisable
• Occasional crashes
• Slow rendering of websites
• Tries to be better than Firefox but… EPIC FAIL!
• It only runs on Windows
• Requires WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) and two restarts to install
• IT IS UNSAFE: a lot of exploits in IE. (Hackers can easily discover the flaws in IE and screw up your computer, that’s why so many of you ignorant IE users get f*cking viruses/spyware/adware/trojan).
• If you watch porn on it you’ll be discovered!

Innovative/unique features:

• Lol wtf?

Safari 3.1

Above: Safari 3.1, a browser developed by Apple, and originated from Mac platforms.

Why it rocks:

• Font rendering engine is perfect (compare the fonts in the above image with the rest of the browser, the fonts displayed in Safari looks absolutely smooth/kerned and stunning.)
• Quite fast
• Simple interface

Why it sucks:

• Interface looks like poo
• Not customisable

Innovative/unique features:

• Font rendering engine is perfect (compare the fonts in the above image with the rest of the browser, the fonts displayed in Safari looks absolutely smooth/kerned and stunning.)
• Private browsing feature, whereby once activated, the history, cookies, things you fill in forms will not be recorded until deactivated.

Firefox 3 RC2

Above: Firefox 3 RC2, a browser by Mozilla, quickly gaining population amongst IE users. RC2 means release candidate 2, which means that the browser is near a release, but still in the stage where minor errors are sorted out. Firefox 3 is due to be released on June 17th.

Why it (Firefox 3, not Firefox 2) rocks:

• Very customisable and extensible with themes and add-ons
• Low memory footprint (lament terms: it won’t lag your computer)
• Faster than IE
• Large community base
• Open source (code of Firefox is open to the community, as such, bug fixes can be released fast)
• Effective pop-up blocker
• Safe, and secure
• Resumable downloading
• Saved sessions: accidentally closed your browser? Need to restart your PC? No worries, just close Firefox and when Windows/Mac restarts, you get all your tabs back from your previous session.
• Protects you: once Firefox detects a webpage that is unsafe, it informs you about it and prevents the webpage from loading.

Why it sucks:

• Default interface looks like crap (but there are themes for that)
• Options panel are hard to navigate

Innovative/unique features:

• Location bar & auto-complete: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you’re looking for. (Image below.)
• Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches. Create and restore full backups whenever you want.
• Easy page bookmark.
• Improved font rendering

Above: new address bar for Firefox 3. In this example I was trying to find the Fantastic Four Youtube trailer I saw a few days back. I just type in “youtube trailer” in the address bar and there you go!

Opera 9.5

Above: Opera 9.5, released only yesterday, 12th June 2008. A less well-known browser.

Why it rocks:

• LIGHTNING fast rendering of web pages
• Customisable (via widgets)
• Great looking interface
• Easy to locate what you want to change in your Preferences window
• Fast, stable, secure
• Large community base
• Location bar & auto-complete.
• Everything else that Firefox 3 has (except for extensions)

Why it sucks:

• None yet

Innovative/unique features:

• Speed-dial feature (image below.)
• Fast-forward feature (image below.)

Above: Speed dial allows you to set your favorite websites, and using CTRL+1 to CTRL+9 to load it instantaneously.

Above: The middle two buttons are back/forward buttons found in most browsers. What’s interesting is the two buttons at the site. For example when you are searching Google, instead of clicking Page 2 of the results, you can click the button on the extreme right to get to page 2.

Acid2 Test

In my final part of this post, I am going to show you a test. This test is called Acid2. From Wikipedia, Acid2 is a test suite published and promoted by the Web Standards Project to identify web page rendering flaws in web browsers and other applications that render HTML.

So, to know if a browser passes Acid2, it should look like this image:

I’ll start with Safari 3.1, followed by Firefox 3 RC2, Opera 9.5 and finally IE7.

Safari 3.1

PASS

Firefox 3 RC2

PASS

Opera 9.5

PASS

Internet Explorer 7

EPIC FAIL

CONCLUSION: Alright, only IE7 failed this test. And it failed miserably. This means that if you’re using IE7, you are f*cked up as IE7 doesn’t render your pages properly. It also means that it’s time to choose another browser.

If you’re interested, you can take the test and see for yourself!

This post on browser wars has officially ended…

But… I’d like to share with you something else…

Making Firefox 3 even better

By using add-ons! “Add-ons extend Firefox, letting you personalize your browsing experience. Take a look around and make Firefox your own.”

Here’s a list of the current add-ons that I use in Firefox 3 right now:

• Adblock Plus
  Blocks any form of advertisement in websites. Speeds up your page loading times too.
• Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper
  Text-ads are history. You need Adblock Plus installed to install this.
• ColorZilla
  A little icon on the bottom left of Firefox allows you to point and select colors you see on a website, and get the codes (i.e. #000000) or RGB/Hue Saturation values for it.
• DownloadHelper
  Download videos from sites such as YouTube.
• DownThemAll!
  A faster downloader for Firefox.
• IE Tab
  Sometimes when I visit people’s blogs, they can only be viewed in IE. Hence I got this tab. It lets you view a webpage in IE from within Firefox.
• Nightly Tester Tools
  Allows you to use old add-ons that are incompatible with Firefox 3 but compatible with Firefox 2.
• PDF Download
  Allows you to choose what you want to do with a PDF file when you click on a PDF link.

And to teach you how to install add-ons from the official Firefox add-ons page…

Follow the purple arrows.

Step 1: Click Add to Firefox.

Step 2: A notice like the one above will pop-up. Wait for the countdown to end.

Step 3: Click on Install Now, wait for installation to end, and repeat for any other add-ons.
Step 4: After installing the add-ons you want, you’ll need to restart Firefox.

GET MORE ADD-ONS BY CLICKING HERE

A fair warning though: if you install too much dubious add-ons, it’ll slow Firefox down. Since add-ons are not created by Mozilla.

Currently, I’m vambomfazzled by Opera 9.5. So I’m using that and Firefox 3 RC2 simultaneously. Okay, that’s all.

There are several common words borrowed by the English language, for example, PYJAMAS.

There are also words borrowed from familiar languages such as Latin:

• exterior
• climax
• medium
• radius
• - source -

German:

• Schadenfreude (probably my favorite loanword)
• Zeitgeist
• aspirin
• blitz

Well that’s all for this week.

English is a bloody fun language. Use it. Manipulate it. There are three concepts that I’d like to share today.

First, it’s called OXYMORON.

Noun: oxymoron
1. Conjoining contradictory terms (as in ‘deafening silence’)

There we have the meaning. Can you think of some oxymorons? Some of which that I can think of are:

• eyes WIDE shut. (how can your eyes be wide [open] and shut at the same time?)
• cold fever
• dark star (cough, Ali)

And to take it further, you can add pun to these oxymorons. For example, extra money. If you think about it, when does money come in extras?

The next concept is called palindrome. Now this is interesting.

Noun: palindrome
1. A word or phrase that reads the same backward as forward

Some simple words are:

• noon
• pop
• eye
• radar

And of course, my favorite, anagrams.

Noun: anagram
1. A word or phrase spelled by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase

It’s sort of like scrabble, just that it’s applied to real life. For Potter fans, you sure would remember this:

Tom Marvolo Riddle rearranged to I am Lord Voldemort.

And here are some other anagrams for you to figure out. Try these:

• stressed (word 1 hint: spell it backwards) (word 2 hint: rearrange the last two letters)
• sneak (hint: animal)
• Leonardo da Vinci (hint: The Da Vinci Code)
• relay (word 1 hint: time) (word 2 hint: Photoshop)
• cheaters (hint for word 1: lecturer) (word 2 hint: measurement unit)

Hear the answers:

1. desserts, destress
2. snake
3. O Draconian devil
4. early, layer
5. teachers, hectares

And that’s all.

Jocelyn grew up like any other girl – she started on weeping, sucking her pacifier, learning to crawl, mumble, and eventually, walk. Her first few steps on her own were rather unsteady. Often, she’d trip over an invisible rock and pick herself up again, however, this time compared to the previous attempts, she was stable.

The pat on her back was given by her grandmother for her accomplishment, followed with a stroke on her ordinary, smooth and long black hair. Her grandmother then ran her wrinkled fingers down from the top of her head till the ends of her hairs again. Jocelyn grinned jubilantly but innocently towards her success. She was then motioned to extinguish the candles.

She turned three.

“Your parents will be happy that their baby has turned one year older, and have become all grown-up,” Jocelyn’s grandmother spoke slowly in Mandarin.

* * *

People say that fetuses do respond to changes inside its mother’s womb. A research, completed with an experiment showed that a fetus ‘cries’ for help when it is undergoing abortion – ready to be taken into the netherworld; intelligence.

That’s it, the world is evolving. We humans are adversely affected to these changes, by our environments, and on the sociological level.

Three years, Jocelyn’s parents have left their daughter with their parent. This time-span, when Jocelyn is taken along with her grandmother to the nearby wet market, she could observe and see how other young babies in uniforms have their parents sent them somewhere. She knew. For three years, Jocelyn listened to her grandmother closely. There wasn’t even a mischievous behavior coming from her. She learnt how to stay quiet and stop weeping, and to kiss her grandmother. She knew. Her parents procreated her at the wrong time.

What mistakes would a married couple be likely to make? Unplanned and unwanted pregnancy: having sexual intercourses without using safety precautions.

“You’re a father!”

“I… I am? No – SCREW the idea and go for an abortion.”

“Please, be calm.”

“I’m not ready yet.”

“Neither is I, but let me keep her, alright? You don’t want to see a life go to waste, do you? Look, we’ll work things out. I’m sure it’ll be all right. We have support, see. We’ll HAVE support.”

Eventually, after a grueling child delivery at Mount Elizabeth hospital, things changed. The couple couldn’t handle the noise blasted by their jinxed daughter. It was tough for them, they had to cope with work, and handle their baby at the same time. It’s the same as eating your whole-meal bread when brushing your teeth – you cannot grapple both objectives at any one time. Diapers, milk powder, towels, accessories, clothes, shampoo, pacifier, toys…

“She’s killing us! She’s eating into our lives; she’s taking up our salary like the Government imposes tax on us. Happiness from her, like the tax incentives are so rare! It’s like what? Shit.” The father announced.

Based only on sympathy, the old, 65 years old lady volunteered to look after the child.

Her husband died 4 years ago, having reported tumbling off the stairs due to rheumatism. In actual fact, he was helping her wife down the four-storey flight of stairs to the building’s lift when apparently he fell because the floor was still wet from washing and the handrails are broken. (Stainless steel plated at the edge of the steps doesn’t play well with water, you know.) The old woman tripped over a little, but regained balance by placing both of her hands onto the filthy pale-yellow walls. It smelled like bird shit. A while later, when the grandmother regained from the shock, (old people’s shock absorber works slower, perhaps) a pool of red fluid was all around her man’s neck. It shimmered clearly in the afternoon sun, now lighting at the flat directly.

After Jocelyn was deposited into her caretaker’s hand, she was not withdrawn at all – not even for a short period of time. Heck, she wasn’t even paid a visit by her parents.

Mutual love: the old lady needed her grandchild. You’re the only reason why I’m still alive and kicking. The child needed her grandmother. She calls her grandmother her mother. My parents don’t love me anymore. I want you to be my mother. Don’t leave me.

I am cursed with severe eye impairment since birth. That moment struck my mom dumbfounded. She knew that I would have mild disabilities before conceiving me, but she eventually spawned me into this world.

Call me jinxed, or unlucky. Being blind is seriously the last thing you’d ever wished for. My parents were unable to accept this when they discovered that my sight was voided. Till today, I bet that they’re still trying (or at the very least, pretend to try).

I was taught how to read and interpret Braille – a point system of writing in which patterns of raised dots represent letters and numerals. I took Louis Braille as my role model. He got blind at the age of 3, but later invented this brilliant communication system for people like me.

Five years old. I began to walk steadily and confidently, in my house. All I needed was a walking stick; simple? No it isn’t. To gauge the distance of your obstacles, to determine where exactly each stair-step lies, it’s more than a chore. Impatience ran in my parent’s and teacher’s blood when they tried to guide me. True, I was a slow learner, but blame it on my disability?

Being blind is like an infectious plague, I feel that there are a lot of people who stares at me when I walk pass them. I treated them as if they were unknown objects, but with vicious eyes planted onto each of them. Then again, I knew that blindness wouldn’t be openly socially-accepted. Just take a look at my parents.

I was enrolled into a normal primary school two years later. I met someone. Peter Wong. He was my eyes and my defensive mechanism. To be more liberal, he wasn’t a tool. He was a friend; someone who brought images into a sightless-person’s life.

“…and there are plants all around us! The trees are like our guardians. They grow tall; their texture is much, much rougher than your raised-dots-language! And during spring, flowers, or really pretty decorations that makes plants alive, they BLOOM and a sweet smelling scent is dispersed!”

“So those nice smelling stuff comes from the flowers, huh,” I repeated, “how I wish…”

“Don’t you start that again,” Peter groaned. Yes, I was about to moan about my disability.

Each of this blissful moment was a trial to prepare me for what’s to come. I blindly cherished each second of it, feeling free and open towards Peter.

The next year, Peter mixed with new company. He started cracking up false tales, telling me ridiculously absurd scenes which I could never have imagined at all.

“And every other year, the trees explode into hundreds of pieces. The bees come to attack people who can’t see!” I couldn’t accept that kind of mocking. I was alone.

One weekday, I just felt like staying in bed, and not going to school. I didn’t want to. I hate people who mock at me. I hate the feeling of being glared upon. I disgust people who intentionally take advantage of my disability to do outrageous acts. Imagine someone stealing your purse and pulling your pants down in front of girls! What’s more, they think that they are such cool people, that they went too far with their actions. Their hands intruded my undergarments.

Wake up? No, I want to be sleeping. I don’t want to face a troubled life!

You thought there would be peace at home. How about someone taking a stick and whipping you at your butt? Do you know how much it hurts when the stick comes straight down at a vulnerable spot? The pain is excruciating; feels as though someone has sliced my skin open, blatantly revealing what’s underneath it.

I’d cry woefully after the whipping sessions. Fifteen minutes each day, and my mother would give up hope on me. I tried to pluck up courage, but I failed, time and again.

No one understands what I’m going through, this rotten life of mine. I hope people with eyesight out there can understand that I am not trying to be useless. I just want to stay in bed, sleep, and dream of beautiful, astonishing, refreshing, awesome, unimaginable breathtaking fabrications forming in my head. Honestly, it’s a paradise in bed, and Hades when I’m out of it.

The constant ringing of the bell at the counter finally caught the attention of a policeman.

“How may I help you?”

“My car got stolen”, was the reply.

“What is your name?”,

“Batman.”

“You sure?!?”

“How about your father?”

“Suparman.”

“Pass me your IC”

His full name?

Batman Bin Suparman

Now… take a look at this:

Yeah, he’s a Singaporean.

That aside, here’s a post of my NPP (Ngee Ann Preparatory Programme) experience. Those who got into NP via DPA (Direct Poly Admission) have to go through a compulsory 2-months NPP before the April semester starts.

HERE WE GO.

Hi. My name is Zane. I came from Jurongville Secondary School. One day, a miracle happened. I got through the Direct Polytechnic Admission exercise. I could then move on. The Ngee Ann Preparatory Programme is a fun a enriching experience for me.

Screw those nonsense above. People have some standard, stagnant, fixed, dead, and lame writing style that conforms to the society’s expectations. In poly, I’ve learnt to break the norm and get an attitude.

Let me pen and share what happened in this very week just for you. This entry is divided into three portions. First, the Learning to Lead (Leadership Camp) at Kota Tinggi. Next, my reflections. And finally, what happened during the past two days.

DAY ONE

The boring theory portion in campus. I’ll skip the retarded details.

DAY TWO

Headed to Woodlands for Johor. Had to alight twice for the Singapore and Malaysia’s customs. The journey was pretty smooth-sail and took around 2 hours to reach it although there was a slight jam. (Bread and butter, anyone?)

Had lunch immediately upon reaching our destination. The food tasted below average. Well, either that or starvation. F*CK THE FIRST MOSQUITO BITE. *Maintains composure…* F*CK.

Had some team bonding, formation of group identity, group vision, some ground rules, and other gay crap. Marinne stood up as the first leader of the team, and go imagine what happens. Think straight, I beg of you.

Each activity ended with a debrief. Bloody hell. Each debrief is unique in their own ways and the final debrief was about telling each other into their eyes what sucks about them. That really sucked. Ranking a person the top 3 leader or the bottom 3 leader. A concept that’s too screwed up for me to take it.

DAY THREE

Practical assessment right after lunch. Total of four activities (five in the end). The first was to run to a patch of sand as a team, step some numbers in sequence and run back to the starting point. Our team scored well and we were very motivated about it. Then it rained.

The second activity was to keep balloons up in the air for as long as possible. At each interval balloons were thrown in to make it challenging. Team 7 improved by a minute each try. But our results weren’t ideal.

Third — our team failed at it. The three leaders who volunteered could not convey the instructions well. I’m lazy to elaborate.

The final one was leaded by Marinne, Simon and I. I did my best to lead the team and we completed the obstacle within quite a good period of time.

We had to go for another activity because the first one — outdoors — was cancelled due to the rain. We did poorly. But in the end, our first activity’s score was used for computation of marks.

Next, barbeque night. People jumped into the waterfall and enjoyed the dirty waters. Had some fun before heading back to the room. Mikhail and another guy walked me back to my room and that’s when I was left all alone. I imagined pale, white faces appearing all over the mirrors and windows, and was exclusively scared. Lucky for me, I wasn’t disturbed.

Soon the room was filled up with my bunk-mates and I was jumping on my spring bed in excitement (the next day is home-sweet-home). Glenn came knocking for Shairul. When Shairul returned, he told us an encounter that Hafiz has faced. Some ghostly story that I wouldn’t share here. Everyone of us went berserk (not literally) and had no guts left in us.

Jesper, Alfred, Youwei, Dehong, Valerie, XX, XX, and I went in pairs as a group to the location where the encounter was. The path was slightly lighted at the edges but the atmosphere was close to eerie. It hit midnight when we were retracing Hafiz’s path. Nothing happened.

With renewed confidence, we stood outside the dorm and Youwei (a.k.a gang leader) decided that we should knock on the other NPP students door and frighten them. For a couple, it was rather successful. Utterly enjoyable; screaming at the top of our lungs in the middle of the night.

Slacked with Youwei in the room before falling asleep. All hyped up for the final day.

DAY FOUR

Breakfast, and then written assessment (yes, an examination) after that. Kind of screwed up the second question but oh well — its over.

Then there’s this ridiculously emotional session whereby there were gems that you can give out to your friends, face-to-face, one-on-one, and to tell them how much you appreciate them. I’ve received a handful of them and dished out quite a lot of them too — accompanied with hugs. Seriously who could resist a hug from Zane? (Kidding.) I got a lot of translucent gems, which my friends say that they indicated purity (e.g. Hannah). Jesper gave me a gem that’s “unique in color”. Thank you all!

Headed back to my dorm to pack things up and get some snacks. Screw it, I left the drink I bought in a store in another snack store.

Boarded the bus, cleared the customs in less than 2 hours and back to Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

Small Reflections

I feel that in this camp, people aren’t who they are. They aren’t themselves. Faking some leadership personalities with a sharp dagger concealed beneath their clothes. A little backstabbing. I dislike that. Also, I don’t like the idea of people serving food to me. I appreciate their kindness but this is overdoing it.

End.

Something hit me in the head yesterday — was told that I have high expectations of people. This made me reflect so much. Maybe from my point-of-view it’s just a norm. Don’t get me? Dad. When you think of it, most of you should view a dad as someone more than a guardian, a caretaker. A dad normally manages the finances in the household, and so on. These are not merely stereotypes, these are things that are generally expected from a “dad”.

Friendship. Ah, how glorious in any of its form. Elegant back-stabbers, potential hypocrites, stunning actors. Haven’t I got enough, and am I still able to open my eyes to these brilliant creatures? If you’re someone with a hobby, and you enjoy it, you often question yourself why doesn’t the other person like what you’re doing. For example, to you, ice-skating is fun. And there are people, like me, who do not ice-skate. And wouldn’t you ask, “hey, this sport is fun, why doesn’t he try it out?” The same can be applied to one’s characteristics. In my context, back-stabbers, how can there ever be such inhumane people on earth, stabbing others behind their backs without even realising it, or feeling any remorse from it. I just don’t understand why they carry out such acts.

And some friends just blatantly crawls back when he/she needs your my help, and runs off to paradise when he/she doesn’t. “Suffer together, enjoy alone.” Yeah, right. Friends. Ha.

Let me illustrate my final point.

We all tend to see only what you want (right side), and not what you have (left side). This isn’t a circle. This is a chart where it demonstrates biases (a cycle in some sense). I do admit that I do not pay attention to what’s the the left at times, but I am more conscious and aware of what I am doing now.

Edit:

For those people who don’t understand me, let me further elaborate this chart… We’ll name the left side as “black” and the right side of the diagram as “white”.

When you want white‘s attention, and he/she is giving you the cold shoulder, that’s exactly what you are doing to black. I call it a cycle because what goes around, comes around. Now in the diagram, substitute you with black, white as you, and black as some unknown person. That makes a cycle. Understand? =)

This is a vicious cycle. If you understand it, you’ll know how the other person is feeling, because that is what you are feeling too.

The present, the “now”, the trends and fashion, and the conformity that goes along with it. This is the contemporary. As we keep up with the latest wow and jingles that is stuck onto celebrities, we are beginning to lose our identity. This entry talks about the boundaries of modeling and to what extent should you cross that line.

Let me present you with some familiar examples of the contemporary. I’ll start with Donuts. Yes, Donuts with an uppercase D.

• A doughnut, or donut, is a sweet, deep-fried piece of dough or batter. (Wikipedia)
• Variety of (bloody sweet) toppings
• UNHEALTHY, EH?

Why do people queue up, hog the entrance of a donut shop, and order donuts by the boxes? How does this trend happens? Like bubble tea, it just happens. Donuts have existed for a couple of centuries but why the sudden popularity? This is called a fad. It dies of after a while.

These donuts do not need any form of investment into promoting it as conformity is built up via word-of-mouth, recommendations, and many first-hand experiences (basically viral marketing that is done unknowingly by the consumers).

And let us now divert our attention to the PSP. PlayStation Portable. God bless you if you have no idea what a PSP stands for. Again, this fad is wearing off like the Gameboys and the NDS (Nintendo Dual Screen). But what makes it once the contemporary? A little tinge of conformity here, mixed with peer influences. You see them islandwide in public transports don’t you?

Now that you get the drift, let’s put things in context. Almost everyone owns a PSP. Doesn’t it mean that those who own a PSP has a hobby of gaming? Almost everyone loves donuts (or simply blindly eating them). Does it mean that their favourite food is donuts? Identity crisis! Mentally, at least.

After all the lecturing, here’s what you need to do:

GET A LIFE. preferably, your own.

In the next entry, I’ll delve deeper into the contemporary, touching fashion issues and we’ll find out what will happen when everyone wears topman-tops with a red skinny.