SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic

Posted: Jan 07 2015 10:34 pm

Not much to add, just wanted to vote yes for Vald, and also don't change the purple and green theme.

Posted: Jan 08 2015 01:21 am

Syd Lexia wrote:

I have no plans to change the main page layout, for sure.

I would like to add increased functionality to the forums, but only if I can retain the basic look of the forums and the old posts.

That's a relief. There aren't enough sites left with any activity that have been going as long as this one. We've almost reached a point where people are nostalgic for the sites that they frequent (or frequented) for their nostalgic fix!

Keeping things as they are, while adding new features and such, is a great plan. That will continue to breathe life into the place, and still be like home to all the vets here.

Posted: Jan 08 2015 09:01 am

Syd Lexia wrote:

I have no plans to change the main page layout, for sure.

I would like to add increased functionality to the forums, but only if I can retain the basic look of the forums and the old posts.

I can contribute to editing the stylesheet for the new forum software. While I can't gurantee that the design will be identical, I'll aim to replicate the current forums as well as I can.

What increased functionality do you want the forums to have, though?

Joined: Apr 14 2006 Location: Lake Michigan Posts: 3332

Mr. Satire wrote:

Secondly, but much less important, the unread messages indicator seems to randomly mark all as read, especially on mobile devices.

This started happening to me again in Firefox at work, not acknowledging my initial log in, requiring me to log in again, and therefore wiping out the new messages since last login markers. It had stopped for a while. I recently switched to Chrome at home because Firefox would crash when I had too many tabs open, and the problem doesn't seem to occur in that browser. I'd start using Chrome at work too, but the new security features in the office starting last year now require admin access to install and update software. Pain in the butt whenever I get the Windows security notifications for Adobe & Flash updates, heh.

I dare not try Internet Explorer, especially since Microsoft is going to trash it soon and introduce one called Spartan in order to get back into the browser wars. For now I get around the problem in Firefox by clicking the post new topic button within general discussion, logging in there, and then clicking the forum index. That seems to preserve the new post markers, if a bit too roundabout and annoying.

Posted: Jan 08 2015 03:12 pm

Someone explain the point of the browser wars to me. When browser software is free, why does it matter which browser people use? Like, why are companies fighting for marketshare over something that makes no money?

Joined: Aug 05 2008 Location: CA Posts: 867

Syd Lexia wrote:

Someone explain the point of the browser wars to me. When browser software is free, why does it matter which browser people use? Like, why are companies fighting for marketshare over something that makes no money?

In a very real way the organization that has the most used browser gets to dictate the future of the Internet and its policy (web standards are cornered by Google/Mozilla ATM). Sort of in the same way that Microsoft has done so with Windows for decades when it comes to OS.

It is more about power rather than money, or say the power to make money from that positioning.

Edit: There is a long messy history to all this starting all the way back with the MS/Netscape Browser war and if you remember you used to have to buy your browser. This was the major contributing factor to MS being broken up by the U.S. Gov. Netscape became Mozilla and opened sourced shortly after and now we are where we are at today.

Google is scary smart when it comes to pretty much everything and they just dominate due to this. They work very closely with Mozilla and Apple however because they have to. Apple with Safari is still in the game due to mobile (iPads/phones). So they play "nice" until Android overcomes mobile which will pretty much never happen IMO unfortunately. Mozilla is open source so Google must concede to Mozilla.

Being open source is sort of a big deal. Working in the defense industry at the company that is primarily the de facto cyber sec go to and being a part of the Infosec(IS) division as a web app developer has made this very clear to me.

When you have an open source browser then you use an open source browser. If the government needs to use a browser that is why they use Mozilla due to the fact that you can inspect the code. Something you cannot do with Chrome. Similar to why when we need to use maps in web apps (All the times) we use NASA's Whirlwind due to the code being controlled by the U.S. gov instead of Google Maps on top of the fact a Google map server costs about 100,000 USD opposed to free.

Where I work I usually work on contracts with the Army, Air Force and restricted. What most people don't know is that means NSA. They control everything that passes through to Top Secret sectors. So if you need to get ANY code into a SCIFF to fight terrorism or spy on some motherfuckers you first need to get it into a test SCIFF. So if you find a cool widget you want to use that is like 200 lines of javascript but it was some random Russian dude that wrote it, tough luck can't use it! So do you really think they are about to send the Chrome browser into a SCIFF with zero control of code? Especially considering the blowback from Google recently on mandates for imposed release of info on US citizens. Nope.

So yeah tangent there but it can get complex. Where does this leave MS? They are fucked, no cards in their hand at the moment.

Maybe I should stop here lol...

As for your OS, it's no secret that certain agencies have a private key to the top OS as for back as 95, if you know where to look. Welcome to the new world order. Strange as it sounds that's why LINUX distro FTW.

Joined: Apr 14 2006 Location: Lake Michigan Posts: 3332

Cool, thanks. The reasoning behind the wars confused me too.

Joined: Feb 04 2015 Location: California Posts: 49

I've been reading this site's articles for a couple years and I like the purple/black/white its easy on my eyes and it looks cool