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Just How Bad is Internet Explorer?

David Torcivia — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:07:36 +0000

Before we begin our tour of internet browsers, it’s important to understand what we’re leaving behind. If you’re using the browser it’s served you well enough to reach this site and this article so how bad could it be. In short: bad. More specifically it’s the worst mainstream browser around. Well that’s easy enough to say but what’s wrong with IE specifically?

It is Slow

How slow? Well, I was unable to test Internet Explorer 7, the version you likely have installed on your computer, but did test the brand new Internet Explorer 8 which is vastly improved over its predecessor (but still awful). All I did was load USAToday.com and measured how long it took. I did this tons of times and then averaged the result to determine the average time all major browsers took to view a webpage. IE8 lost. Internet Explorer took ~6.3 seconds to load the page while the fastest browser, SRWare Iron, took about ~1.3 seconds. That’s a five second difference and almost 5x times faster. Think of it this way, if you clicked on 100 pages (not visted 100 websites but just clicked 100 while on the internet) you would have wasted over 8 minutes watching the page load if you were using Internet Explorer instead of a faster browser. That time adds up quickly.

It is REALLY Slow

Page load time varies on different sites because of server speeds and website content. Today, many of the most popular websites run using large amounts of javascript – a language that makes things like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Windows Live work. Having a browser that runs this quickly makes managing email and other tasks much easier and efficient. So how does Internet Explorer fare in this arena? Poorly.

The fastest browser I test, SRWare Iron, runs javascript anywhere from 34x – 58x faster than Internet Explorer. Not impressed? Consider that if you were Iron and it normally took you 5 minutes to drive to the grocery store it would take Internet Explorer anywhere from almost 3 – nearly 5 hours to do the same thing. There is no doubt about it, that is slow.

It Can’t Display Pages Correctly

There are a set of web standards laid down by intelligent organizations and web designers that everyone attempts to comply to in order for the web to appear consistent. These people have created a test called the ACID3 test to gauge how well web browsers abide by the standards. Microsoft apparently has a secret vendetta against all of them because they have failed miserably.

This is what the test should look like when finished correctly:

And this is what Internet Explorer 7 does to it:

It is a Security Risk

Internet Explorer may not be any more secure than the other major browsers (Safari was recently hacked in seconds in the 2009 pwn2own competition, IE and Firefox were hacked hours later) but it is at a much greater risk because of its large market share which makes it an efficient target for hackers. Possibly more important is the additional fact that IE is generally used by the technical illiterate (barring extraneous circumstances) who are the easiest target for nare-do-wells. Don’t put yourself in this category, please download Firefox, Google Chrome, or SRWare Iron.

So there you have it, Internet Explorer 7 really is terrible. We’ll be looking at fantastic alternatives over the next few days so check back.

If you want more detailed information and to learn where this data came from, check my original benchmarking article on my website: The Ultimate Browser Showdown.

Picking an Internet Browser

David Torcivia — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:55:55 +0000

Odds are you are viewing this post with Microsoft’s proprietary internet browser that came installed with your computer. Internet Explorer is something familiar that you’ve been using since you first got onto the internet (unless you can remember those Netscape days). Most popular was Internet Explorer 6 which became 7 in Vista and subsequent XP updates. Recently, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 (or IE8) as an update and in anticipation of their upcoming windows release. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer is by far the worst browser available to you today. It is slow, poor at displaying webpages, slow, full of security holes, and slow. Lucky for all of us, there are several options available that, once installed, will greatly enhance your web browsing experience.

Over the next few days I’ll be detailing some of your best options when choosing a new web browser. Additionally, I will give simple step-by-step guides on how to install, import, and configure these browsers in order to maximize your internet experience. For the curious, we’ll be looking at Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and SRWare Iron. This list is intended for Window’s users but I will mention a few options for Macs as well. So check back soon and together we can improve the internet for everyone.

A Few Numbers

David Torcivia — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:31:48 +0000

More than ever, being chic involves understanding your impact on the global environment. While this does include conserving in obvious areas like riding a bike or taking a bus instead of driving, there are many hidden costs to every part of our daily life. Recently, water has become an important issue domestically and abroad. A new chart put out by Good Magazine highlights how many common daily actions affect water usage. More importantly though, the chart offers alternatives which show just how much water you can save.

The chart reads from waking up to going to bed and offers scenarios throughout your day centering around meals and hygiene. Some of the suggestions should be taken with a grain of salt but in general, the chart offers a powerful insight into just how much water we unwittingly consume in the course of a day.

[Good Magazine Chart]

Desktop – Dock

David Torcivia — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:02:24 +0000

So you’re friend has a Mac and can’t resist showing it off for you. You feel inferior because, while you know your PC probably performs exactly the same, you know your friend had enough cash to blow on a product that cost twice as much as yours and the only difference is the glowing fruit on the back – and the nifty shelf where his icons hang out. Fortunately, you’re in luck. Not because I have some marketing scheme that will net you the difference to waste on an apple product, but rather an amazing, some would say superior, Windows alternative to the Apple OSX dock.

There are many programs that serve the same function and have the same look as what you find on an apple but the best by far are RocketDock and ObjectDock. The two programs, once installed, will auto-start with your computer. They’ll reside wherever you tell them to and serve as a location to stick icons, hide shortcuts, and even provide an alternative to the windows taskbar. You can set them to always be on the screen or hide just off the edge and appear on mouse over (as I do). With plugins on RocketDock or the standard build of ObjectDock you can turn the program into a complete replacement of your taskbar minimizing windows straight to the dock, just as in OSX.

The major difference between the two programs is that RocketDock is completely free while ObjectDock exists in a free and pay version with upgraded features. Additionally, RocketDock has a large community developing pugins and extensions that can be downloaded from their website. It should be mentioned that both programs are skinnable offering skins on their websites though I find the best selection resides at deviantART.

I personally use RocketDock as I feel it more than covers my needs and uses a smaller memory footprint than ObjectDock (only around 5.3mb). The greatest advantage a dedicated docking program offers is the ability to view icons and launch programs without having to minimize to the desktop. This enables powerusers to shave off a few seconds from their computing session and is the same experience that mac users currently enjoy.

Simple, lightweight, attractive, and fast, these programs greatly enhance the navigation experience of your computing.

[via ViaTorci.com]

Desktops – Finding the Perfect Wallpaper

David Torcivia — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:37:11 +0000

The most dramatic change in desktop appearance can be achieved through simply setting a new wallpaper. Much like a new haircut, this simple alteration can completely alter the style of your workspace resulting in a different mindset while working.

The first step to finding a new wallpaper is determining what resolution your screen is. If you don’t know off the top of your head, you can find out easily. On XP, you can achive this by going to your desktop, right clicking, selecting Properties, navigate to the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab. Look under screen resolution and note the number. Microsoft provides a visual guide HERE.

On Vista the process is similar but a bit simpler. Go to your desktop, right click, select Personalize, click Display Settings, and note the resolution. You can follow Microsoft’s guide HERE. Once you know your resolution you’ll what to find an image of the same or larger resolution.

The key to finding a good wallpaper is finding large, high-quality images. Many of these images have been collected and posted to websites that have the sole purpose of providing wallpapers. The best site, in my opinion, to find wallpaper is Social Wallpapering. Social Wallpapering has user contributed images that are voted up by visitors ensuring you see the best pictures first. They allow you to sort images into widescreen, standard, and dual monitor setups and narrow further by generic categories.

Similar to Social Wallpapering but more generic is Deviant Art. Deviant Art is an art website that has a large wallpaper area. This site tends to offer more art and graphic design than many other similar websites.

InterfaceLIFT is another fantastic wallpaper repository that allows you to sort by resolution as well as a myriad of other options. This site is generally considered the definitive wallpaper resource.

If you know you want an image of something specific, like doorbells, then your best bet may be to use Google Image Search with their newly introduced “imagesize:” tag. Just type “imagesize:”, then WITHOUT any space your resolution (mine would be 1680×1050), and finally your desired subject. So if I was searching for doorbell related images that are 1680×1050 I would type “imagesize:1680×1050 doorbell“. Just be careful as many of these images are copyrighted and while they may be fine for personal use you’re better off safe than sorry.

There are of course other options like Flickr and similar but the above are my favorite resources.

Once you’ve downloaded your new wallpaper, proceed to swamp out your old desktop for your beautiful new image. If you’re not sure how to change it, refer to HERE for XP and HERE for Vista.

[via ViaTorci.com]

Desktops – Virtua Win

David Torcivia — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:39:41 +0000

Carrying on my discussion regarding desktop customization, I’d like to take a post to highlight a fantastically useful and lightweight piece of software. Unneeded in the mac and linux worlds, as they already possess this ability, VirtuaWin is (according to their website) “a virtual desktop manager for the Windows operating system. A virtual desktop manager lets you organize applications over several virtual desktops (also called ‘workspaces’). Virtual desktops are very common in Unix/Linux, and once you get accustomed to using them, they become an essential part of a productive workflow.”

What’s a virtual desktop? Imagine you have your current desktop visible. Floating invisibly above and to the left and right are other desktops your computer can access. With a simple keystroke (Windows key + an arrow by default) you change which desktop is visible. This means you [almost] never have to worry about too many windows open in your taskbar as you can simply flip over to a new desktop. Furthermore, you can organize your workspace into a desktop for work, for research, games, and entertainment or any number of similar combinations. Another use is hiding your slacking when the boss walks by, not that that is recommended.

This amazing feature must use tons of memory right? Wrong! This miracle of programming is currently using a paltry 1.7mb of system memory after running all day. This is the primary advantage of VirtuaWin over other similar but more resource heavy programs. Additionally, VirtuaWin offers plugins and scripts to further enhance the program and introduce things like different desktop backgrounds and other useful functions.

The program is free and open source in addition to possessing a diminutive file size of only 385K. Download it now and discover the workflow you’ve been missing.

Direct Download Link

My Current Desktop

David Torcivia — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:41:53 +0000

You may or may not be aware but there is a secret underground that exists on the internet. No, not one of stolen programs, child pornography, or instructions on homemade bombs (though those all exist as well), but rather one of desktop enthusiats, individuals who spend their lives tweaking their desktop to the pinnacle of productivity, minimalism, or a myriad of other factors. These tweakers spend hours refining their workspace to the perfect setup, only to tear apart and start anew. I hope I never descend into this cyclical madness that leads to websites and groups of individuals, united through the anonymous, addiction-enabling tubes of the internet, surrendering hours of their life to trade tips and tricks – but I have started on the first steps to this path and couldn’t be happier.

I’ve made only a few modifications currently but plan on detailing them through a few articles that show, yes, tips and tricks on customizing your desktop to impress others, improve your workflow, and decrease resource usage (or at least end up without a net increase).

Here’s what will be working towards, my current desktop (click for larger):

[via Viatorci.com]

The Myth of Bose

David Torcivia — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:52:29 +0000

I hear it all the time, “I just got a new Bose speaker system. It’s amazing!” or “My dad just got this Bose radio, it sounds incredible!” I’m sure you’ve heard it, or worse – said it.

Let me begin by saying this post is not truly about Bose but rather about purchasing products based on brand perception instead of reviews, results, and actual experience. Bose just happens to be a perfect example of companies people assume are the best, a fact that is far from the truth.

Bose runs a series of television ads that border on the edge of “annoying infomercial” only avoiding this distinction by marginally higher production qualities and the occasional B-list talking head. The most prominent product advertised, and I’m sure Bose’s most profitable is the Bose Wave Music System. The commercial details how the small radio can fill a room with rich sound, cutting to a smiling elderly couple who don’t even have to turn their hearing aids up to appreciate the rich Bose tones. The MSRP for this lifesaving product? $499 for the base kit, $598 including an iPod dock, and $748 for the multi-CD changer. The fact that people willingly pay this for an oversized clock radio is mind-blowing to me. This will be made painfully obvious when compared to a comparably priced system.

Recently, my father purchased a pair of Polk Audio RTi8 floor standing monitor speakers for $298 for the pair. He hooked this up to his $67 Sherwood receiver and old CD player (any DVD player will work perfectly as well). This came to a total cost of $365, $130 less than the basic Bose Wave Music System. To defend the Bose system, these speakers have a MSRP of $840 but there remains one key difference. Fry’s Electronics sells the RTi8’s for $149 a pair while Bose will not discount their product (again it should be noted that the Fry’s price is not a constant price but essentially a bi-weekly sale price). The RTi8’s have 2 6.5” mid/woofers and 1 silk 1” tweeter (plus the bass port) on each speaker. This gives you a lot of clean sound. The Bose, on the other hand, has two small speakers though this is difficult to determine as Bose refuses to publish specs on their products.

Refuses to publish specifications? It get’s worse, Bose refuses to let audio review magazines publish opinions and findings on their products. The reason is that all Bose products severely distort the highs and lows of music to produce an edgier more “in-your-face” sound that initially sounds pleasing but quickly stresses your ears. Furthermore, the tones are completely off from what the original recording sounded like. These poor audio qualities carry over to all Bose products including their pricey earphones and ear buds.

Still, Bose is commonly considered one of the best audio brands and less expensive than those crazy audiophile systems. While it is true that clientele of Bose is older and often sporting degraded hearing, this is only an additional reason to save money and invest in a cheaper system. Offerings fro Polk, Klipsch, JBL, and Infinity provide equally priced but vastly superior systems while Sony, Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo, and Boston Acoustics provide cheaper but comparable (and generally better) options.

Morale of the story, don’t believe advertisements. Be sure to research your purchases — especially pricey products like speakers. Most important, go somewhere where you can listen. Bring some music you like and try to find a quiet store (not Best Buy, HiFi Buys is usually a safe bet) to listen and then find the price by researching online. Do your homework and you’ll end up with more for less and please tell your friends the same.