Do You Have an Old Browser?

If any of this site does not display or function correctly, there are a number of possible reasons:

• You are using an obsolete browser that does not support current Web standards. Doubtless, if this is case, you have experienced similar difficulties with other sites. Although it is possible to write Web pages that detect obsolete browsers and generate HTML that works for them, we have chosen not to do so for this site. By adhering to proper Web standards, we are doing our part to see that those standards become universally adopted so that the Web is consistent for everyone. It is free and easy to upgrade. Just click on one of the links below.
• You may have JavaScript disabled. Our site, as do many, require JavaScript in order to function properly. JavaScript poses no security threat to you or your computer. So please adjust your browser settings to turn it on.
• You may have cookies disabled. Most of our site does not require cookies, but some features such as the Rock Shop demo do require them.

Modern Browsers

Here are some links to popular browsers. We recommend Firefox as not only the most standards-compliant browser available, but the most flexible, secure, and easy to use.

Why not Internet Explorer?

Naturally, you may use any browser that you wish, but we cannot recommend Internet Explorer. Neither do the vast majority of web developers, except perhaps those employed by Microsoft. The reasons fall into two primary categories:

• It is a security nightmare for the user and a handful of aces for unscrupulous web site owners and virus writers to gain some control over your computer. Its support of Active-X is widely criticized because its very purpose is to give web applications control over sensitive computer resources. The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team has issued a long list of warnings about security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.
• It is a nightmare for web developers because it implements many important web standards either incorrectly, or not at all. Most users do not realize that many sites work with Internet Explorer only because they have been "hacked" to do so. In fact, there is a long list of IE hacks, little tricks to get Internet Explorer to display things the way it is supposed to. One of the most famous of these is the Holly hack, which takes advantage of a non-standard peculiarity in the way IE builds its Document Object Model. Interestingly, with the release of IE 7, Microsoft has chosen to fix this particular oddity, making the Holly hack impossible, but not fixing the bugs it is used to cover up. Expect a great many web sites to suddenly "break" when users switch to IE 7. This sort of incompatibility with W3C web standards translates to an increased cost to our customers because of the added effort to work around them.

For case studies and a more detailed argument against Internet Explorer, please visit the following site: