life's like this - avianto's journal

OK, it’s kinda harsh, isn’t it? But honestly, you should do that if you really want a great browsing experience and enhanced security for your computer.

Updated: It’s not over yet folks, I’ve added 2 more links to the reason why you must not use Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer was an OK browser on its famous day. But those days are over, even Microsoft itself stop supporting it since they will not enhance IE until their new operating system (Longhorn) coming out… sometime in the future.

And believe me, it’s not just me who think that using IE is harmful and give you bad browsing experience, these are some articles about that:

1. Why You Should Dump Internet Explorer - Lockergnome’s Tech News Watch
2. BW Online | June 29, 2004 | Internet Explorer Is Just Too Risky (link from Molly)
3. Internet Explorer Is Too Dangerous to Keep Using (again from Molly)
4. Pop-up Program Snatches Banking Passowords (link from A Whole Lotta Nothing
5. The Latest Update CERT recommends anything but IE | The Register

So, if not using IE what should we use? Well, there are some good browser outside if you really look around. Here are some list for you, give them a try, you will realized what you’ve been missing by still using the inferior IE.

1. Firefox, my default browser on Windows. It’s a Gecko-based browser (The same engine as its big brother Mozilla). This is one of the best browser out there. It’s free, it’s open source and it just works great. And it will run on Windows, Mac and Linux.
2. Opera, I used it a couple years ago. Also one of the best standard compliant but since it’s not an open source software I’ll stick with Firefox.
3. And of course the good old Mozilla which also included e-mail application and other internet suite.
4. If you are one of the people that own or use a Mac computer, you are definetely know Safari. It’s a default browser now. Just use it.
5. Another good browser for Mac is Camino which also a Gecko-based. Not much different with Firefox except this browser is only for Mac.
6. Linux user… Bless you for not having IE. You are the most lucky person =). You have the great Konqueror, right?

You see, there are a lot of decent browser instead IE out there. So do yourself a favor, grab one of those browser and install it on your computer (I still recommend Firefox, so far this browser is still the best). You will notice the different and you will give yourself a more secure and enjoyable browsing experience. Faster browsing, no more annoying popup, nice feature called tabbed browsing (you’ll love this feature) and other thing that you really missed if you are still using IE.

Happy downloading and believe me, you’ll notice the different.

OK, blame me for being geeky again but I really have something to say about Gmail after using it for a couple of days. First of all, I love it. Not just because the storage is 1GB (I am still using 1% of it) but also the interface itself is quite nice. Well, it depends heavily on JavaScript (which I personally don’t like) but in Gmail’s case it make some sense to certain degree. Gmail is made with the mailing list concept in mind, so the ‘threading’ feature is really helpful to keep track of a particular thread or ‘conversation’ / Read more …

This update had been delayed for ages. Well, better late than never =). I presented you the new layout for this journal. Some major changes including: * Change the way to navigate, right now I have only three links (it’s expandable) to major section: journal (this main page), archives (all the links to previous entries are in this page) and colophon (it’s also known as ‘about’ section). * Adding small icons around, I just love small icons =). * Change the XHTML structure. Well, it’s not visible but it is more structurized, honest! * 100% pure built with Mac, so / Read more …

Out of boringness and depression state of mind and heart, me and a couple of friends spontaneously went to Hamburg yesterday. We went there with a car (Hamburg is less than an hour by car from Lübeck) and arrived around 8.30pm under drizzling rain. We went to a Pakistani restaurant somewhere around Hamburg Altona and there we were joined by two other friends and together we enjoyed a very good dinner. It was an awesome dinner, well, it basically just about my taste of culinary, lots of spices and stuff. We finished dinner around 11pm so we decided to get / Read more …

It’s here in Lübeck, Germany. It’s the end of June. It’s 14°C and raining almost every day. I wonder where is summer… I am afraid that summer is getting sick so it can’t make it to its appointment with the year… sigh / Read more …

It’s gonna be some busy weeks ahead from today. A couple of assignments (Digital Film Production, Game Design, Digital Library and not to mention my own independent study) will surely occupy me enough. After that, the examination week and after that, my second semester will be finished. Quick, eh? Well, until then… wish me luck with all of those assigments. / Read more …

I am feeling geeky today. You probably already know about Gmail. Yes, the new webmail service from the famous Google with 1 GB of storage. Well, today I have Gmail invitation from Jay. At first I was feeling, yeah, whatever, it’s a 1 GB webmail and I already have a Spymac account with the same amount of storage. So I was login to Gmail and browse around (have a dozen of error message from one to another, well, it is still in the Beta version so it should happened one way or another) then the excitement start to built. Yes, / Read more …

Lack of updates always mean that I am busy… (or lazy). But for now I must say that I am really busy with lots of stuff… school stuff mostly. Readings, assignments, lectures and else… And all of them really taking quite lot of efforts and not to mention that this semester is my last semester with lectures. Yes, the second semester is almost done and after this we are on our own to do study abroad and write the master thesis. Well, until then hopefully I could manage all of this schedule, it’s really overwhelming… wish me luck ;) / Read more …

I’ve been in Hannover for the last couple of days (Thanks went to Dona for sheltering me =)). Why? Because I just need some time off outside Lübeck. I just need to get out of the city for a while, nothing else, just need scenery change to regain my sanity… I’ll be back in Lübeck tomorrow and back to the reality again but until then, let me take my rest a while. / Read more …

How many keys do you have in your keychain? I just realize that since I arrived in Germany I have loads of keys in my keychain and it’s not just me, seems like everyone I know also have loads of them in their pocket. Let me see, I have a key for my bike’s lock, a key for my apartment’s main door, a key for my apartment, a key for my mailbox, a key for my school’s door, a key for my locker and a key for my friend’s bike lock. Total: 7 keys… Quite a lot, eh? Compare it / Read more …

As one of the avid supporter of Web Standards Project I personally recommend everybody that concern about web standards (either you are pro or con) to participate in the Web Standards Survey. Let your voices be heard! / Read more …

It’s Stopdesign. It’s Douglas Bowman. The one who redesign Blogger. And it have a new layout now. ‘Nuff said. Awesome, great work and two thumbs up! / Read more …

Time for another cool websites, it’s been a while, eh?. This time I proudly present: Stu’s Site ~ Cascading Style Sheets ~ Cutting edge techniques. Amazing repository of cutting edge CSS techniques. Learn some new tricks or just revised your old tricks, this site worth the visit. Nice works! / Read more …

Indonesia will have its first direct president/vice-president election in the beginning of July. So right now it is time for them to campaign. And since I am reasonably away from the country so the only place that I could gather information about them is via their official websites. So here are they based on their current nomination number: 1. Wiranto - Salahuddin Wahid 2. Megawati Soekarnoputri - Hasyim Muzadi 3. Amien Rais - Siswono Yudo Husodo 4. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - Jusuf Kalla 5. Hamzah Haz - Agum Gumelar All websites are online except Hamzah Haz (it had defaced problem / Read more …

Summer is here (hopefully). So it’s time for the Summer Edition. Well, I know I promise a new layout but I’ve been very busy lately and didn’t have time to play with new stuff so instead of ignoring the incoming summer I just made a couple of change (Thanks to CSS technology, it just took me less than 10 minutes minus the image editing of course). Yes, today is very warm… It’s hot in fact, let see if the weather will be this gorgeous in the incoming days. Laters. / Read more …

Somehow, the song is not enough to show how exactly how I feel… But since I am not a good writer so I prefer to take a song lyric to show it… Here’s for you ;) For You The Calling I am a vision, I am justice Never thought that I could love Living in shadows, faded existence It was never good enough Within the darkness, you are the light That shines away You’re trapped in violence, I can be the man Who saves the day I’m there for you No matter what I’m there for you Never giving up / Read more …

OK, another Tech Talks issue. It’s about my school project, it will run on Pocket PC platform (not my choice, don’t give me that look! I rather stick with Palm platform to be honest) and I am doing the user interface design for it. So, anybody can help me by giving me links to some references? Especially about some widget since the original widget in Pocket PC platform are rather limited (or am I mistaken? but I just read the UI Guidelines). Thanks! / Read more …

This is weird. While the weather turn out to be okay, my body can not comprehend with sudden change of temperature (from 8°C to 21°C in just one day) =(. So yeah, I am catching a little bit of cold now. Sneezing while the weather is gorgeous is not very exciting but yeah, I think I will recover soon if I could get some good rest (which will be hard since I’ve lots of things to do considering school and others). Anyway, hopefully this kind of weather will be here for a couple of months to come, after all it / Read more …