Today Microsoft released another security patch for Microsoft Internet Explorer– or IE or- “exploder” as the serious programmers refer to it.
I also visited a client and used their PC- with the aforementioned evil default browser: it drove me bonkers. No nice little Google window at the top of every page (which actually is a pull down menu that can give you instant access to Amazon, Wikipedia, Dictionary.com or hundreds of other useful search sites) no RSS feed indicator built into the interface- and worst of all- terrible rendering of legal CSS (the code that good sites are coded with).
I asked why they didn’t have Firefox loaded on their machine- and the answer was “What’s Firefox.”
Not only didn’t they know about the Open Source browser- but they were quick to share stories of viruses, pop-ups and broken sites. This made me realize that there are a lot of people out there- who are Internet savvy- yet still have no clue about what a total web experience can be.
So- here is what you need to make your web experience all it can be:
Replace IE with Firefox as your primary browser. You can still have IE on your machine- and may need it for some sites, but in general- you will never look back (at least until IE 7 comes out and possibly becomes halfway useful again). You can import all your bookmarks (favorites) and not skip a beat.
I also recommend for those who don’t use all the features of Outlook- like the calendar etc- to switch to Thunderbird– the companion to Firefox. It will also import all your Outlook or Outlook Express addresses etc. Again- this is only if you just use it for e-mail. Once you switch- you will never need to go back.
Then- the customization of Firefox. It is fully extensible and can be skinned if you like.
The most critical tools:
Google tool bar– which can add auto-complete for forms, and a quick link for Sage– my RSS feed reader of choice.

While you PC users may enjoy the Google tool bar- I was finding it slowing my Mac to a standstill. I’ve deleted it from my Firefox installation and used the Autofill extension.

Once you have added both of these, you are set, but I also suggest making sure you have the latest version of Flash (this is the link for mac- it should redirect you automatically for a PC) (even though I don’t recommend it for building a site) and download Quicktime so that you can get the best video experience available on the web.
If you don’t know what RSS is- I highly recommend you take the seminar. It will change your life online.

We’ve added a seminar on Saturday, Feb 4th- from 9 am to 12:30 pm

You can make your reservation online and pay using paypal. Click on the “Sign-up” link above.

A week or so ago I posted about blogs disappearing.

Last night, the anonymous local political blog, mydayton.blogspot.com did a vanishing act- not just from the site- but from Google and its cache.

While blogs are so much easier to update and add content to, they are also somewhat dangerous from a backup standpoint. The new version of WordPress has a backup utility built into it- but, I’m pretty sure that most people don’t back up their site onto a local computer or save their posts.
That’s probably not what happened to mydayton.blogspot.com which had some questionable material and may have been deleted because of a terms of service issue, but the point should be made to back up your site including the database daily.
Our hosting solution backs up nightly- but, if you let more than 24 hours go by we too could lose your site.
I’m not sorry to see mydayton.blogspot.com go- I’m not a big fan of anonymous political speech- I believe in signing your name to things- but, this is a good lesson to be learned for those entering the blogosphere- if you don’t own your hosting and url- someone else does. Before you put a blog up on blogger.com (blogspot.com) or wordpress.com, think about who you want having control of your material.

And as a last note- If you were looking for mydayton.blogspot.com and found this post- this is the power of WordPress and search engines. I highly recommend you look into taking the blogosopher seminar so you can learn how to do this right.

note: the site may resurface at mydayton.org or mydayton.net

both are listed with the same contact through whois (click on the site names for the registration info)