Re: overlapping [using CSS]

I have friends in one country who have no choice but to pay for their phone
time by the minute.  We were discussing the download of an HTML editor
lately...it was beyond their means to download the application, and it was
noticably beneath IE5 in download size.  I did the math using the
approximate USD valuse the thread gave me for phone usage, and IE5 would
probably cost more for them to download than I pay (Eastern US) for many
standard computer games and applications.

One of my sisters still uses a 486 with 8Mb, and another just bought her
first Pentium, and now has 32...after 2+ years of surfing.  I know some
families that are extending their online time gradually, but are still using
486's or low-end Pentiums...and they are prime customer crowds for e-comm,
spending thousands per year in impulse buying here and there.

Bottom line was included below: the older hardware and browsers need to fade
away.  Metered access needs to dissappear, and people have to become
accustomed to this new world.  CSS is an admirable standard, and XML is an
ML with promise...but this is a big world, and within a year or two, a good
part of it will be wired...probably with older equipment and older software.

Of course, Opera is a smaller download than either of the Big Two...is you
live in a country where USD $35 isn't a major expense...

Darrell

The Web Center
Web Site Solutions
admin(at)webctr.com
www.webctr.com

----- Original Message -----
"Shaun L. Sides" wrote:

> The absolute positioning part uses the style attribute of the <div>
> tag, yes.  While I haven't tested it in all browsers, it works in the
> ones I have installed (IE5 and NN4.61).  It also worked in NN4.6.  I
> imagine that IE4 wouldn't have any trouble with it, either.

> I don't hesitate to use these things for one main reason.  Anyone in
> the world can snag a copy of a browser that can handle them, free
> of charge.

The software may be free, but the hardware to handle it is not. Any 4.0
+ version of Netscape requires a bare minimum of 8 MBs of memory and
about 10 MBs of disk space. Those are fairly hefty requirements for many
computers that are only a couple of years old. A new computer is still a
big expense for most people in the world and it is far too early in the
computer age to assume that *everyone* is on a 1 GB machine with plenty
of power.

Also, not every one is in control of the applications on the computer
they are using (e.g. school and corporate computers).

My Mac can handle just about anything the Internet can throw at it, but
I'm not brash enough to assume that all the users who want to access my
sites are as fortunate as I am. My stats show a hefty percentage of
users with 3.0 (or older) browsers and I believe it will be a couple of
years before that changes very much.

Ken

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