Alphecca

Is it really ironic in here, or is it just me?

This is the same government that claimed that bundling IE with Windows (leaving users free to install any additional browsers of their choosing) provided MS with an unfair advantage over other browser developers.

As Jeff stated, this IE requirement will probably change in time.

But I question whether the gummint can successfully maintain and update various subsystem backends (such as java) to keep them current - at any cost.

This is the same thinking at the evil Big Businesses when they lay down a non-negotiable standard protocol or front-end application.

Am I an Microsoft slave? Not really. But I make my living around global VOIP networking and standardizing protocols and apps is part of the deal.

It is pretty totalitarian now that I think about it.

I read it as the Department saying non-IE browsers may not work, so try IE, and if you don't think you can tell them so they can evaluate that part of the problem. This comes up once in a while, because IE does not support some HTML or XML coding: mostly not a problem for other browsers to read if you develop pages under IE, bit sometimes...

Anyhoo, from the original -
"Support for Netscape 7.2, Firefox 1.0.3, and Mozilla 1.7.7 is planned but will not be available when preregistration goes into effect. Present users of these browsers may experience problems when filing claims.
"In order to ensure that preregistration can be implemented in a smoothly functioning and timely manner, the Office now seeks comments that will assist it in determining whether any eligible parties will be prevented from preregistering a claim due to browser requirements of the preregistration system."

So, they say you may have problems - known worldwide. And if you can't use IE, tell them.

NOT that you must use IE.

If their system uses features that are known to break browsers other than IE (and this isn't something I know for sure, I'm just speculating here), I wonder if it might also be doing things that limit accessibility?

As far as I know, the government has to adhere to Section 508 in all purchasing, and if they don't they could be in big trouble. I know that any private company that sells goods to the government has to demonstrate compliance with 508 in their products.

And on the topic of web programming... It appears that your comments window isn't remembering personal information. This is a common problem with MT being used across domains. You have to set the HOST variable in your comments template to point to the domain that hosts the blog, rather than the domain where the blog shows up.

In other words, where you currently have the following:

var HOST = 'www.alphecca.com';

you should change it to

var HOST = 'www.tarazet.com';

testing...

testing in Netscape...

Once again, Aubrey, you are a genius! Thank you!

For that matter, does MS even release IE for the Mac anymore, which is still (for some unknown reason) still used by a lot of artists? And there is no IE for Linux (at least, last I checked, but I may be wrong)... and I intend to switch almost entirely to Linux relatively soon.

MS discontinued the Mac version of IE last year when Apple's own Safari came unto it's own. The last Mac version was 5.2.