Low End Mac Reader Specials
TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct
from Strider Software.
Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.
The Lite Side
Seven Customized Browsers Reshape the Web Experience
- 2003.02.25
The recent release of the "Bork" version of Opera is intended to show users that not only can site hosts such as MSN can target users with discrimination. Browsers can discriminate, too. Opera's new browser (a version for Windows only) displays MSN in "Swedish Chef" dialect.* This leads to all sorts of customization potential for browsers of all types. We'd like to get the ball rolling here at the Lite Side with
- * To translate almost any page on the Web into Swedish Chef, redneck, or other dialects, use The Dialectizer.
Customized Browser Options Inspired by Opera Bork
1. Wil Wheaton browser for Apple laptops running Linux: Presents three different versions of the same site in three separate windows. You pick another browser altogether and send the Wil browser away, promising to call its agent later.
2. "Resistance is futile" browser, based on Safari, detects when you visit a website hosted on a Microsoft IIS machine and runs an audio clip of the Borg inviting themselves to dinner prior to opening any window on the site.
3. Right wing Republican browser, based on Internet Explorer, inserts one of the terms "communist," "socialist," "left-wing," (and several others not suitable for a family site) in front of every noun it finds on the site before rendering. Thus "Protesters jam New York streets," becomes "Left wing Protestors jam socialist New York communist streets." Runs only on Windows 1950. Oddly, the effect does not get applied to users visiting Fox News, as it is redundant.
4. Elmo-cize your favorite kid sites with a new browser based on iCab. Visitors to any children's website get an animated Elmo who reads all the text in that annoying, cloying, 120 decibel voice that just pierces your brain like a hot stiletto through the ear. Luckily, the new Elmo version only runs when a plug-in you don't have is installed.
5. Educator's Politically Correct browser translates all text into educationalese. For example, "Handicapped students demand better access to school library to help them learn more" becomes "Physically challenged students request ADA-compliant entryway in the Media Center to provide access to standards-based resources necessary to perform at proficient levels on state assessment." Runs on both Mac and Windows. Based on Netscape Navigator 3.x, because as everyone knows schools are years behind the real world.
6. Ethically Correct Lynx browser for 68K Macs not only renders everything in black and white but also classifies each site as Good or Evil. Good is text compliant, and Evil requires some obnoxious plug-in just to read the site.
7. Lite Side Lurker browser links every computer news item you read to the corresponding article in the Lite Side archive and posts that in a banner at the top of every page. Since it is based on IE, it also sends your credit card information to Microsoft every time you buy something (but, hey, that's not my fault), where it will be subjected to Microsoft's secure computing battery of tests.
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Recent Lite Sides
- You Might Be a Computer Geek If..., 2009.06.17. 20 signs that you just might possibly be a computer geek.
- What if Apple thought like a PC company?, 2007.11.01. Apple has innovated and blazed its own trail. But what if it had followed the path taken by the PC copycats?
- How Microsoft can turn Vista lemons into lemonade, 2007.10.22. How Microsoft could profit by no longer allowing manufacturers to sell new PCs with Windows XP installed.
- More in the The Lite Side index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: Macintosh Portable, introduced 1989.09.20. The nearly 16 lb. behemoth was innovative but not a smashing success.
- February 13 in LEM history: 01: Layoffs may hurt Mac market - 02: Unix for the Mac - Rage against the Macintosh - 03: Options to move data from PCs to Macs - 04: Low cost RAM for older 'Books - 06: Apple, IBM, and Intel - 07: Picking the right cheap computer, new or used - 08: I needed to find an older Mac
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Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Fix Home Button Delay, Tablet the Ultimate Mobile PC, iPad Notebook a Possibility, and More, iOS News Review, 2012.02.10. Also using your iPad at work, two photo editors, a new iPad text editor, Macally's magnetic iPad 2 stand, and more.
- White MacBook Goes End-of-Life, Logitech Touch Mouse Supports Gestures, Firmware Updates, and More, The 'Book Review, 2012.02.10. Also MacBook Air better than any Ultrabook, docks for MacBook Pro models, Intel offers improved SSDs, and more.
- Mac and iOS Browsers: Options Galore, Freeware Forum, 2012.02.10. Safari is adequate on Mac and great on iOS, but the range of good alternatives is stunning. LEM writers share their favorites.
- Apple's Support Lead Shipping, Smartphones Outsell PCs, OS X Ported to ARM by Intern, and More, Mac News Review, 2012.02.10. Also the power of Tex-Edit Plus, Google and Twitter are already censoring the Web, Snow Leopard Security Update, and more.
- LogMeIn: Remote Screen Sharing for the Rest of Us, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac, 2012.02.09. Configuring the Mac's built-in screen sharing to work over the Internet can be difficult or impossible. LogMeIn makes it easy.
- 15 Years Ago Motorola Unveiled the PowerPC G3, Low End Mac Round Table, 2012.02.06. The G3 processor was optimized for real world Mac software and made a big leap forward in efficiency.
- Don't Kill Caps Lock, Learning to Love the iOS Keyboard, and an Adaptive iPad Keyboard, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2012.02.06. The Caps Lock key has a useful function, the iPad's keyboard really is useful, and checking out an adaptive keyboard for the iPad.
- More links in our archive.
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- More deals in our archive.
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Low End Mac Reader Specials
TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct
from Strider Software.
Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.
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