Why does Netscape Navigator hate me? I never did anything to it. Shoots, I even used it as my default browser for about three months in the 1900s. But at the end of the month, when it's time to check my beautiful Internet Explorer-coded Vienna Online pages against the Netscape view, I can just about count on several hours of debugging time, trying to figure out what is causing Netscape to destroy all my work.

Netscape does not treat common html coding the same as Internet Explorer. Tables and forms are two major areas of difference that come up to bite me on the behind every time I put together a front page for Vienna Online. Combine that with style sheets and you have the makings for a true disaster. Tables that looked perfect in Explorer are all out of proportion in Netscape. Forms that are a certain optimal size and shape in Explorer, turn into ugly, out-of-space nightmares in Netscape. Style sheets that make the perfect statement in Explorer are not even interpreted by Netscape.

Obviously part of the problem -- besides the fact that Explorer is my default browser -- is that I am self-taught in html writing. If I knew the absolute correct way to present my codes, they might produce congruent pages. Yet Explorer understands my attempts at html coding. Why doesn't Netscape?

All of us strive to make our codes cross-platform compliant, but it takes valuable time. I could, for instance, use the hour or two that it sometimes takes me to figure out what is causing my page to distort in Netscape to ride my bike an extra 10 miles. I could put in that new flower garden patch the wife would like. I could detail the cars. (Suddenly playing with code doesn't sound so bad.)

And what about AOL? It owns Netscape, right? So why doesn't it use Netscape as its default browser? You would think they would, wouldn't you? But they don't, unless it's changed in the last few weeks and nobody told me about it. That says something to me. That says that Netscape Navigator needs updated and upgraded to interpret tables, forms, and style sheets the same as Internet Explorer. In fact, all browsers should interpret HTML coding the same. It's just plain silly not to do so.

Now that I've alienated all our Netscape readers, let me just say that all the articles inside this month's issue will look great in whatever browser you choose, because the articles are fantastic. We're also announcing two new additions to the zine: "Instrumentally Speaking" by CL Paul and an interactive page called Players Page, with puzzles and games by two CLs and a homesteader.

As always, let us know what you think, either with email to any of us, a note in Konzerthaus Cafe, which is our message board, or even our guestbook. Whether it's good or bad, your comments and criticisms are what keep us striving to improve these pages.