Perhaps the most important "Navigational aid" of all is "Local
knowledge"!
That only comes from "being there" time and time again but most good navigators
like to have some idea of what to expect. To "browse the charts" click on
"The Charts" button, above,
As to the tools you might use while cruising the site, and how to
use them to your best advantage, read on ...
Browsers:
The "viewing quality" and "readability" of
Internet web page content is highly dependent on the features and capabilities of the
browser being used, more so even than on the design and coding of the web pages
themselves.
- SharkBytes is designed and maintained using Microsoft Internet Explorer
5.0 and, for optimum results, is best viewed using that browser.
- Most content is regularly checked and optimized using Netscape Communicator
4.07
and this browser should also give good results. However Netscape will not recognize
"ActiveX" components and may not display these and other "animations"
such as "scrolling text" and background sound, as intended.
- The display quality using earlier versions of IE and Netscape and of other
browsers is unknown.
Recommendation:
Many browsers (including the above) can be downloaded from the Internet, or
are available through Internet Service Suppliers, without charge. If you are having
problems, experiment with several and settle on the most satisfactory to you.
Screen resolution and colour depth:
Generally (but not always, depending on monitor quality), higher screen
resolutions and greater colour depth will display finer quality graphics and a greater
area of smaller, well defined text than will lower settings.
- SharkBytes is developed using 800x600 (32 bit)TrueColor and these setting
should provide optimum results.
- Lower screen resolutions such as 640x480 or 720x480, while producing larger (and
sometimes more readable) text, will not display as much and may "overrun" screen
and "frame" limits, forcing the viewer to "scroll vertically and/or
horizontally in order to see everything.
- Resolutions higher than the above, such as 1024x???? will likely display text
that is too small to read comfortably and are not recommended.
- Lesser colour depth settings (24 bit) TrueColor, (16 bit) HighColor down to and
including 256 color, will not seriously affect graphic display. 16 and 8 color
displays are not likely to be satisfactory.
Recommendation:
If your graphics controls permit it, set your screen resolution as close as
you can to 600x800 but not over this setting and use at least 256 color.
Connection Speeds
When you first "load" a page on the Internet, it is
"downloaded" onto your hard disk, thereafter, (until you clear your
"cache") it will be re-loaded relatively quickly from your own hard drive. We
have taken considerable care to avoid large, slow loading graphics and pages
"full" of animations but sometime we have been "enamored" of some
effects and have done it anyway!
If you find SharkBytes particularly slow, check your modem and ISP (Internet
Service Provider) connection speeds. You may have a fast modem but be using a slow
ISP connection (or the other way around!) Connection speeds of 28.8k (commonly
regarded as "fast" a few years ago) are really too slow for today's
Internet. Speeds of 56.0k or higher are the minimum you should be using (unless you
want go for coffee each time you change pages).
Computer speeds and memory, once you get to 200mhz and 16mb or above ,won't
make much difference because the connection speed is the "bottleneck" (my old
20mb 486/33 cpu - now used for back-up, is impossibly slow!)
Unless you have a "commercial" ISDN line or can get a "Cable"
or Telephone Company ADSL connection, there is not much you can do to get any faster.
Recommendation:
If you can, use a 300mhz Pentium CPU or better, with 32mb RAM and
Cable or ADSL connection or a 33.6/56k modem over a
matching ISP connection. Otherwise be very very patient!
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