Google should be your FRIEND!

(or "Why Internet Explorer 6 sucks cock")

My father is developing a website for a client. Okay, so actually my father is actually getting me to do most of the work. Not quite the Client From Hell, but getting close. Internet Explorer 6 keeps blocking our Flash animations and Javascript menus, telling us that it's not safe to run active content.

The client kicked up a stink about it, so my father came to me and asked why it was happening. A quick search on Google would have told him why, but instead I had to go and look for the information for him.

Microsoft added this "security feature" for local web pages. Which got me thinking: How on earth did Microsoft think that locally-stored web pages are more of a security threat than remote, Internet-hosted pages? Which is easier: To get someone to go to a website, or to download multiple files and open a particular one in a web browser?

Both those things pissed me off: That my father didn't do the customary Google search before asking me, and that Microsoft have put barriers in our way. And the way my father was saying "There must be a piece of Java code you can put in the website to stop the warning coming up" while I was trying to concentrate on finding the real answer, showed up his depth of understanding on security matters.

Then, my father hit me with the worst news: The fucking client wants a fucking ANIMATED SLIDESHOW on the website. Like a Powerpoint presentation, but embedded in a web page. And, get this: They want all the transitions to be different for each slide, they haven't given us the pictures they want for the slideshow, and my demo copy of Flash is quickly running out. I told my father to tell the client to bite his bum. He said "We're living in the real world", so I suggested my father tell the client that the slideshow alone would cost $200, "because that's a realistic costing".

I certainly hope that OOo's Flash output feature is good enough.  Of course, the client will continue to make stupid changes; they'll see the slideshow and realise how dumb it looks, and then want it changed back to something simpler. My father didn't write out a proposal, he didn't do design specifications, he didn't write out a DAMN CONTRACT which shows deliverables, deadlines and costs; so Nudrill will keep making more changes and we'll never see our money.

As you can tell, I'm VERY angry. I was roped into this project by being told that he'd only need a bit of help from me. I was originally under the impression that it was going to be a static website with one PHP script on it. Now it's the mining world's equivilant of fucking Newgrounds. Blood may be thicker than water, but I'm very close to telling my father that it's his job and his problem ALONE.