Indexes Completed in 2021

TitleAuthorPublisherIndexer
Melbourne University Annual Report 2021Melbourne UniversityMelbourne UniversityJon
Places of ReconciliationSarah PintoMelbourne University PressJon
Dear Prime MinisterMartyn LyonsMelbourne University PressJon
Judicial Officers Bulletin 2020 v.32 - subjects, statutes, cases, authorsJudical CommissionJudical CommissionGlenda
Australian Business Law Review v. 48Thomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Gallipoli - reindexing of new editionMike MathewsMike MathewsGlenda
Australian Intellectual Property Journal v.31Thomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Journal of Civil Litigation and Practice v.9Thomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Judicial Review v. 38Judical CommissionJudical CommissionGlenda
AFSA Annual Report 2021Australian Financial Security AuthorityNT Writing and EditingJon
OAIC Annual Report 2021Office of the Australian Information CommissionerOffice of the Australian Information CommissionerJon
I Didn't Do the Thing TodayMadeleine DoreMurdoch BooksJon

Indexes Completed in 2020

TitleAuthorPublisherIndexer
Aspiration and AnxietyChristina HoMelbourne University PublishersJon
University of Melbourne Annual ReportUniversity of MelbourneMelbourne University PublishersJon
The Most Dangerous Man in the World (3E update)Andrew FowlerMelbourne University PublishersJon
Neuroscience and PrivacyDavid GrantCambridge University PressJon
In My Past Life I was CleopatraAmal AwadMurdoch BooksJon
Journal of Civil Litigation and PracticeThomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Australian Business Law ReviewThomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Building and Construction Law JournalThomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
Australian Intellectual Property JournalThomson ReutersThomson ReutersGlenda
HealthStats thesaurus - development and maintenance of thesaurus for HealthStatsNSW websiteMinistry of HealthMinistry of HealthGlenda
OAIC Annual Report IndexOAICOAICJon
Australian Public Service Commission Annual ReportAPSCIB.CreativeJon
ArgyleStuart KellsMelbourne University PressJon
Power, Participation, and Private Regulatory InitiativesBrinks et alPenn PressJon
Desire for Change. The Howard Government, vol. 4Tom Frame, editorUNSW PressGlenda

Indexes Completed in 2019

TitleAuthor(s)Published byIndexer
Angels of MercyLynette Ramsay-SilverSally Milner PublishingJon
Integrated Marketing CommunicationWinchester et alOxford University PressJon
Faith in FreedomNafiseh GhafourniaMelbourne University PressJon
Crime, Criminality and Criminal Justice 3eWhite, Perrone, HowesOxford University PressGlenda
Australian Business Law ReviewThomson ReutersGlenda
After American PrimacyDean et alMelbourne University PressJon
University of Melbourne Annual Report 2018University of MelbourneUniversity of MelbourneJon
Decolonizing the History Curriculum in Malaysia and SingaporeKevin Blackburn and ZongLun WuRoutledgeJon
150 Years of Newington RugbyBarry RossSally Milner PublishingJon
Sex in the Brain Amee BairdNewSouthJon
It's Your MoneyAlan KohlerNero PublishingJon
This Unsporting LifeMorton and LobezMelbourne University (Victory)Jon
The Hilton BombingImre SalusinszkyMelbourne University PressJon
Australian Residential Tenancy LawML BarronOpenBook HowdenJon
Foundations of Taxation Law (revision_BarcoszyOxfordJon
Fighting For Our LivesNick CookNewSouth PressJon
Delicious Magazine 2019VariousNewsLife MediaJon

Indexes Completed in 2018

Title Author(s) Indexed by Publisher
Judicial Officers' Bulletin - subject, author, statute and case indexes/tables Glenda Judicial Commission
University of Melbourne Annual Report 2017 University of Melbourne Jon Melbourne University Press
Killer Instinct University of Melbourne Jon Melbourne University Press
Period Repair Manual Lara Briden Jon Macmillan
Religious Authority and Local Governance in Eastern Indonesia Jeremy Kingsley Jon Melbourne University Press
Run For Your Life Bob Carr Jon Melbourne University Press
Family Law Review Thomson Reuters Glenda Thomson Reuters
Journal of Civil Litigation and Practice Thomson Reuters Glenda Thomson Reuters
Australian Journal of Competition and Consumer Law Thomson Reuters Glenda Thomson Reuters
APS Garden Design Study Group newsletter - 2017 update APS Garden Design Study Group Glenda APS Garden Design Study Group
An India Economic Strategy to 2035 Peter Varghese Jon Wordwallah
Beyond Combat Paul O'Beirne Jon UNSW Press
Pacific Community annual report - French and English versions Pacific Community / Stuart Roberts Glenda and Jenny (French) Pacific Community
Stern Justice Adam Wakeling Jon Penguin Random House
When Galaxies Collide Lisa Harvey-Smith Jon Melbourne University Press
Whitlam's Children Shaun Crowe Jon Melbourne University Press
Australian Public Law 3Ed Appleby, Reilly & Grenfell Jon Oxford University Press
The Barefoot Investor for Families Scott Pape Jon Barefoot.com
The Blackburns Carolyn Rasmussen Jon Melbourne University Press
Garden Design Study Group newsletter Lawrie Smith, editor Glenda ANSPA Garden Design Study Group
Grammar and Writing Glenda NewSouth Publishing
HealthStats NSW website metadata HealthStats NSW Glenda Ministry of Health
Back from the Brink: The Howard Government Part II UNSW Press Glenda Tom Frame
The First World War, the Universities and the Professions Kate Darien-Smith and James Waghorne (Eds) Jon Melbourne University Press
Delicious Magazine Annual Index (online) Jon News Corporation

Indexes Completed in 2017

Title Authors Publisher Indexed by
The International Law of Human Rights McBeth, Nolan and Rice Oxford University Press Tables of Cases and Statutes - Jon
Pacific Power? Joanne Wallis Melbourne University Press Jon
The International Law of Human Rights McBeth, Nolan and Rice Oxford University Press Subjects - Glenda
Sentencing Bench Book Judicial Commission of NSW Judicial Commission of NSW Subjects - Glenda
Sentencing Bench Book Judicial Commission of NSW Judicial Commission of NSW Tables of Cases - Jon
CSIRO low fat cookbook Pan Macmillan Pan Macmillan Glenda
Judicial Officers Bulletin Judicial Commission of NSW Judicial Commission of NSW Glenda
Local Government Law Journal Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Glenda
Cardinal Louise Milligan Melbourne University Press Jon
Agitate, Educate, Organise, Legislate Ellen Warne Melbourne University Press Jon
One Halal of a Story Sam Dastyari Melbourne University Press Jon
Histories of Controversy: Bonegilla Migrant Centre Alexandra Dellios Melbourne University Press Jon
Maths Skills for Success at University Kathy Brady and Tiffany Webb Oxford University Press Jon
Australian Intellectual Property Journal Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Glenda
Bright Modernity: Color, commerce, and consumer culture Regina Lee Blaszczyk Palgrave Macmillan (work done for Twin Oaks Indexing) Glenda
WA HSC Chemistry Unit 3/4 Pearson Pearson Jon
Whiteley on Trial Gabriella Coslovich Melbourne University Press Jon
WA HSC Chemistry Unit 1/2 Pearson Pearson Jon
The Footy Lady Stephanie Asher Melbourne University Press Jon
Family Court of Australia Annual Report 2017 Family Court of Australia Papercut Jon
A Matter of Trust Kofman & Payne Melbourne University Press Jon
ASEA Annual Report 2017 Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency Wordwallah Jon
RMSA Annual Report 2014 Roads and Maritime Services NSW Wordwallah Jon
Contract Law Tables of Cases and Statutes Willmott Oxford Jon
Contract Law Casebook Tables of Cases and Statutes Butler Oxford Jon
The Enemy Within Christina Twomey UNSW Press Jon
Woellner Taxation Law 28th Edition Robin Woellner et al Oxford University Press Jon - tables
Glenda - subject index
Cases for Principles of Administrative Law Cane et al Oxford University Press Jon - Tables of Cases and Statutes
International House Melbourne 1957-2016 Frank Larkins Melbourne University Press Jon
Delicious Magazine 2017 Various News Corp Jon
Intelligence and the Function of Government Baldino and Crawley, Eds Melbourne University Press Jon
Legal texts on contracts - updating indexes Butler and Willmott OUP Glenda - Subjects
Jon - Tables of Cases and Statutes
Bikini Body Motivation and Habits Guide Kayla Itsines Pan Macmillan Glenda
China's Conservative Revolution Brian Tsui CUP Glenda
Australian Business Law Review Thomson Reuters Glenda
$50 weekly shop: weekday dinners Penguin Glenda
Core Curriculum for the Dialysis Technician Medical Education Institute Glenda
ICAC annual report 2016-17 ICAC Glenda
Murray-Darling Basin Authority Annual Report 2016-17 MDBA Glenda
Ethics Under Fire Tom Frame UNSW Press Glenda
Ascent to Power Tom Frame UNSW Press Glenda
Widening Minds Tom Frame UNSW Press Glenda

A Tale of Three Browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera

By Jon: First published in Online Currents – (19:10) 1

Ongoing security concerns with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer have led several commentators to suggest that users should switch to another web browser. Is this really necessary, and if so what are the alternatives? In this article I compare Internet Explorer with two rival programs: Mozilla Firefox and the Norwegian browser Opera.

A Brief History (And Mosaic begat…)

The basic functions of a web browsing program are simple: to download files from the Internet, store them on the user’s hard disk and display that content on the user’s screen. Prior to the Web there were many special-purpose programs which allowed this for specific kinds of content, but it was only in 1993 that the development and wide acceptance of HTML as a language for web pages made it possible to write general-purpose browsers.

The first widely used browser was a text-based system called Lynx (i.e. ‘Links’), beginning a tradition of fanciful names which incorporate puns and in-jokes (‘Lynx’, for instance, is also defined as ‘an animal that eats gophers’). The rapid spread of Windows over the same period prompted the (US) National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) to develop a graphic-based browser called Mosaic. When this was released free for non-commercial applications, its use became widespread: it was, in fact, the first ‘standard’ internet software.

Mosaic in turn was overtaken by Netscape Navigator (usually known just as ‘Netscape’), which was developed by the same team after leaving NCSA. This began as a relatively small and simple browser but rapidly accumulated email-handling and newsreading facilities, and later a chat system and HTML editor, together known as ‘Communicator’. Originally released as shareware with a non-enforced obligation to purchase after a month, Netscape was made free in the face of competition from Microsoft Internet Explorer. By the late 90’s Netscape held 90% of browser market share.

Meanwhile Microsoft had launched and rapidly improved their own free browser/email/news package, known as the Microsoft Internet Explorer, or MS-IE. Clever integration of this with the Windows operating system made it possible to connect up Web hyperlinks with the Windows Explorer and business software like Excel and Word, but also provoked an antitrust action led by Netscape, who claimed that Microsoft were forcing MS-IE on to customers who bought Windows. Despite this setback, by Version 5, MS-IE was technically well ahead of Netscape. As the internet grew rapidly over this period, most new web users started with MS-IE, and many others moved across to it. Many of them never knew or cared that there were alternatives.

Eventually Netscape was taken over by AOL and despite several impressive new versions failed to recapture any interest. As Netscape’s market collapsed its staffers decided to try and salvage something from the wreckage. A group of programmers resurrected the code name Mozilla (‘Mosaic-killer Godzilla’) which had been used in Netscape’s development, and set up the open-source Mozilla Foundation. By 2002 they were able to produce a small, fast browser/email/chat/HTML editor suite. This was released for free under the Mozilla name and rapidly became popular with open-source proponents and users opposed to Microsoft’s monopoly. It was also made available for Linux systems. As Mozilla has grown in size, the Foundation has recently spun off and released Firefox, a browser-only version of Mozilla for users who don’t want the other components in the suite.

And what about Opera? While the ‘browser wars’ were going on in the US a Norwegian company was quietly developing and distributing a browser based on entirely new code. This is Opera, another Internet program suite (browser/HTML editor/email/chat), which has been under development since 1995 and has a small but growing band of dedicated users.

The browser market will remain fluid as long as the web itself continues to grow and develop with new kinds of material and new delivery methods. All the major browsers support the use of ‘add-ins’ like Macromedia Flash and Adobe Reader which provide the capability to deal with new file types as they arise, but the pressure will always be there to come up with better, faster, more tightly integrated browsers. Will MS-IE be the next champion to topple?

Well, not any time soon. Browser market shares for May 2004 (before the arrival of Firefox) were estimated by OneStat (http://www.onestat.com) to be:

1. Microsoft IE 6.0 – 69.3%

2. Microsoft IE 5.5 – 12.9%

3. Microsoft IE 5.0 – 10.8%

4. Mozilla – 2.1%

5. Opera 7.0 – 1.02%

6. Microsoft IE 4.0 –0.6%

7. Safari (Apple’s new Mac-based browser) – 0.71%

So MS-IE has a long lead, but then so did Mosaic and Netscape.

MS-IE – Cons and Pros

Generally speaking standardised software is a Good Thing. There are many advantages to using the same programs as nearly everyone else. What makes Internet Explorer any different? Leaving aside anti-Microsoft sentiment, critics of MS-IE – for instance, Rose Vines in Australian PC User for October 2004 – have four objective counts against it.

Firstly, MS-IE is simply not the best browser. One simple but powerful boost to user-friendliness – the use of tabs for separate panels appearing within a single window – has been adopted by all its major rivals but not by Microsoft. Using skins to customise your browser is a simple process in Opera or Firefox but a clumsy and limited work-around in MS-IE. Blocking ads and popup windows is tricky and involves add-in software.

Secondly, MS-IE development is slowing down. As Microsoft moves their resources over to a new operating system (nicknamed Longhorn) which will have a rebuilt browser, less attention will be given to improving and debugging MS-IE.

Thirdly, MS-IE is buggy: it has many known problems and ‘issues’, and more are being discovered all the time. The sheer size of the package (45Mb of compressedfiles for the MS-IE Version 6 SP2 installation) provides a labyrinth of hiding places for hackers to discover flaws and weaknesses. And while a flaw in a word processing program may cause the loss of a document, a flaw in a browser can allow intruders to get access to, steal from or seriously damage your computer. Firewalls and spyware checkers can help to block this; but even with these in place, MS-IE has too many known and potential problems to use safely.

Fourthly, and ironically, MS-IE’s very popularity makes it more vulnerable. Any hacker planning a spectacular attack is going to concentrate on the program that has 90% of the market share. Less popular programs are less likely to attract undesirable attention.

What about the pros? In addition to the advantages of staying with a standard, there are still a few good reasons to persevere with MS-IE.

Firstly, Microsoft has addressed many of the security issues with their SP2 upgrade to Windows XP, which contains an upgraded version of MS-IE as well as a much improved firewall. The upgrade is available for free for download or on CD from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com.au); whether it will reduce the number of vulnerabilities discovered daily remains to be seen.

Secondly, old technology though it may be, MS-IE does do some things that other browsers don’t: for instance, the Save As Web Archive option on the File menu is not available on any other browser. Neither Firefox nor Opera appear to offer the MS-IE Synchronise option for background downloading of web material while the computer is unattended.

And finally, there are some sites that won’t work with anything but MS-IE; notably Microsoft itself, with Windows updates and the Microsoft Clip Gallery. Even if you don’t use MS-IE for anything else you will need to keep it on your system for these sites alone. So the choice is not really whether to abandon MS-IE altogether, but whether to supplement it with Mozilla, Firefox or Opera for everyday browsing.

Mozilla Firefox – fast and friendly

My own acquaintance with the Mozilla suite came via a Linux-using friend. (Unlike MS-IE, both Mozilla and Opera cater extensively to non-Windows platforms like the Macintosh, Linux and PDAs. In keeping with its Scandinavian origins, Opera has even developed browsers for Internet-equipped Nokia mobile phones.) After his recommendation I began using Mozilla, mainly for its tabbed browsing: but since I use other programs for email, newsgroups and chat, only the browser component was of value to me. When the Firefox stand-alone browser came along a few months ago I switched to that, and I’ve been extremely happy with it.

The most impressive aspect of Firefox is its tiny size: the installation package is less than 5Mb. In that comes a fast, fully customisable browser with built-in protection against ads and annoying popup windows and – best of all – tabbed browsing. Any hyperlink or toolbar link button can be right-clicked with the mouse to bring up a local menu which includes the option ‘Open Link in New Tab’. Choosing this option brings up a row of tabs across the top of the screen showing the page titles. In Mozilla the newly opened page became the active window immediately, but in Firefox the new page can be made to open in the background, allowing the user to continue reading the topmost page while pages from the selected links load underneath. Once a tab is visible it can be left-clicked to access or right-clicked to reload the current page, close this page and hide the tab or close and hide all the other pages. An elegant, brilliant solution to a common problem. The only functional differences I could see between Firefox and the Mozilla browser are that the menus in Firefox are smaller and more Microsoft-like – e.g. Tools/Options takes the place of Edit/Preferences – and that Mozilla has toolbars that can be rolled up out of the way. Both programs have a full screen view available through pressing F11, as do MS-IE and Opera.

Pop-up protection and advertising blocking in Firefox is equally intelligent. Spontaneous popup windows are suppressed automatically, unless the user has specified that the site address is OK. Where a hyperlink would normally open a popup window, clicking on it once does nothing, but clicking on it a second time indicates to the browser that the user really does want the popup, and the window appears. Nearly all advertising images are quietly and efficiently suppressed and the web page redrawn to avoid them. This is a browser for users, not for advertisers.

Cookie handling provides similar options to MS-IE, with the user able to suppress or permit cookies on a site-by-site basis, while the program remembers the choices made for a particular site. Colours and fonts can be customised and – a useful feature in any program – the user can zoom in or out on the text of a page with a mouse scroll wheel. Existing bookmarks and favourites can be imported from Netscape or MS-IE, although the task of untangling them from the Firefox menu may take a few minutes. Firefox can be customised with new skins, although these require the cumbersome runtime Java environment to open, and upgrades and new versions can be found at and downloaded from http://www.getfirefox.com – nothttp://www.firefox.com, which until recently was the domain of an artist called Kevin Karpenske, and is now shared between the Firefox browser and a UK company of the same name.

The only tiny problem I had with Firefox was that when using Outlook, clicking on a hyperlink in email brought up the webpage twice, in two browsers: Firefox and my earlier default browser Mozilla. I was eventually able to fix this by setting MS-IE as the default browser and then re-setting Firefox as the default again through Tools/Options.

Up till now I have tended to support open source software in principle rather than practice; but Firefox and Mozilla are impressive demonstrations of what can be achieved through this approach. More power to them!

Opera – the Norwegian alternative

Unlike Firefox, Opera comes as a complete Internet suite and as far as I can tell there is no way to unbundle it. Unfortunately Opera suffers from one of two disadvantages; it must either be paid for, at a current price of $US39, or it displays banner ads in the page heading (although these disappear in full screen view). Apart from this it is comparable with Firefox in its download size (about 3.4Mb), its use of tabs, its customisability and its user-friendliness. Like Mozilla, it is also available for Linux systems. Mozilla has never publicly acknowledged any debt to Opera, but obviously they must have been aware of their competition. Clear evidence of borrowing can be seen in the use of the middle mouse button by both programs to open a link in a background tab, or when clicked on a tab to close it.

Opera claims to be the fastest browser in existence, and clocks its own download times with a speed bar at the bottom of the screen. Anecdotal comparisons suggest that any speed differences are relatively minor. Among the features of Opera that are not part of Firefox as such are support for what are quaintly called ‘mouse gestures’ – e.g. dragging the mouse to the right to move on to another page – and the ability to save and restore a complete session incorporating several windows. Both of these, however, are available as external add-ins for Firefox: so unless you have a penchant for things Norwegian, there is little to be gained by paying the extra for the ad-free version of Opera as opposed to paying nothing for the inherently ad-free Firefox. Like many worthy programs, Opera is not quite different enough.

Conclusion

Opera, Firefox and Mozilla – and many other browsers – are all available as free downloads, as is the (somewhat larger) Internet Explorer. They can also be found on the CDs that accompany many computer magazines. Note that some other browsers are built around MS-IE and will suffer from the same security issues. Users of these and of MS-IE (effectively everyone) should obtain and install the Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 1 upgrade to improve their security. But why not install Firefox in a spare half-hour and give it a whirl? You may find yourself – like many others – hooked on its user-first design.

References

Programs can be downloaded from the following sites:

MS-IE: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

Firefox: http://www.getfirefox.com

Opera: http://www.opera.com

Detailed material on all three browsers and the ‘Browser Wars’ can be obtained from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org

A feature-by-feature comparison of all major browsers for several platforms can be found at http://www.useyourbrain.co.uk/internet-browser-comparison-chart.htm.

A comparison of Opera and Firefox can be found at

http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=7562&page=1 read more