Browsers

To view this site properly, you will need:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or higher, or Netscape Navigator 4.5x or higher.
• Both Java and JavaScript enabled. See your browser's help facility to see how to do this.
• Realplayer. (Download from the Realplayer site
• Flash 6 player, which comes as standard with most browser installations (download from the Macromedia site)
• A minimum screen resolution of 800x600 pixels.

Site Organisation and Navigation

The content of this site is arranged by subject/category in a similar way to other Web search portals.

• Each subject may contain zero, one or more pages.
• Each subject may also contain zero, one or more sub-topics.

Please note that during these early stages of aluMATTER, many of the subject branches lead to "dead ends". Sub-topics (listed on the left) that are displayed in bold face indicate "routes" to content. Those in normal face are dead ends.

Additional links relevant to a particular topic or page, both internal and external, will be given further down. Other relevant non-Internet resources, such as book and journal references, CD-ROMs and videos are given at the bottom of the page.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions or comments about the aluMATTER website, please contact MATTER.

If you have any general queries about aluminium the material, please contact EAA. We cannot guarantee that all enquiries will receive a response, but we will do our best.

Q. As a lecturer, I would like to use parts of the aluMATTER site in lecture demonstrations. However, I don't want to risk the embarrassment of a bad/failed Internet connection or server failure during the lecture. Is there anything I can do?

A. The best solution is to "cache" your favourite pages prior to the lecture and then work offline. To do this:

• Open a web browser on the computer you will use for the lecture.
• Check that the browser is set to cache visited pages (consult your browser's Help on how to do this). Most browsers come with the default cache settings on, but it is best to make sure.
• Browse to all the pages you wish to use in the lecture. These should then be stored in the browser's cache.
• To check, switch to offline browsing. (File | Work offline in Internet Explorer, File | Offline | Work offline in Netscape).
• Open some of the pages again to make sure they display. You might even want to disconnect the internet cable to make extra sure.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The cached files are NOT kept indefinitely on the machine. If possible, carry out the above procedure within a day or so of the scheduled lecture.

Q. Is there any way to download or buy a copy of your website to install on my own machine or network?

A. We get many requests on this subject. At present we are unable to offer this type of service for a number of reasons.

• Technical Support - Maintining our website on our own systems is often challenging enough. To try and support copies of the website on a wide variety of operating systems and webservers would simply be impossible at the present time.
• Intellectual Property - Many individuals and organisations have contributed to the contents of the MATTER website. By distributing copies of our website whole, we would inevitably lose a measure of control over the intellectual property of MATTER and its partners.
• Changes - We make regular changes to our website. Many of these changes are quite subtle and might not be readily apparent to the end-user (e.g. changes to the code of Java applets, Flash movies, etc.). Copies of the website held on local machines would rapidly become out-of-date.
• "Dynamic" Web Technology - Like many other providers of interactive websites, MATTER is making increasing use of "dynamic" web technology. This requires that web pages be run from a web-server, and not just run from the operating system. More and more of our pages are also being generated from databases, which are not distributable.