http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:39:51 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/24/195414.php#comment-646969 Regarding irritating flash - - try the firefox addin called FlashBlock. I've used it for years on my slower machines, and it does wonders - it saves CPU and even better I am not bothered by those annoying dancing mortgage ads anymore. Whew. Currently running Ubuntu 7.10/Firefox/Openoffice. 646969@blogcritics.org Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:39:51 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/24/195414.php#comment-646399 Switch to ubuntu. I was getting totally demoralized and frustrated by the progressively slower performance of Windows and it's increasingly unreliable performance a few months ago when I decided to try ubuntu as a lark. I was amazed that I could run it from the "liveCD" without installing it on the computer and disturbing the existing OS on the HDD. I was so pleased at the way ubuntu ran that I installed it and after a couple struggles (for me that was simply the wireless connection; completing the dialup connection remains TBD) I've been using it constantly on 3 machines. And my old Windows systems are still available on a partition on the HDD and accessible at boot time. There's also a way to setup a dynamic OS switch so you can go back and forth between ubuntu and Windows at the press of a key. I'll never go back to a single OS system. Each OS only takes about 8gb which is trivial on a modern HDD. One thing you'll notice pretty quickly about ubuntu is that the security decisions are offered to you in your favor. Windows always couches things in such a way that MS (and their cohorts, the companies they sell your facilities to at great profit) retain control over your system. Linux has no such vested interest. 646399@blogcritics.org Tue, 30 Oct 2007 06:35:10 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/24/195414.php#comment-646353 hi guys, thanks for your comments. @Peter: the CTRL + TAB keys work. Thanks a lot! I know there's gotta be there somewhere @Others: I'm still suffering for the slow start up problem. Have no idea why. as far as I can remember, it was began when I install more Google products espc Google Updater. Currently I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.8, (always update it). So far I still can tolerance it unless when I am in rush :D 646353@blogcritics.org Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:13:12 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/24/195414.php#comment-645205 Takes about 2 seconds for Firefox to come up on this machine, an IBM T40. Of course, that's under ubuntu, not XP. It's been so long since I resorted to the XP partition that I don't remember, except that startup times and run times for software became progressively longer under XP as viruses and virus defenders fought useless wars with each other. 645205@blogcritics.org Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:06:08 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/24/195414.php#comment-645040 IE 7 is a pain in the butt in Vista. What version of Firefox are you using? 645040@blogcritics.org Fri, 26 Oct 2007 04:28:18 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/24/195414.php#comment-644594 i use firefox all the time and have never seen this slow startup problem. on the other hand, even if it did happen it wouldn't bother me because i start it up in the morning and never shut down for ten hours or so. seriously though, i don't know why that's happening to you. 644594@blogcritics.org Thu, 25 Oct 2007 10:00:33 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/24/195414.php#comment-644585 I try Opera every now and again. And there are some other alternatives as well, especially in the linux world. Also, there are enough ready-made toolkits around that a person could even create their own browser out of the pieces. The biggest nuisance I see in the browser area is the spreading presence of "Flash", which is a pushy gorilla that elbows aside the users interest in favor of their sponsors interests, i.e., the advertisers of america. 644585@blogcritics.org Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:29:43 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/24/195414.php#comment-644491 you can use CTRL + Tab to navigate between the tabs in IE. another addon that's worth mentioning is IE7Pro @ www.ie7pro.com 644491@blogcritics.org Thu, 25 Oct 2007 02:42:27 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/10/24/195414.php#comment-644389 That's extremely odd Firefox behavior. I suspect a rogue add-on is messing things up for you. Have you tried launching Firefox in safe mode to see if your results are more "normal"? There's a safe mode shortcut in the program group on your start menu. Alternatively, you could just disable your add-ons (not uninstall) and then selectively enable them while using the browser to identify the culprit. My Firefox never uses more than a few % of the CPU except for the few seconds it's loading up a fresh group of 10-20 tabs. - A 644389@blogcritics.org Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:13:05 EDT