A comment on a previous post mentioned that my 'links' were tiny and couldn't be seen. This confused me somewhat as they looked OK to me, and no-one else had mentioned it. Decided to investigate. I still have an AOL 'dialup' account parked away in hibernation, so fired it up, went to Wombat's Waffles and, lo and behold, the links were tiny and faint. Umm, think I.
Then had a look around the innards of puter, found Internet Explorer, opened WW and Blah! Links in sidebar tiny and faint. ARRgh! Opened Netscape 7 .. All is as it should be. Umm.
I also have another website, so thought to check that out. Guess what, in MSIE none of the links work. (they do in all the others, so ..)
Now, I have to admit to a particular loathing for Microsoft, but am stuck with it and if the Golden Lottery Eagle ever gives a shit, the first thing on the shopping list is a Mac G5, so everything that I say from here on has a certain bias. (not that have ever used a Mac, mind you).
Way back in the dim, dark, couple of years ago, when I first discovered the internet .. had a small, steam driven 400MHz computer, Windows 98 and AOL dialup. Worked well. All I wanted was a word processor and adding machine, with the occasional email and foray into the 'chat rooms'.
Then, well, BG with his thirst for the almighty dollar, changed the system.
People were sending me "word" documents that my machine refused to open. Made enquiries, and found that they were being written in the latest version of 'word' and Windows XP. Further enquiries told me that a 4 Gig hard drive sort of wouldn't cope with XP. Sheiss!
Anyway, to cut a long story short, mortgaged my soul to Visa, and ended up with a fairly cheapish Acer with XP installed. ($700) So far so good. Still with AOL dialup, but things became slower, and slower, and .. am fairly impatient sort of pixie, so bit the bullet and went Broadband. Love it. Package deal, turfed my other landline phone provider, and save about $50 per month.
Was a bit nervous about having to leave the comfy kiddy-pop of AOL, but experimented a lot, then ended up with Firefox Browser and Thunderbird Email.
Couldn't be happier. Dunno about anyone else, but I like things as simple as possible so that I can concentrate on the complex. Loathed all the other Browsers as they were full of Advertisements. See enough of that on TV.
Very easy to 'customise' Firefox. Opening screen is just a Google search bar. I have the 'skin' called 'brushed'. Have taken off all the text, and am left with a brushed aluminium edge and buttons. Simple and elegant.
Sidebar bookmarks and "Tabbed" browsing is a dream, just drag and drop into the bookmarks. Have no idea what other people experience with Blogger, but I have the choice of three screens when writing a new post. "Edit HTML", "Compose", which is sort of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) ..
And brilliant for turning words or sentences into 'links'. Just high-light the word, click on the link button, tab across to the website, copy paste and ..voila!, all done. Beats having to type out the whole "a href=" string .. and "Preview".
Also have "Foxclocks" so I know what day and time the rest of the world is operating in.
So, good peeps, get with the flow, get up-to-date, get..
(Active links)
AND with Thunderbird
(this is not a paid promotion, I just like it)
6 comments:
I like firefox, too... it's like the original netscape browser... I need to get an updated version.
Thanks for reminding me.
I so totally understand the frustration with anything labeled MS...
My first computer was a Timex Sinclaire 1000 -- storage was a tape recorder and the monitor was my TV... but one time I plugged everything in the wrong sequence and fried the keyboard... I miss that little thing. Lots of fun and I learned how to write in Basic.
There should be something in the template of your page that should change the size or your links... Not sure how to explain where it is right now. I'll find the section in my template and see if I can relay the info to you...
Reni.
P.S. I'm a member of dingbats anonymous, so is my big brother...I think he served as president once. (lol) For a good laugh -- heres' to "cattitude" -- http://www.xanga.com/Katies_Purple_Cat
Davo:
have you looked into Open Office? They are somewhere between free and very cheap. They are committed to open source and standards based office document processing. Give'em a try if you haven't yet. They are generally one generation behind in their ability to open and manipulate Microsoft documents because MS keeps screwing with the formats. MS calls that innovation but the rest of us call it planned obsolescence, bloatware and a few less printable epithets.
When I set up my current XP box, I explictly went in with forceps and machete and removed as much of MS exchange and MS outlook as possible and never installed MS office even though I have the installation CD. If I could remove MSIE i'd do that too but MS engineers used the fuel pump from IE as the left ventricle of the operating system...remove it and see instant death of your computer! Its a hangover from Mr. Gates very serious attempt at owning the entire internet by his famous "embrace and distend" strategy: keep moving the perimeter of functionality that bounds the "windows operating system" outward into the firewall and the routers and then the other guy's commputer...the browser IS the os...the e-mail IS the os. Bit him good, it did! Now MS has to live down a constant dribble of bad news: the e-mail virus is IN the os...the malicious web site hijacked the OS, and so on.
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You are right! I only use Firefox and have noticed they have excellent security features. Looking at some sites on IE certain features aren't blocked out and automatically loaded viruses on my computer, but with Firefox they ask before anything is downloaded and I love it. Plus my blog looks perfect in Firefox. Under IE, something is wrong with it.OH well.
GS, would love to get 'inside' my box and remove some of the 'bloat' but have to admit that I know very little about the 'technicalities' of computers, so now that have everything more or less 'working' am not going to change much :-)
Reni: nice to meet another 'dingbat'. Heh.
Disa: it tends to block all those annoying 'pop-up' ads also. Am not sure which version of IE I have though, maybe newer versions do that.
Disa, if you load the google task bar at the top of your brouser (Firfox or IE, I use one my wife uses the other) it will pretty much kill all your pop-ups too.
Davo, I don't have a lot to say. I just enjoyed reading and wanted to check in. I don't know why I can't ever seem to get the word verification on th first try anymore,
Yer, 35+, sorry about the word verification. They seem to get longer and more complex each time. Better than spam though.
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