Well, I'm still having to deal with intermittent pop-ups due to stupid malware stuck on my work computer, but to make things worse, when I got home last night and tried to use the Internets, my browser (I.E. 4.x) window would open briefly, then shut right back down.
Stupid computer. Reba had been using it earlier, so I thought she might have clicked on something she shouldn't and messed things up. I found out later she hadn't--it had worked fine for her.
But at the time, I had no idea what it might have been. It's worked fine until now. I dumped all the cookies and cleared the temporary pages, did the disc cleanup routine, sprinkled the blood of an ocelot around the monitor, and fired up the browser again. ::blip::
Dang.
Finally after much fidgeting, I finally figured out that I could turn off the DSL line, open the browser, THEN turn on the DSL. This worked. Kinda. It would usually first go to a diagnostic screen from CenturyTel, because SOMETHING was still screwy, and after it had run through its fix routine, I could get to a few pages. Then the browser would shut itself again.
ARRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!
After trying with all my might to figure out the source of the instability, I gave up and decided it was a troupe of homunculi in the form of Ned Ludd.
And I still couldn't tell if it was something wrong with the DSL line, or something on my machine.
Stupid computer.
Well, one way to figure out if it's the browser--download something else and see if it works.
Went though my 'open browser, turn on DSL, diagnostic routine' deal and downloaded the newest version of Firefox. And hey--guess what? As soon as it had downloaded, the browser window shut itself down again. Grr.
Installed Firefox, fired it up--BING!! Works perfectly now, which tells me it was something wrong with the Internet Exploder, so I took away the IE icon and moved my new button there.
::shakes fist at Bill Gates::
Posted by Terry Oglesby at September 22, 2006 09:42 AMUmmm, most people are using IE 6.x, and they're starting to roll out 7.x (though it supposedly has a few "kinks" in it) before Windows Vista takes our breath away next year. Windows will give you 6.x for free, you just have to download it. I'm surprised you don't have more troubles viewing some websites with IE 4.
Firefox is good to use but it does not play nice with some video applications and Flash (from Macromedia, not the dog on "The Dukes of Hazzard"). Have you tried pulling up the Possumblog site and noticed the difference between IE and Firefox?
Posted by: Marc V at September 22, 2006 10:08 AMWell, I think it's 4, but I don't know for sure--I'm just using what was on the machine when I got it. So far I've not noticed anything different with Firefox.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 22, 2006 10:25 AMWelcome to the wonderful world of Firefox! For folks who like to tinker, it's a dream. I've been using it exclusively for about five years now and love it. There is the occasional problem, but it's usually quickly fixable.
And wait until you try out tabbed browsing! Whoa.
Posted by: mike hollihan at September 22, 2006 09:03 PMWell, I was having problems with it opening Javascript-dependent links, so I figured I would use Firefox and download IE7, which has tabbed browsing, too.
I'm going to use both for a while and figure out which one I like better. Since I'm not really literate about doing customized stuff, I'm not sure if I would be able to use all that Firefox offers, but at least now neither one of them seems unstable and wacky. Which certainly makes using the Internet a bit easier.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 22, 2006 09:07 PMAnd I will say this--Possumblog doesn't display correctly in either IE7 or Firefox, although it does look closer to the way I originally laid it out when you use IE. Firefox totally messes up the upper masthead and links.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at September 22, 2006 09:13 PM