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Category: Administrative
Posted on: August 2, 2008 11:05 AM, by PZ Myers
I've been getting a volley of complaints that Pharyngula is crashing Internet Explorer. It turns out that this is a problem all over the web, and is Sitemeter's fault. I've changed the code in a way that I hope will fix it — let me know if it doesn't. (←cunning ploy there…if you're still crashing, you may not be able to read that!)
P.S. Explorer is the worst browser available. If your computer has the resources to handle something else, switch!
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PZ Myers 11.23.2009
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Tim Lambert 11.22.2009
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Comments
Posted by: Divalent | August 2, 2008 11:07 AM
apparently not. first time EI loaded you without a crash
Posted by: queenofdenyl | August 2, 2008 11:08 AM
Thank fsm, it's back!!!
Posted by: Thumper600 | August 2, 2008 11:08 AM
Getting through OK now.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | August 2, 2008 11:10 AM
Lynx for the win!
Posted by: Ian H Spedding FCD | August 2, 2008 11:13 AM
OK, IE7 access restored.
I'm finding myself much more favorably disposed towards Firefox, too. I bet this little incident has done wonders for their popularity
Posted by: Julian | August 2, 2008 11:13 AM
Two syllables, one word: Firefox.
Posted by: Kim | August 2, 2008 11:14 AM
Man, are there still primitives out there that use Internet Exploder from Micro$oft where bugs are called features?
Shakes head and moves on......
Posted by: S.Scott | August 2, 2008 11:15 AM
Yay! I thought someone was messing with me ... Normal web pages would open but I couldn't get to anyone on my blog roll.
Everything opened in Firefox though.
(of course I figured THAT out AFTER I changed all of my passwords etc...)
Posted by: LM Wanderer | August 2, 2008 11:16 AM
Another happy Firefox user created last night.
LM Wanderer
Posted by: PZ Myers | August 2, 2008 11:17 AM
Yes, a lot of readers are using IE, almost 30%. It's a demographic we can't throw away.
Now I'm kind of peeved, speaking of round numbers. Sitemeter shows I came a whisker shy of getting an even 2 million visitors for the month of July. If I'd caught this earlier, maybe we would have hit that magic number.
Posted by: Nate | August 2, 2008 11:17 AM
So its not the dreaded update to the internet that ie 7 and ff3 both used that supposedly was going to break half the internets website.
Lol that is what I get for going to a Microsoft developers conference, the guy working it didn't know what he was doing. We all found it amusing.
Posted by: sex-target | August 2, 2008 11:18 AM
It's God's punishment for you killing him off in cracker form. Now, your blog is unreadable by IE users.
How does it feel? It is the wrath of god!
Posted by: PZ Myers | August 2, 2008 11:19 AM
It figures that god would use IE.
Posted by: ElectricBarbarella | August 2, 2008 11:22 AM
FWIW, I use Firefox as well and no problems here. :) IE is the suck. :)
Toni
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | August 2, 2008 11:23 AM
If your talking about the DNS Cache poisoning vulnerability that's been the big news over the last 4-5 weeks, its not just IE7 or FF3, it's everything (essentially) on the internet that is affected.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | August 2, 2008 11:25 AM
you're
Posted by: clinteas | August 2, 2008 11:26 AM
Thats 66666 visitors a day btw.....
Or 2777 per hour,or 46 per minute !
And btw,30% using IE is way beyong the net average,although obviously still too high,maybe its all the people like me using it at work(failed earlier today from work).
Posted by: SEF | August 2, 2008 11:30 AM
Yes, Internet Exploder isn't exploding here any longer either. I'll probably keep my Firefox window open for the rest of today anyway though. I lacked the enthusiasm to persist with the Opera window so late last night (UK time).
NB It had to be something which changed on the site (or some off-site page inclusion) given that I hadn't updated IE between the time it worked and the time it didn't (and I don't let it do automatic updates).
Posted by: Candiru | August 2, 2008 11:33 AM
I had the crashing problem and thought Pharyngula might have been hacked by disgruntled Christians. I switched to FireFox and I can now get my Pharyngufix (although it still crashes IE.)
BTW, I use IE because it lets me work with tabs and favorites in ways that FireFox does not. Maybe someone can point out a way I can get the same versatility with FireFox and I do with IE.
Posted by: Aaron | August 2, 2008 11:35 AM
I personally use FF, mostly for the web development features (Firebug & W3C Validator plugins FTW!)
However -- if you're concerned about system resources -- you may want to try Opera or Safari -- one (or both?) are pretty reasource-light. IE users are the "low common denominator" that we web developers CONSTANTLY have to work around. I'm not saying you have to use FF specifically (although it is a really nice browser) but at LEAST pick a browser that's more standards compliant! Sheesh!
Posted by: Capital Dan | August 2, 2008 11:36 AM
No! You're!
I'm tellin' mom.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | August 2, 2008 11:37 AM
I may chance my screen name to
Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT
King of Typos
Posted by: Capital Dan | August 2, 2008 11:39 AM
DUDE!
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 11:40 AM
Candiru, try TabMixPlus. I'd be amazed if that doesn't have the features you're looking for. I regard it as an essential addition to FF (along with AdBlockPlus, Context Search, FlashBlock, and a Dictionary).
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 2, 2008 11:42 AM
Done
Posted by: Science Goddess | August 2, 2008 11:42 AM
It was also crashing "Stupid Evil Bastard.com". Maybe you two have something in common [grin]
SG
Posted by: robotaholic | August 2, 2008 11:42 AM
fuck you firefox users, opera is better, has more features, and is more aesthetically pleasing- you ff users are just another heard similar to ie users.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 2, 2008 11:44 AM
Are you going to show us how big your internet penis is next?
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 11:44 AM
Aaron "I personally use FF, mostly for the web development features (Firebug & W3C Validator plugins FTW!)"
I couldn't imagine doing web development without the Web Developer extension. FireFTP is great too.
Posted by: Benjamin Franklin | August 2, 2008 11:45 AM
Funny,
I use IE, but everything else i usually access was fine except for Pharyngula and erv.
How come I could get Greg Laden & Ed Braytons blogs, but not PZ?
I thought the seed overlords had come to drag him away in chains.
Posted by: Graculus | August 2, 2008 11:45 AM
I use IE AND Firefox.
I liked Firefox a lot better before I actually used it.
Posted by: Shane Killian | August 2, 2008 11:46 AM
"It turns out that this is a problem all over the web, and is Sitemeter's fault."
No, it's Microsoft's fault. I checked out SiteMeter's code, and while there's a lot of bad code there, it's nothing that should crash a browser. The problem is that IE doesn't even meet the basic standards for how a browser should behave. It's caused many a web developer to yank out most of his hair.
Switch to FireFox. Oh, and since someone else mentioned the DNS poisoning, I'll add that you might want to switch to OpenDNS, too: http://www.opendns.org/
Posted by: paul01 | August 2, 2008 11:46 AM
Yesterday I was having problems loading your website, but I switched to Firefox and had no problem.
I kept getting a message like this: "Internet Explorer cannot open [url].... Operation aborted". This despite the fact that the website did open momentarily.
This was not the only site I had problems with. I could not find any common denominator. Nothing to do with Scienceblogs because I could open Greg Laden. probably nothing to do with atheism because I could open The Happy Heretic.
I could not open Pharyngula, Recursivity, Sandwalk, or Rationally Speaking. The only thing these four sites share, and which they share with no other blog sites, is that I ckeck them daily, and probably more than once.
Even so, I had no problem with Facebook or my e-mail sites, which I also check daily. Today I have no problems. Even so I am glad I have Firefox. Firefox usually works when IE doesn't, and if there is a problem, it will tell you what the problem is. e.g. the photo uploader in Facebook works more consistently in Firefox.
Posted by: queenofdenyl | August 2, 2008 11:50 AM
For the record, some of us HAVE to use IE. It's the only browser allowed at work...and I'm not going to let that stop me from getting my fix.
Posted by: Emmet Caulfield | August 2, 2008 11:51 AM
IE? Bleaaaaauuuch!
*Mr. Creosote style projectile vomiting*
I hope so.
Ugh. IE. *spit*, *hack*, *spit*, *barf*
Posted by: robotaholic | August 2, 2008 11:51 AM
#28- "Are you going to show us how big your internet penis is next?"
-yes, open wide
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 11:53 AM
Shane #32 "...you might want to switch to OpenDNS, too".
Seconded.
Posted by: Matt Hussein Platte | August 2, 2008 11:53 AM
IE. Evolved from ID by a single letter.
Posted by: Julian | August 2, 2008 11:53 AM
IE is so hacker/spam prone that I really don't understand why anyone still uses it; damn near every jpeg you come across on that thing has an embed in it.
On a totally unrelated topic of boostering, if any of you happen to be in need of a good comp security system, check out Kaspersky. Cnet has a free 6 month trial dl, or at least they did 2 years ago.
robotaholic: You know, all of us just use Firefox to spite you, so its right that you'd be so insulting about this.
Posted by: GodlessHeathen | August 2, 2008 11:54 AM
You can get a patch for IE6 and IE7 here.
=^_^=
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 2, 2008 11:55 AM
Thanks Shane, I've been meaning to switch my DNS server at the house over and just keep slipping my mind.
Posted by: Chris Hughes | August 2, 2008 11:56 AM
I didn't particularly care for the sentiments expressed, but robotaholic is right about the browser -- Opera 9.x is somewhat superior... :-)
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 2, 2008 11:57 AM
Not my style, but thanks. I've think you've represented your self well.
Posted by: decrepitoldfool | August 2, 2008 12:07 PM
In our college of business it's probably 80% IE users. I have to keep reminding campus web developers to make sure their masterpieces work in all major browsers, even the ones they don't like.
Posted by: paul01 | August 2, 2008 12:08 PM
Not to appear paranoid, but...
Earlier I mentioned that I had problems with 4 websites: Pharyngula, Sandwalk, Recursivity, Rationally Speaking; and somebody else mentioned ERV. All of these sites have been involved in hand-to-hand combat with IDers.
I had no problem with flat-out atheist sites like The Happy Heretic or Debunking Christianity.
Just wondering...
Posted by: Julian | August 2, 2008 12:10 PM
robot: HAHAHA, its funny that you think anything would need to be wide to accommodate that wee little thing *begins powering up electron-microscope* now, I think 500 orders of magnitude should cover it...
Posted by: Graculus | August 2, 2008 12:12 PM
IE is so hacker/spam prone that I really don't understand why anyone still uses it; damn near every jpeg you come across on that thing has an embed in it.
I have yet to run across these elusive embedded thingies. Do you mean that you are falling for the now ancient file extension trick? That's a PEBCAK error, not the browsers fault.
Plus Firefox allows LESS protection against malware than IE does. IE's default settings may suck sewage, but if you know what you are doing it is more secure than Firefox. Of course, you'll never know that, because when there's a serious vuln in Firefox and Mozilla doesn't feel like dealing with it, they just stamp it "confidential" and ignore it for 4-5 years....
Not to mention that Firefox pukes. A lot.
I'm still an agnostic about browsers.. for other poeple..use what you are comfortable with. I'm not comfortable with Firefoxs security.
But let's get one thing straight.. it's a browser, not a fucking lifestyle.
Posted by: Kevin | August 2, 2008 12:22 PM
Kind of funny stereotype: do libs feel responsible and cons say let other people deal with problems. See how con Steve Sailer deals with this exact problem: http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/08/i-hate-this-kind-of-thing.html
Posted by: Paul | August 2, 2008 12:22 PM
I use to use Firefox, but recently when I downloaded the latest version, it crashed my computer. Did anyone else have that problem? I had to switch back to IE and it was a major PITA.
Posted by: davem | August 2, 2008 12:22 PM
Maybe, but Firefox has adblock plus, and thus pwns Opera. I don't even see sitemeter.com. Problem? What problem? I've run Opera - I quite liked it, but those adverts drove me crazy.Posted by: Mike | August 2, 2008 12:23 PM
"And btw,30% using IE is way beyong the net average,although obviously still too high,maybe its all the people like me using it at work(failed earlier today from work)."
I doubt very seriously that is accurate. IE is still the most widely used browser by far. I am a web designer and every single one of the sites I have designed garner almost 90% IE and between 3% and 5% Firefox
Posted by: Todd | August 2, 2008 12:27 PM
fuck you firefox users, opera is better, has more features, and is more aesthetically pleasing- you ff users are just another heard similar to ie users.
When flaunting your l337 superiority in front of the unwashed masses of n00bz, it's always best to proofread before posting.
Otherwise, you look like a dork.
Posted by: Kseniya | August 2, 2008 12:29 PM
Most of the Scienceblogs pages were crashing my IE, not just Pharyngula. I couldn't load the Denialist page, either.
Slightly off-topic - does anyone know how to specify the cache location in Firefox? I suspect it's going to my C: drive and I don't want it to. I don't see anywhere to specify the location in the options. (I can do it in IE - what the heck?)
Thanks in advance.
Posted by: Neural T | August 2, 2008 12:34 PM
People, get with the times. Firefox is the browser of choice for discerning web surfers.
Posted by: craig | August 2, 2008 12:34 PM
Incidentally, for those of you still using older firefox builds, download firefox 3.0.
It's MUCH faster than before, it's now the fastest browser, bets the pants off IE, and uses a LOT less memory than it used to.
Posted by: co | August 2, 2008 12:34 PM
OT: Does anyone know where the Conservapedia Challenge to Lenski has gone?
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 2, 2008 12:34 PM
Kseniya,
I've never done it nor have I looked for it but there is probably a setting in about:config
Type about:config in the address bar and it obens up all of your FF config settings
be careful in there, you can break things.
Posted by: Jake | August 2, 2008 12:35 PM
I thought my work was blocking Pharyngula and I was about to be ticked, but realized working to make money is more important than reading Pharyngula and screwing around on the clock. Then Pharyngula was blocked at home, too, and realized that spending time with the family was more important than reading Pharyngula and screwing around on the Internet. But now I'm reading Pharyngula.
I guess it's like when I was a Christian and I made promises to God to be good if he got me out of a jam. Now the jam is resolved, it's back to the same ol' same ol'.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 2, 2008 12:37 PM
i think you have to make a new string
right click and select new string
string: browser.cache.disk.parent_directory
value: D:\new location\
not totally positive
Posted by: Ranson | August 2, 2008 12:38 PM
Welp, given that so many of my favorite sites were denied me because of this bug, I now use Firefox.
Posted by: ElectricBarbarella | August 2, 2008 12:40 PM
Funny, I am a long time, paid for, Opera user and I just switched to Firefox **because** Opera was starting to suck. I couldn't get nearly half of my pages to load with Opera (where I once couldn't get any of them to load with IE and went to Opera to fix that problem), Opera was starting to crash, slow down and bog my PC down more than it ever did.. etc...
Basically, Firefox has fixed all of those issues. I've even got a few add-ons that are SWEET. Add ons that I could not get with Opera.
To each their own, but IE is the total suckage and should be blown to bits.
toni
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 12:41 PM
Graculus #47 "I'm not comfortable with Firefoxs security."
O RLY?
Posted by: SC | August 2, 2008 12:50 PM
Incidentally, for those of you still using older firefox builds, download firefox 3.0.
Can't. I have Windows 98. I'm not joking.
Pathetically yours,
SC
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 2, 2008 12:54 PM
ouch
Posted by: Bumper | August 2, 2008 12:58 PM
Whew, it wasn't just me. Thanks for the fix. I couldn't figure out why I could get Sciblog main page and certain sciblogs (like cognitive daily and greg laden) but not this one. After lots of hair pulling, I finally figured out the problem was somehow on the websites and the only way I could do anything was to get Firefox. Even though its fixed now, we'll be changing to Firefox this afternoon. Probably long overdue...
Posted by: Calladus | August 2, 2008 1:01 PM
Huh. I never noticed. I'm a firefoxer. Although I'm thinking of switching to the flock browser. Anyone here try that yet?
Posted by: Dustin | August 2, 2008 1:02 PM
I use IE at work :(
Posted by: SC | August 2, 2008 1:06 PM
Hey Dustin,
What happened to you on the poster thread? You left a comment attacking me (had you read any of my previous posts there?), to which I responded, and then responded again, clarifying. You just disappeared. I wouldn't mention it, except that you're ordinarily one of my favorite commenters, and I was rather taken aback.
Posted by: Hal in Howell MI (not far from Hell, MI) | August 2, 2008 1:10 PM
What's the saying?
Posted by: Mark | August 2, 2008 1:12 PM
#20
Beware, however: On Linux at least, Opera has some pretty significant memory leaks, whereas FF3 has a very nice new (FreeBSD-based) memory allocator designed to minimize heap fragmentation.
That's not to say Opera doesn't have its redeeming qualities, of course; in fact, I'm using it to write this post.
Posted by: Irenka | August 2, 2008 1:28 PM
"Now I'm kind of peeved, speaking of round numbers. Sitemeter shows I came a whisker shy of getting an even 2 million visitors for the month of July. If I'd caught this earlier, maybe we would have hit that magic number."
I have been wonderng this for sime time... can I ask if the "cracker controversy" substantialy increased the numbers of this blog?
Posted by: Graculus | August 2, 2008 1:31 PM
Can't. I have Windows 98. I'm not joking.
Pathetically yours,
SC
I have abandonware, so I still have a 98SE box.
I haven't seen a BSoD in 6 years. It's also the most secure box in the house... plus if you aren't afraid to twiddle your fingers in its guts, you can get around an awful lot of "content protection".
I know most people won't agree with me, but then again, most people don't hack their registry for entertainment... 98SE, by the time they introduced XP, was the most stable and trustworthy OS that MS has produced so far.
Don't tell me about how wonderful Apple products are, I don't personally like them. And yes, I work with them, too.
Posted by: Alex Besogonov | August 2, 2008 1:49 PM
Sorry, but by the time XP came out Microsoft already had Win2k, NT4 and NT3.51. They were WAY better than 98SE in respect to security and stability.
Basically, Win9x family still used 16-bit code from Win3.11 (I'm not joking, search the web for WIN16MUTEX). Also, memory protection in 9x family was very basic (a crude "cli; f: jmp f" hanged 98SE pretty nicely).
NT family, on the other hand, had full 32-bit kernels with proper memory protection.
Posted by: SC | August 2, 2008 1:49 PM
Irenka,
Looks like it:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/looking_for_a_host_and_its_mol.php#comment-1023393
Posted by: LisaJ | August 2, 2008 1:50 PM
This is hilarious. I had my sister in law yesterday writing to me over msn about how her computer is crashing (she can't access websites) and she's sure it's this guy who's hacked into her computer. Lots of paranoia. Since I don't use IE (Firefox all the way!) I didn't know about this, but yeah, I think this is a more logical explanation. Thanks for the heads up - I'll let her know.
Posted by: JoJo | August 2, 2008 1:53 PM
Isn't that the OS the cavemen used when they were debugging fire?
Posted by: DavidONE | August 2, 2008 2:00 PM
As we're talking browsers, and so many of you have the good sense to use Firefox, you may be interested in a CSS override I did a while back for scienceblogs.com. Main feature is a wider content area (1400px). If you fancy it:
1. install https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108
2. install http://userstyles.org/styles/9294
3. bonus install = http://userstyles.org/styles/640
P.S. 30% use IE?! That'll be the God Gang who come here to flagellate themselves, presumably?
Posted by: Epinephrine | August 2, 2008 2:01 PM
I had been using IE out of laziness, but I can't go without my pharyngula :) Yay for Firefox!
Posted by: SC | August 2, 2008 2:13 PM
Living up to my signature line, I just realized that I was wrong. I don't have Windows 98; I have Windows Me. I can't even remember what OS I have. Pathetic. I will say this: My computer - an HP Pavilion N5210 which I've had since 1999 I think - has been amazing. It's traveled the world, I did all of my disseration work on it, I have graphic design and research programs on it that run without a hitch,... The only problem that I've encountered is this kind of thing with Firefox. I'm sure the system could handle it, and this sort of built-in obsolescence annoys me.
I'm also angry that I'm so ignorant about all of this. When I thought the problem was with my computer last night, I went to several web sites looking for a fix. I had no idea what they were talking about. I think you, Graculus, are suggesting that I could get around the problem I described above, but I honestly understand very little of what you're saying. I hate, hate, hate knowing so little about a subject.
Isn't that the OS the cavemen used when they were debugging fire?
:). That's funny. My friend who's a tech professional is always calling my cell phone a Flintstones phone. I'm such a Yankee - if the one I have works, why replace it?
Posted by: Lee Picton | August 2, 2008 2:14 PM
I freaked when I couldn't get my daily Pharyngula fix; after taking a deep breath, I installed Firefox, and presto! - I was in. I seem to be able to switch from one to the other at will and will try to learn how to kill the trolls. Meanwhile I suggested (and I don't know if it is possible) that the "posted by:" tag line be put at the beginning of the post instead of at the end. This way if you recognize troller vomit right off the bat, you can blow by it. Thoughts, anyone?
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 2, 2008 2:17 PM
OH DEAR COSMIC MUFFIN
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Posted by: JoJo | August 2, 2008 2:21 PM
Lee Picton #80
The Greasemonkey killfile script performs this function well enough for me. However, for those who, for whatever reason cannot or do not want to use killfile, then putting the poster's name at the top of the post would be helpful.
Posted by: Emmet Caulfield | August 2, 2008 2:28 PM
SC,
ME? Yikes! Probably the worst crock of shit ever foisted on the world as an operating system. Even its predecessor, Windows 98SE, was considerably better, IMHO.
I don't go in for upgrade mania either. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That said, in something of that vintage, there are probably plenty of things broken that aren't immediately obvious, like security vulnerabilities, that might be worth a change to avoid.
Posted by: scooter | August 2, 2008 2:32 PM
I use FF at home on XP, and occasionally IE on XP through a Firewall at work and Pharyngula has crashed neither over the last 2 months.
It does take a long time to load sometimes.
Posted by: Dahan | August 2, 2008 2:35 PM
I use Safari and have never had a problem with crashing here... until today.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT | August 2, 2008 2:54 PM
Posted by: Evil Martin | August 2, 2008 2:55 PM
Dear Guy With Windows ME:
I have now taken control over your computer, using only Super Mario's B-Speed functionality on my old 8bit Nintendo. Cheers!
Posted by: SC | August 2, 2008 3:07 PM
Rev. BDC @ #81 (lol) and Emmet Caulfield @ #83,
But it's worked OK for almost a decade! I guess I was lucky. What are the major problems with it?
Thanks - a very good point. At the moment, though, I can't afford to be secure :(. So my issue is both cultural and financial. When I do have more money, I'll definitely make the necessary changes (and I have nothing necessarily against shiny, cool new things - I've just never been driven to keep acquiring them). FWIW, I think a nonprofit that I work with is giving me a computer (desktop). It's not brand new, but should be an improvement.
Posted by: SC | August 2, 2008 3:12 PM
You guys are killing me! You know, I'm starting to regret ever having brought it up... At least it's provided some entertainment, for me included.
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 3:16 PM
SC wrote "My computer - an HP Pavilion N5210 which I've had since 1999 I think - has been amazing"
I just looked up the specs. Only 64MB RAM?! How times change. You could probably get Xubuntu to run on it, though. Still, if you're happy with what you've got, stick with it. :-)
Posted by: Tom | August 2, 2008 3:20 PM
I would rather browse the internet on StoneTablets 2.0 than use IE. I will admit that Safari is worse than IE but with FireFox being free and having millions of add-ons, why would anyone use IE?
Posted by: Owlmirror | August 2, 2008 3:23 PM
The real cause of all of the problems with Windows ME.
Posted by: SC | August 2, 2008 3:25 PM
But that seemed like a lot in the 20th century! I'm feeling great tech shame here. And I can't even defend myself with wit, since I don't know any of the appropriate terminology. Bleh.
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 3:27 PM
SC, may I ask, have you ever re-installed the operating system on it? I used to have to do so every few months when I used Win98. If you haven't had to in a decade, that's nothing short of miraculous!
Security is a big issue. I take it that you're using anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall? If not, I'd caution against putting any personal information on it.
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 3:30 PM
SC "I'm feeling great tech shame here."
I think you should feel proud for not feeling forced to upgrade to a newer machine when your current one is working fine.
{raises glass of wine to SC}
I wish I wasn't so prone to computer geekiness.
Posted by: SC | August 2, 2008 3:49 PM
The real cause of all of the problems with Windows ME.
:-D. And I can't even pass it along to any of my ME-using friends, since I'm probably the only person left in the country still using it. Alas, everyone's laughing at me, no one with me.
SC, may I ask, have you ever re-installed the operating system on it? I used to have to do so every few months when I used Win98. If you haven't had to in a decade, that's nothing short of miraculous!
No, I honestly haven't. Nor would I know how to if I did, so that's a good thing. :)
Security is a big issue. I take it that you're using anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall?
Er, no comment.
{raises glass of wine to SC}
Thanks! I also still have a datebook that is a real, leather-bound book that I've had for about 20 years. On the other hand, my iPod has around 3,000 songs, and if I could afford a machine to put all of the music from my old tapes on there, I'd buy it in a second, and teach myself how to do it.
Posted by: Kirk | August 2, 2008 4:23 PM
I certainly hope so. People who use M$ products shouldn't be allowed on our internets.
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 4:24 PM
"I also still have a datebook that is a real, leather-bound book that I've had for about 20 years."
As a data storage device, paper still has many advantages over magnetic/optical/electrical. And a good Moleskine is easily as sexy as a £2000 Mac.
"On the other hand, my iPod has around 3,000 songs, and if I could afford a machine to put all of the music from my old tapes on there, I'd buy it in a second, and teach myself how to do it."
You should be able to connect a tape player to your laptop (from the headphone socket on your tape player to the microphone socket on your computer) to digitize the music (to MP3). Audacity would be the program I'd recommend. It's freeware, compatible with WinME, and full featured. They also have a forum if you need any help.
Posted by: Mena | August 2, 2008 4:25 PM
I use all sorts of browsers and all sorts of operating systems simply for the reason that I'm not fussy but I never really used IE except for work in 2005 and 2006. It was slow, loved to take on spy ware, had no way of preventing pop up ads from opening except for by disabling scripting and that little clangy beeping noise was almost as bad as nails on a black board. Why did so many people take to that piece of crap to begin with? Arg! It's so bad about handling CSS that I just make sure that my pages work with it, I don't care how pretty they are. There are apparently 70% of users who use browsers that function so I test it on Opera, FF, SeaMonkey, and Safari as well. They are my personal pages so it's not like I really need to pander to the corporations who invested in making computing as annoying as possible by encouraging MS to put out pure garbage by buying into their sales spiels so eagerly without actually looking at what was available.
Posted by: Doug Little | August 2, 2008 4:29 PM
I have an older machine to, it is an old DELL Dimension 8200 and it has served me well, running Gentoo Linux, in the 8 years I have had it I have upgraded the memory and the video card. Still works well for doing all the domestic things a computer should do, I would like to build a new box though you can get a kickass box for around a $2000 investment these days and I can then relegate my old box to doing something else in retirement, like protein folding or serving web pages.
Posted by: Graculus | August 2, 2008 4:33 PM
SC, may I ask, have you ever re-installed the operating system on it? I used to have to do so every few months when I used Win98. If you haven't had to in a decade, that's nothing short of miraculous!
Security is a big issue. I take it that you're using anti-virus, anti-spyware and a firewall? If not, I'd caution against putting any personal information on it.
I have never had to re-install 98SE on any machine *I* had care and control of. So make that about another 54 miracles.
Anti-virus is not a browser issue. It's an OS thingie. So, you are officially NOT A GEEK.
I run without anti-virus, I found it wasn't worth the annoyance. I do use anti-adware/anti-spyware, and the NAT acts as my firewall.
Well, that and the custom settings in IE, which Firefox won't allow you to do. That's one of the big turnoffs for me.. Firefox is less secure in more than one way.
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead | August 2, 2008 4:39 PM
SC, don't worry about having the latest computer. The redhead inherited one of the early iMacs, a similar vintage to your HP. It does OK at e-mail and basic web surfing, which all she cares to do. (She has me do most of her computer stuff, hence my screen-name.) Playing even a 320X240 video on it is an act of futility. My computer is from 2001, which means in computer years it is almost dead. But everything but the motherboard has been upgraded, and I'm running the latest version of OSX. As long as your computer does what you want it to, don't let other people's opinions get to you. It's not how new the tool is that counts, but the use you make of the tool.
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | August 2, 2008 4:40 PM
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox#Security:
Neener neener neener.
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 4:59 PM
"I have never had to re-install 98SE on any machine *I* had care and control of. So make that about another 54 miracles."
So you've never experienced the OS slowing down to the point where you have to reinstall? Wow!
"Anti-virus is not a browser issue. It's an OS thingie. So, you are officially NOT A GEEK."
We've moved on from discussing browsers, as I thought you would have realised.
"I run without anti-virus, I found it wasn't worth the annoyance. I do use anti-adware/anti-spyware, and the NAT acts as my firewall."
Well, it depends on what you do with it. If you are careful with email attachments and sites you visit, keep your OS updated, and make regular backups of essential data, then you don't have too much to worry about. I don't use anti-spyware, anti-virus or firewall at all, but with Linux, you really don't have to.
As for annoyance, how is a program that runs in the background and updates every day annoying?
"Well, that and the custom settings in IE, which Firefox won't allow you to do. That's one of the big turnoffs for me.. Firefox is less secure in more than one way."
Firefox is less secure than IE? I don't think even Bill Gates would say that.
Posted by: Katrina | August 2, 2008 5:07 PM
DavidONE (#77)
Thank you so much for sharing this! I really hate having so much unused "real estate" on my screen. ScienceBlogs viewing has been much improved, thanks to you.
Joining into the discussion, I use FF 3.0 for nearly everything. Occasionally, I run into problems that require IE. Downloading ebooks, for example. This week, I discovered that one of the genealogy sites I use requires a Viewpoint Media Player plugin. I spent most of yesterday struggling to get it to work in FF 3.0, only to discover today that it works just fine in IE.
*sigh*
Good to have a back-up browser, I suppose.
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 5:16 PM
Katrina, you might like to try the IE Tab extension, which allows you to run IE from within Firefox for those few sites that are stuck in the 20th century.
Firefox; an extension for everything. :-D
Posted by: SC | August 2, 2008 5:19 PM
Thanks so much, MH! I thought it would require something far more elaborate. By the way, my iTunes is on someone else's computer. I'm not able to run it on mine because...well, you all know why :). It's most fortunate that I can't access it at home, since if I could I would have significantly more than 3,000 songs and be even poorer than I am (well, money poor, but music rich!). I'll definitely try it on theirs, and will let you know how it goes!
And thanks, all. I am feeling better now - not that I didn't find the commentary on ME extremely amusing.
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 5:25 PM
"Thanks so much, MH!"
You're very welcome! :-D
Posted by: Michael | August 2, 2008 5:53 PM
Explorer is the worst browser available. If your computer has the resources to handle something else, switch!
I agree, Microsoft products though widely used have some of the worst bugs in them. Ever since Mozilla Firefox came out some years ago, I have been using that particular browser which blows IE away. Currently I'm using version 3.0 which is better than previous versions.
Posted by: toomanytribbles | August 2, 2008 6:02 PM
my pages and others don't seem to be crashing anymore on IE. sometimes a 'done with errors on page' appears on the bottom.
Posted by: Kevin Hayden | August 2, 2008 6:13 PM
Opera is better
I hate dressing formal and deciphering Italian, and since Pavarotti died, its just not the same.
I much prefer browsing nekkid with Firefox.
Posted by: Spook | August 2, 2008 6:15 PM
It was crashing IE6 all last night, but I won't know if that's still the case for a few hours.
Sadly, some of us don't have any choice when it comes to the web while at work; they have IE6 on the computers and no other options. What goes on that machine is not for me to say, sadly.
Posted by: DingoDave | August 2, 2008 6:30 PM
Posted by clinteas @ #17:
"Thats 66666 visitors a day btw...."
66666 / 666 = 100.099
Which means that PZ and Pharyngula are damned close to being a 'Multiple of the Beast'. : )
Is this just a mere coincidence, or could this be some kind of a sign? mmmm...?
Posted by: Blind Squirrel FCD | August 2, 2008 6:54 PM
YA, I got in line with the firefox flock to "upgrade" to FF3 only to discover that half my add-ons didn't work. Had to reinstall FF2, a PITA for sure. I will try again in a couple of months on a spare comp.
I wonder how many people are turned off by FF because they don't realize they must customize it with add-ons to reach the functionality of IE, which comes complete. (And how!)
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 7:20 PM
@#114
The Nightly Tester Tools add-on allows you to force extensions to be compliant. Most work fine in newer versions of Firefox. The main reason an extension shows up as "not compatible" is that the author hasn't got round to changing the string which says which FF version it supports. NTT overrides that string.
Posted by: Sili | August 2, 2008 7:34 PM
I was gonna suggest candiru use Opera, since I like the tab browsing in that (whereas FF drives me buckfuck nuts), but robotaholic has pretty much ruined the field on that one.
Posted by: Jackson | August 2, 2008 7:34 PM
I was having the problem yesterday, thanks for fixing it. Never seen it before...
Posted by: Myql | August 2, 2008 7:44 PM
Indeed. I thought some evil believer had figured out a way to crash all the atheist blogs I regularly peruse. I did every test I could think of last night, to no avail. My grey-hair allotment has now reached 100%.
Posted by: GS | August 2, 2008 7:50 PM
I have found FF3 crappy compared to FF2. More random crashes, and slower (faster than 2.0.14 but definitely slower than previous builds). And frankly beyond the over-glorified address bar the only useful feature I have found in FF3 is the ability to tag bookmarks.
Posted by: MH | August 2, 2008 7:52 PM
Sili, try FF with Tab Mix Plus. You can customize your tab-browsing any way you like.
Posted by: George | August 2, 2008 8:20 PM
PZ,
Some of us must use IE on work computers. Work is gracious to allow me to take some down time and catch up on reading from time to time, but they won't support a differnt browser.
At home I use a differnt browser, but I rarely have time there to read.
Anyway, thanks for the correcting the problem, now I can read your words anytime.
Posted by: Andre | August 2, 2008 8:22 PM
Stop using drugs. Delete Internet Explorer. ;)
_____________________
http://ceticismo.net
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | August 2, 2008 9:21 PM
Why Firefox Rules:
1) Greasemonkey.
2) Killfile.
Posted by: Bert Chadick | August 2, 2008 10:27 PM
IE doesn't need anybody's help to crash
Posted by: Graculus | August 2, 2008 11:18 PM
So you've never experienced the OS slowing down to the point where you have to reinstall? Wow!
Like I said, not on any machine that I was in charge of. If you insist on installing cruft don't blame the OS.
If you are careful with email attachments and sites you visit, keep your OS updated, and make regular backups of essential data, then you don't have too much to worry about.
Isn't that SOP? If you aren't doing that then don't whine to me. A HDD can fail no matter what OS you are running, I don't know why you think that's relevant.
And if you think Linux is secure, I'd like to introduce you to my friend who runs a Linux server farm. Do you know how long it takes a straight install of Linux to get compromised once it's on the web? An average of three days, according to the honeypot projects. A huge amount of spam comes from zombied Linux boxes.
Let's get something straight here.. I'm from the time when big iron roamed the earth, and the Commodore PET was still a prototype. I've run, and run into, a fair number of OSes in my day, to put it mildly. That's why I'm nobody's fanboi. They all suck.
As for annoyance, how is a program that runs in the background and updates every day annoying?
It depends what it is doing, why, etc. *I'm* in control, not the software.
Firefox is less secure than IE? I don't think even Bill Gates would say that.
If properly set up on install it is. Firefox won't let you tweak much of anything, you just have to trust them. That's fine if you don't know or don't want to know about hat's under the skin.
Do you know that Mozilla *sat* on a crucial vuln for over 4 years? Whenever someone mentioned in on Bugzilla it got stamped "confidential" and spirited away. It has security issues, they just won't let you talk about them. They have been "scolded" for this "security through obscurity" policy for years.
Phoenix Woman
Official guidelines for handling security vulnerabilities discourage early disclosure of vulnerabilities so as not to give potential attackers an advantage in creating exploits
Ya know, when MS asked for those who discovered vulns to sit on them for a week or so so they could patch them first, everyone screamed about how eeeeeevil MS was.
You can't have it both ways.. if delayed disclosure was a bad thing when MS wanted it, it's a bad thing that Mozilla does it.
There's plenty to hate about MS, but let's stick to reality. It's not a fucking lifestyle. You are not any cooler for running Ubuntu and Opera. If they suit what you do with your CPU cycles, then GFN, but here's a surprise.. not everyone is you.
And your favourite band sucks,too.
Posted by: Tony Tuzzo | August 2, 2008 11:37 PM
Firefox has a mouseover problem with xkcd. So, IE it is.
Posted by: claschx | August 2, 2008 11:43 PM
I just want to tell you that i'm using Ubuntu Hardy with Firefox 3 and i have never ever had a problem with pharyngula so .. i'm proud to say: suck it suckers!!
Please don't be hard on me i'm wasted..
Posted by: efrique | August 2, 2008 11:54 PM
#126: What problem? The title text always shows up fine when I mouseover xkcd from in Firefox.
My comment on the browser wars: None of IE, Firefox, Opera or any of the other browsers I have tried (the others only relatively briefly) have come up to my personal standards. I can just about stand FF most of the time, but it still irritates the crap out of me quite regularly.
Does that make me an elitist bastard? Maybe it does.
Posted by: brtkrbzhnv | August 3, 2008 12:25 AM
There's an extension for that.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=popup+alt+attribute
Posted by: Blind Squirrel FCD | August 3, 2008 1:31 AM
Thanks MH @ 115
I'll try it. The reviews sound good.
Posted by: Blind Squirrel FCD | August 3, 2008 1:34 AM
Now if I can only find HTLDR for my other computer so I can boot from the install disk...
Posted by: MH | August 3, 2008 1:44 AM
Phoenix Woman wrote:
I agree. I've just started using it and it's great for killing tedious, wanking trolls.
Blind Squirrel wrtote:
I'm happy to help. :-)
Posted by: Jparenti | August 3, 2008 2:38 AM
Aha. I thought it was my laptop computer, which is currently experiencing a loss of the main system fan. Good to know that there's one thing wrong with the Internets that can't be blamed on the shoddy computers build by Dell.
Posted by: PsiMan | August 3, 2008 3:55 AM
I really hope there isn't a general correllation between athism and linux/mac fanboyism? Some of us have drunk the MS coolaid and have seen the light.
Posted by: DiscoveredJoys | August 3, 2008 4:42 AM
Although I use Opera because it has web browser, email client and RSS reader all in one package, with a single interface, can I plead with people not to try it? If Opera gets to be too popular bad people will start developing 'exploits' for it!
Posted by: John C. Randolph | August 3, 2008 7:02 AM
I can't imagine why you should care if Internet Exploder can't cope with your web site. Anyone who cares enough to read what's here can easily obtain a working, standards-compliant browser free of charge. Hell, Apple even offers Safari for Windows.
-jcr
Posted by: Quinx | August 3, 2008 8:21 AM
forget IE, use Firefox
Posted by: BobbyEarle | August 3, 2008 11:37 AM
To the Firefox doubters, try this:
1. Install FF
2. Install and enable the Hyperword extension.
3. Prepare to never, ever go back to IE.
Best. Extension. Ever.
Posted by: LMR | August 3, 2008 1:05 PM
On the desktop, I don't have any problems, as I run Firefox.
The site still kills Internet Explorer on PocketPC.
I downloaded Opera Mobile for PocketPC and it crashed once and loaded once, so with that limited dataset it is loading 50/50.
Unfortunately, unlike the desktop variant, Opera for PocketPC isn't free - it's only a 30 day trial, then it's $30. Looks like I'll just continue to live without when I'm not near my 'full' computer.
Posted by: MH | August 3, 2008 1:23 PM
#138, I've just viewed the demo. Looks great! Thanks :-)
Posted by: MH | August 3, 2008 1:28 PM
On second thoughts, it doesn't seem to adhere to Firefox philosophy. Maybe I'll try some others instead.
Posted by: bumpy | August 3, 2008 9:08 PM
Do I gather that IE is the only browser incompatible with Sitemeter?
Then it's not Sitemeter's fault, it's IE's fault.
Posted by: Kseniya | August 3, 2008 9:42 PM
Thanks for the replies on setting the cache location in FF. I think I need to restart FF for the setting to take effect.
I have 3.0.1, BTW, FWIW. I've noticed that it seems to have a way of making my disk churn for minutes on end, for no apparent reason. I wonder what's up with that.
Posted by: Hap | August 4, 2008 12:26 AM
Um, "not home" figured that hardware and software maintenance were cheaper using the evil that is MS (MS enables some things that Solaris wouldn't do, and it doesn't seem like Sun was actually interested in maintaining anything other than a market in expensive hardware), so I'm stuck. Firefox actually exists at "not home" but it goes down faster than... (insert inappropriate sex worker reference here)...it doesn't freaking work.
I assume at least part of the readership is dependent on someone else's software choices.
Posted by: prn | August 4, 2008 8:00 AM
Wow! This really goes a long way to confirming what I already thought: That Pharyngula pulls in a much higher-class of readers.Most surveys show close to 90% IE usage. To see less than 30% IE on a site that is not devoted to some form of specifically internet-related topic is amazingly good!
Not wanting to fan any flames, I always tend to tell people to use what works best for them, but I also tend to encourage them to try something other than IE. :-)
Paul
Posted by: Emmet Caulfield | August 4, 2008 9:48 AM
SC,
No personal offence to you intended, of course. ME was just a turkey. I'm amazed it has worked for you for so long.
Thus spake PsiMan:
I wouldn't be at all surprised if a greater proportion of atheists used Linux or Macs than in the general population: we don't tend to be people who do something just because everyone else does, which seems to be the dominant reason for using Microsoft Windows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6FnE6y9JIM
Posted by: Sili | August 4, 2008 11:04 AM
Thanks for the suggestion, MH, but why would I?
Posted by: SC | August 4, 2008 11:13 AM
Emmet,
Really, there was no offense taken. The friend I mentioned above teases me relentlessly about this stuff, and I always think it's funny - embarrassing, but funny. (In fact, I believe I'll send him this link...) And I appreciated your concern about my potential security issues.
Posted by: Emmet Caulfield | August 4, 2008 8:57 PM
SC,
I didn't really think you'd be offended, but I thought I should be clear :)
TBH, I've thrown out better machines than you're using. Because you're quite a few generations behind what's available now, and a couple of generations behind what a lot of people would just throw out, it shouldn't be at all difficult to come by a free upgrade. Not to the latest thing, of course, but to something a lot better.
Is there a "take what you want" area in your local recycling centre? Might be worth a visit. My Dad often talks of seeing "perfect" computers and brown/white goods when he goes to the local recycling centre back home (Ireland). I haven't been to one here in Sweden and I've no notion what they might be like where you are.
If you have a really geeky buddy, s/he probably has something better sitting unused in the corner, waiting for disposal, or has the makings of something better in his/her junk box/pile/room.
Posted by: Bezoar | August 10, 2008 9:52 AM
Get a Mac!