Monday, October 20, 2014

The Laughing Barn


16 comments:

  1. Howard is first, as always.

    I'm still trying to find a browser that will do what I want it to, including sign in here using my Google account. IE crashes and restarts these days whenever a site tries to close one page and open another. Most places that's just a minor annoyance, but here it means the message is lost because I can't ever get to the Google page. As previously mentioned, Chrome works -- not surprisingly, it goes to the Google account as its default -- but it overrides the computer's accessibility settings, which makes it hard to read. As I found out last night, Safari is the same. Maybe a little more readable, but it doesn't import Favorites from IE -- and I have a lot. Firefox looks good, except that Google refuses to work with it, claiming it doesn't enable cookies even though it does. So I guess at some future time I will try out Opera and Torch. Unless somebody has a better suggestion?

    Bill

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    1. Just by way of clarification: When I post as Anonymous, IE still crashes and restarts. But that's after rather than before publication because there is no intermediate verification step.

      Bill

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    2. Hey!! If I choose the Name/URL option, it works! And at least that one time, IE didn't crash and restart.

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    3. I found firefox within about two months of getting online in 2003. I had to find *something* better than IE, or I knew I wouldn't stay online for long. . . . It was still called firebird, and was in beta. I had one problem with it (don't) recall what, which downloading one of the nightly builds fixed, and I used it until firefox *made* me use the released version.

      I tried Opera a couple of times because a friend loves it. Was NOT good to me, lol!

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    4. Now that I know Google is not an issue, I may switch to FireFox. But not until I have time to deal with the Favorites/bookmarks problem. I have maybe 100 in IE, most arranged into folders. FireFix did a very poor job of importing them and as far as I can see quickly does a poor job with bookmarks generally.

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    5. I started with Netscape in the mid-'90s. Like Puddle, it took me about ten seconds to reject IE as an option. Don't remember how I found Netscape but I stuck with it, with an all too brief but blissful interlude with IBM Home Page Reader*, until it was retired and replaced with Firefox. I need to keep IE on the computer because Dad refuses to use anything but IE. Takes all kinds, I guess. But because I've for all practical purposes never used anything but Mozilla browsers, I don't know how to import favorites/bookmarks from another system. Firefox handles bookmarks well in my experience - I have folders too...but none of that helps you much, Bill.

      Hmmm, there's Sea Monkey, another Mozilla browser. I have experimented with that one as well, though not for some time. It might be worth taking a look at it.

      Here is the link: http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

      *IBM Home Page Reader, which came with its own mail client, was a talking browser. I read about it in the assigned textbook for a course I was taking on Web Accessibility. It was absolutely seamless, really wonderful to use. After a few years though support for it was discontinued. I hung on as long as I could, but eventually it became obsolete to the point of unusability. It totally ruined me for using a screen reader with a browser. The interface is always imperfect, no matter how good the component parts are separately. Once you've experienced perfection, everything else is a letdown.

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  2. I always use Firefox. Not that it's perfect, but I like it. Love the barn picture. I really love the way old barns smell inside.

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    1. Thanks, Susan!

      I'm using Safari with minimal issues. Firefox wasn't as good for me. I'm using a Macbook Pro, if that helps.

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    2. Since Safari is the Apple browser, it's not surprising to find it works best on an Apple computer.

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  3. Today, at the Library where I work, we went LIVE with a new computer system, new software and a whole new way of doing just about everything. I discovered two glitches that the IT guy will look into. Please send vibes for stamina, good humor and perspective. It's not surgery; it's just the loaning of books! :-)

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    1. Old-fashioned library cards would seem to be a viable backup for when (not "if") the marvels of modern technology become indisposed...

      --Alan

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    2. I seem to remember that the first live patrons arrive tomorrow. (we won't worry about dead patrons ;-)). Good luck and let us know how things go.

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    3. Alan, paper? With, like, ink printing? *GASP* what a concept!

      Bill's right. We can worry about the dead patrons the next day.

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  4. Pretty easy day at work today, and a new worker came on board--much better late than never.

    I was going to buy another pair of the chelsea (pull-on ankle) boots I bought from Timberland last year--but it seems they have discontinued them and no one has any remaining stock in my size... Phooey. I got another brand that I don't like as well, but they do fit and look a little dressier (which they ought to, for the price).

    --Alan

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    1. It never fails. Whatever the product, if you like it, they discontinue it.

      - Cat's Law

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  5. I'm playing in The Global Challenge, Fun Trivia's multi-month tournament. I'm hardly a high flyer, but a good, steady player. The tournament started the Fourteenth and I'm already just over 20% through Division 4 (of 10). Not doing as well as I'd like, but then a person always needs something to strive for. So far (knock on wood!) I'm holding consistently in the top 25 players in my Fun Trivia team, which I figure is pretty good, all things considered.

    The setup is, there are two sets in each twenty-four hour period. In each set you can play any five of twenty categories, or up to four special categories, filling in the remainder of the quota from the regular category list. There is also an optional sixth Impossible! category in each set. Your score depends on a combination of accuracy and speed. In each twenty-four hour period, you can also play an optional Brain Twist, which is some sort of logic puzzle or word game. This game's score s based solely on accuracy.

    This continues for six games a set, two sets a day, plus the Brain Twist, for approximately 1500 games. The last one, which I also played in but didn't get really serious about till about halfway through, ran from May Tenth to September Fifteenth. We had a month off, and it all began again. And, yes, some of us are already questioning our own sanity for embarking on it again. When I tried to explain the tournament - briefly - to Sis, she opined that it sounded highly stressful. Well, it is, but also enjoyable...

    Hope to Heaven I haven't told you all of this before. I'd hate to bore everybody stiff twice!

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