Job Discussion Forums

[Roger]

Monday, 16th August. Dave's eslcafe forums are frozen in time: GENERAL DISCUSSION and both CHINA forums' homepages date...early JULY!
Strangely enough, I can read posts entered until 15 August though the homepage says "latest post July 9".
Today, however, at least at this very moment I can't read any post from this month. I have had this problem on and off for a week now.

Also, as I try to open my Hotmail account I am told that my "security licence has expired". I am supposed to download a new licence or something, but the instructions are not clear and the whole thing works unpredictably.
Whenever I type a message, I seem to be writing a hell of a lot faster than the computer can process; when I look up the letters begin to dance and appear on the screen, but some are left out and the message is incomplete.
What's going on? Do I have a superbug in my computer?

Some correspondents informed me by hotmail that AsiaTraveller is still questioning me; sorry but at this moment I do't know what he might be asking me. I hope it's not a dumb insinuation of his again!

[been_there]

It's possible that you have a virus, trojan, etc.
I've never heard of a Hotmail license expiring, but here ya go:

First thing you should do is put in some anti-virus software (Norton, whatever), and do the system check where you start your computer in safe mode and let the CD take over your system and clean it out.

Then, download and use Mozilla. Unix-based and much safer than Explorer.
http://www.mozilla.org/

If you MUST use explorer, disable JavaScript (Tools>Internet Options>Advanced)

The best thing I've ever used for spyware is AdAware. http://www.lavasoft.de

AND, finally, I HAVE to add the fact that, ever since I got a Macintosh, I have had NONE of the problems listed above

(MY computer can beat up YOUR computer )

[nolefan]

I have the same problem at work on the PC running windows 2000 and the latest Chinese antivirus.... Explorer refuses to work no matter how many times I clean it up and reinstall it. I downloaded FIREFOX for free from mozilla.org and it has been much better. Take it from me ( I am a Microsoft certified systems Analyst) that not everything windows is great and that even with the latest antivirus, firewalls and what not, there are just too mnay holes to patch...

Thankfully, I am blessed with a mac at home and I can spend my time enjoying the net and working instead of trying to figure out why this crashes....

go to

http://www.getfirefox.com

or
http://www.mozilla.org

[migo]

Ad Aware is good for Adware, Spyware is best handled by Spybot Search & Destroy. Mozilla has its own share of security concerns, just increasing the security settings in IE does the trick.

[Atlas]

Mozilla Firefox Rocks.

You can hit links that load multiple pages, or "Tabs" in the background and cycle through the pages. You can easily change the interface to look like anything you want (mine is Star Trek LCARS, because I'm an incurable fan of the "Ugly Movie", as my gf calls it). I've got it running with Windowblinds and now my computer interface is pretty cool, fast, and loaded for bear!

Firefox is more secure and less attacked and a heck of a lot faster than internet explorer, and you can even download lots of neat tricks for it (extensions), such as a tool bar that lets you cycle through proxy addresses with a single dropdown menu.

The only time I use IE now is if I need an old bookmark.

Don't buy the hype. There are alternatives.

[Roger]

Thanks a lot to you all, fellows; today I accessed Dave's forums by a circuitous route not previously used, and it is working.
But I do seem to have to slaughter a whole colony of viruses.

Thanks a lot to everyone, including personal messages!

[migo]

Firefox is hardly faster than IE - in fact it's noticably slower, and it isn't nearly as compatible with websites as IE is. Yes it has some cool features, but they're easily available with AvantBrowser or Maxthon without sacrificing the benefits of IE. It takes less time to adjust the security settings on IE than it does to download and install Mozilla/Firefox.

[Atlas]

<Geek Alert>

Sorry Migo, I'm sure you're right, but let me clarify my settings:

I've set my own font and colors for viewing websites (Tools > Options > Fonts & Colors). Maybe it's a little "Geek Retro" for others' tastes but I find it loads pages in a snap, all fonts are readable by my own tastes, and images and backgrounds are minimal. But I"m a Speed-Over-Looks kind of user. I like fast text on my screen, not slow rainbows. Further, I get NO popups and far less secret spyware being installed, and I have noticed a real, immediate improvement in browser performance. Pages load virtually instantaneously , especially compared with I E. I've also downloaded a lot of handy cool fonts from 1001 fonts to get any look I happen to want.

I do have one complaint: I have an HP Pavilion zt1130 laptop with a syntaptics touchpad scrollbar that works with all my software but not Firefox. If you never used one, you dont know what you are missing. For a writer like me, this little touchpad scroller is a tremendous pleasure and convenience; though I haven't yet found a download that can help me use it for Firefox. But I believe it exists. Or will soon enough.

hey what the heck here are some links:

Firefox -- Why switch? http://www.switch2firefox.com/whyswitch/
LCARS for Firefox: http://www.kairo.at/download/sshot_LCARStrek10.png
Windowblinds: http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/
GENERATIONS LCARS/Windowblinds Theme: http://www.customize.org/details/17549?box=dailyss&state=close
Fonts: http://www.1001fonts.com/
SwitchProxy scroller: http://jgillick.nettripper.com

If you don't have a cool readable LCARS font, Eurostile works well. There are others but you would have to experiment with them. The sans-serif fonts are a bit hard to read in large blocks.

</Geek Alert >

[David Bowles]

I think messages about 'security licences' and similar will download more viruses etc. when you click on them- likewise random windows (not from your own virus-checker) telling you your computer has viruses and inviting you to get rid of them. These virus/adware creators are fans of the old poetic irony, the twisted geniuses that they are.

[migo]

The thing is that you can do the same settings (own fonts and colours) in IE as well. Popups are easilly handled by the Google toolbar, which has the added benefit of including the best search engine into your browser, or alternatively AvantBrowser and Maxthon act as IE front ends which include a number of search tools as well as tabbed browsing and popup blockers. My experience with both Mozilla and Firefox is they've given me more trouble than benefit, a number of pages I've visited with them don't display properly (or at all) and they're more resource intensive than IE. Perhaps that I'm running on a C300MHz system with 64MB of PC66 RAM has something to do with it.

It's something of an unfair advantage, but with IE being integrated into Windows (albeit loosely, it can be removed via some registry tweaks) it does have an inherrent speed advantage over other browsers. Also, since it's a browser that 95% of computer users have because they run Windows, all websites are designed to work properly on IE because you can be certain that the vast majority of computer users will use it as their primary browser or have it as a backup. I have yet to come across a website that worked with Mozilla/Firefox and not with IE.

I would also imagine that the reason for the problem with the scrolling on the touchpad that you're having is Mozilla lacks system integration. It displays all pages virtually the same way across platforms, whereas IE has a noticable difference between Windows and Mac OS. It almost behaves like it's a Java program.

[once again]

I am with Migo on this. I think so much of the support for Firefox comes just because it is not IE. I have found it incomplete and slow. Avant, which uses the IE kernel, does a much better job than IE in the features department, but is compatible with everything.