Rodent Regatta

Before it grows dark, Firefox will be in my forgettable past. I’m thinking that I have one of the computer/OS/registry/version combinations where Firefox simply cannot be made to work. For those who want to compare, my combo is P4-2.4Ghz,1GB/XP Pro SP1/who knows/who cares.

I’ve spent enough time looking for userChrome and userContent because they don’t install as part of the default. Adding them does no good.

I’ve spent enough time going to Start-Programs-Mozilla Firefox only to find there is no profile manager. When someone advocates getting rid of the existing profile and setting up another, I’ve got news. First, I deleted everything before my most recent install of Firefox. I also cleaned the registry. Yes, the app data-mozilla folder was deleted.

Simply going over there now and deleting the default profile, also removes all the extensions, bookmarks, etc. That’s where I started this morning and it’s no different from doing a complete reinstallation to get that stuff squared away.

For those enamored with computers, software, browsers and tinkering endless, I say, ”Enjoy Firefox.” For those plagued with a computer combination that is intolerant of Firefox in its pre-release version, save yourself. Don’t bother. Leave it alone. You can find better ways to waste time.

Perhaps when the product really has some market share and is installable by those who don’t live and breathe bits and bytes…well, we’ll see.

Way too much of my day has been spent uninstalling Firefox, cleaning up the registry for any mention of Firefox, saving bookmarks, noting which extensions I was using, then installing a new, fresh version and testing. I was finally prompted to do this after a rather odd rendering of my own weblog wouldn’t correct itself. My past problems with Firefox have been well-documented and some great tips have been offered by Firefox enthusiasts.

As nearly as I can tell, none of my problems have been corrected by the fresh installation, but I’m continuing to do some testing to be sure. The latest puzzling problem is brand new as of this morning. Here is a cropped screenprint of my weblog as it looks in IE6. Here’s the way it has looked (all morning) on my computer in Firefox.

Notice that the vertical stripes don’t show in Firefox and the width of each entry is wider than the entry and day separators. I don’t know if other Firefox users are seeing it this way or not.

Can anyone tell me what is causing this difference? Nothing about my Movable Type templates or my stylesheet changed in the last 24 hours. Opera renders my site properly. What’s going on?

This morning I upgraded my copy of Firefox from version 0.92 to 0.93. The upgrade went fine. However, all of my past annoyances remain. I’m updating the list in bullet form here:

• clicking a link in an email message triggers a dialog box titled ”Locate Link Browser,” even though the link I click on has already launched another copy of Firefox and taken me to the link URL.
• Firefox often just locks up and stops responding
• If I post an extended entry in Movable Type and want to use the editing icons (b, i, u and URL), they don’t work. Instead, they paste the link I’m trying to add in the entry body rather than in the extended entry.
• pdf files open, but they’ll lock up Firefox
• the feature called ”clear search history” in the Google toolbar for Firefox won’t delete the last search item; it has to be deleted separately
• my scrollpad still won’t scroll; the scrollpad works like a mousewheel when I’m using IE6
• favicons stop displaying fairly often
• instead of properly displaying some web sites, I often see the broken QuickTime logo instead; I think this has something to do with the way some sites are built for IE viewing, but it may be a Firefox failure as well

Microsoft has released the Service Pack 2 for Windows XP to manufacturing. This article from Computerworld explains some of the particulars. I use a cable modem that reliably provides approximately 2.2Mbps of download speed. That’s the typical throughput on a line that is rated at a theoretical 3.0Mbps.

Assuming 8 bits to the Byte, and assuming the typical download from Microsoft will be 100MB, let’s look at some realistic download times. There’s always going to be a contradictory use of terminology between the computer folks and the telephone folks. But, assuming Microsoft is on the computer side of the house, they want to send 100MB or 100×1,048,576 bytes of information. At 8 bits to the byte, this works out to 100×1,048,576×8 = 838,860,800 bits.

Now, the telephone folks are going to allow me to download that at 2.2Mbps. What they mean is 2.2×1,000,000×8 = 17,600,000 bits per second.

So, my download is probably going to take 838,860,800 / 17,600,000 = 47.66 seconds. Slow that download speed to 500Kbps and it’s going to take about 3.5 minutes. That’s the download time. Installation and configuration and testing will take some more time.

Multiply any of these numbers by the number of users of Windows XP and you begin to see what’s going to happen to the Internet, bandwidth and computer users for a few days.

CRN is reporting that Microsoft’s upcoming Service Pack 2 for Windows XP may break the company’s own CRM solution. Rest assured there will be procedures, processes and workarounds you can do to get things back in order. As always, running a secure Microsoft computer only requires a little more time and money.