Re: Does Not Compute

1

Odds are that AOL is what they have to/found most convenient to use due to geography.

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2

That's a thought. The ip is from Australia. They have AOL in Australia? I guess you don't have to change the letters.

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3

Hee. Due to circumstances out of my control -- like, being broke, but having temporary free access to AOL -- although I'm not in Australia, I'm engaging in the described behavior.

Hee.

Except when Firebird stops working, as it periodically does on this system, and I switch temporarily to IE until I want to bother to do a system reboot.

Like now.

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4

Aha. Found. Are you liking Firebird? I've been trying to use it but it still doesn't outdo MyIE2, which I really have come to love.

The Australia result I can't fathom. Time to find another locator.

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5

I'm funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to fuckin' amuse you? How am I funny, using AOL and Firebird, like a clown? What is so funny about that ? What the FUCK is so funny about that? Tell me. Tell me what's funny.

Sorry. I just have to say that now and again.

I like Firebird fine, save for the annoying thing that sooner or later, whether after a few minutes, or a few minutes, it will lock up and cease to function until a reboot. This is probably some artifact related to running it on a Pentium I machine with Win95, I suspect. (Don't ask, unless you want to start a fund to get me a non-steam-driven computer.)

What's good about MyIE2?

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6

I use Firebird too, although I'm not on AOL.

Anyway, if you're having trouble with 0.6.1, then try running latest 0.7+ RC from the nightly trunk. They fixed quite a lot in the latest releases.

What's good about MyIE2?

MyIE2 is just a gimmick "skin" that adds some due functionality to IE. It's closed source, made by 1 asian guy. All the security issues IE has are present, not counting piss-poor CSS2, DOM implementation that doesn't conform to wc3 standards. The source isn't available either. It's just a glorified skin for less savvy computer users who don't know any better. Hell, even Opera is far better than using IE skins. System shell as a web browser is just asking for trouble.

Compare Firebird's daily growing list, and perpetually updated incredible plug-ins (which of course are selectable by user), a Gecko engine written from ground up which conforms to standards, open source nature (the "author(s)" cannot decide one day to charge for it or discontinue the browser availability), fast growing community, portability across every known platform.. and it leaves myIE2 in a dust as a child's toy.

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7

Ok, I'll bite. I have Firebird, I use it regularly and I tried very very hard to make it my primary browser for the reasons you state. But, in fact, MyIE2 is more configurable and has more features that I use a lot. I use IEspell constantly. There's no comparable Mozilla plugin. I use groups in MyIE2: have five web pages open about some topic? Save them as a group, open them whenever. Open the same four pages whenever the browser starts, etc. My fiancee, who uses keyboard shortcuts, has it set up to do custom searches right from the address bar. Type "yp barber" and get all the barber shops, type "d meretricious" and see the definition, etc.

I'm not dumping on Firebird. I think that by version 1 it will be hands down the best browser available and I'll switch. But not yet. And I understand that the Firebird project is more noble than MyIE2, which will go away when Longhorn is released anyway, but, for now, when I want a browser that will do everything I want, I use MyIE2.

And Gary, the things I mention above are in addition to the basics, like mouse gestures and tabbed browsing, which both Firebird and MyIE2 have.

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8

Do you mean quick searches? This has been available on FB since day one.

http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/bookmarks/

myIE2 just borrowed that from Mozilla, since it was originally made by netscape hackers who developed the very early moz.

I'll post my list of quicksearch items, maybe it'll save some time.

I removed the /dt/ tags, so do it manually if you will by going through the quicksearch procedure linked above.

Regarding the "saved state", you get get a session saver plugin from texturizer which will save launch the browser like it was before closing, with tabs and everything. This was first done by Opera, and is quite superior in some respects.

Now for the ridiculously easy part to open groups. I suppose you utilize the personal toolbar. If you middle click on it it will open every single bookmark listed there. Cool huh?

{ Screenshot }

Alternatively you can create such groups under the bookmarks menu and click the open in tabs just like pictured above. Hell, you can hyperlink to it and launch it from anywhere. This method carries more weight and gives the user more control. It's a one time deal, you don't have to recreate it every single time.

Hope this helps in any way.

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9

That is helpful cioxx. I admit I've spent the last 20 minutes playing with Firebird and found the grouping and session saver. Nice. The quick searches are still cumbersome to set up. Here's the deal: as soon as Firebird has an IEspell-like plugin, I'll switch.

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10

It's coming, so be ready. Mozilla 1.5a has just folded the long time spellcheck extension into the main codebase. It's now standard. Mozilla being a technology preview, it's only a matter of weeks before it is available for Firebird as an optional component. Best part? Multi-language support, and ability of the user to modify every small detail and compile it with a dictionary of their choice.


And couple of things I wanted to add about quick searches above. AMG music search does not like spaces. If you are searching for Nitzer Ebb, you have to do "artist nitzer|ebb" with a pipeline - |. Or whatever buzzword you want to assign to it. tvguide search doesn't work anymore since they changed the site structure couple of weeks ago.

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11

I've been hearing about that. What exactly will the spell check let me do? Right now, for instance, when I finish writing this comment, I can right-click and spell check what's in this comment box. That's what I want.

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12

I've always regarded "spellcheck" as a blight. It tells you you've done it right when you've as a rule done it wrong. I imagine I could google for a few seconds to find proof of this.

I've never used a spell-checker. That's not a super-power, nor, I hope, irritating. It's called "knowing how to spell." To be sure, it makes for errors. That's human. We all make errors. I'd rather they'd be mine than that of someone else.

Search my blog, and find my errors. They're mine. I correct them or leave them. They are mine. I'm culpable. Grill me, prosecute me, jail me. They're mine.

This may, of course, I consider, be an entirely elitist attitude of someone who has studied English since he started reading at age 3 or so.

I have to admit that, thinking about it -- there are a tually people different from me, and with different needs and circumstances.

Wait, I need to take back everything I've said because I may be an idiotic racist chauvist pig!

Thinking about it.

So how is your morning going?

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13

That is kind of an annoying thing to say. It's pretty rare for the checker to catch me in a real spelling error, but typos are found with regularity. I don't like posting things with typos so I appreciate the spell-check; it saves me time and catches the transposed "i's" and "l's" that are hard even to see given the teeny letters on this screen. But I'll compromise this once: I won't spell-check this comment. Ok?

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14

Oh, my, goodness. that was cranky.

Awfully sorry about that. Apologies.

My want for a job that takes advantage of my skills in English and editing and carving it appopriately has affected me. Apologies.

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15

No worries, all is forgiven. And best of luck finding a job that suits you.

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16

Yeah, sorry. Bad morning, no excuse. I can only say that any and all typos on my blog -- which certainly exist and will continue to do so -- have all been mine. I've never, anywhere, used a spell-check program in my life, save to briefly examine them, and note they don't catch errors that are real words.

I don't suppose that that makes me more wonderful?

Didn't think so.

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