JorgeA

On another topic... @xper, did you make any tweaks to the board subscription functions? Just now I received my first e-mail "new post notification" in months. The only change at my end is that last night I switched the default browser from Firefox (and, before it, IE8) to Pale Moon. We'll see if this turns out to be a one-off thing, or if the notifications start coming in regularly again. --JorgeA

I took care of the problem by installing Pale Moon 24.6.2 on my Vista system. Posting this reply via the Quick Reply box in PM. The avatar next to it shows up fine. Who needs Firefox anyway , AFAIC they cause more hassle than it's worth with their frenetic "upgrade" treadmill and their UI changes. Life is too short. --JorgeA

Thing is, the firewall, the Hosts file, and the Norton add-ons would affect both IE8 and FF28 (right?), yet FF is having these problems while IE isn't. Also, note that, on another PC, Pale Moon (a FF derivative) doesn't have these issues, whereas FF does. Whatever the problem is, it seems to have to do with FF (maybe FF28) specifically. I'll install FF30 as soon as I have a block of time to fix it with the Classic Theme Changer and related tweaks. --JorgeA

In terms of CPU speeds, there definitely does seem to have been a slowdown in the increase in clock rates. I remember when a 66MHz 80486 was astounding, and that wasn't so long ago. Chip makers have compensated for this relative stagnation in the productivity suggested by clock rates, by (among other things) adding extra cores; first we got dual-core processors, then quad-core, and so forth. While recent gains are real and large, the trouble is that it's not as "sexy" to say that you have a smaller die or more processors, as it is to say that you have doubled the clock rate. A marketing issue, really: CPU vendors need to come up with a replacement measure that the buying public can easily grasp. This is also a useful discussion (not that it's news to most who'll be reading this ). --JorgeA

xper, Would you recommend that I wait for IPB 4.0 to become operational? If it's coming soon, then that might be the simplest solution. --JorgeA

The other day (see post #214), I disabled each FF add-on in turn and restarted the browser each time. The Quick Reply box didn't work even when I had all of the add-ons disabled, including Ghostery and Norton. Barring a direct fix, when I get the chance the next step will be to try PM on Vista and see what happens. --JorgeA

Gmail Encryption May Stop NSA Snooping, Not Google's Would it be safe to say that this pertains to Gmail that the user writes up on his computer but saves to Google's servers? A hint that this might be so is suggested by the following: But if that's the case, then could it be said that the e-mail is unprotected even from the NSA as it makes its way from your keyboard to Google's servers? After all, once it's encrypted then Google can't read the e-mail, but the premise is that Google can in fact read it. And we know that (with Google's consent or otherwise) the NSA taps into what Google sees. Thoughts? --JorgeA

That accounting doesn't seem to work very well, generally speaking. At least, not for me: I see the same sort of thing happening, unpredictably, on any PC and any browser that I use. Here's a screenshot of that phenomenon in IE8 on Vista HP x64: Kind of funny to be logged in, viewing a thread, and be told that there are not only 0 members, but 0 users of any kind viewing. But this doesn't bother me so much, as it doesn't affect functionality. I'm more interested in getting the Quick Reply box or the full editor box working right in Firefox. (Barring a direct fix, installing Pale Moon would be the next step as a workaround.) --JorgeA

That may not be for another year or so. IIRC I read somewhere recently that the revived Start Menu won't be going into Windows 8.1 Update 2 (or whatever they end up calling it) this summer or fall, but will have to wait 'til Windows 9 next spring. If nothing else, that'll keep the Start Menu alternatives going for a while longer. (Wonder if they'll still work when the Start Menu comes back; I guess that they would.) --JorgeA

Microsoft is getting increasingly obnoxious about channeling customers into its predetermined rut: For Internet Explorer 11 users, no update now means no security fixes Micorosft fanboys (including Peter Bright, the article author) who think that everybody ought to fall into line with every MS directive, get spanked in the comments section -- so hard that they stopped arguing (at least for a while): And: Annoying your customers is not a good business practice. Developers who think nothing of pushing UI changes on users and then arrogantly scolding them for objecting, should arrive at the office one day to find their desk drawers all rearranged, with pictures of unknown people on the wall, the mouse buttons reversed, and a yellow stickie note on the monitor informing them that this all is for their own good. --JorgeA

The dirt starts coming out: China leaks $2bn of secret Microsoft Android patents --JorgeA

How bizarre: I just logged in with Pale Moon 24.5.0, and the Quick Reply box works fine (typing in it right now) and the avatar is correct. Oh, and I do have the Abine Privacy Suite working on this browser too. So I would speculate that whatever the problem is, is an issue specific to Firefox (so specific that it doesn't even apply to a FF derivative like PM). This is on the Win7 PC (not my main machine). I may try installing Pale Moon on the Vista system and see what happens. With any luck, the current version of PM (they're up to v24.6.2 now) will also be immune to this strange problem. --JorgeA

Out of curiosity, I logged on to MSFN via FF28 on a different PC (Windows 7). That one doesn't have Ghostery, instead it has the Abine Privacy Suite. There, the avatar is coming up fine in all cases, but the Quick Reply box is unusable whether or not the Privacy Suite is enabled, and the full editor works in text mode only. Hopefully this will yield some useful clues. --JorgeA

OK, I whitelisted MSFN in Ghostery to prevent all blocking. The avatar shows up correctly now, but I still can't type in the Quick Reply box or (unless I go to text mode) in the full editor. Next, I re-enabled the blocking but disabled blocking from "ajax.googeapis.com" specifically. The result is the same as we originally had -- an unusable Quick Reply box, and "JorgeA's Photo" off to the left of the Quick Reply box. I also (as before) disabled the Ghostery add-on, and once again the avatar came out right but I still can't type in the Quick Reply box. Wondering if maybe something's corrupted with the FF installation and updowngrading to FF30 might change whatever's causing the problem. --JorgeA

All right, here's the screenshot, attached using IE8: And to think that some websites are complaining to me that I'm using an "outdated" browser.

D*mn, I can't attach a screenshot whether I'm in wysiwyg or text mode. Will switch to IE8 and do it from there. --JorgeA

Replying in FF28 now. I clicked on that box at the top left and it's letting me type in the editing (or reply) box. All the other controls are grayed out; I feel like I'm back in 1981 working on my electric typewriter. If I click on that same box while preparing this reply, then nothing shows up, not even the text that I already typed. Clicking on the box again doesn't bring the typed text back -- I had to click on "Preview Post" and then that box. Weird -- when I got the text back in the reply box, all the carriage returns were gone and I had to re-input them all over again. And the smiley face turned back to the original "colon + close parentheses" form. The Quick Reply box doesn't work, it's the same blue (or gray, depending on your monitor I suppose) color as the editing box for the full-scale reply mode. I'm attaching a screenshot of this page, taken just before I began my reply. You can see the Quick Reply box in blue (or gray), the odd "JorgeA's Photo" thingie sticking out the top left corner of the Quick Reply box, and also the URL across the top of the image which seems to be right. But now as I am typing this reply, I see that the URL in the address bar is simply "www.msfn.org/board/index.php?". --JorgeA

Only reason I can come up with is that they thought they could or should extend their domination from the office to the family room. What they don't seem to realize is that the consumer market is fundamentally different from the office market. In business, standardization and compatibility are extremely important as you want to be able to read other people's stuff and send them your own stuff and have them be able to use it. You don't want to lose a customer because you insist on utilizing some oddball document format. But the need for this is much less in the consumer market, so there's much more room for variation. People may want MS Office at the (ahem) office, but once they're on the street or at home, anything goes, which is why iPads coexist with Android tablets, and iPhones with Android phones, in a way that (say) Word and WordPerfect or Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel could never coexist. I think the failure to recognize these differences helps to explain why MSFT keeps failing at consumer markets, and has largely failed in its attempt to "consumerize" Windows with Win8/Metro. Just like a PC is not a tablet is not a phone (which shows how ridiculous it's been to try to shoehorn a tablet UI onto PCs), so the business market is not like the individual consumer market. --JorgeA P.S. And yes, nothing beats a PC for gaming.

I PM'd Charlotte at the end of April, and the message hasn't even been read yet, let alone answered. Hoping he can come back, and soon. We miss his contributions all around the Forum, and especially in this thread. --JorgeA

Reporting back now... This is not good news. I disabled every single Firefox add-on ("extension") in turn and restarted the browser after each one. That unusable blue/gray editing box is what I get every time when I go to reply to a post in FF28. I'm going to re-enable them before I forget which ones I had running. What else can we check? FWIW, this is Vista Home Premium x64, SP2. (Posting this via IE8.) --JorgeA

I just realized that I hadn't given the link to the PCWorld article. (Been struggling with posting on MSFN on two different browsers, for different reasons.) Just added the link and hopefully it will provide better context for the quotes. --JorgeA

Thanks, buyerninety. This is bizarre. While the reply box in that screenshot is definitely blue (a faint blue, but blue nonetheless) on my main PC's screen, it does show up as gray on my second PC. Clearly, not all monitors process color identically. Or maybe all along I've needed to calibrate one of the monitors... Be that as it may, I checked the security/privacy-related add-ons in Firefox. Pausing Ghostery did solve the "double listings" issue and resuming Ghostery brought it back. But the blue/gray issue remained throughout. I don't have a lot of add-ons on Firefox so it won't be hard to test each one in turn. First, though, I need to address the reason that I have each of the 11 currently open tabs, as disabling some of the add-ons requires restarting the browser. I'll do that as soon as I get the chance to, and report back. --JorgeA

On my computer, MSFN is working better on IE8 than on Firefox 28. I went to post a reply to a forum thread via Firefox, and this is what I got when I clicked on the "More Reply Options" button: The writing area shows up in blue. When you hover the mouse pointer over it, the pointer stays as an arrow. Clicking in the typing area doesn't do anything, the cursor never appears. If you start typing, nothing shows up on the screen. Compare to what it looks like when you do the same thing in IE8: The writing area is in white (as expected), and you get a blinking cursor if you click in it. Needless to say, I'm preparing this post in IE8. Also, when I'm on the board index (not sure what the correct name for that page is), some of the entries have double listings. This doesn't happen in IE8. For an example, see the one circled in red in the following screenshot: What could account for this weirdness, and is there anything that can be done about it, either at my end or at MSFN's end? I'm more interested in being able to post via Firefox than in eliminating those double entries. --JorgeA

Good idea, buyerninety. I'll go there and make that suggestion. Help from Verizon forum mods or employees is historically slow, late, and sporadic, but it's worth a shot anyway. --JorgeA

Microsoft backtracks on the Xbox One as customers refuse its attempts to take over the lving room: Gamers to Microsoft: We don't need no stinking ecosystem in our living room And where have we heard something like this before: Contra @jaclaz , maybe humanity is NOT necessarily doomed after all. Resistance is NOT futile... --JorgeA