Archive for October, 2006

Firefox 2

More power to Firefox! I made the switch from IE to FF sometime last year. At the time was really glad that I made the switch over and is also the time when I was focusing on the standards of how HTML and CSS should be used and that is the main reason for the switch. It has been a great browser and do enjoy using it and working with it. I did have some issues a few months ago where I had this major glitch when it came to downloading anything via the browser. Even small images if I were to download it, it would freeze up the entire browser. I kept digging around and I remember even getting pissed that something was wrong with FF. I kept looking and at the end it was a plug-in I had installed that had nothing to do with downloads in general that was causing my issue. Very weird but was glad to have found out it was the plug-in and not FF in general. I still had 1 issue with FF1.x and that was when it would load JAVA applets. At times it would take longer than usual to load and if it takes more then say 5 seconds it would just crash the browser. So I removed all plug-ins that I had installed since I learned my lesson with the download issue I had. Though even with them all gone no luck. I asked around and found others having the same issue. Tried to find out more but got nowhere so just put that on hold and waited till FF2 was released. Here we are now and with FF2 released I do not have that same issue I had before. Which is great! There are 2 new features, which I really liked about the new FF2. One is the Inline spell checking. That just blows my mind when I saw it in effect and was actually adding something to a forum. First I thought it was a VB feature of some sort but then tested it on other HTML text areas and it was a FF2 feature. Must say that is just an amazing feature to have built into a browser. Something I always thought a browser and email client should have. Which both FF and Thunderbird do have now. Good Stuff.

Another feature that I thought was much better with FF2 is that when opening up tabs now the X close button is on the actual tab and not all the way to the far right. Which was a little odd at first cause I’m used to PHP editors where you can close the tab you want and not have it all the way on the far right.

I’m sure there is many other things they added but these 2 have been really handy thus far. One thing I am missing is one of the plug-ins I had installed with FF1 was the IP plug-in. It would show the IP(s) of the website you are viewing which I find very handy when working online. Though I’m sure they will upgrade their plug-in shortly so no biggie.

I’m a really big fan I Firefox but do use IE daily when I’m developing cause I won’t fail to see the obvious that most the world still uses IE based browsers. Speaking off browsers I thought the name “Sea Monkey” was a really funny name for the all-in-one Internet application suite that mozilla has powering their mozilla browser.

The Silencer

Working with and around computers is a dream come true for me. I spend most of my time on or around a pc, even if I’m not working. The last 2 weeks one of my computers started to have this really loud annoying hum to it. Well actually it started like 6 months ago but these last 2 weeks it came to the point that it was unbearable to even be around it. I would be in the kitchen with something on the stove and I would still hear it in the other room. Took me awhile to find out what was wrong with the computer. My first thought was the CPU fan, but I removed it and cleaned it out and the noise was still there after I put it back in place. Then I jumped to the graphic card but that didn’t seem like it was making all the noise. So I left it and another week went by till I just could not take it anymore and went ahead and got myself a CPU cooler/silencer. I never really thought they were effective in the past so thought might as well give it a try and hope for the best.

Once I got the package the install wasn’t to hard, I did have to detach the motherboard from the chassis and remove the CPU in order to get the support that needed to be placed behind the motherboard so it could keep the rather large fan in place. Once that ordeal was complete I turned my PC on and to the delight of my ears the annoying hum was gone and I’ve actually never heard a computer that quiet. Now because of it I only have that PC on and don’t turn on my other one, as it seems to be so much louder in comparison now, even though it’s the normal sound of a computer. So if anyone has an annoyingly load PC or just want to surf the net in comfort I would advice to get your hands on a CPU cooler/silencer.

I’ve added a little image below of how it looks once its installed and running. It’s even got a blue disco light, which is really cool.

CPU Fan