grrr. I just noticed one thing that i really dont like about safari, and it happened when i was posting todays rant over on MT. It would not allow me to enter japanese text into the rant. It converted the kanji to question marks. I was puzzled by this because i just was able to post it in a previous rant… then i realized that i must have used Firefox to post that rant. Sure enough, when trying to enter kanji with safari it converted it to question marks, but when i used firefox it converted things to the proper kanji.
Hmm.
I spent a few moments this morning reviewing some of the excellent advice i got in a blogbit about switching away from Firefox, and re-installed things, wiping out old profiles, etc. Firefox is working faster (but that is because i added a 512 mem chip which has worked wonders for making this powerbook work better) but it still has the two problems that irk me (hanging a bit while accessing bookmarks with kanji in them, and the garbled gif thing) the real kicker is that the ‘download now’ button right on the firefox page itself is garbled!! I can’t help but wonder if its me and my machines, but the fact that ALL of my machines do this… i dunno.
I hate this browser limbo. I dont expect safari to change hardly ever or at all, but damnit i wish i could get past these probs with firefox.
- pirotunes: Zoviet France - Come Infinite - Shadow, Theif Of The Sun -
I can’t reproduce the kanji bug in Safari 1.2* at all. Or the corrupt “download now” button. Strange.
Firefox runs even faster still if you use a build optimized for your processor (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=149532 — g4, http://www.beatnikpad.com/archives/2004/11/06/firefoxG5 — g5).
I just want to know where I can get a copy of that image above your rant on the Megatokyo site. That would look so cool on my desktop at work (I use XP and Firefox at work and it looks so cool)
Hey, check out omniweb, I know the idea of paying anything for a browser scares most people, but it has a unique layout, is just as fast and the best set of keyboard commands. A very useful feature called “Workspace” this allows you to save a setting of windows & tabs and sites and automatically open them. For example: I have and “E-mail” workspace and when i open it (using F* keys) it brings up a window with Yahoo Gmail Hotmail etc. A built in spellcheck that runs as you type is nice too (hehe its already found mistakes in this message) However I have no idea about rendering kanji or any other language.
Good luck, one day browsers will have to catch up to their users or world wide revolts will ensue.
I don’t have access to a Mac/Safari at the moment but I assume Safari has a language pack installer buried in the menus somewhere… its probable the default install lacks Japanese character fonts.
I always have to remember to request other languages specifically when installing most OSs or adding components to them.
Um… Fred, do you have a link to that vector pic of Firefox-ko and 2K-ko on your MT rant page? I can find the blank background vector art (Ferricorp) but not the nice one with the background.
It *has* to be the wallpaper on my workbox.
Here’s some interesting info on the OS-tan stuff. If you search for firefox-ko you can find some interesting pictures, my favorite is this one.
Piro/Fred, did you try the workaround suggested in the bug? (Switching to millions of colors mode.) If that didn’t work someone should post something in bugzilla about it. The previous consensus seemed to be that the bug only appeared in thousands of colors mode.
D’oh, didn’t realise you couldn’t use anchors in this posting system.
OS-tan info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-tan
Favorite pic: http://sweb.uky.edu/~tjmart1/23.jpg
Bugzilla bug for images: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=239701
Mentioned this before, but I’ll mention it again for emphasis: I use the full Mozilla suite’s Navigator (with Skypilot Classic theme, of course) and it works fine, kanji input and all.
Arg… still sick over here.
Sorry to hear you’re having problems with those browsers, but since I rarely even have enough time to spare other than homework *and occasionally video games and anime*, I don’t have much experience with either of those browsers.
But here’s somethin that might cheer you up. I heard AIR ep 5 is out now.
Hi Fred
I wanted you to know that your problem with multitasking is a known bug in the HumanOS. It is denied by most people in the business world, but there is a measurable efficiency cost for task switching in this operating system.
I’ll be right back with some relevant linkage.
Hi Fred
I wanted you to know that your problem with multitasking is a known bug in the HumanOS. It is denied by most people in the business world, but there is a measurable efficiency cost for task switching in this operating system.
I’ll be right back with some relevant linkage.
I apologize for the double post. I meant to hit preview.
Here’s the rest of my post on multitasking:
Dr.s Meyer & Rubenstein of U of M actually did some really good studies on this. I’ll quote an interview with him:
“In effect,” says Meyer, “you’ve got writer’s block briefly as you go from one task to another. You’ve got to (a) want to switch tasks, you’ve got to (b) make the switch and then you’ve got to (c) get warmed back up on what you’re doing.”
In other words, the efficency gains you make by keeping mutiple things going at once usally get eaten up by the load on your working memory caused by having to unload one set of rules for how to do things and load the set of rules for the next task. (Of course, if you can pass off a task from your temporal lobes to your motor cortex, you don’t face these costs, so you can think and walk at the same time. Thinking about two different things at once, well…)
Here’s a press article:
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/08/05/multitasking.study/
Here’s Myer’s actual research:
http://www.umich.edu/~bcalab/multitasking.html
And a transcript of Morning Editon:
http://www.umich.edu/~bcalab/articles/NPRTranscript2001.html
In the interests of full disclosure, I multitask a bit too much for an artist. And I thouroughly enjoy Megatokyo.
On the subject of multitasking in the humanOS (since I know little about the computer kind): one thing that I find helps is ordering things so that the first thing you do on a given task acts as a sort of warm up for the rest of the task. For instance, when I do notes on my course I go through and highlight the important points in the handouts before I start checking through textbooks, I find doing things in this order easier than doing things page by page.
Firefox has some problems too - you can’t use shortcuts on PCs like cntl-b for bold text and cntl-i for itallics. This is really a problem for me when I’m writing in my xanga blog and the bookmarks folder opens.
I’m with Vexx & Dorsk. ^_^
Would you kindly direct us as to how to get a high-res version of that nice FireFox/Win2k OsTan image you have on your MT rant?
I’m with Vexx & Dorsk.
Could you please post the a link to a high-res copy of that nice image on top your MT rant?
^__^
For the Japanese input problem in Safari, try UnicodeChecker (http://www.earthlingsoft.net/UnicodeChecker/), it adds a menu under ‘Services’ that allows you to convert text to unicode. Select the kanji and use the Unicode -> HTML entities.. thing (tired, can’t think of proper formulation of that sentence).
For those that want the OS-Tan 2k-tan and Firefox-tan pic; there are two versions of it:
One w/ japanese in it:
http://www.otakubell.com/os-girls/Gallery/galleries/OtherMascots/tw-firefox.jpg
and one that’s translated to English:
http://www.otakubell.com/os-girls/Gallery/galleries/OtherMascots/tw-firefox-en.jpg
For more OS-Tan Pictures and comic translations, you can find them here:
http://www.otakubell.com/os-girls/
I just pray that my posting the website address here doesn’t kill their bandwidth… o_o;
Just viewed ep. 5 of Air during lunch…
I have to say this is turning into a messed up tragic group of people. Nonetheless fascinating.
Thanks for the leads on 2k-tan and Firefox-ko …. (my favorite combination when I *have* to use Windows) … all it needs is Thunderbird-ko in the background in chibi shouting for attention…
Now that I’ve had time to look them up, I have to say the OS-tans are very cute, I may actually change my wallpaper for the first time in 4 months, thanks Drango.
Hmm, *tries to imagine the Largo Desktop Environment “Lardows” as an OS-tan*
x_x scaaaaary.
Every try Opera?
I use Opera and Firefox almost exclusively, but I prefer Opera for most of my browsing. They’re both a hell of a lot better than IE, that’s for certain.
I’m not sure about Opera in comparison with Safari…I never used Macs much except for a computer class I took in which Macs were the system of choice.
Anyway, Opera is an excellent browser (particularly if you pay for it, or make it think you paid for it). It can be very minimalist, which is how mine is…giving me almost the entire screen in viewable page area. It’s also got a lot of neat features, and my favorite of these has to be that if Opera suddenly closes or your computer decides to wig out, the next time you open Opera you can tell it to resume your previous session, which means you don’t lose all the pages you were looking at.
Anyway, I quite like it…cheers! ^^