Which Browser Is Best?
From Luke:
Having been lately forced to use Windows for work (a quad-core
system with dual-boot Win XP and Vista) I am currently using pretty
much everyday either Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari. I never
willingly choose IE unless its for some Microsoft-related online
training.
From my view, I prefer Firefox.
For several months, however, I was ready to kick Firefox to the
curb. Version 3.6.x would crash for me at random, sometimes five times
a day. Removing it and reinstalling it got to be a daily chore. During
the months of total instability of Firefox 3.6.x, I was using Safari
5.0.1 for Windows. For me it seemed pretty robust, but it was a slow as
heck sort of beast. Page loads and plugin or extensions would slow it
even worse.
I have to admit I barely use Google Chrome 5. Its look & feel,
although different, is sometimes too different for me. However I've
been told that Chrome is very secure. After dealing with total crappy
failures of Firefox, I wrote Mozilla and told them how I felt. A tech
led me to their version 4 Beta. I said
why not. And for the last month I've been testing Firefox 4
Beta. Wow, no crashes in a month! Links working, fast page loads! I
used Beta 2 for a couple weeks and now am on Beta 3.*
I just hope the final Firefox 4 is as stable as the betas. I still
use pretty much everyday my classic PPC Dual G4 Mac for Photoshop
graphics scanning and printing type work. It has Mac OS X 10.5.8 and also an install
of Mac OS X 10.4.11. When
in Leopard, I use Safari 4 and Firefox 3.6.3. When I am in Tiger, I've
been using Opera and sometimes Firefox.
The funniest thing for me is Firefox 3.6.x on the Mac is extremely
stable! Never had a crash like I did on Windows XP or Vista.
Peace,
Luke
Hi Luke,
I like the Firefox 4 Beta as well. I never had any
stability problems with Firefox 3.x on my Macs, but version 4 is
faster.
I routinely have three (sometimes four) browsers
running, although not always the same ones. Opera is pretty much a
constant on both my Intel and PPC/Tiger machines, and Chrome is now
always open on the Intel
'Book. I used Safari 5.0.1 for several weeks after it was released,
roped-in by the Reader feature especially (see 2 Weeks with OS X 10.6.4
and Safari 5), but I switched back to Firefox to try the new
tabs-on-top interface. I liked the performance so well I never switched
back.
I currently use SeaMonkey and iCab as my second and third browsers on the
PPC machines.
Charles
Chronic Neuritis and Input Devices
From Mike:
Hi Charles,
I just read your article 2 Wireless
Alternatives to Apple's Magic Mouse from a while back.
I'm a big tendonitis sufferer who has day to day problems with using
my Mac.
I'm very interested in the new Apple Magic Pad with all its gestures
- but I'm a vintage user. My OS X 10.3 Pismo and my wife's
900 MHz iBook are
the business.
So I was looking for third party alternatives to the Magic Pad that
may run on earlier systems (I would switch to 10.4 if needed). This is
when I stumbled across your article, and I'm most interested in what
you have used and what you are currently using (in terms of input
hardware). And did you ever try the Mighty Mouse? Any good?
Anyway, thanks for the article.
-mike
Hi Mike,
Sorry to hear about the tendentious. Good on you for
keeping that Pismo and iBook in service. Two of my three Pismos are
going strong, and the third could be restored to usability.
Regarding a gesture-supportive freestanding trackpad
alternative to the Magic Trackpad for users of older hardware, the
Wacom
Bamboo Touch comes closest. It doesn't support as many gestures as
Apple's new trackpad, but it does support OS X 10.4 and up, so you
can use it with your Pismo if you upgrade your operating system to 10.4
(which is nice to have for a bunch of other reasons as well).
MacInTouch has an excellent comparison review,
Magic Trackpad
vs. Bamboo Touch.
Cirque's
Smart Cat freestanding trackpad supports Macs back to OS 8.5, but
it doesn't support gestures.
I'm not a big fan of low-profile computer mice like
the Magic Mouse, as I find them uncomfortable.
Charles
Editor's note: See Moore's review
of the Cirque Easy Cat on PBCentral for more information.
iBook GPU Resolder
From Rob:
Hi,
Read Adam's account of
attempting repairs to his G4 iBook. I can confirm it is possible to
repair the broken connections, having resurrected several. The key is
having a 0.25 mm solder iron tip, a steady hand, a small amount of
solder on the iron, and only hold it on for a few seconds. Also, you
need to do pins 1 and 2, and I always undid the logic board mounting
screws slightly to allow the board room to move under thermal
expansion.
Hope this helps somebody!
Rob
Thanks, Rob,
I expect it will.
Forwarded to Adam.
Charles
iBook GPU Reball
From Tracy:
Hi Charles,
I'm writing about your column regarding the iBook G4 GPU failures.
My son's 12" iBook G4 GPU failed about a year ago. I'm not as brave as
some of your readers to repair the motherboard myself. I sent the
entire computer to GPU Medics
who, for $75, removed the motherboard, reballed the motherboard, tested
the computer, and returned the repaired computer. All the repairs were
completed and the computer returned within a week.
Tracy
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the information. That sounds like an
excellent repair service.
Forwarded to Adam.
Charles
Smultron, Fraise, and Berry Etymology
From Andrew:
Charles,
"Even the name (fraise is French for
strawberry) is a tribute to Smultron's wild strawberry application
icon."
Actually, not just the icon; smultron is Swedish for
strawberry, so Fraise is simply Smultron translated into
French.
Google
Translate first gave me wild stawberries for smultron
(although from my vague memory of studying Swedish 50 years ago, the
word doesn't have a plural ending, which would probably be
smultroner).
This reminded me of the old Ingmar Bergman classic, Wild
Strawberries, Whose name is actually
"multronstället or The Wild Strawberry Patch (the
-et suffix is the definite article). So apparently Google
Translate also made the same association, as when the word is
decapitalized it gives simply strawberry.
Hmm. Translating
strawberry to Swedish gives a different result,
jordgubbe, which looks cognate to an older
English alternative, eorðberge (earth berry) - only
gubbe
is actually old man or oldster.
Perhaps a reference to the rough surface of the berry?
While wild
strawberry gives smultron, so apparently smultron
is wild as distinct from garden-variety strawberry.
Language fun for today.
His other two apps were also named for berries are Hallon
(raspberry) and Lingon
(lingonberry).
FYI,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Being fascinated with etymology, I greatly enjoyed the
fruits of your researches.
I have to admit that this one had totally eluded me.
The "tron" suffix in Smultron sounded vaguely techno or science fiction
(e.g.: the movie
series with Jeff Bridges), and I had inferred that it might have
been in that vein. Thanks for setting that straight.
Another berry name in IT is, of course, the RIM
BlackBerry.
Incidentally, wild strawberries grow on our property
here in May and June, and we're at the height of annual berry season
right now, with an overlap of wild raspberries, blueberries, and
blackberries, the latter two being my berry favorites, although I
prefer raspberry flavoring in white or green tea.
When the subject of berries comes up, there are
inevitable discussions about favorites. Personally, I don't really have
a knockout favorite wild berry. I like them all, and they all have
their own distinct and delicious personalities, although I'm perhaps a
bit partial to blueberries.
Raspberries have the most obvious and unsubtle flavor
and sweetness. They are exquisite in moderation, but I find that I get
my fill of their flavor sooner than with the other late summer
berries.
Blueberries are a more complicated mix of flavors with
their combination of tartness and sweetness, and their unique texture
and colour - one of the few blue foods. I never get tired of them. Also
excellent flavoring in tea, and it's been declared a potent
antioxidant "superfood". It's not hard to imagine why blueberries
are the Canadian province of Nova Scotia's highest value fruit crop,
accounting for approximately 25% of North America's total commercial
blueberry production.
Blackberries have the most complex taste and texture
of all, with their smooth, almost liqueur-like flavor, as well as being
a rarer delicacy than the others and having the most luxurious and
attractive appearance in my estimation - the king of the wild berries,
if you will.
Still to come: the cranberry and its relative the
foxberry - a North American Thanksgiving dinner garnish for turkey.
Charles
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