Technica Glitches: Can anyone HELP???

[munchlet]

Hello, everyone --

I spent a month moving (January) and what a cold, miserable month it was.

But it had to be done... and at present I am well situated.

My computer went through major changes: from dial-up to broadband (wireless DSL), from IE7 to IE8. It was debugged (plenty of lurking Trojans) and tuned by someone who knows his stuff. Alas, I am left with two problems on site that DID NOT EXIST before the reconfiguration:

Automatic cursor movement: does not work, whether checked or unchecked I have to move the cursor myself (tab or mouse) and this is SO NOT FUN AT ALL.

Next: the letters used just stay up there, all 26 of them (at last count), no matter what. I actually don't use this feature much, but with a stumper puzzle it does help.

I have checked that JAVA is enabled... at Freecell everything works great, no problems at all.

Any ideas? Cryptograms really are my favorite pastime -- come March, I want to play competitively once again and shoot for 1,000 perfect games under 60 seconds (in my dreams).

Thanks in advance to everyone who might comment.

Andrea

[admin2]

Hi Andrea -

I've tested the site just now in IE8 and don't experience these problems - it is possible you have a browser add-on or plugin which is causing javascript conflicts. Unfortunately IE is notorious for this sort of thing. If you like you may want to try Firefox - a free download at www.getfirefox.com. The general consensus here (and I agree with it) is that the site performs much better in the Firefox browser.

Otherwise my suggestion would be to go into your IE preferences, check to see what plug-ins or addons are installed, and temporarily disable them one by one to see if the problem goes away.

Hope this helps

Stephen

[admin2]

Hmm, the warning sign seems to be coming from Google's Adsense. I've disabled that on all pages and it went away for me.

If you're still getting cut-off on the right side, try clearing out your browser's cache and reloading the site. Or just hold down SHIFT and refresh at the same time. That should pull in the new code.

[admin2]

Ah, I believe I've isolated the reason - bansai has an unusually long "Location" attached to his profile. I've made it now so that Location will no longer display on messages and PMs so this issue should be resolved. Let me know.

[munchlet]

Hi, Stephen...

I just returned and am delighted to see your response.

Firefox definitely rocks... not only here. But the resident electronics geek has been restoring an old Micron that was wiped by a virus, and we're not sure about the disposition of this computer (e-machine with XP). For now he advises not to download Firefox. I have their site bookmarked for future reference.

OK then -- I will play with the browser plug-ins and see what happens. If my problems resolve, then I will report back.

Thanks again!

Andrea

[admin2]

Hi Andrea -

I'm surprised anyone would hesitate to download Firefox - compared to IE you're much safer browsing the web with Firefox, at least that's what I've read. IE is notorious for allowing viruses through via just everyday web-browsing. (Plus Firefox loads things a lot faster!)

That said - I'm thinking the IE problems you were having might now be fixed either way. Earlier today I discovered that our google text-ads were causing javascript errors - on some browsers this could theoretically cause the javascript parts of the site to misbehave. I've removed the google ads completely for now so if that was the source of your woes it should now be resolved. Either way, let me know.

Thanks!

[munchlet]

Fare thee well, Internet Explorer...

and RIP.

Downloaded Firefox in 2 minutes -- another two to install -- now we be cooking!

Woo hoo.

(re Firefox's built-in spell check... it don't like that "hoo" above, not one bit. Gosh golly geez. Still waitin' on the automatic grammar/syntax check, youse all.)

Cryptograms never loaded so fast or solved so quickly.

How's about a quick fix for these glitches inside my frontal lobes?



Thank you, Stephen!

Andrea

[bansaisequoia]

It's not rocket science

How's about a quick fix for these glitches inside my frontal lobes?

I could recommend a brain surgeon if I'd ever had brain surgery, but I haven't, so I can't. I did have a laparoscopic appendectomy, but that's probably not in the same league. I could also give you the number of my gastro-enterologist, but I'm not sure that's applicable. United Health Care cancelled my $369/month medication on the first of the year, so now I kinda wish I was a Frenchman or a Canadian like Keanu Reeves. (At least I'm getting by with cheaper substitutes)

[munchlet]

Oh m'gawd...

Looks like a horror flick from the 1940s or 50s...

when prefrontal lobotomies were all the rage.

Thanks... but no thanks. I'll take a long pass on that operation.

United Health Care cancelled my $369/month medication on the first of the year

Oh, dear. Would that you were joking per usual. Seriously wish I had emigrated to Canada 30 years ago, with youth & employment opportunities on my side. Had we only a crystal ball into our future...

But that's a discussion for the other thread (politics).

Hope the generics are working well for you, Joseph. Often they do.

If I knew then what I know now, I don't believe I'd ever change...
somehow.

Frank Sinatra (Watertown)

[bansaisequoia]

Who's on first?

"I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy” is one of the most famous of modern drinking quips. But who said it first?

The musician Tom Waits said the line on the August 1, 1977 episode of the television show Fernwood2night, a parody of The Tonight Show. Waits played a song, and then said the line in pre-scripted banter with the show’s host. it would appear that a television comedy writer should get credit for the line, but Waits said in a 2005 interview that he first read it on a bathroom wall.

“Dr. Rock” (Randy Hanzlick, M.D.) wrote a song titled “I’d Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me (Than a Frontal Lobotomy).” The song is a favorite of the Dr. Demento radio show. Dr. Hanzlick also has claimed that he found the line from a bathroom wall, although his song was written in 1980 (three years after Waits said the line on television).

The line is sometimes credited to writer Dorothy Parker (1893-1967), but there is no evidence at all to support this. Other authorship claims—also without evidence—have been given for actor W. C. Fields and radio wit Fred Allen.



I've always wished it was Dorothy Parker. I think she is the funniest woman who ever lived.

"If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised."

[gryhnd51]

Thanks so much for the great advice re firefox, Stephen!! I'm tired and slow tonight, but it's so OBVIOUSLY much faster than IE. Can't wait to try it when I'm actually awake.

Also, the new "comment" box on the solved page is a nice addition. Haven't felt the need to use it yet, but there have been times when i WISHED it was there.

[munchlet]

Guess what? I used the new "comment box" to flag an incomplete quotation by Anatole France.

"Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God..."

Leave out the first three words and you lose a lot! Have not checked: doubtless this omission has been duly noted in Bansai's Incomplete Quotations thread.

So tell me: what idiot removed the "l" from technical when she started this thread on technical glitches? Did a part of my brain vanish without surgical assistance? Moving one's residence can be stressful... everyone says so...

Re Dorothy Parker, Joseph, I agree. Did she not make the famous rejoinder, "pearls before swine," to Clare Boothe Luce -- or was that wrongly attributed?

Alexander Woollcott, a close friend and colleague at the Algonquin Round Table, called Parker "so odd a blend of Little Nell and Lady Macbeth. It is not so much the familiar phenomenon of a hand of steel in a velvet glove as a lacy sleeve with a bottle of vitriol concealed in its folds."

Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.

re Kate Hepburn: She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.

Despite four suicide attempts in her youth, Parker lived well into her 70s. Upon turning 70 she quipped: If I had any decency, I'd be dead. All my friends are.

RESUME

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

Might as well... like Cryptograms, it's pretty much the only game going.

Andrea

[bansaisequoia]

So tell me: what idiot removed the "l" from technical when she started this thread on technical glitches?

It must have been a technica glitch

[munchlet]

Whew...

Nice to know, Bansai, that the aforementioned IDIOT was someone else --

(a thief in the night?) -- and not yours truly.

That's gotta be a little boy sitting by the blackboard wearing a dunce cap... right?

Good! Cause last time I checked... I'm still a girl. Even at my age.



Andrea

[bansaisequoia]

No gender confusion here

Cause last time I checked... I'm still a girl. Even at my age.

I know you're a girl. I didn't think you were an Italian guy named Andrea. The fact that I used an image of a boy doesn't mean I think you're a boy.



No more than my other image means I think you're Bart Simpson (but evidently, you didn't click on my thumbnail)