Must have FireFox

Every time I get a new PC I try to live just within the standard Windows environment.

But I just can't take Internet Explorer. Specifically, IE6: company IT does not allow IE7 deployment. In any case, I don't think that IE7 fixes this problem.

I have lots of nice pixels on my screen. But this makes standard fontsize hard to read.

I tried increasing Windows display fonysize. But many, many, webpages break.

Moreover, even with the larger fonts, some webpages are still too hard to read.

Gotta have FireFix, with the ability to easily change fonts on a page by page basis. With more font sizes than MS IE supports. Just can't stand this laptop otherwise.

Implications of paying for data transfers at home

More and more broadband providers are starting to set limits on bandwidth available to home broadband users, and/or to charge for "excessive" bandwidth use.

This will impacting folks who download movies.

But it may also impact folks like me,who don't download movies, but who do work at home. My biggest bandwidth usages are:?

a) downloading software to install on my work PC

This includes both open source software like Open Office or Cygwin, as well as company provided software. I often do such downloads overnight, at home, instead of at work, so as not tio impact work time.

b) backing up my lapop PC - company provided backup software that mainly, again, runs overnight, typically when I am at home.

c) installing software updates, bug patches, etc.

Again, stuff pushed to me by IT.

If I run into such bandwidth limitations at home, how will it impact productivity at work?

This is another nail in the coffin

a) of the "free ride" companies have been getting on home broadband

b) of laptop PCs - if my work PC were a desktop at work, it could use company bandwidth

c) of PCs overall - keep the high bandwidth stuff on a centralized server.

It's not just me!

I often complain about how slow my PC is.

Evidence that it is not just me: my wife teaches preschool music, to the children of many of my co-workers.

She recently overhead one of her customers say something like "I could just check my computer- but my computer takes 20 minutes to power up!"

It's not just me.

Patience during Hangings

My (new) laptop just froze. Happened twice, both times related to copy and paste from IE6 to Outlook.

Normally I might reboot, after 5 minutes of such hanging. However, this time I had a long, slow, download going on, and I did not want to run the risk of having to restart.

So, instead, I took a long break - 26 minutes - walking around the building. Hallelujah! It unfroze. Only to freeze again soon thereafter.