Replacing AOL software

-
As AOL has become more web oriented, I have found less and less use for AOL's proprietary software. I started on AOL in 1997 with version 4.0, and worked my way through five different upgrades.

AOL software is still darned easy to use. One of its best features is the ability to enter e-mail addresses into your address book once and have them available online from anywhere in the world as well as offline on your own computer. But it has problems. For starters, it can be unstable. And for cross pollination purposes, the address book cannot be exported to other e-mail programs. Nor can the "favorites" list be exported into other browsers.

I started using the Mozilla Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail program recently. It took awhile to configure them the way I wanted, much longer than it took to configure AOL the first time. Then I had to hand type every e-mail address into my Outlook Express address book. From there I exported it directly into Thunderbird completely effortlessly. (I could have entered it directly into Thunderbird, but I already use the Outlook address book for mail merge in my OpenOffice suite.)

Mrs. Toy, who hates to even touch a computer, much less knows how to, actually prefers Thunderbird's clean e-mail interface over AOL's, which she found too cluttered with unrelated stuff to find the right buttons.

Then I rediscovered Netscape. Remember Netscape? That was the browser everyone used before anyone ever heard of Internet Explorer. Firefox and Netscape have a common heritage in Mozilla, but they have taken somewhat divergent paths. Netscape is owned by AOL, while Mozilla is an open source program developer. Its kinda complicated, but Netscape and Firefox are very similar but not identical.

Netscape 8.1 has the advantage over Firefox in that it had AOL Instant Messenger built in, along with the ability to display web pages either as Firefox does or as Internet Explorer does. It also has additional security features and the ability to display the local weather on the toolbar. Its a neat browser.

Since I couldn't directly export my favorites from AOL into Netscape, it took me sevaral days to copy ten years of collected favorites into netscape. Whew.

All was well for a few days, then suddenly, it started falling apart. Netscape started freezing up or crashing. I exported my bookmarks (favorites) into Firefox (real easy this time!) and did a clean reinstall. It worked great for a day, then started crashing again. The forum at Netscape.com had users reporting the same bug all occurring within a day of each other! I'm hoping they'll get the  bugs worked out soon. But for now I'm using Firefox for browsing. Its steady as a rock.

So why didn't I upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 like everyone else? Because I still have a Windows ME system, and IE 7 doesn't work with anything earlier than Windows XP. I don't like to have to spend my money one a new machine just because Bill Gates tells me to. This machine works just fine, thank you. Besides, Firefox and Netscape were doing the things IE 7 now does long before Microsoft decided to upgrade Internet Explorer, and Firefox doesn't need to make me buy new computer systems to stay in business because Mozilla is non-profit.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The problem with Car Week

-
Image
So another Car Week has come to and gone from the Monterey Peninsula. And as usual the community is divided into two camps. On one side we have people who are frustrated with the traffic, crowds, and noise. The other side is telling these folks to stop whining because "it's good for the economy." The second group has no sympathy for the first, and often goes as far as telling them to move away if they don't like special events and the tourists that come along with them. How did this come about? Car week evolved slowly over several decades. The core event is known as the Concours d'Elegance (which is pronounced properly by maybe half of the local population). The Concours began in 1950 as a single Sunday display of classic automobiles. I remember going there as a kid once, after Sunday School. I watched my dad run his hand over a smoothly polished fender, so I did the same. Suddenly a very cranky man came up behind me saying "NO, NO! FINGERPRINTS!" as...
Read more

Calling the police has gotten harder

-
Image
It has gotten harder to call the police. The last few weeks I have made several attempts to report illegal fireworks to Seaside PD. We've always used the non-emergency number 831-394-6811 to do this, and our call would be promptly answered by a dispatcher who would take the information and immediately enter it into the system. Now one must jump through several hoops with no guarantee the system won't disconnect you before the report is made. And I'm getting fed up. Instead of having our calls answered by a human, a machine will answer, much as it does for every business you call these days. First it tells you that this number is not for emergencies, and if you have an emergency you must hang up and call 911. Then they say it again in Spanish.  Next, you are instructed to choose English or Spanish. Next it tells you that they're busy answering emergency 911 calls and implies that your non-emergency concern is an imposition on their important work. Then the voice asks...
Read more

Oh, Nikki, you're better at math than that.

-
Image
And then there were two. Earlier tonight I watched part of the debate between Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. DeSantis is a jerk, and I can't take him seriously. Haley, on the other hand is a smart gal, and offers some hope for bringing some level of sanity back to the Republican party. But she often dumbs things down to appeal to the simple-minded (mostly Trumpers), and that drives me nuts. Case on point: Haley promised that if elected she would eliminate the federal gasoline tax to reduce the tax burden on working class Americans. Moderator Dana Bash pointed out that the federal gas tax raises over $50 billion annually and is used build and maintain highways and bridges. She then asked Haley how she would pay for those things without it. Haley responded first by evading the question and talking about taxes in general. But eventually she got back around to the gas tax. She employed a classic Republican talking point saying the states collect the...
Read more