Viv...

Thanks for that. Later this year, I'll be setting up one machine on Broadband! I'm looking forward to it, too.

Ian.

I was perfectly happy on dialup until we got Broadband!!!
We never had broadband in NZ (where I lived until 2005) because it was prohibitively expensive... but it is really reasonably priced here - and no I would never go back by choice!

I don't think dialup makes you a dinosaur at all! But if you use the internet a lot I think you would really enjoy the speed of broadband!

Mark...

Thanks for that...you can never be too sure, with Microsoft!

I'm on first-name terms with System Restore because I test a lot of security softwares on this machine...I'm a security freak with cleaners, revealers, disk examiners and encryption apps. The time machine offered by System Restore is a blessi...a Godsen....it's really good!

Hey...I'm still on dialup! Does that make me a dinosaur?

Ian.

If you buy a machine with a legal version of Vista it is yours . The differences are many, everything practically is different both in how you interact with Vista and what is going on under the hood! They've moved where things are so it takes a while to find stuff but you get there in the end. Compatibility is an issue, not everything that works in XP works in Vista, and not all hardware is compatible either (old printers/scanners etc).

Viv' & Mark...

I'm curious, now! (I'm delighted to hear that System Restore survived, though.)

What are the most significant differences between XP and Vista?

It was pretty easy to shift from Windows 98SE (it had such entertaining Explorer crashes, too: I miss it, so! ) over to XP, the leap may not be so bad. I'll find out, later this year, no doubt.

If I had to, I'd buy a copy of XP and I know that there is an online pressure movement, now, to get MS to keep XP around. I can't say that I blame them. I've had no experience of Vista at all, yet.

Is Vista "mine" (as in "licensed") forever, on buying a machine with it on?...or, is there some payment that must be made, further down the line? That word "Premium" has my nose twitching, a little.

Thanks for the replies, good folk!

Ian.

Hi Ian

Vista does have system restore and a few other fancy features besides. However if you don't like change I'd stick with XP until you get a new machine, vista is VERY different.

Hope that helps,
Mark

I have Vista on my laptop - I don't love it, but I don't hate it either! Actually I don't think I will ever love a Windows operating system!! but it's not causing me any grief!

I can't tell you about "system restore" I didn't use it in XP and haven't looked for it on Vista!!!

I'm sorry about your experiences with Safari... Mozilla, IE and Safari all run happily side by side on my machine!

Mark...

Thanks for that, good Sir. The word "reply" in my last post should have read "replying" - sorry about that. I must learn not to stand up, type and eat at the same time!

Yeah...I've seen IE6 do that a few times. I've done a few sites that involve some similar occurrences and that is the only explanation - the scaling and the invisible handling, in IE. I'm sure that Microsoft could start trusting us to have a greater part to play in how their browser displays our goodies to visitors.

I've switched (as your web log will no doubt show) to IE7. The problem appears to have gone. I'll also be using Firefox and MaxThon. I tried Safari, but all I got from it, at every running, was an immediate Explorer crash, so that didn't last long on this machine, unfortunately. (After Viv' mentioned Safari, I thought I'd give it a go! "'Woe', 'Woe' and oodles-of-times, 'Woe'!" Looks like I'll have to do without! The screenshots made it look very up-market, too! ) Very Bebington!

(Speaking as a guy born and bred in the dockside slums of Birkenhead, that is - moved to Bebington in 1979! Bad luck, Bebington!)

Also...do any of you use (or, have any of you tried) Vista? I'm madly in love with XP, myself (I call it a "Gift From God", because of the System Restore feature) and I'll not be letting XP go without a fight - that's for sure! Did "System Restore" survive, into Vista?

Thanks for the insight into the IE6 thing...IE6 is officially a part of my Net history, now.

Ian.

Hi Ian

I think I may have got to the bottom of your problem in IE6. I'm currently working on an intranet for work and some of our machines still run IE6. It seems that if you give div objects 100% width in their particular container, but set the margin of that container to be say 20pixels away from the next door container it works out the width of the whole area not of the area minus the margin. The effect it that the object which is supposed to be 100% width ends up being 100% + 20 pixels... hence it doesn't fit anymore and ends up below the menu!! It's an IE6 problem only and seems to have bizarre effects. In work I had the page overhanging on the right by the margin amount leaving half words on the end of lines. I think your problem is infinitely preferable

Hope that clears up the mystery for you. Difficult to explain in words.
Cheers,
Mark

Hi, Viv & Mark...

I'm on Firefox, replying to this, now. I've also downloaded the latest IE7 and all advised updates, etc.. It can't hurt to be up to date on a few browsers. Firefox appears sluggish, though, on image downloading and that's not changed since a year or so ago, when I last tried it. I'm on dialup, though, so it's unlikely to change, much.

IE7's toolbars look unruly and unlike those to which I've become accustomed over the last oddle-point-seven of years, but I'll learn to love it, or just System Restore myself back to something more familiar - the Dr Who option of XP (Thanks, Bill!)...one of the few things that Microsoft got right, I suppose.

I'm a security freak, so IE7 will probably suit me better, even if for that reason, alone. The new site has brought out a new and smouldering feel of 'activity'. I sense it, when I'm here: more of the same, I say!

Ian.