Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Fox hunt

Yesterday, while composing an email to our IT department trying to persuade them to let me install Firefox on my new computer*, I decided to quickly check that the new version of Internet Explorer doesn't have any of the necessary features** I was claiming were unique to Firefox.

I guess it doesn't:

Yay, Microsoft!

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*it's not so slow that I want to throw it out the window! And it will let me open more than three programmes at a time without crashing! No longer will I have to keep closing and re-opening programmes when I'm trying to compile a progress report from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe source files, plus PubMed! And the mouse scrolls properly, and the keyboard is crumb-free! I am almost crying with gratitude right now...

**mostly spell check and the Lazarus add-on, for when I'm submitting a grant or report that uses web forms.

9 comments:

  1. I still hate microsoft and I installed firefox at work without asking. But as you describe, sometimes it isn't microsoft but just the antiquity of your machine that ruins things.

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  2. Alyssa, I'm glad I'm not the only one who appreciates these things!

    Nina, I couldn't do it myself - no-one other than PIs has the ability to download anything on their own machines. I couldn't even install the Google toolbar within Internet Explorer on my own. Firefox add-ons seem to be the sole exception, so as well as Lazarus, I've got my Google search bar and various other cool things.

    Yes, the old computer was very old indeed! It wasn't even new when I was given it when I started this job, three years ago this week. I thought it had a virus, it was so slow, and asked the IT guys to check it for me. Verdict? "it's just really, really old".

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  3. You have to ask IT if you can install firefox? What insane Canadian twilight zone is this?

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  4. There's patient data on our network, so we have to be super-uber careful. We need permission to hook non-work supplied computers up to the network, too - that kind of thing.

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  5. Screen shot - LOL! How do you always find this funny stuff? I swear I don't encounter that much funny stuff doing ordinary work.

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  6. Hermitage - same deal here, only special (read, "whiny") people like me get administrator privileges on their own machines. We're in a hospital too of course.

    Cath - after many years of resisting I installed Firefox and haven't looked back since. That Lazarus plug-in looks rather useful, I must say.

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  7. Eco, I don`t think I experience more than my fair share of funny stuff, I think I`m just very good at spotting it! I must have inherited some of my Dad`s ninja LOL skills.

    Ricardipus, I first switched when it had the option of multiple tabs but IE didn`t. I`ve never looked back either - although I did flirt briefly with Chrome.

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  8. I've got Firefox and Chrome but tend to use Firefox most. This machine is around 8 plus years old but I run Linux and it goes fine for me (I'm no expert).

    viv in nz

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