Listening to the Voices in My Head

I stupidly updated Firefox so I could update one of my much used addons (blurb on page said it wouldn't work with anything older than v56.) I made a backup archive of my version of firefox, downloaded and installed the new version.

Not only was the new version of Firefox FUGLY, not only did it disable my tried and true addons, THIS version no longer allows you to re-enable those plugins with Nightly Testing Tools. I prefer my drop down menu for search engines, not that hard to read box of itty bitty icons. Can't change it with customize.

*grump*

Ok, I will just restore the archived early version. Uhh, where did the archive go? It seems the update deleted it. Grrrr. So, I just downloaded the version that worked, installed it. That worked. Sort of.

All boomarks were gone. I tried to restore them. "Unable to process backup file". Fine, tried to download them from Xmarks.. nope, errors. Did a little digging, deleted the places.sqlite, restarted and tada!

I think I will keep the latest version of firefox on my VM, and then use that to download newer versions of my addons, export them with FEBE, and then import them into my desktop browser.

If it ain't broken, I am NOT going to fix it.

IINET said it was my network adapter, I said it was the router. Well, we are both right.

We got a new router from IINET, as our old one packed it in. Now, I never had a problem connecting to it, or maintaining internet connection with the old one.

This new one, however, is a different story. If I log in, I have internet immediately. If I start another program that accesses the internet, I will lose internet connection until I start troubleshooter, or just reset my adapter (quicker than going through troubleshooter which ends up doing that).

I had Windows check for driver update for network adapter, and according to Windows no new driver, mine was latest and greatest. Ever the doubter, I went in search of exact make and model of network adapter, and imagine my (non)surprise when I saw there was a new one. Downloaded, installed reboot, and still the problem persists.

Did a bit more research, and it turns out that some older network adapters (mine, it seems) aren't loved by new routers.

Solution isn't new network adapter driver (been there, done that, rebooted to prove it, and I have an All in one desktop) but possibly using a newer USB external wireless adapter. But until I get one, I will do the disabling/re-enabling network adapter whenever I start a new program that access the internet. Oh joy. :p

Makes for really brave comments. Up yours and f**k you, oh cravenly cowardly one!

I might take the Aussie governments' "We want to protect your family from bad naughty things on the internet" a bit more seriously if they did have ads that sound as if they were written by Dr Suess.

That being said, I don't really like the idea of the gov't deciding what is appropriate, that is up to the parents. There are simple things parents can do to lessen the chance of your child visiting an adult site. It's called "Supervision" . Don't allow your child to have a computer in his/her bedroom, no matter how much they whine about it. It's 'uncool'? Tough shit, you are the parent, they are the children, assert. Go into the room that has the computer unannounced and on irregular intervals. Check to see what your child is doing.

As much as I have no interest in adult sites, it's not up to the gov't to decide. That's called censorship.

After the US paid for the infrastructure and spent years developing it, other countries are crying 'You got it set up and running nicely,  so now we want to control it!'

This irks me on many levels. After most of the hard work, developement, fine tuning,and getting it running right, now the rest of the world wants to jump in. I hope the US doesn't back down on this. I really do. I have mental image of what happened to the Bell Telephone company being forced to break up into smaller companies, controlled by different methods, with flowery promises of better service and lower bills happening to the internet on a global scale. Bullshit... service went out the window, and phonebills skyrocketed.

With the way China filters even basic news, can you imagine what they would do with the free flow of information? Cuba, Iran, to name a few more, that like to keep information away from citizens too, controlling the 'net? I don't think so.