The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

IIRC, uninstall the new one. It will revert to the old one.

I generally prefer not to read in the browser. If I must read on my desktop, instead of a mobile device, the choice under Windows is SumatraPDF. Aside from PDFs, it also handles ePub and Mobi.

Which "bloat ridden alternatives" did you have in mind?
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Dennis

If i uninstall it, it will undoubtedly nag me to install the new one, and one day something in Windows itself wont work.

I didn't use Edge as a web browser, only as a epub viewer, mainly when proof-reading/copy-editing. It had a shim (Edge Launcher or something) that provided the wherewithal to integrate into 3rd party software.

"bloat ridden alternatives" - all the epub readers that want to be a librarian too, all those that try to emulate a paper book, all those that have popups that hide the text, all those that take 'too long' to open an epub. Haven't looked at Sumatra for a while, last time I looked it wasn't as fast as its fans claimed it would be - sure it was faster than Acrobat, but so is a wet week. And it wanted to be the default for everything under the sun -- I'm not fond of Swiss army knives either.

I'm using Windows Quicklook a bit, its lightning fast but the ePub plugin in particular has a rather clunky UI. Good for what its name says - a quick look, for epub proof-reading/copy-editing I am using Sigil's PageEdit.

BR

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

If i uninstall it, it will undoubtedly nag me to install the new one, and one day something in Windows itself wont work.

I don't believe so, to either part of the statement.

I didn't use Edge as a web browser, only as a epub viewer, mainly when proof-reading/copy-editing. It had a shim (Edge Launcher or something) that provided the wherewithal to integrate into 3rd party software.

Fair enough. Personally, if it was my main usage, I would have checked that the new version using Google's Blink rendering engine still supported that usage before installing.

"bloat ridden alternatives" - all the epub readers that want to be a librarian too, all those that try to emulate a paper book, all those that have popups that hide the text, all those that take 'too long' to open an epub. Haven't looked at Sumatra for a while, last time I looked it wasn't as fast as its fans claimed it would be - sure it was faster than Acrobat, but so is a wet week. And it wanted to be the default for everything under the sun -- I'm not fond of Swiss army knives either.

The fact that something can be used for more than one purpose don't mean it has to be. I suspect most folks who get SumatraPDF only use it as a PDF viewer.

All Sumatra wanted to do was be a PDF viewer, but the underlying rendering engine also supports ePub and Mobi, so...

I was running a Firefox extension that could display ePubs in the browser, but the architectural changes in FF Quantum broke it. (No, not ePub Reader - the other one. ePub Reader insisted on keeping a library of ePubs you read in it in] the Firefox profile directory, and offered no option to put it elsewhere. Utter fail.)

I also have the original version of FBReader written in C around. It handles ePub, Mobi, FB2 and an assortment of other things, and can run in Linux as well as Windows. FBReader got rewritten in Java as part of work in a computer science course, and that became the base for the Android version.

(The Android version is no longer open source, but the Premium version is my standard eBook viewer under Linux. The win is number of supported formats. It handles AZS3, ePub, FB2, Mobi and a few other things out of the box, and can support PDF, DjVu, and CBR/CBZ via plugins. I prefer ePub, but for the most part don't have to care what format a book is in.)

And I'm not sure what counts as "too long" to open an ePub. I have some very large ones I don't expect to open instantly.

I'm using Windows Quicklook a bit, its lightning fast but the ePub plugin in particular has a rather clunky UI. Good for what its name says - a quick look, for epub proof-reading/copy-editing I am using Sigil's PageEdit.

I have Sigil and PageEdit here. I have little need to edit ePuib content. The main use for Sigil here is adding working ePub ToC to volumes that lack them.
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Dennis

[BetterRed]

I had the impression Chromium Edge would come with 1909, which I got in 2002, but it snuck past me with the Nov 2019 Patch Tuesday update.

I didn't know MS had made it so easy to ditch Chromium Edge and revert to EdgeHTML Edge. I can see why, UAP apps do use and look like they will continue to use the EdgeHTML engine - I was worried that they would start wanting Chromium Edge. I still have EdgeLaunch installed so I wont have to track it down again.

I've changed my mind about why MS ditched ePub viewing in Chromium Edge. Initially I assumed it was because it was too hard to do. But that doesn't make sense, a) they still have a PDF viewer which was and still is functionally much the same as the ePub viewer; and b) what's inside an ePub is a variant of what's inside a web page, whereas what's in a PDF is another can of worms entirely. So, I now think it was some weird managerial decision.

I have more or less lost patience with web browsers, we've been faffing around with them for over 30 years and I am not sure they are substantially better now than they were 20 years ago.

Oh yes, slow to load epub readers - the one that comes with calibre was the one I had in mind, but when i tried them a couple of others were also quite slow. Added: EdgeHTML and Quicklook have undoubtedly biased my view on this even further.

BR

[Hitch]

What the high holy frack is going on with Chrome?

Did something new happen? Something change? I have weird-ass behavior, suddenly--all text fields limned in black, checkboxes, selection boxes, are now turning blue and my SAAS feels like it's bogging down as though I put the whole freaking computer in Molasses.

Ubernerds? Any of you dudes (or dudettes) know?

Hitch

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Hitch

What the high holy frack is going on with Chrome?

Did something new happen? Something change? I have weird-ass behavior, suddenly--all text fields limned in black, checkboxes, selection boxes, are now turning blue and my SAAS feels like it's bogging down as though I put the whole freaking computer in Molasses.

Ubernerds? Any of you dudes (or dudettes) know?

I use Firefox, and keep a current Chrome around for testing. Got some examples I can look at?
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Dennis

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I use Firefox, and keep a current Chrome around for testing. Got some examples I can look at?
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Dennis

Hell if I know. For example, now when I type a reply here in MR, the reply box is limned in black. It's just bloody odd.

The "show your signature" and "Automatically parse links in text" chekboxes, in the Additional options, are BLUE with white checks.

(I have other issues, it seems, in Salesforce, but I don't have a way for you to see that.)

Hitch

[BetterRed]

@Hitch - did you try using a different/new profile?

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I have more or less lost patience with web browsers, we've been faffing around with them for over 30 years and I am not sure they are substantially better now than they were 20 years ago.

BR

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@Hitch - did you try using a different/new profile?



BR

No. I did clear my cache and all that good drivel. My "Profile" is pretty simple.

It also seems to be wreaking havoc in Salesforce. I use SF, and it seems to be bogging down, becoming logy, with long delays between keypresses and text-on-screen, almost like....like a buffer.

For example, I send notes to my Crew, in a given email "case." In the note box, you simply type "@" and the first few letters of a name and a popup gives you names from which to choose, which then notifies that person of the note. Easy-peasy, right?

By later yesterday, I waited 30-45 SECONDS for the dropdown to appear/populate.

It's weird and it's bloody affecting my productivity and getting on my last damn nerve. And I'm not geeky enough on this front to know how to fix it.

Hitch

[badgoodDeb]

Can you try these same things in Firefox, or will some of your software / websites not work outside of Chrome?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Can you try these same things in Firefox, or will some of your software / websites not work outside of Chrome?

I threw in the towel and opened it in (delicate shudder) Edge and it's working fine. Obviously, it's something in Chrome. I've tried turning off any "non-essential" extensions, and I've shut down pretty much everything else, even things like TextExpander and Grammarly...and it's just logy as hell.

And it's not just Salesforce. Something else is happening. As I said, here I see the reply box limned in a black border, which I never saw previously and the checkboxes are filled in a brightish blue (!) with white checks. Curiouser and curiouser. My replies in Teamwork Project Management are a bit clunky, too. Not the smooth application of typed text to which I am accustomed.

It's a little disorienting to type several lines of text, look up and realize that only 80-90% of the first line is typed and it's BUFFERING, like. You wait 20-30 seconds and then the rest shows up. It's like I've time-travelled back 30+ years.


Hitch

[BetterRed]

We X-posted

I'm not a Chrome guru - but . . .

Creating an additional profile in Chrome is simple, once you realise that a Chrome Profile is synonymous with a Chrome Person. Click your dot (top right - mine is green) click Add, select an icon if you must, enter a name - done.

You'll lose all your baubles and bangles but it should be enough to let you see if that's where your problem lies. If the problem is still apparent I'm out of ideas - apart from nuke Chrome and reinstall, or try another Browser - e.g. Edge.

If the new profile is 'okay', you could try copying your existing profile into the new one (google 'copy chrome profile' - it's done in the file manager) but that is likely to copy the problem. So, it might be better to redo it in bits - e.g. export bookmarks from old profile and import into new one etc.

BR

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I threw in the towel and opened it in (delicate shudder) Edge and it's working fine. Obviously, it's something in Chrome. I've tried turning off any "non-essential" extensions, and I've shut down pretty much everything else, even things like TextExpander and Grammarly...and it's just logy as hell.

And it's not just Salesforce. Something else is happening. As I said, here I see the reply box limned in a black border, which I never saw previously and the checkboxes are filled in a brightish blue (!) with white checks. Curiouser and curiouser. My replies in Teamwork Project Management are a bit clunky, too. Not the smooth application of typed text to which I am accustomed.

It's a little disorienting to type several lines of text, look up and realize that only 80-90% of the first line is typed and it's BUFFERING, like. You wait 20-30 seconds and then the rest shows up. It's like I've time-travelled back 30+ years.


Hitch

The same thing has happened to my Chrome -- the buffering whilst typing, the slowness of response, and the bright blue checkboxes. And I'm not running any extensions/add-ons, etc. - just plain Chrome. The slowness and buffering waxes and wanes, but the blue checkboxes remain constant.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

We X-posted

I'm not a Chrome guru - but . . .

{snippage}

If the new profile is 'okay', you could try copying your existing profile into the new one (google 'copy chrome profile' - it's done in the file manager) but that is likely to copy the problem. So, it might be better to redo it in bits - e.g. export bookmarks from old profile and import into new one etc.

BR

Thanks, Red!

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

The same thing has happened to my Chrome -- the buffering whilst typing, the slowness of response, and the bright blue checkboxes. And I'm not running any extensions/add-ons, etc. - just plain Chrome. The slowness and buffering waxes and wanes, but the blue checkboxes remain constant.

Pooh, can you tell me when this happened? This seems to be brand-new for me, this very week...?

Hitch

[poohbear_nc]

Within the past week or so

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Within the past week or so

Hunh. Soooo, it's NOT me. Interesting.

Hitch