Oct 17, 2017
Making some progress…..
…but I need your input.
A quick recap. Our internet service provider Shaw who also happens to be our satellite TV provider showed up yesterday ( Monday ) morning promptly at 8AM. We have had the same fellow here just this past September when we upgraded from internet 30 to internet 75 at no extra charge compliments of Shaw. He quickly proved to me that it was just the new iMac that had an issue. Colin’s older computer, the laptop and my iPhone as well as his worked at lightening speeds. Not only was the new desktop slow but in the speed test is kept stopping momentarily as though it had encountered a speed bump here and there. Greg said that it was almost as if something was operating in the background which it wasn’t. As he left Greg offered to get one of his top computer geeks to come check out my computer to try and figure out the problem. Just three hours later I got a call and Wilson arrived about 10 minutes later. He was able to narrow the problem down to Firefox as both Safari and Chrome were running at fast speeds while Firefox continued to churn.
Finally a photo of the new sectional. The repair guy comes on Thursday morning.
A few hours later Colin suggested I empty my cache and then I also restarted Firefox. I got 24 hours of good computer speeds before the churning started again. I have had to restart Firefox twice since mid afternoon today, the last time simply so I could get this post done. I decided to stay home today in order to get caught up with my business issues. Tomorrow morning I plan to be first in line when Best Buy opens and first in line for Geek assistance. I am going to give them 48 hours to fix the Firefox toolbar/bookmark issue on the laptop and of course I will discuss the desktop slowness. However it is obvious even to me that the problems stem from Firefox.
I am asking for each one of you to give me some input. It looks like I will have to leave Firefox. By the way I only ended up there as with my old desktop and OS I was having trouble with Safari on many sites so I made the switch to Firefox. I have come to love how I can have many tabs open at the same time, so very convenient for me. What I would like is for you to please tell me what browser you use and why? Based on your input I will make a decision as to my next step.
Today has been another challenging mental workout. First off a client hired someone to put together an entry for a major housing award, the Tommies. She had no idea what she was doing and could not even download the photos from BOX. Once I found out she was using a Mac I was able to guide her through the process. I have become much more proficient over the last few months 😕
Today we had the worst storm I have ever seen in the 14 years I have lived here. Even the aforementioned client was screaming on the phone as things were crashing around both of our homes. At one point I was so worried that I called Colin to check if such and such was going to come flying thru the window. All of our chairs turned over ( one of the client’s ended up in the lake but then she is on the big lake ).
Later I found a few plastic bins on our beach. I have never ever seen the lake so wild. At one point the lake had waves moving in a west to east direction which I have never seen before. The trees were bent right over. I later read that trees were falling everywhere and taking out power lines. Thousands were without power, some evacuated re power issues. This storm was so strong that flights were diverted away form Kelowna and Penticton.
Our new tree ( planted last fall ) only began to get some color a week ago. Today half these leaves were blown off.
We must have been in the direct path of the storm. This is the enormous tree root ball that came up when this tree was blown over. This is less than two miles from us.
Many of the evergreens came down. One home had two huge trees fall on the the roof. Another photo showed an RV crushed by a tree. It truly was an epic storm.
One of my calls today was to Telus, Colin’s cellphone provider. I needed to set up roaming for our time in the US before we cross into Mexico. Turns out that the agents are now located in the Philippines. I got totally different answers on our plan with each of the three different people I spoke to. I had no confidence at all in any of them. The most outlandish was that if each phone call we made was over 2minutes than the call would be free. If that call was less than 2 minutes we would be charged $20.00 per call 🙁 I finally got close to the same answer twice and went with it and insisted on an email confirming the price. What a waste of my time, at least 40 minutes. Previous to this I used to call a number and punch 2 buttons, speak with a local agent and five minutes later we were in business. Progress ? 😯
One good thing today is that the owner of a home Colin was photographing for the builder gave Colin an open bottle of wine ( almost 3/4 full ). She is a doctor and was flying to Yellowknife to do some work and didn’t want to waste it. Turns out it was a lovely new to us local wine and I quite liked it It is very rich and better in small amounts which explains why she and her husband only had a bit last night. I don’t recall having Viognier before. This was a 2015 bottle ( 14.9% alcohol 😯 ) from Laughing Stock Vineyards in Naramata. The grapes are from further south in Osoyoos which is much warmer and just what these grapes need. I had to do some serious research through the vineyard website to find out where it is sold. No matter the cost, $23.00, I will be purchasing a bottle, to be enjoyed over a few evenings.
I can’t recall seeing a magpie around here before.
A bunch of ducks must have got blown off course with all the wind this afternoon. I believe these to be the Common Merganser. It was so neat to see them ‘stand up’ and stretch. Their bellies are pure white. The last two shots were taken thru a window so not so clear.
Talking about birds and flight brings to mind an email that I got today. Return flights including taxes to see the Northern Lights in Iceland are on a serious sale. Flights out of Vancouver, also Seattle are only $383.00 return. As well as taxes, checked baggage is included in that price. So looking forward to when we can take advantage of these spontaneous deals.
Great deals from other areas of the US.
…and at the end of every storm there is a rainbow.
Please don’t forget to let me know about which browser you are happy with.
Looks like you got two posts in one, sorry for the length of this one.
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I’ve been using Safari since they sent out the new macOS High Sierra … the improvements to Safari in that update made it fast as Google Chrome, built in blocking of 3rd party advertisers.
You CAN open all the tabs you want on Safari, just like Firefox and Goolge Chrome.
As a test for data use today I switched to Google Chrome and it’s data saver details tells me it saved me 14%. So I go back and forth.
Google Chrome has more apps and extensions for its browser but with Safari you don’t need any to block autoplay video, or blocking ads on websites.
You do great research Steve. I hope to have time in a few days to do some exploring of all these browsers.
I gave up on Firefox years ago and went to Chrome, now I find Safari much superior and always have lots of tabs open.
Good to know. I will check out Safari tabs.
Safari!!!!!!!!!!!! Love the sectional!!!
Thank you!
I love mergansers, when they have babies they often ride on their Mom’s back in the water, so cute to watch. We had wind too but nothing like the interior had. Glad you didn’t have damage. Just be aware Icelandair charges extra for luggage now (they didn’t used to). Best to go on their site directly to see what the luggage charge is (usually around 75 per direction). It should be included with the ticket or they charge even more if you buy a cheap ticket and add luggage afterwards at the airport
On this particular sale free baggage check is included. I would love to see those baby ducks. These were just passing through and are not normally on our lake.
I had been using Chrome until recently but have switched back to Safari with no problems. If you Google “Firefox and High Sierra” you will see that there are a number of people reporting compatibility problems.
Welcome to the comment section of my blog Rick. I really appreciate this input. I never thought to Google it and I certainly will now.
Have used Firefox for years and still do. No problems here. There were two updates in the last couple of weeks to enhance speed further but speed was not slow before. Problem maybe too many programs running in the background. Bring up Task Master and make sure new programs have not been added, this happens with updates and the addition of new programs. Some run all the time, even tho they do not need to and use processor speed needed else where. This is also the case with add-ons in Firefox. Bring up the add-on tab and make sure there have not been programs added there also. Also adding an Add Blocker enhances speed but some sites you may go to will not like it and you will have to temp turnoff Add Blocker for just the once use. Also using Ghostery, avail in the add-on tab, blocks you from being tracked and returns your speed back to norm. Good luck.
rocmoc n A
Wow, lots of info for me to process. Do you make house calls?
In Amado, LOL!
rocmoc n AZ
🙂 I knew that.
USE GOOGLE CHROME BUT WINDOWS IS MY OS. LOVE THAT I CAN DISPLAY ABOUT 5 DIFFERENT DESKTOPS AT ONCE ON MY MONITOR PLUS STILL HAVE OTHER PROGRAMS OPEN ON THE TASKBAR. VERY SPEEDY NO MATTER HOW MANY PROGRAMS ARE OPEN.
THINK IT’S NOT JUST WHAT BROWSER YOU USE BUT YOUR RAM, TYPE OF PROCESSOR, BIOS, ETC. ALL ABOUT THE GUTS OF THE EQUIPMENT. THEY ALL WORK TOGETHER.
Well this is a brand new computer with max ram. I usually don’t run any programs.
I use Safari and have had no problems with it … and I can have many pages opened at one time with taps at the top.
Thanks for the info.
Have you looked at Lights over Lapland for Northern Lights trips?
No I haven’t. The Northern lights are on my wish list. THis deal just came across my inbox. I will check it out. Gracias.
Today I switched from Movistar to Telcel. 200 pesos per month (now only 100 pesos for the next five months) with unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada. If I were in Texas I could possible use that up by using the internet on my phone but Telcel has sell points in the U.S. where you can add more time including online.
Good info Chris. I use Movistar in Mexico for cell only. But now that I have an iPhone that will be unlocked on Dec 1st I might consider Telcel but as we are only there for 4 months it likely will be much more expensive.