Is DU being redesigned only for DSL and high speed users?

[msongs]

now with all the bloated images that flash and bang and blink and take a long time to load (I click the red x for stop loading this page because they take so long) and what seems to be increasingly long wait times when clicking back and forth between pages, I am wondering if DU is being reconfigured primarily for the benefit of the DSL/high speed internet crowd?

Others in our DFA network have wondered if they were the only ones experiencing longer load times and I tell them they are not alone...or are we?

Or maybe this is the price that must be paid for...success.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[MADem]

1. Is there a way you can turn off images?

I can sympathize with you, when I had dial up, it was agonizing at times.

[wuushew]

2. yes

both avatars and sig lines

[MADem]

4. Does it help at all? If not, your computer might need a bit of

antispyware, or maybe a good run through with the antivirus program...:shrug:

[jim3775]

3. Use the opera web browser, it has a toolbar button to switch off images

It's free. http://www.opera.com

[Orangepeel]

5. I'm currently on dial-up and it works okay for me

not as fast as when I'm at home with my cable modem, but it loads pretty quickly. I'm not trying to gloat, just to say that maybe something else is wrong that may be fixable on your end.

[donheld]

7. Works fine on my dial-up too

takes longer but it does come up.

[GoneOffShore]

6. Try using Firefox

Everything will load faster, you won't run into popups or spyware.

[tammywammy]

9. I second Firefox!

I love it. I hate the fact that I have to use Explorer at work. :(

Plus I'm addicted to tabbed browsing. :)

[mermaid]

11. Shit! I THIRD Firefox! I Won't Use Anything Else!

I had a bill to pay online one time, and for some reason, the company's software only wored with IE...and I complained to the customer no-service people about having to use "that piece of shit" and told them to configure for Firefox, because I hate IE.

I'd get it off my system entirely if I could. IE sucks, and Firefox ROCKS!!

No pop-ups, no spyware, no adware...it's fucking great!

With IE, I used to use dial-up and an accelerator. With Firefox, I don't even NEED the damn accelerator, and I got rid of it. Still have dial up.

And the broadband people DO piss me off, though, because they send and post fucking humongous files/pictures, because they have broadband, they assume everyone fucking else does, too!

Not all of us are willing to pay 50 bucks a month for Internet service! Some of us are cheap little bitches like me who refuse to pay the high cost of broadband, but would gladly have it if someone else paid the bill.

[Angry Girl]

14. FOUR for Firefox!

URGENT! Timing is critical to save freezing earthquake victims!

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Ok explain to an idiot

how that tabbed browsing works.

I have been using Firefox for a couple weeks and love it. But I can't figure out how to do the tabbed browsing.

[tammywammy]

20. Oh oh oh, you are so missing out

Okay, so I'm reading DU and checking my email and checking out some blog.

So, first I open up Firefox, and I go to DU. Then I'll Click the File menu and go to "New Tab" and open my email. And then I can do that (or it's just CTRL T) and pop open another one for the blog.

And I read 4 comic strips plus Dear Abby every morning. So I have them bookmarked in the same folder. At the end of the list of bookmarks in the folders, it says "Open in tabs." So instead of having a whole bunch of open windows clogging up the bottom of my screen, it's just the one.

Does this make sense?

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. How do I make the tabs?

I found "new tab". How do I make my tabs?

[tammywammy]

23. Okay

So you have the tab, but the address is blank. Just put in the address.

And when there's a link on DU like www.yahoo.com I left click and select Open Link in New Tab (instead of new window)

edited to add: You can left click on the tab (on top) to close the tab and not the whole window.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Cool

Thanks. I'll play with that for awhile.

[tammywammy]

28. Let me know if you have any other questions

either here or PM. I'm not incredibly savvy with things, but I get the jist of a lot of it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. I am still trying to figure out how to set up the tabs in the first place

Can I use them like bookmarks and have them here permanently?

[tammywammy]

32. Well,

they'll stay until you close the window.

I go back and forth between at least 2 websites at a time, so I keep both open while I toggle between the two.

They don't automatically update each site (unless it's a news site like MSNBC that auto refreshes).

[Amonester]

38. You can drag the icon displayed in front of the http address...

over the personal toolbar that's under it, and when you release the mouse button, you'll see the link will be created as a new button on the toolbar!!

Mega-cool!! :)

Right-click to create at bookmark (or/and to remove it after...)

Firefox is the 2005-10 engine. No doubt (here)!

[proud2BlibKansan]

40. What toolbar?

The one that says (on the left) 'Getting Started' and 'Latest Headlines'?

[proud2BlibKansan]

41. Never mind - I got it

Thanks!!

[elvisbear]

39. Press "ctrl" while clicking a link to open a new tab

If you press the "ctrl" key while you click on a link, a new tab will be created for you. I hope this will help you.

[mermaid]

44. Damn!! That Is AWESOME!!

I never knew about that capability! I love it already!!

[Abelman]

35. Oh Man

The day I discovered tabbed browsing was the day I discovered life.

[Tesha]

43. Tabbed browsing...

(This is a general answer, applying more-or-less to Firefox, Mozilla, and Safari.)

Normally, when you have a number of web-pages open simultaneously
(using, for example, Internet Exploder), you will have a number of
complete windows open on your screen. You switch among the various
pages in the same way as you would switch among any windows on your
computer (by clicking in them, for example).

"Tabbed browsing", by comparison, lets you open more than one page,
but each new page simply creates a new "tab" in the same old window.
The tabs show up just below all the menus and button bars and look
kind of like the tabs on manilla file folders. Using tabbed
browsing, you can have a zillion web pages open simultaneously,
swicth among them rapicly, and not bog your computer down as much
as individual windows-per-page would bog it down.

There's a "preference" that enables tabbed browsing and selects
whether the tabs still show up even if youhave just one "tab" open.
You initially open pages in a new tab by "Right clicking" (Control-
clicking on a Mac) on links. But you can set a preference so that
one of your mouse buttons will be dedicated to always opening a
link in a new tab. (On my machines, it's the middle mouse button).

Tabbed browsing just seems much faster and more convenient to me.
(And don't try to use Internet Exploder's current "fake" tabbed
browsing; it doesn't well at all!)

Tesha

[area51]

50. Heh,

you said, "Internet Exploder". :evilgrin:

[WiseButAngrySara]

17. Pardon my ignorance, but what is Firebox? ....n/t

[tammywammy]

22. Firefox

go to www.mozilla.com

Instead of using Internet Explorer, it's just another way to "view" the internet. There's almost zero pop-ups and spyware is mostly made for IE and not Firefox.

[WiseButAngrySara]

27. Thanks! ....n/t

[mikelewis]

24. Firefox - Highly Recommended!

[Nicole]

8. turn them off in your preferences if you don't want to change browsers

It's listed under options at the top of the page.

I turned off sigs, avatars & images when I visit here on dial up. When I'm home on a fast connection, I turn them back on.

[kansasblue]

10. I'm at 48K dialup and DU works fine. It's better than most like...

bradblog or americablog who insist on having everything on one looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong page.

[msongs]

12. well maybe it is earthlink then, a not very good ISP for many reasons or

those ads which are appearing on many other "liberal and progressive" websites at the same time like an ad syndicate.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[dweller]

15. the blogads

suck.

i finally found a way to shut them off, still takes a while to reload, but i don't have to experience them afterall.

dp

[KoKo]

46. I don't have a problem and I'm Netscape 7 with Earthlink on Dial Up...

It's impossible for me to watch some video clips because of the download speeds but I can get anything in "Flashmode" great. Very long DU threads over a Hundred are slow though because of all the signatures and photos.

I have tabbed browsing where I can keep tabs open and bookmarks are in easy reach for the rest. :shrug:

[Angry Girl]

13. oh, you said it, bradblog drives me NUTS!

I LOVE BradBlog.com but I can't stand the color scheme and the fact that the page load often times out when I go there with my miserable dialup. Geez, 48k.. I thought my 50.6 was bad...

[Marie26]

49. Crooks & Liars also

I like that site, but had to stop visiting it because it took sooo long to load.

[Liberal In Texas]

16. Sorry msongs..We are in the 21st Century now...Dial-up is pretty

much the 20th. Dial-up like VHS and 8 track, is dead.

When you stop using dial-up, it's like stopping banging your head against the wall. When you're banging, it seems normal, but when you stop, you just didn't know how bad the banging was, and you would never go back to banging again.

Yes, there is a price. As with everything. But it has come down so much that it is much cheaper than cable TV (for example) or 4 or 5 trips to Starbucks a month.

Don't blame DU or other sites for not catering to dial-up users, you are just kind of behind the curve.

(And I say all this with kindness, not wishing to disparage what you have.)

[tyedyeto]

42. Some of us have no other option than dial-up

Cable and DSL is not available where I live. I would love to have faster page loading but right now it's not an option.

[Liberal In Texas]

48. Satellite Broadband might work for you.

See:
http://www.lonestarbroadband.org/technology/satellite.htm

Not quite as fast as terrestrial, but better than dial-up.

[WiseButAngrySara]

19. I have dial-up, and to speed things up I shut off the avataars and

photos. To do this, you go to options, and choose preferences, then click on the appropriate yes/no box for displaying avatars/photos. You can always click on a particular photo in a post to view it, and when you respond to a post, the photo is automatically displayed.

[walldude]

26. Ok you guys convinced me..

Downloading Firefox now...

[tammywammy]

29. Hey, another convert

that's great!

I still keep IE on the laptop though. If you ever want to watch a video on MSNBC or something it requires it....or I just haven't figured out what plug in I need.

[WiseButAngrySara]

30. I did too! I hope I know how to use it! ....n/t

[mr blur]

34. Firefox 1.5 now available.

Get the latest version

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/all.html

[mermaid]

45. Awesome!! TWO converts From Piece Of Shit IE To Excellent Firefox!!

IE sucks
Firefox ROCKS

Anyone not using Firefox is dumb as a box of rocks!

[Jamison]

33. Unfortunately dial-up is still an only option for some people.

Like my parents who live in an extremely rural area. That's all I could get while I lived there with them, so dial-up users I feel your pain!

[darkism]

36. AMEN.

I was stuck on dialup all throughout my younger years at home, until 2002...in a Chicago suburb of 250,000. I live in an unincorporated area, so nobody bothered to build out the infrastructure there. Even now, I only have one broadband option.

Dialup is extremely frustrating, and I feel your pain.

[hamerfan]

37. Dialup here too...

With a 56k modem, but the local phone infrastructure is so old my speed is only 28k. Thankfully, our town is installing fiber optic to all residences/businesses and everyone should have access by next spring. Till then, it's click, pick the toenails, wait, view, click, go cook dinner, wait, view.....
dumpbush

[mermaid]

47. Hmmmm

I am in an extremely rural area, and even I have options. I just don't use them for now, because I can't pay for them, since I have no job. Once I do get a job, I plan on wiring our house for a wireless network, and using a router, get my mom and me both on the same wireless DSL hookup, with our own seperate mailboxes, and then go to Vonage on the phones.
Probably will go with Verizon on the DSL.

Even if you do not have cable or DSL available, you might find out if you have...or your parents have...access to satellite. Satellite is supposed to be available anywhere in the U.S. that has a clear view of the southern sky. It's called DirecWay, and it's from DirecTV...it might be the answer for you if DSL and cable aren't available in your area.

Thing is...I'm waiting till I get a job, because then my mom and I will split the internet bill, instead of each of us paying for our own...so the cost to each of us will be about the same as it is now, but we will have broadband. I would NEVER go to broadband if there wasn't a way, like I have, to split the bill in half.