IE and Edge go into crash-dive

[BarracudaUAK]

Originally Posted by vienna

...
I, too, miss the old index card files that used to be in libraries and have found the 'improved' digital lookups to be ma bit frustrating at times; if a patron is not really familiar with database search techniques, they can miss out on relevant information; an added problem is the quality of the conversion; here in LA, volunteers, of varying computer and typing skills, were used to manually enter the paper card data into the database; typos of all sorts resulted and, unless, you know try variant searches, some items will not show up. On a plus side, an artistic use for the old cards have been found:
...



<O>

My problem on the PC/website system was when I looked for a title or subject, such as "submarine"... I got nothing.

I tried multiple variations on the names of books I had checked out before... nothing.

I went to the shelf and pulled a book that I had read, went back to the PC, and entered the Library # on the spine of the book into the search function provided for that
(Mainly there to tell you which shelf the book was on), it didn't show up.

According to the system, it didn't exist.
I'm thinking, "it *does* exist because I'm holding it in my hands!!!!"
Hop over to the 'no longer updated, but not yet removed' dumb terminal, and guess what?
The book exist *AND* told me the exact shelf I just grabbed it from!

I logged out of the PC, hopped on the Terminal, and started digging.


I also went back to the old way of doing it... I walked around and looked at the books on the shelf.
Found some REALLY good ones that way.


Later they did get it working. But the primary problem was that the server for those PCs also served the Library's "new" website. So you could search for books at home.
It couldn't handle the load, so it would crash, and render the whole thing useless.


Barracuda

[propbeanie]

... which reminds of when our company at the time, went from "dumb" terminals to "smart" terminals, and half of the employees had at least one computer of some form or other at home, and all commented "why not a pc for the terminal keyboard?" - Blank stares from the mainframe guys that were all out of work less than a year later... Not that the mainframe was eliminated, just that higher-ups found out it didn't take 20 people to do the maintenance and support work... tic

That "luggable" there vienna, is what our "tech" guys carried around for their "test" machine, for troubleshooting all manner of computer issues in the office (which, btw, was not air-conditioned for the humans' comfort, but rather was set to 64 degrees for the computers, in an attempt to keep the room below 74 -fahrenheit, that is!). They even hauled it to "remote" locations across and out of town. At least, until it was accidentally dropped down a flight of stairs. It bounced a couple of times, but then broke into pieces...

[vienna]

The big problem I found with the new library computer system here in LA is what I mentioned before: poor data input. Say you were looking for materials on u-boats; you not only would have search for u-boat, you might need to also search for uboat and/or possible misspellings such as ubaot or ubot. Same with names; looking for Robert?; you'll also need to search for Bob, Rob, Robby, etc. ...

I've spent an awful lot of time in climate-controlled computer rooms and it never really bothered me; I'm originally from San Francisco and grew up in a city where the average temperature was in the mid-60s. While others complained, I enjoyed. Besides, one keeps better at low temperatures...

The "luggable" was actually a pretty sturdy machine (unless, of course, it was used to clear stairwells); I've had to service and upgrade several of them back in the day and once the outer case is opened, there is mass of interlocking steel cages surrounding the innards; it was always a struggle to put it all back together...





<O>

[propbeanie]

Did libraries lose something in "alphabetizing" things when they started using computers? The first and middle initials, salutation titles, periods, dashes, underscores, etc., but especially suffix titles, such as "PhD", etc. really throw the poor computers off. I can find things in a phone book, but not in a library's database. Like you, I will usually walk around to the 912 section and browse the titles... - btw, don't forget about "uboot" as a spelling...

Our local library here used to have "Sherlock", or whatever its spelling was, but they ditched it a while back (about the time they changed their users' card system) and now shell out to a Google search of the site, so they've gone from "bad" to "worse", in light of the fact that you now get hundreds of worthless "hits" that are totally unrelated to what you are searching on... my local tax dollars "hard at waste"... - sort of like its construction "project" that has all sorts of cracks and fissures in its concrete... yeah

wow, this thread started as Edge crashing its market share... - sorry Skybird

[vienna]

My apologies, also; I am unfortunately inherently prone to the tangential...





<O>

[Skybird]

Firefox looses one quarter of traffic shares over its alleged "improvements" in the past month. It now indeed reminds me a lot of the Opera crash down some years ago when Opera did the same foolish thing like now Firefox and compromised its key argument of privacy defense for - well, for whatever they think was worth it. They lost half of their users within 8 weeks. Firefox now lost around one quarter in four weeks.

https://www.computerworld.com/articl...ost-share.html

[propbeanie]

Software companies sure do seem good at shooting themselves in the foot, sometimes being so good at it, they hit the head instead...

[Skybird]

Mozilla was in a difficult seat, they had to do somethign since they were3 constantly looisng market shares. They should have more aggressively advertised the features that are their tgradiitonal stregnths: protection, poirvacy, safety, but instead they opted for starting the race the others were already leading in: more speed, at the cost of using Google's engine and thus forbidding a good amount of their former privacy features. Apparently this policy led to a split in their developer teams as well, with a good amount of their guys leaving the company, most likely in anger.

I find this arguing over vbrowswer seepds hilarious. I mean the speed of old Firefox and new Firefox - I read there is a difference. Its just that it is not apparent to my eyes. Which lets all their claimed modernization collapse, imo. Whatever it is they think they improved in: to me it is non-apparent, and meaningless. I do not care whether a site loads 2 tenths of a second faster or slower - it does not matter. I click, and two seconds later the site is up - more I cannot want. 1.5 seconds? 1 second? Less...? Pffft - get a life, Mozilla.

[propbeanie]

I also cannot tell a difference - for the most part - except some pages do NOT load. No explanation, it just "hangs" with a blank page...