Want a new laptop but do I want Windows 8?

[pacerron]

Bird,
We mentioned way back in this discussion, that small screen laptops usually have small keyboards with a lot of combination key stroking or use of the "fN" key in combination with other keys.

I think you are mainly going to use your new laptop at home, probably on a table, so the easy solution is to plug in a cheap $10 full size keyboard or use one you have laying around that was your favorite at one time. This also has the advantage of not having to reach over the bottom area of the laptop that is mostly wasted to hold the touchpad.
When/if you want it portable sometime, just unplug the external keyboard.
People have been sold on laptops and smaller devices being the way to live, and for some it is the only way they can live. The kids being raised today will be totally dependent on electricity, batteries, and electronic instruments.

I'm sure you remember when we got our electric bill only every other month in the 60's and before. The power companies used to give us a discount for using more power over a certain amount and new small appliances were the big fad. Now we find it a pain when a storm knocks out our power for more than 30 minutes and we start getting the generator ready..:laughing:

 

[pacerron]

Then you need to write that company and tell them to update their software.. IE is NOT an 'antiquated' browser...

I second that.
IE 11 is really fast and will be downloaded and installed in W-7 automatically, shortly, unless you block it, which was mentioned the other day. I will let it install and use it.
I have Chrome and IE10 on both of my W-7 machines. Chrome used to be a little faster but only because a lot of the stuff that is standard in IE has to be added to Chrome. Then it slows down, even with clearing all the cache weekly. The mess with G-Mail created by Google to sway folks to their on line tablet doesn't bother me as hotmail now has the same large file transfer.
I have never liked Firefox and all its predecessor names and versions. It may be fine now, so I am not judging the current version, just don't need it. In the past, the color profile was off. It doesn't matter to most folks, and there is no way to know what someone else sees in an image in their own computer, since 99.9% of the monitors are not calibrated for photo work and many people change the brightness and/or contrast to what they like, which they should.
But, in the past, if you opened the same simple .jpg image in a FireFox Browser next to one in the IE browser the colors were different. When it matters, the majority of browsers are IE in the world and gaining again rapidly, so you play to the majority.

 

[Xfaxman]

OK, so how do I get JavaScript and enable it?

This will check if it is working, and has instructions to enable it. Check that Javascript is enabled

 

[pwright]

The ActiveX Filtering was already unchecked.

And I'd been told the opposite on 64 vs. 32 bit.

ActiveX and Javascript aren't the same thing.

I'm not on my home system so I can't check but I assume that MS knows how to do it:
How to enable JavaScript in a web browser?

On the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Security tab.
Click the Internet zone (Earth symbol).
If you do not have to customize your Internet security settings, click Default Level. Then do step 4
If you have to customize your Internet security settings, follow these steps:
a. Click Custom Level.
b. In the Security Settings Internet Zone dialog box, click Enable for Active Scripting in the Scripting section.

The default on Windows 8 is to disable a lot of this type functionality because it can be exploited.

As others have mentioned already Java and Javascript have nothing to do with each other. Unless you need to access a website that requires the Java browser plugin or you have some application that uses Java (pretty rare) I would recommend that you not install Java. Note that I make my living writing Java code.

However if you want to install Java the general practice is to install 64-bit Java on 64-bit operating systems and 32 on 32 but you can always just install 32-bit on both as you are just really unlikely to need 64-bit Java.

 

[pwright]

I have never liked Firefox and all its predecessor names and versions. It may be fine now, so I am not judging the current version, just don't need it. In the past, the color profile was off. It doesn't matter to most folks, and there is no way to know what someone else sees in an image in their own computer, since 99.9% of the monitors are not calibrated for photo work and many people change the brightness and/or contrast to what they like, which they should.

That's pretty funny considering that Firefox was the first browser to support embedded color profiles in images and follow the W3C recommendations for images that didn't have them. As recently as IE9, IE was incapable of rendering colors correctly.

My monitor (Dell 3008WFP) is calibrated though I'm still using my old Datacolor Spyder 3 unit. Really ought to upgrade someday.

But, in the past, if you opened the same simple .jpg image in a FireFox Browser next to one in the IE browser the colors were different.

Because IE was doing it wrong.

When it matters, the majority of browsers are IE in the world and gaining again rapidly, so you play to the majority.

Nope. Chrome has the majority of the browser market share by a good margin. It's even had significant gains recently on iOS devices.

 

[troutsqueezer]

I query the visitation statistics in my websites regularly, browsers used is one of the reported statistics. IE ranks third.

 

[mikehaugen]

I query the visitation statistics in my websites regularly, browsers used is one of the reported statistics. IE ranks third.

what are the first 2?

 

[houstonscott]

I'm old, I guess, but I don't "try" to figure things out. I DO figure things out and all things considered, figuring out how to use Windows is so easy, most eight year olds seem to have no problem. It's a mind-set, if you don't think you can do it, or figure it's too much work or takes too much thinking, then Apple has the products you need, but you'll never convince anyone who truly knows Windows that Apple is the way to go.

I'm afraid the switch is happening by the millions already. LOL.

HS

 

[troutsqueezer]

what are the first 2?

Chrome followed by Mozilla, but all three are very close to each other and trade positions.

 

[mikehaugen]

Chrome followed by Mozilla.

Wow, I guess I'm with the in-crowd now. To think I downloaded chrome just shortly after it was a beta.

I only use ie for my employer's website because they require it.