Q&A: Questions and Answers

[NixAyum]

Keeping in with the line of computer questions...

 

When running firefox, even one simple window like facebook, my laptop seems to strain. The processing light is pretty much always on and it whirs and all that fun noise that makes it seem like it's about to crash. I can, however, have two windows of chrome (one being a full-screen video) open and don't usually get this problem. I've run at least two scans and gotten rid of some trojans, uninstalled and reinstalled firefox (which remembered my preferences and logins between installs, that seems weird e.e), and it's still going.

 

Essentially, what gives and how do I make it stop?

[Zaxian]

Keeping in with the line of computer questions...

 

When running firefox, even one simple window like facebook, my laptop seems to strain. The processing light is pretty much always on and it whirs and all that fun noise that makes it seem like it's about to crash. I can, however, have two windows of chrome (one being a full-screen video) open and don't usually get this problem. I've run at least two scans and gotten rid of some trojans, uninstalled and reinstalled firefox (which remembered my preferences and logins between installs, that seems weird e.e), and it's still going.

 

Essentially, what gives and how do I make it stop?

I usually use firefox myself and I must admit I think it's gotten a bit rubbish since it switched to doing major releases every couple of months - it seems to be much less stable now . Tbh I've always found it to be a bit power hungry (both in terms of CPU and RAM) - your best bet is to try turning off any extra add-ons and plugins that you don't need and see if that helps.

 

It may be that Chrome works better for you because it inherently does more multi-threading than firefox. Firefox does all its work under one process - which means it's generally only running on one core of your CPU (but making that core work really hard!). Chrome starts a new process for each tab you open - so if you've got a multi-core machine (and most people do now) then it can take advantage of more of the CPU at once. That's got the added advantage that if one tab crashes or tries to hog the CPU, then it can be closed independantly of the other tabs.

[TikindiDragon]

Keeping in with the line of computer questions...

 

When running firefox, even one simple window like facebook, my laptop seems to strain. The processing light is pretty much always on and it whirs and all that fun noise that makes it seem like it's about to crash. I can, however, have two windows of chrome (one being a full-screen video) open and don't usually get this problem. I've run at least two scans and gotten rid of some trojans, uninstalled and reinstalled firefox (which remembered my preferences and logins between installs, that seems weird e.e), and it's still going.

 

Essentially, what gives and how do I make it stop?

Incidently how long have you been running your current installation of Windows? Regardless of what else might or might not be going on, Windows does 'decay', and eventually start to struggle with basic tasks. To keep it running at optimum levels you really should be wiping and reinstalling your boot drive a minimum of every other year.

[Kestra15]

I usually use firefox myself and I must admit I think it's gotten a bit rubbish since it switched to doing major releases every couple of months - it seems to be much less stable now . Tbh I've always found it to be a bit power hungry (both in terms of CPU and RAM) - your best bet is to try turning off any extra add-ons and plugins that you don't need and see if that helps.

I have found in the last three months Firefox is incredibly slow and power-consuming - I primarily use Chrome anyway, but I barely even touch Firefox these days.

[NixAyum]

Incidently how long have you been running your current installation of Windows? Regardless of what else might or might not be going on, Windows does 'decay', and eventually start to struggle with basic tasks. To keep it running at optimum levels you really should be wiping and reinstalling your boot drive a minimum of every other year.

I've been running this Windows 7 for less than a year.

 

Well damn, I liked Firefox. Guess it's time to switch everything over to Chrome.

 

Thanks guys.

[Orlageddon]

Can anyone here work with Shimeji-ee? I seem to have a problem with a self-made shimeji. The images in the img folder are facing left. When the shimeji is on the screen, he works fine if he's looking to the left, but when he's mirrored to face the right, the images lose their transparency. Then he has an ugly green box around him and it drives me nuts. >.<

I've googled it and read the answer here, but I have no idea what the heck that person is talking about. I don't have layers, I made the whole thing in PhotoFiltre, and there are no stray pixels outside the character. Or am I just stupid and they're talking about something else?

Help? Thanks in advance.

Edited September 3, 2012 by Orlageddon

[satyr76]

My family's been feeding a stray cat for a while. She's very friendly, and a few weeks ago, we found out she was pregnant. She had three healthy kittens over the weekend, and we have taken her inside for the time being. But being a holiday weekend, we were not able to get her to a vet yet. There is something that concerns me a bit, though. Every once in a while, she will get up and walk around, then go back to her babies and lay on top of them. It looks accidental. But I was wondering if it was normal, and what reasons a cat would do that for.

[Kestra15]

My family's been feeding a stray cat for a while. She's very friendly, and a few weeks ago, we found out she was pregnant. She had three healthy kittens over the weekend, and we have taken her inside for the time being. But being a holiday weekend, we were not able to get her to a vet yet. There is something that concerns me a bit, though. Every once in a while, she will get up and walk around, then go back to her babies and lay on top of them. It looks accidental. But I was wondering if it was normal, and what reasons a cat would do that for.

I call forth a Tiki!

 

Or it might be worth PMing them at least?

[Shadowdrake]

Does anyone know whether the Questbridge College Match is a good idea? Or should I apply but not pick colleges so I can apply to other colleges too?

[Obscure_Trash]

You should apply to any and all colleges you have a slight interest in. Where I'm at, our state colleges are pretty desperate for state freshies so it's pretty easy to get accepted, but that's not the case everywhere and if you want to go out of state...

 

Think about:

-What you want to major in and research good colleges for your major/majors you are debating (you don't have to accept all the colleges you get into, but choices are good, especially if you do end up with a few rejections)

-Pricing and research prices of in state and out of state and look up and see if there are any joint state programs which may make pricing for you lower in certain states

-Internships/jobs and research colleges that will give you good opportunities for experience while in school (and give you good opportunities once you've graduated)

-Scholarships, scholarships, scholarships

-What else is important to you? Location? Where your friends are going? School set-up? Size/average number of students who attend?

 

It's a good idea, if you can, to contact students from colleges you are interested in and see if they'll answer some questions or tell you what they think of the school. I think a lot of places probably have groups like that on facebook. I know we have one for prospective students that was a good way for freshman to meet people and would be a good way to get opinions from students who have been here for a while. Visiting any schools you can which you have an interest in is also a good way to learn about them.

 

Even if you're not sure about a college - apply to it. You don't have to pick a college right away. You can decide after you've sent out applications or done some more research. If you get accepted to a college that doesn't mean you have to go to that one. But wouldn't you prefer to have to decide between multiple colleges you've been accepted to than have to rush about trying to figure out what to do because you decided on one and that one rejected you? D:

 

(Also, while thinking about colleges, don't forget to research if they accept ACT, SAT, or both.)

Edited September 9, 2012 by SockPuppet Strangler

[Salicana]

Firstly, if it's just the keyboard that's dead, can you not just plug in a usb keyboard?

 

Otherwise, atm I'm not too convinced about a tablet as a laptop replacement.

 

I'm typing this on a BlackBerry PlayBook, (bought because it's cheaper relative to other tablets of the same power, because it didn't sell well, and it can run flash - though the BB app store is a bit lacking) but I only use it to surf the Web and have my laptop for everything else. The Asus prime transformer is supposed to be good, and I believe it comes with the keyword dock making it a bit more of a pc replacement than some. The iPad is obviously good but more expensive. You might want to hold off a bit until windows 8 comes out (end of october) to see what the new Microsoft Surface tablets are going to be like (in terms of price and spec) because they'll be running a more pc-like OS, and will come with a version of office.

Ha, the usb keyboard didn't even cross our minds. Funny how those simple solutions escape you until someone else points it out. Thanks for the suggestion That would definitely be the cheapest way to 'fix' our problem.

 

And thank you, everyone, for your tablet input

[epicguy10000]

So in our backyard the other day we found some baby bunnies and we called a shelter and they said they can't take them in if they aren't injured, which they weren't, but with 3 dogs the stuff we have to do to protect the babies is such a hastle to help with my question here is a poop diagram of my backyard

 

 

So what we want to do is move the babys to where we think the mom is coming in from to protect them from the dogs, but the animal place said not to move the baby and I wanted to get another opinion on this to see if moving them to wher the mom comes in from is safe

Edited September 10, 2012 by penguin_adu6oo

[TikindiDragon]

So what we want to do is move the babys to where we think the mom is coming in from to protect them from the dogs, but the animal place said not to move the baby and I wanted to get another opinion on this to see if moving them to wher the mom comes in from is safe

If you touch them, the mother will reject and abandon them. That would be why the shelter warned you not to.

[HollyTheColliegirl]

I'm trying out for our fall play in school, and we need a CLEAN 1 minute comedy monologue (preferably a female part, as I am female) to audition with. Does anyone know a good place to find one? I've searched the net but I haven't found anything that really fits.

Edited September 11, 2012 by HollyTheColliegirl

[epicguy10000]

If you touch them, the mother will reject and abandon them. That would be why the shelter warned you not to.

I figured that would be the answer

 

well this should be a fun 21 days

[applegirl]

This is a really random question ...

Okay, so I use Windows Vista. Sometimes I play a particular online game, it always gets laggy. I dunno why. It only does it on that game. It'll be okay if I just have that window open, but if I open, like, youtube and start loading a video, it competely freezes and the whole thing gets shut down. I use Opera for internet browsing, by the way. I wonder if it's something I'm doing wrong? I clean and defrag my computer pretty regularly, and I don't store cache of any online history stuff.

[Obscure_Trash]

Many online games are pretty taxing on computers, especially computers running other applications, which may also take up space. Youtube tends to take up lots of space, so I definitely wouldn't run YT and a game. I'd just stick to one at a time, unless you want to seriously beef up you computer, maybe.

[Fuzzbucket]

Mum is definately a tortie-tabby then. Only way she could have a ginger son.

 

I suspect Dad was probably a plain black tom (he can't have been ginger, or all his daughters would have been tortie), as that would have given a larger chance of black (as opposed to tabby) kittens.

I hate to bring a taste of FILTH in here - but it is also possible that she carried the children of more than one tom simultaneously. Cats - um - do that....

 

HollyCollie - my SO was a drama teacher and is thinking about your problem right now... Is this to be a monologue ? (JUST you ?)

[TikindiDragon]

I hate to bring a taste of FILTH in here - but it is also possible that she carried the children of more than one tom simultaneously. Cats - um - do that....

They do indeed, and it is possible she was got by more than one tom. Not possible for a tom to give his son the O gene, though.

[HollyTheColliegirl]

HollyCollie - my SO was a drama teacher and is thinking about your problem right now... Is this to be a monologue ? (JUST you ?)

Yep, it is supposed to be a monologue.

[Fuzzbucket]

Yep, it is supposed to be a monologue.

He says are you in high school or college school (i.e. ROUGHLY how old are you ? PM if you prefer - I won't tell anyone !)

[applegirl]

Many online games are pretty taxing on computers, especially computers running other applications, which may also take up space. Youtube tends to take up lots of space, so I definitely wouldn't run YT and a game. I'd just stick to one at a time, unless you want to seriously beef up you computer, maybe.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense that both a game and youtube together would take up a lot of space and energy for the computer. I'm just weirded out because it never used to do this in the past, and I don't have the slightest clue what is making it do that. I would say, yes, in the past--running both the game and youtube worked out fine and no crashing or freezing or any of that stuff. Well, thanks for your help.

[Obscure_Trash]

You might try running something like CCleaner or a doing a defrag and running to check for a virus - just in case. ^^

[applegirl]

You might try running something like CCleaner or a doing a defrag and running to check for a virus - just in case. ^^

I use a virus cleaner called Advanced SystemCare. It does a lot of things. Cleans computer and web browsing history and cookies, defrags, empties unused files, etc. How often am I supposed to defrag a comupter? Now I'm wondering if it's the Advanced SystemCare that's slowing down my computer...

[HollyTheColliegirl]

He says are you in high school or college school (i.e. ROUGHLY how old are you ? PM if you prefer - I won't tell anyone !)

High school, but it doesn't have to be age specific.