Firefox + Web Accelerator + Hare (?)

[HoseB]

Firefox is a snappy performer on dialup, but I'm still testing it with OnSpeed (Slipstream) over the next week. It has been suggested I try Hare... a system speed-up utility. (I tried Hare a couple of years back but was not impressed, though I don't remember why. But, there have been new versions, so I'll give it another try.... both with OnSpeed and without.)

BTW... I also tried Artera Turbo. It's different from the others and tries to speed up web page downloading while preserving image quality. And while it seem to work a bit, I'm really more interested in greater speed at the expense of image. (If I *really* want to see an image or surfing car magazine sites, I'll use Avant or IE.)

I'll report my impression in a few days.......

[johnlgalt]

A trick I used to use in my days of dial up was to turn off images completely and leave image placeholder intact (in IE) - then I would simply right click on the particular images that I wanted to see.

If the page does not have to download images at all it loads *much* faster.
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[HoseB]

johnlgalt wrote:

A trick I used to use in my days of dial up was to turn off images completely and leave image placeholder intact (in IE) - then I would simply right click on the particular images that I wanted to see. If the page does not have to download images at all it loads *much* faster.

OK, I'll bite..... If there are no images at all, how do you know which placeholder you want to see?

[johnlgalt]

that was a bit tricky at times, but most of the time it was not hard - most placeholders that were also links still caused the cursor to change shape, and also if it was a graphic you wanted to see, most web pages have such graphics, especially in line in news stories and such, captioned, so you can then select to view the particular images you want, and thus leave out the advertising banners, etc...

I will be the first to admit that it is not the easiest way to surf, but after I did it consistently for several days I got used to it.

Of course, in IE the hack I used also had a button to load *all* images on the page, in case someone (like one incarnation of HoTMaiL) was using images as navigation links.
_________________
http://www.shemes.com GrabIt ßeta Tester and Forum Mod | http://www.calendarofupdates.com Admin | http://s88013406.onlinehome.us/MyFirefoxExtensions.html Firefox Extensions list

[HoseB]

HoseB wrote:

Firefox is a snappy performer on dialup, but I'm still testing it with OnSpeed (Slipstream) over the next week. It has been suggested I try Hare... a system speed-up utility. (I tried Hare a couple of years back but was not impressed, though I don't remember why. But, there have been new versions, so I'll give it another try.... both with OnSpeed and without.) BTW... I also tried Artera Turbo. It's different from the others and tries to speed up web page downloading while preserving image quality. And while it seem to work a bit, I'm really more interested in greater speed at the expense of image. (If I *really* want to see an image or surfing car magazine sites, I'll use Avant or IE.) I'll report my impression in a few days.......

The test didn't take a few days....

1. As expected, Slipstream accelerated the graphics with proportionate image degrading. Note: For pages mostly/entirely text, there was virtually zero difference in page access speed.

2. "Hare" is a utility which is supposed to speed-up one's PC. I noticed no speed-up at all (as is the case with most such software claims). My rig is P4, 2.4Ghz, 512 RAM, WinXP.

3. Reminder... Opera v8.0 is supposedly going to "incorporate Slipstream technology"... don't know what that means, exactly, but we should know soon.... it is in beta.