failing like never before

2Jul/080

Javascript Performance

I've noticed that Javascript runs amazingly slowly in Firefox 3 on my computer. I'm running Debian Lenny with an i686 kernel and I have the i686 version of FF3 downloaded straight from the firefox website. Under Opera, Konqueror, and Epiphany, on my computer, Javascript effects like Lokesh Dhakar's Lightbox, (which I'm using on my blog to display image) tend to be a little sluggish, but in Firefox 3, performance is horrendous. In Lightbox, when you click an image the entire page darkens, which normally takes next to no time, even on my Mom's old Celeron loaded down with tons of malware. But in FF3 on my computer, it takes a noticeable amount of time for Lightbox to darken the screen, at least a second or two. I tried running other Javascript intensive websites, built with various libraries including JQuery, Prototype, and Mootools, but the results were the same. Javascript performance continued to be absymal. Indeed, in some cases I clicked an image, went to the bathroom, came back and found my computer was still trying the zoom the image out.

I haven't conducted any kind of indepth, exhaustive testing of FF3's Javascript performance, but from cursory usage, I have determined that its pretty bad. Aside from complaining, I have no idea what else to do.

2Jul/080

Daily Log – 2 July 2008

A quick summary of today’s highlights in my life.

  • Worked on learning QT
  • Took a four hour nap, and I still feel really tired. Unfortunately, I seem to be unable to sleep long for a long stretch of time at nighttime.
  • Fixed the broken toilet. And oh boy was that fun!
  • Fixed my bike's flat tire with the little sticker thingies I bought today. Either the little sticker thingies didn't work or else I have another hole in my tire because its flat again.

The time is now 9pm, I think I'll go to sleep in another hour or so.

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2Jul/080

Daily Log – 1 July 2008

A quick summary of today’s highlights in my life.

  • Read
  • Fixed and replaced, along with my Dad, some wiring stuff that got destroyed when my mom did something with her hair dryer
  • Read some more, exciting, I know

And yes, I'm a day late on this daily log. Trying to catch up. waaah

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2Jul/080

Daily Log – 30 June 2008

A quick summary of today’s highlights in my life.

  • Decided I was going to go the nicer library (which is further away from my house), and decided to ride my bike
  • Took the long way around to the library, which involved numerous dirt roads, but allowed me to stay off dangerous country roads with cars blasting by at 55mph
  • Got a flat tire on the way home, carried the bike to Costco and chained it up, and began walking home
  • Arrived home 4 hours later, in circumspect, I should have called someone to pick me up, or else just sat at Costco and have my Dad pick me up on his way home from work
  • Read

Its actually July 2 today, so I'm two days behind on my daily log. :(

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29Jun/080

Daily Log – 29 June 2008

A quick summary of today’s highlights in my life.

  • Went to church, doodled on scraps of paper while the previous pastor's son spoke
  • Saw a Smart Car speeding down the highway at about 80mph.
  • Read a great deal of Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, which I bought yesterday at a book sale. Its quite interesting, I think I will write an article on it later.
  • Registered for classes online. My registration time was 7pm, I signed up for my physics lab (a very hard to get class) about five seconds past 7.
  • Fixed my bike with the help of my dad. It is now possible for me to shift into a gear higher then 14 without my chain popping off the front gear and knocking the gear-guard off. Still having difficulty shifting the front gear from first to second, but the bike seems to be functioning fairly decently now. I think I may now be able to ride it without having to stop every fifteen minutes to fix/adjust something.
  • Rode my bike around the neighborhood for a little bit. Two annoying kids (and when I say kids, I do mean dudes about my age) drove up next to me and honked and screamed nonsensical phrases while waving a little American flag they had stolen from someone's front yard. They were very annoying (dur...).
  • My professor finally responded to my e-mails. Hopefully, he doesn't think I'm a weird stalker dude, what with the incessant e-mails I sent him over the past week.
  • Bemoaned the fact that my blog draws hardly any visitors at all
  • Bemoaned the fact that I am a loser, and resolved to promptly rectify said predicament, but with no idea how to go about it.
  • Watched a bit of some stupid old TV show called Highlander at hulu.com. Decided the show was/is quite stupid.

It is now a quarter past 11pm. That is to say, forty-five minutes from midnight.

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28Jun/080

Daily Log – 28 June 2008

A quick summary of today’s highlights in my life.

  • Threw away my old shoes. Last week, while riding my bike, I put one foot back and rested it on the tire while I was moving, thus melting off most of the heel. I also threw away three other pairs of very old shoes, one of them dating back to elementary school.
  • Mowed the lawn and did some yard work
  • Went to the library's book sale. The results were disappointing. I bought a copy of Danial Defoe's Moll Flanders and a beaten copy of Primo Levi's The Periodic Table. As sort of a community thingum, the library had a great mock pirate ship set up in the parking lot, and parking was surprisngly difficult to get. When I was little, we never had cool things like that at the library. Just books
  • Went to the movie theatre to see Get Smart with my dad, turned out that it was past matinee time. So we went to Costco, bought the tickets from Costco at matinee price for a regular screening. The movie was pretty amusing.
  • I saw a bit off the antique road show on TV, and wondered how much my old, massive tome on the Renaissance is worth. A quick Google search yielded disappointing results: $40, with the dust jacket (which I didn't have).
  • Lolled around a bit.

Less then four minutes to midnight now...

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28Jun/081

It Gets Easier

Check out these ads by Intel.

Intel released these ads for the Intel vPro platform at least a year ago (I think probably much longer). Last summer at work, we would play the songs on our laptop speakers during our breaks. It's major geek humor, but its even funnier if you work in IT. The songs are actually kinda catchy too.

Mad props to the singers, I doubt I would be able to sing "hardware-based remote manageability" with a straight face.

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27Jun/080

Daily Log – 27 June 2008

A quick summary of today’s highlights in my life.

  • Laid in bed reading X-men and the Avengers: Gamma Quest Trilogy, talk about educational
  • Put on my cool Google t-shirt which I finally found stuffed away in a box I forgot to unpack
  • Walked around the neighborhood while reading David Berlinski's The Advent of the Algorithm
  • Watched my sister pack while lolling around on her bed
  • Went to San Francisco International Airport to drop my sister off to fly to Singapore
  • Got home late and then went to sleep

It is now nearly midnight

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