I RECENTLY had the misfortune of trying to access Gmail over a slow Globe Tattoo connection. It was sheer torture to watch the progress bar crawl erratically toward completion, only to have Gmail choke and cough up an error message that told me what had become painfully obvious: my page was taking too long to load.
Google suggested that I try reloading the page (did not work) or use the basic HTML version (ugly, with limited features). Annoyed by the constant struggle simply to log into Gmail, I looked for ways to speed it up without resorting to the HTML version, which still feels awfully slow because of the way it refreshes the screen.
Fortunately, there are a lot of speed-up tips online. Some of them work better than others, and some of the advice is outdated because Google keeps updating the way Gmail works. Here are some that seem to help.
DO we really need another Dropbox?
That’s the question that sprang to mind when Google recently announced Google Drive, a service that gives you 5 gigabytes of free online storage so that you can access your files from any Internet-connected computer.
The move was long overdue. Years ago, when Google began offering gigabyte-range storage on its Gmail service, some of us felt it would be nifty to be able to use that free space to back up some of our files online. I even recall a third-party Firefox extension called Gspace that did just that, though it was somewhat unwieldy to use.
LINUS Torvalds, the inventor of Linux, has been awarded the technology world’s equivalent of a Nobel prize, signaling the growing importance of the open source operating system he created in 1991.
Torvalds, now 42, is one of two winners this year of the Millennium Technology Prize, an award given once every two years to recognize a technological innovation that significantly improves the quality of human life today and in the future. Shinya Yamanaka, 49, the other winner this year, was honored for finding a new way to create stem cells without the use of embryonic stem cells.
MAC users have long enjoyed freedom from viruses that plague the Windows world – a condition immortalized in a 2006 Apple video featuring a sickly Windows PC, played by John Hodgman, and a Mac, played by Justin Long. In the video, PC is having a sneezing fit and warns Mac not to get too near.
MENTION Microsoft and most people think of Bill Gates, but technology buffs will remember his quiet partner Paul Allen as the one who closed the deal for DOS and ensured the company’s dominance in the personal computer industry —and enormous wealth for the two men. This and many other stories are told in Idea Man (Penguin, 2011), a memoir by Microsoft’s less public co-founder.
EVERY year, some bozo comes up with a prediction that Linux on the desktop is dead.
These people really ought to know better, but it’s fun to get a rise out of Linux users, and a provocative headline does wonders for page views.
I’ve decided not to play their game, so I’m not even going to name the fathead columnist who raised this issue again, and focus instead on why he’s wrong. That way, the truth gets out without benefiting the cynical purveyor of the lie.
THE unabated popularity of the Apple iPad among consumers has triggered all sorts of silly talk again about the demise of the personal computer and the post-PC era.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA Britannica’s announcement that it would stop publishing its print edition after 244 years brought back childhood memories of an age when research meant going to the library and the answers to most academic questions were found in the pages of a book.
