Categories
Computing Rants!

Internet Explorer

A few weeks of having to revert back to using IE in a work capacity has made me realise exactly how much and intensely I dislike this slow, clunky excuse for a browser and how infuriating it is.  I wasn’t using an “Old” version either, we use IE10 in work and the machines are all decent windows 7 enterprise boxes.

The main massive reason I hate this program is that in my normal internet browsing activities, there are a certain type of website you come across, usually any moderately multimedia rich website like that of the walesonline or anything that links off the Google news page and what you find on these websites loading is that IE freezes up on loading the page, you are locked into the page for at least 10+ seconds if it releases the page at all, this can be despite all major java/flash/shockwave plugins being absolutely up to date also.

I also loathe how much each version appears to differ internally from the way in which previous versions of IE work, I am in an environment where its not really practical to have to explain to users about Compatibility Mode within IE, but I am being forced to train my users about using this feature as every new iteration seems to break pages that they use regularly as part of their work, every time we look at this package and go between versions it has caused issues with browsing.


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The other thing that forces my hand with IE is any website that uses the Sharepoint technology behind it, MS force you to use this horror because of this technology and its compatibility with their existing platforms, stuff just doesnt work well like Outlook Web Access unless your using this browser.

Its no secret I am a chrome user, on the desktop and chromebook that I am typing this on pages load fast an generally fly along without any issue, same for Firefox which I use a lot also in work, both of those browsers have it right, in that page load times are absolutely fantastic, FF even going so far to allow you options like nglayout.initialpaint.delay to make pages nearly insta-load for you.

MS please either adapt to be a lot better or kill off this product, as both of these better browsers have GPOs and work with your existing AD system, proving you don’t need massive amounts of configurability if you program something to “Just Work”, which they seem to do more securely.

Categories
Gaming World of Warcraft

Grind Grind Grind….

I understand that legendary gear is never handed out in WoW and it does require effort on the part of the player, I cannot help but think in what I am doing so far, that even with a legendary item quest being accessible to all as the game has gone casual over the last couple of years, its an irritating grind all the same and lacks the skill needed to complete quests in the past (I say this off the back of having completed the “Hunter” and “Priest” Legendary quest series, I completed them both during the close up of BC not vanilla, but they were even then still challenging).  Elements of skill in quests made for a better sense of achievement than trawling through raids to get boss drop pieces, I can’t help but think that Blizzard has gotten lazy/complacent with this chain and its working through it.

I have just managed to get through the horror of a mandatory PvP element of this chain, which required no less than 12 attempts at the Temple of Kotmogu arena, and about 6 at the silver shard mine, both clearly reminding why I hate PvP where people just didn’t grasp the goals of the arena’s and the fact that PvP gear now means that people who pvp have near tank levels of health, compared to the average joe PvE player (the pvp is now diverse enough, that I think wow would  benefit from a PvP walkthrough event for the arenas, similar to what happens in the DK starting area, working through each arena to explain what goes on and what the objectives are)

Its feeling a bit endless at the moment, having ground out chapters 1 and 2 of the chain, with its endless rep grinds and raid grinds for drops, it had started to get a bit interesting in the travelling around and killing of elite mobs which made it fun (non-pvp quests aside!) to have to get back into the raids and hope for another 20 boss drops to proceed again, averaging over an hour a raid now.

The thing that glares the most at me is that I can’t help but notice the lack of creativity with the chain while progressing along it now.

 

Categories
World of Warcraft

PvP Horror….

Doing the Legendary Cape quest at the moment and finding myself horrified at having to be forced into PvP to get two wins on two BGs is no fun whatsoever.

I have long loathed and not bothered with PVP, especially since the gear evolved for PvP meaning if you don’t have “Gear” you basically are a walking target with 200k less HP than your average PvPer, added to which getting a win when your in a Random group and have no guild to fall back on, doesnt exactly make it fun at all, especially these days it seems that most Alliance teams are organised to the point a win is impossible for the average random on horde.

Going to be a very random and non-fun sticking point to get past this part of the stage to get a legendary cloak.