2008年7月15日星期二

Google Reader

用了 Firefox 3 快一個月,雖然它 load pages 的確 load 得極快,令我相當滿意,但漸漸地新版火狐的問題亦開始浮現。

例如所謂的 Awesome Bar,以前用 Ctrl-Shift-Del 可以清除 url field 的 pull-down menu,但現在無論你用甚麼方法都不能清除 Awesome Bar 的記錄。你在 url field 鍵入過甚麼網址,一按 Awesome Bar 便知,很容易便洩露私隱。(要隱藏 Awesome Bar 的 pull-down menu 是可以的,但沒了這個 pull-down menu 又未免太不方便。)

更嚴重的問題是 FF3 更新 live bookmarks (即 RSS feeds 之類)的時候,整個 browser 都會凍結起來,要等二十多秒才回復正常,而且 live bookmarks 每半小時更新一次,即是說每半小時 FF3 便會停止二十秒。以前用 FF2 並沒有這個問題,但我又不想將 browser downgrade 回 FF2,於是在幾分鐘前我決定把 RSS feeds 全搬到 Google Reader。

不想潑冷水,但 Google Reader 實在很不好用。

首先,Google Reader 並不能顯示一些 embedded objects。非 YouTube 的視像(視頻)固然不可,連 Google Map 亦不能。如果你看我的網誌時發現有奇怪的留白的話,那十居其九是不獲顯示的 embedded objects 在作怪。

其次,Google Reader 也不顯示 blog comments 及 blog entries 的 tags。要 navigate 別人的 blog,最後還得離開 Google Reader,直接進入對方的網址才行。

再者,要使用 Google Reader,必先 log in Google Account。即使我只想看一兩篇文章,也必須打 password,實在很麻煩。

最後,Google Reader 的版面也太擠迫。這一切加起來,令我感到很不方便。回想起來,也許 upgrade 到 FF3 是一個錯誤的決定。

3 則留言:

sam 說...

hi suffocated,

don't worry, there're millions of people working hard on various issues, so that you could stay cool wile surfing with Firefox.

to disable awesome bar, you can simply follow the instructions here:
http://cybernetnews.com/2008/06/25/cybernotes-firefox-3-tips-tricks/#6

for RSS feed, you can try aideRSS:
http://www.aiderss.com/

hope these two tips help!

Sam

sam 說...

p.s. Ctrl-Shift-Del is still working

The suffocated 說...

Hi Sam,

Thanks for your visit and your comments. Yes, one can disable the Awesome Bar, but this is kinda inconvenient. What I need is to clear the contents of the Awesome Bar, not to disable it. Ctrl-Shift-Del doesn't work in this aspect, although it does clear other private data.

As you said, many people are working on Firefox's issues, so I'm optimistic on the improvement of Awesome Bar. I won't put much hope on the Live Bookmark issue, however. From forum discussions, I've learnt that Firefox developers don't view the freezing as an issue, so in its future versions Firefox will still freeze when it loads or refreshes live bookmarks.

I think many people's understandings on this issue are very misplaced. Many have mentioned that one can change the refresh rate of live bookmarks using about:config, but the true problem lies not in the refresh rate but on the _distribution_ of the refresh times. When the live bookmarks are refreshed all at once, the Firefox program will necessarily be under heavy load, regardless of the refresh rate. A possible solution is to refresh different live bookmarks at different times, but developers of Firefox don't seem to be interested in changing Firefox's Live Bookmark refresh behaviour.