A new – faster – browser

I don’t generally promote products, but I’m making a big exception for something that actually makes the world a better place.

I just downloaded the new Vivaldi browser, and it’s very slick. I’m a die-hard Firefox user (Chrome uses up too many of my system resources – if I have more than one tab open, it slows my system noticeably), but Vivaldi “feels” much more streamlined and responsive. I really like it.

It looks like a hybrid between Chrome and Opera (I was a diehard Opera fan for many years, but it was considerably slower and clunkier than my both FF and Chrome (even more than IE, which is saying volumes), and I could only use it for certain things. I used it “on the side” to access sites that I visited infrequently — I stored all my passwords on it, so I wouldn’t have to remember all the logins, and I used it about once a month.

Vivaldi reminds me a little bit of Opera — for good reason, since the creator(s) were once author(s) of Opera. V has the same feel that O once did, and that’s a good thing, since O’s interactions used to be simply awesome.

V also reminds me a bit of Chome, and that’s because it’s built on Chromium and has an interface that can be customized to be very Chrome-like. If you’re not a tech person, it’s not going to mean anything, but the fact that they got away from the Opera approach (which used to be great – the first version of their browser could fit on a 3-1/2″ floppy disk, which was a marvel, back in the day)… that actually bodes well for it, because Opera went off in a direction that clearly stopped working, years ago.

I’ve had increasing problems with Firefox being slow and clunky. It could be due to the handful of extensions I have installed, but I can’t do without those, so I figured I was stuck.

That could be the same thing that happens, if I should ever install Vivaldi extensions, but the solution may be to keep my gussied-up FF along with a lean-n-mean Vivaldi, and use each for what it’s good for.

It’s a fantastic browser, built by people who specialize in browsers — not coders who were hired by a browser company. There’s a difference, just for the record.

You can get Vivaldi here: https://download.vivaldi.com/stable/Vivaldi.1.0.435.42.exe

Change can be good

WordPress has changed their interface for managing blogs, and I like the change. It makes sense. It actually makes the screen easier to read and helps keep me focused on the center part of the page, where I am writing my post(s). The outside navigation (which has nothing to do with what I’m writing) is a different color — it’s “reversed”, in fact, being black with white type, instead of gray and white with black/blue type.

This makes it easier – cuts down on visual confusion, and it keeps my eyes focused on the center of the page.

I didn’t fully realize just how disruptive it was, having everything the same colors, until they changed it. Now I have a palpable sense of relief.

Nice work, WordPress!

This reaction of mine is quite different from the past. In years gone by, I would have gotten upset over a change to something that is familiar to me. Any kind of change would throw me for a loop, and I would lash out at whoever had thrown me off balance. When I was a kid, I had *such* a hard time with any kind of change. The problem was, I lived in situations where there was constant change. Nothing ever stayed the same. I had different classmates in school, every single year, and none of my friends really stayed around that long – either they moved away, or my family did.

So, change and I haven’t always been on good terms.

Now, things are very, very different. I think it has a lot to do with learning how to take the edge off my anxiety and stress — with breathing and also with just letting everything go silent and still for a couple of minutes. Taking a breath and just stopping… before I react to something. That’s important. We live in a world where instant reaction is prized, but for me, that’s a recipe for more stress and suffering.

So, I’m training myself to not go there.

Real progress. And I can truly enjoy the changes around me — like this WordPress upgrade that simply rocks.