MAC / Safari users having problems?

[David Mullen ASC]

Whenever I use my Mac laptop w/ Safari on location rather than my PC with Netscape at home, I have problems with this forum. Sometimes the new posts page (after I click View New Posts) load scrambled, with the text dogpiled and unformatted, and sometimes when I try to reply to a post, I get a mixed up, semi-scrambled reply page with a text box that won't allow me to post what I type into the box. So if I click several times or reload the forum several times, I just wait, then the page loads correctly.

 

It happens when I use my Dad's mac with Safari too.

[Tim Brown]

Whenever I use my Mac laptop w/ Safari on location rather than my PC with Netscape at home, I have problems with this forum. Sometimes the new posts page (after I click View New Posts) load scrambled, with the text dogpiled and unformatted, and sometimes when I try to reply to a post, I get a mixed up, semi-scrambled reply page with a text box that won't allow me to post what I type into the box. So if I click several times or reload the forum several times, I just wait, then the page loads correctly.

 

It happens when I use my Dad's mac with Safari too.

 

I have experienced problems using Safari as well. My problem however is that Safari completely quits after four or five page views. No error or explanation... just quits.

 

David, you might want to try Mozilla's Firefox. It's faster than Safari and I've not experienced any compatibility problems while using it.

Edited March 26, 2006 by tim brown

[Tim Tyler]

Safari claims to be the fastest Mac browser*, which makes me wonder if it's attempting to cache web data.

 

Try disabling any caching or 'speed enhancements' in Safari and see if that makes a difference.

 

 

 

* http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/safari/

[David Mullen ASC]

I have experienced problems using Safari as well. My problem however is that Safari completely quits after four or five page views. No error or explanation... just quits.

 

David, you might want to try Mozilla's Firefox. It's faster than Safari and I've not experienced any compatibility problems while using it.

 

 

What's odd is that I have problems replying to some posts, but not others (like this one). On this one thread, almost everytime I hit reply, all the icons at the top of the text box (like for image links) are on the left side of the page, and there is random letters scattered all around, the formatting is all screwed up, and I can't post what I type in the box -- it just idles after I hit "Add Reply."

 

I don't want to have to start using another search engine, all my email is in Safari's email program, all my bookmarks are set-up, etc. -- and this is the only forum where I have this problem.

[Alessandro Machi]

I have experienced the Safari Crash several times.

 

The good news is a "report box" to mac pops up asking if one wants to send a report, which I have done on a few occasions.

 

I think on the super-8 forum I was crashing everytime but on the General forum I was not, but I don't recall for sure.

 

The past week has been much better.

[Eric Steelberg ASC]

What's odd is that I have problems replying to some posts, but not others (like this one). On this one thread, almost everytime I hit reply, all the icons at the top of the text box (like for image links) are on the left side of the page, and there is random letters scattered all around, the formatting is all screwed up, and I can't post what I type in the box -- it just idles after I hit "Add Reply."

 

I don't want to have to start using another search engine, all my email is in Safari's email program, all my bookmarks are set-up, etc. -- and this is the only forum where I have this problem.

 

I've had problems on my old laptop but on my iMac G5 I've had none. I've also started using Firefox more and more with pleasant results. Much faster too.

 

David, I'm not sure what you mean by the search engine and email. Both have nothing to do with Safari. There is still a Google search box in Firefox and Safari doesn't have an email program. Firefox will import all of your Bookmarks automatically.

 

But it is weird. This is the only site I go to on the internet that I can have problems with.

[Adam Frisch FSF]

I get the same strange formatting sometimes. But all I have to do is reload the page and the problem usually disappears.

 

I have no other complaints about Safari other than that - it works like a dream.

[Tim Tyler]

I bet it's an issue with the forum's skin. I'm looking into it.

 

Is anybody having problems with browsers other than Safari?

 

It also helps if I know what version of the browser you're using.

[K Borowski]

I bet it's an issue with the forum's skin. I'm looking into it.

 

Is anybody having problems with browsers other than Safari?

 

It also helps if I know what version of the browser you're using.

 

Actually I was just about to chime in myself on this. I recently switched from AOL to Cable. Now I use Safari to browse. Whenever I come to this forum, it seems to boot me after about 10 minutes no matter what. When I open a discussion by clicking on a link from the main page, and then try to go back to maybe page 1 of a 2 or 3 page discussion already in progress, it'll crash my browser every time. I didn't have any such problems on AOL or at computers at school (Windows XP Internet Explorer).

 

Regards.

 

~Karl Borowski

 

Just for emphasis, my computer kicked me off Safari right after I entered that last post :-(

[Guest 4mat]

Many forums have problems with OSX in general. I find this and the steadicam forum to be among the best.

No problems at all so far.

-matt

[Tim Tyler]

Safari users,

 

Scroll to the bottom of this page and switch skins to 'Test Skin'.

 

Please let me know if that makes a difference.

[Mark Allen]

David (and Tim),

 

I've been using Safari on OSX 10.3.9 forever on this forum and had no problems. Anytime I do have problems with forums I switch to Deer Park (the beta version of Firefox... Firefox works just as well) and that solves some issues. But haven't had any scambled text or such on Safari here.

 

That said, I'm switching to Test Skin anyway to see if I notice something new.

[Phil Rhodes]

Never a problem on either

 

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1

 

... or ...

 

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)

 

For other users: this identifying text, known as the browser's User Agent string, can be gleaned from the following document. It's a good way of uniquely identifying what you're using to a web developer.

 

http://www.1159productions.com/test182/getua.htm

 

Phil

[David Mullen ASC]

Well, so far, the test skin seems to work...

[Aleksandar Bracinac]

In Opera Browser everything is OK.

Did you try?

 

 

Alex

[Steve Wallace]

Tim,

 

I have been trolling the forum since dec '03, I've been a member since dec '04 and I've never has a problem. I have used all versions of Safari on OS X 10.0x, Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger.

 

I also use an RSS feed aggrigator, and that works well too.

[Francisco Valdez]

I swtiched to test skin and it seems to be working fine. Which is a great thing for me, the only reason I ever use Firefox is to come here.

 

I don't know which one is a better software, but by now I feel at home when using Safari.

 

Francisco

[Tim Tyler]

I just added the I-Frame ads to the Test Skin.

 

Let me know if that causes any Safari problems.

[Tim J Durham]

I have experienced the Safari Crash several times.

 

The good news is a "report box" to mac pops up asking if one wants to send a report, which I have done on a few occasions.

 

I think on the super-8 forum I was crashing everytime but on the General forum I was not, but I don't recall for sure.

 

The past week has been much better.

 

This sounds like the problem I was having with Safari and it was being caused by Java. If you disable it the problem stops but then you can't run Javascript. Here's how I solved it:

 

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301380

 

Good luck.

[Alex Ellerman]

I use safari on a G-5 with nary a problem... i will say, however, that most of the Invision Power guys (makers of this board) use Macs, so it would be odd to me that their board wouldn't run well with a mac...

Best,

ae

[Tenolian Bell]

I've noticed Safari crashing on this site of couple of times also.

Safari is in a bit of an interesting place.

 

Firefox has been built from the knowledge of Mozilla which is over ten years old.

 

Internet Explorer is built from the Spyglass render engine which is ten years old.

 

Safari is built from WebKit which is a splinter of the Konqueor render engine and Java Script. Apple created WebKit itself which means Safari is a brand new browser and is only about 2 and half years old. Ironically Apple hired the lead developer of Firefox Dave Hyatt to be the lead developer of Safari.

 

Microsoft created Internet Explorer, made sure it would come packaged on every Windows computer sold, used its money and influence to kill Netscape. After MS had nearly everyone using Internet Explorer the company then went to sleep on any further development of it. Alternative browsers such as Firefox and Safari came about because of the development of new functionality and new interaction between web browsers and web sites. New technology that Microsoft for the most part still does not support today.

 

Internet Explorer is the most used web browser in the world. But that has been on a decline from 96% at its highest to now around 85% today. Microsoft created proprietary extensions in Internet Explorer for displaying websites and also still supports old IE extensions. Most websites have optimized their rendering for IE which allows them to display faster and more accurately. This causes problems for anyone who does not use Internet Explorer because their browser cannot use IE proprietary extension or support old IE extensions. So those browsers will load slower or improperly display the web page.

 

Safari was launched in 2003 as a brand new browser. It has pretty much had to go through the same amount of development in 2 years that Firefox and Internet Explorer had 8 to 10 years to grow. Safari has had its growing pains it was slow and buggy from the start, every update has improved the browser by huge leaps. The current version of Safari 2.0.3 is very good. If anyone is using any earlier version will still see Safari's problems.

 

I used to use Firefox a lot because Safari just did not work well on some websites. Part of this was because of Safari's problems the other part is because of websites optimized for Internet Explorer. But today I use Safari exclusively.

 

I tried Firefox for awhile. It works fine but I think I did not like the look and feel of it. It felt as though I was using something not made by Apple. Safari matches the look and feel of Apple's user interface, as well as seamlessly integrates into other Apple applications. I have not used Firefox in awhile so this may not be the case anymore.

 

Safari claims to be the fastest Mac browser*, which makes me wonder if it's attempting to cache web data.

 

Tim is right that Safari does cache web data.

 

Many websites are still designed to work better with Internet Explorer. Safari will load that page slower than IE is able and their really is nothing Apple can do about that. Caching the website is one trick to get around that problem.

 

When you visit a website Safari will save that website in memory so when you come back to that website it pops up instantly instead of waiting for it to download.

 

The downside to this trick is that it uses up memory (RAM). If you don't have much RAM in the first place you will run out quickly. The more programs you have open, the more websites you visit the more RAM you will use. After the RAM is used to capacity the cache is saved in virtual memory to your hard drive. The problem with this is it takes longer for your computer to access your hard drive than to access RAM, possibly even slower than if Safari just downloaded the web page from the internet again. You will then notice Safari slow down.

 

The solutions to this: add more memory to your computer, disable Safari caching (which would force Safari to redownload every website instead of saving it), or periodically empty Safari cache.

[Tenolian Bell]

An addendum to what I said above.

 

Safari caching should not negatively effect most people. The only time I can see it being an issue is if you have minimum RAM (512 MB), use a lot of applications at the same time, and rarely turn your computer off.

 

Once you turn your computer off then back on that will clear everything out and you are starting fresh.

 

 

The more people who use web browsers other than Internet Explorer will force most all web designers to comply with open web standards and not only to Microsoft's proprietary Internet Explorer standards.

 

 

 

The test skin seems to be good Tim Safari has not crashed.

[Peter J DeCrescenzo]

I've been using Firefox (always the current version) on a Mac Mini with 512K RAM under OS X 10.3.9 for a year or two, and have never had problems with the cinematography.com website.

 

Interestingly, two other film/video related sites I visit are the only two sites which cause my Mac to "heat up" (fans start to spin up) and occasionally crash Firefox: creativecow.com and dv.com.

 

Discussions on those sites (especially on dv.com) tend to indicate Flash-based advertisements contribute to the problem.

[Tim Tyler]

When you visit a website Safari will save that website in memory so when you come back to that website it pops up instantly instead of waiting for it to download.

 

Any browser I've ever used has had this feature. I always disable it. There's too much dynamic content on the sites I visit to have it any other way.

 

In Windows IE it's -- Tools / Internet Options / General Tab / Temp Internet Files / Settings / Check for new versions of page: Every Visit.

[Tenolian Bell]

An interesting tid bit I just read.

 

The first web browser was called the World Wide Web, it was written on and for NeXT Computer in 1990.

 

NeXT was formed by Steve Jobs after he was fired from Apple in the mid 80's.

 

The NeXT operating system was the Unix based forefather of what we know today as Macintosh OS X.