In visiting bee-related websites, I find many, like my own, are heavy with
graphics.  This means that it takes a while to load each page.
 
There are ways to deal with this painlessly and turn the WWW (World Wide
Wait) back into the World Wide Web without having to have a cable or other
high speed connection.  I'll offer a few here...
 
1.) Use the power of Windows (r) to run several copies of your browser
window at once and read one page while another fills in in the background.
 Then kill the current page and read the next.  (Don't keep too many open
once you are done with them.  Windows (r) will break down and you'll have
to reboot.  Experience will show what your individual system can stand.
Once visited, pages will stay in your history and open quickly from a
local cached version the next time you visit.  More on that below).
 
Some sites (mine, for example) open a new window for you if you are
running an up-to-date browser like MS Internet Explorer 4 (MSIE4) or
better or Netscape 4 or better (see note).  I personally often have ten to
twenty windows open and loading, along with my editor, my mail software,
etc.  I'm currently using a PII 266 Hhz / 64 Meg, but even an older,
smaller computer (386, Windows 3.1 & 4 Megs) can run two windows at once.
 
To open a new window for a new link, simply hold down 'Shift' when
clicking a link or right click the link and select 'open link in a new
window'.  A new window will pop up.  Many people find this disconcerting,
but it is easy to deal with; simply press and hold 'Alt' and touch 'Tab'
once to switch back to the original window, or use the task bar to switch
active windows if you prefer.
 
2.) If you have lots of disk space (new computer) go to the options menu
in your browser and set you history and cache options to the maximum you
think reasonable.  Three months and 25% of your disk is not at all out of
line, and will make re-visiting pages much easier and faster.  You can set
this down to lower levels late, if you find you are running out of space
on your HD.
 
3.) Use a new browser like MSIE 5 that uses subscriptions and allows pages
be read offline.  Simply 'subscribe' to the sites you want to examine and
then update them when you are busy with something else.
 
Note: Be advised that many ISPs distribute old, feature-poor versions of
browsers, simply because they are small enough to fit on one disk.  If you
have, or suspect you have, an old version, go to the bowser's home by
clicking on the revolving globe icon in the upper right corner of MSIE or
the animated "N" in Netscape. Then download an up-to-date version.
 
Plan to do this around bedtime or when you are not going to need your
phone for a while :).  A good browser is ten megs or more and will take an
hour at minimum to download.  Often the FTP site is very busy --
especially when a new version is announced -- and transfer rates can be
much slower than expected.  Sometimes downloads repeatedly fail, and the
only solution is try and try again.  Often waiting a day or two helps.
Patience helps...  And don't think it is only happening to you.   Download
the basic browser first, then -- once it is installed -- go back for
Netmeeting, chat, or whatever other bells & whistles you want.  Trying to
get too much at once will cause increased risk of failure.
 
Hope this is news to some on the list and increases your enjoyment of all
the wonderful bee pages out there.
 
My main site is at http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/
 
Allen
 
"If I make a living off it, that's great--but I come from a culture
where you're valued not so much by what you acquire but by what you
give away," -- Larry Wall (the inventor of Perl)