Delusions of completion

[rustydog]

I just lost the 53 tabs I had open. Why won't this version of Firefox 3 ask me if I want to save them when I close it? The one I have at work will. Is it a Mac thing? The only way I can save the tabs is if I shut down my computer without closing Firefox, and I didn't want to do that to install the new Flash player, so I gambled and lost. ::frown::

Comments

[nutmeg3]

Ooooh, those Arctic dinos sound cool.

[rustydog]

I know! Squee. I could watch the clips online now, I guess, but it's fun to look forward to something on TV.

[donutsweeper]

I've given up on tons of shows. Smallville and Charmed being 2 of them (and Lost. *phew*)

I use read-it-later. A bit ago I had 13 pages (9 saved tabs per page) every so often I go through and either read, put into delicious, or make a locked to myself LJ post with a whole bunch of tabs to try to clear it out.

[rustydog]

I use Read It Later as my backup to tabs - so actually, before I closed Firefox, worried about what might happen, I did save about half of them into RiL. The thing is, with all my open tabs, they're things I need/want to respond to, and if I just save them in delicious, I *know* I'll never get to it. I need them to be staring at me, getting unwieldy, for them to even have a chance.

[donutsweeper]

Ah, I have a 'system' for saving to delicious- if it's a story I want to keep track of, an archive or a reference of some sort that I will need time to peruse... that sort of thing. IT's hard to read and respond to everything you want to.

[rustydog]

I have a system for delicious too. I do have a couple of tags "fictoread" and "vidstowatch" but realistically I know I've never actually used those to go back and watch things. So for the most part I don't use delicious as a to do list, but as a way to organize things I might want to reference later. Normally I don't save them to delicious until I've read them.

[travels_in_time]

I'm not sure what version of Firefox I'm running, but I can click "Bookmarks" and then "Bookmark all tabs" and it saves them all.

I was just telling someone that Life on Mars was the first thing I'd finished since forever, and that took me eight months for 16 eps. Well, over two years, actually, if you count from when I watched the very first episode.

We have to finish Due South! Sometime when we're both on the same schedule!

[rustydog]

Sometime when we're both on the same schedule!

Absolutely! I *know* it's going to happen. And I'm not just saying that because of my delusions optimism! This semester is pretty good for me as far as lack of busy-ness, but unfortunately not on most weekends.

and that took me eight months for 16 eps

But you did finish! \o/ Slow and steady wins the race and all that. I totally believe that.

Thanks for the Bookmark All Tabs tip! I still don't know why it won't give me an option to restore my tabs -- would they have removed that option? Strange. I love it and it's the easiest way to go, even easier than bookmarks because then you have to open them again.

[sunbrae]

What's Read it Later? A philosophy or an actual program?

I have so many links in my bookmarks, and it's rare that I get back to them. I've considered creating a delicious account to save links in case my computer dies (it's happened), but I don't want to sign up for another web service.

On Rose, Firefox asks if I want to save tabs, but my (nameless) desktop doesn't. I don't know why.

You have more TV to catch up on than I do. O.o I think ghoulchick had the right idea: half-day Friday fandom vacations.

[rustydog]

What's Read it Later? A philosophy or an actual program?

Hee! Both, what I practice and a Firefox extension that lets you make temporary, easily accessible bookmarks.

've considered creating a delicious account to save links in case my computer dies

That was my original motivation for using delicious, especially when I was having to restore Pidge to factory settings every 2 months, but I've come to love it also because it's *searchable* -- so if I want, I can pretty much bookmark everything I've ever read online, and still find it easily when I want to reference it later. And there's tagging so I can look at all my bookmarks tagged "recipes" or "oatmeal" or "doctorwho"+"vids."

[info]ghoulchick had the right idea: half-day Friday fandom vacations.

I completely agree. I would just need to be disciplined about the "fandom" part of it so I wouldn't end up cleaning the house first or something. No chores! Only TV!

[par_avion]

Firefox does ask to save my tags when I close -- I'm running 3.5.2 on OSX 10.5.

[rustydog]

Hmm, I'm running 3.5.3 on OSX 10.5. But! I discovered later last night that if I go to the menu and chose "Quit Firefox" instead of just clicking on the red button to close the window, it WILL ask me if I want to save my session. So I guess I was just doing it wrong? On my PC at work I don't have to use the File menu, I can just x out of the window and it works. Well, anyway, I've got a solution, yay.

[jheaton]

Under Windows, the application controls the window it's running in, so using File/Exit and clicking the X are exactly the same operation. Your description makes it sound as though that's not the case with OSX; maybe the application controls itself while OS controls the window. The behavior you observed is consistent with that theory; using the file menu tells the application to shut itself down, while the red dot tells the OS to close the window, which has the effect of killing the program. That's just a theory, though; I really don't know much about Mac architecture.

I have an extension running in Firefox called Session Manager that keeps track of your session state, and if your browser unexpectedly shuts down, it will ask you when you start it again if you want to restore your last session. You might want to look into that.

[phoenix64]

Using the X in Mac is a Close function only 99% of the time, not a Quit function. The warning that Rusty is talking about in Mac only works on a Close function. There are some PC applications that work that way and some where the using the X will Quit the program, and there are some PC applications that have ported to Mac that copy the X=Quit function but as a rule it's best to think of the two as separate anyway. For instance, if you're working in any kind of terminal program on any computer Close often won't shut you down properly. It can be like using properly shutting down your computer versus hitting the power button to turn your computer off.