Now this is what I call a gadget!

I may have mentioned this already, but I'm really impressed with Firefox. It's a very, very good browser. It makes you realise how slow and clunky Internet Explorer is. And once you've tried tabbed browsing, you'll never go back to IE...

So in an attempt to rectify my slugglish internet problem, I have taken two steps. Firstly, I have rolled back my install of XP to a time prior to SP2 - good old Norton Ghost. Secondly, I have installed Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, and veyr nice it is too. Very reminiscent of Safari on the Mac, which isn't surprising seeing as they're both based on the same underlying engine. I like it. And, for what it's worth, it seems like these two things have improved my surfing no end. So I shall say my thanks to the nice people at Firefox with a banner advert....

I can't say for certain, but I think that Service Pack 2 for XP has made my internet connection dodgy. For a couple of weeks now I've been wrestling with intermittent connection and slowdown and the like. The two things that could possibly be responsible are a) XP SP2 or b) NTL's broadband speed increase that they implemented about a month ago. But to be honest, I can't see a speed increase making my internet connection slow down! I'll have to research this SP2 problem a bit more - if I can make the damn internet work obviously!!

After giving it due consideration, I went along to the hi-fi shop in Leeds and purchased the aforementioned KEF Q4's, along with their matching centre speaker. The KEF Q35's are, for the time being, residing in the spare room until I decide what to do with them. I shall sell the old centre speaker on eBay, but I don't know whether to keep the Q35's and hook them up to my old amp and CD player up there, or stick with the little standmounters I already have and flog the Q35's. We shall see. I need to tidy that spare room up before I do anything else, and that could take a while!