Дон Андре's blog/

Some time ago I thought speed on a webbrowser would not matter at all since they're all speedy anyway and that it's the internet connection mostly. However there was a growing problem with speed in Firefox recently while net connection has always been the same. I felt it became long to start and it takes sometimes very long to load web applications like google reader or google mail. Especially on my small tablet pc it gets on my nerves waiting, in rare occasions even getting the "a script is running too long" error.

However, I am a Firefox user right from the start. I used it back when it was still called Phoenix (version 0.5) after which it was promptly renamed to Firebird (0.6). Because of a similar named database management system it was finally renamed to Firefox. I always liked its interface and the useful addons like Adblock and recently also delicious where I manage my bookmarks.

Google chrome on the other hand is perceived as one of the fastest browsers out there, so I went to try it and I have to say the difference is clearly noticeable. The browser starts faster and the pages load much faster than with Firefox. I don't know a lot about compatibility problems, and as I sometimes also design web pages I hate to think of yet another browser to check the page on. The good side however is that the pages look perfect they way they are, even with some of the wellknown hacks (like making a three column layout expand always to the bottom of the browser window if the content is short enough to fit in the window or farther if it is longer).

Of course there had been a lot of critical comments regarding data privacy and there is quite a memory footprint. I have three processes running in the task manager that say chrome.exe (on Vista 32bit) and they use 200MB RAM combined. This is the catch to higher performance. I don't know yet if this is worth it. I sometimes do have a lot of apps open at the same time. Firefox had its problems with memory, but it's pretty good now.

Another thing that I noticed is that chrome is quite a cuckoo. It read all my passwords from Firefox and the web history. This is convenient on the one hand, but on the other hand, I expect something like: "May I access your Firefox profile..." before accessing my data! That's when you're again reminded of data privacy problems.

So I have some mixed feelings about chrome. It feels faster which is what I aimed for, but it's also using much more memory and I am worried about data privacy. I'm hoping that Firefox 3.6 will be another step faster and hopefully not using that much more memory, speed is certainly an issue that Mozilla needs to address in its future releases.

I have been following the student uprising ever since they started to occupy the main auditorium at the University of Vienna. I am a passive supporter of the students movement and I really like how a bunch of students gets all organized and forming working groups, discussing things and always staying with what is called grasroots democracy. Of course that way things are a little bit chaotic, but on the other hand nobody has to take the lead and bear all the responsibility like in almost any other organization here. It's really one of the first major grassroots organizations/movements that appear in Austria (if you don't count the large queues that form infront of our megasuperstores when there's something "for sale").

In any case the parties have been stunned by the uprising and are unable to make much moves. Josef Pröll (ÖVP) doesn't say much about it. The students are causing some costs, which he says isn't good, but otherwise, no idea, no comment, no interest. Social democrat chancellor Werner Faymann (SPÖ) is moving back and forth, objecting what he said the other day. He's not going to talk to the students, but let the work do the respective minister (who's from his coalition partner). So he doesn't see this as an opportunity to make politics. The minister for education doesn't have any interest for himself as he's about to jump into the EU. All the time the officials want to talk to the official student representation (ÖH), but the official student representation doesn't have much to do with the protests. I don't know what they would want to talk about: "The students are protesting. " - "Yes, we know." - "So?" - "Dunno".... Things could hardly be any worse. What everyone always gruntled that politicians lose touch and so on... it becomes quite obvious if you look at this example.

The movement so far has had some good success in raising a lot of questions and filling page after page full of discussions. It's good, but also it's just a start. I for myself have wondered sometimes. Had I thought that naturally we need entrance restrictions to some studies to limit the amount of students joining there, the simple sentence "we need more students, not less" has completely overthrown my thinking. I began to think how and why entrance restrictions would make sense. In a way that's like planned economy, which to me doesn't make sense. Why do we lose all trust when we think about the educational systems, when at the same time we put trust in the market to drive our economy. People think that everybody would just study psychology or other "not economically relevant" and thus by some considered useless. From somebody that thought we need entrance restrictions I have come to think we should oppose them and rather support what our students want to study. We have to put trust in the students making their choices based on the simple fact that they will have to make a living with what they study and thus studying also what the market needs. I think especially children from the lower classes which don't have financial support from their parents are highly market oriented. That's why at the same time university fees would be wrong as they would turn away this important group. We need to attract more of them than turn them away. The more I think about the situation, the more I can sympathize with the demands the students are making.

And so politically what has surprised and angered me most so far is the complete puzzlement inside the SPÖ (social democrats). I always thought they're the ones who like and support grasroots movements, students and speak in favor of advancing the education system on a general level (the ÖVP in my opinion would advance it too, but more on an elite level; like their proposal of an elite university). To see that they don't do anything and have no ideas has surprised me more than the coming of the financial crisis. I've waited a while to see whether their base would rise and speak up, but nothing happens. It's like they've been electrocuted. Maybe the discussions are happening mostly internally, maybe they really don't know what to do.

Anyway all the puzzled parties and the general public that stand looking at the protesters without any idea on what to do make for a very very sad situation here in Austria. But there is some light on the horizon, at least in the form that discussions are being made and people step and speak. My only hope is that this would lead to some action finally... you know hope dies last.

Today a very good article was posted in the newspaper DerStandard (a mid-left oriented newspaper generally read by the educated middle-class and upper-class (as well as Bobos and Bohemians)). But it's a quality paper and even their critics do acknowledge them as such. In this the author analyzes the educational system in three different situations: liberalist countries, conservative countries and universalist countries. First I find the categorization interesting and second I strongly support his argument. There's a necessity that Austria and much of Europe needs to overcome conservativism and open up for new innovations by throwing over board a lot of principles that we have grown to. Read for yourself (german):

http://derstandard.at/1256744512305/Kommentar-der-anderen-Der-Sozialstaat-als-Totengraeber-der-Universitaeten

So after reading this, it makes perfect sense to me. The conseravitive behaviour that Pechar describes fits with how the students are approached by official parties and the general public. They demand for change, for a better situation, but everything is oriented towards securing what we have and conserving what is the current situation. That's a really hard clash and it amazes me how it has been absolutely non-violent so far. I think there's an opinion about to form, I hope it's one that leads to the better future. In any case, I'm proud of every student protesting!