Apparently I am not the only one with these issues.

I tried a few fixes gleaned from a bunch of separate threads on the Apple forum, and off the web. Not everything is a smart suggestion. Here's what finally works, so hope this saves some people with similar problems the time:

[You need root access for the "sudo" bits of the following code to work, of course.]

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sudo bash -c "echo 'net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0' >> /etc/sysctl.conf"
sudo bash -c "echo 'net.inet.tcp.recvspace=40960' >> /etc/sysctl.conf"
sudo bash -c "echo 'net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=0' >> /etc/sysctl.conf"

Make sure the single quotes remain single quotes in the above code share. These new sysctl settings will take effect after a reboot.

Another useful suggestion is to disable the IPV6 stuff. Not needed for now. Done using:


System Preferences ->
Network ->
Airport (or your WiFi listing) ->
Advanced (button) ->
TCP/IP (tab)


Change the IPV6 to "Link — Local".

Here is how I did.

1. First, close Safari. This is VERY important, as it does not work otherwise.
2. Start Terminal. (Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal, or type Terminal in Spotlight).
3. Under Terminal type "sudo –s" without the quotation marks to log in as root.
4. Then enter:

   defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

5. Go to the blue (or gray) apple at the top left of the screen, then select Force Quit. From the menu of items, click on "Saft" and click on the Force Quit button.
6. Then, in the same Force Quit window, click on "Finder" and click the "Relaunch" button.
7. In the Finder window, on the top right bar (the Filter spotlight bar), type "saft" without the quotes. Delete with delight any file called Saft. Note: This may reveal a few other files that may contain the word "Saft" such as threads.py in my case (a Python file). Naturally, you want to NOT delete these. Just get rid of the Saft files.
8. Empty the trash. If there is a file that won't delete because it's in use, then Force Quit "Saft" again as in Step 5 above, and then Empty Trash again.
9. Go back into Terminal, and type "sudo –s" again without quotation marks. Then enter:

    defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE

   This will set the Finder back to the way it was before. Then type "exit" and it will exit out of the root.

10. Now navigate to the folder: /Library/InputManagers. Note that this is NOT the "Library" folder in your Users folder. This is the Library folder from the root. Inside InputManagers is the "saft" folder — get rid of it.
11. Empty Trash (again). If it says Saft is in use, reboot the machine and empty it then. Or if you use some excellent utility like MainMenu you can "Force Empty Trash".

Go back to your happy, problem free Mac! 

Apple is on to some exciting things. After the iPhone and the new eagerly awaited of the Max OSX, it even announced Safari 3 Beta for Windows!

The install was painless. Especially if you choose the no-Quicktime option (which Apple has no qualms about plugging shamelessly with almost every download it offers). I was also asked during the installation for 'Bonjour' — a tool that supposedly allows better sharing of things such as printers.

The immediate uninstall

When I started the browser, it came up in some weird language. Greek, or Russian, or a specific kind of Celt. Who knows. I tried to reinstall, and it insisted on removing Safari first, which is ok, but it also required me to close Firefox, SecureCRT (for SSH) and WinSCP (for SFTP). I like my browsers to be independent of each other thank you. Opera never bothers with what else I am using.

The second and final uninstall

After the re-install, it showed up yet again in the strange language. Nowhere on my system is this language set up. All my browsers are set up to show only English, but support Japanese and Chinese. I guess it's "beta" for a reason. It surely has a long way to go if it wants to be anywhere near decent contention to FF and Opera. Below's a snapshot of what this gunk looks like on my machine:

Turns out these junk characters are not really a language at all. When I try to type something in the location bar, it comes up in this junk lingo. I try and rummage through these nonsensical options to see if one of the menus or submenus may have "English" as an option, but no luck.

Conclusion

This mutt is off my PC before it could even bark. So long, Safari, and thanks for all the fish.

Want a Mac look on your Windows machine? Skins and themes would be nice, but there's more to that when you want to REALLY emulate a Mac OSX interface entirely. There are plenty of programs available to emulate specific features of OSX, e.g. Finder, icons, etc [example].

But Flyakite OSX is a project that's looking mature, and it comes with a very complete theme, including sounds and mouse cursors and Explorer customization, things you don't typically expect from a simple 'theme'.

The website goes for a Mac look itself, which is a bit painful, but it's worth the download.

Before you go for it, some caveats

1. The performance of your machine in general may be affected, of course. Not too much though.
2. The theme does fundamentally change some core files like Explorer.exe but (a) it makes a backup so you can go back with a simple uninstall, and (b) it doesn't screw up any additional functionality like my Groove button on my Explorer bar.
3. I don't like shadows under my windows, but that seems to built-in in the skin.
4. Some things like Windows Media Player will not change. WMP has its own skin, which remains untouched.

Can't get enough nerdiness on Slashdot and Kuro5hin? Starting Sept. 6, PBS will broadcast a Web-exclusive downloadable series featuring the best of the nerd lot.

Dubbed NerdTV^{â„¢ ?}, the series of 13 one-hour shows will be hosted by technology columnist and industry insider Robert X. Cringely.

Cringely, author of "Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition, and Still Can't Get a Date," will interview such nerd notables as Pay-Pal co-founder Max Levchin, original Macintosh programmer Andy Hertzfeld and Bill Joy, father of Berkeley UNIX.

In a column on pbs.org last week, Cringely offered a bunch of nerd-friendly production and format specs for the series and stressed that NerdTV will be distributed under a Creative Commons license, which means viewers can redistribute the shows at will. Which is an interesting development, the CC license is beginning to be heralded among music circles as well, because it affords an artist the ability to remix and mash licensed songs as they see fit for non-commercial purposes. Personally, I can't wait to make my own 'remixed' versions of Cringely's show for my own nefarious purposes.