A string of problems with Firefox

For some reason, my Firefox (2.0) has been acting up today. The problems seem to be related to reading CSS style sheets and other additional content properly. At first, I had trouble accessing some forums, which showed up as far too wide for my screen, and then later on with font colours that were identical to the background colour of the site. Then, I lost the ability to read my Bloglines account, which I could access, but where I could not see a single feed — neither in the “updated feeds” section, nor in the “edit feeds” are. When I then accessed my personal blog (which you are currently reading), I was shocked to see that the design was all over the place.

The solution was, in the end, rather simple: I cleared my browser cache. Whatever was there was somehow interfering with my browsing experience. I’m glad it was just that, as I have grown quite attached to my Firefox, thanks to the legion of plugins that I have (one of which may actually be the real villain behind today’s problems).

To be honest, it took me a while to figure out that Firefox was the problem. I first thought that the forums I was accessing had some internal problems, although I was a bit surprised that no one had written about the matter. I then dispatched a ticket to Bloglines, asking why my feeds are not showing. And finally, when my own website didn’t show up, my first reaction was to disable a recent Wordpress plugin that I had installed.

It was only after that didn’t work, and a quick check with Opera and Internet Explorer revealed that the site is actually displaying just fine, and that they also show my Bloglines account perfectly well, that I realised that Firefox was the problem.