I hadn't noticed the clicking noises when you move the pointer over the links at the top. Are they new? Or am I stupid?

Actually, I'm noticing it now on most changes of mouse position. It's kind of a static crackling, actually. Add crazy to the list. And maybe mutant.

In Response to grjohnston (#18823):

Step 1: Remove the bag of potato chips from under your mouse.

Step 2: Throw the bag of chips away.

Step 3: Look, no crackle!

In Response to sakuruth (#18825):

I think you'll find they are an IE thing.

In Response to tor (#18826):

Safari, Camino, and iCab are the only browsers installed here in my Luscious Fruity FaeryTale Land o' Macs. Sometimes i wonder what i'm missing due to a complete absence of Microsoft in my home; then i remember: heaps of aggravation.

I used to refer to Microsoft as "the Borg", but then i realized that was sort of insulting-- to the Borg! Although the drones seek to assimilate all valuable technology, they would never be so inefficient and incompetent. Tony said that a better epithet would be to call Microsoft "the Ferengi". After all, what is more important to the minions of Gates than pure profit and market monopolization?

In Response to tor (#18826):

So it's a slightly different form of trash, then.

In Response to Teledildonix (#18829):

If you don't have any Microsoft products in your home, how can you possibly be so critical?

In Response to unFalln (#18841):

How? Years of personal experience; and association with other people, too.

When i was in college, i was required to program with Microsoft Assembler, in addition to a bunch of MSDOS-based products. The first two computers i ever owned were based on the x86 architecture, ran MSDOS, and all of their programs (except for a few of the games which bypassed the ordinary boot process) were implemented in an MSDOS environment. This sucked. It was a very negative experience.

Years later, i have chosen to be a non-MS personal computer user for quite some time-- since 1996, as i recall. But just because i don't have MS at home, that doesn't mean i haven't been forced to use it-- after all, MS does have an unfortunate monopoly. So every job i had from 1990 until 2002 utilized computer systems that revolved around a ton of Windows-platform software. And most of my friends and family (with only a very few exceptions) use Windows on their personal computers, so i have been forced to put up with that nonsense when i've been in other people's homes/businesses/etc.

I try not to be critical without a clear empirical basis. In this case, i am quite sure that i have enough experience to be able to offer opinions.

My biggest reason is that I like the Mac OS so much more. I don't like the way Windows is set up at all.
And, I think the static was just an IE problem. And, I eventually found out that it was just peaks in general static, and I'd hear it better if I turned up the headphones. It's also only happened to me on a PC... :-P

In Response to grjohnston (#19130):

Either your sound drivers are crappy or the sound chip itself is crappy. Try and get later drivers, assuming that doesn't help, well, I guess you'll just have to suffer the crackle.

I've never had a problem when looking at porn on either.