# Selfish Websites - A techy question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selfish-websites-a-techy-question/77504>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 22, 2001, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selfish-websites-a-techy-question/77504 "2001-08-22T06:43:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selfish-websites-a-techy-question/77504/1 "2001-08-22T06:43:21Z")

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Most websites you can click on, then happily go on working in another browser window or even on another app altogether, while the site loads But I’ve noticed that once certain sites (cnet is one) start to load, they lock the pc up such that you can’t do a thing (even move the mouse pointer) until they are fully loaded. When these sites are fully downloaded, there’s nothing obviously special about them, they’re not running any fancy pants videos or music or whatever.

What are these pc-hogs doing?

For the record, Win95 and Win98 (home and office) and Netscape 4.75 with Java off on a pc.

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**Author:** ![Galan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@Galan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galan)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selfish-websites-a-techy-question/77504/2 "2001-08-22T06:49:07Z")

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The website has java applets that initialize when the site loads. You can goo into your browser options (not sure how on Netscape, check help), and disable java applets

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**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selfish-websites-a-techy-question/77504/3 "2001-08-22T06:56:23Z")

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Thanks Galan. Re-read the last sentence of my post and try again! 🙂

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**Author:** ![Galan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@Galan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galan)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selfish-websites-a-techy-question/77504/4 "2001-08-22T07:00:05Z")

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Oops, getting late.

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**Author:** ![OneChance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/74df32/32.png) [@OneChance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneChance)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2001, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selfish-websites-a-techy-question/77504/5 "2001-08-22T07:21:58Z")

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It’s most likely your browser causing this problem. Many larger web sites such as c|net use complex tables. Once the page gets downloaded to your machine, Netscape will render everything at once (this rendering process is the pause that you’re seeing). You’ll notice that the whole page kinda just pops into view. And the more complex the page (i.e., lots of deeply nested tables) the longer it will take Netscape to show it. Internet Explorer renders pages differently. It loads bits & pieces while the rest of the page loads, and it handles complex tables much better than Netscape does.