Die blinky-cursor, what's up

November 24, 2010 9:38 PM

There's a blinking cursor now, I swear there wasn't before...and I can't keyboard-navigate correctly: What's going on?

I might just post an Ask, but I'm noticing this more on this site than anywhere else : It's subtle but something has changed.

Second-nature patterns where I mouseclick somewhere off-text and start paging or arrowing don't work anymore. And I swear there's a blinky cursor in the midst of non-editable text, and I want to blame it for everything.

Did I bump an option somewhere? Did MeFi or FireFox change?

Win7 FF3.6.2

posted by Bokononist to MetaFilter-Related at 9:38 PM (15 comments total)

I have the problem too and it has annoyed me since the day I did who knows what to make it start. You're going to be my hero if someone solves the mystery.
posted by kthxbi at 9:42 PM on November 24, 2010

Oh and it's definitely not just metafilter for me. It annoys me most on facebook when viewing pictures because I have a huge blinking cursor to the left of every freaking picture.
posted by kthxbi at 9:43 PM on November 24, 2010

Have you tried obvious things like restarting firefox?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:43 PM on November 24, 2010

Yes, disabled all add-ons and restarted FF, no avail.
posted by Bokononist at 9:46 PM on November 24, 2010

If you're using Firefox, press F7 to turn off Caret Browsing.
posted by teraflop at 9:47 PM on November 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

YES!

kthxbye
posted by Bokononist at 9:59 PM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Actually, even when you have caret browsing disabled the caret is still there but invisible. To demonstrate this, left click on some text to set the location of the invisible caret and then shift-left-click somewhere else and you'll see the difference between the two positions becomes highlighted, just like in a word processor.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:02 PM on November 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Actually, even when you have caret browsing disabled the caret is still there but invisible. To demonstrate this, left click on some text to set the location of the invisible caret and then shift-left-click somewhere else and you'll see the difference between the two positions becomes highlighted, just like in a word processor.

Wow. I just done a learning.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:39 AM on November 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

My mouse arrow has been replaced by some kind of orange root vegetable! Can anybody tell me what's going on?
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:22 AM on November 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

You're on acid?
posted by aheckler at 5:53 AM on November 25, 2010

I'll bite then.

You've got Carrots enabled.
Press F7 to disable carrots.
posted by seanyboy at 6:15 AM on November 25, 2010

Wow. I just done a learning.

Me too! Thanks Rhomboid.
posted by Ahab at 6:16 AM on November 25, 2010

So a guy goes into a vet carrying a rabbit.
"What's the problem?" asks the vet.
"Well, he's not eating anything and I'm really worried."
"Not eating anything? Really?"
"Yeah I put some root vegetables in his food bowl but he just stands there looking at them. Sometimes he'll sniff one, or move them around a bit, but he never eats anything".

"Ah," says the vet, "You need to turn off carrot browsing".
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:39 AM on November 25, 2010 [7 favorites]

Then how do you explain the big blinking italics gif, huh huh?


ooo a straight thread

Actually today on Firefox I couldn't save bookmarks until I went and opened in it safemode to check for add-ons...
posted by The Lady is a designer at 11:33 AM on November 25, 2010

Pushing F7 is the most rewarding thing I've done all week. It was caret browsing that was driving me crazy as well.
posted by kthxbi at 6:53 PM on November 25, 2010