I think this will be a bit harder, as you don't really have control in what order the images are being loaded. They could be loaded in parallel for example. If you try to circumvent it by adding delay's on the server side you quickly block the browser as you will reach the maximum amount of parallel connections.
I don't think so. What you could do is have the webserver set up chunked encoding on a resource (say an image) and vary the size of the chunks for each user.
You should really take a look at Ajax.org, they show some of the smoothest interactive 3D javascript plots i have ever seen. I have just submitted it in the new section.
When you are optimizing your website, 60k is a lot, especially when this gets re downloaded on every page.
Client side optimizing is a big thing, by using CSS/JS compression, CSS sprites or late loading through stuff such as labjs you are talking about relatively tiny pieces. But you can feel this extra latency and it will show in your conversion and bounce rates.
I haven't tried out a netbook, but the reason I don't turn off my Macbook is because I can simply close the lid, and I'll immediately get a login screen when I open the lid. Boot time is the least of my worries.
I feel the same way; but I suspect people in different parts of the world might think differently.
E.g., in my experience, some people have been very vocally opposed to the idea of leaving computers on overnight owing to the energy wastage etc. They were all from Europe, and from precisely the same types of environments where we would usually leave our machines on permanently (eg postgrad university labs).
Not to generalize, but I wonder if (at least at that time) there was not more sensitivity to such environmental issues in Europe.
Unfortunately (at least on PCs) the suspend-resume functionality just has never seemed to work properly ...
I carry a n800 everywhere. I got it two years ago - I had various PalmOS products ("instant on") before that. What blew my mind when I got it is that the n800 is always on, and there is no reason to turn it off.
* When I walk in the door at home, it automatically connects to my wireless access point.
* I can ssh into it or scp files to or from it using my laptop (after unsuspending the laptop and waiting for it to get back into X :-O) regardless of where it is physically.
* I use rsnapshot nightly to back it up.
* I tap on the screen and it is "instant on" because it was already on, just the backlight was off.
In short, I never turn it on, I never plug it in (other than to recharge :-()
That is the way Life Should Be (other than needing recharging).
Most people don't realize What Could Be because their computer usage paradigm (imagination) is limited by what Windows + Intel is able to do.
There are a class of users that really only do a bit of email, a bit of web surfing, and maybe a bit of document editing. (Like my parents eg). From my experience such users tend to remain longer on older hardware, and its turned off most of the time.
I daresay such users would naturally gravitate to whichever environment gets into a usable state the fastest.
I treat my laptop like I treat my phone -- always on but it spends most of its time asleep. Only reboot in case of OS upgrade or system failure. I don't really get why people don't do it this way... just close the lid.
Well it presupposes you have an environment where it actually works consistently.
I cannot remember the exact number & types of machines I've used or had provided to me at customer premises over the last few years, but I'm pretty sure its > 10. Its only ever been my MBP that wakes up consistently with everything still intact. <= 10% is a pretty poor success rate...
