I have an issue that's been problematic for years through every OS, including Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, and now Lion. I've forced myself to accept it, always hoping the next OS update would resolve it. This, of course, never happens. Sadly, Lion only seems to have intensified the problem.

I'm not technically savvy enough to know exactly what is occurring, but the issue appears to be streaming video. Since I started using Macs in 2006, I have had a very tough time viewing sites with streaming video. This has been consistent. For example, if I go to RealClearPolitics - Opinion, News, Analysis, Videos and Polls and watch a video, my computer will slow to a crawl, get a never-ending beach ball, or the graphics will become distorted, forcing a restart.

My iMac just had a hard drive replacement and a fresh Lion installation. It's still having the same problem.

WTF is it with streaming video and some web sites that causes the Mac to freak out?

It's been so long since I've surfed the internet on a PC that I don't even remember -- can Windows handle this stuff without a problem?

 

Maybe your Mac is a liberal ?!

 

Steve Jobs is a huge liberal. I think your Mac leans too far to the left for it to be compatible with it.

In all honesty though, maybe it has something to do with Flash?

 

Pc is the devil tho. Obama has one.

 

Well the computer still mostly works so it's definitely not a liberal.

 

But he also has a Mac. You're screwed either way.

 

*ucking spineless liberal bullshit conspiracy, that's what it is.
Obama really has no shame, goddam communists forcing their marxist prose on us Mac users.
Thank god for Bachmann's lucidity throughout this crap.

 

Yes, my mac is def not a liberal. So I have no issues at all.

All kidding aside, maybe your mac does have a problem. I have an iMac and I can stream several videos at the same time and run other programs while doing so. Have it checked out at the mac center or get a new one. I can't offer any more insight than that. Wish I could help more.

 

It's flash. Flash is garbage and prone to crashes and general stupidity-- in fact, it remains the most effective method to crash things in OS X, and is one of the very few things that can.

Reinstall flash player and see if that helps.

In the coming years, you will see a migration to HTML5 video from most sites that care to do things properly. Youtube and others already support it and it works much better.

edit: Also, for what it's worth, RealClearPolitics' flash player and site code in general are particularly awful. It's fairly common with sites that couldn't be bothered to QA things properly or spend actual money on webdev.

 

Simba, I think you are correct. YouTube does not trigger the problems. Almost any other streaming video site causes all hell to break loose, though.