The problem you are having with the website is not normal, but not extremely rare either. I added the themes page because people were having this problem.

I believe it takes about 72 hours for a user to be automatically logged off of the website and this is reset every time you visit a new page or refresh a page on our site. So, if you're active enough on the site, you will always stay logged in unless you deliberately log out.

If that's still not good enough, please give me as much information as you can about your system, such as:
OS Version
Browser (Include version #)
Service pack (Windows)
Kernel version (Linux)
Desktop Environment (Linux)
Windows Theme (Aero, Basic, or Classic)
What Website theme settings fix this problem ("Standard Background", "No Transparency", Either of those two fix the problem, Both are required together)
Video card
Ram
Processor

If I can figure out what causes the problem, I may be able to display the page differently on systems that have that problem.

That's why it's so slow!?
The transparency looks cool but not cool enough to sacrifice performance.

I agree with viewing on the iPhone.

I've also had issues on my MacBook using the newest version of Firefox, though today it seems faster.

If the problem only occurs during scrolling, then turning off Independent background will also fix the problem since the browser won't have to re-render the page while scrolling. I would far recommend that to turning off transparency.

I've tested out the website on the iPhone. You're certainly right that it's unbearably slow, but turning off the transparency didn't make it any faster either. The iPhone (at least the old ones anyway) can't display an independent background so I have it off for the iPhone. Sorry, but I really have no idea how I could make the website work better on the iPhone.

As for your laptop, it does not appear to be an issue with Ram, browser, or OS as it works fine on my mom's PC with the following stats:
Pentium D 2.66 GHz processor.
2 GB ram
XP SP3
Firefox 3.5.7
On-board video.
The processor is certainly faster than your laptop's, but I don't think it's enough to make that kind of difference (Especially since this one is slowed down with 48 tabs).

Here are some things to try:
Install the newest drivers for your laptop's on-board video.
Install the newest version of DirectX (I'm not sure it would help, but it's a good idea anyway.)
Change your Hardware acceleration settings at Control Panel >> Display >> Settings Tab >> Advanced >> Troubleshooting Tab
First try increasing Hardware acceleration to Full if it's not already there. If that doesn't work, go down to the next highest setting.

Finally, your post seemed to imply that you have experienced this problem on the computers at TechShop. If this is so, please notify a Front Desk person of which computer is experiencing the problem as well as any circumstances that may be required to reproduce the problem and I will look into it the next time I am there.

It appears to just work like that. Whatever option you click on, you get the "page not found error'.
If you RELOAD the Visual Styles page, though, you will then see that the new setting has been taken.
Ugly, but it works.
-Ron