figured out the crashing. parental controls, content filter. I have it 'off', but it still runs when the parental controls are turned on for a user. it's all supervised use of the computer so there is no issue of him viewing sites he's not allowed on.

But after a few more crashes it started blocking sites, or at least tenfourfox could not access any of his usual sites. turning the content filter 'on' seems to have fixed it. weird.

and I am writing this from the iBook, doing some system updates. Amazed there are some for 10.5 HA!