More gnewb questions

[notbob]

First and formost: why does it take gnus 1-2 mins to load up new stuff
into the group buffer?  I get this:

Reading nntp: 3500K   (<--counting)

Reading active file from eu.Usenet-News.net via nntp...  (waiting)

......then the groups come up and are listed.  WTF!?  slrn does it in
1/2 sec.  I've tried reading the ~/newsrc (.el, .eld?) and can find no
such file.  All I find is ~/.news-dribble, which isn't even mentioned
in the emacs or gnus manuals.

An emacs in-general question: When I list buffers (C-x C-b), why does
the cursor remain in the old window instead of going to the new buffer
list window?  This requires another set of keystrokes to get to the
buffer list.  I wouldn't have listed the buffers if I didn't want to
access them, ferchrynoutloud!  Is there a setting that will change
this?

Other than a few dozen other niggling complaints, I'm starting to get
the hang of this thing.  I think learning how to nav between buffers
is harder than actually using it.

One reason (other than the fact I despise vi!) I want to get better at
emacs instead of remaining with jed is, I can copy and paste into
emacs with better results.  With jed, specially with code, if I copy
and paste into jed, the indentations (and sometimes no indentations)
will always further indent to a stairstep, which has to be hand edited
out.  This is maddening and unacceptable.  I don't have this problem
with emacs.  That makes it all worth the effort.

nb