Sometime today I'll try to reproduce the conditions. It was definitely event fixing (or something in jQuery) that did it, because even if I cleared out the mousemove function, it would still be laggy. But if I didn't bind it, the lag would go away.
You're right, the event namespacing was exactly what I was looking for.
BTW, is there a list of "reserved" words in jQuery? For example, jQuery has to store this information somewhere... possibly it gets attached to the DOM element itself. Where does ".data()" live? I often directly access the DOM elements, and want to be sure I don't interfere with jQuery.
We maintain all of the element data (including events, etc.) in an internal data store. We attach a single expando to an element - whose name is randomly generated (this allows jQuery to, not only, co-exist with other libraries but also to coexist with other copies of jQuery, since there'll never be a collision with the name). I hope this helps to clear it up.
Update: I don't see myself having time to set-up a situation where IE lags... I've got so much stuff on my plate -- trying to launch in a week. Sorry John!
You're right, the event namespacing was exactly what I was looking for.
BTW, is there a list of "reserved" words in jQuery? For example, jQuery has to store this information somewhere... possibly it gets attached to the DOM element itself. Where does ".data()" live? I often directly access the DOM elements, and want to be sure I don't interfere with jQuery.