I had a problem a little while ago when for some reason my User ID had disappeared from my profile. I used my Account # to log on and just added it back in (and edited my saved user names/password in the firefox security preferences). It has been working fine for me ever since.

Oh, and as for the map issue... I don't really mind it that much, I just click the spot in the corner (where the "close" button is) as soon as it pops up (don't need to wait for it to load) and it goes away in a jiffy.