diff --git a/src/Mod/Start/StartPage/StartPage.js b/src/Mod/Start/StartPage/StartPage.js
index 7516df160b..33e33ce4bb 100644
--- a/src/Mod/Start/StartPage/StartPage.js
+++ b/src/Mod/Start/StartPage/StartPage.js
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ function showTweets(data) {
     html.push('<a href="exthttp://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD/commits/master">text63<a/>');
     ddiv.innerHTML = html.join('');
     resize();
+    resize(); // intentional javascript hack
 }
 
 function showDescr(d) {
@@ -143,7 +144,7 @@ function resize() {
     rowThreeHeight = rowThreeHeight + 80;
     var totalHeight = rowTwoHeight + rowThreeHeight + filesHeight + 36;
 
-    w = w - 52;
+    w = w - 45;
     for (var i = 0; i < halfblocks.length; i++) {
         halfblocks[i].style.width = w/2 + 'px';
     }
diff --git a/src/Mod/Start/StartPage/StartPage.py b/src/Mod/Start/StartPage/StartPage.py
index 0f30a2705c..d239818f32 100644
--- a/src/Mod/Start/StartPage/StartPage.py
+++ b/src/Mod/Start/StartPage/StartPage.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import os,FreeCAD,FreeCADGui,tempfile,time,zipfile,urllib,re
 from PySide import QtGui
 from xml.etree.ElementTree import parse
 
-from TranslationTexts import (text01, text02, text03, text04, text05, text06,
+from .TranslationTexts import (text01, text02, text03, text04, text05, text06,
                               text07, text08, text09, text10, text11, text12,
                               text13, text14, text15, text16, text17, text18,
                               text19, text20, text21, text22, text23, text24,
@@ -59,13 +59,13 @@ html_filename = os.path.join(resources_dir, "StartPage.html")
 js_filename = os.path.join(resources_dir, "StartPage.js")
 css_filename = os.path.join(resources_dir, "StartPage.css")
 
-with open(html_filename, 'r') as f:
+with open(html_filename, 'rb') as f:
     startpage_html = f.read()
 
-with open(js_filename, 'r') as f:
+with open(js_filename, 'rb') as f:
     startpage_js = f.read()
 
-with open(css_filename, 'r') as f:
+with open(css_filename, 'rb') as f:
     startpage_css = f.read()
 
 def getInfo(filename):