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I noticed that the "Sharpen" effect in Picasa has gotten extremely slow in the newest release.  After a little investigating, I found that this is a new "feature" in Picasa.  The old method would apply the effect to the thumbnail view, which is slightly different than what would be applied to the real image.  The new method applies the effect to the full image and then updates the preview, resulting in a more accurate representation.  However, this results in a much slower preview/slider.

Now for the fix!  Simply hold the shift key when you click on the "Sharpen" button (not while your applying the effect).  Supposedly, this also applies to the "Glow" and "Film Grain" effects.