The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera web browser

I've been messing with templates and stylesheets tonight. There's plenty of work to do yet, but things should be more readable and usable. I removed most of the text size restrictions, too. Unfortunately, I can't get a good look at the site for a couple of reasons. First, Opera doesn't seem to want to redownload the updated stylesheet. Second, Mozilla's download server seems to be down. Third, IE is, well, IE. I'll recheck things when I get to the office.

One problem I did notice is that the left sidebar was cut off. I tried to fix it, but couldn't tell if I did or not. Please let me know if there are problems and if you like the changes. Thanks!

I'm obviously not Norwegian. On Wednesday night, my boots decided they'd like to get some air, so they jumped out from underneath me. I did my best to use Ian for balance, but his boots had similar ideas (though his feet had more to say about it than mine), so he wasn't much help. I was able to laugh at myself (joining the Norwegians walking by us), so I didn't mind too much. My boots seemed to get the air they needed to, as they've remained under me for the past couple of days.

In order to bear some of the seasonal temperatures in Oslo this past week (it was around -20C (-4F) on Thursday), I've been wearing the scarf my step-mother knit and gave me for Christmas. I haven't worn a scarf in my adult life, so I'm not up on my scarf-wearing-etiquette. Most of my thoughts on this come from Joan of Arcadia, whose main character is almost always wearing a scarf. Unfortunately, people in Oslo seem to more utilitarian; they actually use there scarves to stay warm. It seems almost embarrassing to have my scarf hanging out from the bottom of my jacket. Maybe I need to do more wrapping or knotting. Scarf wearing tips are most welcome.

The IMAP backend in M2 is currently undergoing a complete rewrite to address several limitations of the current backend. This new backend will not be in 7.50, but should be in the next major release after it. Details about the rewrite were posted on the Opera newsgroups by one of the M2 developers, Frode Gill.

The issues he will address in the rewrite are in short these:

• Make a cleaner queue and state system, so it is possible to follow the code and fix bugs...
• Improve the response by making two incoming queues, instead of the current single one (reason: one for normal requests and one for high-priority requests, like body-fetches while backend is busy syncing folders)
• Improve auto-detection and -correcting code by making one outgoing queue (reason: current implementation forgets commands the moment they are sent. For NO or BAD responses, M2 simply doesn't have the data needed to adjust or resend the command in different format)
• Use two connections, if server allows it. One will stay selected on Inbox as often as possible, the other will be used to select the other folders (reason: remove selecting overhead by minimizing the frequency Inbox needs to be selected)
• Add timeout for connections. Actual timeout will depend on number of connections, selected folder and connection mode (reason: reduce resources)
• With timeout and/or multiple connections in place, finally implement support for IDLE, if server supports it (reason: reduce syncing overhead)

Other items, like syncing message flags, offline archiving of messages, and tree-view of IMAP folders, will probably be addressed in this rewrite, as well.

He's seeking constructive criticism, as he's unfamiliar with the IMAP protocol. Comments should either be posted as comments here or directed as followups to his post in opera.beta.

The spelling checker implemented in Opera 7.50 has been tested to work with Aspell, but other spelling checkers can be written to work with Opera as well. The API to use is open source and available from Frode Gill's web site. This information is really only relevant to developers interested in getting Opera to work with their third-party spelling checker.

Rebekah is kinda jealous that I get to do scheming right now (ring, proposal, etc.) and wants to do some of her own. We both agree it's a bit early to start on wedding plans. Anyone have suggestions for her?

If she's to be scheming (which generally means she's doing something secretly pertaining to our relationship), maybe my weblog isn't the best place to comment on it. Nah.

I see a difference between ring shopping and ring browsing. Ring shopping is when you're in the market for the ring; you're actually out there trying to find one to buy. Ring browsing is just seeing what's on the market. I want to pick out the ring for my fiancée without her being there. That's the ring shopping. But I need to have a good idea what she wants. That's the ring browsing. That said....

The week before I left for Oslo, Rebekah and I went ring browsing. We went to the mall and walked from jewelry store to jewelry store to see what's actually out there. I don't know a thing about diamonds, but that's what they seem most interested in selling. It's not about the setting or the band, it's about the diamond. Well, we were really more interested in the setting and the band. And no one wanted to tell us about those. They just wanted to show us diamonds. I understand that diamonds are really the focal point and the main cost of a ring, but still, sell us what we're there to buy. If we're more interested in the setting, sell us a setting.

So, Rebekah looked around and she put rings on her finger to try to get an idea what she liked. And I think she did. The sales persons asked me if I liked the diamond and I did my best to remain out of the way and let Rebekah do the deciding. After all, she's going to be wearing the ring, not me. I'm getting a picture of the ring that I'd like to get her, when that time comes. But more ring browsing will be required when I get back in the country.

I don't want people to get the wrong impression here. We're not getting engaged tomorrow. We're not getting engaged next month. We're not getting engaged the month after that. It is something we're talking and thinking about.

It seems so strange to be at this point in my life. I don't know how I got here. I mean, I do, but it still surprises me. Last January, if you had told me I'd be engaged--especially if you told me I'd be engaged to Rebekah--, I would have needed a huge amount of convincing. But here I am. And I'm ecstatic about it. I smile just thinking about it. And I know she's thrilled too. It's a wonderful, unexpected blessing and is helping me to look to the future for setting goals. I like how the future looks.

I sat down with one of the Mac Quality Assurance guys last week to see how Opera 7 for Mac is shaping up. And it is. There's a lot of work to do still, but it looks like it's really coming together. I'm not a Mac user, so I don't know the OS conventions. But it looks like it belongs there. And I know that's what our users want. Our developers have been working hard on trying to get that part right and I think they're doing a great job.

For instance, the reason I visited the Mac team was to talk about ways to improve the preferences across the desktop platforms. Mac applications seem to have the preference page selector at the top (released versions of Opera 7 for Windows and Linux have it on the right) with a minimal amount of options available on each page. Because Opera is so customizable, it's a challenge to find a good balance. IE has a preferences dialog similar to Opera, but (I think) Safari has the more typical Mac preference dialog. In any case, that's the kind of thing that Mac developers are thinking about. They don't want users to get just the Opera experience. They want users to get the Opera experience on a Mac. I hope we still have enough Opera enthusiasts left on the Mac to give it a chance when the time comes.

There is an art, or, rather, a knack to walking on ice. It's something Norwegian children learn at a very young age, something I imagine they never forget. There are many different types of ice, too, and Norwegians instinctively know how to handle each one. The general trick is to not push off (using the ball of your foot) with each step. Just pick your feet up. What I initially mistook for waddling is really a sophisticated process of maintaining ones balance, despite the slippery sidewalks. One that I've adopted. Yes, I too have become a waddler.

The grocery stores in Norway are far cries from the super markets I've grown up around in the United States. There isn't a whole lot of variety or selection. Whereas I'm used to long aisles of cereals--large boxes, small boxes, travel size, and generic varieties of each--there is put a single shelf of cereal boxes here. Instead of Multigrain, Honey Nut, original, Frosted, Berry Burst (Strawberry and Triple Berry), and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, we only have one kind, which seem to resemble the US multigrain variety. In fact, many cereal aisles I've strolled through have more choices than an entire grocery store in Norway. What Norway lacks in store size, it makes up for in the sheer number of stores. Within walking distance of our flat (read: apartment) are no less than five grocery stores. And they all carry nearly the same stock.

My Norwegian diet consists mostly of restaurant food, sandwiches at work, cereal and muffins for breakfast, and frozen pizzas, pasta, and frozen food mixes (pastas and potato and meat mixes). I had meant to ask my step-mother or step-sister to give me some quick cooking lessons before I left the country, but time ran out. Don't get me wrong, I can cook. It's just that my recipe book is rather slim. And when you come to a different country that doesn't have all the foods for sale that you're accustomed to, it makes your recipe book even thinner. My cookies are going to take this country by storm, though.

I sat down with Trond--one of the main user interface developers at Opera--the other day to talk about writing a tutorial to introduce new users to Opera. We have lots of tutorials and other documentation, but nothing that really says, "Hey, this makes Opera special and here's how to use it."

The plan is to have short, to the point "slides" like "Navigation", which describe features such as spatial navigation, mouse gestures, FastForward, and Rewind or "Contacts," which describes Contact views and using contacts in Chat. I like the concept and I think it'll turn out well.

Harder than the above is finding a way to describe the things that our users sometimes call "endearing features." How do you fit things like Opera's logarithmic-feeling anchored scrolling, starting downloads before you specify the save location, and quick toggles of images and stylesheets into a easy to read and navigate document? What about "Continue from last time" (and crash recovery) or "Reload every..."?

Unfortunately, many potential customers don't use Opera long enough to find out about these fantastic time-saving features. They find a page that doesn't render and they go running back to IE or Mozilla. I first became an Opera user during the 4.0 betas because of the MDI interface and "Continue from last time." I didn't care that not every page looked perfect when I was able to browse ten times faster. A lot of people would become customers if only they knew how Opera made their browsing (and e-mailing) so much easier.

With the new user interface changes in 7.50p1, I fear we may be putting more of Opera's power away from a new user's fingertips, making the distinction between Opera, IE, and Mozilla grayer. However, I'm not sure there's a good answer to this problem either. New users of 7.0 - 7.2x took one look at Opera and got tunnel vision; on small screens, there was barely any room for web pages. We've cleaned that up a lot in 7.50p1, but at what cost? I hope we can find a way to show users what Opera is really about before they dismiss it as another IE-clone.

People don't walk outside during the winter in Oslo. They waddle. While the city does an excellent job cleaning the streets, the sidewalks are an icy mess. Slipping and sliding is to be expected. Maybe it's only this part of the city, but it's really interesting walking to work. It's been around freezing so far this week, which I can deal with. We're expecting snow just about every day this week and temperatures are going to gradually drop. I'm glad I'm getting some time to get used to the temperature change.

My step-mother let me borrow her laptop and my step-sister let me borrow her external hard drive, so I'm currently sitting at a company flat borrowing someone's Internet to post to here via the laptop while listening to MP3s from the external hard drive. It's nice.

I'm remembering a lot of the lessons about living in Norway I learned last time I was here. It's nice being in an apartment again with two other Opera geeks where we can talk about computers all the time. It's really just nice to be in an apartment again. I feel all cluttered in my room at home and this apartment has high ceilings and minimalist furniture. It's a refreshing contrast to what I came from.

I do miss my family (however much I may complain about them), friends, and home. And Rebekah, of course. I like driving and I won't be behind the wheel for another two months. I'm going to try harder to find a church this time around, otherwise I'll be churchless for the next two months, too. Despite the drawbacks, two months seems to the optimal amount of time to be here. It's not too long to cause massive amounts of havoc in my life at home, but long enough to get some real work done and rekindle friendships with co-workers.

As with my last trip, this visit comes at an optimal time in my relationship with Rebekah. To be honest, I was looking forward to this time apart. We have a lot to think about. It's hard to really step back from things going on in a relationship without some time apart. This gives us that time without having to say, I need some space to think about things. Mind you, these are all positive thoughts I'm thinking here, but they're thoughts that need some distance to develop the way they need to.

I've already gotten some invites to go skiing and I'm having a great time with my co-workers and roommates. I have a feeling this two months is going to go by real fast. But hopefully not too fast.

PS: Helen, you gotta stop calling Norway, Norwegia. I've almost said it a handful of times recently. I'm so going to say it and offend someone and it's going to be all your fault.