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

I don't think about it often, but I am a dreamer. Sometimes it helps us achieve our dreams if we share them with others. And so, here are some of my dreams:

1. I dream of being a great husband and father. I am in charge of providing for my family and I believe that goes beyond financial obligations. It means helping to foster an atmosphere where my daughter can flourish. It means helping my wife to do the things she dreams of doing. It means making tough decisions that may not be what we want, but are what we need.
2. I dream of being a great friend. I want to keep in touch with those that are most important to me. I want them to know I care. I want them to know that I'm thinking of them and that I enjoy who they are and that I enjoy spending time with them. I want them to know I miss them. At the moment, I want them to know that I know I need to work harder at this dream.
3. I dream of being a great photographer. I recently realized that I have a lot more artistic ability than I knew. Between writing (see the next point) and photography, I'm actually doing pretty well. But I want to do better. I've noticed that I tend to take the same photograph over and over (see these pictures, for instance). I want a digital SLR camera, but I know that's not the solution to this problem. I need to think more creatively when I'm taking pictures. I need to get away from my standard formula and try new things. It's the difference between being good and being great.
4. I dream of being a great writer. I didn't want to be a writer until I was in college and a professor told me I was good at it. Since then, I've had a love-hate relationship with writing. When it comes down to it, I need to write more. I need the practice. I also need to read more. And I need to experiment. In the end, I want to make people laugh and I want to touch them somehow with what I've written.
5. I dream of making a difference in the lives of others. We all have it within ourselves to make the lives of others better. We just need to tap into it. Yes, finding bugs in a web browser can decrease the frustration of others, but I'm sure there's more that I can do.
6. I dream of pleasing God. I know I cannot lead (and have not led) a sinless life, but that doesn't mean that I cannot please God. I have been blessed so much, in so many ways that I can't even imagine. I dream of giving some of those blessings to others, of acknowledging those blessings, and of sharing them.

I've been tagged! Rowan Mulder wants to know what five things I'd like to see in Opera. The tagging game began with Daniel Goldman (see his post for the rules) and I'm going to go ahead and tag Timothy Luoma, Rijk van Geijtenbeek, Eirik Stavem, Allan Clements, and Ian Hickson.

Picking out five things I'd like to see in Opera is actually a bit tricky for me. I spend a lot of time listening to what others want in Opera. Often when I talk about what I want in Opera, I'm just echoing what I've heard from others. After some thorough brainstorming, I hope I've filtered off the bias and will present a list that's truly my own. Since I have a unique perspective as an employee, I've bent the rules a bit and included some things that I think (and hope!) Opera Software as a company could do better in the future.

And without further ado, five things I'd like to see in Opera:

• A better icon - Really, Opera's icon isn't very good. There are a number of design problems with it and it really can't compare to its competitors.
• A publicly accessible bug tracking system - Opera's users are awesome. They tirelessly figure out problems on web sites and find ways to reproduce really odd issues. To get the most out of their expertise, it makes sense to make the Opera Software bug tracking system publicly accessible. Our users are one of our greatest assets and I know that'd be thrilled to help kill some bugs.
• Better changelogs - When an Opera user takes the time to report a bug, the least Opera Software can do is inform them it's been fixed by listing it in the build/release changelog. Changelogs typically include less than 10% of the actual changes, though many are included in blanket statements like "improved stability".
• Opera Mail as a separate application - Opera Mail gets no respect, even less than the Opera browser. Opera Mail in Kestrel is leaps and bounds better than Opera Mail ever has been and it's going to get even better in Peregrine. I already use Opera Mail as if it were a stand-alone application, but few users probably know how to do so. Thus, I'd like Opera Software to release Opera Mail as a standalone application so others will be able to experience its greatness!
• Developer tools - One of the best ways to get more users to use Opera is to fix web site problems. One of the best ways to fix web sites problems is to provide superior tools for developers. If developers developed their web sites using Opera, then fixed the problems they find in other browsers, Opera would work out of the box. I think one of the main reasons that Mozilla and Firefox caught on is because it was early-on the defacto geek/developer browser. Those geeks/developers made their web sites work in Firefox, then spread the word and now Firefox has 10+% market share, while Opera is still hovering in the single digits.
• Bonus: Extensions - Face it, the Opera browser can't please every user. Opera Software can try to find the right balance between features and clutter, but I think that's a losing battle. What's the answer? Extensions. Let users make, rate, and install the features they want. Let users take the Opera browser to places Opera Software never imagined. They already try to do so now with various skins, toolbar setups, and hacks. If Opera Software gave them the right tools, the possibilities are almost endless. Extensions will also open the door to features from third-parties, such as the Google Toolbar and applications like RoboForm. I really want to see how much better Opera could be if the Web could apply their talent to it.

Note: The opinions expressed here are my own and are not meant to represent my employer, Opera Software.

This Summer movie season looks fantastic. Generally, I only see a movie in the theater if the special effects make it worthwhile. I have seen some romantic comedies in the theater recently (such as Musc & Lyrics, which was a lot of fun), but I wouldn't have minded waiting for the DVDs. In any case, there're plenty of movies I deem worthy of trips to the theater this Summer.

Here's my list of must-see Summer movies for 2007:

• Spider-Man 3 (May 4th) - Saw it on May 9th: great movie
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (May 25th) - Enjoyed the first, thought the second was over-done, but I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the third - Saw it on June 21st; much, much better than the second; great fun
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (June 15th) - Enjoyed the first one and I'm a big fan of superheroes - Saw it on June 15th; it was okay
• Live Free or Die Hard (June 27th) - Yippee-ki-yay!
• Ratatouille (June 29th) - Pixar: nothing else needs to be said - this movie was great fun; I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed
• Transformers (July 6th) - Transformers were some of my favorite toys when I was a kid; plus, this a Spielberg movie and the trailer looks fantastic - the movie was phenomenal
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (July 13th) - Harry Potter: again, nothing else needs to be said - excellent, just excellent
• The Bourne Ultimatum (August 3rd) - I hope this one lives up to the first two, which were very good
• Stardust (August 10th) - This is one of my favorite books and I want to see what this all-star cast can do with it

Undecided:

• Ocean's Thirteen (June 8th) - The first was great, the second was a flop, so I'm still on the fence
• Rush Hour 3 (August 10th) - I liked the first two, but I'm not sure if they can do it again

Wait for video:

• Shrek the Third (May 18th) - The first was OK, the second was boring. Fool me once....
• Evan Almighty (June 22nd) - This just doesn't seem to have as good a story as the first one

What's up with ten of thirteen movies here being sequels? The only original story in my list is Ratatouille. Is Pixar the only studio that can pull-off a blockbuster non-sequel?

My MacBook Pro is quickly running out of hard drive space, so I decided I'd upgrade the internal 80GB hard drive. After a lengthy search, I settled on the Seagate Momentus 2.5" 7200.2 160GB drive with freefall protection (ST9160823ASG). I'll be doubling my current space, getting a faster drive compared to the built-in 5400RPM drive, and I get added protection for my hard drive in case I drop my laptop (which I have no plan on doing, but better safe than sorry). I scoured the 'net today, but alas, couldn't find it for sale anywhere. I finally called Seagate Presales Support and found out that the drive has been delayed a bit, but should be shipping in June or July. Strike one.

While searching for a new drive, I realized that I'd run into trouble transferring my data between my old drive and my new drive. After some research, I decided I'd go with an external hard drive enclosure. I sometimes do computer tech support for friends, family, and people at my church and I find myself doing a lot of hard drive shuffling. I figured an enclosure that works with 3.5" drives would come in handy there, so why not pick up an enclosure that works with both 2.5" and 3.5" drives? Well, no one makes them, that's why. Icy Dock is considering making a tray that will fit 2.5" drives into their 3.5" enclosure. I gave them a call and the tray is still on the drawing board. Strike two.

Finally, I've been searching for a good backup solution. Our household has six computers* and we all really should be backing up our hard drives. The most obvious solution to me is some form of network storage. I'd like something that does RAID 1 for added protection. There are a couple candidates. First, there's the 1TB Western Digital My Book World Edition II. Not happening: horrible reviews, plus it's Windows-only. Second, there's the Netgear SC101. Not happening: horrible reviews, plus it's Windows-only. When will a reputable manufacturer come out with a decent network storage solution that offers redundancy, is cross-platform, and ideally doesn't require me to install software on each client computer? Strike three.

I'm just not having any luck.

* Yes, six. I have two: my MacBook Pro for work and my Windows XP desktop (which stays off most of the time); Michael, Emily, and Ellen have Windows XP laptops; and there's one Windows XP desktop for general use. Rebekah and Dale are the ones that use it most frequently.

It's been almost two months since Tim's Opera Bits v5.0, so let's get into it:

1. Opera Desktop 9.20 was released last week. 9.20 includes Speed Dial, a quick way to access the sites you visit most, and supports a Developer console. See the press release for more details.
2. The final version of the Internet Channel developed by Opera Software for the Nintendo Wii was also released last week. The Wii contains the most advanced rendering engine publicly available from Opera Software. See The Rendering Engine for the Wii for more details.
3. An experimental release of Opera Desktop with video element support is available from the Opera Labs for y'all lucky Windows users. This release has native support for the Ogg Theora video codec, which powers the video element. See the April 13, 2007 post at the Opera Labs for details.
4. Don't like Opera's built-in spelling checker? You've got a few options: OSpell (my pick) and Spell Check for Opera (via Daniel) use Opera's User Javascript feature to implement spelling checks.
5. The Nintendo DS browser developed by Opera Software will be released in the US on June 4, 2007.

That's about it. Got a question you want answered in the next Tim's Opera Bits? Ask away in the comments!

The final version of the Internet Channel developed by Opera Software for the Nintendo Wii was released last week and is available as a free download via the Wii Shop Channel. Our press release includes screenshots, a feature overview, and a tutorial video. And remember, it's only free through the end of June 2007.

The rendering engine used by the Internet Channel is the most advanced rendering engine publicly available from Opera Software. It's newer, less-buggy, and more featureful than the rendering engine in the just released Opera Desktop 9.20. If you recall point #2 from "Tim's Opera Bits v5.0", I explained that Opera 9.20 is using the same rendering engine as 9.0 with only very important bug fixes included. Opera 9.0 stopped taking in regular bug fixes in around June 2006. Since then, all the bug fixes have gone into a code branch for Kestrel, the next major update to the Opera Desktop browser. It may be months before Kestrel is publicly available, but lucky you, the Internet Channel already includes many of the bug fixes and features that will eventually be available in Kestrel!

New to the rendering engine used on the Wii is support for more CSS 3 selectors, partial text-shadow support (colors aren't correct), and many, many bug fixes (including the infamous rounding error on large values). These changes are just a preview of what you can expect from Kestrel. Current internal builds of Kestrel fix the text-shadow problems, implement even more CSS Selectors, and fix even more bugs. There are plenty more nice additions, too.

It's time once again for Tim's Opera Bits, the periodic posts that bring together Opera Software news from across the Internet. Without further delay, here's what's happening:

1. Opera Mini 3.1 is out and about. This release mainly contains bug fixes, but also adds support for managing your newsfeeds. Get it while it's hot!

2. You may recall that Opera 9.0 is code-named Merlin. Recently, the Desktop Team announced the code-names for the next two major Desktop releases, Kestrel and Peregrine. Merlin, Kestrel, and Peregrine are all names of falcons, in case you're wondering. There's a few more details about the names in the announcement post.

   Each release since 9.0 (including the forthcoming 9.2) has been based on the same code branch with only very important changes included from our development code branch. See, we stopped taking most bug fixes into Merlin back around June 2006 in an effort to improve stability and meet our deadlines. Meanwhile, we've continued to add features and fix bugs in both the rendering engine and Desktop-specific functions. All of those rendering engine changes will be included in Kestrel, though some of the changes in the user interface will have to wait until Peregrine. Of course, we'll be able to include even more rendering engine changes by then, as the work never ends.

   And just what rendering engine changes am I referring to? David Storey has already provided details about several of the changes in his post, Upcoming CSS3 support in Opera. David lets us know that Kestrel will have support for many more CSS3 Selectors, as well as the text-shadow property. Rijk was good enough to make a screenshot of Opera's forthcoming text-shadow support and include a few more details. Additionally, some more of Opera's bugs have been squashed, including a long-standing rounding problem, various XSLT bugs, SVG problems, and a whole lot more.

   And what of the user interface changes? One of our major initiatives for Kestrel and Peregrine is improving accessibility. As such, Opera will again include screen reader support in Kestrel for the first time since Opera 7.0 was released. Charles McCathieNevile has more details about this support in his recent blog entry, Speaking out.... We have a lot of work to do in this area, but things are progressing nicely. Everything may not be finished in Kestrel, but I hope it will be.

   Let's not forget about our beloved Opera Mail. Opera Mail will finally have a new indexing back-end, which will fix the long-standing problem with index and search corruption. We've also spent some time on our IMAP and POP back-ends, adding in some more user-requested functionality. Opera Mail is now faster and more efficient than ever before. A heap of user interface improvements are planned, but it's not clear if they'll be included in Kestrel, Peregrine, or later.

   Note: I should mention that the exact version these features will be available in is tentative. This is our current plan, but plans change.

3. Johan Borg, the Desktop team project manager, let us know that the next weekly build will include a new feature never before seen in a Desktop browser. Many have tried to guess the new feature in the comments to the blog post, but no one has even come close.
4. This Thursday, Jon von Tetzchner, the CEO of Opera Software, will be chatting live via IRC at 5pm CET. That's 11am on the East Coast of the USA. Stop by #webapp on irc.opera.com for a chat.
5. Opera on the Wii ain't just for browsing. Daniel Goldman posted a letter from a father whose children were using Opera on the Wii to play educational games. It's great to see our products helping children get interested in learning.
6. Lawrence Eng, a Market Researcher for Opera Software, wants to know Why is it important that more people know about and use Opera? There are a lot of great responses in the comments to his post, so check them out. As for me, Opera makes my life easier because I can browser faster (not just load web pages faster, but accomplish my task more quickly) and easier. I want everyone to have that convenience.

7. Daniel Goldman let us know about WiiMinder, a web site that adds tabbed browsing to Opera on the Wii. It's a very interesting concept and the user interface is pretty nice. However, it caused a number of glitches when I tested it for a bit, including zooming out randomly (usually while scrolling) and going back in history for no apparent reason. I do applaud them for their efforts, as their UI integrates seamlessly with the browser.

   While testing, I quite enjoyed playing Missile 3D over at WiiCade. Opera brings a whole 'nother level of gaming to the Wii by allowing Flash-based games. Plus, you can watch Homestar Runner on your TV. Strong Bad e-mail!

8. Last but not least, the next DC Metro area meet-up is next Wednesday, February 28th. We'll meet from 7pm to 9pm at the Panera Bread in Silver Spring. More details are in the original blog post. If you're able to join us, you'll get to see me demo that new feature Johan talked about on the Desktop Team blog! I hope to see you Wednesday!

That's about it. I'm interested in answering some more of your questions again in the next Tim's Opera Bits, so please leave them in the comments. Until next time, take care and happy browsing!

PS: This is my first post written while using MarsEdit, a blogging client for Mac OS X. It's pretty nice, but doesn't really enhance by blogging experience. Plus, it can't handle Drupal's input formats or categories. Back to using Opera's notes feature for backups....

Downloadable Music vs. CDs

Today, Steve Jobs posted a note on the Apple Inc. web site about iTunes and Digital Rights Management (DRM, AKA anti-piracy). You should go read it, as it's quite good. It's OK, I'll wait. Done? Good. According to Jobs, about 10% of the music sold in 2006 is downloadable, DRM-protected, and purchased online. The remaining 90% is sold DRM-free on compact discs.

In his note, Jobs talks about the restrictions the music industry imposes on Apple, such as strict requirements that any breaches in DRM security must be fixed within a matter of weeks. DRM must be bulletproof, according to the music industry. The majority of downloadable music sold online has always been protected by DRM, so the music industry finally has a medium where they control how music is shared. Unfortunately for them, a non-DRM'd format is already the de facto standard. Since the mid-90s, MP3s have been available for download via newsgroups, web sites, and P2P networks. It's no wonder that DRM'd music has met so much resistance.

iTunes and Norway

If you haven't heard, the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman has ruled that the iTunes' DRM violates Norwegian consumer protection laws because it prevents consumers from using their music on digital music players other than the iPod. Most people outside of Norway don't know how many consumer protections are in place in Norway. It's actually quite nice being a consumer in Norway, compared to the United States. For instance, most non-disposable consumer electronics in the US have something like a ninety day warranty on defects in the manufacturing process. In some cases, it's one year. Norwegian law requires a minimum five year warranty on these products (if I'm not mistaken, Norwegians please correct me).

One of the things I really liked about Norway is that it was obvious that big companies hadn't stripped away the rights of individuals. The iTunes case is the same sort of situation. Many people argue that Apple is no more responsible for making sure their songs are compatible with their competitors' MP3 players than printer manufacturers are responsible for making sure their printer cartridges are interoperable. However, they're missing the point. The Ombudsman seems to be saying that purchasing music is more than just buying a certain file format. It's buying the right to listen to the music as you see fit.

DRM and Me

I applaud Steve Jobs' willingness to remove all DRM restrictions from music on iTunes as soon as the music studios allow it and I hope this redirects the Norwegian Ombudsman to the real culprits here: the music industry. To this day, I haven't purchased any DRM'd music or copy-protected CDs and I have no intention of doing so. I'd really like to buy some DRM-free and music industry sanctioned downloadable music, though. Please Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI, make it happen.

I finally got around to joining Facebook. Rebekah joined a couple of months ago and I know she's reconnected with some old friends, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I've only been in touch with one of my college friends semi-frequently, so I'm looking forward to reconnecting with some others soon.

Since I signed up this morning, I've been poking around, looking for people I know. I sent out about a dozen or so friend invitations today and I'm happy to say that I have friends. Yay! It's always nice to have bits of technology to connect you to other people. Of course, being a geek, I'm a bit of a social inept, so I'm not sure what the etiquette is for Facebook, but I'll figure it out. Or I'll get over it. Probably the latter.

I've found that working in Quality Assurance tends to leak into the other parts of my life. I usually notice this most often when I'm interacting with web pages. There are so many little things about Facebook that annoy me. For one, I can't join my college's network since I don't have an college e-mail address any more. That's the only way to join a college network. That's just silly. Also, there's totally no way to say that I'm married to a person on my friends page. I can say that "We hooked up", "We dated", "We lived together", she's "In my family", etc. But I can't say that we're married. "Practically married", but not married. I guess that's a side effect of targeting the college croud, but I don't think it's too far fetched.

This is my first social network experience, so it'll be interesting. I'm looking forward to it. I'd rather use a web site to get to know someone (again) than go to a party and drink beer, so at least that's something in its favor.

Welcome to the fourth edition of Tim's Opera Bits! A lot has happened since the last update, so let's get right to the news:

1. We released Opera Desktop 9.1 with fraud protection/anti-phishing. This release includes fixes for a couple security issues, so please update. There're a lot of other changes and fixes in there too.

2. We released Opera Mini 3.0, 3.01, 3.02, and 3.03! That's a whole lotta Opera Mini. New in 3.0 is RSS/Atom support, photo uploads, and secure browsing. But don't take my word for it, try it out yourself! Or, check out the Opera Mini simulator and Daniel's video demos of Opera Mini.

   I tried out Opera Mini for the first time back in April when I had free data access with my new mobile phone plan, but since I work at home and don't get mobile service in the house, I decided to stop the data access. I ended up realizing how much I could have used it this Thanksgiving while travelling throughout New England, so I recently signed up for a new data plan for my moblie. Since, I've used Opera Mini while standing in line, while waiting for a movie to start, and to search Amazon.com while shopping for movies at Borders. It's been a great help.

   Here are some usage tips:

   • Don't browse and drive. It's very naughty. Not to mention dangerous and illegal. And distracting.
   • Turn off images. Pages load significantly faster and you usually don't need them. You'll also save a bundle if your data plan has usage restrictions (like mine).
   • Share your browser.

   Anyway....

3. We released a trial version of Opera Wii. Of course, you'll need a Wii to use it. You should totally get one, too, since they rock! They're still pretty scarce, though.

   Fortunately, Opera Wii is free through the end of June. That should give you plenty of time to pick one up. Oh, and the final should be released toward the end of March.

   PS: Opera Wii passes the Acid2 test. Sweet!

4. We released a preview of forthcoming developer tools. These tools will find their way into a future Opera release in some form, so we'd appreciate your feedback. Thank you and happy developing!
5. We released... a whole lot recently. We're glad that's over. Opera 9 got a great review over at MacWorld and Opera's CEO, the venerable Jon von Tetzchner, was interviewed by the Tech blog at SciFi.com about the silliness that is .mobi. There should only be one Web, people. Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, and Opera Wii all work with the existing Web. There's no reason things shouldn't continue that way.

Take a deep breath. Good. Now, the fun stuff. In the last issue, I asked y'all if you had any questions about Opera Software. I got some great questions, so here come the responses. Keep in mind that opinions expressed are my own and don't necessarily represent my employer, Opera Software.