Windows 7, Antitrust Lawsuits, and Linux
No one can ignore the fact that Microsoft is losing market share. Not to their Apple rival, but to a completely different beast. Microsoft may have a lot to fear now that Linux has become quite a force in a variety of different areas.
While Microsoft will not go under as a company, the prestige and respect that was associated with Windows over the last several years may have been tainted by negative media reports, Steve Ballmer, antitrust issues, and rising alternatives.
Showing Opera Love
I recently have fallen head over heels for Opera. This is not a joke. I used to be infatuated with the amount of customization and addons Firefox presented end users, but I grow tired of the memory leaks and other minor hiccups. I have had Opera installed for a great deal of time now, but I haven't used it nearly the amount of time over the years compared to Firefox. I've used Firefox more than I've used Internet Explorer over the course of my entire life. I can say that as a matter-of-fact. Though, there were several drawbacks, to me personally, when it came to making the switch permanently.
The first hurdle was in-line spell checking. I loved this in Firefox. You see, if I didn't know how to properly spell a word, I wouldn't have to Google it and have them keep a nice collection of how ridiculous I've attempted to get away with spelling words of my own native language properly. Thank you Google for keeping a massive dossier of my search inquiries.
Well, this handy JavaScript available here with the small tutorial is fantastic. It has worked brilliantly for me and this was definitely one of the major stepping stones that had to happen in Opera that allowed me to embrace Opera with no regrets. Not as if I clung that desperately to Firefox, it simply had several tools out of the box I found useful.
In-line Spell Checking with Opera.
Next up was the increase of size of the Speed Dial, or additional pages. I had the Speed Dial add-on for Firefox and it was enormously customizable with tabbed browsing, customization like auto refreshing to the chosen time you would specify for every individual dial or do a complete manual refresh. It was very handy, but always knew if Opera had a simple fix to increase the speed dial to whatever number I wish, I would be sold. While I feel I found this little INI edit a little late, it literally drove me over the edge of switching.
Manually adjust Opera's Speed Dial to what you want.
For more tips and tricks, I recommend Opera's very own tutorials for beginners as they will explain everything in good enough detail to give ideas on what to search for later on for further tweaks.
Did I mention I use Opera on my Omnia i910 a ridiculous amount? The tabbed browsing, the amazing options, and the ability to edit Opera Mobile options to customize it to my likings, such as creating a directory on the external space the cache location and so many more options. Just by navigating to "opera:config" opens up a wide variety of options, not to mention opera:plugins, opera:about, and opera:history. A wealth of knowledge about your tiny, but powerful mobile.
Opera's Settings File Explained
I'm currently running v9.64. A good simple tweak to boost surf speed is to go to Tools>Preferences>Advanced tab>Network and change the "Max connections to a server" from the default to 16 and "Max total connections" from default to 64. Those of you who used the Tweak Network addon in Firefox will be aware of the speed boost. Even though Opera is already fast enough out of the box, it can be tweaked even further for speed out of the box with no additional downloads.
Typing "opera:config" into your Opera browser gives an overwhelming amount of options, but far better detailed and explained than Firefox's config window. In Performance in config, uncheck "Reduce Max Persistent HTTP Connections" and change the "Network Buffer Size" from the default to 32. In 9.64, the default size is 128, but 32KB should be more than enough. Feel free to Google curious settings to find more about them in detail. There are more settings to manipulate to get Opera the way you want than I can put in one blog.
Opera Browser Wiki: Opera Performance Enhancements
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to spend more quality time with Opera. Yeah, it's like that.
Wolverine: Origins Review
Note: There are more spoilers in the trailers for Wolverine: Origin than this review.
I will start with what's good in this movie. The only positive of this movie has to do with the actors. Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber, both very talented, were excellent in their roles. They were both ferocious and intense, but became somewhat confusing in the storyline during supposed new twists injected into the plot for movie. Needless to say, not much else made sense other than their past growing up together.
Speaking of a story, how about let's not have a story at all! The writers seemingly chose to throw out all source material at some point. They then sprinkled the film full of unnecessary cameos that were all half baked in a failed attempt to distract viewers. Gambit was in the film, but he had a lack of a certain Cajun accent. Young Cyclops was also featured and, apparently, he had heat blasts while young.
Also, what happened to Deadpool? I didn't realize it was him until I read the credits. What really threw me off is the end of the movie. To those that have already seen the movie will know what I am talking about when I say that none of that nonsense happens. He and that "monster" at the end are completely separate. Best character of all time ruined in a poorly done origins story. Now what are they going to do for a Deadpool spin-off? We will never get Deadpool done right.
Sadly, let's not forget how poorly done the CG was in major scenes. Take for instance the scene of Wolverine in the bathroom looking at his shiny new claws, but the claws are rendered with the brightest and shiniest filter in the world. Also, at one moment, they were shifting knuckles! After that, the blades even "slid off" his fists to magically reattach themselves seconds later. How lazy can you get? Was there no time post-production to have an eye for detail with this kind of enormous budget?
I did not go into the theater looking for mistakes related to his claws. It was that painfully obvious.
Flaming pile of hot, salty garbage.
Grade: F - (minus)
Days of the Blue
I always wondered when I would run into a random BSoD. A truly unexpected blue screen of death, especially when you don't think that the place is running on Windows.
In this case, it was an aquarium. The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. I took a few photos, but there was no flash photography allowed. These had a touch screen interface that allowed you to touch a picture of the fish in the tank for more information.
I hope the automated systems that keep these fish alive aren't using Windows.
The people around me did not understand why I was taking pictures.
