E-Musings Mon Immorata

Opera 7.5 Beta Preview 2 reinvents the browser and how we use it In the 21st Century, the browser wars aren't what they used to be. Netscape has seemingly ceased to exist. And although its mantle has passed to the Mozilla project. This, like other open-source initiatives appears at times to wander leader-less releasing incremental versions that differ little on the surface from their predecessors. Internet Explorer is in hibernation, periodically surfacing with news of yet another vulnerability discovered, or cloaked or both. And while new IE features are planned don't expect them before 2005. Many are already available: tabbed browsing support using MyIE2, AvantBrowser, GreenBrowser. Pop-up blocking with search tool bars from Yahoo, Google, MSN. More intelligent download manager with add-ins like Meta Products Download Express, Net Transport, Fresh Downloader. Etcetera. Which makes Opera the sole alternative browser platform where any kind of activity is seen. The newest version available is 7.5 Beta Preview 2. The development team appears to be tearing browser code apart and rebuilding it for each successive Preview build. Each iteration is more improved than the last and the faster too. A sure sign that its not a bug-fixed release but a wholly rebuilt version with bugs resolved at code level instead of via post-release patches. Like Mozilla, Opera 7.5 is more Web suite than just a browser with extensions. It now includes not just the M2 email and news client, but an IRC Chat client, improved Bookmarks, and a better, more intuitive interface. Let's take them step by step. Chat is much improved on previous builds. And connected easily with the Opera IRC server and even displayed rooms available in a jiffy! Actual interaction was almost as if MiRC had been merged in! Of course I would have liked to view the conversation that had occurred previous to my entering a room. But I think that's a server setting. The folks in the chat rooms are nice too; although most appeared asleep -- in the room but not active! Of the few awake, Babek (from Poland) liked Opera's mouse gestures, browsing security, the very active user community, and importantly the optimal use of system resources. Scoody liked everything in one place and termed site builders who failed to use W3-mandated standards as "web loosers." Babek suggest a visit to the Literary Moose site and especially its CSS Destroy page. Nasty suggested the Why Opera? page. And Achh00 listed Google's collection of what makes Opera the best. I hope Achh00's happy: he's finally been mentioned in print! One of my more frequent 'pliants used to be about Opera near-cavalier approach to Windows resources. No longer and whatever bugs the auto memory cache suffered are long gone. Opera 7.5 Preview 2 is a worth alternative browser. That great big ad window too in the Free version is a thing of the past (unless on setup you insist on it). Instead the un-registered version displays a thin strip of text ads at the top of the screen. Very unobtrusive. And I guess help keep this browser free for us ingrates to don't buy a copy to show our love! Opera's anti-popup manager is more advanced that what IE offers using search bars with this feature included. Opera's can differentiate between requested new windows and the pop-up and -under ones used by script-driven advertising. My experiences with IE versions have been hit and miss with even the links on this blog being blocked! The browser tabs display Favicons and although Bookmarks are supposed to too. I could only view Opera's own favicon against various Opera bookmarks. Even after adding a few of my own Favicon-enabled favorites to a new bookmark folder the icons remained elusive. Faced by a slew of Windows vulnerabilities, but still unwilling to change over to Linux, I've begun using M2 a whole lot more. Although the latest build is definitely easier to use and generates fewer errors. It does need work to improve its import messages and contact from other mail. My attempts came to nought as all I got were import failures and no messages or addresses. However account settings were added without problems! So beginning with a fresh slate, I've begun marking junk for the spam it is. I worry that the "add to junk senders list" is not limitless and my efforts at marking junk will go unrewarded. And haven't been able (yet) to find a way to modify the 'detect as spam' threshold. The spell checking too has a way to go. It needs the GNU-licensed Aspell spell checker add-in to work but my experiences with Aspell on Win32 have been poor! For an inveterate downloader like I, the revised Transfers windows means I no longer need to monitor download status. The Transfer icon in the panel selector window displays minutes left in a download. So far I haven't tried simultaneous transfers, but I think it will then display the combined time to complete. When a download completes, a tool tip flashes, plus the Transfer window is highlighted. The Preview 2 also resolves twin security vulnerabilities with lots of other bug fixes and updates. But new software this week is not just Opera. There's also another update of ePrompter 2 Beta 10. This free email client allows you to connect to various web-enabled mail services including Yahoo, Hotmail and India's own Rediff Mail! I also found Internet Download Manager 4 Beta that claims greater efficiency at segmented file downloading that Download Accelerator and GetRight. It supports all browser platforms and despite being able to increase the number of download threads on the fly (like Download Express), it was very resource-friendly, using 9 MB when maximized and a mere 1.5 MB when minimized! Of course this is a 60-day trial. If you need a 100% free tool, try instead Net Transport or Fresh Downloader which are as efficient. For those who are looking at a free firewall, check out Firewall PaPI: a proof-of-concept demo that allows you to define network access rules. However, everyone but experts should steer clear as you need a thorough grounding in IP protocols to configure the software. And a bit of advice: stay clear of job sites which aren't able to effectively use keywords. When spirits were low in 2002 I decided a new job was in order and signed up to JobsAhead Resume Blaster. It was a colossal waste of money and in little over 15 months since I have received just a single job ad that met my search keywords mid-way. JobsAhead fell on hard times once the dotcom boom ended. That they still consider me a subscriber shows why they are still struggling! Coupled with an inability to correctly match my keywords with want ads may be another factor. Their most recent mailer included 2 positions as a marine engineering officer, and another for a position reserved for ex-servicemen only! Click Here to Email Me