E-Musings Mon Immorata

Just Old Fashioned Read about new software to help take the edge off the Christmas 2004 Tsunami disaster This week there are several new software updates. Let's lead off with Opera 8 Beta. This update of the previous 7.6 Technical Preview builds includes multiple usability and feature improvements. Although released just around Christmas 2004, I was unable to check it out as I was Enjoying an old-fashioned vacation far from computers and the Internet. Opera 8 Beta's startup dialog has been revised. And now offers you several extra options including windows handling. The pop-up notification menu now combines both a list of blocked pop-ups as well as terminated tabs (for the current session) so you can undo an inadvertent tab closing. The dialog also highlight in bold windows blocked for the active tab. Screen rendering has been enhanced too, and you can now configure Opera to automatically resize to the maximum screen width; a handy feature if you use a profile-based desktop resolution manager. There are also additional undocumented rendering improvement. More information can be found in the Opera WiKi. There's also a detailed screen rendering tutorial. The book mark manager has been simplified making it easier to import book marks from other browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape/Mozilla and Linux Konqueror). You can also export all book marks, or the contents of a specific folder to HTML.

The Privacy Data dialog has been improved to help you clean out cookies, the browser cache, history, type-in addresses, saved form details including passwords and more. Opera 8 Beta also displays an icon in the Windows System Tray. Right-clicking this icon offers direct access to book marks, history, transfers and notes. You can also open a new page. Or hide (and restore) Opera. The key difference between hiding Opera and minimizing it is in system resources. The former seems to place the browser in a suspended state. While in the latter, individual tab sessions continue to be updated at preset intervals. The M2 client has been upgraded. M2 is the default collection point for email, news, IRC chat and news feeds (RSS). However its user interface is still clunky and you need to get used to an inability to report connection status in real-time. M2 will ultimately let you know. But has very cryptic error messages such as "POP3 server unavailable. Network problems?" The Voice feature has been tweaked. However I've been unable to test this at all as my Windows 2000 computer locks up every time I try enabling it. I suspect aging components to be the root cause. Other updates include displaying the locked padlock used to indicate a secure (SSL) connection within the address field. Clicking on the icon display information about the site. Disregard the download links found elsewhere as None of them appear to be working consistently. Instead here's the real Opera 8 Beta download link. Total Commander has also been upgraded to a public Beta 6.5 Build 10a. This is a bug fix release. The interface doesn't appear to have any improvements made. And the look mirrors the dated yet very endearing (and usable), Norton Commander for DOS look as opposed to Windows Explorer. If you still haven't tried out this software, what better opportunity than trying it now. Total Commander is an Windows Explorer replacement and is available in 32-bit (Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003) and 16-bit versions (Windows 3.1, WindowsCE). What I especially like about this utility is the built-in archive handling and FTP manager. Total Commander manages compressed archives and can extract all or select files. There's also an internal packer that supports ZIP, TAR, GZ and TGZ archives. You can also add support for BZ2 using a plugins. A powerful search feature that can locate files, or contents within a specific file type as well as within compressed archives. Included is Lister, a file viewer to access ASCII text, RTF, hex, binary, image and multimedia files. You can also compare folders on-the-fly. Or synchronize them. There's also a file compare feature. As well as a multi-file rename tool. The FTP manager lets you open up to 10 servers. Then navigate between them as if they were locally mapped drives. Depending on server support for the FXP protocol, you can also directly transfer files between servers. The FTP manager supports both active and passive mode, as well as firewalls. Don't wait. Download your copy of the best file manager ever. There's also a new Maxthon 1.1.115 update that improves on application load and close times. The version also resolves an annoying bug that occasionally deleted the configuration file post a browser hang. Also new is an option to disable custom context menus. And this browser now supports a News Ticker toolbar. The script error dialog to has been enhanced. You can get more information and a download link here. Or if you already use a recent version of Maxthon, choose Help > Check for updates option.

While searching for the perfect MP3 players I chanced across the open-source Cool Player. This 32-bit MP3 player includes a graphics equalizer and play list feature. And supports skins and plug-ins. While running the player can be minimized to the System Tray. And in spite of a really ugly default skin (although you can download more skins from online skin catalogs), this is more than made up by the really tine (under 3 MB) system footprint and the 318 kB file download. So Don't tarry. Visit the site now and download a copy for yourself. While I don't have any specific virus threat alerts this week. Do watch out for viruses attempting to sneak past your defenses disguised as Christmas or New Year cards. Or worse humanitarian appeals for the Asian Tsunami disaster survivors. Treat all attachments received, including those from friends, family, and co-workers with a great deal of caution. That's all for now. Stay safe. And we'll catch up next week. Click Here to Email Me