Kryptonite Cryptography

So, what is a "Web app" and why would you need the ability to make one? Well, according to Wikipedia, a web app software is

a software application that is dedicated to accessing pages from a single source (site) on a computer network such as the Internet or a private intranet. SSBs typically simplify the more complex functions of a web browser by excluding the menus, toolbars and browser chrome associated with functions that are external to the workings of a single site.

What I need from such software is its complete separation from my browsing. For example, I like to listen to music using such wonderful services as Pandora Radio or Grooveshark. The problem with them is that they are very resource-hungry, and are able to kill your browser pretty quickly, especially when you are trying to use the browser for tons of other things. So, to separate a web app from your Opera browser you will need another Opera profile. You could easily create it if you have anything below Opera 10, however, Opera has changed things a bit in their recent versions, so I am not sure what to do. Thankfully, Tamil has made a neat little tool that allows you to create multiple Opera profiles easily. Once you downloaded, ran it, and created another Opera profile using Tamil's Opera profile creator, run Opera from the shortcut for this new profile (I renamed the shortcut and also changed the default icon here).



Since in a web app we care only about one specific website, remove all the toolbars except the tab bar (we'll be using this profile for several apps, so we need to see which app is running and how many we have running total). Also, you may also prefer to alter the tab bar a bit. For myself, I only left the most important buttons for a web app, in my opinion.



Do not forget to set up Opera in a way so that it opens Speed Dial upon startup. Your Speed Dial will now serve as another desktop, only this desktop will open web application, instead of your Windows/Mac/Linux/Whatever OS applications. Go ahead and add all the web apps you think you will need.

We could stop right here, but if you are looking for perfection, let's go a little bit further. Since I want to replicate the feel of a desktop on my SPeed Dial, I would want to have icons instead of thumbnails. Again, thanks for Tamil's wonderful tutorials, we can now do so. Try finding icons you like for your web apps. I discovered Google Images and Iconfinder to be good places to search for them. Once you have performed everything Tamil instructed, you could go even further and find a suitable Speed Dial background for yourself. Also, in order to get rid of the annoying Speed Dial thumbnail borders and make them transparent, you can use Tamil's Opera Standard 10 Slim Skin. Finally, you are done! Look at the web 2.0 awesomeness below and show me yours!



P.S.: Of course, you can customize it even further. If you are like me and do not like the search bar in your speed dial, type in opera:config into the address bar, enter "Speed Dial" in the Quick Find field, set Speed Dial Search Type to 0 (zero), and save the settings. You can also alter the WebApps icon. Find and save the .ico file you like to your computer, copy its address, and paste it into Application Icon field of the opera:config dialog (type "icon" into Quick Find to find it).