Brian's Bits

Do you remember that moment after you finished highschool? You were completely done with school (maybe). You had the choice of either going down one road (college) or another (a job) and...for some, yet another (military). But, for that first week or so after school, there was this brief moment of "what the hell am I going to do now?". Even if you have everything figured out - to the most minute detail, there are always questions, doubts, the mysteries of the unknown.
Today, I've finished my last day at Opera Software. It's been a blast, met some very cool people (in the company and in the community). Right now, things are similar to those "just pushed out the doors of highschool / college" where my future is a bit uncertain - a bit blank. This is both good and bad. I don't have the reassurance of a set path to follow. On the other hand, I can make that path lead wherever I choose. It's a bit of a liberating feeling (however uncomfortable that may be from time to time).
Of course, I do have a plan. But, I've offered myself enough time that I'm in no hurry for anything, really. Let's just see where this path is headed...
As I sort things out, travel and find trouble to get into, I may find it hard to keep this blog as updated as I'd like. I'm not abandoning it, but taking some time away from the computer (any and all computers) while I get settled into my new home.
For those of you that questions about the community, you can continue to use the support forms, or direct them to our super-awesome community moderator, Espen.

I've been working at Opera for just a bit over a year. During this time, I've met some really nice, smart and all-around great people here.
I've watched the community grow from around 200k users to nearly half a million, I've seen the entire page revamped multiple times and a whole lot of fun events (both virtual and physical). Of course, these things are mostly due to the great web team here (especially Fred and Ole Kasper). I'm just glad I was along for the ride.
This team is still growing steadily. We've just hired one new community moderator - Espen, as well two new full-time web developers. We also still have a bunch of open jobs, so be sure to check them out.
In any case, I will be leaving Opera in the coming days. Thank you to everyone that's made the community what it is.

I've been pretty stressed lately. I have this "thing" where, when I'm stressed, I always feel rushed - as if there's something I should be doing at that moment. The things I'm stressed about are generally out of my control...it's just a matter of waiting for the pieces to come together. It's strange that despite the fact that I can make sense of this in my mind, my heart races a bit when I dwell on it for too long.
I'm not a religious person, but this quote still rings true:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.

I'm a pretty big fan of food. It's odd that I don't know the first thing about cooking - and that I seem to deprive myself from enjoying most of the most tasty foods there are (~8 years vegetarian / ~6 years vegan). Anyway - I can't seem to pull myself from any show that has Gordon Ramsay in it. I don't know what the deal is, but the guy is a brilliant entertainer in some crazy "car crash" way. He had a popular show for some time called "Hell's Kitchen", which was basically a reality show where contestants were eliminated. He's got a pretty sharp tongue and always knocked people around a fair bit (adding to the entertainment). This show gave me the impression that he was another "I'm sorry - you're the weakest link. Goodbye." type. Anyways, every so often I catch another of his shows (which name eludes me). This show definitely shows another side of him. It's funny to see that the reason he seems like such a jerk is that he's just that passionate about cooking. After he's warmed up a bit with the people he's cooking with, you can sense a real level of control, confidence and respect - no doubt exaggerated by video editing and inclusion of choice bits of audio.
For someone that swears constantly and seems to be sincerely spiteful towards vegetarians and vegans - I still find some odd sense of entertainment.

Everyone in the blogging world is probably familiar with YouTube - the super popular online video site that allows sharing of movies. They've done a great job in making it very simple for people to include these little clips in the pages and blogs. So what's my gripe? They've recently upgraded their movie player to the newest version of Flash - which is incompatible with all previous versions. Now, all these movies are broken for people that haven't upgraded.
No big deal - the changing of times. You should expect an upgrade will be necessary from time to time. My gripe isn't really with YouTube - they're apparently adding features. Innovation on the Internet is absolutely imperative for survival. It'd be nice if they had a fall-back, but whatever.
My gripe is with Macromedia and closed standards in general. I'm using Linux exclusively. It's obviously been A) too difficult and / or B) not worth the expense to support my platform. This now means that these services are rendered useless for me and all other Linux users. This reminds me of years past when Microsoft and Netscape were fighting to add proprietary elements of HTML to then have a strangle-hold on all net surfers. If there were an open standard on these Flash files, someone (either a corporate entity or volunteers) would have an opportunity to port the player, or otherwise create some kind of fall-back. Of course, I wouldn't expect Macromedia to think it's reasonable to give out their source-code, but the situation in itself is a bit troubling.
In summation: screw Flash.