Skip navigation.

exploreopera

| Help

Sign up | Help

Cyro's weblog

"Attitude" is an Eltarian word for "correct genetic make-up"

Asus eeePC - First Impressions!

, , , ...

I bought it last week, here comes the review.
First thing, I replaced Xandros with Ubuntu Hardy Heron. Why? Because Xandros is not the best choice. XP was another option (There is a CD with the XP drivers on it). But I picked up Ubuntu because I knew there were tons of customizations to get the best experience.

Hardware:
Processor: Celeron 900 Mhz in overclock mode (650 Mhz is the default);
Memory: 2,048 GB (expanded from the original 512 MB);
Storage: 4GB internal (flash), 2GB external (SD card), 16GB Pendrive;
Video: Intel, 800x480 (wide). There is an external VGA output to connect to an external monitor;
Sound: Yes, integrated;
Mike: Yes, integrated;
Camera: Yes, integrated;
Battery life: 3 hours & 50 minutes (w/ Wifi turned on);
Network: LAN & WLAN;
Bluetooth: No, but I've got a bluetooth dongle which is working;
USB ports: Three.

Outside:



So, I've connected an external CDROM drive and booted the ALTERNATE version of Ubuntu Hardy Heron, which is way better than the Live CD version. I also didn't create a SWAP partition, since I'm not interested in hibernation and it's pointless, since I have 2GB of RAM and there will not be enough room for it. Then, I've followed the instructions on several websites on how to install the drivers correctly, and how to optimize the battery and some other minor tweaks like small fonts, and window resizing (since the resolution is low).

Then, of course, I removed Firefox. Why? Because I don't like it.
Besides Opera, I have OpenOffice.org 2.4, Filezilla, PuTTY, Compiz (always enabled), Pidgin (temporarily because I hate it as well), Skype Beta(Camera enabled), Totem (with all plugins), FrozenBubble, DosBox, and many others. Since it's installed in the 4GB internal drive, I only got 1,5 GB left. But that's ok, because I have the external storage drive and the pendrive as a last option for documents, videos, games, etc.

Inside:


The Dancing CTO

, ,


Check out this cool animation of Håkon Wium Lie (a.k.a HowCome) who is the Chief Technology Officer of Opera Software and of course, father of Cascading Style Sheets.

Source:

Opera 9.5 Beta 2 for Linux - Native skin Bug

, , , ...



The picture says it all. It appears that the native skins are not native enough.

How to reproduce it? Just run Ubuntu, install Opera 9.5 beta 2 and then download the ubuntu-studio theme pack (or any other black theme), apply the theme and then run Opera.

Opera becomes unreadable and almost unusable. I'm talking about menus, context menus, buttons and everything else. All dark. Background and foreground (text) does not contrast like other applications such as OpenOffice.org, Firefox, GIMP, Pidgin, etc.

Filled as bug #326332

Opera 9.5 Linux

, , , ...

The following post was written in Portuguese. This is some quick reference guide I wrote about Opera 9.5 on Linux. I had to do it, because of the lack of material about it in my mothertongue. I apologize for any incovenience caused.

Instalação do Opera 9.5 no Linux

Como sabemos há pouquíssimos esclarecimentos sobre a instalação do Opera no Linux, principalmente por causa da popularização do Ubuntu.

Antes de fazer o download do pacote de instalação, primeiro é necessário conhecer as diferenças entre os mesmos e para isso é necessário saber algumas informações sobre o seu Sistema Operacional.
São três coisas: versões do SO, GCC e QT.

SO 32 bits ou 64 bits
Existe um comando que mostra qual está instalado.
"uname -m"
- Se exibir x86_64 você tem um SO de 64 bits.
- Se mostrar i686 você tem um SO de 32 bits.

GCC
Depende do Sistema Operacional. Somente os SOs mais novos vem com gcc 4.
Exemplos dos que vem: Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn), 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), Fedora Core 7 e 8.
Existe um comando que exibe qual a versão que está instalada, "gcc -v"

QT: Interface gráfica que o Opera utiliza no Linux.
No Opera existem duas versões. A antiga (3), usada até o Opera 9.26 e a nova (4) usada a partir do Opera 9.5.
Qual a diferença entre essas versões de QT?
A interface versão 3 é bem rudimentar e quadrada.
A interface versão 4 é bem customizável e se integra mais ao Sistema Operacional. Exemplos dessas interfaces:
- opera -style plastique
- opera -style motif
- opera -style cde
- opera -style windows
- opera -style cleanlooks

Agora que já foram ditas quais as versões do QT, GCC e SO podemos agrupá-las e numerá-las corretamente em pacotes:

intel-linux (i686)
.1 static - qt3 static build, gcc 2.95
.5 shared - qt3 shared build, gcc 3
.6 shared - qt3 shared build, gcc 4
.9 static - qt4 static build, gcc 4
.10 static - qt3 static build, gcc 4

x86_64-linux
.2 shared - qt3 shared build, gcc 4

Agora, com um pacote selecionado. Você deve selecionar o método de instalação.
São três tipos de arquivo.
- .DEB (Padrão Debian e Ubuntu)
dpkg -i opera-*.deb

- .RPM (Padrão Redhat, SuSe, Mandriva e Fedora)
rpm -ivh opera-*.rpm

- .TAR.GZ (Arquivo compactado, similar ao zip do Windows)
tar -zxvf opera*.tar.gz
Será criado uma pasta com o mesmo nome do arquivo, aí é só entrar na pasta e rodar "./opera"

- .TAR.BZ2 (Similar ao de cima, outro método de compactação)
tar -bxvf opera*.tar.bz2

Best iPOD advertisement ever!

, , , ...

WinVista Maxthon Edition released!

, , ,

After some requests, I've finally released a new version of WinVista this time based on the browser Maxthon. This skin does not use icons and buttons from Maxthon, instead, it only uses the interface effects combined with the WinVista icon set.



Well, I hope you like it!

Download Winvista Maxthon
Check my other skins

Game Show

, , , ...

Back in June I went to this Brazilian Game Show on TV called "A Grande Chance" (The Big Chance in English). After many months a lot of things happened, and last tuesday it eventually aired. I've managed to make my rusty capture device work again using Windows Vista. I've edited it and now it's available online in two parts. (I'm only visible in part 1, tho).

Part 1/2 Part 2/2

Tips and Tricks to make Opera lightweight

, ,

As seen in here, I'm trying to customize one Opera installation to help me with this scenario:

- Processor: 300 MHz
- Memory: 128MB RAM SDRAM
- Disk: 2GB
- OS: Windows 2000 SP4
- Network: very fast broadband connection.

This is what I have so far:
- Use a native skin;
- Disable thumbnails - opera:config#UserPrefs|UseThumbnailsinTabTooltips and opera:config#UserPrefs|UseThumbnailsinWindowCycle;
- Disable PageIndex opera:config#UserPrefs|MaxVisitedPagesIndexSize;
- Disable Automatic RAM cache opera:config#UserPrefs|AutomaticRAMCache (decreases memory usage);
- Remove or disable unneeded plugins (i.e. Java & Quicktime);
- Disable Smooth Scrolling - opera:config#UserPrefs|SmoothScrolling;
- Disable Favicons - opera:config#Multimedia|Alwaysloadfavicon;
- Disable Speed dial (state=3) - opera:config#UserPrefs|SpeedDialState;
- Disable Wand - opera:config#UserPrefs|EnableWand;
- Disable fraud protection.

Some other people such as Lamarca provided even more tips for my scenario.
- Disable javascript;
- Empty cache on exit.

I've seen several people complaining (specially Fearphage) about something called "Opera Lite". The devs often say it's not necessary and I agree with them. If you customize Opera in a certain way, you can actually make it faster. Basically, it's our full Opera with all the features listed above disabled by default. I just wish this "Opera Lite" setup could be downloaded directly from the website.

Updating all the skins for Kestrel

, , , ...

Today, I did some minor changes in the MSOffice 2007 skins but the reason I'm here is this:

I fixed the mini statusbar introduced during the latest build of Opera 9.50.
I added the following to all skins that I've created and uploaded them again:

[Edit Skin.mini]
Clone= Edit Skin
Padding Top= 0
Padding Bottom= 0
Margin Top= 0
Margin Bottom= 0

[Edit Skin.disabled.mini]
Clone= Edit Skin.disabled
Padding Top= 0
Padding Bottom= 0
Margin Top= 0
Margin Bottom= 0

[Dropdown Skin.mini]
Clone= Dropdown Skin
Padding Top= 2
Padding Bottom= 2
Margin Top= 0
Margin Bottom= 0

[Toolbar Button Skin.mini]
Clone= Toolbar Button Skin
Padding Top= 0
Padding Bottom= 0

[Toolbar Button Skin.hover.mini]
Clone= Toolbar Button Skin.hover
Padding Top= 0
Padding Bottom= 0

[Toolbar Button Skin.selected.mini]
Clone= Toolbar Button Skin.selected
Padding Top= 0
Padding Bottom= 0

[Toolbar Button Skin.pressed.mini]
Clone= Toolbar Button Skin.pressed
Padding Top= 0
Padding Bottom= 0

PLEASE UPDATE YOUR OPERA SKINS!

Kestrel is here!

, , , ...

As many of you know, Opera 9.50 alpha is here. That's right, the very first preview of the upcoming new technologies Opera Software is bringing us. The features I'm using/liking right now:


- Improved mail and page index searching (my favorite new feature so far, it's like having a mini Google Desktop);
- "Open with" (should be ported to pictures and flash files!);
- Performance (yay!);
- Speed (yay again!);
- Feeds, notes, irc chat, etc.
Not using yet:
- Speed dial (buggy);
- Synchronization (tested BUT currently waiting until it's mature enough);
- Mail.


While analysing the new Opera standard skin and a few new ones, I found small problems with my Winvista skins. I will have to fix almost them all to make it compatible. Most problems happened due to the lack of a View bar (which I think it's good and will not be missed by many people).