The Second Act

Must say I saw one of the funniest movies in a long time last night. A total sleeper. It's called "Grandma's Boy".

This one is directed by Nicholaus Goossen and stars Allen Covert (he was Adam Sandler's mullet wielding, parachute pants wearing sidekick in Wedding Singer). Also, a GREAT job by Joel Moore who plays J.P. in the film. He basically steals the show as the eccentric rockstar game developer.

check out the trailer here.

I think anyone who has worked for a software development company or enjoys gaming will get a kick out of this film. The unrated version is a bit rough around the edges (ala There's Something About Mary)but overall it's a hugely enjoyable geek fest of a film where you can give most of your brain cells the night off.

Put this one on your must-see list.
4 out of 5 stars ****

And a sleepless last couple days in Seattle it has been....

It was a great overall experience. JvT was in his element- where he loves to be- amongst Opera's users, fans and partners. Congrats to Ben and Michelle for a great event plan and execution and congrats to everyone at Opera and outside of Opera that has had a hand in delivering this great piece of work. The best Internet experience on any device just got better. It's another step forward in web browser innovation and progress.

Actually it was Opera's first ever launch on US soil! That's huge news in itself and underscores the concerted effort to build our brand in the US market starting with this product. We had the honor to rub shoulders today with some of our greatest fans, bloggers, partners and some Ambassador's. It was expecially great meeting Dan Goldman of OperaWatch and Katrina Knight of the Ambassador program- two people that have worked real hard in spreading the good word over the last couple years. It was also great meeting Bram and Ashwin from BitTorrent and also Matt May from BlueFlavor (W3C fame). Lots of interesting and enthusiastic people shared this important day with us.



After the event a bunch of us had a chance to decompress a bit on the roof deck of the Inn at the Market. What a gorgeous sunny day it was and we enjoyed a glorious view of the Seattle fjord. We reflected on how we could improve future launch events and continue to use these events as a way to build our profile in the US market. Also, I just saw we are on our way to a RECORD download day- over 750,000 downloads!!! I am predicting now that Opera 10 will break a mil ;-) Gotta happen.

Well, now time for some much needed sleep. One more weary day on the road in San Jose with JvT for some meetings with and then back to Austin. We are both in need of a breather...

until the next big adventure

Today we have the chance to make up for the first game. Ghana's win gives us an opening. Arena better have them ready this time!!

Go USA- beat Italy!!

I am happy to say after nearly 2 years at Macromedia's Mobile and Devices group, I have accepted an offer to come back to Opera.

About 6 months ago, in the trenches on the mobile business development front, I started to remember how good it was to work at Opera. Great product, best people I have ever worked with and those special years living in Oslo. I wanted badly to get back to the browser battlefront and of the few choices out there, Opera still is my first choice. Sentimentalism won.

I am thrilled to be back. Officialy, my start date is April 7th. I fly out to Oslo for a kickoff meeting on the 17th. Boy, do I miss Oslo. Took me awhile to say that, but it's true. Lots of great friends out there and it's just got a special place in my heart. Not sure what I will do first out there, but heading to my favorite cafe, Kaffe Pikene, will be somewhere near the top of my list.

Austin, TX -- my home town and the "Hub of the America's" is where I will be based. It's a great location to do business development. Both coasts are easily accessible and being a tech hub, I never feel far from the pulse of the market. I look forward to building the market in the states for Opera and hopefully reeling back in all of those users that somehow thought Firefox was a better browser. There's still milions of IE users that are waiting to be treated to Opera. I look forward to engaging the browser market once again.

Thank you Opera for beleiving in me and my abilities (once again) and for that, you have my undivided dedication and sincere appreciation.

Let's do this!

Hello from Austin- 85 degrees today- HOT- kind of snuck up on us. Christian is now getting back from a well deserved holiday. His Dad (came from Norway) and he went on a trip to the Grand Canyon last week. He seemed very relaxed this week so I guess the fresh air and scenery did him well.

Other news- we added a new person to the US Sales team- his name is Peter Kelly and he is going to be working out of San Diego and helping us with the mobile and home media side of the business. Opera US continues to grow!!

Well, I have been thinking about something very deeply lately...

This past week, I spent over 30 hours online- meaning eyes glued to my browser (and email client). Many weeks I have been online more than this but I think I can call this a weekly average.

That's alot of time online indeed and when I am not worrying about my posture, my eyes or my wrists, I worry about how productive I am at the end of the day and what I have to show for all that time looking at my browser.

A couple years back, when I was looking after Opera's desktop business in Oslo, I put in place some initiatives through our product groups to make Opera and the Opera browsing experience, one that allows the user to be more productive and better leverage the time spent online.

Some features that came out of this and others initiatives were "Integrated search"- featuring Google and other services, "Notes" and "hotclicks". Further back, other Opera first innovations that greatly optimized productivity, were keyboard shortcuts and tabbed browsing. About a year back, came mouse gestures and pop-up blocking. All of these features together and more helps make Opera the best browser for users wishing to get the most out of their Internet experience. I think that the importance and need for these types of features is validated by the fact that other browser makers like Moz and IE, swiftly copied and included them in their own products.

But is it really enough? Are we even scratching the surface here??

I tend to think not. I believe that we have alot of blue sky when it comes to browser innovations that make us more productive on the web.

Let's quickly think about what we all do with browsers today.
A short list--

~search
~buy & sell stuff/ transactions
~read the news, sports, weather, etc.
~learn and research
~communicate
~be entertained
~download and transfer files
~perform our jobs
~banking
~ etc. etc.

all wonderful ways to spend our time that very often results in more free time to do other things we love to do- like travel to the Grand Canyon....

In an average year, myself and many many others are going to spend some odd 1500 hours or more online!! Much of this is career related, but still there is a major opportunity cost there for all of us so it's vital that we take something *permanent* and *lasting* away from our browsing time- do you follow?

But, we as users are not all built the same... Some users have great memories and are able to retain more knowledge than others. Others just turn off their brain altogther when they use their browsers. Ok so the need to be more productive online is not a universal problem because there are some users that view the web strictly as an outlet for entertainment. In addition, the Internet, in it's current fabric and color can be somewhat limited by the quality and quantity of the content that is available today.

Some great minds are trying to solve these limitations. Tim Berners Lee and others are hard at work developing the next generation of the Web called The Semantic Web. If you have not read about this yet, I recommend that you do as it's fascinating (albeit a bit theoretical still).

here is a pretty good link:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?articleID=00048144-10D2-1C70-84A9809EC588EF21&catID=2

It's all about automating the tasks that will ultimately make us more productive, efficient and effective. It means fully harnessing the power of your computer and the software on it and exercising the web- even when you are not physically looking at it through yout browser.

I am excited about this because it finally means we at Opera may truly deliver what is missing from today's web experience and the real value of browsers, computers and Internet devices.

I hope for a day when Opera is *working for the user* 24 hours a day, 7 days a week handling all of your web needs from any device and most of all retaining *every bit* of data and information that results from that work and exposing it in a way that is 100% useful to the user.

Remember Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

1. Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
2. Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
3. Belongingness and Love needs - work group, family, affection, relationships, etc.
4. Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc.
5. Self-Actualisation needs - realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

Nothing much about computers and the web in there... Then again, it was not exactly a the beacon of light in the late 40's that it is today.

Well, it's the year 2004 and on the web, we as browser user's have core needs as well since it is such a vital part of our lives now:

We need to always get smarter and healthier
We need to be successful in all ways possible
We need to help the world be a safer, peaceful, cleaner place
We need information delivered to our brains and be at our fingertips
We need our computers to do the work we don't want to do

We want to enjoy all the good things that life has to offer and at the same time don't want to miss a thing in this short life.

And I hope that Opera is how we all achieve these needs.

More to come on this subject.

Good weekend all- I am off to Dallas tomorrow to see my beloved Red Sox play (decimate) the Texas Rangers. Pedro is on the mound an it should be a great contest between two division leaders.

Regards,
OperaSinger

at CTIA conference in Atlanta!

==sorry about the downtime but I have been on the road quite a bit lately cooking up an interesting stew of business opportunities for Opera==

Back to the 3 day CTIA experience
http://www.ctiawireless2004.com/

Opera's show team consisted of Christian, Michelle (our PR rep for the US), Jan (one of our key mobile product managers) and myself. One interesting note to add is that Jan, mentioned above, celebrated his FIRST trip ever to the US!! He would probably sigh if he read this right now because anywhere we went in Atlanta, we made that announcent to Jan's chagrin. Well, he was a great sport as always and overall I think he enjoyed the states and found that most of his pre-conceived notions were all true. He, as well as Michelle, were great assets to Christian and I for the show and I think I can safely say it was Opera's best CTIA ever!

We had a "pod" at the Symbian Pavillion. Basically a two man stand where we had a pc or mac, display, demo devices, brochures and such for the enjoyment of many of the show's 30,000 attendees. The Symbian booth was located adjacent to Sony-Ericsson in Hall 5 and housed about 14 or so other key Symbian partners.

Success at these types of shows is all about efficiency and planning. They can be an incredible waste of time and resources if one does not do weeks of preparation, efficient scheduling of meetings and networking events, secure intimate connections with the press and analysts, and above all, demonstrate the most sizzling technology possible to the crowd. If you can achieve all that, and position yourself for some "suprises", you are ahead of the game. Knowing what your competitors are doing and learning about new technologies and industry trends that can expand your product or market are essential to a successful show.

So what did we learn?

First off, the US mobile market seems to be catching up with it's European and Japanese rivals. 3G is creeping closer and US operators are starting to get it.

Stan Sigman, CEO of Cingular, conceded that U.S. carriers had been behind wireless data providers in European and Asian markets. "But now the marketplace is ready [in the U.S.] and the timing is right. We're ready to take off in data."

This trend bodes well for us. Opera's main message is that there is ONE Internet, not a desktop and mobile variation. With Opera, web content developers, operators, handset makers, integrators, and most of all end users benefit by using a standards based powerful full-HTML browser to realize that familiar desktop-like experience on a wireless handset. It's time for mobile Operators in the US to subscribe to this line of thinking and deliver a true mobile Internet experience to their customers.

Maybe the most prevalent theme at CTIA was megapixel camera phones. Industry analysts have pointed to resolutions above 1 megapixel as a major milestone for the camera-phone market, making the devices more than just a novelty. Nokia (7610), Samsung, Siemens and Sony-Ericsson all demonstrated very cool megapixel phones. Opera is being bundled with the 7610.

All in all, while there were no revolutionary new product announcements, all phone makers strutted out some very slick designs- let's just say, don't make any quick handset buys without doing some research and maybe exhibiting some patience- some very cool stuff is coming.

Opera had a real nice annoucement regarding our voice browsing (X + V) solution: http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2004/03/23/ Almost immediately our phones started ringing and email inbox started filling up! Just about all of our partners have some interest in this and some of them have a ton. Imagine the possbilities, especially in your handset and your car?? Can't wait to try this myself and I hope to have a version to try on my Mac in the not too distant future. Look out for a download link on Opera.com by Summer.

Overall, I think we all got alot out of the show and we learned how to better serve the operator market in the US. We have some very exciting opportunities there. If you have the chance, ask your personal operator when Opera will be available on the phones in their network. We need all the help we can get as these 1000 lb. gorilla's can be very hard to budge

Interestingly, the Georgia World Congress center where the show was held is right next to the CNN Center, where the one and only Britney Spears was holding a concert on Tuesday night. Kindly, one of our partners invited the Opera team to attend the concert but we made the executive decision that alternately, attending the CTIA Gala and networking with customers was more important- the sacrifices us sales guys make for the good of Opera!! Well, it was still a strange scene seeing all of those 14 year old girls mixed in with 30-something mobile-nerds in the CNN Center as the former was entering the concert and latter egressing from the exhibit halls. Wonder what Larry King would say about that?

Anyway, back to reality here in Austin and that means a couple days of sorting out business cards and notes from the show and following up on some action points.

Time for bigtime focus on US operators for me and Christian is on a roll with some very interesting embedded Opera deals on the Linux platform. It's going to be a busy spring guys but what else is new right??

In closing, as I sit here at Starbucks after a long day, I can't help but think what else this super-charged company is capable of. They already are a 4 billion dollar business selling millions of people everyday, now they have announced a new digital music service for their stores, what's next...hmmmm...well I actually know the answer to that question but I will save it for a later journal entry.

Until then, drink those latte's, burn those CD's, and at the checkout counter ask them, "can I also have the Opera browser to go please"...

Maybe that will get back to Mr. Howard Schulz and I will get a phone call.

March- in like a lion, out like a lamb

OS

at 3GSM 2004

I had the pleasure of joining my Oslo mates in Cannes this past week for the premiere business forum for the mobile industry- 3GSM. Over 25000 people and 600 exhibitors make this show a model of excellence in the industry and the premiere show to do business at. When you go to a booth to talk to someone at 3GSM, you talk to product managers, VP's, CTO's and sometimes CEO's. There are very few if any actors and models around the products. It's heavy on the substance and light on the, ahem, you know what I mean...

In all we were 8 from the Opera side and most of us shared a nice flat about 20 minutes seaside walk on La Croisette to the expo halls. The Oslo guys did a fantastic job setting up a very productive week of meetings, booth duty, demo's and networking. Basically, 8 people were booked from 9AM until 8PM every day and then dinner meetings and networking events kicked in until sometimes, the wee wee hours

Opera had the opportunity to have a stand at the "Intel Community" booth. It was in a pretty good location and we got significant traffic all four days. At the booth we demonstrated Opera and The Opera Platform for mobile operators on varius Symbian and Linux handsets, made presentations and bluetoothed the latest and greatest versions of series 60 and UIQ versions to happy Opera mobile users. Oh yeah, and I am personally proud of the fact that I converted a total of 4 Firefox users to Opera!! It was one of the tougher sells of the show for me, but those are always the best ones- especially when they are thanking you for it by email the next day.

I won't get into the exact companies we met but I will say that they were with companies of the highest caliber and clout in the mobile industry. Opera is garnering a tremendous amount of interest from a who's who of handset makers, Operators, system integrators and especially our competitors. We are in a very good position right now to push the envelope in the market and close some exciting design wins to help pave the way to 3G and full HTML Internet browsing on handsets. Frow what myself and my colleagues experienced at 3GSM, Opera clearly has the best technology right now and is well positioned to be a leading browser company in the mobile space. What we have been able to accomplish on the desktop platforms and all the great support we have received from Opera users throughout our history really sets us apart from any other browser contender IMO. You guys, our users, really do make the difference for Opera.

Opera's mobile organization is also really taking shape with some key hires. I am proud to say that we have assembled a very competent team on the sales and marketing, product management and development/ QA areas to make all of this happen for Opera and our customers & partners.

Well, after a week of eating lavish (and fatty) French food, getting very little sleep, and lots of airports and hotels, it's time to get back to some good fitness habits! Also, it's time to start planning another big splash for Opera at CTIA in Atlanta later in March.

We will be working very hard over the next weeks and months to nail some key handset and operator deals. Wish us all luck guys and gals. Spring is right around the corner and so is a very BIG series of HOT months for Opera. Christian and I are going to have to start cranking up the AC soon enough down here in Austin to cool us down.

Best Regards and a happy, safe weekend to all.

OperaSinger

for me usually means checking out of the office in Pflugerville around 4PM and heading over to my favorite coffee spot to finish the first third of the day in style.

Today that spot is Seattle's Best right outside downtown Austin. I just finished an above average double espresso- not bad at all. It still does not compare to Il Moro in Grunerlokka, a short walk from the Opera offices in Oslo. I think it would have even made Howard Shultz jealous- yes Oslo is one of the few cities on the planet without one of the nearly 2000 (and growing) Starbucks locations!

Anyway, I am feeling pretty good about the week right now as I peck the keys of my Powerbook. I am especially happy because Opera's mac version is getting better by the week! Check that, it's getting scary good! Our Mac team is coding with a vengeance these days and fixing bugs as fast as I can report them. Once it's ready to go primetime, Mac users will be in for a treat. The only Safari I will be thinking about is the one I hope to take in Kenya once Opera makes it big! All in all, I am happy with our progress this week. Some weeks are better than others but this week was especially pleasing.

Early in the week we announced that Internet guru John Patrick, an X IBM exec, is joining Opera's board of directors.
Check out his very interesting website here: http://www.patrickweb.com/ This is great news for Opera and our users. John is a bonafide Internet visionary and after 35 years at IBM I think he might know a thing or two about developing world-class software. I talked to John and he is really excited about working closely with Christian and I in the US market- life is good!

Next, it was off to Atlanta for a meeting with a big potential customer and among other things, I was really impressed with the city itself. It was the first time I had ever been to Atlanta and I was blown away by the sheer magnitude of it and the high amount of major corporations that make it their HQ. I look forward to going back there and it won't be too long because CTIA Wireless show is in Atlanta on March 20.

Later in the week, I learned that a couple of our top desktop partners are interested in significantly building our relationships in 2004 and I will be heading west to meet with them in a couple of weeks. Cross your fingers for me- as some good luck would not hurt. But didn't someone famous once say that "luck...is the residue of design". Yes one did, but these days, I will take it anyway. XXX

Today, a Friday no less, we announced that Opera and Motorola were partnering to bring a joint product offering to the mobile market. Read about it here: http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2004/02/06/
That's great news for network operators as Opera can now deliver a solution for legacy content as well as the future of mobile content- full-HTML. Hear that Mr. US tier 1 operator- one stop browser shopping... A big win for Opera, MOT GSG and Ed Zander if you are reading this, best of luck as MOT CEO. Ed might not remember me but I worked under him at Sun's east coast division as a manufacturing engineer way back in 88'!

Well, before I leave you all for another trip to the Barista, I would like to ask for a small favor. If any of you Opera users happen to use MS Office, you might be interested to know that they do not support our browser very well (okay- not exactly a revelation). But now we would like to do something about this so if you have the time, please go to this link:
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/suggestions.aspx?CTT=6&Origin=ES790020061033
and leave a comment that you are an Opera user and you would very very much like to be supported equally like every other netizen. Thank You!!

Together, we can bring change!! We can't be stopped, only perhaps contained (and maybe not even that)

To all- a safe and enjoyable weekend.

OperaSinger

Hi All,

Just in case some of you have not yet read this most comprehensive and complete piece by Tim Luoma, it is a great read!!

http://www.tntluoma.com/opera/lover/7/

Not only does Tim spell out the advantages and great features of Opera (as well as any Opera S&M jock would), he really outlines the ways that Opera is better than Mozilla and IE.

IMO, this enlightening tutorial should be included in the arsenal of any Opera evangelist as we work to switch our friends, co-workers, colleagues, family members and customers from IE or any other browser to the Opera Browser.

Wether it's Love at first Site or 30 days to Love, we'll take it!

This just rocks! Thank you Tim!

Another fast week (too fast) and it's raining like the devil here in Austin. Christian just got back from a MontaVista conference and he is getting ready for Linux World in New York next week.

While most wins for Opera typically come the hard way, we got some nice news today compliments of the DOJ. This made an otherwise freaky week look a bit more rosy: http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Jan/gee20040116023471.htm

This is a great sign that the DOJ is watching MS like a hawk and taking action immediately rather then too late. I have talked to those folks quite a bit over the last 8 months and they are a good crowd (as far as lawyers go) and are very sensitive and sympathetic to Opera's position on many issues.

I hope this is a trend that continues- especially on the mobile side...

Anyway, you guys can sound off on the matter on geek.com.

What's real important for Opera desktop in 2004???

DISTRIBUTION, DISTRIBUTION, DISTRIBUTION

Last year, we took a small step back in our ability to deliver our product to the masses- especially in the states. It's so important that we turn this around quickly. Opera should be one of the most downloaded software products on the Internet. A secure, fast, fun browser is something that everyone needs. In addition, we support oodles of languages and we are a tiny, fast download even on dialup speeds.

Does anyone have an Opera download experience to share with me- good or bad? Where do most of you get your important software downloads- download.com, tucows, etc?? How do we create that inherent demand, that buzz- for people to come and get Opera, like they flock to Kazaa or WinZip or ICQ???

Well, those are questions that we need to answer soon.

For now, I look to the weekend to get some much needed rest.

A big sports weekend all around.

Michelle Wie- hoping she makes the cut against the Men. http://www.golf.com/gdc/news/article.asp?id=20415

US National Soccer team takes on the always tough side of Denmark (home of our boss) at 12:30 PT ESPN!!! http://www.ussoccer.com/ **GO stars and stripes!!!**

And my beloved Patriots (I was born and raised in Boston) take on the Colts for the AFC Championship. GO PATS!!! and it's gonna be real cold at Gilette Stadium! Brrrr.
http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/

All, have a great weekend- let's remember Martin Luther King and what he stood for.