My OperaCerrado por Huelga
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 5:31:33 AM
It either means closed for, or closed by, a strike. A bad mix with jetlag perhaps.
Posts tagged with "sports"
Travelling grumbles
Sunday, April 5, 2009 11:13:25 AM
On my way home, slooowwwlllyyyy. Sometimes in a long trip, I get down.
жарко дома? да, sure is...
Friday, June 27, 2008 10:22:21 AM
I'm in Madrid and it's in the high 30's (about 100º in the old money - or for Americans and Englishmen), so I am glad I have a fan. I am trying to teach myself Russian, because I am going to Kyrgyzstan for ...
Ping...
Tuesday, April 4, 2006 3:44:43 PM
When I want to find someone on IRC (the chat thing that was probably the clincher for me using, and therefore later working for, Opera), I often write "ping" in a message. (Lot's of people here write some abbreviation of "you there?").
It's a geek thing I guess, since there is a unix command (you can do it in DOS/Windows now, too) called
I think it comes from submarines, where they send a "ping" and measure how long it takes to bounce off another submarine. At least, that's what they do in submarine movies. I have no real idea about what happens in a real submarine.
When I am using a dodgy voice connection - either a bad phone line or a bad VoIP line, I use it too. If I say "ping" and the other person says "pong" as soon as they hear it, on a good line it is more or less instant. But on a bad line it can take several seconds, which is pretty noticeable. (People who are used to IRC often say "pong" instead of "yes" when you ping them, too).
Recently we got a ping-pong table at work. No, not some technical spec, an actual object with a net where 2 or 4 people hit a little plastic ball back and forth. It's great for a brain-starter if I am feeling extra slow, and it can be suprisingly energetic (or maybe I am even less fit than I feared).
I'm a long way from the best player at Opera, although I am not the worst either. It seems that people can learn pretty quickly to play reasonably well, although only some of course are really really good. I watched the CEO playing today after lunch - I suspect we're somewhere about the same level. But he's taller than me, so probably has better reach. Mostly I play people who beat me by a little. But after a beer and a couple of glasses of wine on friday night I managed to win three games in a row, playing doubles. Perhaps it was my partner.
This morning, coming in to work fairly early and going to get a coffee, I could hear the ping-pong table. Only nobody was playing - it was like a ghost sound. I wonder if I have heard it before and not noticed, or if it will just come and go, or if I will never hear a phantom ping-pong game again.
So long as I get a turn at it every so often, I don't mind. It did wake me up again today, after lunch. Although I lost 21-18 to someone who apparently hasn't played for a few years.
It's a geek thing I guess, since there is a unix command (you can do it in DOS/Windows now, too) called
ping. That sends a little bit of information to some other computer on the net, and measures how long it takes to get back, if it does.
I think it comes from submarines, where they send a "ping" and measure how long it takes to bounce off another submarine. At least, that's what they do in submarine movies. I have no real idea about what happens in a real submarine.
When I am using a dodgy voice connection - either a bad phone line or a bad VoIP line, I use it too. If I say "ping" and the other person says "pong" as soon as they hear it, on a good line it is more or less instant. But on a bad line it can take several seconds, which is pretty noticeable. (People who are used to IRC often say "pong" instead of "yes" when you ping them, too).
Recently we got a ping-pong table at work. No, not some technical spec, an actual object with a net where 2 or 4 people hit a little plastic ball back and forth. It's great for a brain-starter if I am feeling extra slow, and it can be suprisingly energetic (or maybe I am even less fit than I feared).
I'm a long way from the best player at Opera, although I am not the worst either. It seems that people can learn pretty quickly to play reasonably well, although only some of course are really really good. I watched the CEO playing today after lunch - I suspect we're somewhere about the same level. But he's taller than me, so probably has better reach. Mostly I play people who beat me by a little. But after a beer and a couple of glasses of wine on friday night I managed to win three games in a row, playing doubles. Perhaps it was my partner.
This morning, coming in to work fairly early and going to get a coffee, I could hear the ping-pong table. Only nobody was playing - it was like a ghost sound. I wonder if I have heard it before and not noticed, or if it will just come and go, or if I will never hear a phantom ping-pong game again.
So long as I get a turn at it every so often, I don't mind. It did wake me up again today, after lunch. Although I lost 21-18 to someone who apparently hasn't played for a few years.
Up and down. :|| And maybe...
Sunday, November 27, 2005 3:13:02 PM
(The last bit is an ascii-art representation of a musical repeat sign. I guess there is acutally the real thing in Unicode, but I couldn't find it yet (I was pretty lazy about searching for it, I admit).
North Carolina is far enough south that the weather is like a Melbourne autumn. It's sunny - not snowy like Montreal was when I flew over it. And where I am there is a wellness centre (what I grew up calling a 'gym'). Lots of treadmills for people who can't get enough of the rat-race and feel they want to spend some time running to nowhere. And bicycles that go nowhere. And skiing machines. Thre are masses of ways of doing things that people did for decades or millenia as transport, but now you don't move - you watch television and feel virtuous about the expensive machine that is helping you pretend you get out sometimes.
They also have a swimming pool. Apart from crossing the odd river, or other small waterway, swimming isn't really a means of getting somewhere else that is generally useful - since I don't live on islands or otherwise surounded by water. Maybe that's why I am happy swimming laps, while I get bored out of my brain running, let alone running on a treadmill.
The pool is 25 yards long. I never thought before what an inconvenient size that is, if you're swimming to some stupid target. Which I am - 50km by Christmas was the goal, and when I started on it it seemed pretty unikely. A few weeks later, it seemed positively ludicrous.
Yesterday I got into the 25 yard pool. As I puddled up and down, I started calculating what distances couldd be measured out in multiples of 25 yards. It turns out there are not many. If you take the approximation that 110 yards is 100 metres, then you cn do 22 laps for 500 meters. There aren't even fractions of a mile that make sense - you can do 1760 laps for 25 english miles, and I guess you can do 5 english miles, but that's a long way. And a lot of turning around. Norwegians have a metric mile, based on their old mile (which is like a country mile). It is 10km. So a fraction of that is easier. So far in my quest, I haven't accumulated one of them yet.
But I did manage to do 3200m - two english miles (and a margin for error). So I'm down to 42.6 left. If I swim today and tomorrow like that, the target suddenly seems possible. Now where's that widget for betting on me, Arve or the 50....
North Carolina is far enough south that the weather is like a Melbourne autumn. It's sunny - not snowy like Montreal was when I flew over it. And where I am there is a wellness centre (what I grew up calling a 'gym'). Lots of treadmills for people who can't get enough of the rat-race and feel they want to spend some time running to nowhere. And bicycles that go nowhere. And skiing machines. Thre are masses of ways of doing things that people did for decades or millenia as transport, but now you don't move - you watch television and feel virtuous about the expensive machine that is helping you pretend you get out sometimes.
They also have a swimming pool. Apart from crossing the odd river, or other small waterway, swimming isn't really a means of getting somewhere else that is generally useful - since I don't live on islands or otherwise surounded by water. Maybe that's why I am happy swimming laps, while I get bored out of my brain running, let alone running on a treadmill.
The pool is 25 yards long. I never thought before what an inconvenient size that is, if you're swimming to some stupid target. Which I am - 50km by Christmas was the goal, and when I started on it it seemed pretty unikely. A few weeks later, it seemed positively ludicrous.
Yesterday I got into the 25 yard pool. As I puddled up and down, I started calculating what distances couldd be measured out in multiples of 25 yards. It turns out there are not many. If you take the approximation that 110 yards is 100 metres, then you cn do 22 laps for 500 meters. There aren't even fractions of a mile that make sense - you can do 1760 laps for 25 english miles, and I guess you can do 5 english miles, but that's a long way. And a lot of turning around. Norwegians have a metric mile, based on their old mile (which is like a country mile). It is 10km. So a fraction of that is easier. So far in my quest, I haven't accumulated one of them yet.
But I did manage to do 3200m - two english miles (and a margin for error). So I'm down to 42.6 left. If I swim today and tomorrow like that, the target suddenly seems possible. Now where's that widget for betting on me, Arve or the 50....
Exercise for winter
Monday, October 24, 2005 6:37:06 PM
Yesterday I went swimming, before the whole long lunch thing. Crawled out of bed too few hoours after I crawled in there, and got dressed. It was still snowing outside, still not staying on the ground, so I wandered through the cold to the pool. It takes me about half an hour to get there. It snowed while I was there I suppose, because it still was when I came out, although slowly giving way to sunshine.
This morning it was really cold. For the first time I thought maybe I should close my window at night now. Too hard to get out of bed. But this evening I went down again to the pool. I felt surprisingly good (after all the food yesterday), and I managed to swim 2100m in just under an hour - nowhere near a fast pace, but one I am happy with for now. If I stick to the swimming and manage my 50km by Christmas I would also hope to get to something more like 20 minutes for a kilometre - still only half the speed of a real swimmer, over a much shorter distance, but good enough for messing around.
Coming back to work the kitchen folks (Bless them!!) had left some Goulasj as late-night workers' food. It went down a treat. Probably even nicer than the view at sunset, on my way there, with the ski jump at holmenkollen, and something that looks from this distance like a lit-up church in front of it. (Or maybe it's a gaol? I have no idea.)
(PS For the curious, that means I have 45.8 km still to swim)
This morning it was really cold. For the first time I thought maybe I should close my window at night now. Too hard to get out of bed. But this evening I went down again to the pool. I felt surprisingly good (after all the food yesterday), and I managed to swim 2100m in just under an hour - nowhere near a fast pace, but one I am happy with for now. If I stick to the swimming and manage my 50km by Christmas I would also hope to get to something more like 20 minutes for a kilometre - still only half the speed of a real swimmer, over a much shorter distance, but good enough for messing around.
Coming back to work the kitchen folks (Bless them!!) had left some Goulasj as late-night workers' food. It went down a treat. Probably even nicer than the view at sunset, on my way there, with the ski jump at holmenkollen, and something that looks from this distance like a lit-up church in front of it. (Or maybe it's a gaol? I have no idea.)
(PS For the curious, that means I have 45.8 km still to swim)
49 to go...
Thursday, October 13, 2005 3:42:34 PM
A few weeks ago Arve talked about the idea of swimming 50km before Christmas (one lap at a time...). For the last few weeks we have been saying to each other "how many to go"?
The answer is always the same: 50
Well, now I have made some progress. I thought that on my way in I would try and swim 5 laps - 250m. But I got in, and it seemed like that was going to be a waste of money - the pool entry costs about 8€, or $14 Australian. (Hey, I am getting used to Norway. I had no idea it was so expensive, because it just seemed like any other price - it's a common price for a Guinness, or a cheap-ish mixed drink. You can't get two kebabs under that price, but you can just get two bus ticket. But I digress...)
So I decided, after a couple of easy laps that I would go for 500 metres - 10 laps (one-way).
Early this year, I was having a bad day, and I found myself sitting outside around 2am by the hills hoist - a washing line peculiar to Australian homes, and as iconic to an Australian as the Sydney harbour bridge. I decided to go for a walk, and stop thinking for a bit. It soon became apparent that walking wouldn't do the job, but I passed a sign saying it was 2 km to a tourist information centre.
I'd had a conversation with a friend of mine who, like me, went to a school where as kids we had to run ever greater distances, the longest being a 29km run. (At least I remember being told it was 29km. It took a long time, and went through some interesting terrain, but it didn't kill me). So I once thought a 5km run was nothing much - I wouldn't do it quickly, but I would be able to do it forever. He said that I should try it before I talked about it, because I would be surprised how hard it had become.
I ran to the tourist information centre. A steady jog - I was never a fast runner and never cared about that so much as being able to keep running the whole way. I went up a hill, and managed to run all the way to the top. I decided to set myself a further goal, and after that a further one. I started to concentrate on nothing much besides running, not imagining that it would do anything, just running.
I ran quite a long way, and in the end stopped because it was late, I had run out of directions to run in without going over either old ground or really bad night-time running areas (the side of the highway, through traffic, a quarry, ...). And I didn't need to keep running, although I felt like I could have run on and on.
I drove the route later to check. I had run about 8km, including a few decent hills. I don't think I could have run a marathon, but I could easily have run another few kilometres.
When I get in a swimming pool my mind kind of slows down. I can concentrate on my swimming technique, or on teaching swimmming to someone else. I can climb the terrifying diving boards and overcome my huge fear by jumping in, although I am not big on doing that in a swimming pool when people are waiting, watching. I can play games like catch, or "marco polo". But mostly I just swim. Up, and back. Think about another lap, about my stroke, about breathing. Chase down the person in front of me (or try, anyway) - that can be a good activity for laps and laps and laps, concetrating on where they are, and on how I can clean up my technique to make it a bit easier to get the speed.
For someone who comes from a swimming family in a swimming country, it is surprising to meet people who can't swim. Like people who ride a bicycle, it isn't particularly bad, just unexpected. But I have found that I enjoy teaching people what I know, including swimming.
Otherwise the pool is a solitary place - more solitary than a noisy nightclub on your own. And I swim, up and down. I don't even think much about the next lap, or whether there will be one, until I have almost finished the one I am on.
So it is easy to kick on for another. But I have a job to go to. So I start pushing a bit, looking at the clock, weighing up whether I have time to spend or should be at my desk.
20 laps. One km done. 49 to go. (So how hard is it to get to the Sauna?)
The answer is always the same: 50
Well, now I have made some progress. I thought that on my way in I would try and swim 5 laps - 250m. But I got in, and it seemed like that was going to be a waste of money - the pool entry costs about 8€, or $14 Australian. (Hey, I am getting used to Norway. I had no idea it was so expensive, because it just seemed like any other price - it's a common price for a Guinness, or a cheap-ish mixed drink. You can't get two kebabs under that price, but you can just get two bus ticket. But I digress...)
So I decided, after a couple of easy laps that I would go for 500 metres - 10 laps (one-way).
Early this year, I was having a bad day, and I found myself sitting outside around 2am by the hills hoist - a washing line peculiar to Australian homes, and as iconic to an Australian as the Sydney harbour bridge. I decided to go for a walk, and stop thinking for a bit. It soon became apparent that walking wouldn't do the job, but I passed a sign saying it was 2 km to a tourist information centre.
I'd had a conversation with a friend of mine who, like me, went to a school where as kids we had to run ever greater distances, the longest being a 29km run. (At least I remember being told it was 29km. It took a long time, and went through some interesting terrain, but it didn't kill me). So I once thought a 5km run was nothing much - I wouldn't do it quickly, but I would be able to do it forever. He said that I should try it before I talked about it, because I would be surprised how hard it had become.
I ran to the tourist information centre. A steady jog - I was never a fast runner and never cared about that so much as being able to keep running the whole way. I went up a hill, and managed to run all the way to the top. I decided to set myself a further goal, and after that a further one. I started to concentrate on nothing much besides running, not imagining that it would do anything, just running.
I ran quite a long way, and in the end stopped because it was late, I had run out of directions to run in without going over either old ground or really bad night-time running areas (the side of the highway, through traffic, a quarry, ...). And I didn't need to keep running, although I felt like I could have run on and on.
I drove the route later to check. I had run about 8km, including a few decent hills. I don't think I could have run a marathon, but I could easily have run another few kilometres.
When I get in a swimming pool my mind kind of slows down. I can concentrate on my swimming technique, or on teaching swimmming to someone else. I can climb the terrifying diving boards and overcome my huge fear by jumping in, although I am not big on doing that in a swimming pool when people are waiting, watching. I can play games like catch, or "marco polo". But mostly I just swim. Up, and back. Think about another lap, about my stroke, about breathing. Chase down the person in front of me (or try, anyway) - that can be a good activity for laps and laps and laps, concetrating on where they are, and on how I can clean up my technique to make it a bit easier to get the speed.
For someone who comes from a swimming family in a swimming country, it is surprising to meet people who can't swim. Like people who ride a bicycle, it isn't particularly bad, just unexpected. But I have found that I enjoy teaching people what I know, including swimming.
Otherwise the pool is a solitary place - more solitary than a noisy nightclub on your own. And I swim, up and down. I don't even think much about the next lap, or whether there will be one, until I have almost finished the one I am on.
So it is easy to kick on for another. But I have a job to go to. So I start pushing a bit, looking at the clock, weighing up whether I have time to spend or should be at my desk.
20 laps. One km done. 49 to go. (So how hard is it to get to the Sauna?)
Charles McCathieNevile
Tags
Widgets and things
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A fly!
It's silly, it's simple, it's gross, and it's cool
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Widget Bits
Dumb demos of simple things widgets can do.
Comment Blog
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Twitter, blogs, comments...
Twitter is quick, but not always great. I always wanted a blog made up of comments - and this link category is a step in making one :)
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WYSIWYG Editors and HTML
Response to well-written blog explaining why "WYSIWYG Editors hate HTML5". I agree there are problems, I think there are solutions available.
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WYSIWYG Editors and HTML, pt 2
Further exploration of how things really are and what can usefully be done.
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ARIA role="application"
JAWS got it wrong. Just handing over the keyboard is stupid - even if the role itself is not.
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Entrevista con Jan Standal
Respuestas a los comentarios sobre una entrevista de Jan Standal (de Opera).
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Opera Brasil na Noruega
Fotos que quero (e não)
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(Muchos comentarios, un articulo)
Una conversación sobre la Web Móvil
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Improving accessibility - what do we need?
It's not about one magic solution - this is a complex problem and lots of things need to be done.
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Unite geolocation app
Cool ways to manage your own location data
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Código abierto y Opera
Porque ser abierto no es la diferencía entre exito y la muerte.
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