Opera Desktop Team

Straight from the build machine..

Another weekly for you, smoking hot from the build servers, even our testers haven't played much with these before you, so be nice to them!

What you will see:

Fraud protection is not enabled by default anymore. We basically had to turn it on by default in the first weeklies to make sure we got as much feedback as possible in the limited time we had.

However, it's a new feature and we think users may need some time to get used to this idea, so we've made it an opt-in feature for now. Opera is about giving users the choice, after all.

Technically, there's a difference in how we transmit the data to the site check server. We now use https when we send information about an https server, to ensure that the trust information is at least as reliable as the original content. We still prefer to use http most of the time, since we're not very comfortable with sending home information that our users can't easily inspect.

Other changes:

We've fixed a number of bugs since last week, including the super-annoying gzip cache bug. NOTE: You may need to empty your cache before everything goes back to normal.

What's going on:

The desktop team was represented in the first Opera Backstage Russia event, in Ivanovo last week.

Next week we'll also participate in Webmaster World in Las Vegas. Be sure to drop by the Opera booth if you're there!

Yesterday, W3C released the first public working draft of the Widgets 1.0 specification, largely based on the current Opera implementation. smile

Changes since last weekly
  • Fixed bug where "Go to URL" feature deselects last one or two characters of a URL
  • Fixed bug where newsfeed count did not updated in Mail panel status bar
  • Fixed bug where cnn.com didn't always finish loading
  • Fixed bug where accesskeys didn't work right on frame pages
  • Fixed bug where Gzipped pages was not decoded when loaded from cache
  • Added preference to disable trust button in address bar opera:config#SecurityPrefs|EnableTrustButton
  • Fixed Finnish translation


Windows MSI
Windows Classic
Macintosh
Unix

Almost 9.10 RC1One more step towards 9.10

Comments

Remco Lantingremcolanting Friday, November 10, 2006 4:51:54 PM

Yay! No more gzipped content on my screen!

Kyle Bakerkyleabaker Friday, November 10, 2006 4:52:17 PM

running great so far! no more gzip!

neoscorp Friday, November 10, 2006 4:54:29 PM

Thanks a lot for gzip fix !!!

HydanSeeker Friday, November 10, 2006 4:54:48 PM

:-D

(Too busy downloading & playing with this build before this post appeared.) Thanks for the heads up, jonspencerbx!

THANK YOU for making fraud protection disabled by default!
THANK YOU for gzip fix
THANK YOU for all your other hard work!

GuilhermeSpyMan Friday, November 10, 2006 4:57:29 PM

Can someone confirm if the layout problem with YouTube is fixed?

Eddie LopezEddie_Lopez Friday, November 10, 2006 4:59:25 PM

This is an interesting problem- maintaining the security level of the site when sending fraud protection home vs. letting the curious folks inspect it.

What's the general consensus on this Opera Community?

Azamadt SmaguloffprofiT Friday, November 10, 2006 5:03:15 PM

Fraud protection is not enabled by default anymore.


I don't get it. Then what's point to make this protection? If casual users won't be bothered to enable it?

serious Friday, November 10, 2006 5:03:40 PM

Yesterday, W3C released the first public working draft of the Widgets 1.0 specification, largely based on the current Opera implementation.


n1

alxtec Friday, November 10, 2006 5:04:19 PM

Sweeet smile

dieburnbot Friday, November 10, 2006 5:04:47 PM

Hmm the link on top of this page underneath the Opera Desktop Team Logo still points to build 8643, might want to fix that. bigsmile

Tracio Friday, November 10, 2006 5:04:47 PM

Added preference to disable trust button in address bar opera:config#SecurityPrefs|EnableTrustRating



Shouldn't it read opera:config#SecurityPrefs|EnableTrustButton?.

Trust rating toggles the auto check...

MossMan Friday, November 10, 2006 5:05:21 PM

I've never been a big fan of widgets, but this could put Opera in a good light if they gain acceptance... up

Charlene FerraraCharleneFerrara Friday, November 10, 2006 5:06:38 PM

Still http://www.seelenfarben.de/kalenderblatt/20061028.htm shows no embedded pictures. I miss these flowers!

Kyle Bakerkyleabaker Friday, November 10, 2006 5:08:28 PM

@SpyMan
Appears to be fixed to me

Twilo Friday, November 10, 2006 5:10:32 PM

yes :-)

Remco Lantingremcolanting Friday, November 10, 2006 5:10:34 PM

Fraud protection is not enabled by default anymore.


I don't get it. Then what's point to make this protection? If casual users won't be bothered to enable it?


It would make sense that there will be an option when installing Opera in the final release.

GuilhermeSpyMan Friday, November 10, 2006 5:11:46 PM

@kyleabaker

Thanks, I'll give this build a try, then.

Kyle Bakerkyleabaker Friday, November 10, 2006 5:12:17 PM

@remcolanting
I made this same comment earlier in the irc

FataL Friday, November 10, 2006 5:12:42 PM

I fully aree with profiT. Protection should be on by default. Maybe with an option to disable it in installer or on first start.

SamuelHeadsick Friday, November 10, 2006 5:12:43 PM

Jeeehaaa!!! I'm 20th.
Thx for the new build and thx for the fixes of some bugs (like the youtube.com-bug).

Good work men.


Greetz, Headsick

kisu kangcielkisu Friday, November 10, 2006 5:13:18 PM

thanks for opera's great devotion wink love every single weekly build bigsmile

Tim AltmanJunyor Friday, November 10, 2006 5:17:57 PM

No have moved away from installer and first-time run options and won't be adding them back.

@Tracio: Yep, fixed.

@dieburnbot: Fixed

Eddie LopezEddie_Lopez Friday, November 10, 2006 5:19:39 PM

On by default

I'd be interested in the process of how Opera determines what is turned on, what is hidden, what priority things get.


I'm reminded of the mouse gesture indicator:

"You've performed a mouse gesture...<detail>...Would you like to leave this on?"



I've always like that indicator, but I don't think Opera uses it anywhere else in the UI. While I agree that you definately don't want a dialogs like that popping up 10 times in the first minute of usage, I do like the way that introduces a feature and only "bothers" the user once.

Maybe something like that could be done here?

FataL Friday, November 10, 2006 5:23:01 PM

Originally posted by Junyor:

No have moved away from installer and first-time run options and won't be adding them back.

Junyor, and why you moved away?

C.Felipecafesote Friday, November 10, 2006 5:27:41 PM

Uhu! Thanks a lot, very fixed to me.
Great job dev. Opera!

up

NicolasSalocinHB Friday, November 10, 2006 5:29:49 PM

"We've fixed a number of bugs since last week, including the super-annoying gzip cache bug."
Finally, thank you!

Tim AltmanJunyor Friday, November 10, 2006 5:30:57 PM

@HydanSeeker: Don't spam. Users can easily install Opera in a separate directory to beta test (which is what we encourage them to do).

@FataL: First impressions are important. Installing should be as easy as possible and users should not be assaulted with dialogs the first time they run Opera.

hurtig Friday, November 10, 2006 5:36:07 PM

@CharleneFerrara:
Jpg-pictures, which still have remains of exif-data, are not indicated basically in Opera. An old problem in Opera 9.
I hope this bug will be fixed somtime.

Remco Lantingremcolanting Friday, November 10, 2006 5:36:36 PM

@FataL: First impressions are important. Installing should be as easy as possible and users should not be assaulted with dialogs the first time they run Opera.


In that case turning it on by default and putting a link of some sorts to disable it on the fraud warning page would be the easiest. Sorta like the mouse guestures are handled now

OperaBuddy Friday, November 10, 2006 5:42:20 PM


"Fixed bug where cnn.com didn't always finish loading"

cnn.com still does not finish loading...us edition, "hanging" problem still exist.

Data KeeperDataKeeper Friday, November 10, 2006 5:42:52 PM

Navigation to

http://

still get 100% CPU
but

ftp:// work fine "Error! Could not locate remote server"

Non-Tropponon-troppo Friday, November 10, 2006 5:43:39 PM

CharleneFerrara: confirmed, and those pictures are beautiful indeed... i think it is a known bug.

EDIT: yes a known bug: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=165307

HydanSeeker Friday, November 10, 2006 5:52:50 PM

@Junyor,

My apologies! I hate spam, and I didn't think my post would have been construed as spam! The post was written in good faith. Some users said the previous build killed their system. Many posts in the past point to third-party solutions, and I thought the software was worth a mention (not only for Opera weeklies but any other beta software being tested). I have absolutely no association with the product other than using it (like Opera).

I am well aware of installing Opera in separate directories (a feature I love and use often!), but my post outlined additional benefits not available with a separate directory install, which would prevent/resolve other issues posted previously.

Non-Tropponon-troppo Friday, November 10, 2006 5:56:38 PM

Regarding new opt-in:

As I see it, in the default install, the trust button is enabled even though site check is disabled. Thus a user can easily click and enable that feature. Opera's UI alerts the user to the possibility. Even so, naive users may ignore the icon - there is not even a tooltip to suggest what it does.

Thus, on the first run page after installing opera - it maybe worthwhile prominantly featuring a box with information suggesting users turn it on?

Kyle Bakerkyleabaker Friday, November 10, 2006 6:00:33 PM

@Junyor
I hear that. Nothing like a clean install then straight to surfing, but it would make sense to launch a secondary page to inform new users. This secondary page could easily be closed and/or kept open while the user continues to surf the web.

g4qb Friday, November 10, 2006 6:01:40 PM

http://fuelwatch.wa.gov.au/prices/dsp_search.cfm?search=Price

double clicking on ULP, etc.
still dead.

love the highlighting colours,
yellow & green
more visible.

try this page
odd rendering by opera???
http://www.ac3.edu.au/edu/support.html

try to get to the email address; the drop down menus are activated.


also check this
1. go to Help About Opera
2. search 4 ion - Ctrl-F "ion", F3
3. note that 1st instance is highlighted but not selected.

this has been going on since 9.02.

Andresandresruiz Friday, November 10, 2006 6:02:12 PM

Hi
Looks great, I'm busy finishing a webpage for tomorrow morning but after that I'll test the new build.
I do like things that you solve on every build, but I don't like the speed, maybe we'll be testing 9.1 final next year.

Bye

MisterE Friday, November 10, 2006 6:05:28 PM

I know this might sound like a wish, but...
Regarding the fraud protection: I have it disabled (so I can manually check when needed). After you manually check, the icon should change from the default question mark. After all, the site is now checked and should display the same icon as a verified site (a small i IIRC).

Twilo Friday, November 10, 2006 6:15:08 PM

http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:JoWkTdoFGR8J:www.google.de/+google&hl=de&gl=de&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=opera

The page you are trying to open has been blacklisted as fraudulent. It will likely attempt to trick you into sharing personal or financial information. We strongly discourage visiting this page. Learn more about Opera's fraud protection.

MathiasCaseyJ Friday, November 10, 2006 6:20:00 PM

nice! thanks!

Dan Alexandrudantesoft Friday, November 10, 2006 6:33:32 PM

Is it me or texts like "Browser identification" in opera:about get more and more narrow ?

Tim AltmanJunyor Friday, November 10, 2006 6:58:45 PM

@OperaBuddy: It's working here. Try clearing your cache.

@remcolanting: Users can easily enable it by clicking the "?" in the address bar.

NeroW Friday, November 10, 2006 7:19:10 PM

The first place I go to test a new build is pgatour.com.
With this build Opera has come closer to rendering it
properly, but still no cigar.

It is no good recommending Opera to others if it can't
render a 'mainstream' site like this -- and there are
several others too.

As I have written before, the last build to get this
right was 8432 - so it should be possible to fix it.

Egorgorsov Friday, November 10, 2006 7:22:28 PM

Oh my, the new bold "fraud protection" question mark is so revulsive! smile

Again, regarding the mailto handling bug (230879):
I suggest temporarily change the way Windows Explorer is supposed to open mailto urls with Opera -- mailto parameters string currently can be passed to opera.exe as a command line parameter (not via DDE).

Remco Lantingremcolanting Friday, November 10, 2006 7:23:41 PM

@Junyor:

You can also say exactly the opposite, that users can easily disable it there.

Having the icon there so users can check manually if it's disabled is a good thing, but it also implies that fraud protection is enabled. It should be made clear that it's off by means of a different icon, like a "M" for manual.

If that's the case, it doesn't really matter if it's on or off by default because it's very clear to the user what the setting is. Clicking it will enable the user to view and change it, just as someone would expect.

predatorian Friday, November 10, 2006 7:27:31 PM

UOW! It's great again! Thanks! Maybe it's my imagination but is it faster then before?

MisterE Friday, November 10, 2006 7:35:14 PM

@remcolanting: I know I like it disabled, so if it's enabled by default, the first tking I'll do is to disable it.
Because of the way the check is made ("calling home"), I think it's best left disabled by default so that Opera will not be called spyware.

Kc4 the Greatklingoncowboy4 Friday, November 10, 2006 7:47:05 PM

I am still getting the messed up characters, but at least wikipedia infoboxes display correctly without needing a page reload.

Oh and can someone tell me why I didn't get an update about this build through the RSS feed?

Edit: It just came in

Remco Lantingremcolanting Friday, November 10, 2006 8:02:23 PM

@MisterE: The usage of the https connection could have convinced Opera to disable it by default.

The problem is that you want to protect the novice user as well as possible while allowing power users to do everything they want. Opera already made the choice that the additional protection outweighs the 'calling home' by adding this feature.

The question that remains is, do you want novice users to enable it or power users to disable it? The latter would make more sense because novice users don't know as much as power users about Opera and security issues.

I believe that users that don't trust Opera to handle the fraud protection data with care shouldn't use Opera at all. You never know what's hidden inside the program. With all the off-site ads nowadays, it's really easy to put in an extra request while loading a page.

The conclusion is pretty simple: if you want to be safe, stay off the internet! Ofcourse we don't want that, so the focus should be to make everything absolutely clear for the user. Altering the icon to show it's disabled is something that can be easily done but is very effective in making things clear.

Kenneth Crudupkennycrudup Friday, November 10, 2006 8:21:12 PM

I blew away my .opera directory and started from scratch; so far, so good. No rendering issues, but they never really did appear right away, so let's give it a day or two.

But as someone else noticed, it does seem faster, too!

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