gnapse corner

Yes my friend the most recent facelift that Gmail had as a web application was a very good one, but it only worked in recent versions of Firefox and Internet Explorer, and not in Opera (I don't know anything about Safari, sorry).

But today it works in Opera at last! I really don't know since when exactly, but it shouldn't be much time because I use Gmail from Opera almost every day.

Among the new goodies of this new interface that I already knew but didn't work in my favorite browser, the two that I missed the most are colored tags, which are easier for the eyes, and the improved contacts management interface.

I don't know really how to start this as I've been absent for so long, but I guess I don't need to get a lot into it. I'm back and that's it. The main problem for me is time, but I've been missing writing here a lot. Mostly because a blog like this is more for me than for the casual reader that might stop back. I am venturing myself in lots of new projects and experiences and I am constantly doing research and documenting my progress and stuff in a place like this serves me as a back reference in the future, but it might also be of some use to someone stopping by.

After all this time my interests haven't changed a lot. I'm now working mostly on Ubuntu Linux developing Ruby on Rails applications using also Git as my source-code management system. So that's what I'll be talking about here mostly on the technical side, which does not preclude getting away from these subjects every once in a while.

Regarding Opera, I must say that it gained me back after flirting with Firefox for some time. But finally the speed made me turn back. Firefox is so damn slooooooooooow I cannot even imagine how people use it anymore. It has become slower and using more memory than ever before. Opening a new tab freezes it for a few seconds, which is not tolerable. Coincidentally today they release the version 3, which I've been testing for a while in its beta and RC forms but it is still the same. The only thing that keeps me using Firefox is for web development, because Opera really lacks a Firebug killer (don't tell me it's dragonfly because it isn't, although it can be in the future).

And back to Opera, kudos for Opera 9.5!!! Firebug appart, Opera is still the great choice! Damn Google for not giving first class support for its fantastic web applications on Opera (read Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Reader, etc.) but they are mostly usable anyway, and the advantages of using Opera really outweight the need to use Google Apps. I hope they are listening.

Well, that's it for the moment. I hope not to let this blog down this time, at least for a while.

I know, I know, I've been lost for a looooooooooooong while now, yes. It's a little bit more than seven months since my last post. What prompted me to write here again? Mainly I re-visited the whole site after the new version came out, just a couple of days ago. (And now that we're at it, I still do not know what the new features are).

It's not that I've been so busy that I was unable to post. I did have some time to post every now and then, although I've been busy. I've been working on interesing personal development projects, full of bleeding-edge technologies like AJAX. I've also been enjoying my new computing environment sooooo much you just can't imagine.

I am still on Ubuntu Linux Dapper 6.06 full-time, and I can't feel better at it. It is stable, friendly and enjoyable to the point that I have a hard time whenever I have to use that other OS that almost everybody use. I am developing web applications on Linux using jEdit as my main IDE. Aptana, of which I talked about in my last post coincidentally, turned out to be too resource-hungry, even though I have a modern PC with 512Mb RAM and 3.0GHz CPU speed. I've been using Firefox as my testing and debugging platform (Sorry Opera, but Firebug has no equal when it comes to test and debug a web application using JavaScript and AJAX heavily).

Thunderbird is still also my choice when it comes to email. Opera still does not have WYSIWYG email editor and other minor but handy features that I need. Opera continues to be my day-to-day browser for my web surfing needs, and OpenOffice, Gimp, ImageMagick, Beagle, Liferea, Gaim, Gnome, Vim/Cream, MPlayer and MPD do the rest. I've been also using Ruby's and Python's scripting power to automate some tasks in my working environment.

I've also been vey busy following the socio-political events that have happened in Cuba, my country, in the recent months, almost all related in some way to the illness of the president Fidel Castro and the temporary transfer of power, and how this has impacted our society. I know some people get more interested in this blog because of my nationality than for my interests and the topics I write about. Feel free to ask.

Anyway, I'll see if I can make the time to talk here again every now and then, mainly about the technologies I am using and how they make my life easier.

Well, the title makes it look like if the Windows operating system is evolving, and this is sort of it in a way. Windows has evolved a little bit now with Gnome's leading e-mail client Evolution being ported to this closed platform.

Yes, you heard it right. Evolution is now available on Windows thanks to somebody named Tor Lillqvist. So go and enjoy it. I believe Thunderbird will have to keep up, and Outlook (Express) too, of course. Do you think Evolution will be to the latter like Firefox has been to Internet Explorer? Only time can tell.

Is it Opera's fault or the CSS styling of the Ubuntu web site is non-standard? Have you noted that the tabs at the top right are unaligned when seen in Opera, but are ok seen from IE and Firefox?

From Opera



From Firefox



Update (July 2)

A good fellow member of this community, whose blog is devoted to Opera and web pages compatibility with this browser, tells me that...

this is a known bug and described as "floated list item children of inline list child of an absolutely positioned element are not displayed on one line".

...it is even considered quite important (probably mainly because of it appearing on the Ubuntu website)

So it is unfortunately a bug in Opera, and not a bug in Ubuntu's web site coding. I hope this bug will get fixed soon.