Anything & Everything...

Here's a great book from a sociolinguist, Dr. Deborah Tannen, that discusses why you're always getting into an argument with your significant other, and can't figure out why... Great read (and useful)!

Given my heavy use of iChat Video since getting a MacBook couple years ago, this is a wild story illustrating how far good-quality video chat has come.

[/IMG]

While a few years ago, video chat was cute to try, no one used it regularly given the horrible quality. Since Apple started including high-quality, built-in iSight webcams into MacBooks and iMacs, (and iChat v3.1 using H.264 compression) it has taken off, I think.

Now, even Skype video is pretty good quality, but if you're using XP/Vista, it still depends if you bought a ~$150 webcam or not. Most cheaper webcams are blurry with pixelated video and static even with fast broadband and the latest Skype release.

If you're wondering why I didn't mention any of the other IM networks' video efforts, do you anyone that's used anything other than iChat Video or Skype more than once?

[/IMG]

I thought so.

When you use iChat Video for the first time to do a 3-way video with your Mom an hour away, and your younger brother 2000 miles away, and laugh and joke around, you'll see what I mean. (Skype is still limited to only 1-to-1 video calls.)

And now it appears some are disciplining their kids over video chat, too. What would Dr. Spock have thought? haha.

If you haven't discovered or used bookmark nicknames yet in Opera, don't wait!!

It's one of the fastest, easiest things you can do to speed up your browsing. It literally lets you rename the web to your own whims and habits. If you want to go to your own blog by typing in "b" this is how you do it. Or "n" for your favorite news site.

Any string of letters and numbers is at your disposal. Simply add a site as a bookmark and click on the "details" button and you'll see a nicknames field.

Given Opera's (new in v9.2, aka Merlin) Speed Dial™ feature, the numbers one through nine are assigned your Speed Dial sites, but beyond that, it's up to you. Also, shift-F2 opens a "turbo" nicknames field. This saves the <enter> keystroke for you, so even faster. (Note that I changed this to simply F2 in the keyboard manager in Opera.)

Even though Opera gives you a dizzying number of ways to accelerate your browsing, this will make your head spin given its simplicity.

• Speed Dial (from a new tab)
• Auto-complete in the address bar
• Nicknames (1-chars or more & without <enter> key using <shift+F2>)
• Trditional Bookmarks (in the Personal Bar or from the Bookmarks menu or from the Panel)

We hope to see a Nicknames manager in Kestrel (aka Opera v9.5) maybe, to help handle all the nicknames that pile up quickly in your bookmarks file. (hint, hint, ODT)

Interesting article by Greg at CNET about a bizarre confluence of events (relating to the infamous Cramer interview about manipulating the market as a hedge fund manager).

• Jim Cramer spells H-U-B-R-I-S
• Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne finally not treated like an alien as his company stock has been manipulated down from $77 to $18/share
• Business publications are actually reporting what's been going on in investment banking circles amidst all the backslapping during Happy Hour on Wall Street

Let's see if SEC Commissioner Cox can do something more substantive than host a panel at Georgetown on C-SPAN...

I was just reading an interesting item at the TE site and a headline caught my eye, Will web developers start to develop for Safari first?

Given that Opera Mini/Mobile is available for various devices already, I don't think that Safari will suddenly have developer support where there was none when iPhone debuts. My guess is that, going forward, ACID2-compliance will be key in terms of browser development (and better developer tools, of course).