My.Opera Spotlights

Profile:
Name: Eurico Matos
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Location: Maia, Portugal
Occupation: Software Engineer
Member since: August 2005
Web site: Under remodelation
Complete profile: http://my.opera.com/euricomatos/about/

Personal stuff:
1. What do you do for living?
I'm one of the developers of an academic information system, used by about 40.000 people at the moment. I also work a lot with databases.

2. Who do you live with?
I graduated a few months ago, so I'm in a period of transition now. While I decide if I stay in the country or go somewhere else (maybe some nice company in Oslo, who knows? ), I'm still living with my parents.

3. How many languages you speak?
This sort-of-English (never learn a language through TV or movies), Portuguese, Spanish and French. I know the basics of Italian, German and a bit of Swedish.

4. Do you smoke or drink?
No.

5. Do you like sports? If so which ones?
I like to play tennis, basketball and volleyball, mainly. And dying to try a few winter sports (winter here is just the mud season )

6. What do you normally wear?
Totally informal. Basically, I pick whatever is on top of the drawer

7. What is the color of your eyes and hair?
The plain boring brown.

8. Have you ever broken a bone?
I think I'd remember... No!

9. How many keys are on your key ring?
Hmmm... *goes check* 10

10. What time do you go to bed? What time do you wake up?
I usually go to bed around midnight and wake up around 7. One hour later on weekends.

11. What is the craziest thing you've done?
Who, me?

12. What is your favorite food? Drink?
I like to try some "international" dishes, although I'm not much of a food-lover.
H2O, maybe with some add-ons...

13. What is your favorite cartoon character?
I don't watch cartoons much these days, but there were many I liked a few years ago. I can't choose the "best" one, though.

14. Favorite movie / actor / actress ?
I'll eventually post most of them in the blog (I just started...), but I already posted a few in the Lounge.

15. Favorite book / writer ?
Now I can link to the blog
I like to read many kinds of books, as long as they're good. I go from Garcia Marquez to Carl Sagan to Stephen King without any problem.

16. Favorite song / group / singer ?
Just like with books, it depends on the mood, from Mozart to Metallica. For example, I listened to Therion and Flowing Tears while answering the interview (yes, I went back at the end of the interview to answer this one )

17. Who do you admire? Why?
So many people!! I could name some friends and family, but that's probably not what you want
I don't know I could probably mention the Dalai Lama...

18. What is your favorite quote?
"You can only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."
I have no idea who said this

Geek stuff:
1. How many hours a day do you spend on the computer?
Too many, sometimes around 10, in work days. Much less otherwise.

2. Which operating system you use?
Windows XP

3. What hardware you use?
P4 3.4GHz, 1GB memory, 200GB disk

4. When did you start using computers and which was your first PC?
The first time I remember using a computer was with the good old Spectrum +2. I still have some of my first programs (in BASIC)

5. Do you use instant messaging and if so, which one(s)?
Yep, a lot. I use MSN Messenger with Messenger Plus (Opera got me addicted to tabs...)

6. What computers skills do you have?
Mostly web programming. I know a few languages and I'm learning quite a bit about databases at work.

7. What would you like to learn / improve in future?
So many things...

8. What is your favorite computer game?
I play about once every couple of months, so this is not a good question for me. I like mainly strategy games (all that Sim Stuff, or Something Tycoon, Age of Whatever, and so on)

9. What is your home page?
Still under development. I have no idea what to put there
So, until then: http://my.opera.com/euricomatos/

Opera stuff:
1. When did you start using Opera?
2000. Opera 4, IIRC.

2. Which version are you currently using?
8.51 for most things. Also a few for testing purposes (7.x, 9TP2, and the latest weekly)

3. What do you like about it?
The browser adapted to me, and not the other way around.

4. What would you like to see next?
I have been compiling a list in my spare time, in the last couple of weeks. Let's just say it's growing fast.
If I could choose a few, I'd go with some improvements in the feed reader, mail client and contacts.

5. When did you start being active in the community?
Too late

6. What is your favorite part of the community?
I'll be vague and say "the forums"

7. Do you use Opera on other platforms too?
Not yet.

8. What is your favorite skin for Opera?
Although very customized, its base is KDE-HiCrysal, made by Soenke Dibbern.

9. Name a few blogs you read often on Opera Community?
I'm not a regular blog reader, but more of an occasional visitor. The spotlights group have actually made me read a few more, but I still can't mention my favourites. Being an astronomy lover, I like to peek at Maria Magdalena's blog once in a while.

10. Which five members would you like to spotlight this time?
Just five?!?! I'll have to cheat then:
1 - The guys helping all the newcomers (Steve, Neeraj, Pesala, ...)
2 - The Lounge troupe, for making this a real "community" (and you're helping a lot, too)
3 - xErath - it's nice to think of some great UserJS and then realize he already made it
4 - non-troppo - for some great ideas. wikiwikiwikiwikiwikiwikiwiki
5 - scipio - well, for all of the reasons above

11. Why should someone try Opera?
For the same reason they should try the other browsers. It's the only way to make sure they choose the best.

12. Would you like to add something ?
Yes. Aaaaaahhhhh, actually no.

13. Was this interview too boring?
Not for me, but I'm glad you're not asking this to anyone who read this

Introduction:
Quote from Member of the week post:
"scipio is amazingly patient, kind and helpful, he is willing to write user JS to help individual users which I always find amazing. He replies to posts from newbies right on up to technical stuff, and promotes Opera on his site. He's made a skin too and contributes to the unofficial skin docs"

Profile:
Name: scipio, real name: Sipke
Age: 28
Gender: M
Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
Occupation: Consultant
Member since: February 2003
Web site: http://home.wanadoo.nl/sipke.reina/opera
Complete profile: http://my.opera.com/scipio/about/

Personal stuff:
1 What do you do for living?
I'm starting with a new job next month, so actually I'm now enjoying some free time. I'll be taking a short vacation to get all the energy I need to make a fresh start.
2 Who do you live with?
I live with my girlfriend.
3 How many languages you speak?
Dutch, English and Spanish (these are also the languages I use on the Opera forums). As a tourist I can manage to survive with my basic knowledge of French and Italian (provided I'm in the right country )
4 Do you smoke or drink?
I have never smoked, but I do drink. Those who've seen my personal website know that I love whisky.
5 Do you like sports? If so which ones?
The #1 sports in the world: football/soccer. My favorite team is Ajax from Amsterdam even though they haven't been able to live up to the expectations after winning the Champions League in '95. I hope Holland will kick the world's ass next summer in Germany.
6 What do you normally wear?
My style is best described as casual. I'm very lazy with choosing what to wear, I don't follow fashion trends... a bit boring.
7 What is the color of your eyes and hair?
My hair is light brown, something like #61351a , my eyes are blue.
8 Have you ever broken a bone?
No, and I'm glad I never did.
9 How many keys are on your key ring?
At this time four, for my home and my parents' house.
10 What time do you go to bed? What time do you wake up?
Usually I go to bed between 23:30 and midnight. I get up at 8, but starting next month that will be at least one hour earlier.
11 What is the craziest thing you've done?
I don't do crazy things. I think.
12 What is your favorite food? Drink?
I like Italian food but mainly the more sophisticated things, not just pizza (even though pizza can be very good at times). Can I say whisky is my favorite drink without people thinking I'm an alcoholic? If not, I'd have to say tea.
13 What is your favorite cartoon character?
Mafalda, by Quino. See ClubCultura.com - Mafalda.
14 Favorite movie / actor / actress ?
I have many favorite movies and there are quite a few actors I like. For example: Andy García, Harvey Keitel, Sean Penn... Movies: Lost in Translation, The Usual Suspects, Mystic River...
15 Favorite book / writer ?
I do not have one favorite book. My favorite writers are Alessandro Baricco (Italian), Jostein Gaarder (Norwegian), Michel Houellebecq (French), Jan van Aken (Dutch) and Lawrence Norfolk (British).
16 Favorite song / group / singer ?
These are difficult questions! I listen to Kevin Johansen (USA/Argentina), Sui Generis (Argentina) and to classical music.
17 Who do you admire? Why?
There are many people who do admirable things, but I do not keep a list of personal heroes.
18 What is your favorite quote?
I'm not good at remembering quotes. I'm jealous of people who know all lines of a movie after seeing it only once.

Geek stuff:
1 How many hours a day do you spend on the computer?
Close to 8.
2 Which operating system you use?
Windows XP. I once tried Suse Linux 9.3 but my laptop died so I can't use it anymore. I will give it another try once I get some new hardware.
3 What hardware you use?
I have a regular Dell computer, the only thing I'm proud of is the slightly bigger (CRT) screen than most people (non-geeks, at least) have: 19inch.
4 When did you start using computers and which was your first PC?
1989, it was an old IBM that worked at 8 Hz, or maybe it was 8 MHz . I had seen one in 1988 and was fascinated by what a printer could do.
5 Do you use instant messaging and if so, which one(s)?
Not very often, I use MSN Messenger mainly to be informed about new messages that arrive in my hotmail account (forum notifications!).
6 What computers skills do you have?
I am quite confident playing with Windows, websites, office tools and am not afraid to try new things. I've done some programming too.
7 What would you like to learn / improve in future?
There are so many aspects/technologies of the internet I have no knowledge of - I'd like to know more about them.
8 What is your favorite computer game?
I think Half-life II. It was a shock to find out my hardware wasn't good enough to play it, thouh.
9 What is your home page?
See Personal Stuff above.

Opera stuff:
1 When did you start using Opera?
In 2002.
2 Which version are you currently using?
I always use the last stable version, in this case 8.52. But I also keep other versions on my computer for testing purposes: 6, 7.54 and the weeklies of version 9.
3 What do you like about it?
That it can do everything... well, most of what I want it to do. And that if something doesn't come by default, I can create it.
4 What would you like to see next?
Some improvements in the mail client, including better contact handling.
5 When did you start being active in the community?
In February 2003. My first post wasn't a question, but an answer. I continued answering questions ever since.
6 What is your favorite part of the community?
I very much like Open the Web, I have quite a few posts in the Lounge. I only wish the Dutch community was a bit larger and more active.
7 Do you use Opera on other platforms too?
I have tried in the past, but when my computer with Linux crashed, that experiment was ended.
8 What is your favorite skin for Opera?
I use my own, Carthago because it's clean and compact.
9 Name a few blogs you read often on Opera Community?
I mostly read blogs of Opera staff members (Haavard, csant, Rijk, Stephan), but I am also subscribed to neeraf_deshmukh's and MarcFou's.
10 Which five members would you like to spotlight this time?
I will not spotlight the dinosaurs of the community (they've had their share already: here) even though they deserve it. This time I want to mention MarcFou, euricomatos, xErath, tomu and Inquisitor for their great contributions to the community.
11 Why should someone try Opera?
It's quite simple actually: because it's better than the rest. My main arguments to convince new users would be: it's safe, it's easy but at the same time it's an all-in-one program.
12 Would you like to add something ?
"Thank you for the interview."
13 Was this interview too boring?
No, but it was long!