My.Opera Spotlights

Posts tagged with "opera community team"

Opera Community Team: brianj

By Ivan MinicSerbianFighter. Monday, March 27, 2006 5:07:59 PM

Profile:
Name: Brian
Age: Old enough
Gender: Male
Location: Ooshlo, Norgeh
Occupation: Community Manager
Member since: August, 2005
Complete profile: http://my.opera.com/brianj

Opera stuff:
1. When did you start using Opera?
Back when I used BeOS as my main desktop browser. Net+ was nice, but very bare-bones (it didn't support Javascript among other things). I guess this was in 2000 - 2001.
2. When did you start working for Opera?
September'ish, 2005.
3. What do you like about it?
I like working toward something I think is worth fighting for. I appreciate the things Opera does to support a free and open Web as well as push the envelope of innovation. I'm glad I have the opportunity to be here and do my part to help.
4. What is your Job Title and in which Department do you work?
I'm the Community Manager / Ping-pong trainee. I work closely with the Marcom and Web teams.
5. Who do you work with?
Everyone from the Web and Marcom team.
6. What is your favorite part of the community?
My favorite part of the community has nothing to do with the site but with the people. There's a lot of diversity in the My Opera Community and it's great to log in and see people from all over the world engaging on a ton of different topics. That, and I like the monkey icon

7. Do you use Opera on other platforms too?
I've used it on BeOS and Windows, but now only on Linux.
8. What is your favorite skin for Opera?
I like simple. I generally use the default theme or a variant of it. My favorites are Contrasting Tabs by Eddie and mneptok's excellent GTK theme.
9. Name a few blogs you read often on Opera Community?
Well, to keep it brief, I'll name a few (in no particular order). Reed_J, Offspring, longing2belong, jonimueller, Opera Spotlights
10. Which five members would you like to spotlight this time?
See above.
11. What hardware do you have there?
At work, I use an IBM X31 laptop. It's really light-weight and surprisingly powerful.
12. Why should someone try Opera?
My favorite part of Opera is it's CSS support. Beyond this, I like having integrated RSS / ATOM feeds, cntrl-alt-v, sane tabs, side-panels, small scree rendering and the new source-viewer in TP2 is great for debugging sites.
13. What do you drink on "Friday Night at the Opera"?
I don't drink, so I guess

?

Personal stuff:
1. Where are you from?
Born and raised in Washington state.
2. Who do you live with?
I live with two old classmates from college. (Hi Kjetil and Espen!)
3. How many languages do you speak?
Guess which one...
4. Do you smoke or drink?
Definitely not. When your health is all you have, you better do what you can to keep it.
5. Do you like sports? If so which ones?
I grew up skateboarding, but I haven't done it in a few years. That's a sport, right? Ultimate Frisbee is another favorite. I'm also becoming interested in Extreme Ironing (although I have yet to try it).
6. What do you normally wear?
Hardcore / metal t-shirt, jeans and converse...always converse.
7. What is the color of your eyes and hair?
Brown / Brown
8. Have you ever broken a bone?
I've broken my right arm 3 or 4 times and my right collar-bone once.
9. How many keys are on your key ring?
Too many. I think 6, while most are for things in the US. Thanks for reminding me, I'll take those off tonight.
10. What time do you go to bed? What time do you wake up?
I usually get to bed between 1am and 4am. I'm usually "up" at 7:30am on weekdays, but go straight to my computer to see what I missed while I was asleep. Weekends, I'm up by 1pm.
11. What is the craziest thing you've done?
[censored]
12. What is your favorite food? Drink?
Bean curd stir fry (I'm veg*).
15. Favorite book / writer ?
Etsujin and Hashin
16. Favorite song / group / singer ?
I like either really mellow stuff (Rocky Votolato, Black Heart Procession, Elluvium, Notwist, etc) or really loud stuff (Himsa, Symphony in Peril, Bane, The Red Chord, etc). Not much in-between.
17. Who do you admire? Why?
I admire people that do whatever they want their whole lives, and get away with it. If you can make a living doing only the things you love, you've lived a good life.
18. What is your favorite quote?
"Sleep, those little slices of death, how I loathe them." ~ Edgar Allan Poe

Geek stuff:
1. How many hours a day do you spend on the computer?
Too many. Maybe 12 - 15 hours each day.
2. Which operating system do you use at home?
Ubuntu Linux
3. What hardware do you use at home?
P4 2.66gHz, 1gig RAM, 128mb Nvidia and about 200 gigs.
4. When did you start using computers and which was your first PC?
First computer I remember was a 33mHz with 8 megs of RAM. I never got really into computers till I got my 233mHz with 64megs, 4gig, 2meg Savage video and 33.6 modem. That was in...1997?
5. Do you use instant messengers and if yes, which?
Mostly IRC, but I've been known to be on AIM, GTalk and *shudder* MSN.
6. What computers skills do you have?
Mostly computer hacking skills. You know - heavy iron...Gibsons?
7. What would you like to learn / improve in future?
CSS. Good design isn't something that can be read in a book.
8. What is your favorite computer game?
Uplink and Wesnoth
9. What is your home page?
I have a few pages up, but we'll just say http://my.opera.com/brianj

No comments

Opera Community Team: olekasper

By Ivan MinicSerbianFighter. Saturday, March 25, 2006 1:14:38 PM

interview, opera community team

Profile:
Name: Ole Kasper
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Location: Opera HQ
Occupation: Information Systems Developer
Member since: Jun 2004
Web site: http://www.olekasper.no
Complete profile: http://my.opera.com/olekasper/about/

Opera stuff:
1. When did you start using Opera?
I started using Opera when they released version 6. I had up until then been using Netscape in various incarnations and was at the time pretty excited about Mozilla Seamonkey and used daily builds as my primary browser. The relative sluggishness of Mozilla though, in relation to Opera 6 was simply too much to ignore, and I finally started to get to know Opera. Haven't looked back since, even though I still consider Seamonkey a fine piece of software.
2. When did you start working for Opera?
I approached the manager of the Information Systems department at Opera for a summer job in 2004, which I for some reason got. Apparently I did an adequate job, because they took me back in the summer of 2005 after I finished my MSc.
3. What do you like about it?
My work? I love my work. Considering the opportunity of being a part of building the Opera Community was the main reason for applying a job at Opera, I couldn't be more happy

4. What is your Job Title and in which Department do you work?
I am an Information Systems Developer, in Opera's Information Systems Department.

In our department we develop and maintain most of Opera's internal systems as well as the backend for the official Web sites, so together with the sysadmins we like to think of ourselves as the backbone of Opera

Personally, I work on the Opera Community and one other internal system (which unfortunately is taking more and more of my time). I am quite enthusiastic about what we have done with the Opera Community, and what we are going to do with it, which makes it a joy to go to work every morning.
5. Who do you work with?
Well, to "out" the rest of the department, they are soumitra, willisof, kjetilk, vetler, jnoehr, wargamez and pseen.
6. What is your favorite part of the community?
I'd have to say the forums, having been quite active on these forums (as fractalgp) before joining Opera Software.
7. Do you use Opera on other platforms too?
I use desktop Opera on Windows and Linux, and Opera Mini on my retarded, although Java capable, phone.
8. What is your favorite skin for Opera?
Hands down non-troppo's Breeze Simplified MICRO. Anything else is simply a waste of space.
9. Name a few blogs you read often on Opera Community?
Actually, I'll have to admit that I don't really follow blogs that much.
10. Which five members would you like to spotlight this time?
Well, it's difficult to spotlight only five community members.

But, I'll start by spotlighting Fred, even though he also works for Opera, for his extremely hard work and wonderful designs. Without him, none of this would be.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who stops by the Community Feedback forum to report errors and give constructuve criticism and the occational whinge. If something annoys you - let us know! And if we don't fix things within a reasonable time frame, let us know again!

11. What hardware do you have there?
I have a P4-HT 3.2GHz Dell box. Comes with a nice 17 inch LCD, which I guess is a rebranded Samsung or something.

olekasper@vingthorr:~$ lspci
0000:00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]
0000:01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 [Radeon X300SE]
0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)
0000:04:01.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy LS

(lspci output edited down for relevancy)
12. Why should someone try Opera?
To experience the difference, really. People can't possibly fathom how much and in what ways Opera differs from other browsers, without trying it. If the differences suits you, fine - if not, then that's fine as well, really.
13. What do you drink on "Friday Night at the Opera"?

Personal stuff:
1. Where are you from?
I'm from a tiny place in Akershus county, Norway.
2. Who do you live with?
Noone..
3. How many languages do you speak?
Only those I was taught in school; Norwegian, English and (some) German.
4. Do you smoke or drink?
I don't smoke, but I do drink.
5. Do you like sports? If so which ones?
Not really. I like seeing Norwegians win

So in the winter I do actually enjoy the occational biathlon or ski jump on the telly.
6. What do you normally wear?
Considering people around here always complain I only wear a t-shirt even though it's -20 degrees outside.. ahem.

So yeah, some rock or metal band t-shirt and jeans.

7. What is the color of your eyes and hair?
Brownish-green-gray-something eyes I guess

Hair is quite dark, without being black. heh.
8. Have you ever broken a bone?
No, but that's more due to a solid build rather than lack of trying.

9. How many keys are on your key ring?
As few as possible. Three at the moment.
10. What time do you go to bed? What time do you wake up?
I'm usually up by 07:15, that way I get time to drop by the gym before work. As for going to bed; that's very dependent of how much sleep I got the night before

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

I don't do crazy stuff. When I was in the army they tricked me into jumping into a whole in the ice on a lake fully dressed with an empty backpack. But that was more stupid than crazy. Was kinda cool looking up while submerged though. Slush. Cyan. Cold!
12. What is your favorite food? Drink?
It's been a long time since I had one "favourite" dish.

13. What is your favorite cartoon character?
Cartoon as in comics? Marv from Sin City obviously!

14. Favorite movie / actor / actress ?
I do enjoy a good movie, but I don't really keep track of which one is my favourite. Come to think of it, I don't relate much to the concept of having a "favourite" something, as is revealed by the next couple of answers

15. Favorite book / writer ?
Ah, dunno. I'm not very criticising when I read books. I even enjoyed myself halfway into Clancy's Rainbow 6, and that man can't %"#¤@$ write. Though I think I have to reread Peter Hamilton's 3200-page sci-fi mamoth The Night's Dawn trilogy, mostly for the psycho story.

16. Favorite song / group / singer ?
Now this is difficult. I'm usually never "loyal" when it comes to music. I'm all over the place. Lately I've been really into doom, gloom, ambient black and drone metal (slow, massively heavy and occationally extremely repetitive) such as Sleep, Disembowelment, Skepticisim, Nortt, Graves at Sea and SunnO))).

There's always my profile on last.fm, which reveals a certain attention to ..ahem.. the darker side of metal: http://last.fm/user/fractalgp
17. Who do you admire? Why?
There are a lot of people I admire, however I don't go around remembering who they are at all times..

18. What is your favorite quote?
I don't really dig quotes. Maybe because I'm never able to remember who said them?

Geek stuff:
1. How many hours a day do you spend on the computer?
8+ hours at work. Maybe a couple of hours at home. I have noticed that after starting to work in front of a computer screen, I much rather do something else when I'm at home. Go to concerts for example

2. Which operating system do you use at home?
I'm quite pragmatic when it comes to my choice in OSes. So I use both Linux (Debian Sid) and Windows XP - whatever works best for the purposes I need it for.
3. What hardware do you use at home?
A deadbeat Duron 1200 as fileserver, a nice Compal CL56 laptop and a P4 2.8GHz with an ancient Radeon card stuffed into it

4. When did you start using computers and which was your first PC?
Don't remember when, but I guess when I was around 13-14 years old. Quite late compared to most people I know. Got my first, payed for by my own money, at 15. It was a 486DX2 66MHz beast.
5. Do you use instant messengers and if yes, which?
I use MSN and Jabber, through either Gaim or Miranda.
6. What computers skills do you have?
Mad skillz! I do know a thing or two about Web programming and databases (

even though I might not look like it sometimes

).
7. What would you like to learn / improve in future?
Making a site such as the Opera Community is difficult. I need to gaim more knowledge with regards to running large sites such as this, and program with scalability and expansion in mind.
8. What is your favorite computer game?
My favourite game of all times must be Quake. I've played more QuakeWorld (the dedicated multiplayer version) than is healthy. Oh, and TIE Fighter.
9. What is your home page?
http://www.olekasper.no -- nothing interesting I can assure you

No comments

Opera Community Team: chaals

By Ivan MinicSerbianFighter. Wednesday, March 22, 2006 6:48:49 PM

interview, opera community team

Profile:
Name: Charles McCathieNevile
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Location: All over the place. I travel most of the time, but I am resident in Oslo
Occupation: Standards, specifications, accessibility expert
Member since: I started working at Opera
Web site: http://my.opera.com/chaals
Complete profile: err, "g chaals"

Opera stuff:
1. When did you start using Opera?
I first used it in 1996, as an on-and-off user. I have been using it as my primary browser since some time in 2003
2. When did you start working for Opera?
May 2005
3. What do you like about it?
About Opera? It does the things I want quickly and efficiently, and it works across lots of platforms. I like the community around it - even though I only use a handful of extensions from the default I like the fact that there are so many for different people and needs. I also like the fact that it has mail and IRC integrated - these are two important tools to me, and are the thing that keeps me using Opera - it was M2's filtering that hooked me - I only use it a bit, but for what I need it to do it is fantastic.
4. What is your Job Title and in which Department do you work?
Chief Standards Officer
5. Who do you work with?
Directly with Anne van Kesteren, Jonny Axelsson, Gorm Eriksen, but with a lot of people. I spend a lot of my time working with W3C, where I worked before Opera.
6. What is your favorite part of the community?
The people in it

7. Do you use Opera on other platforms too?
Yes - it's on all my computers and phones. I don't have a PDA or TV.
8. What is your favorite skin for Opera?
I use the default skin
9. Name a few blogs you read often on Opera Community?
I'm not a very consistent blog reader. I generally read the blogs of mediumgeek, cheshrkat, and ChiaraInThePond, and often flip through other blogs.
10. Which five members would you like to spotlight this time?
Hmmm. I'm not sure who I would spotlight - I have been busy travelling and haven't been reading a lot recently.
11. What hardware do you have there?
A big mac laptop that I have had for about 3 years, and an old monitor that I use when I am at my desk to watch IRC channels.
12. Why should someone try Opera?
Because it's good. Or if they want a sensible mail, chat, news and web tool. Or if they like to play around with serious web development. Or if they want to make me happy

13. What do you drink on "Friday Night at the Opera"?
A glass of red wine, because it is so expensive in Oslo, and having lived in France and Australia I miss being able to have a glass whenever I feel like it.

Personal stuff:
1. Where are you from?
Australia - Melbourne
2. Who do you live with?
Joen and TommyO (well, sometimes it feels like I just leave my stuff there, and live with an ever-changing series of airline steward(esse)s, bus drivers, people at meetings, and strangers.
3. How many languages do you speak?
Well: English, French, Spanish
Nearly well enough: Italian, Norwegian
A little bit: Swedish, Danish, German, Japanese
And enough of a whole lot of others for a party trick, but not to have any useful conversation.
4. Do you smoke or drink?
Yes.
5. Do you like sports? If so which ones?
Cricket, sword fighting (it's not really a sport since I don't mean modern fencing but medieval style, but it is exercise), rugby, swimming, australian football, field hockey, table tennis. I find I can watch almost any sport, even if I think it is pointless.
6. What do you normally wear?
A hat, a shirt, shorts and sandals if it is warm, or jeans, australian short riding boots and a jacket if it is cold.
7. What is the color of your eyes and hair?
Blue-grey eyes, blond hair, red beard (and a few flecks of grey. But don't tell anyone

)
8. Have you ever broken a bone?
My right big toe. I tried to jump over the dog at about 7am after being up all night.
9. How many keys are on your key ring?
I have a keyring for Norway with about 6 keys, one for Australia with about 12 or 15, and one for the rest of the world that currently only has a few keys on it.
10. What time do you go to bed? What time do you wake up?
Normally one of late, later, or when my body decides...
11. What is the craziest thing you've done?
Probably not to be repeated.
12. What is your favorite food? Drink?
Sashimi is my comfort food when I am feeling sick, but I tend not to have favourites.
13. What is your favorite cartoon character?
Obelix (see, there are exceptions)
14. Favorite movie / actor / actress ?
Hmmm. Princess Bride, Harold and Maude, Blade Runner, Bliss, Apocalypse Now are all films I can see more or less endlessly.
15. Favorite book / writer ?
Oooh, that's hard. I tend to read things in groups. I've been big on Amin Maalouf, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Umberto Eco, David Malouf, Peter Carey, probably dozens of others.
16. Favorite song / group / singer ?
Hard to say. Wendy Rule, Billy Bragg, Leanard Cohen, Weddings Parties Anything / Mick Thomas, Paul Kelly, AC/DC, Midnight Oil, the Triffids, and a bunch of others are all in the mix.
17. Who do you admire? Why?
Lots of people who go about their lives trying to make something of them. My friend John, who went on leave to visit a friend in Pakistan and wound up working in Refugee relief for the Norwegian government is one person I admire. Because he is sincere, thoughtful, honest, cares about his ex-girlfriends, falls in love and understands that it might all end in tears (again), is a good cook, and a good bloke to have a beer with.
18. What is your favorite quote?
"two beers please". Or maybe "an aphorism for every occasion". I don't think I have one, really.

Geek stuff:
1. How many hours a day do you spend on the computer?
12-18 normally

2. Which operating system do you use at home?
Mac OS
3. What hardware do you use at home?
My laptop. (I have an HP windows laptop that I use sometimes, too, for testing stuff).
4. When did you start using computers and which was your first PC?
About 1980. The first PC I used was an early TRS-80, the first one that was mine was a BBC micro.
5. Do you use instant messengers and if yes, which?
IRC. Sometimes Skype.
6. What computers skills do you have?
The crucial ones are thinking and learning (including learning from other people). I can also type, I know web languages like HTML, SVG, CSS, XML, RDF, and I used to be able to program. (I gave it up because I don't do enough of it to be familiar with a programming language, so I don't do it very efficiently - I keep having to look up stuff real programmers have built into muscle memory).
7. What would you like to learn / improve in future?
I'd like to improve my programming again, and learn more languages. (Actual natural languages that people use, because talking to people, reading what they have to say and writing for them is an important part of what I do).
8. What is your favorite computer game?
I don't really play games much. I used to enjoy akalabeth, L, Podd (it was an educational toy for kids, but could be fun), space invaders/galaxian/etc and elite. All of them are at least 20 years old...
9. What is your home page?
My blog. I keep meaning to make a proper one, but it turns out that people can find out a lot just by looking me up.

3 comments

Opera Community Team: Server Monkey

By Ivan MinicSerbianFighter. Tuesday, March 21, 2006 11:51:25 AM

interview, opera community team

Introduction:
We all know that someone has to break the ice, and who would be better for that task than server monkey, enigmatic team member who is responsible for all outages, bugs and errors. In expectance of real live team members' interviews ... Meet the !

Profile:
Name:

Age:

Gender:

Location:

Occupation:

Member since:

Web site:

Opera stuff:
1. When did you start using Opera?

2. When did you start working for Opera?

3. What do you like about it?

4. What is your Job Title and in which Department do you work?

5. Who do you work with?

6. What is your favorite part of the community?