The Peregrine has landed! Opera 10 released

Version 10 of the Opera web browser was released today. Here are a few links to introduce you to the latest and greatest web-surfing innovation out of Norway.

First the video:

This video of course just scratches the surface of what Opera can do. There are a few new features that were not mentioned in the video. Notably Opera now has a built-in spell-checker, automatic updating and a re-sizable search box, three features that had been widely requested in the Opera forums. You can read about these features and others, including the 40% increase in surfing speed, on this link:

Turbocharge your Web experience with Opera 10

Or for the complete list of what’s new in version 10, even the super-techy things like its perfect acid3 results, check out the change log:

Opera 10 for Windows changelog

Remember, Opera for the desktop is totally free and totally add-free, and has been for years.

If you haven’t already discovered “the other alternative browser”, be sure to download it today to see what you’ve been missing!

Opera Browser main download page (gives an overview of features as well)

Opera browser for operating systems other than Windows (Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and still more (some of these may still be in beta))

The Opera browser is today’s featured article on Wikipedia

It is well-known that I am a big fan of the Opera web browser (or check out the version 10 beta!). I even have a blog more-or-less completely dedicated to it (whose posting activity, as is the case here as well, is suffering from my ever-increasing workload).
An Opera Forums member pointed out that the Wikipedia article on the Opera browser is today’s featured article on the English Wikipedia front page.
What a great opportunity to learn more about the other alternative browser!

EDIT: And while we’re on the subject of Opera, I just reddited upon an interview with Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, the company’s co-founder and CEO, on the NPR website. Von Tetzchner explains his take on the future of Opera, notably as concerns the Unite platform and web-based applications…
Opera: A Survivor Whose Time Has Finally Come?

Insert special characters in a click

Special characters, like “¶”, or “Ω” or “≈”, are already a pain to insert in Word documents (or the like) and a super-mega pain in the a** to insert correctly into web pages, where if you’re going to be disciplined about things, you need to put in the html entity, so that the symbol will display correctly everywhere.

At least, these things were a pain until now!

I was just taking a look at Lifehacker.com, one of my favorite daily reads. They put up an article today on a new website called copypastecharacter.com. This website is, in reality, a single flash-based webpage, but little websites can sometime have big benefits for users.

Indeed the website is just a display of special characters, but the beauty is in the use. All you have to do is click on the special character that you want and Bing! (no free advertising for search engines intended) the character is on your clipboard, ready to be pasted wherever you need it.

You have the choice of copying the normal text character, but also the html entity; I think that the real beauty of the website is with this latter. In other words, website developers will find this more useful than your average Joe typing in Word.

†, ¼, ⇧, ®, § …

Easy as pie.

(EDIT: All the above symbols display correctly in Opera, Safari and Firefox, but the third from the left, an up-arrow, may not display correctly if you’re using Internet Explorer [hmmm, wonder whose fault that is...].)

www.copypastecharacter.com

Incredible animation on angiogenesis at Amgen

Beyond a certain point of growth, cancer cells, like any other cells, need blood vessels to provide them with nutrients and dispose of waste.
Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels are formed in living tissue. Although the term, in and of itself, is not obligatorily attached to cancer, it is usually used in this sense; that’s to say the ability of cancer cells to invoke the creation of new blood vessels in tissue, thus assuring their nutritional needs and allowing them to continue to grow.
Controlling angiogenesis as a method of cancer treatment is thus a major field of current research.
The therapeutics company Amgen has put up an absolutely amazing Flash animation explaining the process of cancerous angiogenesis. This is really, really well done and an excellent illustration of just how powerful the web can be for educational purposes.
Don’t be frightened off by their use of medical terminology: the supporting animations are so well done that even a novice can keep up and learn a lot on this promising therapeutic path for cancer treatment.
Bravo Amgen!

Pioneering New Frontiers in Tumor Angiogenesis

Fun with Google Zeitgeist 2008

So, if you haven’t noticed yet, Google has published its “Google Zeitgeist” for 2008.

It’s a collection of the most popular search terms in Google for 2008 grouped under a variety of categories, thus providing an interesting look into our collective, global psyche. Often banal, sometimes funny, sometimes sad and sometimes strange, the Google Zeitgeist is definitely worth a look.

Take a look at the “Politics” section for an excellent illustration of how we use Google to get information rapidly: one day the “Sarah Palin” line is non-existent and the next, boom! it’s there (McCain names her as running mate) and sky-rockets above the other election personalities.

Then, under the “Around the World” section, I couldn’t help but notice two things. First, the amazing popularity of Facebook the world-over. And second, more interestingly, notice how often the word “Google” itself appears in many of the countries’ “Fastest rising” and “Most popular” lists (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, India, etc.)…

This means that a huge number of people in these countries are searching for “Google”, in Google.

Why?

Feel free to leave a comment for the elements of the 2008 Google Zeitgeist that you find interesting, and, well, keep on Googling!

Ciao!
2008 Year-End Google Zeitgeist

Opera 9.5 desktop browser: impressions

In my last post I told you about the release of the Opera desktop browser version 9.5.

I’ve been using it for a few weeks and have put up a post on my other blog to share my initial impressions (because the other blog is specialized in this kind of thing).

Give it a read! And I hope that it will inspire you to try Opera if you haven’t already discovered this knockout cool web surfing tool.

Opera 9.5 desktop browser: Mostly pros and a few cons

Opera 9.5: The Kestrel has landed!

I’m currently turning at 150% capacity for my work and it will be so for a couple of months. That means of course that blog posts are going to be few and far between for a good while. Sorry, but paying the bills has to come before blogging. I’ll be back of course, so do stay tuned just the same!

But this post isn’t about that. If you’ve taken a close look at my blog here, and especially at my blog here, you’ve certainly figured out that I’m a fan of the Opera web browser.

Us Opera fans have been salivating waiting for the official release of version 9.5, a.k.a. “Kestrel”.

The wait is over, it’s here.

Download Opera 9.50 for Windows here!

Not on Windows? You use Mac? You’re a Linux nerd? You use Solaris (really?!) Or maybe something else? With Opera, No problemo! choose your flavor here (some of these puppies may still be in beta)

As I mentioned I’m a bit pressed for time these days, so I’ll let Opera tell you about all the new features.

But the take home message here is: Try it. It’s fast, it’s pretty, it’s powerful, it’s light, tight and secure. And despite what you might have seen on out-of-date web pages, its free and ad-free and has been so for years now.

Fly the web! And :cheers: to the Opera development team for this sweet web browsing tool!

Defending net neutrality

I ran into this via Noreen Seebacher’s blog post You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone.

Four Eyed Monsters.com is currently or soon will be fund-raising for a feature-length film on net neutrality called “Humanity Lobotomy”. You can check out the primer video below, which has already passed the 1/2 million mark for views.

If you can make a contribution to the project, you can go here. But even if you don’t have money to donate, you can at least call your House and Senate Representatives to encourage the protection of net neutrality from big business control.

Thanks Noreen and best wishes to the Humanity Lobotomy project from Wandering electrons.

Save the Internet | Rock the Vote

Adding social bookmarks to your WordPress.com posts – Redux

Hillel added a comment to my previous post on adding social bookmarks to your WordPress.com blog. He’s put together a nifty downloadable wizard that makes the process of adding social bookmarks to your wordpress.com blog a little bit easier. Check it out here:

Indispensable web apps (well, maybe not “indispensable”…)

I’m often getting on the back of Downloadsquad.com for suffering from Firefox blindness, but from time to time they point you to neat things. So thanks to them for pointing us to these absolutely indispensable web-based tools:

instantrimshot.com
and
sadtrombone.com

Just push the buttons.

Web-based e-mail, photo retouching, pffff… what I’ve been needing is audio-humor support!