t 'n t luoma

So I was downloading Firefox today (I know, shock and horror.... I keep it around, I just don't use it all that often) when I was yet again I was amused by their marketing not-untrue-but-not-the-whole-truth:

Hassle-Free Downloading: Files you download are automatically saved to your Desktop so they're easy to find. Fewer prompts mean files download quicker.

I can hear you already saying "Wow! That's cool, I mean, when it comes to downloading, faster is better, so Firefox must be better!"

Sure. But they have set up a false dichotomy, suggesting that you can have only one of these options: 1) fast download or 2) choose where you want the file to be saved.

Opera, on the other hand, starts to download every bit as soon as Firefox. You can set download folders for certain file types (granted, that requires a bit of a propeller hat to configure), or you can do "Quick Download" and have it download to your default directory. So already you have more choices.

But what if you're like me, and you don't want to bother setting up download folders, and you don't want everything to go to your Desktop?

What if you want to click on a download link and then create a new folder for the download, AND you also want to have the fastest download possible?

Well, then you should use Opera. Opera will start downloading the file immediately. You can save it to your default folder, or make a new folder, and Opera will be downloading all along.

Firefox says they have given you a faster solution, but it limits your freedom. You end up working for the computer under its terms (i.e. "If you want faster downloads, you'll do as I say"). Opera says, "Take your time, work how you want, I'm here doing what you asked in the background."

I hereby declare "Hassle Free Downloading" to be "Freedom Restricted Downloading"... it's every bit as true as what Firefox is trying to push off as truth.

Posted by TjL at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Tonight was apparently some award show for movies that we mostly haven't seen (or, in the case of The Aviator, just wish we hadn't), the results of which no one will remember in a week. I thought it was an appropriate time to recognize the work of one of our generations great actors: John Cusack.

It may be reasonably be said that he suffers from a mild case of Hugh Grant disease (i.e. playing the same character in several different movies), but he has been in several essential movies for folks of my generation.

Just look at his filmography: Sixteen Candles, Stand by Me, One Crazy Summer, The Sure Things, and, of course, Say Anything, the quintessence of the teenage romance movies, and the singular reason why I still can't bear to hear Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes. (Kickboxing, sport of the future....)

His greatest comedy, I believe, is Grosse Pointe Blank which was on again tonight (on StarZ Mystery channel, for reasons which are.... well mysterious, but that's peripheral). The movie not only tackles one of the greatest themes and most difficult to do well (going back home again, specifically to one's high school reunion). It comes out being the funniest of them all (and I'm even including Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion, which was actually quite funny, despite every expectation I had.)

There's a really good cast including Dan Ackroyd, and Joan Cusack gives a stellar supporting performance as well. The writing, which is the key to any movie worth watching, is superb. And let's not forget the great soundtrack.

His greatest dramatic achievement is probably Identity, which was also on this weekend. If you haven't seen it, set the TiVo. If you don't have TiVo, well you ought to get it, especially if you can get it with DirecTV. I won't give anything more away, except so that that the previews made it look like a horror movie or that it was really scary, and it was more just suspenseful and a few brief scenes of violence on-screen.

Runaway Jury was also a very good flick that was on this weekend.

(Revised 2005-03-02: fixed typo and broke up into entry + extended)

Posted by TjL at 02:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

..why every single monologue on "The Late Show with David Letterman" has to end with a mousical flourish that always always ALWAYS ends with a painfully high squeaky trumpet blast that is nothing but the embodiment of a 17" railroad spike being punched through your skull with a sledgehammer?

Every flipping night.

It has no musical artistry to it.

It has no purpose.

It's simply "Hey, listen to this really painful note that I can play and hold! Isn't that impressive?"

Yeah, if we were trying to knock down the walls of Jericho, you'd be first on my list. Otherwise you're just an idiot who's giving me a headache.

Please stop.

Posted by TjL at 01:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Opera lets you talk to your TV

Personally I've been talking to me TV for years, even yelling at it during certain seasons of the year.

But to have it actually respond?

However, I have to confess, the Orwellian part of me worries where this might lead. What would happen if the technology advanced to the point of having AI added in to allow it to respond?

What happens when it's able to monitor my blood pressure and realize when the stress of the big game is getting too much? Will it switch to another channel? Will it chastise me for watching too much CSI, for laughing too hard at the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, for watching Alias without Tracey?

Of course all of those fears are unfounded, because the technology came from Opera, not Microsoft :-)

Posted by TjL at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yet another redesign. Hopefully this one will last longer. Upgraded to MT3. If you don't have TypeKey, you can post a comment, but it will go to me for approval.

Some of the other pages are not yet styled with the update. For example, if you look at the Daily Dose of Ethan pages, you will see the old layout. What can I say, it takes a lot longer to do this with just a dialup account.

Obviously there is still some work to be done on the formatting, etc. But I wanted to get it out there so I could start seeing it live.

Posted by TjL at 03:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Browser Speed Test shows Opera as faster than IE and Firefox, which routinely claims to be faster than every other browser.

Not that I expect most Firefox advocates to respond with anything other than "Firefox is free" and "Firefox has a lot of extensions".

Posted by TjL at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ok, I've dealt with the last comment spam.

I'm upgrading to MovableType 3. I intend to use a strict comment policy. If you don't have a TypeKey account already, you ought to get one.

And I really hope that every last spammer out there finds themselves a respectable job so they can stop bothering people and wasting our time.

Posted by TjL at 08:52 PM | Permalink

(Summary: Bandwidth still matters. Speed still matters. Size matters. When viewing a well-designed website, Opera makes it easier for me to read what I want to read while avoiding what I want to avoid.)

Note to all websites that want me to read what you are writing:

Give me a printer friendly version, or I'll probably move on.

Why? Here's why:

Reading on the screen is hard.

My eyes are only 31.9 years old, but it's hard to read stuff online. Yeah, I could print it out, but that's annoying too.

I have a lovely monitor (Dell 1704FPV) running at 1280x1024. Very crisp, very clear. And yet, print is still fairly small.

So here's what I type when I hit a page that I want to read:

, [tells Opera to get ready to search for links on the page]

print [tells Opera to look for links on the page with the word "print" like "Print" or "Printer Friendly" or "Print This" etc]

[enter] [tells Opera to follow the link, presuming it has found one]

8 [tells Opera to bump up the zoom to 200%]

Read.

On most good sites, that will do it, but of course it doesn't work for every site. Some use images that say 'Print' which of course is really dumb. I can't search for text if the text is an image. Sure I can click on it, but first I have to 1) turn on images (I surf with them turned off, for speed), 2) find the right image, 3) click on it.

#3 is the real efficiency killer, because I have to reach for the mouse. Everything else I can do with the keyboard (turn on images = 'g' in Opera)

The other option I have is to turn on User Mode in Opera.

Preferences -> Page Style -> Configure Modes

User Mode lets me override the page style that the author has set. I generally uncheck all of the options for User Mode.

In Opera 8beta1, use the "View Toolbar Dropdown" (click the slightly creepy eye icon on the right hand side of the addressbar), and choose 'disable tables'

While not as good as real printer friendly page, it works fairly well.

Another option is to press 'p' which will invoke Print Preview mode in Opera. This generally gives a highly-readable black-type-on-white-background page which can also be zoomed. Press 'p' again to get out of Print Preview mode.

If you zoom a page and it creates a horizontal scrollbar, use Fit to Window Width (also available on the View Toolbar). That reminds me, I need to add a keyboard shortcut for that command.

For those of you who want to add your own, here's the command you want:

Enable mediumscreen mode | Disable mediumscreen mode

It's called "Fit to Window Width" in the GUI, but "Medium-screen Mode" is the official name. (NOTE: Opera will not expand to fit a window, just shrink. That may be obvious to everyone else, but it wasn't to me at first.)

Now some may question the ethics of this practice. Printer-friendly windows are generally ad-free (except for a few sites like C|Net). Avoiding ads is not my primary reason for using printer-friendly pages, but it is a reason. Although, since I surf with images and plugins disabled (quick F12 in Opera will let me re-enable them if I want to), I don't see many ads anyway.

You know what kind of ads that I see, which are often useful, and which have often led me to buy things (at least as often as any other kind of online advertising)?

Text based ads.

Not some obnoxious Flash ad, not some annoying animated GIF, but simply a little text box. So I know what you're thinking, "Wow, you must like Google Ads then!"

Well, I would, except that they seem to be loaded using JavaScript, and oh-did-I-mention that I usually surf with that off too?

What can I say? I'm a text kinda guy. If I could use my mouse with Lynx I probably would. Nah, Opera, as I have it configured, is probably every bit as fast as Lynx, but it gives me the option to easily enable the things I have disabled by default when I need them.

And once we get per-site-settings (all I want for Christmas, but before Christmas), I won't have to toggle the settings nearly as often as I do now.

Posted by TjL at 03:07 PM | Permalink