I ended up with $125 in Audible.com gift certificates.

My question was how could I make the best use of them.

What’s Your Plan?

Audible.com has a bunch of different plans. Some are monthly, some are annual.

When I bought my last Treo (two years ago) I got $100 in Audible.com credit towards one of their plans, so I signed up for the AudibleListener® Platinum Annual which is $230/year, but with the coupon it was only $130 for 24 credits.

I ended up with a bunch of credits left over at the end of the year, so I signed up for their $10/year program which let me A) keep my credits and B) buy books at a “Member’s Only” price (jacket not included).

With $125 to spend, my first thought was to spend another $25 and sign up for the AudibleListener® Gold Annual program (12 credits for $150 or $12.46/credit).

Of course I could just use the gift certificates to buy books. With my $10/year membership I end up with a lot of good sales and discounts. However if you use Audible Credits, each book is worth 1 credit, regardless of price. (There may be some books which are more than 1 credit but I don’t think I’ve found any. This isn’t like the old Columbia Record House deal where you’d get 7 CDs for a penny but if you got a long CD it might count at two.)

However, as I looked more closely, there’s a smarter way to go if you don’t need all of your credits at once: AudibleListener® Platinum Monthly. For $23/month you get 2 credits. For $125 I could get 5 months (10 credits) and have $10 left over. For another $13 I could get another month of AudibleListener® Platinum Monthly (total of 6 months) and end up with 12 credits for $138 in 6 months, versus AudibleListener® Gold Annual which is 12 credits for $150.

Which makes the AudibleListener® Platinum Monthly the better deal unless you need your credits fast. I don’t. Right now I have 9 credits in my account already and my AudibleListener account doesn’t expire until 03/23/2008. So I can start my AudibleListener® Platinum Monthly then and I’ll be good at least through the end of September.

One question I don’t know the answer to: if I don’t have an account where I am paying something per year, can I still access my account and re-download books I have purchased? One of the nice features of Audible.com is the “Library” where you can re-download books if needed.

Yes Audible.com books have DRM but it is the “lightest” DRM that you are ever likely to find. You can burn most Audible.com books to CD (which then have no DRM) and there is no limit (as far as I know) to the number of “Authorized Devices” that you can associate with your account. Audible has dozens-and-dozens if not hundreds of compatible devices. I bought a digital voice recorder not too long ago which was actually Audible compatible (you can download them to the device and listen to it via the built-in speaker or plug in headphones). And of course like any sane audio product, it is compatible with iPods and the iPhone.

This dialog looks the same as previous versions, but the underlying functionality has changed completely.

What changed?

Long-time users of Opera know that “Save” has meant “Save to my Downloads Folder” and “Open” has always meant “Save to my Downloads Folder and then Open”

Note: most links on this page will open in a new window. Close that window to return to this page. Also, many links refer to Opera’s own opera:config settings and do not apply to other browsers and therefore will not work in other browsers.

That changed in Opera 9. If you choose “Open” the files are not saved in your default Download directory, instead they are saved to Temporary Downloads folder.

Why did Opera change this?

For some time there has been debate about whether “Open” should mean “Open and Save” or not. Some were for it, arguing that if I want to delete the file later, I can do that fairly easily. Some where against it, saying that if they just opened a file that didn’t necessarily mean they wanted to keep it, and they could save it manually if that is what they wanted.

Neither of these positions could be defined as “right” or “wrong” since one could reasonably hold either position. There are then two considerations: 1) What has Opera done in the past? and 2) What do other browsers do? #1 is simply as we have already discussed. I honestly don’t know what the answer to #2 is because I use Opera, and if I wanted to know what other browsers did, I’d use other browsers. Opera ASA needs to consider the expectations of “switchers” and so it is not unreasonable for them to consider changing this if, for example, Internet Explorer and Firefox do it differently. But just because users are used to the way that browsers work doesn’t mean they prefer it.

From my observation (which is by no means scientifically conclusive) it appears that there are a sizable number of users on either side of this preference. Some want to use the Downloads folder, some do not.

The proper solution, therefore, would seem to be to find a way to meet the needs of both groups, realizing that one group would not get their desired behavior as the default but at least it would be an option.

Opera has, uncharacteristically, failed to do that.

Why is this a problem?

Fundamentally, I don’t believe that Opera should ever delete a file that I download. Formerly there was a zero chance risk that I might accidentally delete a file I had downloaded by exiting Opera or emptying my cache. The worst thing that could happen was that my downloads folder might be a bit cluttered, but it would be cluttered with files I had expressed an interest in by opening them in the first place.

Secondly, the current implementation of this is inconsistent, buggy, and poorly documented.

Thirdly, and I cannot stress this enough, Opera has failed to give me a way to get back the preferred behavior which it cultivated me to expect for the past 6 years. That is perhaps the most egregious of the various problems. If you feel you have to change the way that something has always worked, if you feel you have to change the default way that something worked (even when a large group of your users preferred it) then you ought to feel obligated to give your long-time users a way to get back to their preferred way of working.

Given the advent of opera:config I find this omission particularly bothersome. They would not have even needed to add this to the general Preferences. A quick look through the listed preferences will find much more obscure settings than this one which effects daily usage of Opera.

How long will the file be saved if I choose “Open” instead of “Save”?

You will have a hard time finding an official answer. Opera Settings File Explained doesn’t explain when it will happen. It doesn’t even mention this feature, although the document claims to have been updated for 9.0.

There is no mention of this “feature” at all in the Opera 9.0 changelog.

If you look at the changes since Beta 2 changelog you can see one reference: “Temporary download directory used for opening files in external applications can now be modified in opera:config.”

If you look at changelog for Opera 9 beta 2 you will read that “Temporary downloads are now cleared when deleting cache.”

Which is true. Except when it isn’t.

Based on my research, I have to say that the only real answer is “It depends.”

To fully understand how this “feature” works, I made two clean installs of Opera, one in Windows and one in Mac. Here’s what I found:

If you are using Opera, check your Empty Cache on Exit setting.

If you tell WinOpera to Empty Cache on Exit, the Temporary Downloads folder will be deleted on exit.

If you use MacOpera to Empty Cache on Exit, the Temporary Downloads folder will not be deleted on exit.

Why the disparity?

Note: you can check your cache path at opera:about or look for Cache Directory4 in opera:config

By default, WinOpera stores the Temporary Downloads folder inside the cache folder. If you did a default installation, the path to the default cache folder probably looks like this: C:\Documents and Settings\YourLoginName\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile\cache4\. The cache folder is cleared out when you choose the Tools → Delete Private Data or when you quit Opera if you have Empty Cache on Exit selected.

By contrast, MacOpera stores the Temporary Downloads folder outside the cache folder. Sort of. The default path for MacOpera’s cache is ~/Library/Caches/Opera/Cache/. (Yes, that path is sponsored by the Department of Redundancy Department.) Opened files are stored in ~/Library/Caches/Opera/Temporary Downloads/. The contents of ~/Library/Caches/Opera/Cache/ are cleared when you do “Empty Cache on Exit” but the Temporary Downloads folder is not emptied when the cache is emptied, presumably because it is not in more specific cache directory. So MacOpera users are not even getting the supposed-advantage of this new feature.

Warning: There are a large number of third-party “cache cleaner” applications out there which may delete anything found in the ~/Library/Caches/ folder, so I would highly recommend changing that location if you want to preserve your Temporary Downloads.

However if you choose Tools → Delete Private Data then the Temporary Downloads file is emptied. Usually. It appears that folders inside the Temporary Downloads folder of MacOpera are not deleted even if Tools → Delete Private Data is chosen. So if you (for example) chose to “Open” a .zip file which contained a .pkg, the .zip would be opened, the .pkg would be left in the Temporary Downloads folder and you would have to manually delete it.

Likewise, in WinOpera, if you move the Temporary Downloads folder out of the cache folder (i.e. C:\Documents and Settings\YourLoginName\Desktop\Temporary Downloads) and then exit, the cache will be emptied (if you have selected “Empty on Exit”) but the Temporary Downloads will not be. In fact, it will not be emptied even if you choose Tools → Delete Private Data.

Let me say that again: If you change the location of the Temporary Downloads folder in WinOpera, it will apparently never be emptied.

If you change the MacOpera Temporary Downloads folder to somewhere other than the default, and then choose Tools → Delete Private Data that folder is emptied.

To sum up for Mac: “Empty Cache on Exit” never seems to work, but “Delete Private Data” does.

Before we go on, you may want to Review/change Temporary Downloads location here or disable Empty Cache on Exit.

What’s the problem?

You mean besides the buggy, inconsistent, and undocumented behavior?

The problem is that Opera has traded one problem for another, and the new “feature” seems poorly, or at least inconsistenly, implemented. So the problem is not so much fixed as it is changed.

Let’s re-examine the stated problem that this was originally supposed to fix: “Opened files should not be saved to the downloads directory.” Has that been fixed? Sort of. Sometimes. It depends.

What happened as a result of this change? Users who “Open” files will probably still have the files on their hard drive somewhere, just not where they might expect to find them. And those who thought that they were deleting those files may be surprised to find out they really didn’t.

What could have been done differently? Let users “Open” files directly into the Cache folder. And let users decide if they want to use that functionality or not. A whole layer of complexity could have been avoided — and if it doesn’t seem complex, please re-read the above. I can nearly guarantee that Opera ASA will have to spend more time cleaning this up than if they had made the simple and seemingly obvious change in the beginning: Let users use their cache if they want to, or let them use their regular downloads folder if they want to.

But isn’t this a change for the better?

It depends. If you didn’t like your Downloads folder getting cluttered up but don’t mind the files still being somewhere on your hard drive, then I guess this is better.

If you want your opened files saved, this is worse.

If you thought that having the opened files automatically deleted would increase security, so far it hasn’t.

Which is more intuitive:

1. I save or open a file and it goes to my download folder, and is opened if requested.
2. I save a file and it goes to my download folder. I open a file and it goes to a different folder where it will stay until I manually delete my cache or turn on “Exit Cache on Exit” unless I specify a different folder, sometimes, depending on which platform I am using.

A much better solution would have been a single checkbox preference (or in opera:config) which said something to the effect of:

[ ] Use cache folder for files I open via download dialog

Or

[X] Save opened files in Download directory

Opera would have avoided the whole mess of having a separate folder for Temporary Downloads which may or may not be emptied when the cache is. And it would have kept itself in the Opera tradition of giving the user control of his/her own browser. Opera 9 fails to do that with this change. It switched from failing to meet the needs of one group of users to failing to meet the needs of another group of users. And introduced new bugs with the new feature.

Why does this irritate you so much?

What is much worse than everything I’ve mentioned so far is that I now have to think more. Yes, I realize people will laugh and point and get all sarcastic about that. “Oh boo hoo, you have to think.” But the point is this: What I want from a browser (or any piece of software), and what I have loved about Opera more than any other browser on Mac or Windows, is that it gets out of the way and lets me work. The less it gets in the way, the better it works for me.

Now when I see that dialog I have to think “Do I need to save this file or do I want to open it?” Most of the time I want to save and open it. If I want to open it, I need to remember to save it manually. I don’t want to have to think about that. If I decide to save it because I don’t want to forget to manually save it later, then I have to remember to go back and open it when it finishes downloading. Remember I spend a good portion of my time on a very slow dialup connection, so it can take awhile for even small files to download, and I certainly don’t want to have to re-download something because Opera threw it away!

Windows users: if you want to preserve your opened files, I would recommend that you move the Temporary Downloads folder out of the cache. However please realize that this behavior (not emptying the Temporary Downloads folder if it is not in the cache) is most likely going to be considered a bug by Opera ASA and may change in the future. The only true “safe” course of action is to disable Empty Cache on Exit and only manually delete the cache after verifying that there are no files you want to keep in the Temporary Downloads folder.

Mac users: You can safely use Empty Cache on Exit (for now) but realize that your Temporary Downloads will be deleted whenever you choose Delete Private Data from the menu. Also, if you use any of the cache cleaner utilities, make sure to relocate the Temporary Downloads folder first.

Mac users: you may be interested in a Folder Action to automatically save opened files.

Answer: Using a Folder Action, you can automatically move files from your Temporary Downloads folder to your default downloads folder.

Wow, you rock! This is probably flawless, bugless, and covered by some sort of guarantee, right?

Heck no. It comes with no promises, no warranty, no suitablity for any purpose expressed or implied…. Caveat any- and every-thing. All I’ll say is that it works for me, and should work for you. Use at your own risk, your mileage may vary, do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

NOTE: This script is designed to run on Mac OS X which has a non-standard ‘mv’ command with a ‘-n’ flag which will refuse to overwrite an existing file.

It has been tested under 10.4.6 and MacOpera build 3447 (which is Opera 9.0 Final. See opera:about to verify your version

Note that MacOpera 9 fixes one previous annoyance which was the use of an odd character in the default cache path, which used to look like this: ~/Library/Caches/Opera Cache/Cache ƒ. That wreaked havoc with shell scripts. Good riddance.

Warning: If the Temporary Downloads folder itself is deleted, I expect that the Folder Action will be disabled, even if the folder is re-created. You will need to repeat these steps (at least some of them). However, the folder itself is not deleted even when the cache is emptied.

How do I use this?

Step 1: Open /Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor.app and paste in this code:

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
     do shell script “/usr/local/bin/save-opened-opera-files.sh”
end adding folder items to

Note that we will be creating /usr/local/bin/save-opened-opera-files.sh below and you can call that file whatever you want.

Step 2: Save the Script Editor file to /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/. (You don’t have to save it there, strictly speaking, but it does make it easier in certain circumstances.) I called mine “SaveTempDownloads.scpt”

Step 3: Open the Temporary Downloads folder. This is in ~/Library/Caches/Opera/Temporary Downloads/ and Right/Control Click onto the folder and choose “Enable Folder Actions” if it isn’t already.

Step 4: Right/Control Click on the Temporary Downloads folder and choose “Attach a Folder Action”

Step 5: Choose the Folder Action Script, and select the file you saved in Step 2 above (“SaveTempDownloads.scpt” in my example)

Step 6: Save save-opened-opera-files.sh.zip to your Desktop, then issue these three commands in Terminal.app:

1. unzip ~/Desktop/save-opened-opera-files.sh.zip
2. chmod 755 ~/Desktop/save-opened-opera-files.sh
3. sudo mv -i ~/Desktop/save-opened-opera-files.sh /usr/local/bin/

Note that you will have to enter your administrator password to use sudo

Step 7: After all the steps, simply Open a file in Opera and see where it ends up. If it is in your Temporary Downloads folder, you know something went wrong.

I am a simple person with a simple question.

If you want to actually get a question to Jon, you can post it here on Slashdot .

but here is my response.

Following years and years and years… (I am now retired!) of using Microsoft Internet Explorer browser it would be difficult to just “change”.

You would probably be surprised how easy it is. Both Opera and Firefox have spent a lot of time making the transition easier. Many things will work similarly if not the same. There are mailing lists, web forums, and IRC chat rooms available for you to use

Which brings me to my simple question (and I wonder if it will be answered….DIRECTLY??).

I will do my best.

At present my Microsoft IE Version 6.0 browser works fine for me. Will it continue to work OK if I install Opera please; put another way, will they both work together satisfactorily until I can see that for me one suits me more than the other?

Absolutely! You can (and probably should) leave Internet Explorer installed. Windows nearly relies on it for many things. They absolutely can live happily together. The only possible “argument” is over who will be the default. Opera will ask you (the first time you run it *after* installation) if you want to make it the default. You can tell Opera to be the default by going to Preferences > Advanced and select “Programs” and then check (or uncheck) the box next to “Check if Opera is default browser”

If you select the “Details” button, you can select exactly what Opera will and won’t do:

Internet Explorer will check to see if it is the default browser unless you tell it not to by going to Control Panel → Internet Options and click on the “Programs” tab:

It is not a realistic situation for some like myself after years of use which frankly has been OK to just SWAP in an instant from one Browser to another.

Whether or not it will work is largely a matter of disposition. If you are convinced before you start that you won’t be able to change, you probably won’t. If you’re willing to try it, you probably will. I remember when my Dad was forced to start using a computer at work. He hated it. After a month or so, he liked it. By the time he left, he was frustrated because he had to share a printer with others!

I recommend that you give Opera a try as your default browser. You can always use Internet Explorer for the sites that don’t work in Opera. In fact, some Opera users have come up with custom buttons to use in Opera which will make this easier. See http://nontroppo.org/wiki/CustomButtons#webdev

The recently released preview of Opera9 (codename Merlin) includes a new set of keyboard shortcuts, including + T for new tab.

(NOTE: Windows users, use ctrl where I refer to the Mac Command key.)

For those who have used Opera for awhile, this will take some adjustment. This one change had a ripple effect:

+ T used to be “Bookmark This Page” which is now + D.

+ D used to be “Paste and Go” which is now + shift + V (similar to “Paste” which is, of course, + V.

(Unfortunately there is a bug where “Paste and Go” now opens a background page/tab rather than reusing the current page/tab. That is a known-bug.)

Reload

Opera’s version of “Reload is similar to the Reload in other browsers (called “Refresh” in Internet Explorer). Simply put, it will connect to the server and fetch a new copy of the page.

How to Reload

One is to press F5 or + R which will attempt to reload the current page from the server.

Reload from Cache (aka “Refresh”)

This is a unique-to-Opera feature. One of Opera’s strengths is its superior cache handling (see History Preferences. It’s one of the reasons that the “BACK” button works so quickly in Opera.

This feature used to be called “Refresh display” which apparently was a little confusing to people. The feature is now “tucked away” as Tools → Advanced → Reload from cache. The new name is more specific, but perhaps a little more difficult to understand. All you need to know is that cache is the version of the page which is stored on your computer. Using “Reload from cache” will not fetch a new copy from the server, it will simply tell Opera to reload the local copy of the page. This can be helpful if there was a display problem.

I call it “Lotus Wait” because if you let if go idle for a half hour or so it decides to refresh the synchronization between the client and server before it will cough up new mail. I got fed up one day with this state of affairs and decided to see if I could make Opera work as a Lotus Notes client since it support IMAP mail services. I figured Opera’s blazing speed would make my day. I was right. It did and here’s how. I wanted my mail without the wait and I got it with Opera.

Background

Although the POP3 protocol is the most widely used mail retrieval protocol used today, there is an alternative that overcomes some of its limitations. The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) was designed as a superset of POP3, and enhances both message retrieval and management. Lotus Notes uses the IMAP protocol. By comparison most if not all of your email in Opera is under the POP protocol.

Setting Up the Account

In Opera you need to set up a new email account the same way as you would if you were setting up a POP account. In Opera 8 from the menu choose //Tools and then choose // Mail & Chat Accounts. Click on the [New] button and choose [IMAP] then click on [Next]. Fill in the data fields as you would for any other email account.

Your Lotus Notes Mail server name, which is an IMAP server, and your SMTP server name should be the same. For instance, if your server is Lotus Notes Server 1, and is named LNMAIL01, and your domain is MYDOMAIN.COM, then your IMAP and SMTP servers will be the same, e.g., LNMAIL01.MYDOMAIN.COM Of course they could be named differently.

If you are not sure about your server names, when you send mail using the regular Lotus Notes client look in the lower left corner of your screen for the server name. You can also see it in Notes under //Menu, //File, //Preferences, etc. This will work for version 5 or later versions of Lotus Notes. if in doubt check with your company’s Help Desk.

Getting Mail

Once you have correctly set up the email account, tell Opera to get your Lotus Notes email. Assuming you have folders, Opera should populate them as part of the initial synchronization sequence. Wait a moment for this to happen. Enjoy the show.

When you send mail from Opera your messages will be routed through your IMAP server and will also show up in the SENT MAIL folder in your Notes client as well as in sent mail in Opera. This means your ‘sent mail’ will be on your PC in Opera and on your PC in the Lotus Notes client. That means if you go back to your Lotus Notes client, all the email you sent from Opera 8 will be waiting there for you in the ‘Sent’ folder.

Also, when people send you mail to your Lotus Notes email address, and you download that email to Opera, you will be able to add them as contacts in the Opera address book. You will have to transform Lotus Notes address syntax to Internet syntax. Assuming you know the person’s domain name, their email address is embedded in the Lotus Notes address syntax.

For example: John Doe/JDOE/LNMAIL01/ABUSINESS@CORP would translate as John.Doe@abusiness.corp.com for your address book. If the directory at his firm supports it, you could also translate it as: jdoe@abusiness.corp.com Don’t take this too literally as each site has its own naming conventions subject to the limits of what Lotus Notes offers the system administator.

I don’t know of any way to transfer your personal address book in Lotus Notes to Opera. Your corporate directory is likely way too large to put on your PC anyway.

When you receive mail it will go into the same folders you specified in the Lotus Notes Client assuming you’ve used Lotus Notes rules to route incoming mail to various folders. For instance, I keep email from my manager in the main inbox and route list traffic to sub-folders. One good thing to remember is that under the IMAP protocol, any email from Lotus Notes you download to Opera will still be waiting for you the next time you fire up your regular Lotus Notes client. The email stays on the server until the real client, and not Opera, calls for it.

Caveats

Lotus Notes is a very large program and the client under V.6.5.x is slow even on fast machines and fast networks. You will really like the speed of composing and sending Lotus Notes email from Opera. Unfortunately, you will still have to go back to the LN client to do calendar and any Lotus Notes forms that your company uses. Also, because the Opera M2 email client doesn’t support HTML formatting, you can only send text messages using Opera as the Lotus Notes client. Your email recipients may not notice as their Lotus Notes client will format the message using whatever font they specified in their preferences.

You will not be able to delete email messages from your IMAP server from Opera. You will still have to do that from the Lotus Notes client. This is a function of Lotus Notes and not of Opera. It works the same way under Outlook Express or any other mail client that supports IMAP.

Your IT department will probably give you a storage quota for Lotus Notes. The default is 60 Mb, which isn’t enough for a busy email account. Make sure you go back to the LN client from time-to-time to clean out your inbox and folders. Keep in mind Opera won’t be able to read Lotus Notes archives and you won’t be able to carry over any color coding of email.

Lotus Notes is thought to be heading towards a web-enabled interface for version 7.x and beyond, but for most of us using Lotus Notes version 6.5.x, taking out the overhead by using Opera’s blazing speed is a really nice treat.

Hope this helps.

Thanks again to Dan for writing this all up. See also Opera Sings in America (chooseopera.com) and Dan’s weblog Opera in the News

ps - yes, another day is coming, I promise!

The good news is that you can safely ignore this most of the time. The bad news is that there is no way (yet) to disable this completely.

When you connect to and IRC server (see Day 13: Opera Chat) using MacOpera, you will see this prompt:

Don’t panic if MacOpera asks for your password. In fact, you don’t even have to enter it if you don’t want to.

This prompt actually comes from Mac OS X, as MacOpera is attempting to reply to an ident request from the IRC server (technically speaking, MacOpera is attempting to open port 113 briefly).

“ident” is an old method of trying to authenticate someone’s identity when they connect to an IRC server. It is not considered particularly secure as people have been spoofing ident for a long time.

So if you see this prompt when using MacOpera, it is probably because you are trying to connect to an IRC server. You can either type in your password or just click cancel (or press esc) and the prompt will go away.

Most IRC servers will let you connect anyway (Opera’s does).

Hopefully a future version of MacOpera will have a feature to disable authentication entirely, so you won’t have to see this prompt at all.