As mentioned in my earlier post the Opera party has been rocking.Especially the IRC.I am posting the Transcript of that with Opera’s CEO Jon von Tetzchner.I would post the transcripts of the chat with H?kon Wium Lie,Opera’s CTO and Trond,Opera developer.

Here is the transcript (My name is featured 3 times)

Jon = Opera’s CEO Jon von Tetzchner.

Destrado asks: Jon, may I have your autograph? Opera is just that awesome.
Jon Sure, Brianj. You just need to come to Oslo. Thanks for your support!
Jon Sorry, Destrado….

ThePast asks: Mr. von Tetzchner I have two questions, most importantly, I am ready to take a screenshot, so can you write your name here for my autograph collection? Second and more seriously. Despite being such a fantastic browser Opera have remained a small player on the market. What do you think is the biggest obstacles that Opera ASA have to overcome to gain popularity?

wow171 asks: are you using firefox on private pc’s ?
Jon wow171… although Firefox is a good browser, I use Opera for all my tasks. I use Opera for browser, mail, chat, everything.
Jon I do believe Opera is a better choice.

vinnie asks: Best wishes for all of Opera Software ASA. Q: What about that action with free reg. codes? is it for real?
Jon Vinnie… The registration codes are for real. This is our thanks to the community!

Lawmune asks: Has the launch of Opera Mini met your expecations?
Jon Lawmune, Yes, Opera Mini has been a great success! I have a lot of fun reading all the positive feedback on forums all around the world… even though the launch was only in Norway…

Joshtek asks: Do you often look at firefox extensions for inspiration on future Opera features?
Jon Joshtek, no. We try to innovate our selves.

relix aks - What’s your favorite, vanilla or chocolate ice cream? Or are you one of those rebellious warriors who like strawberry ice cream best?
Jon Relix, I guess I am kind of flexible on this. I like a lot of different kinds. I would have to rate cocunut as the top one.

Rickie asks: Will opera have rich text support anytime soon?
Jon Rickie, we are continuously looking at ways to improve Opera and rich text is a natural addition.

manxstar asks: How would you describe in one sentence you feeling about Opera Browser after 10 years in the business?
Jon Manxstar; that is a big question. I am delightet to be working with so many talented people. I am also thrilled about the support in the community. Nothin g is more fun than getting positive feedback on your work.

Several people ask: What do you think about IE7?
Jon I think it is great that MS is finally doing some work on IE. Hopefully they will be taking standards more seriously. That will move the web forward.

krijn asks: What’s your idea about browser statistics and Opera’s percentages? Imho there are more Opera users than all those sites actually say, because Opera has such nice caching features
Jon krijn; you are right. Opera has a more aggressive caching mechanism and that obviously leads to less page hits. We believe the user experience is more important than browser stats.

dohz asks - Since you mentioned standards, will we see full compliance with Acid2 in upcoming Opera releases?

19:47 joenp Typhix asks: What vision of the web’s future do you have? Where will be Opera’s place in that vision?
Jon Typhix, I believe the web will be becoming an even more important part of our lives. Our goal here at Opera is to be a central player in this future. We want to make sure that everybody gets Internet access on their terms. This is the reason why we make Opera run on older computers, add a lot of language support, add accessability features and innovate with new products such as Opera Mini. This is very important to us.

brianj dohz asks - Opera has always been known for producing browsers for various platforms, are there plans to diversify into other software?
Jon dohz, no we have no such plans. We focus on making a great browser… and things that go

TERRAZI asks: In Japan , when you break a promise, it is common to shave your hair. Why didn’t you shave, Jon?
Jon TERRAZI… Although I was unable to finish the swim to the US, we did make a nice effort… I am sure Eskil is happy that I selected to save him instead of continuing the swim.

yikes asks: What abt expanding to provide services that assist opera’s features- mail, newgroups, irc
Jon yikes; Sure. We do have, for example, the Opera accellerator. We will obviously strive to do things that make your browsing and mail experience better. We also aim to provide a very good community infrastructure.

TheMajor asks: How important is the Opera-setup file-size to Opera Software when adding new features? Do you sometimes decide to not include a feature cause it could increase the file-size?
Jon TheMajor; File size is important. We aim to provide a small and fast solution. We will do what is necessary to achive that goal. Adding features that add to the size is not done lightly.

Indyan asks: Sir,may i ask.How old are you?
Jon Indyan, I am 38. yesterday.

ThePast asks: Q. Jon, do you take an active part in the coding of Opera or does your duties as CEO prevent you from doing so even if you would like to?
Jon ThePast… I used to code myself. Then I got thrown out, because I introduced too many bugs… I still engage in discussions, though, and I am a very active beta tester.

alibaba asks: why is your development centre not located in silicon valley like other software players ?
Jon alibaba, we are located in Oslo. Luckily, a lot of the most talented programmers in the world are either based here or are willing to move here to work on Opera. I

relix asks: Do you program yourself? If yes, what languages do you love to work with most? What language would you not touch with a 5km long stick?
Jon Relix, I like to program, although I have not done so much of it lately. I like C++, Simula, Perl, … I am not found of the MFC libraries. I do like to code more direct.

Indyan asks - Sir,do you visit the myOpera community?
Jon Indyan, I am there every day. I want to hear what the community has to say about us. It is important for me to get the feedback.

Today my favorite browser Opera celebrates it’s 10th Birthday ONLINE! In 1994, two engineers at Telenor (the Norwegian phone company) developed the Opera browser for the company’s intranet.The following year, two members of the team — Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner and Geir Ivars?y — left Telenor to establish Opera Software to develop the browser commercially.Opera was founded on 19th August 1995.Opera v 2.1 final was released in December of 1996.Click here to see the timeline.
There is gonna be an open for all virtual party at http://my.opera.com/community/party/ .The
party starts at 13:00 GMT or 18:30 IST.The IRC channel is already online at irc://irc.opera.com/OperaParty ,go ahead and start chatting.Brianj the community manager has confirmed me that Jon and Wium Lie will be available for chat.Jon is scheduled to join around 16:00 CET and Wium Lie around 17:00 CET.It’s gonna get crazy! According to Opera watch it will also feature music, games, prizes, photos and a HUGE surprise!

There has been a lot of speculation as to what the BIG SURPRISE MAY BE.One of them is that Opera
for Desktop is going to become completely free.This speculation was triggered off by Heise
Newsticker’s report that Opera is considering an alternative new business model for the
Desktop.Daniel Gold of Opera-watch added fuel to this.
He wrote

Until version 5, Opera didn’t have a free version of its desktop browser. In the year 2000, however, it introduced the free version with ads.Here is what Opera said at that time: “Before this release [version 5], between 1 and 1.5 million people worldwide used Opera. A sizeable number, but we were dwarfed in comparison to our competitors. Finding one’s niche and prospering can be good for many companies, but for us it posed a particular problem. A lot of sites were
being constructed just to work with one browser, in effect shutting Opera users out. Therefore we felt the time had come to let Opera out in a free version, so that millions more could enjoy Opera’s Internet experience. Opera 5.0 for Windows was ’set free’ in December of 2000, and during the first month 2 million users downloaded the browser.”Removing the ads would have an even greater effect on the number of Opera users. The rest of the Opera products would also
benefit from such a change.

As expected there hasnt been any response yet from Opera but Jax - Opera’s Core technology developer said “The desktop Opera is crucial to what we do (and profitable, incidentally), there is no benefit
in leaving it. We were not, are not, will not merely be a phone browser. Don’t worry about it,
no point in suggesting it either.”

To me that seems like a strong suggetion that an ad-free version of Opera isnt in the cards.

Another possibily is the announcement of Opera v9!Dan1el an Opera forum member has recieved at his sites with the browser useragent identifying as Opera v9!Another member of myOpera forums AutisticCuckoo has got hits from opera.com domain, with an UA string of ‘Opera/9.0!
Operawatch had earlier reported that “Opera is currently working on a major upgrade for the rendering engine of the
Opera browser”.The only thing that is known about this core is that it would have better results
with ACID2(would probably pass it by the time it gets relased).So it is a possibility that Opera
v9 is being internally tested and a beta release may be made today.

A new revamped Opera community site is also a possibility.
But these are all speculations.The actual announcement may not be related to any of these.But,there is no harm in guessing :>> .
And before i forget, you can get an ad-free version of Opera,if you act now! Click here for instructions.This offer is valid from 12
a.m. Tuesday, August 30 to 12 a.m. Wednesday, August 31 2005 (PDT).

That’s all for now.

Three Cheers for Opera!

Update:Opera has finally revealed what the surprise is.They are not going completely free,but are giving away a free key to everyone.Grab them from while they last

About a month after it’s release Opera v8 has crossed the 4 million download mark,thus prooving that it has created quite a bit of interest among netizens.Offcourse Firefox fan would perhaps grinn sarcastically at this figure as in about the same time Firefox had grossed twice the number of downloads.However that doesnt make any difference to me as download number entirely reflect quality,but what it reflects is popularity.And yes,Firefox is definitely much more popular thanks to it’s FREE and OPEN SOURCE tag.Offcourse Opera is a “Commercial software” which requires you to pay 39$.However a free ad-supported version of it is available for download free of cost.Sadly due to bad experience with other crippled sharewares people flinch to download anything which isnt absolutely free.
But TRUST ME even the add-supported version of Opera is worth it.The google ads are just like the ones you would see in websites.As you can see from the screenshot the viewing area is almost same as Firefox.

Anyway vertical scrolling isnt very concerning(as long as you mouse is equipped with a mouse wheel).However what is irritating is Horizontal scrolling,and that is where Opera does excellently.Opera can reallign and rezise the page to remove horizontal scrolling.It works very nicely in most cases.However Opera screws up when it tries to resize pages with large flash files.You can also zoom in and out of pages easily.
Opera is packed with features.It would take me pages to describe them in detail.So I am touching upon them briefly below.

It has RSS feed manger,IRC client,NNTP newsgroups and an email client(with spam filter).Opera was among the first to arrange mails according to views.Offcourse it was gmail who made this concept popular.
Another innovative feature is the ability to save notes while browsing.The magic wand manages your passwords with ease and style.
Opera was the probably the first browser with pop-up blocking and handy search bar.It is also the first browser to have voice recognition feature.Yes!YOu can fully controll opera with your voice.Not only that Opera can read out webpages and your emails aloud using high quality voice libraries from IBM.
Opera’s security track record is worth envying.It is a standard compliant browser with support for Jacascript and CSS.Features like ability to continue browsing from where you left last time to re-opening acceidentaly closed pages,searchable history,editing web pages on the fly make your life easier.
A very less known feature of Opera is Opera show.Opera Show is a presentation tool that can turn your web pages into presentations. Taking regular HTML, and adding a little magic CSS, the web page is transformed to look more like a PowerPoint document.The presentations will appear as a full presentation in Opera with a simple press of the F11 key.
For more info on Opera show and it’s advantages over Power point visit howtocreate.co.uk
And finally a fully customisable interface is the icing on the cake.Several beautifull skins are available on the net.

And all this is available in a tiny 3.6mb setup,which is much less than Firefox in spite of having lots of more features.If you feel worried that it may be bloated,well it is not!It is lighter than most browsers(Firefox included.)

Get the latest version from
URL http://snapshot.opera.com/windows/

Opera is also available for other platforms.

N.B:This was written quite a few months ago for my previous blog.I have just copied it here.

More than a year ago Google stirred the internet and revolutionised it by introducing Gmail! People instantly started believing that whatever Google would do would turn into gold. And ever since then Google has gone into frenzy. They have expanded at a tremendous rate, announcing new services every now and then.
3 days ago an article by NYTIMES hinting the launch of a Google IM got the whole world interested. People have been demanding a Google IM for quite a long time now, and indeed this Public demand may have played a major role in goggle’s decision to venture into this new arena.
Since it’s launch yesterday, Google Talk has been downloaded by thousands, but does it live up to it’s expectation?

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Finally,i got my blog up and running.I had to change host as i couldnt acces the admincp of my previous host!As a result of that i couldn’t get my mysql db also backed up.
I have put up some of my old articles but all comments have been lost.
Let’s hope that this host lasts longer than the previous one.;D

P.S.To my friends,i havent got my blogroll updated.I would do that soon.

Election is the greatest exercise in democracy.And the communist party in west bengal is adamant to make sure that they carry out this exercise in a way like no other government(they do have some competition from the neighbour though)

Here is picture from a local newspaper revealing as to how extraordinary this local governing bodies election was!

Surprised?Yes you probably would be.What is more surprising is that they have been doing it year after year and yet outside West Bengal very few people know about it.And this is exactly how even after dismal performences Communist parties have managed to stay in power for more than 25 years.They have ruled,and countless people have shed thier bloods.

Anyway,considering the track record of Communist parties in Russia,China and elsewhere this is not surprising.Democracy and Communism aren’t the best of friends.Are they?

Below i am quoting an Article from The Statesman
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Advani’s recent comment that “Jinnah was secular” has created a huge political storm in India.In the face of barrage of attacks from RSS and internal grudgings Advani has decided to resign.
But the question is was Jinnah secular?

Jinnah was an well educated Muslim who didnt belive in the supersitions and rituals of the religion.Initially he was an open minded individual.Infact he played an important role in the Lukhnow Pact.This Pact brought the Muslim League and the Congress closer together.During this period he was a secular man who wanted Hindu Muslim unity.

But things began to change after 1925.Gandhiji’s influence began to rise.The congress left constitutional means of agitation and switched to more effected and drastic means like Non cooperation.This pushed the League and the Congress apart.Due to clever British policy of divide and rule and his own jealousy and ambition Jinnah started to belive that no good could be done to the Muslims as long as Congress was at large.In later stages of his carrier he definitely wasnt secular.

Click here to read an interesting article published by The Telegraph on this topic.

Here are the excerpts

Even as late as 1925, Jinnah retained the political attributes that harked back to the early Congress. He remained committed to secular reform and national independence. When the young Raja of Mahmudabad spoke of himself as a ?Muslim first??, Jinnah chided him: ?My boy, no, you are an Indian first and then a Muslim.?? Jinnah began on the fringes of Muslim politics but he marked out for himself a space in Indian politics by becoming the sole spokesman of Muslims in India and also by making himself the champion of the two-nation theory……
…..He was a Westernized and secular man who contributed to the making of communal politics in India.

Click here to see excerpts from Jinnah’s address on Aug11,1947

Another interesting piece was in a Bengaly newspaper.It says that there was a rumour that when Advani was 20 he was among the group of people that had tried to kill Jinnah.Was Advani trying to compensate for the mistake he commited in his youth?

A couple of days ago I mentioned in this article that there are romours that Advani may have been among the group of People that had attempted to assassinate Jinnah in 1947.
But Pakistan has squashed those rumours saying that L.K. Advani?s name does not figure in the FIR filed in 1947 in connection with a conspiracy to assassinate Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

?The file was not in good shape but after looking at it, we have found that the name of Advani does not appear either in the statements of prosecution witnesses or in the list of accused who had absconded,? the official said.

Before Advani’s trip the Pakistani media had prominently featured these rumours.

According to reports, the FIR in question was filed at Jamshed Quarters police station in Karachi on September 10, 1947, and named 19 Hindus for conspiring to kill Jinnah.

According to the FIR, the RSS had sent Rs 52,585 to the accused persons to help them execute the plan. Cheques of Rs 1,500, Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000 were also deposited in banks in the names of the accused. The file revealed that weapons and explosives were purchased with the money sent by the then RSS president, the weekly said.

The plan came to the notice of the police following a bomb explosion in Shikarpuri Haveli on August 10, 1947, in which one person was killed and several injured.

A tribunal had found the accused guilty of conspiring to murder Jinnah, the file said. However, its last two pages were missing.

Offcourse this issue had been relegated to the back seat after the controvery about Jinnah’s secularism sparked off.But now I have reservations about that allegation too.
This article by Deep opened my eyes.He says that Advani had never made any such comment.You can read Advani’s full speech here.

He said

Swami Ranganathananda passed away in April this year. The last time I met him was in Kolkata last year. He was 96 but still very agile in mind and radiant in spirit. Our talk, among other things, turned to his years and my years in Karachi. He asked me, ‘Have you read Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s speech in Pakistan’s Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947? It is a classic exposition of a Secular State, one which guarantees every citizen’s freedom to practice his or her religion but the State shall not discriminate between one citizen and another on the basis of religion.‘

He says that he belives that this is the ideal that India, Pakistan as well as Bangladesh — the three present-day sovereign and separate constituents of the undivided India of the past, sharing a common civilisational heritage — should follow.

But no where in his speech he mentinoed that Jinnah was secular or that Pakistan is a secular state.And undoubtedly Jinnah’s speech on Aug11,1947 was secular.It is another fact that it never materialised.You can see some excerpts from the speech here

It seems like it is the media which should be blamed for this contreoversy.Any comments?