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Opera Gives That C64 Feel

howcome writes "Opera yesterday relased beta2 of the forthcoming 7.0 version. Opera now supports mulitple user style sheets and by selecting "Nostalgia" from the menu all web pages suddenly resemble Commodore 64 (screendump1 screendump2) from 20 years back. Also, there is a handheld emulator to see what a page will look like on a handheld device running Opera. To get you through Christmas, you can also use the "fast-forward" button. Try it on Google (screendump)!"

131 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. But what about the vic 20? by everyplace · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have fond memories of dialing up with the 300 baud modem hooked up to the old vic 20. When will I be able to relive that experience?

    1. Re:But what about the vic 20? by BitHive · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, I'm already reliving the speed of that experience...

    2. Re:But what about the vic 20? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
      I'm living that right now. Opera.com seems to be nearly slashdotted.

      Slashdot: Forcing Websites To Emulate The 300-baud Experience.

    3. Re:But what about the vic 20? by puppet10 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Just go to a /.'ed site with the nostalgia browser to get the full effect.

      --
      -------- This space intentionally left blank --------
    4. Re:But what about the vic 20? by everyplace · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nostalga Browser. That's a good one. Can we look forward to a new version that only supports a proprietary type of Nostalgia? And then I can use an alternative nostalgia browser to suppress unwanted memories from inadvertently popping up in my head when I remember something specific.

      I'm really looking forward to when my fond memories have to be signed with a digital certificate in order for me to remember them. You know, to remove the possibility that I might remember something incorrectly.

    5. Re:But what about the vic 20? by Moses+Lawn · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just support the Open Nostalgia Project. All memories in Ogg Vorbis format, live and streaming. gnostalgia is in early beta, and I hear KMemories is koming ksoon.

      --

      What if life is just a side effect of some other process and God has no idea we exist?

  2. sadly, they are not the world's fastest anymore . by kraksmoka · · Score: 2

    . . . . at least on mac. this is just nostalgia to try and make people forget that their engine is dog slow.

    --
    "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
  3. Oops by SmartGamer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Predictably, the images are down.

    Opera just made a mistake, in my opinion, with that. I liked how they kept the browser streamlined and stripped down; this new feature is, possibly, a sign of creeping featurism and surrender to the forces of software bloat.

    Oh well. I guess if I want a simple browser, I should stick to Lynx.

    --
    Warning: Poster of this comment is a nerd. Just like everybody else here.
    1. Re:Oops by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 2

      "Opera just made a mistake, in my opinion, with that. I liked how they kept the browser streamlined and stripped down; this new feature is, possibly, a sign of creeping featurism and surrender to the forces of software bloat."

      I'm running an earlier beta of it right now, and I had similar concerns. I can tell you, though, that I really like how you can drag anything to just about anywhere else. I'm looking forward to sitting down and really tweaking this interface.

    2. Re:Oops by thelen · · Score: 3, Informative

      Check one of the other links to the pictures provided in this thread, and you'll see that it is merely a rendering function to display html in a particular manner. It's not even a skin, a la Netscape or RealPlayer, it's nothing more than a manner of formatting the page (in a clunky and unusable manner). In other words, it almost certainly has zero effect on performance.

    3. Re:Oops by DeadMeat+(TM) · · Score: 2
      Go to the Styles\user directory inside of your Opera directory. Find nostalgia.css and delete it. Congrats, you successfully battled 4K of creeping featurism.

      That's right, you can accomplish a C64 look in 4K of CSS code. Pretty nice proof-of-concept, if you ask me.

    4. Re:Oops by Indras · · Score: 2

      I understand your concerns about software bloat. It was the same concern I had when I realized that you can view google.com in l33t speak, klingon, and elmer fudd.

      But, you know what? It's the best search engine out there, so it can't be causing that many problems. Likewise, I've never seen a better browser than Opera.

      --
      The speed of time is one second per second.
  4. Theme for Phoenix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So when can I expect a C64 theme for Phoenix?

  5. Re:Business strategy by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yeah, but Apple still happens to add value, to various respective industries...

    Like Final Cut Pro->iMovie, DVD Studio->iDVD, and the iPod+iTunes combo, among other things.

  6. opera's dying by jonathanbearak · · Score: 5, Funny

    they've already lost 24 bits

    1. Re:opera's dying by sys$manager · · Score: 2

      That's only $3, it's not a huge loss at all.

  7. Cartridge Linux? by binaryDigit · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does this mean that someone is working on a cart based Linux distro? Can't wait to do tar backups on my cassette!

    1. Re:Cartridge Linux? by kirkb · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yea, just like a Tape ARchive is supposed to be done!

      --
      Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
    2. Re:Cartridge Linux? by pne · · Score: 2

      Well, until Linux gets ported to the C64, you can have a look at Lunix ("Little Unix").

      Other links: here (also with screenshots) and here.

      --
      Esli epei etot cumprenan, shris soa Sfaha.
  8. Re:sadly, they are not the world's fastest anymore by oldwolf13 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    have you even used opera?

    the engine is still faster then anything else I've used, and I've just about tried them all (especially on older hardware).

    and as for opera not being the best... it's got quite a few people who've *actually* used it for awhile who believe it's far superior to anything else out there right now.

    One of the first things to go onto my machine is opera, no matter what OS I'm running.

    Sure, the c64 thing is silly... that's what it's intended to be... probably a coder just having some fun one day threw it in there as comic relief.

    get-a-grip (not the shoes)

    --
    If I can't smoke and swear I'm fucked.
  9. as soon as you make one by SweetAndSourJesus · · Score: 2, Informative

    Read the tutorial at mozdev.org.

    --

    --
    the strongest word is still the word "free"
  10. Good to see testing for 64 comatibility! by JoeCommodore · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Glad to see someone is setting up resources so folks who use Hyperlink or the Wave on their Commodore 64 can access pages and see them properly.

    Maybe with the C-One us 8-bitters can get closer to a real 8-bit Opera browser... :-) Of course it would probably have to run under Wings or Wheels though

    Never say it's impossible, it will just make people want to prove you know nothing.

    --
    "Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
  11. Re:Business strategy by tps12 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I realize you are trolling here, but things are slow at work, so I'll just go ahead and answer anyway.

    If you can't be the best, do something kind of zany and creative in hopes of keeping your business afloat.

    Okay, maybe you have not used Opera lately, but many people, including smart people like Joel Sponsky, would argue that Opera is the best. Considering what a small market they're dealing with (those people who don't use IE and are willing to pay for a web browser), the fact that they're still around should be enough evidence of this.

    Hey, I guess they figured it works for Apple and could maybe work for them.

    Apple is simply meeting a niche demand for stylish computers that are almost as good a price/performance value as competing PCs. You pay a small premium for a stylish design, which is worth it to many people (e.g., people who wear nice athletic gear or drive Mitsubishis).

    I think you're either a) jealous that you can't afford Opera or an iMAC, or b) one of those Linux freaks who thinks they have a right to get everything for free. Either way, you're definitely not older than 16, so come back when you're grown up. Thanks.

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
  12. Opera's new marketing campaign by AussieBastard · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Try Opera, and stay awhile... staayyy FOREVER!"

    1. Re:Opera's new marketing campaign by tfazzone · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wasn't it Impossible Mission? Man, I hated those damn robots.

    2. Re:Opera's new marketing campaign by AussieBastard · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, it was Impossible Mission. Man, I wasted so much time on that game. Here's a good site for it:

      http://members.tripod.com/~impossible_mission/

  13. For Handhelds and Cell Phones... by bhsx · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The new Embedded Opera looks fantastic for PDAs and cell phones, it basically reverses the zooming features and doesn't drop anything(except superfalous images), CSS, javascript, it's all in there. I hope us Zaurus users can get a free upgrade, I'm finally getting 802.11 for it in a few days ;)

    --
    put the what in the where?
    1. Re:For Handhelds and Cell Phones... by Cardinal · · Score: 2

      Actually, when compared with what a simple CSS and DOM modification can do to make a smallscreen version of a page (As demonstrated here), Opera's method stops looking all that impressive.

  14. Re:sadly, they are not the world's fastest anymore by gl4ss · · Score: 2

    i used to think so too..
    before i got phoenix.
    (well, the differences are VERY subtle, but hey, if i can have for FREE something that i'd need to pay with opera or warez.. darn ads. i also dig phoenixs default ui look more)

    opera has it's uses though, the zoom function makes handheld webbrowsing a breeze.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  15. But Opera has been getting smaller by Wee · · Score: 5, Informative
    Opera just made a mistake, in my opinion, with that. I liked how they kept the browser streamlined and stripped down; this new feature is, possibly, a sign of creeping featurism and surrender to the forces of software bloat.

    Have you been using Opera recently? Like over the last couple years? The new betas are really pretty speedy and also smaller than the 6.x release versions. I just downloaded the last beta and the latest production release. Here they are:

    [wee@host tmp]$ ls -l
    total 6836
    -rw------- 1 wee wee 3588280 Dec 18 16:06 ow32enen605.exe
    -rw------- 1 wee wee 3397867 Dec 18 16:05 ow32enen700b2.exe

    My boss and I were talking about this very topic. They've apparently re-written the rendering engine from the ground up. We suspect that they use the same engine in the desktop versions as in the embedded versions. Then they tack on JavaScript and Java and the various UI bits to make each platform-specific release.

    Whatever they do, they haven't succumbed to to creature feep. They've done just about the opposite: they started fresh and the result is a faster, leaner browser. Of course, I've only used the windows version a couple times, but it was noticeably nimbler than the 6.x Linux versions.

    -B

    --

    Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.

    1. Re:But Opera has been getting smaller by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ``I've only used the windows version a couple times, but it was noticeably nimbler than the 6.x Linux versions.''
      I am posting this from 6.11 on Linux, and I have to say there are still some issues with Opera. This afternoon, I went to the computer lab here on campus to print something (can't do that from my Linux box - the printers are on a different net). These machines run Windows NT 4 and I had installed Opera 6.0 on them a long time ago to avoid the woes of MSIE. I noticed that the text I printed wasn't justified, although it clearly had to be according to the style sheet, and it actually is justified in 6.11/Linux (and in Phoenix 0.4/Linux, too). Opera also still doesn't implement JavaScript DOM support very well, despite its otherwise fabulous standards compliance. On Linux I notice that it sometimes crashes unpredictably, and what really annoys me is that if I empty the address bar using ^A ^K, it copies the contents to the clipboard, making pasting URLs a pain. I suspect that at least the latter issue is Qt's fault, but I might be wrong there. (I'm a GTK+ aficionado anyway...yes I know, Xlib is the one true toolkit.) Having ventilated my frustration, I have to say that on the whole Opera is a great browser; slim, fast, good standards compliance, tabbed browsing, popup blocking, cookie filter, cheap, and European. ;-)

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    2. Re:But Opera has been getting smaller by Hektor_Troy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, I used 6.x up until 7.0b1 came out, and 7.0 is a lot faster on startup in particular. Like 1 second vs 5 - 8 seconds (this on a 866 MHz PIII with 384 MB RAM).

      Also 6.05 appeared to have a bug, that caused it's downloads to suck up all it's reasources if the server was fast enough, causing you not to be able to do anything while downloading. This is not the case with 7.0b1/2.

      It also has some very neat features with regards to testing websites, such as debug with outline etc. Also it's sidebar can display each and every link on a page.

      I like it. I like it a lot. I switched to Mozilla for a while but went back to Opera for several reasons, and 7.0 really solidifies Operas lead in my eyes. It would be nice however, if the stuff like e-mail and ICQ were plug-ins instead of built in. It might not make a difference wrt size or speed, but it'd be nice :-)

      --
      We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
    3. Re:But Opera has been getting smaller by cgleba · · Score: 2

      > The new betas are really pretty speedy and also
      > smaller than the 6.x release versions. . . .they
      > started fresh and the result is a faster, leaner > browser.

      I said the exact same thing about Mozilla somwhere around tree years ago when they were at milestone 18. It wasn't too long after that that the cute little monster went on a eating binge devouring entire operating systems worth of code bloating it into the great white whale of a browser that is it now.

    4. Re:But Opera has been getting smaller by crucini · · Score: 2
      if I empty the address bar using ^A ^K...

      Does ^U work? Works in Netscape/Moz/Galeon.
    5. Re:But Opera has been getting smaller by DeathPenguin · · Score: 2

      Did you check to make sure the paper format was set to US Letter instead of A4?

    6. Re:But Opera has been getting smaller by 13Echo · · Score: 2

      I've been a big supporter of Opera over the last few years. I use it on Linux at home and Windows at work...

      Well... I used to. On Linux, development is very slow. I've tolerated it for a long time, but it got a little better. But as the devs would fix something, or add a feature, they'd break something new. This time, with the newest version, it segfaults on startup on MANY peoples machines. This is mostly something that occurs on Red Hat 8 and Mandrake 9 machines, due to the newer XFT and freetype libs. I happen to be running Slackware with Dropline Gnome. Dropline updates freetype and XFT to the same, or similar versions that RH and Mandrake use. It segfaults every time I try to run it. It is the only app that does it, and the only way to fix it is to break my Gnome 2 app support by downgrading some of my new libraries. It isn't worth it.

      Add this to the fact that I have to pay for the version 7 upgrade when I *just bought a new license a few months ago*, and they've lost a customer. I believe in paying for good software, but they've fragmented their user base by offering free upgrades to *some* customers, and not to the rest. They feel that it is fair, and it very well may be. I do not, despite its low upgrade price. This is especially an issue since they still haven't offered us a *finished* version of Opera 6 for Linux. It still has tons of bugs, font problems, and still doesn't handle Java/DOM/CSS2 properly.

      I've switched to Mozilla (much improved since I've last used it) at home, and Phoenix at work. Now I don't have ANY problems with crashing, fonts, Java, or weird page rendering.

      Opera of Norway, you have a good product that could be almost perfect... But you've failed to implement a few important elements. Your multi-platform approach is appreciated, but you've fragmented your features and stability among the different OSs. I would expect that you'd give more attention to operating systems that don't have IExplorer, but Windows seems to still be your priority. In the process, you've neglected users of other operating systems. Maybe, when you finish 6.x for Linux, I'll upgrade to version 7. But it looks like you are doing very little now, as you concentrate on 7.0.

    7. Re:But Opera has been getting smaller by 13Echo · · Score: 2

      I forgot to mention that Opera for Linux STILL has an unfixed bug that has plagued it all year. Downloads seem to fail pretty consistently on high speed connections. It overloads the program and it just drops the download. It has been doing this since 6.x was first released, and it still hasn't been fixed.

  16. Ah yes, retro style... by Dark+Lord+Seth · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's amusing to see retro styles like this coming to our modern computers. All those fancy blinking lights and millions of colours and yet people still enjoy and actively use styles that are supposed to represent 16 bit or 8 bit GUIs or CLIs.

    Maybe it's more evident for me to see these trends because I wish I was back in the days Amiga began, though at this age, with more programming knowledge and a wad of german Marks to buy Amiga from commodore. Then I'd hire this aspiring student from Helsinki Uni called Linux Torvalds, lock him into a room with an Amiga 500, some computer running Minix next to another one running some BSD unix, a bunch of programming tools and with an infinite supply of an odd mixture of Guiness/Red Bull. After a few months of hyper-evolution, Linus would crank out a basic kernel and a few nicely ported programs, including word processors and other office relics that were used back in '83, along with some basic GUI. (Think of xfree68x 0.0.1)

    After this, program developers would be VERY interested in the Amiga, a system running mainstream office programs based on the proven reliability of unix. Game developers would start to prefer the graphical powers and the motorola processors of the Amiga and Microsoft would be out of business before they even started. Or they'd start to develop for the Amiga, ruining my whole fantasy as it would simply turn the tables, making Amigas with Windows XP mainstream in 2002 and x86 based pcs a rarity, only to be maintained by a bunch of zealots who would make religious fundamentalists blush... :( Dammit, I hate it when I kill my own fantasies! *sob*

  17. handheld stylesheets by X_Caffeine · · Score: 2

    There is a glaring problem with Opera 7's much-touted "PDA support." Opera does not automatically pick up stylesheets declared as media="handheld". In other words, instead of using a stylesheet that specifically formats a page for PDAs and handheld devices, Opera will try to reformat the page on its own.

    That's a pretty neat trick for pages whose designers aren't thinking about the bigger picture (the Hiptop does something similar), but a real pain in the ass for those of us who are building pages "the right way" (i.e. XHTML for content, CSS for layout). This is particularly annoying in that Opera claims to fully support W3C CSS Mobile Profile 1.0. As far as I can tell, it doesn't.

    --
    // I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
    1. Re:handheld stylesheets by Moses+Lawn · · Score: 2

      It's a BETA, for crissake. Give them a break. Perhaps if you mention it to them nicely, they'll make sure it gets fixed.

      --

      What if life is just a side effect of some other process and God has no idea we exist?

  18. Re:Nostalgia! by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 5, Funny

    How many times is this?

    Enough. It's enough times now. Please, dear sweet Jesus, enough.

    --

    There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
  19. Re:Screendump PNG Bad? by am_human2 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have to ask - you - why is PNG bad? Really - I'd like to know what you think is bad about it? What would you suggest is better? Windoze BMP for it's small file size maybe?!

    Info on PNG

  20. Re:Finally!!! by Proc6 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Use IE and Passport and you can browse like it's 1984.

    --

    I'm Rick James with mod points biatch!

  21. Bleh by autopr0n · · Score: 4, Funny

    No amount of filtering can make slashdot look good.

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
  22. Next up: lynx mode? by dagg · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Would it be (legally?) possible for the Opera folks to integrate the lynx browser directly into Opera? I'd like to be able to browse in a lynx-mode at the click of a button.

    Why would I want that? lynx is the best way I can think of to browse the web as a handicapped person would. Also, I don't want to open up another browser besides Opera to get that functionality.

    --
    Sex - Find It
    1. Re:Next up: lynx mode? by X_Caffeine · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It does a sort of Lynx emulation, actually. Go to View/Style and switch to User mode (not Author mode) and pick the text-only style at the bottom of the list.

      Incidentally, you're right -- I use Lynx to test my sites for handicapped and vision-impaired accessibility. If a site can be read on Lynx, it can be read by anyone.

      --
      // I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
    2. Re:Next up: lynx mode? by toriver · · Score: 2

      If you open "Preferences", select "Page style" and check "My style sheet" in the "Author mode" box, you can use the customizing style sheets even in Author mode...

      To add your own, add them to the [Local CSS Files] section in opera6.ini; the initial set are 1-12, so start at 13.

    3. Re:Next up: lynx mode? by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 2


      Also, Opera should have an Emacs mode so I can use all my favorite features of Emacs without having to switch out of Opera and start a separate Emacs session.

      And you should be able to win prizes by using Opera!

  23. I'm nostalgic... by kitzilla · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...for old Raquel Welch movies, not crap rendering. ;-)

    --
    This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
  24. page rendering by jmobley · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hmmm... so I will be able to view websites as through the eyes of a c64, but I see nothing in the feature list about opera being able to render the page even though it hasn't downloaded all the images. Will _that_ be fixed in version 7? I hope so.

    1. Re:page rendering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's been fixed in every version since 3. I have never, ever seen a page refuse to render because the images weren't downloaded, and I've forced the issue by adding various hostnames to my hosts file and pointing them to 127.x.x.x.

      What is everyone's beef with Opera? Nearly every complaint I've read here today about it has been absolutely bogus.

    2. Re:page rendering by hazyshadeofwinter · · Score: 2

      Try loading a *very* image-heavy page, like a Fark photoshop thread, or some ebay auctions. Takes a long time for some of those pages to render, as if the image-loading thread were hogging all the CPU or some such. One of the few faults of 6.0x on Linux, but even so, it blows anything else I've tried out of the water. (Well, IE5.5/Win95 is faster if you luck out and find a page with no popups, but it's so feature-starved I wouldn't want to deal with it...)

      --
      Click here if you just like to click on shit.
    3. Re:page rendering by hazyshadeofwinter · · Score: 2

      ...and having just tried the Fark test on 6.11 w/static QT (as opposed to 6.05 w/dynamic QT), it's now waaaay faster. Mmmm, these words o' mine taste good!

      --
      Click here if you just like to click on shit.
  25. Wheel mouse by BrookHarty · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Opera needs MS mouse scroll wheel support, and this is the main reason I wont use it. The response the developers posted, "use autoscroll" on MS mice.

    Get with the times, wheel mouse work with Mozilla/Phoenix/IE and Netscape, how about supporting it in Opera?

    BTW, I hear it works fine with logitech mice, but all I have is m$ rodents.

    1. Re:Wheel mouse by BrookHarty · · Score: 2

      I know shift-middle button works, but how about just middle? Any ideas? Nice browser, but makes you do things a little different to be annoying.

    2. Re:Wheel mouse by ender81b · · Score: 2

      ... What exactly are you referring to? I have a MS intellimouse and mouse scroll works great. INdeed it works better because you can just click the middle mouse button and then move up/down in the page by just moving the mouse.

    3. Re:Wheel mouse by BrookHarty · · Score: 2

      Exactly! I dont want to use "AutoScroll" i want to use the "Mouse Wheel".

      "AutoScroll" simple sucks, id rather use arrow keys or page up/down keys. "Auto Scroll" reminds me of those quicktime VR movies, enough already.

    4. Re:Wheel mouse by BrookHarty · · Score: 2

      Don't know what you are talking about. I have an IntelliMouse compatible and it works like a charm, scrolling both horizontally and vertically.

      Exactly, seems to be only real MS intellimouse explorer mice. strange.

    5. Re:Wheel mouse by BollocksToThis · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Nice browser, but makes you do things a little different to be annoying.

      No no, Opera's been doing it the same way Opera has done everything for ages. Keyboard shortcuts for everything, and sensible combinations for new features. Opera did many things FIRST (open link in new tab, open new tab in background), so is it their fault people decided to be different when building Mozilla?

      Shift click also makes more sense than using the middle button, which many people don't even have (and Windows doesn't have 'Emulate3Button' mode).

      --
      This sig is part of your complete breakfast.
    6. Re:Wheel mouse by BrookHarty · · Score: 2

      Exactly, that scroll thingy is called "AutoScroll" and that works fine. Its the Scrolling with the wheel that doesnt work.

    7. Re:Wheel mouse by Kallahar · · Score: 2

      My mouse wheel works just fine, Intellimouse Explorer USB. Perhaps you have the wrong drivers?

      Travis

  26. opera's ui by farnsworth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    see this for well thought out appraisal of opera's ui, particularly vis-a-vis mozilla's ui.

    --

    There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.

    1. Re:opera's ui by Maditude · · Score: 2

      I'd have to agree with most of what's said there. But the one thing that I HATE about Opera7, is the MDI mode. I've tried every dialog/menu-option I can find, but nothing seems to let me get seperate windows (ie, everything is a subwindow in a single instance of a main Opera window). Am I just missing something? Opera6 was much better, imho.

  27. crashing isn't a problem for me by _KhlER3L · · Score: 2, Informative
    I've used Opera since 6.0 on Windows and Linux, and I've found it to be pretty stable. But, even when it crashes (it does occasionally), Opera will have saved it's state at the point of the crash, so simply reloading Opera brings back all the pages that were lost.

    I've recently started using Pheonix and Mozilla, and have found that both are just as stable as Opera, except they do not have this feature, so my losses are more substantial, sometimes requiring me to search through my browser history to get back to where I was. I know that there is some sort of feature like this with the tabs extension, but it's not obvious how it works, and I never got it to.

    _KhlER3L

  28. a few differences a-side by _KhlER3L · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's a little comparasin, as I use both Opera and Pheonix. Some stuff opera does that pheonix doesn't do, or doesn't do as well (that I actually use): 1. switch all graphics on and off 2. switch css on and off 3. zoom in and out Stuff pheonix (and extensions) does that opera doesn't do, or doesn't do as well: 1. turns off specific graphics 2. better tab management (middle click!) 3. better personal bar, (I especially like opening all my newssites at once with a single middle click, and then throwing them away with another single click when I need to move onto another task.) Just chiming in... _KhlER3L

  29. Opera is fine but: by theskov · · Score: 2, Insightful

    99.9% of all website work perfectly with IE. That's not true for any other browser I've tried including Netscape, Mozilla and Opera.

    I would love to change browser, but I won't accept a browser that doesn't render all the pages I visit. Give me a non-IE browser that renders as large a percentage, and we've got a deal.

    I know real nerds prefer text-only (in theory anyway :) but I like to use all those fancy technologies appearing on the web, and so far IE is the only one that can cope with all.

    And let's not forget: IE is a very nice browser in itself. The only real reason I want to switch is because suspect to see DRM and the likes in IE Real Soon(TM). Heck - every time I upgrade to a newer version it's a couple of cents out of MS's pockets for the bandwith - what other browser gives you that satisfaction?

    1. Re:Opera is fine but: by theskov · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Actually I agree with most you say - we only disagree on how to react. Yes IE conforms to noone, and sites adopt to that. So it's unfair that all the conforming browsers are the ones suffering the consequences. But I'm not saving the world - I'm surfing the net.

      The bottom line for me as a user has nothing to do with the technicalities behind - more sites work with IE so that's what I'm using, even though morally I ought to switch to punish MS for their evil doings.

      You don't have a problem with the sites that don't work, because you avoid them. That's like saying it's not a problem to have a car 5 metres wide, because you just avoid all the roads where it doesn't fit. I'll be damned if I'm going to go though all that hazzle to fight the fight against the evil nonconformists - in that sense I'm definitely not geeky enough.

      And plzz...
      "its people like you who are makeing the experiance worse for the rest of us"
      I'm choosing the browser that I like best after trying all the alternatives. Am I morally obliged to use ecological, non-bleached, standards conforming, open source browsers? Crusade someone else Lionheart.

    2. Re:Opera is fine but: by Erik+Hollensbe · · Score: 2

      You don't have a problem with the sites that don't work, because you avoid them. That's like saying it's not a problem to have a car 5 metres wide, because you just avoid all the roads where it doesn't fit. I'll be damned if I'm going to go though all that hazzle to fight the fight against the evil nonconformists - in that sense I'm definitely not geeky enough.

      It's not that bad though! I don't know when the last time that you used mozilla was, but I haven't found a page in a long time that renders differently between the two.

      I can't say anything for opera.

  30. Other new stuff by Fweeky · · Score: 5, Informative
    • Improved CSS support -- CSS menus now work pretty much as expected, overflow: scroll works better, and numerous other fixes.
    • Opera now has a password manager! Both HTTP auth and login forms can be saved and filled in automatically later. "Wand" is a bit of a cheesy name for it, though :)
    • Quick Download -- now instead of right clicking, hitting Download, waiting for file dialog to pop up and hitting Save, you right click, hit Quick Download, and it's done for you.
    • Links bar, similar to Mozilla's Page Info -> Links tab. It's a bit primitive at the moment, but it's nice to see they're working on stuff like this.
    • Fast Forward -- fancy <link rel="next"> UI gadget -- if a site uses said links, the Forward button is turned into a Next button, which is nice for browsing things like search results pages and blogs.
    • Improved skins support -- auto-install for new skins, more flexible for users (no more .ini editing if you want to rearrange your buttons, for instance), etc. Someone badly needs to Opera 7-ize Minimalist, though, I'm not a fan of the Aqua look, or the bare-bones "Windows" skin that ships with this beta.
    • The bookmark manager is back, and looking nicer than the Opera 6 one.

    I'm quite impressed with this second beta. With betas like this, IE7 better be damn good to not get yawned at :)
    1. Re:Other new stuff by typhoonius · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm quite impressed with this second beta. With betas like this, IE7 better be damn good to not get yawned at :)

      Or it can just, you know, come with Windows.

    2. Re:Other new stuff by Fweeky · · Score: 2
      Fast Forward -- fancy UI gadget -- if a site uses said links, the Forward button is turned into a Next button, which is nice for browsing things like search results pages and blogs.

      Actually this feature doesn't use <link> tags. I think it just takes a smart guess at what "next" should be.

      Yup, you're right. It seems to look for <link rel="next">, <a rel="next">, and <a>next</a>.
  31. Impossible Mission by DunbarTheInept · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It was called Impossible Mission. I was on a retro 64 kick about a year ago and downloaded Vice (a c64 emulator) and several game disk dumps from www.lemon64.com (sadly, they no longer host the actual game disks. I think they ran into legal trouble). Impossible Mission was one of the ones I downloaded.

    The truly sad thing is that I was able to beat it again. The first time I tried it. That's just...creepy.

    "Destroy Him, My Robots."
    *step* *step* *step* *BZzzzzzzssszzszzzt*
    *step* *step* *jump* "AaaaahhhhhhAAaHHhhhhhhhh..."

    That game was way ahead of it's time.

    I'd love to see a modern 3-D viewpoint version of it. I think with a behind-the-avataor camera viewpoint like Tomb Raider it would work well. And of course, the guy would have to do a flip every time you jumped, for no aparent reason.

    --

    Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.

    1. Re:Impossible Mission by Nightpaw · · Score: 3, Funny

      The truly sad thing is that I was able to beat it again. The first time I tried it. That's just...creepy.


      Wait, so it's not actually impossible? Fucking false advertising.

  32. Re:Business strategy by sugam · · Score: 2, Funny
    You pay a small premium for a stylish design, which is worth it to many people (e.g., people who wear nice athletic gear or drive Mitsubishis).

    Wow...I never had heard of Mitsubishis being considered 'stylish'. German cars, yes, but a standard Japanese car?. 'Nice athletic gear,' well, perhaps stylish to your standard frat boy or hip hop artist, but most people would consider "stylish" being something like Kenneth Cole, Armani, Gucci, D&G etc. etc.

    At least thats my definition of style....shoot...i just realized that if thats style, i'm the lamest person around! ha ha :)

    --
    read my blog
  33. Re:Is it just me... by Moses+Lawn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Don't worry, you can turn all of them off. All I have is the commands (without icons), window tabs, address bar, and status bar. You can turn off the icons, move things to the top or bottom or turn them off altogether, whatever you like. Once you register, the ad at the top goes away and the whole thing takes up no more real estate than any other useful app.

    I completely agree with you about the clutter. It's one of my biggest bitches about most modern software - everything is lousy with button bars, speedbars, coolbars, iconbars, minibars, whatever. The first thing I have to do after installing something is turn pretty much all of it off. KDE apps are particularly bad offenders here - the default layout of KWord gives me something like 8 lines of text. What really bugs me is that 80% of these buttons are useless. Does *anyone* ever use the toolbar icons for cut/paste/new file?

    --

    What if life is just a side effect of some other process and God has no idea we exist?

  34. Re:Business strategy by EggplantMan · · Score: 2
    Apple is simply meeting a niche demand for stylish computers that are almost as good a price/performance value as competing PCs...
    I'm going to have to argue with you on a technical point here. I disagree with your price/performance point. It's well known in educated circles that Apple sells inferior hardware, but due to its aggressively proprietary nature there is no competition to compare it to. The 'quality' of Apple components is just marketing hype.
    ...one of those Linux freaks who thinks they have a right to get everything for free...
    I realise that us Linux users may be an 'eclectic' group of individuals using a fringe (and increasingly marginalised) OS, but there's no reason to call us freaks. And what's this about wanting everything for free? The TPL clearly states you can sell your software for whatever price you want. Obviously Red Hat users don't fall into your little generalisation.
    --

    ?-|||-----x<*))))><
  35. Great Feature by Uhh_Duh · · Score: 4, Interesting


    The nostalgia feature is great.. and completely useless. No wonder people don't take this web browser seriously.

    --
    -- People who hate Windows use Linux. People who love UNIX use BSD.
    1. Re:Great Feature by toriver · · Score: 2

      You're not seeing the forest for the trees: The real features that underlie the "nostalgia feature" are

      1) CSS level 2 support, and
      2) Multiple, customizing stylesheets you can turn on or off as you wish.

      MSIE has some catching up to do.

  36. Re:sadly, they are not the world's fastest anymore by Kashif+Shaikh · · Score: 2

    Sure, the c64 thing is silly... that's what it's intended to be... probably a coder just having some fun one day threw it in there as comic relief.

    Actually the retro-idea is probably ripped off from GTA3 Vice City. This game has it part of its introduction cut-scenes(yes to get you feeling confortable with the 80s).

  37. Re:Reason enough for me to try opera by leviramsey · · Score: 2

    I've been told by the Opera Linux team that Opera 7 for Linux is what they're working on and will share the Windows version's engine.

  38. Check out the real deal by CausticWindow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    HyperLink

    The Wave (under geos on c128, so it's cheating)

    --
    How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
  39. Scroll Wheel Works by RatBastard · · Score: 2

    I've used Opera 4, 5, 6, and 7b1 on Windows 98, 2K and XP systems with MS, Logitech and Kensignton mice and trackballs an the scroll wheel has worked in every install I've ever done. I don't even have to tell it to use it.

    With 7b1 you sometimes have to click the focus into teh frame you want to scroll, but it does work.

    I don't know about Linux or OS X, so YMMV in those environs.

    --
    Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
    1. Re:Scroll Wheel Works by BrookHarty · · Score: 2

      I have multiple PC's too, using the latest 4.1 mouse drivers from microsoft. They dont work on any of my PCs or My laptop. I also did a google search on opera.* newsgroups, seems to be a common problem.

      Ya, I cant swear if mouse wheels work on opera linux version, but I know opera doesnt like M$ intellimouse explorers. But isnt the intellimouse explorer the most popular mouse out?

      I'm using the newest drivers too, at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouse/download_n s.asp

      Its not my hardware, its not just me. If it was just me, there wouldnt be posts on opera newsgroups about the same problem.

      Also, my MS intellimouse explorer (i have models 2&3) work fine in Phoenix, IE, and every application.

  40. wonder if they got the bugs out by discogravy · · Score: 2

    There were a couple of posts on bugtraq when the alpha came out a month or two ago saing that it had really obvious security holes (of the "browse and execute and possibly delete any files" variety) -- nothing else was specified as the opera folks were still working things out to make opera not suck -- but I would like to know if they got the issue(s) resolved before running it. I loved 6 (and 6.05) enough that I paid for it, but have since switched to phoenix (and ghostzilla at work) since I got bored.

    1. Re:wonder if they got the bugs out by hkmwbz · · Score: 2

      The security problems were fixed within days. Beta 2 is out now, and they are definitely fixed there. They only affected the first release of beta 1. Opera 7.0 beats any other browser, hands down. Until 7.0 I used both Opera and Mozilla, but Mozilla and Phoenix are slowly rotting away on my disk now, unused.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  41. Hoping for 80 column view... by gregger · · Score: 2, Funny

    I really got used to the 80 column view of my C= 128. I hope Opera doesn't leave me out in the cold.

    When you click on a link does a sound of the 1541 disk drive gronk, grind, and click?

    Do you refresh with a SYS64738?

    TTFN

    1. Re:Hoping for 80 column view... by xanadu-xtroot.com · · Score: 2

      sound of the 1541 disk drive gronk, grind, and click?

      God, I remember that fondly. That drive made most Jet Liners seem quiet. I used to (litterally) pile pillows around the thing to keep it kinda quiet when I was loading paradroid or something late at night and I didn't want to have my parents come down and tell me to turn it off and go to bed.

      These days, I can just quick compile something else and grab a pair of headphones. My wife doen't complain much whilst I'm yelling at a 999 that is kicking my ass.

      I have fond, fond memmories of my old C=64s (yea plural, I killed the first one...)

      --
      I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
      I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
    2. Re:Hoping for 80 column view... by snake_dad · · Score: 2, Funny
      Do you refresh with a SYS64738?

      Good old times... Yeah, did that for a while, until I soldered in a resetbutton, connected to the userport. Aaah those days of replacing the CIA chips because they were not buffered... Making 2-bit sound samplers with 4 or 5 components... Adding a switch to toggle between PAL and NTSC because the latter was 25% faster (even though you couldn't see anything on the screen).. That wacky taperecorder, the small screwdriver to adjust the head... sigh.

      --
      karma capped .sig seeking available Slashdot poster for long-term relationship.
  42. Opera 7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just one question: why? I could understand when it was only IE and Netscape, and I could see how some might prefer it over Mozilla; but take a look at Phoenix and tell me what Opera has (besides nostalgia mode) that Phoenix doesn't, even though it's only a .5 release. I used Opera until early version 6 or so, then switched to Mozilla and now Phoenix. Is 7 worth another look, or is it mostly the same as before?

    1. Re:Opera 7 by hkmwbz · · Score: 2
      Look at Opera's feature list. Now look at the Phoenix forums and how they constantly discuss using Opera features to improve Phoenix. Opera is smaller and faster - more responsive than Phoenix. Yet it has more features. Just go to opera.com and look at the features and changelogs.

      Opera is the browser pioneering all the neat features like mouse gestures and similar. Next, Phoenix will be ripping off Opera's Fast Forward feature as well.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  43. simply the best by theflea · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think Opera is the best overall browser.

    Some browsers are better for certain things, but I think Opera studied how people actually use their browsers. For instance, when you click the back button in Opera, your previous page is there *instantly*.

    It renders pages waaaay faster than anything else, and it comes with a decent e-mail client.

    Not that I don't have complaints, though. The toolbars & buttons waste screen real estate. Fortunately, you can download some nice skins and small buttons. Ultimately you have more control over what it looks like.

    I like IE & Mozilla, but I realize how great Opera is when I use them.

    1. Re:simply the best by wheany · · Score: 2

      The UI-bloat can be cut down. Look at this picture, and compare it with this.

      And yes, I have registered my copy, so no ad-banner.

  44. What happens when... by robbo · · Score: 3, Funny

    What happens when it loads a page bigger than 64K?

    --
    So long, and thanks for all the Phish
  45. Opera for the Mac by Xenex · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The parent post did refer to Opera for the Mac. Have you actually used it before? It's terrible.

    Version 6.0 was just release (it's a Carbon app that runs on 8, 9, and X), and it's horribly slow, ugly looking, and uses non-standard keyboard shortcuts. I had very high hopes for Opera on the Mac, but this release has all but shattered them for me. It's almost the exact opposite of Opera 6.0 on Windows.

    I've been using Opera on Windows for the best part of 4 years, and swear by it. However, I don't even bother with it on my iBook. Perhaps when they eventually release Opera 7 for the Mac (which will be a *long* way off) things will be better, but I'm not holding my breath...

  46. Small Screen Rendering Isn't a Big Deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    Netscape's Daniel Glazman wrote this JavaScript bookmarklet that does exactly the same thing:
    javascript:var s=document.createElement('link');s.href='http://da niel.glazman.free.fr/userContent.css';s.rel='style sheet';s.type='text/css';document.getElementsByTag Name('head')[0].appendChild(s);void(0);
    Just create a new bookmark, using the code above as the Location and plonk it on your Personal Toolbar. Then visit a page and click it. Only works in Gecko-based browsers.
    1. Re:Small Screen Rendering Isn't a Big Deal by hkmwbz · · Score: 2
      Except it doesn't do the exact same thing. It is far more crude and doesn't display pages as well.

      I do know that Mozilla supporters really bitched at Opera because "they could do it better". They better prove it then.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  47. Re:Business strategy by Idarubicin · · Score: 2
    Considering what a small market they're dealing with (those people who don't use IE and are willing to pay for a web browser)...

    But I'm not paying for Opera. I have to ignore a little ad banner in the upper right corner, but that's not so bad. Yeah, it costs me a teeny tiny bit of bandwidth, but I've saved that much and more by suppressing all the annoying Flash/Java ads and popups. As an added bonus, I'm running it swiftly and happily on an old PII/300.

    --
    ~Idarubicin
  48. Hey craaack smoker! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting


    Have you ever built a web page or designed an interface? From your comments I'm going to assume the answer is no, and that you are either a DBA, marketing dude, or otherwise non-interface aware individual.

    I do a lot of interactive consulting, and I can definitively say Opera is the worst of the four major browsers available (four being IE, NN, MOZ, and Opera). Why?

    1) The "opera speed" is a factor of page caching choices made by their dev team. To that end any browser cna achieve an increase in parsing speed if their willing to put logic behind a caching system and virtually force users to employ cached data.

    Remember that generally techies bypass all caching and force the browser to "always download a new version of the page", so folks who want to guarantee they get a current page don't get this speed gain. The reasons date back to the early caching fiascos of the major browsers as THEY attempted to make use of caching to "increase their speed."

    Yes, most folks leave these elements active by default and will have faster browsing, but at what cost? It is COMMON for new elements of a page not to be detected, and then the user has an outdated page.

    2) Opera 7.0 is a catastrophe. I've tested the browser against a whole bunch of DOM standardized code (DHTML, Javascript, etc.). It doesn't even implement BASIC rules properly. window.open properties? Not supported. Page x/y positioning and detection? Not supported, or when it is it's only in relation to an interior "window" that totally defies standardized browser behavior.

    I was beginning to support Opera in all my scripts, but after testing the betas I've been forced to acknoeldge I won't do so going forward. The differences betwen 6.01 and 7.0 are ENORMOUS, and 6 is actually MORE standards comliant the 7!!!!

    Thanks god opera's market share is small enough to ignore. If it works for them fine, if not they can scream at Opera's dev team.

    -rt

    1. Re:Hey craaack smoker! by hkmwbz · · Score: 4, Informative
      FUD.

      Anyone can check Opera's specs pages and see that you are lying through your teeth about Opera 7 not being very standards compliant.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    2. Re:Hey craaack smoker! by Afrosheen · · Score: 2

      Opera is definitely wonderful for my brother. He has 2 way satellite internet (yeah yeah I know, shudder) and was always complaining about the load time of the pages. When you have a 1000ms ping it becomes an issue. What did I suggest he do?

      Install Opera.

      He loves it. It caches the hell out of every site he hits, so everything is pretty much instant if he backs up a page or visits a page that hasn't changed. I think Opera fits the niche perfectly here. There's nothing more annoying than IE or whatever trying to reload a page you JUST visited a second ago. Don't give me any BS about 'well my site uses bla bla server side crap'. 9 times out of 10 the only thing that really changes on a dynamic page is a stupid ad banner.

    3. Re:Hey craaack smoker! by hkmwbz · · Score: 2

      Before shooting your mouth off, at least try to check on the facts for yourself. Have you actually tested it?

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    4. Re:Hey craaack smoker! by hkmwbz · · Score: 2
      Sigh. I can understand why you dare not log yourself in.

      Opera have a history of documenting their support for various standards, and anyone with the least bit of knowledge can check their claims. Have you? Rather than whining and spewing out outright lies about Opera, why don't you do what normal people would do? Check their documentation and report the bugs if something isn't right.

      You obviously don't know what kind of company Opera is and are guessing that they are as bad as, say Microsoft or AOL. Well, consider yourself corrected, AC.

      But I know you aren't interesed in facts, because you haven't even looked at the document. Guess what, it clearly states that:

      "Modifying the document structure is not possible in Opera 6 (ie. you cannot add or remove HTML elements)"

      So, what were you saying again?

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    5. Re:Hey craaack smoker! by hkmwbz · · Score: 2
      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  49. C-64 nostalgia by Cheese+Cracker · · Score: 2

    Now, if someone just could make a new video compression format that would allow us to view the latest movies on the old 64... ;)

  50. Mirrors by David_Bloom · · Score: 2, Informative
    Mirrors of the screenshots: These aren't the actual image files (I reduced them from 24bit to 8bit because it halved the filesize, and they fit in an 8bit pallette anyway), but they look the same (see parenthesies).
    --

    Karma: Excellent (fuck, even in the future moderation doesn't work!)
  51. Re:sadly, they are not the world's fastest anymore by IdleTime · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have used Opera since it was launched many years ago and I currently use Phoenix on Gentoo Linux here at work in production. Both are great browsers, but Phoenix is still lacking in some sense.

    One feature I miss in Phoenix is handling both the select-buffer and the cut-and-paste buffer in Xwindows, it only handles the select buffer. Opera does and I need it since I do a lot of cut and paste between web-pages and an internal tool written in Java (only supports the cut and paste buffer)

    Another issue, which is a bug in Phoenix is downloading UNIX compressed files (.Z). Phoenix does not save them at all.

    I can go on and on with differnces, but I don't need to. Both browsers are good and I'm sure Phoenix will be even better as their development goes forward. Browser wars are stupid. Test several browsers and pick the one that covers your usage. It may not be the same as everybody else chooses, but so what?

    --
    If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
  52. Re:sadly, they are not the world's fastest anymore by kraksmoka · · Score: 2

    i said on mac , and a dog it is. i'd say chimera, omniweb, or mozilla when pulling multiple pages (for stability purposes) are the fastest on my old assed mac. opera finally released first non-beta, its putrid

    --
    "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
  53. Not the Opera I know... by ffatTony · · Score: 3, Funny

    Where is the giant banner add offering something I don't care about?

    All joking aside I wish Opera the best, but I couldn't imagine using it when there are other viable options.

  54. Re:Business strategy by jonadab · · Score: 2

    > As an added bonus, I'm running it swiftly and happily on
    > an old PII/300.

    This is impressive _how_?

    I'm running on a PII/233, and regardless of which browser I use
    (Mozilla, Netscape 7, Opera, Phoenix, Konqueror, Amaya, Arachne,
    Netscape 4 (ick), K-Meleon, Galeon, ... whatever) the speed is
    pretty much exactly the same -- and unless I'm doing something in
    the background that's lot more CPU-intensive than web browsing,
    my CPU-utilisation-meter almost never goes past 50%.

    Web browsing speed depends almost 100% on three things: bandwidth,
    RAM, and latency (in that order). CPU speed, unless you're trying
    to use a 486 (or worse), is a complete non-issue.

    The whole "Opera is fast" argument just doesn't fly with me. Opera
    loads pages in the same amount of time as any other browser. The
    only way to speed it up substantially would be to not retrieve some
    of the content (such as images and plugins, perhaps), but almost any
    browser can do that if that's the effect you're after.

    I have Opera, and I use it from time to time (mostly for testing
    pages to see how they look in it), and I'm unable to perceive any
    increase in speed over other browsers.

    Opera does have a smaller footprint than the big boys, but that's
    a separate issue; smaller footprint only means faster if you're so
    low on system resources that you're using a swapfile, and if that's
    the case you've got bigger problems than your web browser.

    --
    Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
  55. Below the Root by Cecil · · Score: 3, Informative

    Great game, so much fun, and surprisingly full of stuff to do and explore. Or maybe it was just because I was like 8 years old.

    In any case, I loved that game so much that I bought the book. There's an entire series, in fact. The book really explains what was going on in the game. It's an interesting read if you're a Below the Root fan. ... You broke your Shuba!

    1. Re:Below the Root by Bald+Wookie · · Score: 2

      Below the Root has to be one of my all time favorites. Between that game and Pirates! I burned out a couple of C64's. The depth of gameplay in Below the Root was amazing for the time. I hadn't thought of the game in years, but I can still hear bits of the music.

      There was so much to do and explore in both of those games. I still remember the first time I got into the Temple Grund.

      Thanks for bringing back the memories.

      Did you ever play the Alice in Wonderland game by the same publisher? I think it was Wyndam Hill. Never quite finished that one. They also had a Swiss Family Robinson game that had a text interface. I've still got a working C64 and the original media at my folk's place. Maybe I'll drag it out during Christmas.

    2. Re:Below the Root by Bald+Wookie · · Score: 2

      Could it have been Demon Stalkers?? I was mostly using PC's by the time this game came out, but I vaguely remember it.

  56. What about the IRC script? by The+Tyro · · Score: 2

    That was my favorite "phoenix"... I always liked the away/leaving/joining comments; they were all lyrics from megadeth songs.

    The "War" portion of the script looked interesting, though I was never L4M3Rz enough to employ it... I was on IRC to chat, not compensate for my personal insecurities by kick/banning people, and taking over their channels.

    What happened to IRC anyway? I've been on a few times recently, and it's just not the same. All the old guard are gone, and it's all "RU Single??" messages.

    Sorry for the nostalgia; that C-64 screen really got me going...

    --
    Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
  57. 20 years ago?!?! by NineNine · · Score: 4, Funny

    Was the C 64 really around 20 years ago?!? It doesn't seem like that long ago when I was playing Bard's Tale on one. Jesus, 20 years ago, that makes me... oh I'm depressed now.

  58. Re:sadly, they are not the world's fastest anymore by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 2

    "
    and as for opera not being the best... it's got quite a few people who've *actually* used it for awhile who believe it's far superior to anything else out there right now.
    "

    They obviously arnt web developers. Maybe to a normal (non-advanced) user Opera might be acceptable, But to anyone thats ever touched css Opera is unusable. Its one of the worst to render css in my experience (excluding ns3/ie3).
    It has huge problems with spacing and linebreaks, and generaly makes it hard to work with.
    If they can blatently break css and still be called a browser? 'cat' makes a pretty fast rendering engine to, though it has "a few rendering problems".

    --
    Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
  59. AHHH! Lynx flashback from college! by zerofoo · · Score: 2

    AHHHH! Text web browsing....bad college flashbacks....noooooo!

    -ted

  60. PERFECTLY? *rofl* by freeweed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The majority of websites today seem intent on popping up these annoying other windows, which I never requested. Strangely, in Opera I never see this problem.

    If having needless application windows showing up all the time is your idea of perfect, you can keep it - I'll take my 'imperfect' browser any day.

    --
    Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
  61. Re:Standards? by hkmwbz · · Score: 2
    --
    Clever signature text goes here.
  62. Re:DOM by hkmwbz · · Score: 2

    Sigh. RTFS.

    --
    Clever signature text goes here.
  63. Re:Business strategy by Afrosheen · · Score: 2

    German cars are usually referred to as 'well engineered', 'typical teutonic quality' or 'good value for the money'. I rarely see them mentioned as stylish.

    Now Bugatti, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Ferrari..those cars have style. When someone truly loves the way a car can look rather than loving the internals that make it go, you end up with a stylish vehicle. Quality may suffer but it still looks sexy as hell.

  64. scrollwheel works fine for me by DABANSHEE · · Score: 2

    Opera 6.05 on Win XP works exactly the same as in IE, scrollwheel wise

  65. works fine for me by DABANSHEE · · Score: 2

    both manually scrollwheeling & auto scrolling

  66. Re:So what, it still stinks by wheany · · Score: 2
    First off, what's with these localy defined style sheets in Opera 7? I can understand ALLOWING users to override a site's style sheet with their own settings for accesibility, but activating that functionality by default?!?
    What the hell are you talking about? By default, Opera uses "author mode", which can be switced to "user mode" by clicking a button on the toolbar. In preferences, under "page style", you can choose to disable author mode from being the default mode.
  67. Re:arright.. WHERE is the nostalgia button? by wheany · · Score: 2

    Menus:
    View->style->user mode
    then
    View->style->nostalgia

    buttons: click on the small button that looks like a blank page. It should turn into a button that looks like a person. Click on the downward arrow on the button and select nostalgia.

  68. Re:sadly, they are not the world's fastest anymore by egreB · · Score: 2

    But nothing rocks like the pop-up killer in Opera 7. It pops up only pop-ups that you _asked for_ (or, clicked on). Works like a charm. Can't wait for Opera 7 on Linux..

  69. Never mind the Vic-20, what about the AMIGA?! by Interrobang · · Score: 2

    I bet there are a lot of old Amiga geeks out there who'd love to be browsing the internet on something that looks like an Amiga...but isn't...as opposed to some of us old Amiga geeks (you know who you are, hi, Knute!) who really do browse the internet on Amigas.

    He says there's actually a good reason, even: "I don't get viruses, because nobody writes viruses for my operating system, chortle chortle chortle." Me: "So when are you going to get a real computer? I switched to PCs years ago!" Anybody got an Amiga virus on disk I could send to him by mail? ;)

  70. Re:Same strategy, different name by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 2

    Um, decent value for cheap price, and at convenient locations?

    I always thought the Apple strategy was like the Honda racecar strategy: Vet and hone technology in a serious environment, like a racetrack or a video production house, and release similar but less hardcore technology to the consumer world.

  71. Re:sadly, they are not the world's fastest anymore by yog · · Score: 2

    I think variety is the spice of life. I originally bought for Opera for linux because it rendered fonts so much better than Netscape and Konqueror. This was before Moz.

    In RH linux I mainly use Opera 6, but I also use Konqueror and Mozilla for various tasks. Konq is great because (in KDE 2.2.2) it's small and pops up quickly for little tasks. Moz has good font handling now and is more compatible with some websites that were written for Netscape. Opera is tops for its handy keyboard shortcuts, easy toggle to user style (e.g. to fix a white-on-black site), and excellent tabs and bookmarks implementation.

    Once in a while I export my Opera bookmarks and suck'em into Moz, just to keep things in sync. Some day I'll write a Mozilla start-up script that does this automatically.

    Opera's unstable in Linux, unfortunately. Since 6, I've *NEVER* had an instance of Opera not crash eventually. 6.1 has gotten more stable but man-oh-man what is it with these segv's all over the place? I would have thought a few code reviews would have caught most of these long ago, but the Opera folks must be understaffed.

    In Windows I mainly use Moz but occasionally IE when forced to. In other words, the more the merrier. It's not browser wars; it's browser orgies!

    --
    it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
  72. Try Dynamite Dan - the real Impossible Mission. by Kjella · · Score: 2

    I made it, after mapping out where all the dynamite sticks were in advance, and I was loading/saving ten times as much as I was playing, and I finally finished it on my last life. Other games like Bubble Bubble could be won without losing a single life that way. Dynamite Dan? Often you just *had* to lose lives, even if you played perfectly.

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  73. It's still a big deal. by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 2

    That it is easy to implement is irrelevant. The fact is it's an innovative and intelligent idea.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  74. Re:DOM by hkmwbz · · Score: 2

    If only ACs could take the time to read before they shoot their mouths off.

    --
    Clever signature text goes here.