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Opera CEO Prepares to Swim across the Atlantic

Posted by Hemos on from the stop-submitting-this-stupid-story dept.

rRogta writes "Previously reported on slashdot here, Opera CEO boldly promises to swim across the Atlantic should the new Opera browser be downloaded a million times in the first four days after it's release. Well, they reached their goal and in this press release it says he's now preparing for the long swim."

41 of 432 comments (clear)

  1. How the heck? by beatdown · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm not sure it is possible to pull this off. Isn't the north Atlantic cold at this time of year?

    1. Re:How the heck? by Freexe · · Score: 5, Funny

      http://people.opera.com/nicolasm/opera_ch05.svgz and the url...

      --
      "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
    2. Re:How the heck? by mikael · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm not sure it is possible to pull this off. Isn't the north Atlantic cold at this time of year?
      From this surface temperature map it would appear that if he swam at a latitude of 30 degrees North, the temperature is around 70 Fahrenheit or 21 Centigrade all the way to Spain. From Spain to South America it's even warmer (85 Fahrenheit/28 Centigrade). Up beside Norway, it's only 55 Fahreheit (12 Centigrade), so he would probably need a survival suit.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    3. Re:How the heck? by SithGod · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually that would be way too warm to swim in. I swam in high school and while you hate to get in a cold pool, within about 5 minutes being in a warm pool is much worse. Probably the best temperature he could hope for would be around 60 Farenheit

      --
      Don't you hate pants?
  2. What about sales? by colmore · · Score: 4, Funny

    Given Opera's business model, shouldn't he have tied this stunt to sales rather than downloads?

    --
    In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
    1. Re:What about sales? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Given Opera's business model, shouldn't he have tied this stunt to sales rather than downloads?
      Yes, he should have offered to have the sales director forced to swim across the Atlantic, rather than himself.

    2. Re:What about sales? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As ad revenue is part of their business model, I don't see why.

    3. Re:What about sales? by MoonFog · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You realise this was said during an internal meeting and was released by the Opera people more or less without his concent. I suspect they did it as a joke rather than a publicity stunt even though it has turned into something like that now.

  3. don't you think.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    this is one of the big problems with 'good' software. we always try to promise about 500000% more then we can deliver.

  4. Two Words of Advice by Deinhard · · Score: 5, Funny

    Life Jacket

    --
    Successfully condensing fact from the vapor of nuance since 1998.
    1. Re:Two Words of Advice by MacJedi · · Score: 5, Informative

      In the north atlantic, life jackets just make your corpse float.

      --
      2^5
    2. Re:Two Words of Advice by jfengel · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, "wet suit". A life jacket floats your face up and drags your legs, which means a lot of resistance to swimming. You'll get exhausted before swimming a mile in a life jacket.

      Yes, IIADS (I Am A Distance Swimmer).

    3. Re:Two Words of Advice by jfengel · · Score: 4, Funny

      IAS

      (I Sure Am).

  5. download it by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well...despite of being closed software, I must admited Opera knows how to support linux - if you go to their download page they have packages for the main distros, ej: they've separated packages for debain woody, sarge and sid, different versions of fedora, etc...in fact I'm a a debian user (in case you haven't noticed) and I've the following line in my sources.list:

    deb http://deb.opera.com/opera/ stable non-free

  6. Hats off by janek78 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, you got to admire that man. I suppose he's not going to do it in one run, the journey seems quite long. Very nice map, though. :)

    I guess he could also get a Krusty burger at one of those abandoned shore oil platforms :)

  7. how he'll pull this off by keithmoore · · Score: 4, Interesting

    charter an aircraft big enough to put a large water tank inside, and swim in the tank while the aircraft is flying to Iceland and thence to North America.

    nice PR stunt!

    1. Re:how he'll pull this off by dfn5 · · Score: 4, Funny
      charter an aircraft big enough to put a large water tank inside, and swim in the tank while the aircraft is flying to Iceland and thence to North America.

      I would hardly consider a hot tub with 3 hot flight attendents "swimming". But maybe that's how he got the idea past the wife.

      --
      -- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
  8. At the same time, at Microsoft HQ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer both agreed to cross the United States territory up to Washington D.C. by crawling like two salamanders should the number of bugs in the soon-to-be released version 7 of the (in)famous Internet Explorer reaches 2000 in the first 2 hours of its release.

  9. I call shenanigans! by REggert · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From TFA:

    Jon is assisted by Opera's PR manager who will be rowing alongside the adventurous CEO in the company inflatable raft on the trip across the Atlantic as an act of guilt after making the CEO's statement public. The fearless crew is currently on its way to an undisclosed location in the Oslo fjord to begin the long journey toward America in the true spirit of the Vikings before them.

    The author busted his cheek with his tongue, I think.

    --

    cp /dev/zero ~/signature.txt

  10. How He'll Do It by Anyletter · · Score: 5, Informative

    I figure he's going to swim from the Norwegian Embassy in Iceland, go to his mum's house, then swim to the US Embassy. Like this: http://people.opera.com/nicolasm/opera_ch05.svgz

    1. Re:How He'll Do It by k98sven · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why on earth would you serve a perfectly standard Inkscape SVG that you had then gzipped as image/svg+xml? Isn't that misleading?

      No it's not. Read the spec , and you'll find that this is completely correct.

      The MIME type for SVG is "image/svg+xml" (always). And the extension for gzip compressed SVG files is ".svgz". And gzip is the only compression type which the spec allows for.

  11. Good for him... by Pyroskankic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, now that this mission has been accomplished... *Switches back to Firefox when no one is looking*

  12. Ummm... by chrisgeleven · · Score: 5, Informative

    Somehow I don't think he will be able to complete it:

    http://www.didyouknow.cd/aroundtheworld/swimming .h tm


    Possibly the greatest triumph of endurance is Benoit Lecomte swimming across the Atlantic ocean.

    Lecomte, born 1967, immigrated from France to Austin, Texas, at age 23. When his father died of colon cancer in 1992, it spurred him to do something extraordinary to raise awareness of and money for cancer research. With the help of Edward Coyle, director of UT Austin's Human Performance Lab, and dieticians, Lecomte trained to build his endurance, swimming and cycling 3 to 5 hours a day, six days a week for two years. On 16 July 1998 he set out from Cape Cod with 8 wet suits, a snorkel and some flippers into turning weather.

    Navigated through the 40th and 50th latitude by two French sailors on a 12m (40 foot) sailboat and protected by an electronic force field, Lecomte swam 6 to 8 hours a day at two-hour intervals. He mainly used the crawl stroke, switching occasionally to a mono fin and using an undulating dolphin kick to carry him over the 5 600km (3 736 nautical miles) of relentless waves. 72 days later, on 28 September, he swam ashore exhausted but heroic at Quiberon, France.

    1. Re:Ummm... by BaudKarma · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're underestimating the power of postitive thought! All those million people who downloaded Opera are behind this effor 1000 per cent! In fact, I'm downloading Opera again, just to show my support! I predict he'll make the swim in record time, just due to the power of positive thought!!!

      --
      It's the land of the brave, and the home of the free
      Where the less you know, the better off you'll be.
  13. Re:Isn't this lots and lots of miles? by mav[LAG] · · Score: 5, Funny

    Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

    --
    --- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
  14. Murderers by darkmayo · · Score: 5, Funny

    You cold hearted bastards have just sent this man to his death.. hope your happy.

    --
    "I am a kernel in the linux army"
  15. RTFA! Its a joke! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Read the press release!
    Jeez. It's a joke.
    He's not really going to do it; he's figuring out a way to honorably get out of it.

    1. Re:RTFA! Its a joke! by AviLazar · · Score: 4, Informative

      He already has:

      I blatantly admit that my promise was based more on joy and enthusiasm than my swimming abilities and physical health, I will do my very best to keep it

      --

      I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
  16. Headline should read by Microsift · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Browser company seeks new CEO"

    --
    My other sig is extremely clever...
  17. Re:Tragedy in the making by mickyflynn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Beowulf swam the North Sea!! In chainmail! fighting sea monsters with a sword!

    this can't be all that more difficult

  18. Nice... by WidescreenFreak · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Princess Bride quotes with a Monty Python sig. That's the kind of humor that I needed on a dreary, Monday morning. :)

    But you would have known that I would have responded to your post, so I clearly cannot mod the comment in front of me.

    --
    The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
  19. Re:Isn't this lots and lots of miles? by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 5, Funny

    Not at all.

    Those stories about explorers dying while crossing the Atlantic are all ploys to keep real-estate values high in Conneticut. If people found out that they could commute to Manhattan faster from France than from New Jersey, the friends of countless politicians would lose their shirts in the market collapse.

  20. They're planning on a loooong trip by hugesmile · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From TFA:

    The next update on the remarkable and heroic journey will be available here on Tuesday, April 25, at 10:00 am CET (04:00 am EST).

    Tuesday April 25 is a year from today!

  21. Prediction by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There'll be a boat next to him. Around the 5th km, he'll give up, and say: "Well, at least I tried". Then he'll become an Icon of "you never know until you try", and a whole marketing campaign will rise from this.

  22. Bitter Ex-Wife by spineboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    A little known fact is that his bitter ex-wife was personally responsible for downloading over 300,000 copies of the program, stating " I hope he frezzes his nubbins off!"

    --
    ..........FULL STOP.
  23. Re:Why cant some other CEOs try it by NoMoreNicksLeft · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'd rather see the Director for IE development swim to the bottom of the atlantic.

  24. My Resume by eander315 · · Score: 4, Funny
    Dear Opera,

    After viewing the pictures on your website, I would like to apply for the newly opened positions of CEO and PR Manager at your company. I feel I have the necessary qualifications, such as "not-drowned" and "not-reported-lost-in-the-northern-Atlantic".

    Thank you for your time and consideration.

  25. Re:Tragedy in the making by AntiGenX · · Score: 5, Funny
    Beowulf swam the North Sea!! In chainmail! fighting sea monsters with a sword!

    After swimming in that cold water, I would hate to see the size of his cluster.

  26. Re:HOLY CRAP by CoffeeJedi · · Score: 4, Funny

    given the parent of this thread, shouldn't that read:
    "HOLY CARP"

    --
    May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage. RAmen.
  27. 60 degrees can kill you pretty quickly by bradleyland · · Score: 4, Informative

    For short time periods 60 degree water is fine, but when swimming trans-atlantic, you want something a bit warmer.

    Temperature Fahrenheit | Exhaustion/Unconscious | Expected Survival

    32.5 | <15 min. | 10 to 45 min.
    32.5 - 40 | 15 - 30 min. | 39 to 90 min.
    40 - 50 | 30 - 60 min. | 1 to 3 Hours
    50 - 60 | 1 - 2 Hours | 1 to 6 Hours
    60 -70 | 2 - 7 Hours | 2 to 40 Hours
    70 -80 | 3 - 12 Hours | 3 to Indefinitely
    Over 80 | Indefinitely | Indefinitely

    From: http://www.walrus.com/~belov/hypothermia.html

  28. Re:not sure about that by snorklewacker · · Score: 4, Funny

    most spas are 100+ degrees. i think you got mixed up between centigrade and fahrenheit... water boils at 212F/i

    Even so -- I regularly stick my hand into a 450 degree oven when things need moving around in there. It ain't comfy, but I can take 20 seconds of it. I'll assume for the sake of argument that the outside air has cooled things down to a balmy 350 degrees (it hasnt, but my point will still be made)

    Now stick your hand into water boiling at a "mere" 212 degrees for just 10 seconds. You've just learned a painful lesson about heat transfer.

    --
    I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot