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Opera CEO Prepares to Swim across the Atlantic
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."
this is one of the big problems with 'good' software. we always try to promise about 500000% more then we can deliver.
Life Jacket
Successfully condensing fact from the vapor of nuance since 1998.
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.
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
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.
From TFA:
The author busted his cheek with his tongue, I think.
cp /dev/zero ~/signature.txt
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
Well, now that this mission has been accomplished... *Switches back to Firefox when no one is looking*
Somehow I don't think he will be able to complete it:
g .h tm
http://www.didyouknow.cd/aroundtheworld/swimmin
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.
Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
--- Hot Shot City is particularly good.
You cold hearted bastards have just sent this man to his death.. hope your happy.
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
As ad revenue is part of their business model, I don't see why.
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
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.
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
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.
"Browser company seeks new CEO"
My other sig is extremely clever...
Beowulf swam the North Sea!! In chainmail! fighting sea monsters with a sword!
this can't be all that more difficult
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.
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?
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.
After swimming in that cold water, I would hate to see the size of his cluster.