Stylehack

BIG NEWS: Opera has removed all banners and is offering the Opera Web Browser for desktops free of licensing fees! Get your copy now at http://opera.com/free/! Quote from Opera: ‘Opera has removed the banners, found within our browser, and the licensing fee. Opera’s growth, due to tremendous worldwide customer support, has made todays milestone an achievable goal. Premium support is available.’ Note: If you purchased Opera in the last 30 days you can get a full refund! Why Opera? There are many reasons, so I’ll try to limit myself to a what I consider a few key points:

General Use

• built-in pop-up blocker
• excellent bookmark management features
• store a series of web pages in sessions instead of individual bookmarks, then open them all at once
• reopen pages you just closed with one click of a button
• search from the address bar (ex: ‘g mysearchterm’ displays the results of a Google search)
• change settings on-the-fly — no need to close/re-open
• built-in note taking function
• built-in password manager
• built-in download manager/panel which doesn’t slow down your continued browsing
• move menu bars, panels & buttons around at will
• highly-configurable thru gui, not through text file hacks
• no need to download/trust/install extensions from unknown authors
• supports SVG
• more standards compliant than any other browser

Accessibility

• support for portions of Aural CSS
• mouse gestures built-in
• extensive keyboard control
• extensive, easily customizable keyboard shortcuts (my favorite is using Z and X to move forward/backward thru pages I’ve visited)
• easily disable or change page styles for improved readability (custom or use pre-defined)
• true page zooming at the touch of a key (enlarges both text and images)

Geekier Toys

• built-in RSS reader
• built-in IRC chat
• built-in bit torrent client
• built-in searchable, email client (similar to gmail - I put that here because I use ~gasp~ Thunderbird - old dog, no new tricks scenario)

Basically, it comes “out of the box”, ready to go and requires much less fiddling around with it to make it operate the way I prefer. All in less than 4MB… and REALLY, REALLY FAST! More info from Opera on browser features is at http://www.opera.com/docs/specs/ A well-written user review can be found at http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=162788&threshold=1&commentsort=0&tid=95&mode=thread&cid=13603510 Go get it! That’s an order. “-) http://opera.com/free/

Finally… no more doctor bills! I found this handy dandy diagnostic tool online, and it even includes treatment info. You absolutely can’t go wrong with the Dr. Unheimlich’s Disease Registry. Strangely enough, most of the diseases everyone I know has are actually named after the “bearer”. “-) I ran thru daHens: Farron, Liann, debbieT and Butzi… as well as our “owners” Emma, Tchai, Deben, Jack and Penny. Every single one was a hoot, well except for mine! Mine was boring and dull. sigh. For Emma…

Disease: Emma’s Disorder Cause: The wrong type of snow Symptoms: Gurgling, chest pain, mild coordination problems Cure: Drink lots of water  

Mine…

Disease: Becky’s Disease Cause: Natural sign of ageing Symptoms: Bladder pain, vague paranoia, hypochondria Cure: Fresh air  

Why oh why, she moans, is Becky’s Disease so boring???? Go check out your own health! Dr. Unheimlich’s Disease Registry is courtesy of The Surrealist OMG! I have to go right back there and find out what my SPAMMER NAME is!!! “-) [It's Hutch T. Antenna. Only slightly better than Becky's Disease. sigh. I feel slightly picked on!]

Election? What election? I have more important things on my mind…. to wit: CNN has an article on genetically-engineered cats, available in 2007 (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/10/27/biotechnology.cats/index.html). But that’s not the important part. This is:

In August, Genetic Savings & Clone — another Californian company — announced that it had successfully cloned two kittens from a one-year-old female Bengal cat and said it could clone anyone’s pet for around $50,000.

Okay then. You know what that means, right? I’m taking donations! “-) The Emma Fund :: Put $1 to Good Use

(PayPal)

National Geographic, BBC, the local television station and sundry other news outlets are all reporting the discovery of the fossilized remains of a hobbit-sized “species of human” on an island in Indonesia (halfway between Australia and Asia). “Hobbit-sized” as in 1 meter (just over 3 feet) tall, or roughly the height of a three year old child. It’s a very entertaining story… apparently this group of small people has been “dated” to 12,000 yrs and shared their island home with a “a golden retriever-sized rat, giant tortoises and huge lizards - including Komodo dragons - and a pony-sized dwarf elephant called Stegodon” which they probably hunted. [Quoted from the BBC article.] So the “facts” as they have been reported:

• A total of 7 skeletons have been found, along with tools and animal bones.

• In addition to a small skeleton, they also had a small cranial space… meaning smaller brain.

• They lived in caves on an island populated by giant rodents and lizards.

• Local legend is peppered with stories of contact and interaction with these people — including the Dutch who explored the area in the last few hundred years — even though they apparently were dead for 12,000 years. (snickering from the sidelines)

• Hypothetically the species became smaller due to environmental conditions, apparently a well-known evolutionary process. Conditions such as a limited food supply, few predators and few species competing for food result in smaller humans.

Sounds just like a “made-for-tv” movie, doesn’t it? Exciting and wild! And that’s where this whole evolution thing falls apart:

• I live in an enclosed environment (my house).

• There is a limited food supply, few predators (aka spiders) and only one species competing for food (my cat). Yet I have not gotten smaller at all!

• … not to mention I think I interact almost daily with people with small cranial spaces, known as Rock people - perhaps because they live in caves?

Evolution debunked. It’s official. “-) I’d still like to see the movie though. Oh wait.. I did, all 3 parts. haha. The End. What’s that? You’re curious now, wondering where these people could have come from? Slashdot has the answer! Think “3-hour tour, weather started getting rough, tiny desert isle, 7 stranded castaways…” You get the drift. I love the quick humor on Slashdot. Always good for a daily laugh… but that’s another story.

… is listed on the cssvault: CafeLisa.com It’s a beautiful site she’s done, a super job of styling her Wordpress blog. If you haven’t seen it yet be sure to stop by! Congratulations to Lisa!