小径通幽处…

From: http://virtuelvis.com/archives/2006/02/opera-9-tp-2

Opera 9, Technology Preview 2 has just been released. With changes. Read on and get the meat of the story: Widgets, thumbnails, BitTorrent and more.

Widgets

Yes, Opera 9 now features Widgets: Small web applications that run outside the browser, directly on the user’s desktop. These widgets, unlike a regular browser, has cross-domain features, so it’s an ideal platform for delivering Web applications that interact with multiple online services at once. Opera Widgets are cross-platform, and run both on Windows, Linux and OS X.

Since widgets are chromeless, they’re also ideal for eye-candy applications, such as this analog clock:

If you are a developer, and would like to get started with widget development, see the Widget developer’s page — the tutorials there are:

• End-user documentation (the really-quick user documentation is: Install the TP, press F6 and then “Add”)
• Your first widget: Hello World!
• Animate your first widget
• The Opera Animation library
• Deploying widgets

Over time, more documentation for developers is going to be added to this page, from the simple to the more complex.

With widgets, Opera is also introducing OWAL, the Opera Web Applications License 1.0 which allows authors to reuse libraries developed by Opera for widget development.

Content blocking

Opera has always had the opportunity to block unwanted external content. Up until now, this has been an expert-only feature, requiring editing of the urlfilter.ini file. Well, those days are long gone. You can now right-click on any page, and select “Block content” to block external images, flash movies:

If you want to see more of the content blocker, my colleague Petter Nilsen has written in-depth about it, with multiple screenshots.

BitTorrent

Yes, BitTorrent is back. This is technology previously previewed in the 8.10 cycle, then it went away for a few versions. The client has improved since then, in addition to bittorrent search being added. Use b [search term] in the address bar to search files directly on search.bittorrent.com

opera:config improvements

opera:config, introduced in Opera 9 TP1, has seen some major improvements, style-wise:

Not only is the styling improved, the functionality is also improved, as every item in the file now has a permalink, signified by the » after an item, so pointing users to the exact setting you’re refering to is as easy as creating any other link on the web.

Web page thumbnails

Opera 9 tp2 features Web page thumbnails when you hover over tabs:

Not only are these thumbnails in the tabs, but they are also added as an option to the Ctrl-Tab cycle:

The Ctrl-Tab is turned off by default, but can be turned on by checking the option Use Thumbnails in Window Cycle in opera:config

Again, you can view more screenshots over at Petter Nilsen’s blog.

History

The history panel and history tab in Opera has seen some major improvements in this version: The history is no longer a flat list of items you have visited. Instead you now have these views:

• Time and site view: This view groups your site into “Today”, “Yesterday” and similar, with the domains you’ve visited grouped as subfolders inside this view.
• Time view: This view groups your history by date, and keeps the sites visited on that date in order, with no other particular grouping.
• Site view: Like you probably already guessed, this simply organizes your history by domain.

Error console

The error console in this preview is pretty much all new. First of all, it’s now renamed from “JavaScript console” to error console, because it now is host to all of the error messages in Opera: M2, Java, JavaScript, CSS, XML, XSLT, SVG, Network, and BitTorrent errors.

Source viewer

The source viewer/editor, introduced with TP1 has seen further improvement, as it now also syntax highlights source

Customizable searches

The searches in Opera are now customizable from the Search tab in (the improved) Preferences:

Again, Petter has more details on search customization

Site-specific preferences

If you need to customize aspects of a site, like change its plug-in settings, alter the appearance by pointing to a different stylesheet, changing cookie settings or similar, Opera now has site-specific preferences:

Access to the site-specific preferences is through an extra menu item in “Quick preferences” (F12) which will open a dialog with the preferences for the site you’re currently visiting.

labs.opera.com

In conjunction with the release of this preview, the new Opera Labs site is also set to go live. Bookmark it, visit it, and subscribe to the RSS feed.

Much more: Changelogs

There really is much more, but if I was going to delve into it all, this would end up as the longest blog post in history. I’d suggest checking out the changelogs, where you’ll also find the appropriate changelogs:

• Changelog for Windows
• Changelog for Unix/Linux
• Changelog for Mac

In addition to these, you can read some other Opera employee postings on Opera 9 tp 2 (This list is live):

• Tim Altman
• Moose: On internal stylesheets (he has loads and loads of more links, explore his site)
• Peter Karlsson: Changes in preferences
• Anne van Kesteren: Opera 9 Preview 2

You’ll find the appropriate download links in the changelogs. Remember: This is a technical preview, not production software. Which means that we appreciate bug reports and feedback, which you can do by filing bugs, and/or posting in the Beta testing forum.

From: Opera Labs

We’ve released a technology preview of Opera 9, codenamed Merlin, on Opera Labs. There are some very cool features we want you to try:

Opera Widgets –

Widgets are small AJAX applications that provide specific functionality – like getting your favorite news, converting currency and so on. We’ve posted documentation on Opera Widgets – not only how to use them but also how to make them. Go to My Opera Community to download Widgets.
Widgets 就是一些提供特定功能的小AJAX程序-比如获取你喜爱的新闻,汇率转换等等.我们提供了Opera Widgets的文档-不只是告诉你如何使用,并且有制作教程.你也可以去Opera社区下载Widgets.

BitTorrent –

BitTorrent has become one of the most popular file transfer protocols around. We built it right into the browser so you can download torrent files easily. No more hassle finding the right port, no worries about setting upload and download speed. We’ve worked to optimize all of that for you.
BitTorrent目前成为一种十分流行的文件传输协议.我们在浏览器中内置了BT来帮助你方便的下载torrent文件.不再需要到处寻找合适的端口,不用担心上传和下载速度的设置.我们帮你做了好了优化.

Customize your search engines –

Use your favorite search engine in the search box. Go to the site you want and right click on the search field site and click on the search field. You will then be prompted to “create search”
在搜索栏里使用你喜欢的搜索引擎.浏览你需要的站点右击搜索栏地址然后点击搜索栏(?).”创建搜索”就会自动弹出了.

Improved content blocker –

Cosmetic surgery for Web pages. Just right click on a page and select “block content”. Any content not greyed out can be blocked with a click. Select “done” and see the page the way you want.
页面的整容术.只要右击页面选择”屏蔽内容”.只要一次点击就可以轻松屏蔽不需要的内容.选择”完成”就可以查看你需要的页面.

Improved pop-up blocker –

Just try it with some nasty popups. We added more intelligence to help weed out even more pop-ups. But since not all pop-ups are created equal, use the trash can to retrieve pop-ups you may want.
搞定一些讨厌的弹出窗口.我们添加一些智能机制帮助扫除更多的弹出窗口.但是为了避免有用的窗口被屏蔽,可以从trash得到你需要的.

Site specific preferences –

For those of you who want to control settings for specific pages. Want to accept some cookies and deny others? How about setting your own style sheet to make the site more accessible? Just right click on the page and select “Site preferences”.
给那些需要对指定页面控制的人.需要接受某些cookies而拒绝别的?如何设置自己的style表单使页面更舒服?只需要右击页面选择”站点选项”

Thumbmail preview –

Opera conserves system resources and uses less memory than other browsers so it’s easy to have many tabs open at once. But just what tab had that video you wanted? Using the thumbnail feature, you can find out by resting the mouse on any tab.
Opera比别的浏览器节省内存,因此可以让你同时打开很多的页面.但是需要快速查看页面内容?使用thumbnail特性,在鼠标放在标签时你可以看到缩略图.

As with any of our technology previews, this is not meant to replace your current version of Opera. That caveat aside, we welcome you to download the TP and let us know what you think.

From: http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html#win

Opera的确是当之无愧的王者。

From: Slashdot

Opera had always been the “good guys” before Firefox came around and stole the limelight. The company has been run by the same people for ten and a half years by now - the founders - and they’ve had a clear vision. They wanted to bring the web to everyone, to give them choice.

Unlike Mozilla, Opera has always had make money, and that in a situation where they’ve had less than one per cent of the market. So Opera hasn’t been able to take “shortcuts” and rely on donations until it turned out that searches could actually pay for development, alongside other deals of course.

That hurt Opera a bit, I think. You have to pay for Opera while the others were free. Then you could choose ads instead, but most people don’t like those. So Opera never got a huge following.

Opera was also a power user program for many years. It is not until recently that Opera has cleaned up the default user interface to make it easy for newbies to start using it as well.

While the payware, the ads, and so on were necessary to keep the company afloat, it has also hurt Opera. Firefox could come around to steal the thunder at exactly the right time, and backed by a massive marketing campaign. Firefox’s timing was incredible. They released 1.0 when everyone was talking about how dangerous it was to use Internet Explorer.

While Firefox was free as in beer, easy to use, and ready for the masses (more or less), Opera still had to rely on ads, and had to charge for the browser. But they cleaned up the UI, and last year Opera was released for free-as-in-beer.

Some may say “too little too late”, but Opera has never been huge. There isn’t much of a market share to lose! Opera has a small but loyal following, and it’s still smaller, faster, and it has more functionality out of the box than Firefox.

Now that Opera has simplified the UI and removed the ads, it can only grow. It will need proper marketing, though, and it will need to differentiate itself from Firefox and establish an identity which gives people a clear vision of what Opera is about, and why they should use it instead of something else.

Opera has always been the “browser innovator”. Most features in Firefox were available in Opera ages before Firefox did it, and some were even invented by Opera. But these days Firefox takes all the credit, and that’s partly because it can rely on others who have done everything, so it can simply pick and choose from other browsers’ innovations. And it can avoid the pitfalls too, because Firefox already made those mistakes back when it was “Netscape”. Firefox obviously benefits from being Netscape’s “successor”. All web designers know about Netscape, after all. So they can’t ignore it when designing pages.

Opera has done a lot, but one wouldn’t think so just by looking at its market share. It’s a pity, really. Opera was the only independent browser, and they put real money into open standards. IE was Microsoft and Mozilla/Firefox was AOL/Sun/Nokia/IBM/etc. Everyone else was in some major corporation’s pockets, but not Opera.

Now Firefox has stolen the thunder, partly deserved, partly undeserved. But I think Opera can make it too. They just need to get the marketing right.

From: Slashdot

IBM公司近日表示,他们已经生产出一种基于802.15.3c规范的无线芯片,可以在5-10米的范围内传输大容量文件或其它内容.目前的样品可以提供超过600Mbps的传输速率,而IBM的目标是1.4-1.5Gbps.

来自IBM的这种无线芯片使用了30-300GHz的毫米频段.这一波段现在多用于军事设备,因为相关设备非常昂贵,而且生产困难.Brian表示他们已经可以在硅片上这么做,因此可以考虑将其用于消费应用市场.
IBM研究员Brian Gaucher介绍说:”这种芯片将面向消费应用领域,如高清视频文件传输.它可以覆盖一个房间,不过我们没有考虑穿过墙壁等障碍物的问题.”
目前的UWB无线芯片在32英尺范围内可以实现110Mbps的数据传输,10英尺范围内则可提高至480Mbps.显然,IBM将提供高得多的速度.
IBM已经向准备在自己产品中使用这种芯片的厂商提供了样品.客户可以向IBM购买芯片,也可以购买许可技术后自己生产.同时,IBM还提供了包含整合天线的套装,从而有助于降低成本和功耗.
在短距离内快速无线传输文件一直是科技业界的梦想,但至今没有一种很好的方案能被广为接受.蓝牙技术经过很多年才有了标准,但尽管已经用于多种产品,却一直没能成为被广泛采纳的通用标准,也没有成为互联网接入技术的标准.Universal WideBand也在标准化方面麻烦不断.

Many students, and other young people, have little in the way of cooking skills but can usually get their hands on a couple of mobile phones. So, this week, we show you how to use two mobile phones to cook an egg which will make a change from phoning out for a pizza. Please note that this will not work with cordless phones.

To do this you will need two mobile phones -they do not have to be on the same network but you will need to know the number of one of them. The only other items you will need are:

An egg cup, (make sure that the egg cup is made of an insulating material such as China, wood or glass - plastic will do. DO NOT use stainless steel or other metal).
A radio, AM or FM - you can also use your hifi.

A table or other flat surface on which to place the phones and egg cup. You can place the radio anywhere in the room but you might as well put it on the table.

How To Do It:

1. Take an egg from the fridge and place it in the egg cup in the centre of the table.

2. Switch on the radio or hifi and turn it up to a comfortable volume.

3. Switch on phone A and place it on the table such that the antenna (the pokey thing at the top) is about half an inch from the egg (you may need to experiment to get the relative heights correct - paperbacks are good if you have any - if not you may be able to get some wood off cuts from your local hardware shop).

4. Switch on phone B and ring phone A then place phone B on the table in a similar but complementary position to Phone A.

5. Answer phone A - you should be able to do this without removing it from the table. If not, don’t panic, just return the phone to where you originally placed on the table.

6. Phone A will now be talking to Phone B whilst Phone B will be talking to Phone A.

7. Cooking time: This very much depends on the power output of your mobile phone. For instance, a pair of mobiles each with 2 Watts of transmitter output will take three minutes to boil a large free range egg. Check your user manual and remember that cooking time will be proportional to the inverse square of the output power for a given distance from egg to phone.

8. Cut out these instructions for future reference.

Note: We cooked our egg during the evening using free local calls, if you were to cook an egg for lunch it would cost �.00 - not cheap but you do have the convenience.

敬请关注，引入了很多崭新的功能。
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