Opera 9.20 released

this isn't a tech news blog, nor is it affliated with any particular company; it is, however, my little soapbox for things that i think will make everyone's lives at least a little bit better, like Firefly, or Jesus (in no particular order).

i believe that when we choose something to use (or watch, or enjoy), we ought to find the best possible instance of it and really believe in it (not that choosing a product is in any way comparable on the same level to eternal salvation). if that particular product screws up, or drops off in quality, you reserve the right to get up in its metaphorical grill and to tell it just where it dropped the ball.

case in point: Firefox. when i first found Firefox (i was reading a webcomic and there was an itty-bitty link and i always click the itty-bitty ones that come with instructions), i was elated to find something that wasn't IE6 and that was customizable for nerdplay. i tweaked the heck out of the GUI ("I couldn't breastfeed any of you kids" - Lucille Bluth, "Altar Egos"). it was fun. i turned a blind eye to most of the faults (slow start up, slow rendering, wonky everything) until i discovered that Opera had become free since version 8. you know what was cool when i first used Firefox? tabs. you know who's been implementing and refining and perfecting tabbed browsing since 1995? Opera. you know all the really good extensions that people use to tweak their interfaces (TabMixPlus, Mouse Gestures and the like)? most of them are porting or expanding upon standard Opera features.
weird how the browser with the 1% market share is 99% better than the next competitor (that's just math hyperbole; it's actually only 72% better).

anyhoo, Opera just released 9.20, the second update to the 9.0 platform.
the highlight feature they're pushing is Speed Dial, a function that was designed for the Opera Mini browser (for cell phones). it is basically a layout of 9 thumbnail shots of 9 sites of your choosing, allowing you to access them by Ctrl+#, or typing the desired number into the address bar. you can change the order and what-have-you. i personally think it is superfulous (great idea on cell phone browsing though) since i've already nicknamed the sites i visit with little keywords, granted that '2' is faster to type than 'gm' (for gmail). it is pretty easy to turn off, so it's not being forced on you.

for something even faster, put all those need-to-visit sites into one bookmark folder and give the folder a nickname. this is an exisiting feature in Opera that i haven't been able to find in Firefox. for example, i check two email accounts: gmail and hotmail (which i really ought to phase out, it's almost 10 years old). i have gmail nicknamed to 'gm' and hotmail nicknamed to 'hm'. i could open up two tabs and type in 'gm' and 'hm' in rapid succession; it's pretty fast. OR i could just plop them both into a bookmark folder, let's call it 'mail', and give that folder a nickname, let's say 'm'. open up a new tab, type 'm', and have at it. neat.

by the way, has anyone ever visited Secunia?
it's a security website that documents all the reported security holes in specific software (browsers, office applications, etc) and tracks the progress of plugging those holes.
Opera 9.x
Firefox 2.0.x
Internet Explorer 6.x
Internet Explorer 7

enjoy the paranoia folks.