Buffy Summers vs. Edward Cullen

Opera 10 Beta 1

Dang, it's fast.
I will be reviewing this upgrade after about a week or two. Ongoing notes after the jump.


Design

• New UI Skin, being worked on by the venerable Jon Hicks, better known as the designer of the Firefox/Thunderbird brand.
• The standard skin is pleasant, and not garish. There is a bit of a Leopard vs. Vista feel when comparing the two.
• In return for all the functionality cues Chrome takes from Opera, 10.0 buttons resemble Chrome's.
• Mild design oversights that should be ironed out in the weeks to come. The address bar has a Jay Leno (2-3 extra pixels along the bottom edge, forming a "chin")
• Visual Tabs: pull down the Tab Bar expander to show live previews of open tabs. Can also be activated by double-clicking the pull tab (which I prefer), or turn it off entirely. OMNIWeb and Windows 7 inspired?
• There seems to be a pixel shaved off the right edge of my scroll bars
• An updated snapshot build of the Beta rectifies many of the issues above. They've been stricken from the list.

Function

• Hot diggity it is fast compared to 9.64. I don't care much for benchmarks, but something under the hood is whipping through page rendering.
• Benchmarks show beta 10.0 is slower than Chrome 2.0 and Firefox 3.5 beta 4 in synthetic tests. Chrome, Firefox and Safari are definitely the front-runners in terms of rendering/scripting speed. Browsing speed, however, is more than just benchmark performance. Good to see so much competition though!
• Configurable Speed Dial: up to 25 Speed Dials available now, going from 2x2 to 5x5 configurations, with wide-screen options (4x3, 5x4). Choose your own background.
• The one function I missed the most when I switched from Firefox to Opera back in 2007, was in-line spell-checking. Opera 10 has finally added it to its extensive repertoire.
• Opera Unite beta is rolled into the latest snapshot build of the Beta. It allows for some direct P2P sharing, and treating your computer like a file share with select people, with zero configuration. Accessible through browsers other than Opera. More info.

"It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison"

Most of my 3 readers will not enjoy this.

I like animals. They're all really amazing in the way they interact with one another, what they can do and how they're built to do it well.

Today, I came across a creature so unique in the niche that it fills, and so bizarre, that I just had to share it. Honestly, it's so weird I've put it on my list of questions to ask God.

It's also really gross, so you'll have to see what I mean after the jump.

This is Cymothoa exigua displayed in a cut-away of the jaws of a Spotted Rose Snapper. It is not being eaten. On the contrary, cymothoa exigua is the one doing the eating.

It is a parasite about 3-4 cm long when fully grown. They live in the ocean waters off the coast of California. They infiltrate the buccal cavity of Spotted Rose Snappers by way of the gills, or mouth, and latch onto the base of the fish's tongue. Their first three sets of claws are used to puncture and extract blood from the tongue, nourishing the parasite. After some time, the tongue atrophies due to the lack of blood and falls away, leaving behind a stub. Cymothoa exigua then latches onto the tongue-stub and replaces the fish's tongue, both in location and function. It continues its existence feeding on blood, or the mucous lining from the mouth. The common name for cymothoa exigua is the tongue louse.

The more pragmatic among us can see how this is a pretty sweet deal for the tongue louse. The human equivalent is like living the rest of your life in a pink minivan, with food in front of your face all day, and a constant flow of water washing away whatever waste you produce. You're sheltered from the elements, hidden from natural predators (except for the ones that eat pink minivans) and you get to see the world every other second. Chances are, your friends have found other pink minivans to shack up in and you guys can travel together.

The Plan: Execution

Remember last October, when I gave a fairly detailed write-up of my plan to upgrade my computer? A great deal of it turned out to be an accurate assessment, so I am really glad I waited for this latest iteration of MacBook Pros.

Back in the heyday of PowerPC Mac notebooks, there were two distinct model lines: PowerBooks and iBooks. The PowerBooks, predecessor to the MacBook Pro, were metal and awesome and came in three sizes: 12", 15" and 17". The iBooks, granddaddy of the white MacBooks, were plastic-chic, oddly adorable and came in 14" and 12" versions.

As of this Monday, the MacBook lineup returned to its roots and separated the Pro/non-Pro lineup with the same visual distinction: plastic vs. metal. The MacBook now only refers to the white plastic notebook. The Pros come in three sizes: 13", 15" and 17". The MacBook Air still exists, making all other notebook computers feel fat and unpretty. On top of that, Apple did what I never thought it would do -- cut prices.

Back in October, my decision between MacBook Pro 15" and MacBook 13" hinged on a few things: screen quality, affordability, backlit keyboard and battery life. Today's MacBook Pro 13" answers all those requirements while costing less than the base model MacBook of late 2008. It comes with an improved (Pro-level) screen, standard backlit keyboard, improved battery and SD CARD READER (finally). On top of that, it still qualifies for the Back to School steal deal.

It's going to happen. I'm just waiting for reviews to confirm screen quality improvements and then I'm off.

I'd hit that

So the softball bat that I was looking into getting, the Mizuno 2008 Frenzy 98, has been gotten. Not by me, though, but by the team! And on a pretty decent sale to boot.

Technically, I was looking for its sibling, the 2008 Mizuno Rusty Bumgardner Frenzy 98, but that one is not available in Canada at this time.

Now I get swing it =D Sweet.