Five years with My Opera

— Posted inUncategorized — 2 min read

I joined my.opera.com five years ago. …

It was about a month after started using Opera (8.01 was my first version). The primary reason of my joining was to learn about my new toy at the forums. NonTroppo's "30 days to becoming an Opera lover" was my ticket to discovering just how much this shiny new toy could do. First I took the "watch and learn" approach and did not make many forum posts.

What most impressed me about My Opera Forums was how friendly and helpful regular members were. I felt really comfortable posting newbie comments, which was not always the case with other user forums I contributed in the past. I stayed on but kept myself quite inconspicuous. In my first 12 months at the Opera Forums, I only made 55 posts. Later as my knowledge of Opera increased and I stared experimenting beta testing, I became relatively comfortable posting more and, in some cases, providing help information. This change of attitude in me probably played a role in the dramatic increase of my forum posts lately: over 600 in the last 12 months period! My cumulative forum posts now exceed the 1100 mark(some in the Japanese language user forums).

Recently I started exploring other aspect of my.opera.com: blogging and social networking. It's been less than three months since I started blogging, and I've already met several very good friends. I'm still watching and learning, and will be very cautious and slow in expanding my circle of friends. I'm sure my recently discovered new My Opera friends will be patient and understanding, and will set me right if I do anything wrong. 😀 And yes, I will keep posting at the Forums. 🙂

FYI:
"30 days to becoming an Opera lover", in an archived form, can now be found at:http://tntluoma.com/category/30days/page/3/

[Updated 20 August]
Here's my 1111th forum post 🙂

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  1. I am glad you started blogging. :up:I just checked my profile to see how many forum posts I have logged after being a member for a year: 10 😛

  2. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    "30 days to becoming an Opera lover"

    I really started with that too, but used 7.something mainly for it's email client and tab browsing. 6.x was horrible graphically, or maybe my computer was too slow.
    Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    I've already met several very good friends

    Names, we want names !!
    Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    My Opera friends will be patient and understanding

    :eyes:
    Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    and will set me right if I do anything wrong

    :yes: …. :devil:
    Concerning forum post, I'm nearly zero, just because I don't need it often, I'm mainly reading the Opera Mini forum, and the problem are already exposed. Normally forum are made to discuss, but in fact, the blog posts are often forums and often with people you know or like, so forum is not really on my list.
    I tried a topic but was closed 😥 http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=632412&t=1282184087&page=1#comment6053782

  3. Originally posted by debplatt:

    I am glad you started blogging.

    Thanks, Deb. So am I, very much. :)Originally posted by arduinna:

    Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    I've already met several very good friends

    Names, we want names !!

    You, Olivier, Deb and DH are the three first regulars to my blog. I've met other nice people, too. But you three are the best. :yes:Originally posted by arduinna:

    Originally posted by mimi_s_mum::

    and will set me right if I do anything wrong

    :yes: …. :devil:

    :awww: Maybe I should take your name off the above "list" ?

  4. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    You, Olivier, Deb and DH are the three first regulars to my blog. I've met other nice people, too. But you three are the best.

  8. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    But you three are the best

    Dômo arigatô gozaimasu !(Does it make any sense to you, I mean how do you read rhe "ô" and "u" ?

  9. Originally posted by arduinna:

    Dômo arigatô gozaimasu

    or like this (then you don't have to worry about the "ô" and "u")

  10. Originally posted by arduinna:

    the pages are set on Unicode utf-8 and maybe you used an other encoding

    I went back and replaced the characters with an image.I don't think it is enough to have the encoding to utf-8; you actually have to have a Japanese font installed on your machine.The United States' Foreign Services Institute has developed a number of foreign language courses for our diplomats. Since the courses were developed with tax payer money, they have put the course materials (including audio) on the web so that tax payers can also have access to the language learning materials. I am assuming that people outside the U.S. can access the web site, too. Tell me if I'm wrong.I did try learning a few Chinese phrases, and soon learned that having the meaning depend on pitch was just too difficult for me. So for me, Japanese is way more accessible (though it's still pretty, darn difficult!!!). 😀

  11. It doesn't work for me : the pages are set on Unicode utf-8 and maybe you used an other encoding PS : No pretentiousness, I just reopened a book and copy this phrase "Thanks a lot". I learned japanese a bit 20 years ago when we wanted to design a motor speed sensor for Honda . We had an Italian engineer that was mad about this language. I have no preference for Chinese or Japanese and I like both culture but the Japanese system with its Hiragana and Katakana avoid to memorize ideograms. I learned a few (really a few !! but get the trick to find them in a dictionnary) of Japanese because most of them come from Chinese thought the pronounciation is different. I see Hiragana and Katakana as an alphabet for Kanji Now today this is totally forgotten, but having a friend knowing English and Japanese could be a good motivation.My favourite to learn languages is http://www.assimil.com

  12. Originally posted by debplatt:

    you actually have to have a Japanese font installed on your machine

    yes this is certainly the problem, even Opera does'nt give that choice too as it probably don't find a good font. Do you see something (using Unicode hexa and htm) : ௪ ௴ ௪௴ ∏ ∑ ʁ

  13. Originally posted by debplatt:

    I did try learning a few Chinese phrases, and soon learned that having the meaning depend on pitch was just too difficult for me

    ah ah we should learn to sing, it is the same from another post !! Yes as MM (AKA Mimi's Mum !! ) told us Japanese pronunciation is less difficult, it's close to Italian and so it's the easiest for me .

  14. Doesn't work well, the last one should be arabic and the two first hiragana , the other ones are more maths classical , why don't you all speak French 😥 !

  15. Here's what I saw as a result of your unicode/hexa/htm experiment:Originally posted by arduinna:

    Japanese pronunciation is … close to Italian and so it's the easiest for me .

    I agree the pronunciation of the phonemes is easier. Getting the rhythm right and not increasing the volume of long vowels is a bit harder. Understanding all the politeness levels and social implications of various wordings, harder still. :faint:Originally posted by arduinna:

    ah ah we should learn to sing

    I can't learn to sing. I'm just physically not able to do it. :awww:

  16. Originally posted by debplatt:

    I can't learn to sing. I'm just physically not able to do it

    Yes I know, same to me, or maybe we should really try and not shout it from the rooftops before to be sure.

  18. Minasan tanoshisou desune! (You guys seem having good time!)I'm very impressed, younz 😉 And you are welcome to sing all you like in my blog 😆 I'm known to sing rather loud myself. :DI've just downloaded the latest snapshot and will be off line for a short while while installing it. Back soon. ) [15 minutes later]I'm back!

  21. Thanks, DH. I actually made a blog when I first started five years ago but didn't make public. I made a grand total of two posts(both poems! But then I realised poetry is not for me. Just imagine what if I had carried on :p). 😀

  22. Originally posted by arduinna:

    …or maybe we should really try and not shout it from the rooftops

    I'm sure people would rather hear me shouting this from the rooftops than hear me singing. 😆

  25. Just updated the post with my 1111th forum post evidential image 🙂

  26. Time-wise, I don't think I could handle both blogging and socializing at the Lounge. 😛

  27. They are going to do the big upgrading of My Opera. Maybe you can post feedback or question when that happens. 🙂 Or you can always post in The Lounge topics, such as "What have you just eaten or drunk?" :p

  31. Yeah, I'm finding it hard to strike the balance between blogging/social networking and other stuff. Some days I think I'm online and chatting away too much, other days I feel I neglected everyone. Tricky.

  35. :no: 600 posts in the last 12 months would have sounded as some harassment to your audience, yes, "keep it simple", keep it at your human pace … we are not professional yet !I like your blog as it is, forums are more crowded ?

  36. I checked out my account statistics this week, and here's a portion of my visitor map. The two little dots in New Zealand represent you and DH. And it amazes that over this vast distance we have come to know each other to some degree and that we chat on a fairly regular basis.:)

  37. Or MM and Darkest have many offices, houses, … (PS: not Photoshop, but … :p )

  38. @Olivier – You are quite popular with the New Zealand crowd. 🙂

  39. @Deb, the dots on you map seems a bit off. DH's supposed to be a couple of hundred km north west east from me. And I'm at the southern most tip of the North Island.@ OlivierI've no intention of getting another house, which would mean more painting! :pI'm impressed, too, with how popular you are to the kiwi's. ;)Unfortunately my ISP provides me a static IP, therefore I've no privacy at all on the Net. 🙁

  40. Originally posted by debplatt:

    Hmm. Maybe the dots represent the headquarters of your service providers?

    Possibly. I thought your stat service (hitslink is it?) map itself was off.

  41. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    I thought your stat service (hitslink is it?) map itself was off.

    Right, hitlinks. Well, I guess you get what you pay for. 😆

  42. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    Unfortunately my ISP provides me a static IP, therefore I've no privacy at all on the Net.

    My husband would love having a static IP. They provide us one that stays the same for some indeterminate amount of time, then it shifts to something else.

  43. Originally posted by darkesthour:

    Hmmm, looks a bit fishy to me

    Maybe there's someone with cellphone following him who is on a trip around NZ? :p

  45. Originally posted by debplatt:

    I guess you get what you pay for.

    Very true 😆

  46. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    @Deb, the dots on you map seems a bit off. DH's supposed to be a couple of hundred km north west east from me. And I'm at the southern most tip of the North Island

    Hmm. Maybe the dots represent the headquarters of your service providers? You two are the only kiwis I know, so it must be you. :confused:

  47. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    Unfortunately my ISP provides me a static IP, therefore I've no privacy at all on the Net

    If you use "Opera Turbo", you will use Opera servers and not your IP.Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    Maybe there's someone with cellphone following him who is on a trip around NZ?

    And I did'nt mention the sailing boats :rolleyes: .

  48. Morning Olivier :)Unfortunately I don't think Turbo hides your IP. If I'm really desperate and in need of hiding my IP, I use OperaTor, though it takes about 30 times longer to download a page, compared to the naked Opera :pOriginally posted by arduinna:

    And I did'nt mention the sailing boats

    Yeah, I noticed 😀

  49. Turbo hides you as it compresses the web pages where you are going something like : you–> operaserver –>visited pages, in it uses Opera Mimi server, ooops, Opera Mini servers. You can try on your own pages, you will see you coming from Poland, Norway, or something like that. But you can also be disconnected from the Internet at all, it works well to protect your private IP !!! ( Concerning Turbo, the point is that it can switch automatically to the normal behaviour, if it is too fast; in that case you can use WiFi with a slow connection , I mean with a distance from the router to slow the speed down … Or coming back to the old analog modem … Well advance backwards :ko:

  50. Originally posted by arduinna:

    Opera Mimi server, ooops

    :DOriginally posted by arduinna:

    it works well to protect your private IP !!!

    I didn't realize this. That's interesting.Originally posted by arduinna:

    well advance backwards

    Gaming the system to have a slower experience to make Turbo kick in… that's also interesting. 🙂

  51. Thanks for info, DH. I'd have a look if I ever became desperate to be anonymous. 😆 Knowing whatever I put on the Net would be forever associated with me as a person kind of help me exercise a certain restraint in my web activities, which is probably a good thing. :p

  52. If you use Comodo antivirus (free ware) you can subscribe (at a cost) to their secure proxy servers and be anonymous that way

  53. Originally posted by arduinna:

    Turbo hides you

    Actually, no. According to Opera Privacy Policy for Turbo, 'When Opera Turbo is enabled, the service will compress network traffic, thereby increasing download speed and reducing data volume. The service requests normal Web content through an Opera Software proxy server.' And when the Turbo server makes this request, it also passes on the information that web servers routinely ask for, such as OS & client specs and network information including IP. Not all websites analyses this info and treat your access as coming from Opera server, but if a website wants to, it can still find out your own IP. 🙁

  55. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    Actually, no

    Hmmm we tried it Opcat and I, but we checked only Hitlinks, that's the point I think MM ? We did'nt check it for other websites. i am afraid you are right from what you write. :bandit:

  56. Originally posted by arduinna:

    i am afraid you are right from what you write.

    Thanks, I think. ;)I suppose you probably get some level of anonymity from ad-analytic services such as hitslink. But if you were a dissident rebelling against an authoritarian regime, Turbo would give you no cover.

  59. Originally posted by darkesthour:

    A five year empire?

    No, the one Turboleak would erode its foundation. 😀

  60. Originally posted by arduinna:

    You are suppose to be the captain, we are just the crew …

    Then scrub the deck, crewman!:devil: 😆 Thanks, Oliver. Yes, I forgot about scrubbing and staining the deck. That would be another project for next summer :p

  61. And the Empire crumbles!Now what's that got to do with five years with My Opera? 😆

  62. Scrub on the deck ? The forest grows very fast in your mountains and concerning staining I though that with the painting we were quiet for 5 years ?

  64. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    Now what's that got to do with five years with My Opera?

    You are suppose to be the captain, we are just the crew … Just a little bit MESSY Captain !!

  65. Originally posted by darkesthour:

    a big plumbing problem

    :lol:No pressing plumbing project in sight. :pAt the moment I'm clearing the section of old green rubbish/rubbles. Next comes will be weeding and, possibly, improving existing garden bed (too low, I want to raise it) and making a couple more. But bed making may have to wait because the under house access hatches both need repairing.If I manage to get those done before real summer comes, then over summer I can concentrate on the next painting projects (roof and SE and NE facing walls) DIY never ends 😉

  66. Originally posted by arduinna:

    concerning staining I though that with the painting we were quiet for 5 years ?

    😆 Not a chance!

  68. I wish some of my misplaced items were found as easily as that! 😆

  69. This is an old (true) story from my fathers childhood, my grandfather lost a packest of seed in his shed and got very angry with my father because he thought my father was responsible. Several weeks later my grandfather looked up at the shed roof from the inside, to see the packet of seeds that he had nailed up there to stop my father from playing with them. I suppose the moral is, its ok to put things in a safe place but always make sure you can remember where that safe place is… 😆

  70. Originally posted by darkesthour:

    Fear of paint

    Since you've lost your facial hair, this fear should be relatively minor now, shouldn't it? :p

  71. Fear of paint, height is ok, I am happy running around on the roof without a rope 😀

  73. Originally posted by darkesthour:

    I dont like painting

    :lol:I know. Fear of height. :DI feel scared when perched at an exposed high place myself. Making sure to keep three points of contact seem to help psychologically. (The trick is to count your shoe toes and heels as separate points of contact. So when you are standing on two feet, you'll be perfectly safe because you have four points of contact with left toe, left heel, right toe and right heel ;))I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of high scaffolding in your Photo section next summer 😀

  74. I have found it again already, it never stays off for long 😀 :psmurf:

  75. Originally posted by debplatt:

    enjoyed the "four points of contact" angle to experience a greater sense of security

    :)Actually I feel more secure when I maintain one point of contact by sitting on the plank :POff to get afternoon tea and possibly a short walk. It's a beautiful day down here. TTFN, guys. :bye:

  77. Originally posted by darkesthour:

    its ok to put things in a safe place but always make sure you can remember where that safe place is…

    As soon as I decide to put something in a safe place, I'm doomed. :awww:@MM – enjoyed the "four points of contact" angle to experience a greater sense of security while painting up high.

  79. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    Such a lovely story!

    You will not roar with laughter, when you realize you don't know where you have put the pots of paint :devil: !

  80. Yap. :lol:I usually need a couple of hours nap before I finally put the stuff together to go on line 😀

  81. Originally posted by arduinna:

    when you realize you don't know where you have put the pots of paint

    Paint pails are relatively hard to lose because of their size and also they have only one use. What gives me troubles is things such as screw drivers, protective glasses and craft knife because I'd use them for other things in other area, and forget to put them back to storage. But if you want to hear something funnier …When I go away for a long period of time, say, to visit my parents in Japan, I'll have someone come in to feed my cat and, I normally put away the computer gear. Not that I don't trust my cat feeders. Just a precaution. I'd take laptop battery out, and hide that, the laptop itself, power cords and router in separate places. By the time I come back after 3-4 weeks, I'd normally forget where I put them, and have to go hunting for them. A bit like the Easter egg hunt? It's doubly fun when you have to do it after a long-haul overnight flight! 😀

  84. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    I'd normally forget where I put them, and have to go hunting for them

    😆 I liked this, I am a bit like that too !! And you don't stop the hunt until you have found it ? Never thing of an object : "Where did I put it ?" and the hunt begins for hours !!

  85. Originally posted by arduinna:

    And you don't stop the hunt until you have found it

    I can't. Otherwise I won't be able to go online and respond to your comments! 😀

  86. Whenever I put something in a "safe place", the chances of me ever finding it again are very slim. :awww: I am getting to the point of either driving to the bank and putting the item in our safe deposit box or just leaving it in plain sight. True, if someone stole the item, I would lose it. But if I hide the item, I would lose it, too.

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