Category: Opera Browser

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Computer Security: the Value of Resident Anti-Malware

So, how important is having a resident, up-to-date anti-malware product for Windows users?

Middlin’. No, seriously.

Here’s a wee experiment I recently did:

  • Windows 7 box, mostly updated (I did not accept some problematic M$Office 2010 updates, but then I rarely fire up M$Office).
  • Removed all resident anti-malware products.
  • Surfed normally for a month.
  • Scanned with offline standalone scanners and online scanners from reputable anti-malware companies.

Result? No malware.

A properly-configured modern(ish) browser (Opera 12.17), decent firewalling and simple safe computing practices were all that was needed for me to avoid infections/infestations with malware.

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I Still Haven’t Found a Better Browser Than Opera 12.x

bookmark-mgmt

Just one (but very important to me) reason why I have yet to find a browser as useful to me as Opera 12.x: bookmark management. I have 118 first level folders in my bookmarks, with many levels nested under them. And I USE this filing system daily. It’s a reference library compiled over years of browsing. (And yes, I weed it regularly as well.)

(Yes, I obscured folders and links.)

Some browsers offer to import my bookmarks. Some of them that offer to do so actually do (the new “Chopera”–an Opera skinned Chrome browser–offers to but doesn’t do it), but those that actually do present a jumbled mess that isn’t really even searchable and none of them have any real ability to sort, organize, and arrange bookmarks. Useless. ANd this is just one (very important to me) among many failings of every browser offering I have searched out as an alternative to the venerable and no longer developed Opera 12.x. Sad that so very much functionality and usefulness has been sacrificed.

And here is just one of three–the middle-of-the-road way–ways to tweak Opera 12.x in what seems to be (almost) infinitely variable ways. I know of no other browser that offers so many ways to customize its behavior. While I don’t often avail myself of the easy manual editing of actual config files (text files saved as ini files) for Opera 12.x, because I’ve just about got them where I want them, sometimes I make a less granular change using opera:config typed in the address bar. Just one–of, still, many more–reasons why pretenders to the browser throne on my devices have yet to dethrone Opera 12.x.

opera-config

I keep trying to find a replacement, but every “new” browser–and new iterations of old ones–that comes along just seems like crap by comparison to “Ole Faithful.” *sigh*

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*gagamaggot*

Opera ASA, the Norwegian company that publishes various forms of Opera Browser for just about every platform out there, has apparently decided that its real growth market is among computer users with the intelligence of a rotten cabbage and attention spans that make mere nanoseconds seem like years.

Example: suppose one were to want to import one’s bookmarks from a previous version of the Opera browser to the current Chrome knockoff Opera browser. The Opera “help” (and I use the term derisively) file says,

“To import your bookmarks:

“From the main menu, select More tools > Bookmark Importer.
“Click the Select Bookmarks button.
“From the list, select which bookmarks you wish to convert to Speed Dial.”

Well, first off, that’s a flat out lie. “Bookmark Importer” has sporadically appeared and disappeared from the Chrome knockoff Opera since its inception. Not there in ver. 24.0.1543.0.

Secondly, “From the list, select which bookmarks you wish to convert to Speed Dial,” pretty explicitly says, “Choose a few bookmarks. We’ll let you sort of ‘import’ those few. You lose the rest AND your folder structure. Tough noogies. We only want users with the attention spans and intelligence necessary to make gnats seem like Steven Hawking in comparison.”

100s of bookmarks nestled in a folder structure that allows clear navigation and categorization with a bookmark management functionality that allows quick and easy searches to delve quickly into that complex tree structure and pluck just exactly the gem one wants? Gone, bubba.

So, then Opera ASA touts its “synchronize” function. . . which does no such thing at all. All it does is export bookmarks in an html file that COMPLETELY DESTROYS ALL ORGANIZATION INCLUDING ALPHABETIZING OF BOOKMARKS, making the thing almost completely worthless. . . especially since it also RANDOMLY LOSES BOOKMARKS.

Now, that’s just ONE of the many, many ways Opera ASA has screwed up a once exceptionally useful tool. *sigh*

I am trying Avant Browser and I find it to have a few useful, built in features even Opera 12.x doesn’t (the old Opera browser that’s still at least an order of magnitude better than the “new” Chrome knockoff Opera), but it, too, does not import Opera bookmarks (though it offers to and appears to attempt to do so), and in all other ways, excepting a few nice lil features, is about as capable as Opera 11.x.

*sigh*

It’s almost enough to make a guy give up on the web.

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Opera Software Tells Its Longtime Users to Pi$$ Up a Rope

[One wag who viewed this–but who did not comment here; what’s up with that?!?–commented that at least Opera isn’t telling longtime, faithful users to pi$$ into the wind. . . Yeh, funny. Almost]

Opera 15 is out–a three-step jump from 12.16–and it sucks dead bunnies through a straw and explosively sharts them out.

Dafq?

80% of the cool features that differentiated Opera from run-of-the-mill browsers like, well, ALL the other browsers, are *pft!* gone! In place of the almost infinitely customizable, tweakable, full-featured browser that was the joy of its faithful users, it’s now a dumbed-down version of. . . Google Chrome! Yep. Despite two (or maybe three) new “features” which are better suited to a Fischer-Price “My First Computer” user, the new Opera 15 is actually less functional than Chrome, of all things! Chrome! The previous fav of users who belong in Assisted Computing Facilities (“Here, dearie, let me make that mouse click FOR you. . . “) Heck, it’s an even worse browser now than Internet Exploder! Worse than Internet Exploder 10 on Win8!!!

!@#$%^&*

A list of features and capabilities present in Opera 12.1 and absent in Opera 15 is just too long and depressing to catalog. It’s as though Opera Software ASA has decided that its only hope for expansion–nay! for survival!–is to cater to a market segment with an average IQ of 80 and the attention span of an ADHD toddler on crack cocaine.

Other than that, it’s juuuust fine. . . *gagamaggot*

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Fun lil mini-project

Mini-project: Cleaning up and configuring a used, but otherwise nice, older Vaio desktop for use by a (very nearly*) first time computer user who’s nearly 90. Purpose of the computer? “I want to be able to do email with my children and grandchildren.”

A worthwhile use for a computer, but it doesn’t require all that much. So. notebook or desktop was the first question. (Tablet or “smart” phone? Nope. Nixed by user.)

There were several barriers to a notebook: cost, screen size, cramped keyboard and any kind of touchpad were some of the stated barriers. But size mattered, in some senses, as well because of limited living space.

Nice discovery: a nice-sized, high-resolution (1080p) TV with an analog video computer input that sits within pretty close viewing range from the user’s most comfy chair. Desktop that’ll fit into the user’s entertainment center? The right fit.

Internet access. Limited, fixed income. Relatively high medical expenses (relative to fixed income). But. The assisted living facility does sport a wireless network with Internet access, and the wireless password is in my password book. . . Now, if only the user can access it from her apartment, Internet access is solved. Hmmm, a small parabolic dish to improve reception and transmission from a 5db base antenna on a wireless adapter? Could be.

Other minor concerns:

Would have preferred a Linux OS with desktop links to Internet/Email, but (sort of computer literate) adult children would not be all that comfortable helping the user with that OS as an environment, so some sort of Windows environment. Oh, dear. It is a slightly older computer. Only 512 MB RAM, and only room for expansion to a max of 2GB (one pair of expansion slots effectively X-ed out, because one of them is has a small issue: broken clip). That’s not all that bad, since the computer’s limited to a 32-bit OS, anyway. Maybe Win7 wouldn’t be best, though. So, WinXP Pro, 32-bit it is. (Hmmm, seems to run very nicely with the 512MB it has. With installation of software blocked, it might just do as is! But. . . another 1GB would only be about $25. Decisions. . . ) Fully updated, WinXP Pro SP3 will certainly serve the user well enough and be familiar to family who may want to mess the computer up. *heh*

After those trifling concerns were met, the rest has been easy-peasy.

Necessary software:

A decent browser (Opera) configured with useful extensions (WOT, LastPass, Adblock Plus) and Speed Dial selections (the user’s webmail address, several sites fitting user’s stated interests, etc.). Links on desktop to Internet/Email.

Basic security software–Microsoft Security Essentials.

OpenDNS set as DNS resolver, and free account set up for customized filtering.

Irfanview–better for viewing family photos than the XP built in viewer.

TeamViewer8 for the most computer-savvy relative to use for remote management.

. . .and a few other little details, like the mini-manual with outlined user tips.

With a little luck on the Internet connection (via the assisted living facility’s existing wireless network), I think this will serve the stated needs pretty well.

Fun lil mini-project.

(Kudos to JDS and MES for the donation of the computer.)

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As If I Needed Yet Another Reason to Use the Opera Browser

The short story for anyone browsing the web is summed up in this M$ warning about issues with the TLS 1.0 security protocols used in “secure” connections by most browsers. By default, Internet Exploder, in Windows 7, uses TLS 1.0 which is vulnerable to a “man in the middle” attack that could compromise a user’s personal information. In XP, this “default” is also the only level of TLS that is available, but by jumping through a few hoops, one can enable TLS 1.1 in IE in a Win7 environment.

Chrome and Firefox are still awaiting patches that would enable them to use TLS 1.1.

Meanwhile, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 have been available to Opera users since 2009.

Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Done. All without having to mess with some external download from a M$ “Knowledge base” article or mess around with “Internet Options” (that only affect IE and then only allow adding implementation of the older TLS 1.1).

Built into the thing from long since before the problem was identified by other browser developers. Nice.

Enjoy your online banking with IE, Chrome or Firefox!

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Another (few) Data Point(s) in Favor of the Opera Browser

*heh*

Frankly, my primary reasons for preferring Opera as my primary web browser all revolve around its elegance. Every other browser is klunky and incomplete by comparison. Example? Mouse gestures. I can’t live without them when browsing. Sure, they can be added to other browsers via extensions, but that’s just so very kludgey, and often the add-on is broken with browser updates.

Etc.

But it’d be silly to not prefer Opera for its technical excellence as well. Take for example its standards-compliance, an area where Opera claims to be further along than other browsers. Is this claim true? Could be. For example, its compliance in implementing javascripting (something that’s almost omnipresent on the web) is just one of the many areas where it shines. On the emerging ECMAScripttest262, Chrome, a pretty darned good browser, returned these test results:

Not bad. Almost a 95% pass rate.

What about the Opera install I’m using right now to write this?

Oh, wait. That’s a 99.95% pass rate*

Of course, that’s just one of many test suites for web standards compliance, but my own experience running the standard test suites on the Opera installs I use regularly and installs of other browsers on the same computers (installs that are ALL kept up-to-date) just reinforces my appreciation for the lil browser that could. *heh* Sure, on some HTML5 test suites, Opera lags Chrome by as much as 23 points out of 450 (70% vs 75% compliance), but since that’s a still-emerging standard, I’m willing to play wait and see there. Acid3? On the limited subset of tests Acid3 is designed to look at, 100% pass for both, so that’s a push, although the Webstandards.org site does say,

“In other regards Opera is a clear leader. It is the only browser that supports more than 90 % of the SVG test suite. It is the only browser that implements Web Forms 2.0, currently being merged into HTML 5. They supported media queries and SMIL long before Acid3 came out.”

And for an overview of the extensive SVG Test Suite results for various browsers, including an older version of Opera than the one I now use, see here. Look at all that green (PASS) under the Opera column… 😉

Just sayin’. 🙂

Continue reading “Another (few) Data Point(s) in Favor of the Opera Browser”

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Inside Browsing

If I had said “Inside Baseball” non baseball fans might not have–might have, but maybe not–gotten it.

Lil thing that just adds to my appreciation of the browser I use most, Opera: the recent DigiNotar flap. Within a few days, Chrome and Internet Exploder had removed DigiNotar certificate authorization with a push patch. Some complained that Opera had not yet done so. Ignorant boobs.

Referring to the issue in answer to these ignorant critics, Opera Software noted,

“…Opera does not require a fix for this issue. Opera always verifies that certificates are not revoked, and unlike other browsers Opera does not display sites as secure if access to revocation servers has been blocked by an attacker.”

That’s right. Google Mozilla and Microsoft had to push notification to their browsers. [N.B. I had that wrong earlier; Google imitates what Opera’s done for years with certificates.] Opera Browser users were automatically protected by Opera’s normal mode of operation. I checked, and even those Opera installs I have which haven’t had the September 1, 2011 10.51 update yet have removed DigiNotar, just as a matter of normal operation.

Just one more lil elegant way Opera deals with things that other browsers kludge through.

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Neat Lil Betatool

Opera has decided that those of us who voluntarily strap on the latest nightly builds and take off into the wild should have something different to play with. The call it Opera Next. It installs separately from one’s regular Opera build and is self-updating with whatever latest build is out–a new alpha? Fine! Won’t impact one’s regular install. Handy. It even has a White icon instead of the normal red Opera “O” so it’s easy even for me to keep track of. *heh*

I’ve been loading alphas and betas of Opera for some years now on Windows and ‘nix computers alongside standard releases, and this really does make it easy to not accidentally *cough* update the wrong installation. 😉

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One 1/2 One (Again) Fewer Petty Pet Peeve

Yeh, I couldn’t resist the alliteration.

Well, I marked one of my two gripes about Opera 11 off my list. Turning off the “Visual Mouse Gestures” helper thing. *gah* What a waste. Apparently intended to “help” those users who should live in an Assisted Computing Facility (“Here. dearie; let me make that mouse gesture for you… “), it was nothing but an annoyance to me.

So, I finally stopped griping about it and intermittently looking for a place to switch it off in Preferences, which has only a subset of Opera configuration options, and searched for a solution. Of course, what I found only pointed me to where I ought to have been looking all along, though it pointed inaccurately.

The tipster pointed to opera:config, but mistakenly suggested disabling “Show Gesture UI”, which doesn’t exist, instead of “Show Gesture inf”. Unticking the checkbox by “Show Gesture inf” did the trick.

Update: only sorta kinda halfway. If I pause in mid-gesture for whatever reason, the thing does still show up… in the latest beta. Irritating. Works fine in the first beta. Have to put this 1/2 back on my “petty pet peeves” list.

Update-Update: Two betas later (three in one week), and this peeve is dead, dead, dead, I am happy to report. Now, just watching out for regressions in the future. *heh*

I really ought to have looked there sooner, as I have long used opera:config for other minor tweaks, but hey, lazy, forgetful? Early Olde Tymers’ Disease?

“Fewer” not “Less”? Use “fewer” for things that are/can be counted; “less” for things that are/can be measured. I suppose one could measure my peeves, but I wasn’t talking about the relative sizes of my peeves but a reduction in number. 🙂

And yes, using “less” when “fewer” is better is another of my peeves, but one not so petty, IMO.