Month: March 2006

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Why I use Opera Browser

Every few months I’ve posted briefly about my browser preference. I don’t do so in order to rub Internet Exploder users’ faces in the mess IE makes of their everyday browsing (whether they know it’s doing so or not) or in any expectation of “converting” users to a more sane browser than Internet Exploder or the much better, though still kludgy, Firefox. No, I do it because something someone said in comments or email spurs me to simply let folks know that there is a better way.

Yesterday, I sent someone an swf file as an email attachment. They couldn’t play it with their default image/media file viewer and tried viewing it in Firefox.

No go there, either.

Strange. Opened just fine in Opera. I haven’t looked into it any further than to try to replicate the problem in Firefox. Yup. And when it fails to play the file, it doesn’t even suggest downloading and installing an “extension” to do so. Bad form, that.

So that got me thinking again about why I appreciate Opera browser. Here are my top three reasons, based on what I do every day on the internet.

It just works as a browser. CLeanly, efficiently, quickly. tabbed browsing is much easier than with Firefox, and mouse gestures and zooming work better and don’t need extensions to just work right.
It’s a great email client. That’s right. I don’t have to have a separate email client loaded to handle all my email needs. I can open and close my email window with a keystroke or mouse click/gesture. Right inside my browser. Check all my email accounts with a keyboard combo–without leaving the window I’m browsing. Built into the browser.
Opera is also my full text RSS reader. Just CLICK on the lil RSS button in the addressbar of a site I wanna subscribe to, accept the subscription and I’m done. Unlike the limited ability of Firefox, Opera’s RSS reader really works–easily, and displays the full text of the feeds by default (I could limit it to headline displays, but why?).

Media files, graphics, whatever. It Just Works. Without a lotta hoohaw.

For Linux, Mac, Windows, Solaris, heck, for your phone. Opera’s just a better browser.

Experiencing the internet in the fast lane and thumbing my nose at the slow drivers while driving by TMH’s Bacon Bits (sorry about that, TMH… sorta :-)).

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Another Celtic Saint

As much effect in Wales as Patrick in Ireland, perhaps more, for Patrick is, of course, “honored” more in the breach than in fact today.

I speak, of course, of Saint Nun (or Nonna, Nonnita), the mother of St David, who is honored the day after St David’s Day, that is, today.

Happy St Nun’s Day!

(No snarky comments. I’ll have…. um, none of that.)

Look out for tomorrow: yet another Christian pioneer with strong ties to David of Wales.

(Who needs St Patrick with all the Welsh pioneers honored in March?)

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Saint David’s Day

[A slightly edited version of a Saint David’s Day post from 2005]

Dydd Gwyl Ddewi (St David’s Day), in honor of the “other” Celtic patron saint.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why Patrick is so honored (though mostly in the breech, as it were) and David so seemingly forgotten–at least outside of Wales. Ah, maybe that’s it: the Irish, so unsuccessful in their own land in the past, have huge swarms of folk in this, the most media-stricken land on the globe, and so Patrick just gets much more press.

Saint David, or Dewi Sant, as he is known in the Welsh language, is the patron saint of Wales. He was a Celtic monk, abbot and bishop, who lived in the sixth century. During his life, he was the archbishop of Wales, and he was one of many early saints who helped to spread Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of western Britain. –from Saint David and Saint David’s Day

If I can find it (again), I’ll also post a short hymn I wrote considering the likes of Sts David and Patrick, tune name: DEWI SANT. Ahhh, here it is…

DEWISANT-1.jpg

So, wear a daffodil or a leek today and celebrate Saint David’s Day with what has become the Welsh motto (taken from his last sermon, according to tradition):

Gwnewch y pethau bychain

or,

“Do the little things.”

“Leeking” all over the place at Conservative Cat and TMH’s Bacon Bits

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Wednesday Open Trackback Alliance Post: Do You Know Where YOUR Taxes Are?

[OTA Wednesday at third wirld countyâ„¢. Link here and trackback. See the end of the post for more.]

From The National Taxpayers Union:

Why NTU Supports the FairTax:

The Fair Tax Act of 2005 would promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.

And on the Petition page, this:

… the FairTax plan would replace today’s indecipherable Tax Code with a flat-rate national retail sales tax plan that would:

  • repeal many federal taxes, including personal income, estate, gift, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes without reducing revenue;
  • abolish the Internal Revenue Service, eliminate embedded taxes in goods and services that amount to billions of dollars, and bring offshore corporate dollars back into the U.S. economy;
  • be fair for low-income Americans by providing universal tax rebates for consumption up to the poverty line;
  • reward job creation, hard work, and individual responsibility…

Check out the info at The National Taxpayers Union and get on board! Your children and grandchildren will bless you.

And get the book, darn it! 🙂

The FairTax Book

The FairTax Book

Just link to this post and trackback, ‘K?

CLICK on the OTA graphic below or on my left sidebar for more info on the Open Trackback Alliance, ‘K?

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