That's all folks, I'm writing over at CyberNet
It's official: I'm no longer updating this blog. Everything Pieter that's worth blogging about, can be found at
CyberNet News. Here's a list of the most recent articles by me as I write this:
7 Ways to Download Free Independent MusicSpeed Tricks: Launching Programs Quickly With Windows’ Run CommandShould We Prefer Metered Bandwidth Over “Unlimited”?How to Reduce Firefox’s Memory UsageI've deleted most of the pre-2008 articles on this blog since they were downright terrible. For now, I'll let this blog haunt the internet graveyard.
The difference in Windows and Linux mentality explained.
These screenshots were taken when converting an image. While the average Windows user prefers a GUI to convert images, Linux power users prefer to do it quick and dirty using the command line.
(That of course doesn't mean that you can't use a GUI to do it.) It's accessible versus quick.
Labels: difference, Linux, mentality, Windows
Why you'd love Ubuntu: terminate apps with a button
Ubuntu allows you to quickly terminate unresponsive applications with the press of a button. Just create a shortcut to 'killall
processname' and you're all set up. Popular uses of this little feature include killing Firefox ('killall firefox-bin') and making all command line media players shut up ('killall mplayer').
If you don't know the process name of the application you want to set up a kill switch for, look for it in GNOME's task manager. You can find it in the System menu or if you prefer the quick and dirty method, run 'gnome-system-monitor'.
Labels: eleminate, GNOME, kill, process, terminate, termination, Ubuntu
Five things that would improve Opera
Here's the deal: there's this tag game going on right now in the blogosphere. If you've been tagged, you have to write about five things you would like to see improved in Opera. Not only that, but you also have to tag five other people in order not to break the chain. So
I've been tagged by Ryan over at CyberNet, the blog that I write articles for on occasion. Here's my list:
1.
Better cookie management - Have a look at these screenshots:
See the difference? While Firefox shows a window with three simple buttons (Allow, Allow this session, Deny) and a "Remember my answer" checkmark, Opera shows a dropdown menu. Maybe this is a personal thing, but I prefer the Firefox way of handling single cookies.
2.
Better ad blocking - Opera has a content filter, but it's not that great for blocking ads. A screenshot says more than a thousand words, so I'll let them do the talking:
Opera just hides the images but doesn't remove the white space left by the ad. Adblock however also removes the white space.
3.
Updater - Now, I haven't actually been able to test this, but Ryan said you have to upgrade Opera manually when there's a new version available. This is very annoying. What I'd like to see is a full-blown updater system like the one in Firefox. I know that this could be more difficult to achieve on Linux systems (because you might need the root password), but it should be possible. Or why not put Opera in the Ubuntu repositories so that I automatically receive Opera updates?
4.
Firefox extensions - I have no idea if this is even possible (because Firefox uses the Gecko rendering engine and Opera developed an engine of their own), but it would be really cool. I don't know if I would be able to give up all my Firefox extensions when switching to Opera. Or maybe the Opera community needs to start developing their own extensions.
5.
Rendering engine - Opera still fails to render some websites correctly. Here's an example:
I'm sure that Opera does what they can about this and this could be due to Blue Dot not properly supporting the Opera browser, but still: it's annoying and it will keep people from switching.
So now I have to tag five other people. Unfortunately, I only know one blogger who visits my blog on occasion (except for the people that Ryan already tagged). So
Alex Killby, if you're reading this: you've been tagged.
Labels: browser, browsers, Firefox, Opera
