Iain's Profile

Member since September 19, 2003

  • Name

    Iain Andol

  • Location:

    United Kingdom

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Recent Posts

  1. Review - Find and Run Robot

    1.07.10 (Nov 13, 2005)

    I was looking for a small fast utility which didn't eat resources, yet was feature packed. I tried a lot of application launchers until I found this one; and I've never looked back. This software is simply excellent. It works by defining directories and aliases, and once you trigger it it progressively finds the items you are interested in. You can use it simply, or build up aliases which can launch apps with options, launch URLs, perform internet searches, all through a simple unobtrusive interface. Highly recommended, especially for the price!

    The software does not need installing; it can be run by unzipping the install executable manually.

    Even better the developer is really cool; on the forums he is very open to user suggestions and updates the software regularly based on such suggestions.

  2. Review - Opera for Windows

    8.00 Build 7561 (Apr 19, 2005)

    Opera have cemented their position as maker of the most advanced browser available. The list of killer features is too long to mention: the major ones being the new security core (certificate exposure, popup despoofing and the most advanced IDN control around to stomp on phishing), many rendering enhancements (even more performance in a smaller package supporting many more standards), revamped user interface (simplified, but still customisable if you want to tweak), uber-powerful user javascript control (see http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/userjs/ for details), Fit-to-width rendering rewrites pages so you don't have to fight scrollbars. This and more sits on top of their existing solid feature set of fast-forward, mouse gestures, ultimate customisation, note taking, RSS aggregation, user CSS, advanced Zoom and many others. This is seriously well made and well thought-out software...

  3. Review - Opera for Windows

    8.00 Build 7401 Beta 1 (Dec 24, 2004)

    Opera is continuing in reducing the busyness of the interface - adding some features to the UI toolset to enable simplification of dialogs etc. The current beta is very stable for me, apart from when adding RSS feeds where it can crash erratically - but because of the session system I can restart Opera where I left off!

    Opera is looking great for a final release, and we hope, as it is based on a new core, some more surprises are ahead. The free upgrade for V7 users is brilliant, and the licence has ben relaxed to allow multiple installations on mutiple OS's - Paying for V6.0, and upgrading to V7 and now getting V8.0 for free has ben an amazing investment...

  4. Review - Opera for Windows

    7.60 Build 7321 Preview 3 (Nov 20, 2004)

    First off - remember these previews are PRE-BETA; they are intended to test out more radical changes to a small set of testers.

    Having said that preview 3 is really great. The interface is tighter than ever, though I imagine more changes are instore before a public beta. A new customisable start toolbar drops down from the address field with things like your history, top 10 sites etc. Previously closed pages and blocked pop-ups are put into a trash can on the page (tab) bar - a neat touch. Everything is much more slimline and minimalist.

    The Extensible Rendering Architecture (medium screen rendering), though still with some bugs, is shaping up nicely. The idea is that you'll never have to scroll badly designed web pages, they will be dynamically reflowed to fit your screen resolution!

    Sadly, voice control doesn't work on my soundcard, but several users are developing powerful stylesheets to allow Opera to function as a screen reader.

    Good stuff overall...

  5. Review - StrokeIt

    0.9.4 Preview (Nov 20, 2004)

    An AMAZING program - it adds incredible functionality to all programs with great customisability. Mouse gestures, once you invest time to set them up, are the biggest revolution IMO in the UI some time.

    This thing has a working set memory use of around 200kB!!!!!!!!! Tight and efficient coding if ever you'll see it...

  6. Comment - Google Tests Accessible Search Page

    0.9.4 Preview (Jul 23, 2006 - 5:46 PM)

    Have you checked the code Google serves in its "accessible" results page?

    tables for layout: check
    font tags: check
    no DOCTYPE: check
    W3C # errors: 170

    Google has an ability to create ugly tag soup that ignores most of the advice it is hypocritically giving other sites. sheesh, someone at google read a book on modern web design please. amateurs.

  7. Comment - Opera Browser to be Included in Wii

    0.9.4 Preview (May 11, 2006 - 11:23 AM)

    "Have you used Adblock for Firefox or Greasemonkey? Implemented in Opera?"

    Opera 9's block content mode (yes, implemented in Opera) has a much nicer interface IMO. One visual mode (plus manual edit override), instead of dialogs full of URLs, right-click context menus for some items but special overlays requiring UI context menus to toggle for others.

    Greasemonkey? Yep, it is built-in (user javascript) and is technically more powerful than greasemonkey (Opera have custom event handlers to intercept scripts at all levels). Though more powerful, the UI is better in greasemonkey (in the sense that you can organise scripts visually).

  8. Comment - Major Firefox 2.0 Feature Dropped

    0.9.4 Preview (Apr 29, 2006 - 7:20 PM)

    Opera 9 Beta contains a content blocker. Right-click the page and select "Block Content..." - you then enter a special mode where you can block ads by clicking them (including flash). s***+click blocks ust specific images. When you're finished, click done and you are back to your page minus ads - Opera also collapses whitespace. You can manually convery your AdBlock lists to opera content-block lists.

  9. Comment - Opera 8 Surpasses 600,000 Downloads

    0.9.4 Preview (Apr 23, 2005 - 2:34 PM)

    That site is using an old version of a menu system which is why it doesn't render well. The current version works flawlessly in Opera, try:

    http://www.udm4.com/demo...l-absolute-top-left.php

    What can Opera do when web developers fail to test their pages properly?

  10. Comment - Opera 8 Web Browser Launches

    0.9.4 Preview (Apr 19, 2005 - 12:13 PM)

    Well, Opera 8 final is simply brilliant. Unfortunately opera.com is down due to high demand, but they have some nice guides and tutorials to the new features that are worth checking out. The nicest thing is the overall integration: Fast-forward can control the wand manager using mouse gestures - something impossible when using different extensions; RSS auto-discovery and feed aggregation links into the Gmail-like mail database to allow virtual feeds to be made using dynamic labels; Web page data can be easily saved into research notes and mailed in a click. You get the picture. When installed, Opera is a simple browser, but as you use features you customise your experience; i.e. only when you ask to create a mail account does Opera ever load the mail interface, until then it is just a browser - that is just so neat! From a standards point-of-view they have DOM3 load'and'save, SVG, VoiceXML, CSS3 speech and more in the improved rendering core, yet the main program is the same size - they benefit from having a tiny core due to being able to run in moblie phones! That benefits us on the desktop in having a fast and lean browser core they build upon. Overall a great piece of software.