Finish re-installing my windows. Just need to do more fine tune and windows/driver updating. Guess what's the first website I typed in Internet Explorer after the fresh copy of windows is up ? www.opera.com =)

Alright, here goes the checklist for me just in case I foget...

1. BIOS update
2. Chipset update
3. Windows fix/patch (eg. Speedstep fix)
4. Display card driver update
5. Sound card driver update
6. Wire/wireless driver update
7. Install/update anti virus
8. Opera - Download, Torrent
9. Windows update
10. Optional Windows update (eg .Net Framework)
11. Direct X update - Download
12. Windows Live Messenger - Download
13. Microsoft Office
14. Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0
15. Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
16. Apache HTTP Server - Download
17. PHP - Download
18. MySQL - Download, MySQL Administrator, MySQL Query Browser
19. Perl - Download
20. WinAmp (I'm still a fan of it)- Download
21. Java SE (JDK, or just only JRE) - Download
22. Adobe Reader - Download
23. Adode Shockwave - Download
24. Apple QuickTime - Download
25. Azureus - Download
26. µTorrent - Download
27. Emeditor - Download
28. Flashget - Download
29. LimeWire - Download
30. Shareaza - Download
31. WinRAR - Download
32. GIMP - Download (Installer & Runtime Environment)
33. I8Kfan GUI - Website

... gosh ! I'll stop listing here. The rest will be installed when I need them.

I'm using Azureus lately to do Bittorrent download, and for those that have used Azureus before, you should be pretty faimilar with these 2 icons : and .

I never get a before since I started to use Azureus because I don't have "total control" of the router in the place where I stay previously. The previous housemates who own the router are just too scared to touch the router settings and hence, tweaking the router to speed up BT downloading is a forbidden area.

Well, I always thought that their reason is so funny... but, now I think that's reasonable because I just messed up the router's settings in the new place I stay right now and crippled the internet connection... lol... that sucks because obviously it's not my fault. The Belkin router is rebooted after I changed the settings, that's normal... but it's not when some of the WAN settings are lost after rebooting ! I was like.. OMG! this router is crap... how can the router make such stupid mistake ?

Everything is too late. So I have to ran to a place that has internet connection, searched for the ISP's DNS IP address and other settings info. The lucky thing is that, the username and password is still saved in the router. The router finally works after several dozens of rebooting. My piece of advise ? Remember your settings before rebooting your router ! I know information should not be deleted/lost after a rebooting process... but shit happens ! so watch out =)

Now instead of NAT Error, I have after configured the port forwarding thing. Download speed is significantly boosted by at least twice. So if you still have NAT problem, you should really configure your router... it really speeds you up =)

I upgraded the Opera in my workstation's computer from v8 to v9, everything just works fine. It's great to see fast performance on that old, slow and half-way-to-trash-bin computer that runs on Win2000.

Beware though, you may need to becarefull if you want to do a clean installation. For my case, I uninstalled my Opera 8 to go for Opera 9 on my personal notebook. Some files are not removed/deleted and left behind in the "Opera" folder after the uninstallation. Those are your configuration files and the ones that are important to me is, Opera bookmark. I thought the installer will be smart enough to import the old bookmark if it found the opera6.adr file lying around in that folder. The fact is, it ignore it and overwrites it with a clean file. That would be disastrous if you didn't backup your bookmark. For my case, I'm lucky that I did backup before I uninstall it. For Opera Sessions, it's gone forever since Opera does not include functions to backup it.

Anyway, Opera 9 is the first windows-based web browser that passes Acid2 test. Opera 9 now comes with a command called opera:config that allows user to access some of the "hidden" settings for the program. Can't understand why it has to be that way...sort of "hidden" feature for power users only. Can't it be included in the normal preferences window ? The same question of mine goes to FireFox as well. Source code viewer ? hmm.. quite a simple one, not that great though. But I didn't expect it will highlight the source in detailed like other text editors does, it's just a web browser anyway, not a source code highlighter. New layout is used for display HTTP errors, about Opera page and some of the "opera:command" page. Just go to "Help-> About Opera" via the menu and you'll know what I mean. Clean and slack layout I would say.

Widgets ? Not that cool as Opera advertised... The only widget that I found practical would be the BBC News Reader widget. I still can't see the point why or for what purpose they make widget exists in Opera. I remembered before that, Opera claims that "... widget will remains running even though Opera is closed...". But now Opera kills all the widget before closing itself =) Did the developers realized that there is no point for widgets to run around without Opera running ? I don't see native Bittorrent support in v9.0 as a great help out to me, since I use other BT client for that because I believe those clients are better than Opera when it comes to large files. However, I do see that this Bittorrent support is a smack on Opera's rival face - see what I'm capable of... world's first web browser with BT support ! hehe...

After upgrading to 9.0, I need to change my CTRL+N and CTRL+D habit to CTRL+T and CTRL+B. It's years that I used that 2 keyboard shortcuts and it's difficult for me to change over. I guess I'll just stop writing and continue playing with it for sometime. My thanks to Opera development team, great job !

*update 2006.6.22* dammit.. my notes in Opera is gone too... =(

Opera Software today released Opera 9, its newest Web browser for PCs. You can download it free in more than 25 languages for Windows, Mac, Linux and other platforms from www.opera.com. Opera 9 enhances the way you access, share and use online content by including innovative widgets - fun, small and useful Web programs - and support for BitTorrent™, the popular file distribution technology. Even while adding these improvements, Opera 9 maintains the security and speed millions of Opera fans have come to expect.

"For Opera 9, we worked hard to push the limits of what people expect from a Web browser, with increased speed, new Web standards support and innovative features such as widgets and BitTorrent," said Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software.

"Even though we shaped this browser for the Web’s future, we have the powerful features people want and need for their surfing today. I truly feel Opera 9 has something for everyone."



Can't wait till I get home and upgrade my Opera to 9.0 . Grab a copy for yourself here.

Related:

• Opera 9.0 press release news
• Opera 9.0 features
• Opera 9.0 screen shots
• Opera 9.0 changelog

Just realize that I'm (still) using MySQL 4.0.21. That's not a big deal if I'm not aware of this before that. However, it makes me feel that I'm stupid because I thought the version I'm using is MySQL 5.0+ which in fact is just 4.0.21. This is horrible... suddenly I just remembered it's almost 3 years I haven't format my harddisk. That also means that I got MySQL server installed for almost 3 years ! gayness...
(well, come to think about it... my notebook survived for so long and it has never been took down by virus/trojan... not too bad eh ? although it's full of craps and spywares...)


Check out the below screen shot, notice the "Date Created: 2004-10-14" ... Also I just checked the MySQL download website, MySQL Control Center is "discontinued", they no longer provide download for it. Well, at least I remember the last time when I download it, MySQL website still consider it as a project that "no longer under development".



I guess I just have to upgrade to the latest version 5.0.22... doh...


Web hosting company using MySQL 5.0+ --- $100+/month
Web hosting company using MySQL 4.1+ --- $10+/month
Web hosting company using MySQL 4.0+ --- Priceless

Opera 9.0 beta 2 is now available for download and testing. Areas like widgets, support of scripts, messaging and newsfeeds are major changes since beta 1.

View the changelog
Download Opera 9.0 beta 2
Torrent file for Opera 9.0 beta 2

Opera fans out there, FYI , version 9.0 beta 1 is out for testing. Well I know I'm a bit late on this news, but it's just a FYI anyway. Some of the changes raised my attention.

Although Opera has announced that they will inlcude BitTorrent protocol in the release of Opera 9.0, I still can't stop screaming after knowing they actually done it ! nice on ya ! For CSS, Opera 9.0 now passes Acid2 test, which its rival, IE and FireFox, still fail to pass the test =)

Opera changed the default UserAgent string to identify as Opera. Finally, Opera no longer has to "hide behind" and identify as IE. Opera is Opera ! For images support, Opera has increased SVG support to SVG 1.1 basic. They improved and added new error console for warnings and error messages. Developer will benefit most from it.

I'm happy to see Opera has included some nice features like internal source viewer, opera:config, widgets, change of feed notification icon, Web page thumbnails for tabbed browsing and etc. All of these exist in other browser but now Opera has it too ^^

As usual, Opera is the pioneer that implements the latest technology and web standards. Read more on the Opera 9.0 beta 1 changelog. Also, read the widgets tutorial if you're interested in writing useful widgets for Opera. Another place to learn more about Opera.

Oh... this baby is killing me ~~