So Microsoft is going to charge $1.50 (USD) for Office beta downloads. Here's what CNet had to report on the new item.

Consumers who download the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will be charged $1.50 per download, beginning next Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT, a Microsoft representative said.

“Since the end of May, Beta 2 has been downloaded more than 3 million times...That’s 500 percent more than what was expected,” the representative said. “The fee helps offset the cost of downloading from the servers.”

Although Microsoft’s Information Worker Product Management Group decided to initiate a fee for new users of Beta 2, the “technical refresh,” or update, for current users of the software will remain free, the representative said.

In related news, the rest of the world’s population asked, “Wait, is the world’s richest man asking me to help pay his bandwidth bill??”

In other related news, some anonymous “representative” was later reamed out for causing even more people to download the beta, install it, and think “Huh, weird” and then never both to launch it again.

The article went on to say:

Those who want to test drive Beta 2 to see how it works can access the software for free, but if they want to test it against their internal systems, a download or the CD is required.

If that sentence (ahem) left you bumfuzzled, what the author meant to say is: “If you want to check out how Office works when running inside Internet Explorer on Windows 98, 2000, or XP, you can checkout the online test drive of Office 2007 but if you want to be able to use it offline or without loading up an overly bloated software suite on an overly bloated browser, you’ll be wanting the download vesion.”

Finally, said Microsoft Lackey:

The fee marks the first time Microsoft has charged for a download version of an Office beta, the representative said, noting that customers have long had to pay the shipping and handling costs for CD versions of betas.

Well golly gee Captain Non Sequitor, could that be because you were actually sticking a real live CD into a real live envelope and putting it in the real live mail?

So Microsoft is suffering from the success of a huge download, eh? Gee it’s too bad no one has invented some sort of a distributed system for downloading large files so no one person gets socked with the bandwidth charges . And gee, wouldn’t it be great if, oh I don’t know, maybe some browser supported said “hypothetical” protocol so you could download this enormous just like any other?

Well, maybe someday, until then we can only dream.

UPDATE 2006-09-18: Gee, maybe the reason that their bandwidth charges are so high is that they don’t allow restarting of transfers! I was trying to download Vista RC1 last night and it stopped after 2307866624 bytes of 2709782528 bytes (2.2GB out of 2.6GB). I was downloading it from their webpage http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc1/en/download.htm which I provide for you to verify what I am about to tell you.

On that page you are offered the choice of downloading the 32-bit version of Vista either via “Your Browser” or via this:

Microsoft has partnered with Akamai Technologies to provide a Download Manager to help you get the ISO file for Windows Vista RC1. This Akamai Download Manager lets you pause, resume, and stop the download of the file. It will also automatically restart the download if the process is temporarily interrupted. Due to the size of the download we strongly recommend you use the Akamai Download Manager.

You may be prompted to accept a signed ActiveX control or Java™ applet in your browser. These have been signed by "Akamai Technologies, Inc." and verified by VeriSign, Inc. Please accept to install the Download Manager. (Additional details are included below.)

Ok, so as any Mac user will tell you, we don’t do ActiveX. So anyone downloading this on a Mac is probably going to choose the “Use Your Browser” links.

I assumed (incorrectly) that the Akamai Technologies Download Manager “Now with ActiveX!” would be some special link, and therefore did not try it.

When my “Use Your Download” version failed, I tried to restart it using my browser, but the option was not available. I tried wget (a commandline tool to download files which has a -c flag which lets you “continue” your download). I included the proper “referer” field (yes I can spell, see below) . It did not work.

In desperation not to have to download 2+GB if I don’t have to, I went back and looked at the “Akamai Technologies Download Manager” version.

Here’s what I learned: The “Download Manager” version is a slightly different path to the same file. “How slightly?” you ask. Go ahead, ask... 3 characters!

Here is the original URL that I had tried (NOTE: I replaced each / with a new line break for readability):
http://download.windowsvista.com
dl
preview
rc1
en
x86
iso
vista_5600.16384.060829-2230_x86fre_client-lr1cfre_en_dvd.iso

Here is the special “Download Manager” url, formatted the same way:
http://download.windowsvista.com
preview
rc1
en
x86
iso
vista_5600.16384.060829-2230_x86fre_client-lr1cfre_en_dvd.iso

You could be forgiven for missing the difference between the two, which is that first line after the http:// where the “Download with your browser” link has “dl”. Other than that, the two paths are identical.

With one technical difference in implementation.

If you, with your browser, download from the “regular” link, and the download fails, you will not be able to continue that download.

However, if you, with your browser download from “special” link, and the download fails, you will be able to continue that download.

“Well wait” you protest... Go ahead, protest... “Microsoft TOLD YOU to use the “Special” link if you wanted to be able to pause and restart! They are just doing what they said they would!”

As Obi-Wan said “That was true...from a certain point of view.” # . Actually what they said was that if I wanted to use the download manager I’d need ActiveX, which I don’t. And there is no technical reason why the “Download with your Browser” can’t offer the “Restart” function.

Hrm. Unless the site is running Microsoft’s IIS and it can’t handle it? Who knows.

Anyway, I was able to continue my download which I started from the “regular” link by using the “special” link and wget. The details follow for the wget virgins among us:

wget -c http://download.windowsvista.com/ preview/ rc1/ en /x86 /iso / vista_5600.16384.060829-2230_x86fre_client-lr1cfre_en_dvd.iso --referer=http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc1/en/download.htm

NOTE: The spaces after the / in the previous paragraph were inserted for readability.

What does it say? Well, it says that “Using wget I want to continue (-c) to download the file at (insert really long Microsoft URL here, or use http://tinyurl.com/odwvn instead) and you should tell the server that I am coming from the page http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc1/en/download.htm”

Here’s the really ironic part. When I used “wget” it told me that the file had been moved (HTTP response 302 Moved Temporarily) to.... the other URL which doesn’t support restarting downloads. (See wget’s output for details).

So all they have done, somehow, is made it impossible to continue downloading file “X” unless you use their special link, for no particular reason that I can understand. All I can say is that my attempts at doing the same wget command failed repeatedly when I tried the “regular” link.

Do note that if your browser obfuscates the downloaded filename before it is completed, you should have used Opera. It downloads the file in place (no random temporary file stuffed somewhere else on your filesystem). I was able to continue my Opera-initiated download using 'wget' and only had to download 383MB instead of 2.5GB.

Restarting http transfers has been around for how many years? Oh Microsoft, you continue to innovate new ways to baffle me. Can it be that perhaps your own browser doesn’t support restarting downloads and that is why you claim to need this special ActiveX functionality?

Now I realize the original part of this article was about Microsoft charging people to download Office not Vista, but the reasoning given was that the downloads had been taxing their servers (and presumably bandwidth). One cannot help but wonder how many failed downloads contributed to that bill.

Footnotes:

1. Note that I corrected the grammar of the sentence for you, Constant Reader, because I love you so...and also because it annoys me when people break up sentences when they don’t have to. Or shouldn’t. ↩
2. Yes that was intentional.
3. Footnote: Yes “referer” is a misspelling of “referrer” and no I was not wrong to spell it that way. See Wikipedia on Referer for the geeky boring reason why. ↩
4. Yes I succumbed to the Dark Side of George Lucas’s need to squeeze every last dime from Star Wars fans and bought the new DVDs with the “old” (read: original) version of the Star Wars trilogy (read: “The Original Trilogy... You know, the one that didn’t suck”?). Having watched the originals, you know what I learned? They didn’t need changing. Sure add your special sound effects and graphics to the explosions if you will, but the dialog did not need to be changed, the extra scenes did not need to be added, and history did not need to be revised. Han shot Greedo. Why is that bad? Greedo had a gun pointed at him and was trying to extort him. (Note: Speaking of the Dark Side... Wal-Mart has special edition comic books that come free with the DVDs. I figured as long as I was giving over my soul and my money to George Lucas, I might as well give a little to the new evil empire that is Wal-Mart too.) ↩

Wondering what’s new? Changelog for Opera 9.01.

I can’t say that I’ve been personally effected by any of these issues, but the x.01 release generally means that any particularly hairy bugs have been worked out.

Download Opera at the usual place.

Once in the same way most people probably were, wondering: “Why are they talking about Opera 10 already, didn’t 9 just come out?”

Secondly, I was amazed because CNet actually managed to put together an article (341 words) without mentioning Firefox.

Surely someone will be getting sacked later.

Give up?

Answer: The most recent catalog from Dell.

I have another Dell, a desktop, which I bought basically to handle several large hard drives I bought. It works well too. I have bought and recommended Dells for family members (always recommending they get the service contract for as long as possible...although this routinely dismays them as they had hoped to get a computer for $300.) I have purchased about a dozen computers for use in places where I have worked. If I added it up, I would assume that I have directly contributed to the purchase of at least $30,000 worth of Dell hardware.

This is the important thing to note: I haven’t been particularly disappointed with any of it. I have had, overall, a very positive experience with Dell, even when it has taken awhile to get problems taken care of... I don’t think my experiences have been all that much different than they would have been with any other vendor. There is no ideal vendor, not Dell, not Gateway, not Apple. Here’s one example: after my Inspiron 7500 was well out of warranty, the hinges wore out. I called up Dell tech support to find out how much it would cost to get it fixed and determined that it wasn’t worth it. Within an hour after hanging up, I got a call back from Dell telling me that I was eligible for a one-time free replacement of the hinges on my laptop. They even paid for the shipping both ways.

All of this has given me a more than passing curiosity about Dell’s offerings. In fact just last year I purchased a 21" monitor for home, I use it as a TV and external monitor for my laptop. It’s lovely.

So hopefully it is clear that I have been a customer, and a pleased customer, and a repeat customer, with Dell for 6 years.

Why then, did their latest offering spend only seconds on my fingertips from mail pile to trash pile?

Simple. It can’t run Mac OS X.

Now don’t dismiss me as an Apple freak just yet.

I know what I am doing when it comes to maintaining Windows XP. I can avoid spyware and viruses, so that was never my concern. It’s harder to describe than that. It’s the number of “little things” that were hard to do, or harder than they should have been.

I made the switch to Mac OS X two years ago, and have never looked back. Was it the “Switch” campaign? Not really. Yes, first I had an iPod. Yes I’m a halo effect. But in all that time there has been one program which I have not been able to replace: ACT. There used to be a Mac version, but it has been discontinued. No other program (on Mac or Windows) that I’ve found will let me do the things that ACT can do. I’ve been using it for a long time, and it has a version for Palm OS.

Now there are problems with Mac OS X, and some stupid things. I agree with one reviewer who said it criminally stupid to charge extra for QuickTime Pro. But overall, the things that are wrong and annoying with OS X are not nearly as bad as what’s wrong and annoying with Win XP.

More importantly, the things that are right with OS X are very compelling.

Michael Dell doesn’t see Apple as competition. For all my good experiences with Dell (much more extensive than the average person, I’m willing to guess), a Mac running Parallels ($80 software that lets me run Windows inside of Mac OS X on an Intel-based Mac) has completely obliterated my interest in Dell’s catalog. What used to get thrown in my bag to be read the next chance I got now goes in the trash.

Either Michael Dell is very arrogant, very stupid, or pretending not to care.

Opera 9 changed the way that it saves passwords, or, more accurately, changed the User Interface.

The new change annoys me. But as much as I might hate it — and I do, like sitting on a dull throbbing tack which randomly heats until I smell my own flesh start to burn — that isn’t enough to make it a bad change, or a good one.

Given that I use Opera more than any other browser, I realized that I needed to look at how other browsers do this. I had never paid attention before this, which is sort of the point: with Opera’s previous behavior I never had to think about it.

So here they are, in all their glory, screenshots from Internet Explorer (not IE for Mac) to Firefox to Camino to OmniWeb to Safari... and of course Opera 8.5 and 9.

Note: It may be helpful to simply scroll down the page to get a sense of how all of the dialog boxes look, and then come back here to read more.

Password dialog in Internet Explorer 6

Weighing in at 34 words and the second smallest dialog (only Firefox on Windows is smaller). It is simple enough, assuming you can read it. It defaults to “No” and has an option not to save any more passwords.

Simplicity, however, loses you some of the options which will become clearer as we go on. But don’t worry, there’s a new, hip, stylish version of Internet Explorer coming for Windows (XP and higher only) which is super updated for the new millenium. For you, Constant Reader, I downloaded and installed this browser which is currently in beta, to give you a sneak peak at what Microsoft has been working on for the past 6 years:

Password dialog in Internet Explorer 7 (beta)

Wow. But IE7 does have tabs. So, you know... welcome to 2001. This dialog window has an additional 10 words — because if we’ve learned anything in the past 6 years it’s that people on the Internet really like to read instructions closely before clicking stuff.

Still they are sticking with the Yes/No answers, and No is the default. Their options, although limited, are crystal clear...as long as you don’t want to decide later. What happens if you press “No”? Will it ask again later? The checkbox will disable passwords entirely.

There’s also no option for “Save this password for the entire site” which you’ll probably miss. But if you are still using Internet Explorer you’re giving up so much else that it’s hardly worth bothering trying to explain it to you.

Firefox

Password dialog in Firefox (Win)

Password dialog in Firefox (Mac)

These two screengrabs show two three four several important things:

• Mac OS X prompts are much larger (well, except for Opera, which we’ll get to in a minute)
• The OS X prompts are much nicer looking (well, except for Opera). They use the application icon for each, which is a nice touch.
• The layout of the buttons is different. Windows puts the equivalent of “No” is on the right edge, Mac OS X puts “Yes” on the right edge
• Windows gives you quick keyboard shortcuts for their options. Anyone who has used Windows for more than a few minutes knows that the underlined characters can be used with the alt key to choose that option without requring the mouse. Mac users are stuck using their mouse or tabbing around until they get the right tab selected.
• The default (Not Now) is the same for Windows and Mac OS X
• The order is different. “Never for This Site” is in the middle if you use Windows and on the left if you use Mac. I imagine this would be confusing if you frequently switch between Firefox on Windows and Mac.

Camino

Camino (my second favorite browser on OS X) is based on Firefox but designed specifically for OS X. Note the changes in the way that it prompts the user:

Password dialog in Camino

That’s a whopping 54 words (compared to 16 for Firefox) but really the important part comes in the bolded words at the top. The key work “Remember” is used in the title and in all 3 choices. “Remember Password” is the default (note this is the only current browser which defaults to save passwords).

The words in that middle paragraph do a quite excellent job of describing what will happen, how to fix it if you save a password you don’t mean to, and why you might choose “Never”

But the really nice touch (and what I think all browsers should do) is that when I hit esc, Camino assumed I meant “Don’t Remember” aka “Skip it this time, ask me again.”

“Never Remember” is nicely consistent but it doesn’t make it quite clear whether you are saying “Never” for the site or just that particular page. I suppose someone might even think that “Never Remember” could mean “Never Remember Passwords on Any Page on Any Site” which it doesn’t but wouldn’t be an outrageous assumption.

Safari

Let’s see how Apple designed their password dialog in Safari:

Password dialog in Safari

An ecnonomical 30 words (by the way, I am counting the words in the buttons as well as the title bar, if any) but the real problem is that both “Never for this Website” and “Yes” appear to be highlighted.

What happens if you press esc? Nothing. You can an error beep, Mac’s way of saying “No you can’t do that” which seems like very bad user interface design. esc is one of those keys which should always work, and in this context it should definitely be assumed to mean “Not Now”

That said, Safari’s simple “Yes” is somehow very appealing, visually. It’s the simplicity again, I believe.

OmniWeb

The latest OmniWeb, based on WebKit (Web Kit?) which makes it similar to Safari (excuse the gross simplification, but for my purposes here it’s close enough) and the dialog here is indeed similar:

Password dialog in OmniWeb

The fine folks at OmniGroup went with the more common “Save” and “Don’t Save” which users are no doubt familiar with from most other apps. The problem is that “Don’t Save” sounds like a permanent decision, but it is not.

They also managed to get the word count down to 26. My guess is that they are used to a slightly more advanced group of users (they are using a Mac-only browser with no free version, so you’re talking a few percent of the few percent) and they can get away with assuming that their users will know that “Don’t Save” means “Don’t Save This Time”

Compare That To Opera

Technically, Opera’s Wand is the most advanced of all of the password managers. It will let you easily manage multiple logins to each site (most of the others will only remember one per page).

Graphically, Opera’s Wand may be the ugliest of all of them. The Windows Wand dialog uses some colors which remind me more of Opera7 the rest of Opera9’s User Interface.

First let’s look at Opera 8.5, both on Windows and Mac. Note that Opera 8.5 had a dropdown selector for different choices. Screenshots are show for both the regular and expanded states:

Password dialog in Opera 8.5 (Windows)

Password dialog in Opera 8.5, Expanded (Windows)

Password dialog in Opera 8.5 (Mac)

Password dialog in Opera 8.5, Expanded (Mac)

Now it’s more difficult to give a word count for these, given that there is a dropdown, but just taking the default option gives us 30.

But it’s hard to ignore that dropdown selector. No one else has it, and it must have confused people because it is gone in Opera 9. However, note that Opera 8.5 (and before) defaulted to saving the password for the current page.

Password dialog in Opera 9 (Win)

Password dialog in Opera 9 (Mac)

The word count is now at 36 (counting the URL as one word) but the dropdown is gone. Unfortunately, so are the keyboard shortcuts for WinOpera. “Save” and “Never” and “Not now” do not have any underlined characters, so you can’t use a shortcut to jump to them (you can use tab to move around of course). Likewise the option to save choice only for the current page (and showing that current page) is great, but it too should have an accelerator keyboard shortcut.

Kudos for explaining how to trigger the Wand auto-fill feature in the future (using ctrl (or cmd) + enter.

Notice that both the Mac and Win dialog boxes refer to the “Wand button” but only the Windows one actually shows the icon. Mac users hopefully will be able to tell that the little icon up near the address bar is the wand button.

Mac Users note: Sadly MacOpera does not (yet?) support Keychain.

Opera’s dialog boxes are the most similar between Windows and Mac OS X (compare them to how different Firefox-Win and Firefox-Mac (above) look, and you’ll notice Opera’s uninformity. However this is probably one of the reasons why people who “like but don’t use” MacOpera dislike it — the dialog box feels like it is a Windows app ported to Mac OS X.

While I love the change which assumes people want to save the password for the entire server (there are just too many sites which give you crazy login URLs to do otherwise), I really dislike the fact that the new version defaults to “Not Now” rather than Opera 8.5 which defaulted to Save, but just for that page.

Why does this bother me? Because it is inconvenient. The previous one was inconvenient in that I had to press the down arrow and then press enter... BUT! I could easily do that by the keyboard.

In MacOpera, I have much more trouble using the keyboard for it now.

My only option in OS X is tab. The first tab takes me to the check box next to “Save choice for this page only” The second tab takes me to “Save” and then press shift...

Note: If you press enter (aka return) it will select “Not now” This took me awhile to figure out, and now I have to think about it... and I don’t want to have to think about my browser, I have plenty of other things to think about.

Who Gets It Right?

I believe Camino does the best job. When the dialog comes up, enter will save the password and esc will not. That makes the most sense, seems to be the most intuitive, and requires the least amount of effort (one key).

Conformity

I like Opera for not being like other browsers. If I liked the way other browsers worked, I would use other browsers.

I understand why Opera made this change, because it puts Opera closer in line with the other major browsers out there, and makes it less likely for people to make a mistake (albeit a mistake I feel is rather astoundingly minor).

One of the reasons I think Opera ought to default to “Save” is that Opera makes it so easy to disable Wand: Preferences → Wand and then uncheck “Let the Wand remember passwords.” Look here:

Opera already prompts the user the first time they do a mouse gesture:

What would prevent a similar dialog to be shown the first time Opera discovers that there is Wand data to be saved?

Conclusion

It seems that Opera made this change to be more like other browsers, and perhaps feel like they are being a bit safer to those users who click blindly at any dialog box which jumps in their face.

But those of us who have been waiting for improvements to the Wand see this as a step backwards. What I wanted to see was the ability to say either: 1) Set the default to save for the entire site, or 2) Don’t even prompt me! Just save all my login data! With the advent of the new opera:config (disclaimer) I sincerely hope that Opera will give its power users the power to control their Wand experience.

Footnotes:

1. MIT tells me that IE on the Macintosh does not have a preference setting to not save passwords. I don’t know if that’s true, but who am I to disagree with MIT? ↩
2. Before some of you you start (and you know who you are), yes, Opera did indeed add opera:config after Firefox had the same feature. Even a blind dog finds a bone every now & again, right ;-? ↩

I’m not saying this because I think it’s a bad review of Opera (it is) but because it is a bad review of all 3 browsers. How bad? If this review was a high school report I would give the reviewer an “F” and send a note home for a parent teacher conference and possibly a drug test.

It even started out strangely with this quote: “So, three new browsers in the same year, after no action for a half decade.” (citation). Um, what? 2 of those new browsers have been churning out new versions pretty much constantly. It’s only IE which has been idle for 5 years.

Then there’s the chart at Features at a glance has apparently been updated since people started pointing out mistakes on the feedback page but it still lists Opera as not having Anti-Phishing features.

Um, excuse me but... Whisky Tango Foxtrot? Opera introduced anti-phishing capabilities with the Opera 8 release over a damn year ago. I believe that Opera was the first major browser to introduce this feature.

Then there’s “Built-in search with multiple engine choice” which lists “Yes” for all 3 browsers. Ok, great, but Opera 9 will let you click on any search engine box on any website and easily add that to your list of available browsers. That’s a different league than anything else I’ve seen any other browser do.

Then there’s this one: “One-Click Button to add Favorites: 1) Firefox2: No. 2) IE: Yes. 3) Opera 9: No.”

First of all, talk about solving a problem that no one has. Because for years no one has been able to figure out how to bookmark. Thank God that IE7 has finally figured this one out! Maybe next time they can help us help me figure out how to blink my eyes.

“Can remember open tabs for next session” Opera and IE: Yes, Firefox2: No. Except that it can. I know almost nothing about Firefox 2, but even I knew that it could do this. And if I didn’t I could have, oh, I don’t know, maybe used Google which led me to Tweak Firefox 2.0’s Session Restore Feature which explains the 5 step process (really 4):

1. Start Firefox. (Ok these are apparently idiot-proof instructions)
2. In the Address Bar type “about:config” and press Enter.
3. Right-Click and select New->Boolean.
4. A box requesting the Preference Name will popup and you should enter “browser.sessionstore.resume_session” (without the quotes). Press OK to continue.
5. Select “True” from the box and press OK again.

Good lord, I just posted a Firefox tweak... Forget the Middle East situation, that may be the sign of the apocalypse.

OK, so there’s two major factual mistakes: 1 for Opera, and 1 for Firefox. Failure to do basic fact checking.

“Macintosh/Linux version” Obviously IE does not have this. So advantage to Opera and Firefox, right? Sure, but how about the fact that IE7 won’t run on anything less than Windows XP? So how about revising the chart “Macintosh/Linux/Windows 98/ME/2000” and leaving the chart as-is: Firefox/Opera: Yes. IE: No. See this reporting thing is supposed to involve getting beyond the obvious.

Folks who know me well know that my biggest complaint about using MacOpera (compared to WinOpera) is that all of the installations of Opera will share the same preferences.

WinOpera users can install separate versions of Opera and have completely separate preferences, which is a huge boon for beta testing, especially because you can have more than one version of Opera running at the same time.

A MacOpera using friend recently directed my attention to rooSwitch, a $15 utility which basically allows you to have an unlimited number of profiles for the various Mac apps that you use.

But some progress is better than no progress, so I’m testing it out, and so far it’s working OK once you tweak rooSwitch just a little bit.

The basic idea is that rooSwitch will look at the various preference files/folders which an app (such as Opera) uses, and makes a copy of them. Then if you totally bork your installation, you have a safety net to go back to.

rooSwitch told me that these were the folders and files which Opera uses:

~/Library/Application Support/Opera
~/Library/Caches/Opera
~/Library/Preferences/com.operasoftware.Opera.plist
~/Library/Preferences/Opera Preferences

Update:

Note (2006/07/13): this section original article has been edited from its original form as the rest of it it referred to a process of working around a bug which no longer exists as of the 1.0.3 release.

The developer contacted me about the issues I brought up in my original post and has issued a new version 1.0.3 (360) which fixes both of the previous issues mentioned below less than 24 hours after I posted them here. I have confirmed that both of the issues are fixed and that the update process was dead simple (whereas most apps send you to a website to download the latest version, rooSwitch updated itself, unpacked the update, and all I had to do was click and wait (not very long).

Here’s what happened when I updated rooSwitch:






(I clicked on the “Restart rooSwitch” one too quick to get a screenshot of it!)

Ah... Perfection.... Here is what it looks like when you create a new blank profile:

I should point out again (I mentioned this in the comments below) that I didn’t even draw his attention to this issue, although I had meant to — oops! So $15 from my AdSense budget from this site will go towards a rooSwitch license very soon!

And now back to the original article, already in progress....

Final note for the easily annoyed

If you find the confirmation dialog annoying:

Then go to the preferences dialog and turn it off, as shown here.

I’ve been an Opera Lover on Windows (1) for many years, and MacOpera for over 2 years, but it’s nice to know that it’s getting some Linux Love too....

Footnotes:

1. Clearly I’m talking about loving Opera on Windows, not loving Windows itself, which I leave to Ballmer, since I’ve never met anyone else who claims to love Windows. They tolerate it. ↩

You can Check your Flash installation here.

For the record, I still find most of the Flash I see online as useless and annoying, but some stuff is good. YouTube can easily kill an afternoon, although I still think it as more proof that if you give a million monkeys the Internet, you won’t get Shakespeare (or, in YouTube’s case... Spielberg... you might get closer to Sandler...)

The Opera web browser has come a very long way over the years. Not only do they render webpages faster than Firefox and Internet Explorer, it seems that they are choosing to stick to the Web Standards world and take the same approach to webpages as Firefox.

...

...[For] those of us who use PCs everyday and have been doing so for many years, Opera does present some very unique options. And with that comes the real question: Will I consider dropping Firefox for Opera? In a short answer, perhaps. It is something that I am willing to explore.

(You can Read the full review at OSWeekly)

While some (myself included) would point out that Firefox is actually taking the same approach to webpages as Opera has (for years before Firefox was even a glint in the pocket of those who are making big bucks off of it), the review touches on some good elements. It is fairly light reading (and spread out over 4 pages instead of what could be 1 not-too-long page) but anytime someone recognizes that Opera is not just another browser, it’s worth pointing out.

This dialog looks the same as previous versions, but the underlying functionality has changed completely.

Long-time users of Opera know that “Save” has meant “Save to my Downloads Folder” and “Open” has always meant “Save to my Downloads Folder and then Open”

Note: most links on this page will open in a new window. Close that window to return to this page. Also, many links refer to Opera’s own opera:config settings and do not apply to other browsers and therefore will not work in other browsers.

That changed in Opera 9. If you choose “Open” the files are not saved in your default Download directory, instead they are saved to Temporary Downloads folder.

Why did Opera change this?

For some time there has been debate about whether “Open” should mean “Open and Save” or not. Some were for it, arguing that if I want to delete the file later, I can do that fairly easily. Some where against it, saying that if they just opened a file that didn’t necessarily mean they wanted to keep it, and they could save it manually if that is what they wanted.

Neither of these positions could be defined as “right” or “wrong” since one could reasonably hold either position. There are then two considerations: 1) What has Opera done in the past? and 2) What do other browsers do? #1 is simply as we have already discussed. I honestly don’t know what the answer to #2 is because I use Opera, and if I wanted to know what other browsers did, I’d use other browsers. Opera ASA needs to consider the expectations of “switchers” and so it is not unreasonable for them to consider changing this if, for example, Internet Explorer and Firefox do it differently. But just because users are used to the way that browsers work doesn’t mean they prefer it.

From my observation (which is by no means scientifically conclusive) it appears that there are a sizable number of users on either side of this preference. Some want to use the Downloads folder, some do not.

The proper solution, therefore, would seem to be to find a way to meet the needs of both groups, realizing that one group would not get their desired behavior as the default but at least it would be an option.

Opera has, uncharacteristically, failed to do that.

Why is this a problem?

Fundamentally, I don’t believe that Opera should ever delete a file that I download. Formerly there was a zero chance risk that I might accidentally delete a file I had downloaded by exiting Opera or emptying my cache. The worst thing that could happen was that my downloads folder might be a bit cluttered, but it would be cluttered with files I had expressed an interest in by opening them in the first place.

Secondly, the current implementation of this is inconsistent, buggy, and poorly documented.

Thirdly, and I cannot stress this enough, Opera has failed to give me a way to get back the preferred behavior which it cultivated me to expect for the past 6 years. That is perhaps the most egregious of the various problems. If you feel you have to change the way that something has always worked, if you feel you have to change the default way that something worked (even when a large group of your users preferred it) then you ought to feel obligated to give your long-time users a way to get back to their preferred way of working.

Given the advent of opera:config I find this omission particularly bothersome. They would not have even needed to add this to the general Preferences. A quick look through the listed preferences will find much more obscure settings than this one which effects daily usage of Opera.

How long will the file be saved if I choose “Open” instead of “Save”?

You will have a hard time finding an official answer. Opera Settings File Explained doesn’t explain when it will happen. It doesn’t even mention this feature, although the document claims to have been updated for 9.0.

There is no mention of this “feature” at all in the Opera 9.0 changelog.

If you look at the changes since Beta 2 changelog you can see one reference: “Temporary download directory used for opening files in external applications can now be modified in opera:config.”

If you look at changelog for Opera 9 beta 2 you will read that “Temporary downloads are now cleared when deleting cache.”

Which is true. Except when it isn’t.

Based on my research, I have to say that the only real answer is “It depends.”

To fully understand how this “feature” works, I made two clean installs of Opera, one in Windows and one in Mac. Here’s what I found:

If you are using Opera, check your Empty Cache on Exit setting.

If you tell WinOpera to Empty Cache on Exit, the Temporary Downloads folder will be deleted on exit.

If you use MacOpera to Empty Cache on Exit, the Temporary Downloads folder will not be deleted on exit.

Why the disparity?

Note: you can check your cache path at opera:about or look for Cache Directory4 in opera:config

By default, WinOpera stores the Temporary Downloads folder inside the cache folder. If you did a default installation, the path to the default cache folder probably looks like this: C:\Documents and Settings\YourLoginName\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile\cache4\. The cache folder is cleared out when you choose the Tools → Delete Private Data or when you quit Opera if you have Empty Cache on Exit selected.

By contrast, MacOpera stores the Temporary Downloads folder outside the cache folder. Sort of. The default path for MacOpera’s cache is ~/Library/Caches/Opera/Cache/. (Yes, that path is sponsored by the Department of Redundancy Department.) Opened files are stored in ~/Library/Caches/Opera/Temporary Downloads/. The contents of ~/Library/Caches/Opera/Cache/ are cleared when you do “Empty Cache on Exit” but the Temporary Downloads folder is not emptied when the cache is emptied, presumably because it is not in more specific cache directory. So MacOpera users are not even getting the supposed-advantage of this new feature.

Warning: There are a large number of third-party “cache cleaner” applications out there which may delete anything found in the ~/Library/Caches/ folder, so I would highly recommend changing that location if you want to preserve your Temporary Downloads.

However if you choose Tools → Delete Private Data then the Temporary Downloads file is emptied. Usually. It appears that folders inside the Temporary Downloads folder of MacOpera are not deleted even if Tools → Delete Private Data is chosen. So if you (for example) chose to “Open” a .zip file which contained a .pkg, the .zip would be opened, the .pkg would be left in the Temporary Downloads folder and you would have to manually delete it.

Likewise, in WinOpera, if you move the Temporary Downloads folder out of the cache folder (i.e. C:\Documents and Settings\YourLoginName\Desktop\Temporary Downloads) and then exit, the cache will be emptied (if you have selected “Empty on Exit”) but the Temporary Downloads will not be. In fact, it will not be emptied even if you choose Tools → Delete Private Data.

Let me say that again: If you change the location of the Temporary Downloads folder in WinOpera, it will apparently never be emptied.

If you change the MacOpera Temporary Downloads folder to somewhere other than the default, and then choose Tools → Delete Private Data that folder is emptied.

To sum up for Mac: “Empty Cache on Exit” never seems to work, but “Delete Private Data” does.

Before we go on, you may want to Review/change Temporary Downloads location here or disable Empty Cache on Exit.

What’s the problem?

You mean besides the buggy, inconsistent, and undocumented behavior?

The problem is that Opera has traded one problem for another, and the new “feature” seems poorly, or at least inconsistenly, implemented. So the problem is not so much fixed as it is changed.

Let’s re-examine the stated problem that this was originally supposed to fix: “Opened files should not be saved to the downloads directory.” Has that been fixed? Sort of. Sometimes. It depends.

What happened as a result of this change? Users who “Open” files will probably still have the files on their hard drive somewhere, just not where they might expect to find them. And those who thought that they were deleting those files may be surprised to find out they really didn’t.

What could have been done differently? Let users “Open” files directly into the Cache folder. And let users decide if they want to use that functionality or not. A whole layer of complexity could have been avoided — and if it doesn’t seem complex, please re-read the above. I can nearly guarantee that Opera ASA will have to spend more time cleaning this up than if they had made the simple and seemingly obvious change in the beginning: Let users use their cache if they want to, or let them use their regular downloads folder if they want to.

But isn’t this a change for the better?

It depends. If you didn’t like your Downloads folder getting cluttered up but don’t mind the files still being somewhere on your hard drive, then I guess this is better.

If you want your opened files saved, this is worse.

If you thought that having the opened files automatically deleted would increase security, so far it hasn’t.

Which is more intuitive:

1. I save or open a file and it goes to my download folder, and is opened if requested.
2. I save a file and it goes to my download folder. I open a file and it goes to a different folder where it will stay until I manually delete my cache or turn on “Exit Cache on Exit” unless I specify a different folder, sometimes, depending on which platform I am using.

A much better solution would have been a single checkbox preference (or in opera:config) which said something to the effect of:

[ ] Use cache folder for files I open via download dialog

Or

[X] Save opened files in Download directory

Opera would have avoided the whole mess of having a separate folder for Temporary Downloads which may or may not be emptied when the cache is. And it would have kept itself in the Opera tradition of giving the user control of his/her own browser. Opera 9 fails to do that with this change. It switched from failing to meet the needs of one group of users to failing to meet the needs of another group of users. And introduced new bugs with the new feature.

Why does this irritate you so much?

What is much worse than everything I’ve mentioned so far is that I now have to think more. Yes, I realize people will laugh and point and get all sarcastic about that. “Oh boo hoo, you have to think.” But the point is this: What I want from a browser (or any piece of software), and what I have loved about Opera more than any other browser on Mac or Windows, is that it gets out of the way and lets me work. The less it gets in the way, the better it works for me.

Now when I see that dialog I have to think “Do I need to save this file or do I want to open it?” Most of the time I want to save and open it. If I want to open it, I need to remember to save it manually. I don’t want to have to think about that. If I decide to save it because I don’t want to forget to manually save it later, then I have to remember to go back and open it when it finishes downloading. Remember I spend a good portion of my time on a very slow dialup connection, so it can take awhile for even small files to download, and I certainly don’t want to have to re-download something because Opera threw it away!

Windows users: if you want to preserve your opened files, I would recommend that you move the Temporary Downloads folder out of the cache. However please realize that this behavior (not emptying the Temporary Downloads folder if it is not in the cache) is most likely going to be considered a bug by Opera ASA and may change in the future. The only true “safe” course of action is to disable Empty Cache on Exit and only manually delete the cache after verifying that there are no files you want to keep in the Temporary Downloads folder.

Mac users: You can safely use Empty Cache on Exit (for now) but realize that your Temporary Downloads will be deleted whenever you choose Delete Private Data from the menu. Also, if you use any of the cache cleaner utilities, make sure to relocate the Temporary Downloads folder first.

Mac users: you may be interested in a Folder Action to automatically save opened files.

Answer: Using a Folder Action, you can automatically move files from your Temporary Downloads folder to your default downloads folder.

Heck no. It comes with no promises, no warranty, no suitablity for any purpose expressed or implied.... Caveat any- and every-thing. All I’ll say is that it works for me, and should work for you. Use at your own risk, your mileage may vary, do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

NOTE: This script is designed to run on Mac OS X which has a non-standard 'mv' command with a '-n' flag which will refuse to overwrite an existing file.

It has been tested under 10.4.6 and MacOpera build 3447 (which is Opera 9.0 Final. See opera:about to verify your version

Note that MacOpera 9 fixes one previous annoyance which was the use of an odd character in the default cache path, which used to look like this: ~/Library/Caches/Opera Cache/Cache ƒ. That wreaked havoc with shell scripts. Good riddance.

Warning: If the Temporary Downloads folder itself is deleted, I expect that the Folder Action will be disabled, even if the folder is re-created. You will need to repeat these steps (at least some of them). However, the folder itself is not deleted even when the cache is emptied.

How do I use this?

Step 1: Open /Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor.app and paste in this code:

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
     do shell script "/usr/local/bin/save-opened-opera-files.sh"
end adding folder items to

Note that we will be creating /usr/local/bin/save-opened-opera-files.sh below and you can call that file whatever you want.

Step 2: Save the Script Editor file to /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/. (You don’t have to save it there, strictly speaking, but it does make it easier in certain circumstances.) I called mine “SaveTempDownloads.scpt”

Step 3: Open the Temporary Downloads folder. This is in ~/Library/Caches/Opera/Temporary Downloads/ and Right/Control Click onto the folder and choose “Enable Folder Actions” if it isn’t already.

Step 4: Right/Control Click on the Temporary Downloads folder and choose “Attach a Folder Action”

Step 5: Choose the Folder Action Script, and select the file you saved in Step 2 above (“SaveTempDownloads.scpt” in my example)

Step 6: Save save-opened-opera-files.sh.zip to your Desktop, then issue these three commands in Terminal.app:

1. unzip ~/Desktop/save-opened-opera-files.sh.zip
2. chmod 755 ~/Desktop/save-opened-opera-files.sh
3. sudo mv -i ~/Desktop/save-opened-opera-files.sh /usr/local/bin/

Note that you will have to enter your administrator password to use sudo

Step 7: After all the steps, simply Open a file in Opera and see where it ends up. If it is in your Temporary Downloads folder, you know something went wrong.

All The Lovely Browsers! (Published May 30th, 2006)

I’ve said it time and time again, but now someone else has raised the question: How Much Is That Browser in the Windows OS?:

Just how many hours of productivity have been lost to making Web page code work inside of Internet Explorer? Personally, I know that I’ve spent the equivalent of hundreds of man hours coaxing standards-compliant code to render properly in the I.E. world view, and the companies I’ve worked for have probably logged tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of man hours doing the same. When you add up all the effort similarly expended by designers, studios and corporations of all kinds all over the world and over the past five or ten years, it’s got to be an enormously expensive number; if you were to assign hourly rates to all that time, it might total in the billions of dollars.

Safari may not be free (it only comes with the latest version of Mac OS X) but at least you don’t have to spend hours retrofitting your compliant site to work in Safari.