idleloops

What does declared Gold actually mean? Is this a feature freeze?

By default the accessibility options - should be very.. ahem.. accessible. For good reason. But yes, have the option somewhere to turn it off, if it really does bother you.

Can't vouch for LXC or VServer, but OpenVZ is well documented and I was up and running with it within days. I still have a dev server that's been happily running for about 5 years. Users get root access to a 'container' which has some limits imposed upon it. They can do as they please. I don't have to worry about them messing up the host (, they are trusted users though.) The file system is easy to back up, as it's reachable from the host. The server itself doesn't support hardware Virtualisation so it's a nice fit.

I wonder how difficult it is standing up to the bullies.

I really like the idea of having a server running in your browser (providing it being secure!) NAT and firewalls, and non 24/7 up time being a problem, but not a show stopper.

Open services should be easily accessible/usable in the OS layer and across networks, but I guess they currently aren't - without some skill.

If I take my laptop around someone's house and want to share a few files - how easy is this? If I want to just play some tunes, or a video from my laptop on someone else's PC or set top, how trivial is it? Not very. At least not for the mythical average user.

A decentralised web sounds good to me also. And lowering the barriers to web publishing where you have control over the content in my eyes is a good thing.

Unite though feels like a component that could live happily outside of the browser (again ideally in the OS layer). The email client could be standalone also. Unless they want to go the Chrome OS way.

I've never liked it. Probably as it was a blatant rebranding exercise. It just feels so pretentious. Just like 'Google' would if it were a new name (great in it's day.) All the web 2.0 names, seem so naff now. I pretty much cringe whenever I read one. (I think the only clever part was naming it after Bing Crosby - which you have positive associations with). Perhaps they wanted Ping. Or perhaps it's some play on Bill Gates' name!

Alternatively 'so cool'... NOT.

Agree, I didn't notice that last time. Not a fan of the www prefix in general in my old age.

Yeah I think you could remove that section entirely.

I had a whole host of problems with the 10.x line. My PowerPC cried when I updated from an earlier version. It certainly felt like beta software.

Looks like they are back on track. I like the renaming of the upcoming release. A little sad to see Unite go. Perhaps it wasn't the right time - it always looked like a bit of a security nightmare.

Not sure why I got a down vote for this. Probably as it's anecdotal? What I should have said: from my experience Chrome feels snappier with Javascript performance at least while playing typeracer. And I read into that, that JS games perform better under Chrome.

Yeah Opera had a bad patch then. I think it was because they started to integrate with the native OS desktops.

I remember trying to sign up to ebay - I had to move through three different browsers - then swap Operating system and move over to Internet Explorer - because of some weird bugs!

That's not poking a hole at any of the other browsers, but it's to say that quirks can be found in all of them (even if that's through fault of the page author.) Under those circumstances it's just easier to move over to another browser.

Chrome certainly used to feel snappier with JS, which probably attracts the gamers.

I wonder if it's something as simple as the name 'Opera' (why?) Having said that Firefox and Chrome are pretty lousy names too, it doesn't seem to have done them any harm.

And a nice short url.

That seems like an unholy amount of queries. Would be nice if there was an explanation as to the why behind the queries on those paths.

How about the name "weedware" or just "weeds"?

Which is odd, because it's visual design feels uncomfortable for me. On my laptop which is a 15" Thinkpad with a 1280x800 display - I can't even read the text on Pinterest without zooming. It's also too bright for my eyes. The multi-columns I find hideous to try and track (I can't stand Facebook's timeline for the same reason - which shows as two columns on my screen.)

Check out Carl Zimmer's book: Parasite Rex and his columns for more of the same.

I can confirm this as a site I worked on utilised JS + CSS for the theme (deliberate choice I might add,) pages preview correctly in search results.

The reason page uris aren't so good with underscores, is that you can loose them if they are displayed underlined as links.

I think the left side is more suited for backspace. Which is how my Compaq keyboard is setup - the key is physically divided into two.

Perhaps the spacebar is just too big, and could be divided better into other modifiers. My left thumb is usually wasted (though not on a Mac, where the thumb can easily reach the Command key.)

Some people however - seem to alternate thumbs on the spacebar - or rather use the other hands thumb to the hand that just typed a character. I personally always use the right thumb to space.

Cleanse those colons!

Actually I think there is a speed and comfort issue relating to any symbol that requires key chording. To test this try using sticky keys for a while - it's much more comfortable - it seems to free up the fingers more.

I use alternate hands when using the shift key, so that's not the issue. Perhaps it's just that I've got into a bad habit of depressing the shift key with a little more force and holding it for longer. With sticky keys I seem to dance off the keys better.

If you have a number pad, perhaps it might be better to switch the number row with the symbols (i.e. don't use SHIFT to get to the symbol.) I think that's the default for French layouts.

Yeah and that's pretty horrible too...

It's not as if underscores aren't used liberally in the standard library. Which is probably a hangover from C.

Yes, but it still requires SHIFT + - to get the underscore.

I prefer paging content. Maybe you do too?

Try scrolling a web page with page/up/down. Or use the space bar (and shift + space.) Flipping is just paging with an animated transition (the transition I personally don't care for.)

Not that I use it, but I always thought TiddlyWiki would be good for this.