Strange Windows 7 Problem

I'm not sure what caused this... The only thing I installed was the Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) and Sharp Develop 3.1. At least I think that is all...

 This is what happens:

 Right click menu are only semi-transparent until you move your mouse over them

Media_httprauscheronlinede5gpstuffss20090911010817png_gboqbjhdijjguaw

 And after you click on something the entry STAYS on the screen :(

Media_httprauscheronlinede5gpstuffss20090911010924png_gehjcwkljzkycre

 The only thing I could find to this problem is this: https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?Feedbac...

 Any help would be highly appreciated!

My Opera 10.1 wish-list

Finally Opera 10 is (almost) finished. And it finally got a new icon:

But as with every piece of software there are always things to be improved. Therefore here comes my very personal and biased wish-list:
  • Pasting of images into HTML-Mail (and btw fixing making bullet lists and allowing changes to the HTML Code as a whole)
    • While at it, it would then be nice to copy rich-text from websites...
  • Folders/Groups for RSS-Feeds
  • Video & Audio HTML5 Elements
  • Visual-Tabs that use the Win7/Vista DWM so that they are "live" and can show e.g. Flash Animations without CPU overhead.
  • CSS3 Border-Radius and Box-Shadow
  • ...and last but sure not least: fixing the massive RAM usage the last view builds introduced.

As you can see, it's not really much I'm asking for in the short term.

But if you're interested, here is what I think/hope is coming in the future:

Opera 10.5 timeframe:

  • Carakan
  • More UserJS posibilites
  • Calendar and Jabber/XMPP support (maybe this will come only with Opera 11, as I don't expect so many things in such a short timefrime - see Update below)
  • Some cool CSS stuff

Opera 11 timeframe:

  • Vega UPDATE: Obviously this will come much earlier. Opera Devices SDK V10 was just released and I was told that this already contains Vega. So maybe we'll see some version of Vega&Carakan in one build before Opera 11...
  • CSS3 Border-Radius and Box-Shadow (In the Vega blog post they wrote that it is easier with Vega to create such effects...)
  • M3 (or hover it will be called). I guess the backend won't change much bit the whole email/calendar part will be displayed with Vega
  • Crazy UI Effects
  • ???
  • World-Domination
Maybe I'm little too optimistic here, but I think there are some big surprises waiting...

PS: If some Opera Developers are reading this: Please use the new DirectWrite API in Vega. The text rendering of it is really beautiful!

PPS: Something I don't expect, but really hope: A auto-hiding status-bar like Chrome. That was really a good idea!

--
Martin Rauscher

Visit my blog on .NET and WPF: http://www.RauscherOnline.de
Try out Opera, it is definitely better than any other browser: http://www.opera.com

Opera 10 Beta address bar sizing problems

Bad:
Unknownname

Good:
Media_httprauscheronlinede5gpstuff2009081846k10kbjpg_lzccybcmsbbzsge

Don't know why this sometimes randomly happens...

--
Martin Rauscher

Visit my blog on .NET and WPF: http://www.RauscherOnline.de
Try out Opera, it is definitely better than any other browser: http://www.opera.com

Nokia Music Store 10€ Coupon - I don't need it...

01082009018-001

Is there an open-source single-project-use license?

I'm currently planning a project of mine that (when finished) might be of interest to others. Therefore it seems sensible to put it under some open-source license.

But to be true, I don't like those licenses for anything that is bigger than a proof-of-concept...

My problem with those licenses is mainly that everyone can use the code to create something I didn't want it to be, or just forking it and therefore making 100 products out of one. For some people that is what open-source is all about but it isn't. That would be free software, and I'm no supporter of this (Richard Stallman is just too ugly ;) ).

What I expect of an open-source license:

The license that I want should allow everyone to use the software in binary form just as they want (even commercially). One might change the source however they want, but they are only allowed to:

  • Publish the patches
  • Send the patches to the original project

But one should not be allowed to distribute modified binaries or the whole project with modified sources.


Maybe this sounds strange to you, but this is just what I want. If anybody knows of a professional written license that does what I want please comment! Thanks!

Opera sometimes doesn't get toolbar sizes right

In build 1651 this (random appearing) bug reoccurred:

Unknownname

Normally both are about the same width...

But I still would like it very much if Opera would have an auto hiding
status bar like Chrome. (Its only good feature...)


--
Martin Rauscher

Visit my blog on .NET and WPF: http://www.RauscherOnline.de
Try out Opera, it is definitely better than any other browser:
http://www.opera.com

Testing embedding of Silverlight in Posterous

Geht das?

The things I'll miss most in the Opera 10 Final

Unknownname
This is one of the possible new logos for Opera 10. The new icon and the new skin will definitely be the changes that many users will care the most and are, with no doubt, very important!
But there are several things that I REALLY wished would be in version 10, but it looks like they won't make it:
  1. Fixes to the HTML mail composer:
    HTML mail is very nice, but if you can't create something simple like this numbered list without getting into trouble it's bad. But the biggest disappointment by HTML mails is that I can't paste images from the Clipboard!
  2. Support for HTML5 <Video> & <Audio>
    The very early lab builds showed that it was easily possible but it won't be included according to some devs @Twitter
  3. Enhancements to UserJS
    One build showed a jsplugins folder that, according to some NDA documents that Google found, could be used to create native extensions to UserJS. Gone some builds later...
  4. Folders for RSS Feeds
    One should expect this to be really easy to implement... :(
  5. Visual Tabs on the sides
    Visual Tabs are only a gimmick. But now this gimmick doesn't let me place my tabs where I want :(

    I was told this wouldn't come before 10.1 but: http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2009/07/31/tab-thumbnails-on-the-sides-a...

Well, it's just like with every piece of software. You'll always have to wait for version x.1 :)

I'm still looking forward to the next version of my favorite browser! http://www.opera.com/next

Opera using Windows Aero Glass

As I like Opera and I like the Glass effect of Vista/7 I created a small application to activate the effect for Opera.
 
It is currently terrible code, the glass height is hard coded and it doesn't look well but it is a start I wanted to share.
 
My biggest problem still is that black seems to be used as the transparency key thus, as you can see in the screenshot, the text shadow and the thumbnails look terrible...
 
Maybe someone knows how to fix this.
 
Attached to this post you find the source&binary as well as a slightly adapted skin. The only big skin change is that I created an animated page loading favicon.
 
I hope you will put this to a good use :)

Screenshot

Update: For downloads see the comments. Posterous had some problems...