Over at the announcement post about the closure of my opera, it has dissolved into a troll fest. It's a little final fun for them before moving on to the next venue. I think it's like many groups that are nearing the end, things are coming apart.
One woman (I guess) said she was glad myopera was closing because it's boring and the guys are all letches. As usual, she has several of the characteristics of a net troll including having little to no profile and being aggressive and hostile with other members. She keeps saying BORING, BORING, BORING. I thought about telling her that she had been severely wronged by myopera for "failure to entertain" and might have a basis for a lawsuit. lol.
You really have to put something into it to get something back. Just sitting on your rear and waiting for other members to kiss your ass won't get you much meaningful activity. We're all here voluntarily.
So many have to have entertainment gift wrapped and handed to them ALL the time. One can see the SUV's on the highway at night with the TV screens for the children to watch yet another Disney.
Can you sit for a few hours while involuntarily detained somewhere without going crazy? I can. I have my breaking point, but in general, I can go a long time without stimulation. I had to learn it. I enjoy punching on my Android as much as anyone, but if I run the battery down, I'll still be OK.
These days the "energy drink" cartel isn't helping either. Lots of stimulants all the time. The latest youtube commercial I saw for the little bottles of "5-Hour Energy" show hunters carrying them as essential hunting equipment. The little bottles of miracle chemistry glop are appropriately wrapped in a camouflage design. Imagine eating an orange or a mango instead.
There! I slept badly last night and felt like a little rant since the clock is ticking on myopera. :devil: :up:
Fuenteovejuna did it 
'Tis true. When some-one calls this place boring, they're calling us boring, because we're the meat of it. I am boring. I'm at one with it.
I would almost guess you to be English but I see from your profile you are from Sweden. That's perfectly good, too. You are funny, understated, low key, classy.
Too kind. I prefer your blog, you usually have something to say. I like cake. There, I said it. I LIKE CAKE!
Originally posted by garlingmatthews:
Well, you're out of the closet now!I like cakes that are on the simple side.
You have discovered that must people are stupid. I don't think that deserves the Nobel prize then. About MyOpera, honestly I think the reaction to the announce of the closing was way too soft and that probably comes from the fact that it was expected since long ago and that most people don't mind much.OR people are somehow conditioned to thank when they get beaten with a stick. I was told that Opera is no different than Microsoft or Google and you don't expect to talk to those corporations, you just accept whatever they do as inevitable. Or like God's will. In my opinion it is a sick way of thinking. MyOpera could have been open sourced since the very beginning, being just a "side project" for Opera and made with spare time and resources. Now that they want to dismiss it, they could have put some effort in letting an independent organization to maintain MyOpera and found it with advertisement (since everybody knows X users/contacts value Y for the advertisement industry). The fact that they are just closing it just means the management doesn't feel any "obligation" and/or they are not capable or willing to explore alternative solutions, just do the most simple thing, to shut everything down.
Nothing wrong with simple cakes. Especially if they are chocolate.
I like the chat you had with the "MyOpera is boring" woman on her blog. She truly has a head full of rocks. I was shaking my head as I read it while softly saying "GD!"Originally posted by LorenzoCelsi:
THAT would make me happy.I'm staying here until a few weeks before the shutdown. After the deletion, I'm removing all Opera products from everything and looking forward to a lifetime of hate for Opera Software ASA. I'm actually a little excited about it.I do, however, have an old operamail.com e-mail account that I will keep. Maybe I'll use it to send some "fuck-you's" to Oslo.
In these last few years MyOpera has been maintained by one or two folks only. So Opera's lament that is sooo much expensive to take care of it is laughable, because we know the hardware is relatively cheap. I guess if you add some AdSense across MyOpera (that is the most easy and lame thing I can think of) you would get enough money from it to pay the two guys and the infrastructure. Once you open MyOpera-phoenix to the community you can get volunteer contributors as maintainers, developers and moderators, just picking among users. It is not rocket science.Of course MyOpera software can be so crappy that they are ashamed of it. Who knows. But it works, spammers aside. And software that works in theory can be upgraded.
Back to the trolling:The biggest troll in the announcement post right now is named James. I can tell from word choices, syntax, and attitude that he is American. Total entertainment. I'd like to wet him down with a fire house in the dead of winter.Trolling was something that I did the first few months I was online, then I grew out of it. Now I like to manifest my immaturity in other ways, like writing on my blog. 😀 —One person commented that they were surprised to see Espen Øverdahl (EspenAO) making the closure announcement. Working with the myopera users was his baby for a long time. I think it must have been painful for him to make such a post. I really like him and have known him net-wise for years now. He suddenly vanished from myopera over a year ago. Who knows. His announcement was the first activity I have seen from his account in a long time.
Must be something wrong in me but I don't feel any "empathy" over here. Working for MyOpera was his baby so when the baby crapped himself to the hears it was his responsibility. He was just an employee without any authority? Just a PR guy? Fine, I don't think he is crying now. So either he deserves part of the blame or he doesn't care.The "who knows" covers the whole Opera ASA, basically a black hole located in Norway.
Originally posted by LorenzoCelsi:
Ewww, nasty.I know you like to dissect people and shower them with words like ignorant, dumb, stupid, laughable. With many of my friends and relatives dropping dead over the last few years, I don't care much for anything that doesn't involve life and love.My mission on my opera has been to draw out people, find commonalities and universals, and look for a little love. I've done OK.You really ought to move your hostile depressing ass along now.
At least I am not selling you anything.This is the whole thing, it is not the fact of being right or wrong, it is the intentions.
Originally posted by LorenzoCelsi:
Now I'm nostalgic for the old paid Opera browser with the flashing red/white advertising banner that blinded me and illuminated the whole room.
Nice one. A classic. Espen to Colin Powell and WMD.You done?
I guess there is a misunderstanding between us.I don't expect EspenAO or anybody working at Opera/MyOpera to be a friend of mine. I expect professional correctness, fairness, I don't know how to properly express the concept in english. At least, considering there isn't an "used car sales" sign on Opera.In short when EspenAO acts as spokesman for Opera and announces the world that they are reinventing the Web with Unite I expect him to be involved and truly believe what he writes/says or him to not be involved and just being payed to write/say whatever the company wants him to write/say.Lets make an example: the famous case of the american General who presents the world governments fabricated evidences of iraqui "weapons of mass destruction", insisting the UN inspectors who did not report anything were just clowns. Since the evidences were fake, there are these options, either the General takes part of the blame for it (being incompetent or accessory) or he was just blindly following orders. So I don't feel like saying "oh poor General". At best I could say "poor" in the sense of somebody who can't do his job or doesn't have balls for refusing wrong orders (does a career value a war?).So after all these years we have been joked by Opera and by EspenAO as spokesman, having attended the browser comedy and facing the pending closing of MyOpera which is not mandatory but simply the easiest thing to do, I don't feel like saying "oh poor EspenAO".Maybe I am wrong. But it is not Lorenzo wasting EspenAO blog, it is the other way.
Originally posted by LorenzoCelsi:
Not laughable.
I am reinventing the Web.
If they put advertisement on MyOpera that is what everybody else is doing, then it would make sense. Google gives you tools to add advertisement on your own Blogger blog and shares revenues with you. A couple of guys I know make some hundred euros a month that way.When Opera browser had the banner other browsers did not, because those other firms had different business models. So it was just another wrong move by Opera ASA which made their browser even less popular.This is another point. Not only you try to sell the "reinventing the Web" crap at Opera but you FAIL, even delivering the "non-reinventing-anything" feature, multiplying the crap waterfall. I do not understand this way of doing business.I am told Opera makes big money with B2B business and I don't have any visibility on it. On the consumer business they have been terrible.
Oh man. I just discovered that my gay aura, carrying a smartphone, and liking Espen as a friend are issues. 😥
You mean you need a gay aura to carry a smartphone and to have Espen as a friend? Or you need a smartphone to acquire a gay aura and become friend with Espen? Or Espen gives you a smartphone when you become his friend because of the gay aura?All considered, carrying a smartphone is definitely "mainstream", so it is an issue to NOT carry one. I don't for example and kids throw stones at me. Having a gay aura can be a blessing, depending where you live and what job you do. For example here there is are the fashion district and the major media corporations where the gay mafia is quite powerful. Having Espen as a friend is probably the less popular feature.
I agree on the media sucking balls, I would add also the fashion business but, obvious jokes aside, while they are at it they move billions. In a society that is reducing the "middle class" to have just the rich and the (relatively) poor, belonging to the said above mafia means to live a good life. Which also explains why "gays" are a very appreciated category of consumers. That is because they can spend. And buy, among other things, expensive electronic gadgets.
Ah, good. I got what I wanted. :devil: Actually, I don't have a gay aura. Some people have the "radar" and can tell, sometimes. Usually it's not even thought of.Unfortunately I haven't had the luxury of a mafia connection.In my opinion, major media sucks balls (especially here) no matter who is pulling the levers, though it can be handy for learning quickly of obvious events, like a typhoon in the Philippines.Espen gave me MOTW week one time, so I've been in his pants ever since.
Originally posted by LorenzoCelsi:
My new LG's (washer/dryer) were installed today, lol, so I've been spending. More of a large appliance than electronics, though they do have nice electronic control panels. They have a diagnostic mode where you can call the service department, they tell you to press a combination of buttons while holding your phone close to the power switch, and the machines will transmit FAX-like sounds. They get an initial idea of machine status.I was going to brag that they were wifi connected…but they aren't.
I have been looking for an apartment. Until some time ago this was a rather traditional society, also much influenced by the catholic church. So everything, including houses, has been inspired by the idea of "traditional family". Then something changed, as people don't have money to consume and to sustain a traditional family. Less and less children around, so they closed some schools and everything started to be inspired by the idea of the "single consumer" or a couple without children. As result, while old apartments are large, like 3 rooms and above (we don't include the kitchen and bathrooms here), new apartments are often very small, like two small rooms without a separate kitchen BUT they are very expensive because of gadgets and sales advertise the innovation of the "condo gymn". Now, who has lots of money, some free time and and cares of having the gymn in the building? You must look for stores that pay more attention of the same category of single high-profile and good-looking consumers. Of course the phenomenon is bigger in metropolitan areas, towns and villages are more conservative.
I like my 50+ year-old small house. I'm the third generation to live in it: grandmother > mother > me + partner. I live nearly downtown and can walk to many places that I like.Many of the distant suburban neighborhoods are full of huge houses on small lots. They almost touch each other. Sometimes they are called McMansions. If someone gave me one, of course I would love to have it as they are lovely on the inside, but I usually feel watched and stressed in these areas. Many areas have an HOA (homeowners association) that can dictate things as small in detail as what kind of grass you plant, paint color, amount and type of Christmas decorations, acceptable types of vehicles in driveway. Watchful busybody neighbors make sure you don't break the rules. Being suburban, they are usually far from stores, so you need a good car and a lot of gas to do routine shopping. Many of the houses are so large with soaring ceilings, that I think the heating bill in the winter would exceed my salary.Anyway, I like my small half-century dwelling. For the USA, this is considered fairly old. It will probably need a new roof soon ($5000), then the refrigerator will fail ($800), etc.By agreement with her, I paid my mother market value for it and financed it with a reasonable fixed-rate mortgage. I think many of the "mansions" were financed with adjustable rates, and the borrowers were *shocked* when the banks upped the rates to the maximum that could be charged. Many reasonable and careful people were also screwed over. It wasn't just the ones who over-bought.
I just realized that my lack of social status and real money save me from so many of the horrors that burden the wealthy. OMG! 😆
Lovely picture. Thanks.I spent some time in Madrid in the 1980's. Most places I stayed were the apartments in large buildings. The elevators always entertained me. They looked so old and funny compared to ones in office buildings.You are correct, IMO, on the American houses, especially anything recent vintage. They are largely illusion to look great on the surface, but the internals are crappy. Many are built dozens at a time by the same company which has already insulated itself from legal action by arbitration agreements and rigging the laws with the regulating agencies. Many of the companies subcontract, and subcontract again, so when the buyer has problems or cries "fraud", they can disappear and resurface somewhere else. It's amazing but not unexpected.
We have got the same building as Madrid but here they are downtown and when re-structured they are very expensive. They are places for lawyer offices or V.I.Ps. Usually they come from the end of '800 or beginning of '900. I live in the suburbs and they are of any age, my house is from the early '80s the ones you see in the picture are from the '60s.I had been watching some american TV show about restructuring houses. It was surprisingly interesting because they showed a completely different environment, both from a technological point of view and cultural. To name one, besides the obvious no yard, no single house, here you cannot inspect anything when you buy an house because it is all sealed under concrete. Lets say the heating, it is made with tubes (old one are iron, modern plastic) that pass under the floor and the floor is concrete with tiles on top. So when there is a leak you must break the tiles and the concrete, which is a bit different than lifting a carpet and unscrewing some wooden boards. On the "pro" side, we don't have issues with mold and fire because, being all concrete and bricks, there isn't anything that can rot or catch fire.
Italians are among the less indebted people of the world. Traditionally, having seen so many wars, invasions, revolutions and any sort of crisis since ever, we are savers. It also helps that we tend to live near relatives or even in the same place.The issue is we are too many living out of few resources, so on average we can't spend much. After the '70s the State has been providing many free services, like the health care, schools and universities, pensions, etc. As result, we grew an huge spending and debt, that translate in very high taxation.We don't have "houses" in the meaning you give in USA. We mostly live in apartments in huge buildings, without any space in between. You can see the landscape here, it is a square in my hometown.Each building has an official manager that takes care of legal obligations and maintenance, decisions are made in meetings where all the owners vote and mostly their vote is "weighted" relatively to surface of the apartment he/she owns. It may sound strange but, despite the Catholic faith is almost the official religion of the State, we don't have any religious symbol or decoration on private homes. Maybe it helps that there is a church at every corner.Some time ago I thought american houses were cheap compared to ours. And they are. But after having seen how most are constructed, I mean the technologies, It seems to me that they are still largely overpriced. Our buildings are build with the idea of making them last virtually forever, so it is a reinforced concrete structure with bricks for the walls. American houses instead are mostly made with a tiny wooden frame with some sort of panel nailed on the two faces, filled with insulation. In fact when the Jersey Shore guys were in Florence, one of them broke his head hitting a wall on purpose, not considering it was two palms of concrete and not some soft plywood panel. :)Banks are not a big issue here, both because people don't have debts and because big investments are considered a generational effort. Usually when some young marry, the parents help with some funds. Same goes with children, there aren't single parents because the Law obliges all relatives to contribute if needed. It is still a "clan-based" society at roots.But, like I said, recently the situation has changed quite fast as there is an increasing divide between people who have well payed jobs and everybody else, with nothing in between.
I would love to live in a house on a street like this one in Merida, Mexico. This is not a particularly good street, but you can see how the houses are all cement and very rugged. Often there are nice patios hidden behind.Inside, the houses are often charming. This is actually a hotel we were staying in. I have been in many Mexican houses with this type construction. I love 'em. You can clean the floors with a garden hose and a mop. The electric and plumbing are often frail looking and weird, yet still mostly usable.
That looks like worst parts of our south.
Originally posted by LorenzoCelsi:
Leave those southern Italians alone! They gotta live somewhere. 😆 Yeah, the pic above shows a neighborhood that is a little blighted, yet everything is still neat and clean. I have pics of Merida's wide beautiful boulevards. For some reason, I cannot find them right now. My hard drive is a mess.Anyway, I like the cement houses that are connected like those above though a better neighborhood wouldn't hurt. As a bonus, the walls around the back yard of these houses are often topped with colorful broken glass shards for security, lol.The hotel above where I am walking towards the camera was $13/night. It's the least I ever paid for lodging. I don't usually look for such extreme economy, but we arrived in Merida without a reservation, and the entire city was full due to a convention. Rooms were very *expensive* in all the normal hotels, like $150USD and up, or they were full. We paid a taxista to drive us around the city for hours looking for any place that had a room. We found the "Las Margaritas" above in that so-so neighborhood. It ended up being quite nice, especially for the low price. Though not all that attractive, the neighborhood seemed fine security-wise.
The cheapest I payed was nothing, sleeping on the bare ground while backpacking up and down Greece. But I was about 20 back then, should I do the same nowadays I would probably die.Speaking of the south, these days there is a big scandal because the mafia around Naples (called "Camorra") managed to bury 10 million tons of toxic waste in their own territory, like 400.000 trucks coming and going for 20 years, so the land is poisoned. But since Italians are comedians at heart, nobody wonders how was it possible no cop ever stopped one of those 400.000 trucks with unauthorized toxic waste in 20 years, no major or local administration said anything about the huge stinking holes, no judge prosecuted anybody, no politician from whatever party said anything, etc. Newspapers are all busy in telling how bad those corporations from north Italy and other areas of Europe to give the mafia waste to be disposed. And you know why? Because a firm that produces tomato sauce made an advert with a map of places where they buy tomatoes, all in north Italy. They said it was unfair because it implies tomatoes from the south are poisoned. But they are. You just can't say it. It is a strange land.
Excuse me butting in here again, but that's not very good news for me to hear. I've been buying tinned tomatoes prepared in various ways all imported from Italy recently.Oooooh dear ! . . . . What am I going to die of NOW ? There's always something that's going to kill you/me/anyone. I just turned 55 today, so I think I've probably got about another 40 years to go before the world is rid of me.
Switch the light off, if you glow in the dark then it is not a good sign.But I see you are optimistic. That counts.