Just Tested Opera 10.50

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:13:48 -0500, Lostgallifreyan
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Interesting stuff. I found this post, looking for OperaUSB because I'd tried
the latest (v11 as I write this) and it obviously isn't W98 compatible, it
demanded I update to a newer version of Windows. That means they changed to a
newer compiler, or just decided to deliberately not support W98. Those two
older versions do run though. Too soon to know if I'll like them, v10.63 and
v9.64 look so different at first showing that they look like diverging
variants of an idea, rather than a progression of versions seen in most
software. But they run, and FireFox has irritated me too often, and I have at
least found some proper alternative now.

If there IS an archive of older ones, can I have linkage to try?

You can use the Wayback Machine to download old versions from archived
web sites:
http://web.archive.org/

Here is an example:
http://replay.web.archive.org/200701...perausbint.htm
http://replay.web.archive.org/200701...ausb910int.zip
http://replay.web.archive.org/200701...pera902int.zip

The download links at the following page are excluded by "robots.txt":
http://replay.web.archive.org/201001...m/download.htm

However, just strip off the leading part of the URL (as in the
following example) and you should still be able to access active
links.

http://replay.web.archive.org/201001...opera964en.zip
http://www.opera-usb.com/download/opera964en.zip

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Franc Zabkar wrote in
:

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:13:48 -0500, Lostgallifreyan
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Interesting stuff. I found this post, looking for OperaUSB because I'd
tried the latest (v11 as I write this) and it obviously isn't W98
compatible, it demanded I update to a newer version of Windows. That
means they changed to a newer compiler, or just decided to deliberately
not support W98. Those two older versions do run though. Too soon to
know if I'll like them, v10.63 and v9.64 look so different at first
showing that they look like diverging variants of an idea, rather than a
progression of versions seen in most software. But they run, and FireFox
has irritated me too often, and I have at least found some proper
alternative now.

If there IS an archive of older ones, can I have linkage to try?

You can use the Wayback Machine to download old versions from archived
web sites:
http://web.archive.org/

Here is an example:
http://replay.web.archive.org/200701...ra-usb.com/ope
rausbint.htm
http://replay.web.archive.org/200701...yopera.com/Mir
aculix/910/operausb910int.zip
http://replay.web.archive.org/200701...yopera.com/Mir
aculix/902/opera902int.zip

The download links at the following page are excluded by "robots.txt":
http://replay.web.archive.org/201001...sb.com/downloa
d.htm

However, just strip off the leading part of the URL (as in the
following example) and you should still be able to access active
links.

http://replay.web.archive.org/201001...ra-usb.com/dow
nload/opera964en.zip http://www.opera-usb.com/download/opera964en.zip

- Franc Zabkar

Thanks, that's great. I didn't think Wayback hosted binaries, just text, but
that's very good linkage if the original host still has the files in the same
locations. Looks like the earliest version of OperaUSB was 9.25, maybe there
were no significant differences other than improvements from there till
v9.64, hence no current links to the old copies.

I'll go with v10.63 I think, it works well, and does what a new browser
rarely does for me, taking over within about 48 hours of first trial. Firefox
took a lot longer than that to replace IE v5.5. It will take a while to know
if I'll encounter something to drive me back to Firefox v2 but if OperaUSB
keeps everything in its own directory unless told otherwise by me, it's going
to be permanent. I hope later versions continue to support W08 though. There
seems to be no reason why they shouldn't, if Opera itself does, other than
what seems to be the obstruction caused by a newer MS compiler's habit of
trying to deny W9X users any chance to run its output!

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Bill in Co
writes:
Lostgallifreyan wrote:
thanatoid wrote in
:

ever used. If they did a survey of the worst software
people have ever used, Opera would be at the top of my
list.

Well, for most "literate" internet users, IE would be. FWIW,
Nero CD/DVD burning software is at the top for me (I find its
design simply demented and infuriating).

I, for one, still prefer IE to Firefox - and Opera. But then again, I
grew
up with all the versions of IE (starting with IE2, which was pretty
pathetic). Firefox is a bit slow in loading, at least the first time,
and

Actually, I think it's similar to IE, but of course IE's load wait
occurs as part of the general system boot delay, so you don't notice it.

That's true. There may even be a way to preload the FF core at bootup, but
since I prefer IE and rarely use FF, at least at this point in time.

There have been a few cases, however, where IE hasn't worked quite right on
a site, and I'll use FF. And that's true even with a later version of IE
(IE8), which I finally went to, since some sites weren't working right with
IE6, anymore. (otherwise I would have stayed with IE6 - but the tabs that
were introduced later (post-IE6) are nice, however).

besides I'm more used to the IE interface, which unfortunately became
less
customizable with succeeding versions (IE7 and IE8).

I've got various other browsers on here, but IE is my mainstay. And OE
and
OE-QuoteFix (for newsgroups and email) is conveniently built right in -
that
integrated combo works great for me. I have no use for Outlook, so that
one's out.

Agreed, OE is a lot less bad than it's often painted (though needs OEQ).
V6 is worth upgrading to, though (I forget why).

Except that even now a few sites don't seem to work properly with IE6 (and
complain about needing to update the browser, etc, etc).

[]
Easy CD Creator 5 works great, too. :-)

Apart from its infuriating requirement to have an extra driver for more
or less any drive you throw at it - which the other burners like
Burn4Free don't!

Perhaps, but just how often do you throw different drives at it? I just
use the drive I've got.. :-)

And ditto on the older versions of MusicMatch, for that matter. And a
host
of other older apps. :-)

I meant MusicMatch Jukebox there. But MM also got sold off, and went
downhill, so the older versions are better, as seems true for a LOT of
software.

(As I've already posted, oldversion is good. As is LastFreeVersion or
whatever it's called [the one with 123 in the URL somewhere].)

Yup. And I've used the oldversion.com site a fair amount too!

Lostgallifreyan wrote in
:


I'll go with v10.63 I think, it works well, and does what a
new browser rarely does for me, taking over within about 48
hours of first trial. Firefox took a lot longer than that
to replace IE v5.5. It will take a while to know if I'll
encounter something to drive me back to Firefox v2 but if
OperaUSB keeps everything in its own directory unless told
otherwise by me, it's going to be permanent. I hope later
versions continue to support W08 though. There seems to be
no reason why they shouldn't, if Opera itself does, other
than what seems to be the obstruction caused by a newer MS
compiler's habit of trying to deny W9X users any chance to
run its output!

IMO, there is no reason to upgrade a browser if you have the
usual security precautions in place, unless, of course, you are
a victim of the Flash disease and HAVE to see the results of the
latest version. If you are at all interested the latest Flash
not working on some sites, you can search for a trick someone
posted to make the site think you have the latest while it is in
fact the previous. It works pretty well.

thanatoid wrote in
:

Lostgallifreyan wrote in
:


I'll go with v10.63 I think, it works well, and does what a
new browser rarely does for me, taking over within about 48
hours of first trial. Firefox took a lot longer than that
to replace IE v5.5. It will take a while to know if I'll
encounter something to drive me back to Firefox v2 but if
OperaUSB keeps everything in its own directory unless told
otherwise by me, it's going to be permanent. I hope later
versions continue to support W08 though. There seems to be
no reason why they shouldn't, if Opera itself does, other
than what seems to be the obstruction caused by a newer MS
compiler's habit of trying to deny W9X users any chance to
run its output!

IMO, there is no reason to upgrade a browser if you have the
usual security precautions in place, unless, of course, you are
a victim of the Flash disease and HAVE to see the results of the
latest version. If you are at all interested the latest Flash
not working on some sites, you can search for a trick someone
posted to make the site think you have the latest while it is in
fact the previous. It works pretty well.



Only thing I want to know about Flash is how to switch it off for ads in
Opera while allowing it for FLV videos. Or at least, on and off at will..

I can try things like the USER-AGENT http header spoof but I find that most
sites (like MySpace) that really insist on policing what systems we use,
aren't worth a single visit anyway. Few people would trust one site like that
to be their whole portal on the interweb, I hope, there usually seems to be
some other way to find something.

(I used to spoof USER-AGENT as Lynx. Any site that saw what looked like a
text based browser but respected (or didn't care) enough not to police it,
and instead send out the full page, usually worked fine. Only thing that
routinely failed was CSS because there's so much bad CSS out there. And most
of its coders always blaming end users too instead of understanding that end
user see PLENTY of other examples of where it's done well...

Truth is, I don't want to spoof to bad sites like MySpace. They're bad enough
without me adding to their delusions about how the world works.

thanatoid wrote:


IMO, there is no reason to upgrade a browser if you have the
usual security precautions in place, unless, of course, you are
a victim of the Flash disease and HAVE to see the results of the
latest version. If you are at all interested the latest Flash
not working on some sites, you can search for a trick someone
posted to make the site think you have the latest while it is in
fact the previous. It works pretty well.

Would you happen to know what the trick is or where to find it? I couldn't
find it on Google.

Thanks

Henry

On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:32:08 -0500, Lostgallifreyan
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Only thing I want to know about Flash is how to switch it off for ads in
Opera while allowing it for FLV videos. Or at least, on and off at will..

I use the following UserJS script.

Hide objects until double click (Flash block):
http://userjs.org/scripts/general/en...s/hide-objects

I also find the following useful:
http://my.opera.com/oxidental/blog/2...-google-images
http://userjs.org/scripts/browser/en...ify-text-files

I also have my own additions to Opera's r-click context menu:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/my_menu.ini

For example, let's say that a particular link is directing you to a
web site that you know will be infested with flash, banner ads,
popups, etc. My customised menu gives you the option of opening the
URL with OffByOne, or you can select Google's text-only cached version
of the page.

BTW, I'm still using Version 9.64, Build 10487.

FYI, an excellent newsgroup for Opera specific questions is
opera.general.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Franc Zabkar wrote in
:

Only thing I want to know about Flash is how to switch it off for ads in
Opera while allowing it for FLV videos. Or at least, on and off at
will..

I use the following UserJS script.

Hide objects until double click (Flash block):
http://userjs.org/scripts/general/en...s/hide-objects

I also find the following useful:
http://my.opera.com/oxidental/blog/2...-google-images
http://userjs.org/scripts/browser/en...ify-text-files

I also have my own additions to Opera's r-click context menu:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/my_menu.ini

For example, let's say that a particular link is directing you to a
web site that you know will be infested with flash, banner ads,
popups, etc. My customised menu gives you the option of opening the
URL with OffByOne, or you can select Google's text-only cached version
of the page.

BTW, I'm still using Version 9.64, Build 10487.

FYI, an excellent newsgroup for Opera specific questions is
opera.general.


Nice. That double-click idea is likely what I'll use. The OffByOne opener is
also good. Having it immediately launchable from within Opera is something I
hadn't thought of.

I'll explore all of this eventually. It will take a while, but I'll get by,
Opera is the first browser I've seen since I reluctantly decided to try a
computer many years ago, that feels and works like a proper program instead
of a horrible assemblage of ideas deprecated before we have a chance to get
used to them. Some of its menus look a bit rough though. (OperaUSB
v10.63..) But I imagine eventually I'll find ways to sort that.

Henry wrote in :

thanatoid wrote:


IMO, there is no reason to upgrade a browser if you have the
usual security precautions in place, unless, of course, you are
a victim of the Flash disease and HAVE to see the results of the
latest version. If you are at all interested the latest Flash
not working on some sites, you can search for a trick someone
posted to make the site think you have the latest while it is in
fact the previous. It works pretty well.

Would you happen to know what the trick is or where to find it? I
couldn't find it on Google.

Thanks

Henry


I know of one, I mentioned it. Might not be the same idea though, but try it,
it works on a lot of things. USER-AGENT is the header name to change. Save
whatever is there already. Proxomitron is what I used to use, and I still
keep it hoping to set it up again. (FireFox irked me, I never felt at home
with it so I never used Prox since I left IE). Opera likely lets you set up
headers directly somehow, but I'm too new to it to know.

There is another trick related to tricking Flash, which is for the installer
itself, a registry key:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion]
"VersionNumber"="5.10.2600"
;"VersionNumber"="4.10.2222"

That fakes the OS's identity so Flash 10 can be installed. From what I've
read you still need KernelEx to run it though. Add that REG file again when
you're done, but move the semicolon to comment out the fake number and
restore the real W98 one.

Lostgallifreyan wrote in
:

snip

Only thing I want to know about Flash is how to switch it
off for ads in Opera while allowing it for FLV videos.
Or at least, on and off at will..

I can't remember how I did it (prolly in the about:config or
whatever it's called) but you can set up on/off buttons for
flash, images and javascript, right on the toolbar.

I can try things like the USER-AGENT http header spoof but
I find that most sites (like MySpace) that really insist on
policing what systems we use, aren't worth a single visit
anyway. Few people would trust one site like that to be
their whole portal on the interweb, I hope, there usually
seems to be some other way to find something.

I find most sites work with "show as Opera". I have that drop
down box on my toolbar too.

(I used to spoof USER-AGENT as Lynx. Any site that saw what
looked like a text based browser but respected (or didn't
care) enough not to police it, and instead send out the
full page, usually worked fine. Only thing that routinely
failed was CSS because there's so much bad CSS out there.
And most of its coders always blaming end users too instead
of understanding that end user see PLENTY of other examples
of where it's done well...

I played with Lynx many years ago, and I kind of liked it, but
sometimes you need to see a picture... And OffByOne is JUST as
fast...

Truth is, I don't want to spoof to bad sites like MySpace.
They're bad enough without me adding to their delusions
about how the world works.

Don't even get me started on this miserable century.