So I have been downloading different browsers and testing to see if my site displays right. And Opera has caught my eye. I of course have expressed my feelings on Netscape. Which to recap I just don’t like netscape. Mozilla to me is the same as Netscape. So no Mozilla for me. But this Opera has really got me thinking about switching from IE. Here are a few of the features these guys brag about:

• Opera is renowned for being the world’s fastest browser. Measuring speed on the web is harder than it sounds, but our users know and feel the difference.
• Opera is much smaller than other major browsers. In its standard configuration, it almost fits on a floppy disk yet it is all you need to surf the web. We also offer a version of Opera with integrated support for Java. This makes our distribution larger, but still smaller than our competitors.
• Opera support all common Web standards needed to surf the web, including markup languages (HTML and XML), network and security protocols (HTTP, SSL and TLS), style sheets (CSS1 & CSS2) and programming languages (ECMAScript, Javascript).

And I got to say they deliver in spades. This is one fast browser! Hit the back button and whammo your back to the previous page. A couple of other neat features. Mouse gestures are a feature they mention, at first I thought it was a flashy stupid feature. But man all you got to do is hold the right mouse button down and flick left and you’ve just hit the back button. It really comes in handy.

Another neat feature is that there is only one browser window. So no matter how many pages you open it’s all one window. And annoying pop up load but the page you went to stays in main view.

Of course there is a negative to this what seems to be a uber-browser. A big one. It’s a free download. No time limit. But you have a banner ad plastered into the top portion of the browser. After I play with sucker some more I may actually pony up and buy it. Any one else have any recommendations for a preferred browser? Let me know what you think.

Well I have my Archive problems sorted out. I had to futz around with some of NewsPro‘s settings. But I have got it the way I wanted it. NewsPro makes posting easier. Maybe a little to easy. Just the last couple of days I have had multiple posts for each day. Which again everything is so much easier. And again I’ll say I love how NewsPro automatically puts old news into the Archive. I just love it. Now the Archived news is in chronological order. So I’m a happy guy.

Gillian Anderson is leaving the X-Files. It’s not like I watch the show for any other reason. I don’t watch it because of Mulder. I watch the show because of Scully. Really I’m serious. I would watch anything with that woman. She is a goddess.

But that means both of the show’s stars are going to leave the show. It doesn’t sound like Duchovny will be around for another season. So the two characters that make the show are leaving. All kidding a side regarding Scully’s babeness (and she’s hot). The other characters are not strong enough to run the show. The show will die without Duchovny and Anderson. Fox better cancel the X-Files without them.

Well it has been a very slow night. Nothing going on here at the hotel. I work tonight and then I’m off for four days. I should mention it’s the 4th of July. So about the only thing I’m doing is going to the fireworks with the Izer’s. Just make sure everyone has a safe holiday. Watch out for those fireworks.

Well it’s another boring night at work. Dead as a door nail. We have about twenty rooms rented. So me and the security guard start talking. This isn’t a bad thing. A very smart guy. Anyway were talking about where life on our planet came from. I have talked about this before. But the security guard thinks we came from outer space. And keep in mind I don’t want to get in any fights about creation theory. I’m not saying what I think, or that you should think these ideas.

But the idea that a superior race seeded us on earth does have a romantic flavor to me. I would like to think there is life out there. It would be a terrible waste of space if we were all alone in this huge place in which we live on one planet. Perhaps the surest sign of intelligent life in space is that they have yet to contact us. Well on that subject here are a few links to some stuff that shares some of the opinions I may or may not have:

• An essay about the future, “The Good and the Bad:Outlines for Tomorrow”.
• A conversation with NASA scientist (and Nebula Award winner) Geoff Landis about the possibility of interstellar flight without faster than light travel.
• An essay about how infectious ideas may affect human destiny, “The New Meme”.
• SETI Institute Online has an article called Hidden Oceans Could Still Support Life.

And again I want to state that these are my opinions. And I am not forcing them down anyone’s throat. These links are just there for you to take a look at (or don’t).

Here are two really cool links from SETI that talks about the movies Independence Day and Contact that I missed. Very cool reads. Both of these stories hawk SETI stuff. I know they need funding but it seems like a tacky way of doing it.

I got an e-mail from my host and they wanted to tell me that I was moving servers. So I figured I would pass it on to you guys.

In order to continue to provide quality service, we are migrating your account from its current home on server2.virtualave.net to server9.virtualave.net. DNS records will be updated to make this change mostly transparent, but the final transfer of data from the current server requires a brief outage of approximately 4 hours, beginning Thursday, July 12th, 2001 at 9:00 am PDT (16:00 UTC); you will not be able to make updates to your Web site during this time, though users will still be able to view your pages.

I know it says “users will still be able to view your pages”. But just in case you have been warned. I will be making a back up of all my data the day before. Again just in case. I read enough of other sites having horror stories about moving servers. So everyone cross their fingers.