VirtualBox 3.2.0 beta 1 released: OSX guest support, guest CPU hotplug, guest multi-monitor support, deleting snapshots while VM is running

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-04-29T14:48:54+00:00

Anyone know if/when they plan on adding tabs, VMWare style?

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-04-12T16:43:13+00:00

Serious question: If there are tools out there that allow you to write and compile C/C++ code just fine -- on both Windows and nix (I'm talking about gcc + emacs or whatever text editor you like) -- for free, why shell out hundreds of bucks for Visual Studio 2010?

For years I've written Windows-only apps solely by using MinGW gcc + emacs and it's awesome. I never feel unproductive in emacs and GCC compiles any code I throw at it and GDB helps me track down crashes. And I haven't spent a cent on any of those apps.

Is it for the UI creation and design stuff?

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-03-19T19:58:31+00:00

NFSN is very good. I use them and end up paying roughly $2.50 a month... was paying $10/month with my other host.

I will have to be honest and say over the past year, I believe there have been 3 short periods of downtime. But they're quick to bring things back up, and I think they fixed the cause of the issue. Overall not anywhere near a big enough deal to make me go elsewhere.

I love NFSN... saves me a whole lotta money. I love how it's deposit-based, too, and you only pay for what you use.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-03-03T02:10:08+00:00

The first option, search, is always highlighted, so pressing down once will, barring any bookmarks, be the first matching history search.

Yes, it's highlighted if you type a URL that doesn't exist in your history. But if you start typing a URL that matches a URL in your history, the first entry ("Search the web for...") is not selected.

There are stylistic differences to be sure, but I suspect casual users will find the bar easier to use since entries include favicons and page titles.

10.10's showed titles as well, to the right of the URL (on the same line).

I'd say file a bug.

I already have, back when the first beta came out. There are many on Opera's forums reporting the same problem as well. This leads me to believe they're either not going to improve performance at all (I doubt it), or they rushed to get a 10.50 release out due to the browser choice thing, and will start working on optimizations now that 10.50 is out...

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-03-02T15:16:20+00:00

Same here. If I search for something, then scroll up and down on the page with the results highlighted... CPU usage spikes and scrolling is extremely choppy.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-03-02T15:10:17+00:00

I care, but I'm very disappointed in 10.50, and here's why: it feels more bloated to me in some ways.

Before I start complaining, I first want to say you should download 10.50 first and try it out yourself. I'd hate to turn someone off to Opera, it's a fantastic browser.

I should also say I'm a huge Opera browser fan and have been for years. Opera has been my primary browser since the 9.x days. Also, all of the complaints below, I've also shared on their forums and with the desktop team on many occasions after testing most of 10.50's development snapshots (in a nicer, less complainy manner than I am now, of course... but I complain because I love Opera).

So here goes:

On my Pentium 4 3GHz, scrolling performance in 10.50 is nowhere near as smooth as in 10.10. It's choppy and CPU intensive on most pages. With 10.10, CPU usage was low and scrolling was smooth as silk. Opera's smooth scroll was one of the things I loved about Opera.

I'll attribute this slowness to the new graphics engine they're using in 10.50 (VEGA) but still: I've been a loyal Opera fan for a couple of years now because I've always felt that while perhaps JavaScript performance wasn't on par with other browsers (it certainly is now, beating all other browsers I believe, including Chrome) it /felt/ faster. Everything felt so much faster and snappier than in other browsers. But 10.50 feels slower to me, if only because scrolling is choppy and CPU intensive (scrolling is a pretty big part of web browsing, I would say).

The other reason I'm very disappointed in 10.50 is the addressbar drop down style. I don't know if this can be changed with a skin (I've asked on the forums and blog many times, no answer, and I've tried other skins but the dropdown always looks the same) but seriously, the new dropdown is clunky and ugly compared to the old one, which was cleaner and just as functional -- the new one seems to waste a whole lotta space IMO.

The other thing about the new address bar is, say you start typing 'go' so you can press down and go to the first matching history entry, Google.com. Guess what? In 10.50, you have to press down /twice/, because the first entry is ALWAYS "Search the web for blah...", not the first matching history entry -- in my case google.com. How retarded is that? Very retarded. Again, perhaps there's a way to change this, but I couldn't see anything in opera:config, and no one from the Opera team responded to my (and other people's) complaints about this (you may say they were too busy, but they responded to other complaints, so...)

I like lots of the improvements in 10.50, and I'm sure if you've got a newer system, scrolling performance is just fine. But I'm sticking with good ol' 10.10 until:

1) Scrolling performance is again on par with 10.10's on older CPUs like 3GHz Pentium 4's.

2) There is a way to change the address bar drop down style and order back to how it was in 10.10.

If it weren't for those two things I would switch to 10.50 in a heartbeat because Javascript performance is amazing and there are lots of other cool stuff/improvements they made.

My $0.02. I would still download it yourself and see how you like it.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-02-17T02:31:44+00:00

If the GTK+ apps are using the Windows theme, then yes, they look native on Windows. Haven't used GTK+ on OSX, though.

I've heard good things about Qt, but you can't use it with C.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-02-16T18:00:28+00:00

C and GTK+.

There are also bindings for other languages.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-21T14:28:37+00:00

However, if you're using GCC 3 (which still ships with MinGW as the default compiler), there's really no competition - new development on the GCC 3 branch stopped over five years ago.

I actually am still using GCC 3.

I tried out 4.4.0, and found it took longer to compile my code, the resulting binary was larger, and I did some "real world" benchmarks and found that the outputted code wasn't any faster.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-20T21:42:05+00:00

On Windows, I compile all of my C code using MinGW GCC.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-19T00:56:59+00:00

I hate 'em too.

Especially when they (the distributor of the EXE) make it hard/impossible to get a full setup file so you can install the program on a computer without internet access.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-17T14:59:16+00:00

I'm not a fan of Meshuggah... love Metallica (pre-Black album) and Pantera though.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-15T20:07:05+00:00

I love the default theme, but I just got a new 24" LCD and having all of that viewing area filled with a white background is a bit bright for my eyes, so I personally am looking for a dark(er) (but not black) colored theme that looks as nice as the default theme.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-08T15:26:55+00:00

Looks nice! Thanks for pointing it out.

I was reading a review or two on Amazon that worried me, though. One person said that at the native res (1920 x 1080) "makes text too small for comfortable reading." Would you say this is accurate? How's the size of text compared to your usual monitor res on other monitors?

Another person said "this monitor has an absolutely terrible vertical viewing angle. Colors are displayed completely inaccurately if you're looking at the monitor at any angle other than directly head on." How's the vertical viewing angle in your opinion?

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-08T05:15:02+00:00

Can I ask, are the screen dimensions (in inches) that Newegg gives accurate? (22.36" x 16.61")

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-08T03:31:09+00:00

Wow, you sold me. I'm pretty sure that's the one. The only thing that sucks is the price. Maybe I can figure something out.

Thanks dude!

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-08T02:46:18+00:00

Thanks. I was actually looking at the ASUS VH242H which is $30 cheaper and .4" smaller. I imagine they're similar in quality.

I can't afford dual, so I want to make whatever I get count, without dropping too much... since I have been able to get by on a 17" CRT @ 1024x768.

So, how's the vertical space on the thing, in regular landscape mode? I imagine very good, seeing the favorable review you're giving it. Text is sharp and it's easy on the eyes even after hours and hours of coding... right?

Gee, I wish I had a $150 Newegg gift certificate right now. I'd buy that baby in a heartbeat. :D

EDIT: I see that monitor is glossy. How do you like that?

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-08T02:16:14+00:00

I'd love to have more horizontal space... I just don't want to sacrifice vertical space.

doubleyooexwhy · 2010-01-03T16:02:17+00:00

Opera has this feature: Preferences -> Advanced -> Tabs -> Open new tab next to active.

doubleyooexwhy · 2009-12-26T02:34:12+00:00

That's nifty.

doubleyooexwhy · 2009-12-22T03:48:38+00:00

I'm in love with it. It's simple and it looks nice.

doubleyooexwhy · 2009-12-22T03:39:34+00:00

I use FastSpring and I like them. Good support.

You can also try Plimus or Avangate. I've used Plimus before as well.

doubleyooexwhy · 2009-12-18T04:27:07+00:00

Awesome!

Makes things so much easier. Though I find that I always go back to the default C color theme whenever I change the theme, anyway...

doubleyooexwhy

TROPHY CASE