John Hesch

Opera Eliminates Ad Banner and Licensing Fee

Opera Software today permanently removed the ad banner and licensing fee from its award-winning Web browser. The ad-free, full-featured Opera browser is now available for download - completely free of charge – at http://www.opera.com.

“Today we invite the entire Internet community to use Opera and experience Web browsing as it should be,” said Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “Removing the ad banner and licensing fee will encourage many new users to discover the speed, security and unmatched usability of the Opera browser.”

Here’s a good article for all my readers who are Lost fans.

It was pretty exciting to see Lost win an Emmy for best drama series last night! JJ Abrams also won an Emmy.

Search blogs? Use Google Blog Search.

Every pilot needs a co-pilot, and let me tell you, it is awful nice to have someone sitting there beside you, especially when you hit some bumpy air.

Eric Wald

I’m getting ready to launch my newest project. Since selling Blogging Pro I have been searching for a replacement blog project. One of the problems with Blogging Pro was it required several posts a day to keep up with all of the new releases. My schedule doesn’t permit me to spend that much time on one single blog.

Trying to find a new blog topic was difficult. I soft launched a web hosting blog and another blog about celebrity blogs but neither of those excited me enough to commit myself. One thing I have found is that if you’re going to blog for an extended period of time, you need to talk about something you’re passionate about.

I have always been a geek when it comes to finding and installing cool software. I’m usually right on top of any new technology that is software related. For example, WordPress, iTunes, Skype, Firefox, Thunderbird, RSS, GreaseMonkey, etc. I have more Extensions installed in my copy of Firefox and more Plugins installed in my copies of WordPress than I care to admit to.

So my new blogging project is going to be about sharing cool software for the beginner to intermediate Internet user. I’ll include a short review, download links, installation and usage tips.

I have purchased two domains and haven’t decided which one to use yet. I’d love to hear your feedback. I have appscene.com and warecrazy.com. I hope to have something online within a week or two.

For the really daring Thunderbird 1.5 Beta 1 was released today.

Cool stuff:

• Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Thunderbird may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
• Spell check as you type.
• Built in phishing detector to help protect users against email scams.
• Podcasting and other RSS Improvements.
• Deleting attachments from messages.
• Integration with server side spam filtering.
• Reply and forward actions for message filters.
• Kerberos Authentication.
• Auto save as draft for mail composition.
• Improvements to product usability including redesigned options UI, and SMTP server management.
• Many security enhancements

There has been a security hole identified in Firefox and all users should install the patch .

For the daring, Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 is available for download.

The new Firefox features improved popup blocking, drag-and-drop tab shuffling, SVG support, improved Mac OS X support, more prominent update notifications, a feature that will delete private data with a keyboard shortcut, a “Report a broken Web site wizard,” faster Back/Forward action, and more. Also included are lots of bugfixes and security updates.

Thanks Download Squad.

Apple released iTunes 5 for both MAC and Windows today. Some of the new features are:

• New Look: A streamlined design and new features make iTunes even easier to use.
• Search Bar: Find stuff fast and refine your search with the handy new Search Bar.
• Parental Controls: Limit kids’ access in iTunes.
• Playlist Folders: Organize all your playlists into folders.
• Smart Shuffle: Adjust random playback to hear what you want.
• Sync from Outlook: Sync Outlook and Outlook Express contacts & calendars to iPod.

One of my favorite TV shows from last season was Lost. A group of people are stranded on a tropical island after their plane crashes 1,000 miles off course. Season 1 teased viewers with the possibility that these people are not alone on the island and that there is something extraordinarily wrong with the island.

One of the hints given about the hatch is

What’s in the Hatch? Hint: In a way, it’s something you’ve never seen before. But in a way, it’s something you see every day and are probably seeing right now. Okay, another hint: It begins and ends with the same letter.

Some say it’s a window or an eye. A window makes sense as the hint was given online and to be online you would need to be looking through a window (monitor). An eye also makes sense as Locke told Jack that he had looked into the eye of the island, and it was beautiful.

Season 1 releases on DVD Sep 06, 2005. Season 2 begins Wednesday, September 21st at 8:00 PM MDT, and I heard a rumor that one of the main cast members will either not be returning or be killed early in the season due to wage disputes. We’ll see.

This month is KZION’s 5 year anniversary broadcasting LDS music on the Internet. In many ways it seems like KZION has been apart of my life forever. I don’t know what I did with my time prior to starting KZION.

I was hoping to be able to announce this month that KZION was being acquired by another company and I would be going to work full time running KZION. This was supposed to of happened last month but there have been some delays. It still looks like it will be happening, but most likely not this month.

Some of the fun activities I’m working on for September to celebrate KZION’s birthday are:

• I have a boat load of CD’s to give away and so I’m working on creating some fun contests.
• I’m opening up the automated request system to all subscribers every Friday this month.
• I’ll be running 2-for-1 specials on paid subscriptions to KZION all month.
• I’m trying to come up with some other ideas and will announce later.

Thank you to all the artists who provide the great music and to all the listeners who support KZION and enable me to continue broadcasting.