Yeah, I use it since the Phoenix Alpha’s but the main reason is…
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November 8th, 2011
Why I use Opera as my main browser
{browser}November 8th, 2011
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July 1st, 2011
The beauty of WebGL
{webGL}July 1st, 2011
We have seen some demo’s with fishtanks and aquariums, but I found a much more elegant showcase here. It stresses the beauty of infinity and brings focus to the relationship between simplicity and complexity, often found in nature.
An intriguing animated M.S. Escher drawing.
You can see the working example here:
http://wakaba.c3.cx/w/escher_droste.html
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June 14th, 2011
Browser performance and CPU load
{Javascript}June 14th, 2011
Chromium is using 2 cores and Opera isn’t running full speed on Sunspider JS benchmark. That is the outcome of a simple test running TOP while taking the sunspider benchmark on a quadcore (AMD 630) Ubuntu 64 machine with the three main browsers: Chromium, Firefox and Opera. Opera 11.11 is surprisingly never using more then 80% CPU while Firefox 4 is using 100% and Chromium 12 150%. A quadcore can take 400%, when all 4 CPU cycles are fully utilized. Opera is the slowest performer on the benchmark, no surprise and Firefox is somehow disabling graphical output: nearly no load on X-server, and no visual graphical output, while Opera and in a lesser extent Chromium show a lot of flickering and flashing. Opera is also putting a bigger load on Compiz, the compositing window manager for Linux, AKA 3d eye candy. But Opera, as said before, is also giving more visual feedback about downloading files and stuff with an animated icon in the addressbar.
Sunspider benchmark results
Firefox 4: Total: 355.6ms +/- 2.6% Chromium 12: Total: 348.2ms +/- 4.9% Opera 11.11: Total: 413.2ms +/- 3.3%
TOP results
Firefox 4 Tasks: 277 total, 2 running, 273 sleeping, 1 stopped, 1 zombie Cpu(s): 27.1%us, 3.5%sy, 0.0%ni, 69.0%id, 0.3%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 5093632k total, 5016508k used, 77124k free, 220824k buffers Swap: 9055228k total, 0k used, 9055228k free, 2074600k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 7063 user 20 0 923m 325m 41m R 101 6.5 2:46.61 firefox-bin 2193 root 20 0 235m 131m 32m S 12 2.6 12:11.16 Xorg 3119 user 20 0 374m 62m 20m S 8 1.3 5:13.44 compiz Chromium 12 Tasks: 280 total, 3 running, 273 sleeping, 3 stopped, 1 zombie Cpu(s): 44.0%us, 9.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 46.3%id, 0.8%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 5093632k total, 4856072k used, 237560k free, 217760k buffers Swap: 9055228k total, 0k used, 9055228k free, 2011968k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 7317 user 20 0 880m 81m 26m R 102 1.6 1:20.46 chromium-browse 2193 root 20 0 243m 138m 40m S 44 2.8 13:07.53 Xorg 7295 user 20 0 519m 51m 31m R 41 1.0 0:37.04 chromium-browse 3119 user 20 0 374m 62m 20m S 11 1.3 5:33.46 compiz Opera 11.11 Tasks: 280 total, 4 running, 272 sleeping, 3 stopped, 1 zombie Cpu(s): 23.3%us, 11.3%sy, 0.0%ni, 64.1%id, 1.2%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.2%si, 0.0%st Mem: 5093632k total, 4849588k used, 244044k free, 217972k buffers Swap: 9055228k total, 0k used, 9055228k free, 2004908k cached PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 6051 user 20 0 863m 428m 29m S 81 8.6 13:51.12 opera 2193 root 20 0 236m 131m 32m R 47 2.6 13:22.27 Xorg 3119 user 20 0 374m 62m 20m R 18 1.3 5:38.20 compiz
Conclusion
Seems that Opera isn’t going full throttle on benchmarks. I wonder why that is. Chromium is the only browser that is using multiple cores, but it isn’t actually much faster than Firefox. Another interesting thing is that Chromium feels the snappier browser but actually is stressing your PC more.
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June 1st, 2011
Creating spinners with CSS transitions/transform and a bit of JS
{css}June 1st, 2011
CSS3 can deliver animations without the help of javascript libraries. Less code, less server requests, so faster loading of your website.
Furthermore CSS will be hardware accelerated by the browser when possible. Not now, but in the near future. So it’s preferable to use CSS instead of javascript. Goodbye to jQuery UI?
We will see, since mobile web is really emerging we’re in the need of a better content/pagesize ratio. Less markup, less JS, less server request, and faster loading.
So a little example here. Compare it to the javascript driven various spinners out there on the internet.
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May 18th, 2011
How to create shortcuts for moving windows in Ubuntu (Unity)
{ubuntu linux}May 18th, 2011
Ubuntu Unity is a smart attempt to bring innovation to the the desktop and program handling of Linux users. Actually Linux is far more user-friendly the people think, it has repositories since the last century, and if you don’t know what repository is. It’s an app-store. Yes, Linux invented the app store, this means you just have to search and click to install a trusted and tested program.
Why doesn’t anybody knows this? Because it’s free software, so it lacks advertisements budget, so it won’t make it into the newspapers, because newspapers nowadays are filled with advertisements on one side and press-releases and sensational breaking news on the opposite side. And if they write about innovation it’s about lifestyle and things you can buy.
Another strong and catching feature is the Compiz, a window manager that brings 3D and hardware acceleration to your desktop. Scaling, fading, sliding of programs adds to the fun of daily work on your computer and it works amazingly fast and smooth. Off-course you need a graphics card, but most will do, like integrated Intel.
Unity doesn’t bring all the shortcuts you want, so how do you move program windows from one monitor to another, in a two monitor big desktop setup. Just install wmctrl, you will find it in the Linux appstore. In short;
- Install wmctrl
sudo apt-get install <em>wmctrl</em>
- Open CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM),
ccsm
- or install it if you don’t have it:
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
- Add this in the command settings
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,1920,-1,-1,-1
and
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,0,-1,-1,-1
- Add shortcuts to this commands in the next `key-binding`tab,
CTRL SUPER RIGHT
CTRL SUPER LEFT
Now you can switch any program that has focus between monitors with your keyboard. Change 1920, if your left monitors doesn’ have that resolution and offcours you need a huge desktop setup with two monitors left and right. And the best, you don’t need Unitu for this it works in all Ubuntu versions with compiz, and even without compiz, you can set the commands with metacity.