Donna Fraser | Web Developer » Web Development

Opera Web Browser 10.53

Donna Fraser — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:16:46 +0000

Opera’s voice text-to-speech not working? The latest release of their web browser will not install voice support or fails to save the 10.5MB downloaded voice libraries. Well it appears that the enable voice-controlled browsing capability is no longer working. So if you require the voice function then you will have to resort to stepping back to it’s earlier predecessor Opera Version: 10.10 which works just fine.

The voice support is a plug-in that is provided by IBM voice libraries earlier versions can be viewed by typing “opera:about” in the address bar. IBM have apparently decided to drop support for this plug-in, which means these libraries have now been discontinued.

I doubt recent versions of Opera will include this unless it becomes something most users request. However I have found the Text-to-Speech functionality incredibly useful when browsing the web so please bring this function back.

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1 Security Update

Donna Fraser — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:00:59 +0000

Mozilla Corporation’s famous web browser Firefox has just recently released their first security update for Firefox 3. Bringing the browser up too version 3.0.1 as the newest and most stable release, fixing some security flaws and bugs.

Users would be highly encouraged updating too the latest security release for safe and happy browsing. Upgrade your Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1, which is now available for download free from the official Mozilla website.

Google’s Instant Calculator: Top Tip

Donna Fraser — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 09:33:32 +0000

Here is an interesting and useful find it’s a hidden feature in Google’s search engine the Instant Calculator. Need to sum some quick arithmetic or even work out more complex formulas, numeric expressions or unit conversions. Instead of the need to launch a separate calculator, why not use this nifty feature.

If you happen to use Firefox 2.0 you can enter the mathematical formula you’d like done into the Google Search Box and you’ll get the result quicker than you can hit an equal sign. Use the keyboard shortcut ‘Ctrl + K‘ to get there in an instant.
This is a really great tip if I do say so myself and Google may possibly market this as the pocket calculator of the future.