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Opera Next 15 Released!

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After a busy Winter here in the Desktop department at Opera we are finally ready to lift the covers of the latest preview of the next generation of our Web browsers. Today we are releasing Opera Next 15 for Windows and Mac. For all the latest information on the features head on over to the product information page. If you just can't wait grab the builds from the links below.

Opera Next for Windows
Opera Next for Mac


One of the changes in this release is moving Opera's internal email client M2, into it's own separate product. It's almost ready, so today we want to introduce to you, the first release candidate of Opera Mail. If you have been using M2 please download it and send us your feedback.

Opera Mail for Windows
Opera Mail for Mac


Enjoy! :beer: ...
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itsmoirob
4152 days ago
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Robin Hood shire.
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Interstellar Memes

9 Comments and 18 Shares
The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance.
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itsmoirob
4165 days ago
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Amazing XKCD this morning. What songs/catchphrases different stars (in space) are hearing
Robin Hood shire.
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8 public comments
marcrichter
4164 days ago
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More goodness. #xkcd
tbd
rgsunico
4165 days ago
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Excellent.
gienahghurab
4165 days ago
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I think it's awesome that Gienah's quoting Bugs Bunny: =:)
taddevries
4165 days ago
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Truly you have a dizzying intellect.
adamgurri
4165 days ago
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MY SPOON IS TOO BIG
New York, NY
Door
4165 days ago
Mah SPOON is TOO BIG
jmosthaf
4165 days ago
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So cool :)
Heidelberg, Germany
Tlaloc
4165 days ago
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Mal eine etwas andere Sternenkarte.

Birds and Dinosaurs

17 Comments and 40 Shares
Sure, T. rex is closer in height to Stegosaurus than a sparrow. But that doesn't tell you much; 'Dinosaur Comics' author Ryan North is closer in height to certain dinosaurs than to the average human.
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itsmoirob
4167 days ago
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Just an awesome thought. I like tiny ideas like this
Robin Hood shire.
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15 public comments
marcrichter
4164 days ago
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This is a good world. Indeed. :)
tbd
PaulPritchard
4166 days ago
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Who needs Jurassic Park?
Belgium
sheppy
4167 days ago
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Birds: killer dinosaurs roaming the earth to this very day!
Maryville, Tennessee, USA
Brstrk
4167 days ago
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Awesome, but I still like my dinosaurs scary, huge and non-feathery. Brontossaurus: I want to believe.
regang
4167 days ago
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shared
mrobold
4167 days ago
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I really like eating fried dinosaur.
Orange County, California
bodly
4167 days ago
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I need to go clean the dinosaur poop off my car.
Austin, TX
leilers
4167 days ago
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Oh XKCD, I love you.
Northern Virginia
joeythesaint
4167 days ago
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I wish I could keep all the dinosaurs off my lawn while the seed germinates.
Ottawa, Ontario
satadru
4167 days ago
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Whatever Randall. It'll be a good world when I have my own pygmy elephant friends...
New York, NY
Michdevilish
4167 days ago
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There's nothing quite like the cheery chirping of the dinosaurs early in the morning...
Canada
Brentwahn
4167 days ago
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I <3 science.
Sydney, Australia
stavrosg
4167 days ago
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Yep.
Rodos, Greece

Building a Human

1 Comment and 2 Shares

Here’s the new short I made with the genius that is Peter Serafinowicz. We premiered it last week at the fantastic Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland.

All hail our fantastic leader, Arpoovian Shebber-Shenty!

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itsmoirob
4180 days ago
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Robin Hood shire.
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1 public comment
dc3
4181 days ago
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Good stuff
Carlsbad, CA

Supersonic Stereo

12 Comments and 29 Shares

Supersonic Stereo

What if you somehow managed to make a stereo travel at twice the speed of sound, would it sound backwards to someone who was just casually sitting somewhere as it flies by?

—Tim Currie

Yes.

Technically, anyway. It would be pretty hard to hear.

The basic idea is pretty straightforward. The stereo is going faster than its own sound, so it will reach you first, followed by the sound it emitted one second ago, followed by the sound it emitted two seconds ago, and so forth.

The problem is that the stereo is moving at Mach 2, which means that two seconds ago, it was over a kilometer away. It’s hard to hear music from that distance, particularly when your ears were just hit by (a) a sonic boom, and (b) pieces of a rapidly disintegrating stereo.

Wind speeds of Mach 2 would messily disassemble most consumer electronics. The force of the wind on the body of the stereo is roughly comparable to that of a dozen people standing on it:

An ordinary stereo wouldn’t make it, but one with some kind of ruggedized high-strength casing might be able to survive.

If we put together a durable, heavy-duty stereo and launch it on a ballistic trajectory, it will only be traveling at supersonic speeds for its the first 150 meters or so. This means that the target will hear a maximum of about a third of a second of reversed music.

This reversed-sound phenomenon is actually confirmed in the 2008 paper Reproduction of Virtual Sound Sources Moving at Supersonic Speeds in Wave Field Synthesis, which says that the sound wave field “contains a component carrying a time-reversed version of the source’s input signal”.

The sonic boom would be the first thing the target would hear. It would be followed by several sounds played over one another, including both reversed music (rising slightly in pitch as it fades out) and forward-playing music (which would play at half speed and an octave too low), followed by the crash of a stereo demolishing your neighbor’s shed.

Which means that if you’re playing one of those albums containing secret demonic messages, the result will be the strangest listening experience of your life:

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itsmoirob
4222 days ago
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A better What If from XKCD
Robin Hood shire.
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11 public comments
mrmkenyon
4222 days ago
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She deafened me with Science!
tedder
4222 days ago
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going to be hard to explain this to the insurance company when you blow up the neighborhood.
Uranus
Dugstar2020
4222 days ago
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Science yo!
argentbeauquest
4222 days ago
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Interesting... #sound
rclatterbuck
4222 days ago
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.
Brstrk
4222 days ago
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Delicious science!
NielsRak
4222 days ago
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It’s hard to hear music from that distance, particularly when your ears were just hit by (a) a sonic boom, and (b) pieces of a rapidly disintegrating stereo.
taylorlapeyre
4222 days ago
Funniest and most interesting blog on the internet.
sheppy
4222 days ago
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This sounds like a worthwhile experiment. No pun intended.
Maryville, Tennessee, USA
stsquad
4222 days ago
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True fact ;-)
Cambridge, UK
mrmkenyon
4222 days ago
The best kind of fact!
weelillad
4222 days ago
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Cool. I won't mind observing this once in my life.
Singapore