Opera Is Moving to WebKit

Browser maker Opera is joining the ranks of Google and Apple and embracing the WebKit rendering engine.
The company made the announcement in conjunction with news that Opera now reaches 300 million monthly users across its various browser products.
Web browsers rely on rendering engines to translate code into the visual text and display you see on your desktop, tablet or phone. Mozilla uses the Gecko rendering engine for Firefox, Microsoft uses Trident for Internet Explorer and Google and Apple use WebKit for Chrome and Safari. Historically, Opera has relied on its own Presto rendering engine for its browsers.
That's all going to change.
The company says it will move to WebKit slowly, first with its Opera Mobile browser and then, over time to its other products, including Opera for the desktop.
Opera will be showing off its first WebKit-based efforts at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month with a preview of its next Android web browser.

Why Change?

In a blog entry that expanded on the rationale behind the rendering engine change, "Haavard" from Opera expressed his feelings this way:

Yes, monoculture is bad, but Opera was never really in a position to prevent it in the first place. Even with Opera as the dominant mobile browser and more than 300 million active Opera users in total across all platforms, web developers still designed just for WebKit.
If switching to WebKit allows us to accelerate our growth and become an important contributor to the project (we will contribute back to WebKit, and have already submitted our first patch (bug)), we may finally have a direct impact on the way web sites are coded. We want sites to be coded for open standards rather than specific browsers.
At the very least, there will be more competition in the browser space, and competition is always good news.

The reality is that WebKit is already the de facto rendering engine for mobile, thanks to its support by Apple (who leads the WebKit project) and Google. BlackBerry also uses WebKit for its browsers both for BlackBerry 10 and the older BlackBerry OS.
I've written about the problems that can happen on other platforms — such as Windows Phone 8 — when mobile developers target WebKit and only WebKit.
When a website doesn't render correctly on a device, the user's first instinct isn't to blame the person that coded the website, it's to blame the person who made the web browser. To that end, Opera will now have an easier time encouraging users to adopt its platform and will have to do less work to ensure compatibility with other rendering engines.

Is This a Good Thing?

While Opera's decision to move to WebKit makes sense from a business and user perspective, what does this say about the future of the web and web standards in general?
After all, we've seen what can happen when developers and designers become too complacent and focused on one platform at the risk of all others: The world gets stuck with IE 6.
I'm certainly not conflating the situation that was prolonged IE 6 penetration with WebKit's dominance in the browser space; but it is a good reminder that focusing too much on one platform can be risky.
We'll be discussing the larger issues surrounding this switch in a future post.
What do you think of Opera's decision to switch to WebKit? Let us know in the comments.

Birds Tweet too?

Yesterday when my six-year-old son asked me the spelling of ‘tweet’, I told him to check an online dictionary. What he began to read shocked me. It said, “A message put on Twitter by people”. Don’t believe me? Check for yourself on Cambridge Dictionary website. This got me thinking, what our vocabulary has come to? How regressive am I?


Just a few years ago (or they seem to me) word ‘virus’ made me think about flu. I was still learning about viruses and antivirus (I already knew there was none for flu) when came bugs, worms, Trojans and bots. I realized the problem has not only transformed into something big but somehow managed to change its genus too.


Just before the spread of digitalism, mention of memory was made onlywhen you were over 50 and began losing it. When asked about status, it meant your marital one, or could take away the colour from your face if you were an immigrant and thought you were being asked about residency status. These days, it means what you say on your Facebook page. If you change it as soon as you have a fight with your spouse, you should start looking for marriage counselor already. Display used to be what shop owners put in front of their shops. Apparently now it is why your teenager wants a new iPad.


I cannot say anything against abbreviations used in text messages these days. After all, it gives me all the mental exercise I need. I memorized LOL, OMG, ILU, BRB, early on but for some chat lingo like TGIF, I still have to ponder.


Don’t get me wrong, I am all for technology. I let my kindergartner son use my laptop after all. I asked him to search for the meaning of an easy word on Internet. I could tell him myself but I wanted to introduce him to technology and the funny thing is he was able to do it easily.


So keep on texting, googling, skyping, tweeting, facebooking or WDIK (what do I know), but once in a while turn off all your toys and try listening to birds because they tweet too.

5 simple things you can do to make WordPress more secure

There are over 72,400,000 websites using WordPress Yoast information chart released earlier this year. Not only that, it is also a popular choice for some of the popular blog on the Internet: 48% site Technorati running WordPress blog list.
This level of popularity, it is not surprising that WordPress can become a target for hackers. Minimize the risk of being attacked in order to help your website, there are a few simple WordPress security tips, in just a few minutes, you can help protect your site implementation.
1. Get some help, a safety plug
There are some good security plug-in can give you a lend a helping hand to ensure that your WordPress blog. A free tool, called solid security. It is not fully automatic, no manual configuration. It will protect your fragile several files, including wp-config.php file, install.php, readme.html file. htaccess to name a few. It will also protect your site automatically Base64 encoded (usually using malicious theme), code injection and other types of hacker attacks.
Another useful plug-in installed to limit login attempts, it allows you to set a limit to the number of login attempts possible.
2. Delete administrator user
The default WordPress users to create a file called "management" and have the opportunity, you use it to access your WordPress dashboard, or you will never be removed.
Create a user name and password that is difficult to guess the user menu and assigned to its administrator privileges, you can make your site more secure. Then, log on to the dashboard, the user name, and delete the admin user to return to the "user" menu. Note: Make sure that the option you choose "Properties of all articles and links to the newly created user or all due to management positions will also be deleted!
3. Keep everything
Please ensure that you regularly check for updates for your WordPress plugins and themes. Timely install any updates as they become available
There are many points into your WordPress blog, including your computer, mobile devices and Web host. Please make sure your computer operating system installed, updated anti-virus software and other security applications. Also make sure that where you store your Worpdress installation is safe, choose a reliable host and use a strong password to access the dashboard or cPanel and FTP host.
Keep everything also means uninstall or delete any theme or plug-in that you no longer use. Many topics such as last year's timthumb script using vulnerability has been discovered, so many attacks on the WordPress website. What makes this script is particularly dangerous, you do not need to have a theme active hackers can use it, if you have unused theme in your directory contains the script, your site is vulnerable. Therefore, if you do not use a theme or plugin - it completely get rid of, do not just turn it off.
4. Be careful you download themes and plugins
Not every theme or plug-in is safe. Some sites that offer free WordPress themes, but contain hidden links or other vulnerabilities. If you do not know if a theme or plugin source is safe, you can safely be downloaded from the the WordPress.org theme and plugin.
5. Get Your secret key
Protect your site join unique key installed WordPress. You can make your unique key position: https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt. The site will generate a key, to see something like that you can paste into your wp-config.php file.
Define ("AUTH_KEY ',' JYG5M2_FLP: xjysA [xhEgU |) 3M_mK (SlsM definition (the" SECURE_AUTH_KEY ',' r6XBbh} M) TOQ / 4E! (Wsq4 | Z. - 2E-C1bpM8mXDRTLz? PEM, Z> _5Ixpr { PN `Q] NE ');The definition (LOGGED_IN_KEY, ^ _ (through X / N (B <=: eOr4/0Q-/hJq47U | CJT} = J ');Of definition ("NONCE_KEY ',' rTUbp` E * / aPWdc ^! CSWUggG | AZOW9bS, C + TFU-phpp in + J] TQS ^ glzv XK-R $ ');Defined (AUTH_SALT ',' YU ^% _AT_ IB QpR6 = {orvRJ? Y] HP-S}) DuHKW = B `JF ~~ H <the definition (SECURE_AUTH_SALT ','> HT PV6} tWeSRjw 6 defined (" LOGGED_IN_SALT "," 9ZSi8b 317eX6 me?) 68 weapon ^ S ^ Wwmvn7 + GSHS! BM: ');Defined ("NONCE_SALT", "(H-$ YGA2, | L. YlU: X * {WV_ x1CJoAf1 / ^ 9? BZ | 85xp + u.2p ~ the VC 8VMbF-Q ~ 5d3p '>');
There are many other things that can be done to ensure WordPress, some of which are more advanced that requires some technical know-how, but these simple safety tips to help you protect your site a long way to go.