Opera CEO Prepares to Swim across the Atlantic

rRogta writes "Previously reported on slashdot here, Opera CEO boldly promises to swim across the Atlantic should the new Opera browser be downloaded a million times in the first four days after it's release. Well, they reached their goal and in this press release it says he's now preparing for the long swim."

What about sales?

[colmore]

Given Opera's business model, shouldn't he have tied this stunt to sales rather than downloads?

Two Words of Advice

[Deinhard]

Life Jacket

Seems fishy to me

[penguinoid]

This seems incredibly fishy, as if it were a marketing ploy. At any rate, von Tetzchner will be smelling fishy very, very soon!

Re:What about sales?

[Anonymous Coward]

Given Opera's business model, shouldn't he have tied this stunt to sales rather than downloads?

Yes, he should have offered to have the sales director forced to swim across the Atlantic, rather than himself.

Hats off

[janek78]

Wow, you got to admire that man. I suppose he's not going to do it in one run, the journey seems quite long. Very nice map, though. :)

I guess he could also get a Krusty burger at one of those abandoned shore oil platforms :)

At the same time, at Microsoft HQ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer both agreed to cross the United States territory up to Washington D.C. by crawling like two salamanders should the number of bugs in the soon-to-be released version 7 of the (in)famous Internet Explorer reaches 2000 in the first 2 hours of its release.

From the "Mysterious Future"

[eno2001]

eno2001 submits: "News Lark Republic is reporting today that Opera CEO has successfully completed his swim across the Atlantic promise by contsantly doing laps in a Princess Lines cruise ship swimming pool as it travelled across the Atlantic. When asked if this was a compromise of his promise, the CEO said, 'I really don't see the point in this line of questioning. I did what I said I woud do. I swam continuously while crossing the Atlantic'."

Man am I thirsty!

Good for him...

[Pyroskankic]

Well, now that this mission has been accomplished... *Switches back to Firefox when no one is looking*

Is this really frontpage stuff for /.?

[GunR]

Can you say publicity stunt?
I wonder how many more downloads /. will give them before calling it quits.

Now, if MS would do the same, at least we could hope for sharks...

In other news

[GroeFaZ]

Bill Gates and Steve Balmer promised to swim across their bath tubs, should 1 million bugs be found in IE7 within 4 days after release.

Re:Two Words of Advice

[Anonymous Coward]

Two more words: No Way.

And two final words: Luxury Cruise.

Re:Isn't this lots and lots of miles?

[mav[LAG]]

Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

Murderers

[darkmayo]

You cold hearted bastards have just sent this man to his death.. hope your happy.

A Bet for all of you...

[waldoiverson]

if the ISS lands on him as he swims, I will give you all a Taco Bell taco.

Re:How the heck?

[Freexe]

http://people.opera.com/nicolasm/opera_ch05.svgz [opera.com] and the url...

Re:how he'll pull this off

[dfn5]

charter an aircraft big enough to put a large water tank inside, and swim in the tank while the aircraft is flying to Iceland and thence to North America.

I would hardly consider a hot tub with 3 hot flight attendents "swimming". But maybe that's how he got the idea past the wife.

Re:Tragedy in the making

[LWATCDR]

"I wouldn't want to be him. At least unless I was swimming in a pool aboard a luxury liner."

Maybe a hot tub?
All kidding aside I have to wonder how much money they make on there add supported software.

Re:Isn't this lots and lots of miles?

[mav[LAG]]

Wait till I get going!

Re:What about sales?

[Anonymous Coward]

Given Opera's business model, shouldn't he have tied an anvil to his waist?

Headline should read

[Microsift]

"Browser company seeks new CEO"

Re:Two (other) Words of Advice

[mobiGeek]

Don't doit.

( or maybe "dont doit" for those nerds who will attempt to point out that don't is not a single word... )

Re:Ummm...

[BaudKarma]

You're underestimating the power of postitive thought! All those million people who downloaded Opera are behind this effor 1000 per cent! In fact, I'm downloading Opera again, just to show my support! I predict he'll make the swim in record time, just due to the power of positive thought!!!

Re:Tragedy in the making

[mickyflynn]

Beowulf swam the North Sea!! In chainmail! fighting sea monsters with a sword!

this can't be all that more difficult

Re:From the "Mysterious Future"

[digidave]

Actually, it's doubtful he could continue doing laps all the way unless he was really dedicated and trained hard for several months. I suspect he will float in a chair the whole way while some bikini-clad waitress brings him bottles of beer and lathers sun screen on his body.

At least that's how I would do it.

Nice...

[WidescreenFreak]

The Princess Bride quotes with a Monty Python sig. That's the kind of humor that I needed on a dreary, Monday morning. :)

But you would have known that I would have responded to your post, so I clearly cannot mod the comment in front of me.

Going on public record...

[BMonger]

In the case of "Opera Downloaders being charged for the murder of Opera's CEO" I would just like to state on record that I did not download Opera.

Re:Isn't this lots and lots of miles?

[Dr. Evil]

Not at all.

Those stories about explorers dying while crossing the Atlantic are all ploys to keep real-estate values high in Conneticut. If people found out that they could commute to Manhattan faster from France than from New Jersey, the friends of countless politicians would lose their shirts in the market collapse.

Re:How the heck?

[Trix606]

It is simple, just use a yacht with a built-in swimming pool. Swim laps all the way from Norway to the U.S.

Re:What about sales?

[lahvak]

I think you missed part of the press release. It said:

If we reach one million downloads, I will swim across the Atlantic. If we do NOT reach one million sales, the sales director will swim across the Atlantic.

Easy to explain--bad google seach results

[FerretFrottage]

While testing the Opera browser he was searching google for the term "swimming across atlantic ocean" and hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

Re:Nice...

[Anonymous Coward]

What the hell is with these moderators who use shit like "Overrated"? The parent post was funny. Get over it. Looks like Slashdot needs to have a requirement of its moderators to have a fucking sense of humor before granting moderator status.

In related news...

[Kippesoep]

Opera is looking to hire a new Chief Executive Officer as they seem to suspect being without one soon.

Re:Ummm...

[ad0gg]

I'm guessing its some sort of boat-based shark repellent.

2. Where can I get one?

Don't even bother. It doesn't stop laser beams. Worthless.

Re:Tragedy in the making

[double-oh three]

moderation: -0.5, took story entirely too seriously

Re:Isn't this lots and lots of miles?

[mekkab]

so many ways to respond, a myriad of responses!

Continue the ad hominem attacks?

Educate you that its an homage to "Monty Python's Flying Circus"?

Make a velied reference to Monty Python's Flying Circus?

Make an allusion to another fav british show "Red Dwarf" by telling you to Smeg off?

Or some dissmissive missive that indicates you should simply give up because your ad hominem attack belies your own ignorance; a faux pas that diminishes your own standing in The Group by casting aspersions regarding the size of your manhood?

This is too much for a Monday morning; my head asplode!*

*-Ah, the old classic; escape via Homestarrunner reference!

Not a dupe!!

[kajoob]

This isn't a dupe [slashdot.org] . The first article was about swimming across, this article is about swimming back.

Re:Two (other) Words of Advice

[Deinhard]

I don't understand this post. A "doit" is a small Dutch coin (about a half farthing).

Is this a reference to trying to make money off the publicity?

If he doesn't do it...

[BinBoy]

...everyone should upload the browser back to the web site.

Bitter Ex-Wife

[spineboy]

A little known fact is that his bitter ex-wife was personally responsible for downloading over 300,000 copies of the program, stating " I hope he frezzes his nubbins off!"

Re:Why cant some other CEOs try it

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

I'd rather see the Director for IE development swim to the bottom of the atlantic.

Re:Murderers

[bluGill]

Hey, don't blame me, I use konqueror.

My Resume

[eander315]

Dear Opera,

After viewing the pictures [opera.com] on your website, I would like to apply for the newly opened positions of CEO and PR Manager at your company. I feel I have the necessary qualifications, such as "not-drowned" and "not-reported-lost-in-the-northern-Atlantic".

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Re:Nice...

[mav[LAG]]

You're just stalling now...

Re:Tragedy in the making

[AntiGenX]

Beowulf swam the North Sea!! In chainmail! fighting sea monsters with a sword!

After swimming in that cold water, I would hate to see the size of his cluster.

Re:Nice...

[WidescreenFreak]

You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?!

Re:HOLY CRAP

[CoffeeJedi]

given the parent of this thread, shouldn't that read:
"HOLY CARP"

Re:not sure about that

[snorklewacker]

most spas are 100+ degrees. i think you got mixed up between centigrade and fahrenheit... water boils at 212F/i

Even so -- I regularly stick my hand into a 450 degree oven when things need moving around in there. It ain't comfy, but I can take 20 seconds of it. I'll assume for the sake of argument that the outside air has cooled things down to a balmy 350 degrees (it hasnt, but my point will still be made)

Now stick your hand into water boiling at a "mere" 212 degrees for just 10 seconds. You've just learned a painful lesson about heat transfer.

Re:60 degrees can kill you pretty quickly

[CatMan79]

You forgot:

80-95 | Indefinitely | Indefinitely
95-105 | 2-7 Hours | 2-10 Hours
...
400-410 | 5-10 sec. | 30 to 60 sec.
etc.

Re:How He'll Do It

[greenhide]

Sorry. I'm an ignorant fool. I just assumed that *all* that mod_deflate did was decompress a file prior to serving it. In which case, it wouldn't save bandwidth, would it?

I see now that I got it bass-ackwards. Looks like mod_deflate *compresses* files then sends them on through. And "BrowserMatch" means that for browsers not happy with the compressed file, they can get it uncompressed.

So, actually mod_deflate is exactly what you want: keeps it whole on the server, compresses it for transfer, then sends it on.

So my earlier comment is bunk.

Re:What about sales?

[middlemen]

Who is sponsoring it? Coke or Pepsi or Marlboro ? Diet Coke(or Pepsi) ad: Swim across the Atlantic with 1 calorie of Diet Coke (or Pepsi)... Marlboro: Cigarette smoke can be used to call for help.

Re:Two Words of Advice

[Durindana]

Yes, IIADS (I Am A Distance Swimmer).

No, YAABA (You Are A Bad Acronymizer)

Re:Two Words of Advice

[jfengel]

IAS

(I Sure Am).