So, whats the deal with Iceland you may wonder. Well, the main reason is pretty simple. Many of the people behind this project are from Iceland. (Disclosure: I鈥檓 not from there. I come from a far away island 馃檪 In addition, our servers are hosted in Iceland, which we think is very cool.
Many of you probably know that Iceland has an amazing array of national treasures, there are volcanoes, geysers, hot springs. The volcanos are not only awesome to look at but they also power Iceland. Almost all electricity in Iceland comes from either geothermal or hydro energy. So our servers are running with 100% clean and renewable energy!
But there is more. You all know that powerful computers get very very hot so they need lots of cooling right? Well the fact that Iceland is up there in the Arctic sea and has cool temperatures is a natural aid. Still the guys in Iceland figured out yet another natural source, which is wind, to cool the data center! Pretty awesome, isn鈥檛 it?
For the people of Iceland, the rights to freedom of speech and strong consumer protection laws are most important. They are a proud people with due right. In Reykjavik and surrounding areas you can within a few hours drive, experience mountain scenery taken straight out of the Games of thrones (in fact they film it there).
You have beautiful vast areas covered in lava but with beautiful purple flowers growing out of it. There are geysers casting mist into the air in many areas. You have the blue lagoon, the best restaurants, a wonderful Opera, the coolest nightlife and of course the the most amazing phenomena ever, the northern lights. We think that there were many good reasons to choose Iceland for us to run this service.
Before I finish up, here are some cool Icelandic photos taken by Birkir J贸nsson to give you a taste. If you have any awesome photos from Iceland, please share with us!
One of more than 100 volcanoes in Iceland
Thanks to the volcanoes and geothermal energy, almost all hot water used in Icelandic household are heated naturally, and swimming pools are heated year-around so you can swim outside even in Icelandic winter. If you are a beach goer, there is also a heated beach 馃檪
Feels a bit like you just landed on the moon
Nothing beats seeing Aurora. It鈥檚 on 7 natural wonders of the world.
This is it for now. I hope that we can share more things about Iceland along the way.
[quote]If you have any awesome photos from Iceland, please share with us![/quote]
I visited Iceland in 1992. Some [url=https://vivaldi.net/unity/albums/ra-mon]photod here[/url] (not awesome, bad quality because digitalized from old analog camcorder and 24×36 slides scanner)
Thanks for sharing. Nice photos!
Did the bus manage to cross the water? It looks like it was almost sinking…:o
Luckily, the 4WD bus succeeded to cross the ford ; These crazy drivers have a very precise knowledge of the liquid way :p
Iceland [b]is[/b] beautiful and it’s cool they are using their natural resources to host Vivaldi. Thank you, tatsuki, for your efforts to recreate the MyOpera blogging experience. 馃榾
Just opened my account. Like the Vivaldi welcome page background. Opera never made enough of their scenery – they could have made some awesome wallpapers for Nokia & now Android..
Okay, in the category of a bit out there …
Out of curiosity, how is Vivaldi funded? No, I’m not just being nosy. [img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r5PNlOqmV48/UnwXTh8q0BI/AAAAAAAAAR4/V9g6w3tuBXw/s1600/Left.gif[/img] [img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KBE0YbU85L4/UnwLWvwCS7I/AAAAAAAAANs/Adi-GX1_9SE/s1600/Right.gif[/img]
I’m actually going somewhere with this.
A lot if not most of the people here are MyOpera refugees, including me. We’ve already been scrambling around trying to find a new Blogging home. With that in mind, I’m curious, as everyone else must be too, just how solidly stable IS Vivaldi? You know … as in we’d hate to establish our Blogs here … only to find out that 3 months or a year from now, we have to move again because Vivaldi ran out of money with which to operate.
Just curious. [img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X0XmxpxSB_U/Unu_jkcFa1I/AAAAAAAAAFA/PDYX7eHdaoc/s1600/Popcorn.gif[/img] For example, when I first heard MyOpera was closing, my first thought was, “Okay, I guess I’ll probably move over to Xanga” since I had seen it before sometime back. Well, my Plan A was immediately shot down when I quickly found out it had shut down due to running out of money. And I read about others that had come and gone.
Can’t we just be appreciative of this new home without trying to dig any deeper? Nothing is completely secure or stable on the internet… absolutely nothing. If you’re expecting this site to be anymore secure and stable than MyOpera which lasted more than a half dozen years, you’re going to be disappointed. Things can change here, there and anywhere else. Why not just enjoy the new home, set up your blog and mail and go with it? 馃檨
Can u please find me a way to delete my Vivaldi account t?
Bunneez think Suntana has made a good point. It is a fair question to try and establish how viable Vivaldi will be as a site. James makes a good point in return that virtually any site could possibly close down, but if people have to choose a new home, it is understandable that they would prefer not to have to go through the whole performance again any time soon.
My inquiry was not malicious in any way. I’m not asking for some super deep, legal account of how Vivaldi is funded. And I’m quite aware that nothing is secure and stable on the Internet and nothing lasts forever. And I myself commented somewhere just the other day that we’d be naive and eternal optimists if we thought all our requests on here would be granted and that all bugs would be squashed. It didn’t happen at MyOpera and it’s not going to happen here.
I can only speak for myself that given the choice between a site that is solidly set and stands a good chance of lasting a long time afloat … vs. taking a chance on a site on which I have zero clue at this time what will keep it afloat … well, I like the feeling of the former choice much better.
For example … we all knew MyOpera was under the umbrella of Opera Software. That’s all I’m asking for, just a general idea that conveys some semblance that it’s not going to disappear less than 12 months from now. Something that will give us the feeling of, “Okay, yeah, I think I’ll set up camp here.” You know … something more solid than say … 2 friends having pooled their money together and hoping it all somehow works out.
BTW, Cool pics, Tatsuki. [img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k6x9i3mfA7Y/UnwQXuetp0I/AAAAAAAAAPs/97n1LXEt8NA/s1600/ThumbsUp.gif[/img]
Suntana, I understand your concern and I think it’s fair for you to ask.
Let me start by saying that most of the us here at Vivaldi used to be at
Opera Software for many years. As you probably know, Jon co-founded
Opera. I was head of Consumer products group which included My Opera.
Guys developing Vivaldi.net used to code My Opera, front and backend.
So, all of us spent considerable amount of time on making My Opera as a
community for Opera users and alike. And, of course, My Opera wouldn’t
have been what it is today if it didn’t get the support it received from
all of you.
The reason why we decided to start Vivaldi.net was because of that. Personally, it
was extremely sad to read all the comments posted by My Opera users
regarding close down announcement. We felt we had to do something. After
all, we started it. It didn’t take too long to reach our conclusion to
start working on Vivaldi. Although, it took longer than we liked to
release it….
Now, how solid is Vivaldi financially you asked. As James and you
pointed out, nothing is forever, especially in the world of the
internet, regardless of company size behind the service.
But I can assure you that we are not going away any time soon,
definitely not within the kind of time frame you were talking about.
We feel that we are well funded to continue developing and increase
capacity as we grow.
I hope this gives you and others better sense of comfort for your new home 馃檪
So, help us spreading the words. We bought bunch of nice shiny machines
awaiting to be served :p
Let’s make our new home fun and joyful place for the years to come.
Happy new year, everyone!
Originally posted by [b]tatsuki[/b]:
[quote][i]We bought bunch of nice shiny machines
awaiting to be served :p
Let’s make our new home fun and joyful place for the years to come.[/i][/quote]
Much too much good to hear.. Thanks, tatsuki! Let’s make our new home that way.. (up)
BTW… Where’s the LIKE button over here?
JK (lol)
Happy New Year, everyone!
Fair enough, Tatsuki! Cool! With a bunch of nice shiny machines, we can’t miss. [img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kfPjoQLl6WE/Unv6qVe4sEI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/dLXguuxobGA/s1600/BigGrin2.gif[/img] Full steam ahead. Pedal to the Metal. Burn some rubber or lay down some rubber or however that phrase goes. [img]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tTXhJObHX64/UnwC8_hWNKI/AAAAAAAAAKw/sfNnP8SrRsY/s1600/Headbang.gif[/img]
Happy New Year and may 2014 be the beginning of a solid Vivaldi run. [img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jHCnjmwc_xw/UnwRdl0v7PI/AAAAAAAAAQM/XFEaTmUh55c/s1600/Wave.gif[/img]
Yes, Tatsuki, we’ve all been spreading the word around. As soon as I heard about Vivaldi, I sent out the heads up to all the friends I hung out with at MyOpera. As you can see, Teresa (tdjmd) made it here very quickly. In fact, even though I was the one who gave her the heads up, she actually got set up here before I did because I was not receiving my Activation Code. A couple of my other friends already showed up as well. And there are at least two more who should be showing up soon. One of them is on vacation, so that’s why she hasn’t gotten around to signing up.
Originally posted by [color=”blue”]Charlie[/color]:
[quote][i][/i]As you can see, Teresa (tdjmd) made it here very quickly. In fact, even though I was the one who gave her the heads up, she actually got set up here before I did[/quote]Very true.
Did I thank you already?
Well, If I did, it wasn’t suffice. I’m so happy to have a new home in this neighbourhood (big smile)
Ah me too.. Spreading the words as well. A bunch of friends of mine are here already. Waiting the rest.
It’s so exciting!
Did you already thank me, you ask, Teresa?
Uhhh, no, I haven’t received that new computer, new Mobile, new TV, box of Chocolates and 10 bags of Popcorn that you promised me for giving you the heads up on Vivaldi. [img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_tZqIzB1bTk/UnwS6d9Ha6I/AAAAAAAAAQk/gGY-5FxB-5E/s1600/Whistle.gif[/img] Hmmm??? Maybe I dreamed that. I can’t remember.
Thank you for the support, Suntana.
We are very happy to have you guys here.
And, sorry for the activation code not arriving promptly. We are actively working on improving it but if you hear someone having issues of getting activation email from Vivaldi, please send me a private message to let me know. There may be some issues with certain email providers that we haven’t tested against.
Hey Tatsuki. Great piece on Iceland. I have some impressions from Reykavik too: http://bit.ly/KmVd8D
Will do. The only other 2 people whom I knew were having problems signing up to Vivaldi have already made it here.
wonderful photos and the story is amazing. I love Iceland from Ice Road truckers.
I started blogging on Opera to polish my writing skills (if any), and to pull-through readers to the books that I have written since I retired. I moved to Vivaldi to specifically promote both Vivaldi and my books. I admire the entrepreneurial spirit, as I am one myself, and I hope I can pull readers and potential business to Vivaldi. This leads to my central question: Much like Santana, I’d like to know what revenue-generating mechanisms you guys in management are developing. I’d like to suggest that you consider making Vivaldi special in some way that distinguishes the Vivaldi website from competing blogspaces; thematic, if you will. Your bloggers are a valuable resource for creating revenue. Get creative on this and you will have a lot of support from us.
And where do we go from here?
Sadly I can’t share any Iceland photos, cause I had never been there.
Anyway, thanks for the informative post and the beautiful pictures 馃檪
You forgot one of Iceland’s most important assets. The incredible women of Iceland.
Very smart and pretty too!
I haven’t been in Iceland but it was my dream place…
[i]Problemet aer Island aer is kallt.[/i]