
Opera browser is much faster than a potato - jrnkntl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaT7thTxyq8
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ryandvm
Cute. Incidentally, this was already my exact mental image of the average
Opera user.

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RyanMcGreal
Totally unfair comparison. If you chop up the potatoes and put a lid on the
pot, they'll cook a _lot_ faster.

~~~
phugoid
Putting a lid on the pot won't speed things along, as long as the water was
boiling anyway. Boiling water is around 100 C, with or without lid.

Chopping them smaller make a bit of difference, but not that much - again most
of the flesh will be at 100 C for the duration of the cooking. I've tried
these things.

~~~
count
Keeping a lid on help keep the temperature more consistent, as there is much
less heat escape and evap into the atmosphere.

~~~
phugoid
Yes, there's less heat escaping. But the water is pretty close to 100 C
throughout. Go ahead and try it out :)

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ErrantX
If you dice the potatoes very small they will cook perfectly in about 30s in
boiling water (it's one of my specialities :D)

~~~
w-ll
how small?

~~~
ErrantX
about 1 - 1.5 cm (I have a special dicer that does it)

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Timmy_C
I feel like the average viewer is going to take this video at face value since
they may not see the subtle reference to the Google Chrome speed tests video.
Saying that you're faster than a cooked potato in hot water isn't saying much.

I do like the crack censorship though. It was funny and unexpected.

~~~
yalurker
I have to think you're taking too negative a view of the intelligence of
average. There is nothing subtle about this parody.

I could be wrong, but I'd be shocked that any competent person who had seen
the chrome advertisements wouldn't recognize and understand this parody.

~~~
Timmy_C
You're right, if someone had seen the Chrome speed tests video then they would
likely see the direct reference.

However, anecdotally, I did see the Chrome video and I didn't see the direct
parody until I read the comments here on Hacker News.

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jrnkntl
Which, of course, is a -not so subtle- parody on the Chrome video
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oarMXGq3gI>

~~~
othermaciej
Does Chrome really render Web pages from bottom to top, as appears to happen
on allrecipes.com? Or was that just done for dramatic effect?

~~~
Arve
No. If you read the description of the chrome video, you'll see that they
turned the LCD upside down to remove a shadow, and used software rotation in
Windows to turn the display back around. The exact quote:

Chrome actually paints the page from top to bottom, but to eliminate a shadow
from the driver board, we had to flip the monitor upside down and set the
system preferences in Windows to rotate everything 180 degrees, resulting in
the page appearing to render from bottom to top.

~~~
robgough
That explanation never made sense to me.

If windows has rotated everything, then chrome is now the right way round
again and _should_ appear to render properly.

The only reason it does that I can think of, is that chrome loaded when the
screen was half way through a refresh - so we saw the now rendered bottom
appear before it went back round and refreshed the top of the screen.

~~~
Arve
The point here is that the rotation is done by the OS, in software, so the
screen is still painting from the _physical_ left-to-right and top-to-bottom.
This is something you'll never notice with the naked eye, but their camera
uses a staggering 2700fps. This means that a full repaint of the screen -
assuming 60Hz refresh happens in 45 frames. Those 45 frames, played back at 30
fps means that the full repaint takes a second and a half, leaving you with
the ability to see the individual lines being (re)painted.

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mjsergey
Does anyone else think they are calling the Chrome videos a 'red herring' or
is this reading too much into it?

~~~
lhorie
Well, he does read a book called "Famous Herring Parties" while waiting for
the potato to cook, and then proceed to simulate a sword fight with herrings.

~~~
bartl
I assumed it was a reference to something the Norwegian people _might_
worldwide be famous for, that is: herring. Just an impression.

~~~
nostrademons
I figured it was a Monty Python reference, to the part in Holy Grail where he
systematically dismembers the black knight, and then faces the Knights Who Say
Ni, who ask him to chop down the tallest tree in the forest with a herring.

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gardarh
This is such a beautiful slap in the face for the Chrome video. Which was
pretty cool by the way :)

~~~
electromagnetic
Yes, but I still watched it _through_ Chrome and it didn't instil a sudden
urge to switch browsers.

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gjm11
Same as <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1386224> except that that one
links to Engadget's comments on the video rather than directly to the video
itself.

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justinph
They should have used the potatoes as a battery to power the laptop.

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ratsbane
That was great... but WTF (What Turbo Fan)

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vrode
What actually is Opera Software making profit of? Of not being funny? But
seriously.

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yigit
It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

~~~
raintrees
Don't pick it up, pick it up, pick it up. Quick! Just pass it on, pass it on,
pass it on... Thanks again, Douglas.

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thomasfl
They are så fæntæstic! Heia Norge.

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melling
The Chrome video was cool. I watched the "Making of" video and got bored
pretty quickly and didn't finish watching it.

