MMOffice and The Absolutely Definitive 8 Reasons To Maybe Try Opera

I've never played World Of Warcraft or any other MMORPG for that matter.


Recently, Wired described a situation in which employers would be wise to look out for players of such video games as they promote team based problem solving. As the game world is such a controlled environment, It would be hard to argue otherwise, so we can feel free to imagine no more, but no less, than six really loud people, with their brand new CM-20's, to give us a resounding 'true dat'.

The impact such a hiring strategy may have is an interesting thought, but Wired seemed to stop short of describing what could be a very real and impacting business model, based on the game world itself. Eventually, someone will catch on to MMOffice.

An office residing in virtual space, in which the 'game' software is provided free of charge on the companies website, and anyone can apply for a job just by booting up. Today, there are an overwhelming amount of number crunching jobs that could easily be replaced by virtual counterparts: people doing their jobs at their own home computer, yet existing in a computer generated world to continue the interpersonal communication needed for any environment to develop. These are individuals that wouldn't clog the roads, require many resources, or waste the precious time and money of the overseeing company whose HR department made a horrific hiring blunder.

For very large companies, turnaround is currently a bad thing, they need to find solid and reliable people the first time around who will, with no questions asked, show up, do their work, eat lunch, make a joke, and go home. This can all be turned around by a virtual office model, in which turnaround becomes the very strategy to find the very best people for the job. Select twenty individuals to compete for an entry level position from the pool of Internet users waiting to be hired. They get to do the work for an hour, and if they are the best, they are hired. If for some reason, they turn out to be a dud by the days end, there are more people in the queue, awaiting their chance to be involved in the virtual revolution. Seems like a good way to weed out bad employees.

And that's just the beginning of the economic advantages, think of how much money would be saved on office furniture and supplies alone!

Of course, there would need to be a liaison. Some real world representative in order to communicate with the outside, but I think it could work, especially with a plethora of MMO-players obliviously getting their training at this very moment in popular game worlds. And we always thought they were all..

* record scratch *

..ternet browser best suited for your browsing style, it's up to you, but I would highly recommend giving Opera a second look. Especially the brand new Opera 9 Beta. I've never been a huge fan of Opera, if only cause it has always had some kind of 'other browser' stigma attached. But after recently giving the new versions of Opera a good test run, I'm sold. Opera provides a solid, simple, yet powerful browsing experience quite different than anything else currently available. As for why you should give Opera a try...

1. Clean and simple UI.

Opera has the best UI of any browser I've used, it manages to not get in the way. It's easy, simple, and graphically impressive. It is also fully customizable, if that's what you are into. Did I mention smooth scrolling?

2. Zoom feature.

Feeling small in the world of high-res? Than bump up the page zoom. This feature is truly great, it allows for a gateway into an experience on those sites that may have been designed with 800x600 in mind.

3. Password Management.

The Opera Wand remembers your passwords for you. I've never been a huge fan of storing all my passwords, even locally, but definitely a convenient option for those looking to organize piles upon piles of passes.

4. Fastest Browsing around.

Did you know that Opera is the fastest browser? Look at this site and see how Opera consistently out performs the competition.

5. Trash Bin.

Ever been in Firefox and accidentally closed a tab? Well if you do the same in Opera, you can click on the trash bin in the upper right hand corner and get the tab back. The trash Bin saves all closed tabs, so you can access them just in case. Very Handy.

6. Built In RSS Reader

Opera has a very easy to use built in RSS reader. Not as nice as Safari's, but just as good as anything you'll find for Firefox. Not a huge deal, but it's nice to see it so integrated with the browser.

7. *OPERA 9 BETA ONLY* BitTorrent

Opera 9 has built in BitTorrent. While you will probably get much better speeds from a standalone like Azureus, or my particular favorite, the tiny uTorrent, it's a good start, and as far as I know, the first browser to have any BitTorrent functionality built into the core.

8. *OPERA 9 BETA ONLY* Thumbnail Preview

Want to know what's in those open tabs? Well, give them a little mouseover and you'll get a thumbnail preview. Helpful if you have a lot of tabs open and don't want to open them up one by one just to see the contents. Small, but a good addition.


Opera, especially the new beta, has many more features built in than the majority of other browsers. Learn about them here.

Although it can't content with the expandability of Firefox, Opera is a great solution if you want a browser packed with great features from the start in a clean and simple package.

* sensible & organized Blogging will now return. *