Previously I’ve posted on Opera Core Concerns, but this time I want to share some personal reflections. (In other words: any views expressed are my own, not those of Opera Software.) What follows is the (quite geeky) history of me and the various codecs and organizations I’ve come into contact with over the past 8 years.

Back in gymnasiet I was a compulsive MP3 collector and was very picky about my bitrates. 128 kbps sounded (still sounds) horrible and it pained me, so when I learned about the Vorbis audio codec I was very excited. Not only was it technically superior, it was also completely free. I re-ripped all of my CDs as Vorbis, told all my friends to do the same and started listening to Machinae Supremacy simply because they offered Ogg downloads. I was a fanboy.

In June 2002 On2 released VP3 to the world. It was my summer holidays and I spent most days inside on an extra slow dial-up connection. I clearly remember that upon reading the news I literally bounced out of my chair and threw my hands in the air out of joy. (Remember, I was 17.) The first thing I did when there was code I could compile and run (packaged by Xiph I believe) was to encode and watch Star Trek: First Contact. The example decoder could neither pause or play in fullscreen, so instead I changed my screen resolution and just watched.

At the time I couldn’t do much to help out, but I wanted to be part of this cool community. One of the first pieces of C code I ever wrote was oggsplit, a not-so-useful tool for splitting multiplexed Ogg streams into separate files. I never used it much, but was quite proud to see it in Xiph’s ogg-tools package.

Fast foward. In the summer of 2006 I began working as a summer intern at Opera Software in Linköping, where I wrote an example plugin for video playback on Opera Devices SDK. I picked GStreamer as the backend and by the time I was done I must have watched A New Computer ~1000 times.

In February 2007 Opera proposed <video> and released a proof-of concept Ogg Vorbis+Theora build. I had no part in this, so it came as somewhat of a surprise. Initially thought that they had used my plugin, but that turned out to not be the case – it was libogg, libvorbis and libtheora integrated directly into the browser. The most exciting part was the strong stance for open standards, something that I obviously agree with.

What happened after that is pretty well known: the <video> tag makes obvious sense, so it quickly got implemented in other browsers. When I joined Opera’s core department (part time) in the summer of 2008, <video> hadn’t been touched much for over a year, so I was tasked with bringing it back to life. Loving both audio/video and the web, it would be hard to find a more suitable and fun job. I ended up porting my then 2-year old plugin and thus Opera is now using GStreamer internally. The Codec Wars™ were always a pain, but we did finally release Opera 10.50 with support for Ogg Vorbis+Theora.

After Google announced that they were buying On2 there was lots of speculation that they would release VP8. I have certainly hoped it would happen, but it seemed a bit too good to be true. Therefore, my reaction when it was confirmed was similar to when VP3 was released – bouncing like a 17-year old. That Vorbis is the chosen audio codec for WebM only makes things better. How lucky I am, that this time I get to actually be part of the release event. It’s been immensely fun working on this, in secrecy, then seeing everything happen in a maelstrom of releases, tweets and blog posts today. Håkon is at Google IO running my code on stage, but just a few weeks ago he was in Opera’s Beijing office, watching sunflowers in one of the first Opera VP8 builds:

While not yet 100% bug-free, VP8 in Opera is well on its way and will be in an official release soon. Today is a good day for open video and the open web. Many thanks to everyone who have worked to make this possible. Live long and prosper, WebM!

Chinese character 阮 (family name Ruǎn/Nguyễn)

Personally, I think the most interesting part is the stroking algorithm and its possible use in HTML 5 Canvas and SVG. However, web standards move slowly so it’s perhaps more likely it will be put to use in some other context first. Do read the report if you are interested in vector graphics and/or fonts.

Disclaimer: The views expressed are my own and not those of Opera Software.

Since my last post I’ve been back to Sweden to get myself a new visa and was back in Beijing on August 15. Even though I still have one year of left on my computer science degree I am already doing my thesis project here at Opera Software‘s Beijing office. The topic may or not be secret and involves many things that I really enjoy doing. I should be done by January, because that’s when I’m going to continue my studies in Linköping.

Next week is a national holiday in China, at which time my angel/girlfriend is coming from Việt Nam to see me. I cannot imagine a better way to spend the week than roaming around Beijing, going to all the places we used to like. 太幸福了! What’s more, I’m going to visit her in Hà Nội (the capital of Việt Nam) in the first two weeks of January before going back to Sweden. Life is good!

Interview with me in Shanghai IT Times 2007-06-15

There will be a entrance exam on the first day, so I’ve been studying a little in my spare time in the hope of being able to get into a non-beginners group. Part of that “studying” has been watching Chinese (Mandarin) television dramas. I’ve seen a few good Taiwanese dramas (It Started With a Kiss!), but it seems as if all the popular mainland dramas are martial arts and/or period dramas which have failed to impress me. It appears that some of the voices are dubbed which makes it all seem a bit “off” (dubbed in the same same language as the actor speaks, just like old Hong Kong movies). I wish I were German, then I wouldn’t notice. (I wonder if it’s easier for a ventriloquist to fool a German audience…)

My summer internship at Opera turned out super-awsome and I’m going to keep working part-time the whole year while I’m in Beijing. Getting experience working in China would be awsome, so I hope I’ll have a chance to spend some time at the Opera office in Beijing (although I’ll mostly be working at home, wherever that is). I discovered that Beijing is “bigger” than Linköping, so it might take a long time to get to the office by bus/subway, since it’s not in the same district as BLCU.

I’ve been doing some reading on Wikipedia and found out all sorts of useful things: There’s a chopstick tax to discorage the use of disposable chopsticks. Beijing has population of 8.5 million (Linköping: 136,000). The girl:boy birth ratio is 100:117 due to policital/cultural reasons. Beijing taxis have license plates that begin with 北B. The average height of the Chinese is approximately 170 and 160 cm for men and women respectively. China holds the world record in capital punishment. Finally, you can’t see the Great Wall of China from the moon!