Håkon Wium Lie

In my native Norway, my name is quite normal and I even have a famous namesake. In English, my first name is unpronounceable, my middle name is shortened to a single letter, and my last name does not build confidence. I therefore go by the name howcome which, although grammatically dubious, is the closest pronounceable approximation. It also makes for great email addresses, e.g., howcome@@@opera.@com, which happens to be the one I use.

I work for Opera Software as Chief Technology Officer. The Opera browser is smaller and faster than the one you know, and it has better support for standards. I'm currently working to make sure fonts and video finds their rightful place on the web using open standards. If you would like the Web to remain a place where no single vendor dominates, please consider using Opera. Opera also means multimedia; music, song and some strange plots. Some of us like both kinds of Opera. The selected few even like Wagner!

I came to Opera from W3C (my old home page) where I was responsible for style sheets. In 1994 I proposed the concept of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS describes how documents are presented on screens, in print, or perhaps how they are pronounced. You can read about it in a book I co-authored. It's written in HTML and CSS. For some fine examples of CSS-based design, go to the CSS Zen garden.

I'm a graduate of the MIT Media Lab where I was part of Walter Bender's Electronic Publishing Group. The Media Lab did not invent the Web. The Media Lab did, however, pioneer many of the applications that later have been built on the web, and the concept of Cascading in CSS is inspired by Media Lab principles. The web was invented at CERN. I heard the big bang and came running to the World Wide Web project where I worked with Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau. In 2001 I started writing up my PhD thesis with help and inspiration from Ole Hanseth and Gisle Hannemyr.

I constantly prioritize my frustrations, and sometimes find battles worth taking on. In the neighborhood, I fight senseless grafitti, tastless advertising, and motorways on the beach. On the city level (Oslo), I fight high-rise buildings in favor of classical elegance. On a national level (Norway) I fight for the right to read digital information and against the destruction of charm. On a European level, I fight against software patents, and for traditional building. On a global level, I fight for open standards and against Microsoft's pollution of the web. My political manifesto can be summed up in Global information, local production! That is: one should freely exchange digital information at a global level, but stuff (including clothes, food, and furniture) should not be transported far and you should know the names of the people who make them for you. Spare parts should be printed locally, and fish should be programmed to swim to their destination. I'm a member of ATTAC. I support CAPSoff. I oppose daylight saving time. After visiting Easter Island, I support OPT.

I like to design and make stuff from wood, especially from ash. I've made a sled, a dining room table, a common table, hymn-book-shelf on wheels, a shelf, and a leaky bathtub. I'm part owner of a woodworking studio in Oslo. I like to paint. I observe two seasonal rituals to overcome fear: in the summer I jump into water from 10 meters, and in the winter I race down mountains on a snowboard. I brag about my personal speed record on snowboard: 94km/h. I play with kites in all seasons. I sail in the summer and have participated in exactly one regatta. I have sailed on two of Norway's tall ships: Christian Radich and Sørlandet. I listen to classical music and like to go to houses built for music, especially those with a grand chandelier. I travel wide and far to see Wagner's Ring: New York, Bayreuth, Seattle, Berlin, London, New York, Copenhagen. I drive an electric car. My long term project is to build a pipe organ.

I often find that my affections are paired with corresponding aversions. Here are some of the more articulated combinations:

For a list of publications in English, see a separate list. A partial list of writings in Norwegian are also available.

E-mail is my main form of communication and the best way to reach me is to email howcome@@@opera.@com. I have used email since 1985 and, unlike Donald Knuth, I plan to continue using it in the future. I recommend these rules for writing electronic mail:

The easiest way to contact me is by sending email to howcome@@@opera.@com. If you need an urgent response, you can try my mobile phone (+47 90192217). Personal paper mail can be sent to: