Hey,
I'm back from work and have been successful in installing Opera web browser. Thankyou very much for all the help. In the end I needed to "su" to root user and then remove the __db.00 So thanks for the help.
I've also installed linux for my mom who HATES how slow Windows is on her rather new computer (512mb, Pentium 4 2.80Ghz) and she has fallen in love with Linux.
The reason I use Vine Linux is that I need to use both Japanese and English in a up to date and regularly updated distribution.
Thankyou again
Danny
Oh and my problem with skype seems to be one of proxies servers (does not connect)....

just do : rpm -ivh __________.rpm

@windycity_linux: UnSpawn - does he need to rebuild the rpm database after removing the file or only removing the file will work fine?
Well, since the message clearly reads "error: can't create transaction lock" removing the files should suffice. IMHO rebuilding the database is a last resort option and should only be used when it's clear the database is corrupt like when there's no verification data anymore or no install/update/remove possible at all.