Archive for September, 2004

You want “Smart Keywords”. I just learned about this last week, and it’s totally awesome. I have a keyword set up for Yahoo Search, so I type “ys honda” into the address bar to initiate a search for Honda on Yahoo Search. Typing “the awesome” returns a THEsaurus entry for Awesome. “dict improvement” returns the dictionary entry for Improvement. The best part of being able to search from the Address Bar is that I can get the cursor to focus on the address bar by pressing Alt-D on the keyword.

Before learning about Smart Keywords (which may be new to the latest Preview Release of Firefox 1.0) I relied on the customizable search box to the right of the address bar. While it has the ability to search just about any source, there’s no way to get there from the keyboard.

Here’s how

Say you search on a lot of different things - corporate phonebook, imdb, etc… wouldn’t it be handy to have convenient aliases to all these searches? You bet it would be.

1. Go to the page that has the search box on it, right click on it and choose “Add a Keyword for this Search…”
2. In the “Add Bookmark” dialog that appears enter a name and a short “keyword” and save the Bookmark…

Now you can type “kw search string” in the URL, e.g. “pb Janet Robinson” for a quick phonebook lookup. I can’t live without my keywords. Oh, and it handles POST forms too, unlike most other browsers!

In other words, you can have instant access to any search input field from your keyboard. It’s great.

Hat tip to Ben Goodger at

I’m trying to help out a friend. If this job looks interesting, send me an email and I can get your more information:

…looking for is a HTML developer that has experience with CMS tools (blue martini is preferable), can perform basic troubleshooting on their own code and understands java. …needed for at least a one-year contract. Can work on-site (northern California) or remotely (if they are delivering quality work) for 40 hours a week. Rate is above average.

I quit smoking 578 days, 2 hours, 11 minutes and 25 seconds ago on Tuesday, February 25, 2003.In that time, I’ve NOT smoked a disgusting 11562 ciggs, saving 2 months, 28 days, 7 hours of my life expectancy, and $3,034.50.

Track your own stats on http://www.quitnet.com/, a service of Boston University School of Public Health. It was a good source of support and pride for me.

Don Rumsfeld said yesterday that elections in “three-quarters or four-fifths of” Iraq might be good enough.

In other words, run the place on Florida rules.

Hat tip: The always interesting Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall

Swiss scientists have discovered what they believe is Europe’s biggest fungus, stretching over 86 acres and believed to be over 1000 years old. Europe’s is dwarfed by a Honey Mushroom growing in the US’s Malheur National Forest in Oregon which covers 890 hectares (2,200 acres) - making it the largest living organism ever discovered.

Hat tip: The AP in Salon.

Viewers of late-night comedy programs, especially The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on the cable channel Comedy Central, are more likely to know the issue positions and backgrounds of presidential candidates than people who do not watch late-night comedy, the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey shows.

From http://www.business-journal.com/NoJokeDailyShowViewersKnowIssues.asp