Um... oops?

[active_apathy]

For those who haven't yet discovered them, Firefox has an option for fun and special bookmarks where you issue it with a keyword. This, on its own, is useful enough - just typing qc, for instance, will send me off to read Questionable Content.

It's possible to go further. You can make ones that take some extra information and then paste it into a url (yey). Firefox has a default one for Wikipedia, which works a little like this:

1. You type in wp, followed by whatever you want to look up.
   
   For this example, I'll use Cristina Scabbia - so, into the URL box we put wp Cristina Scabbia
   
   
2. You press enter.
   
   Yes, I have seen instructions go awry because things like this aren't written in, whyever do you ask?
   
   
3. Firefox translates that into a search URL for Wikipedia - for this example, it's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=cristina%20scabbia
   
   Notice the %20? Spaces aren't allowed in URLs, so it even writes it in a way that lets you keep your space. Hooray.
   
   
4. Wikipedia searches. Mostly you get a search results page, but it's not uncommon for an article to pop up right away. Like with this search and... they've changed the picture. Probably a good thing; the other one encouraged wild excesses of staring. The page is here, by the way.

So, yes. You can even make your own - I have one for LiveJournal, which you can make at home following the instructions here. In short, it lets me type lj username into the address bar and have myself magically redirected to the journal of my choice. For bonus points, it works for comms; that one bookmark will handle something like lj active_apathy or lj metaquotes without any problem at all.

Yay technology.

The problem? The problem exists, as it were, between the keyboard and chair. This particular wetware error means that - for some utterly bizarre reason - I never use the right shortcut for the thing I want. I'll look for journals using wp ljname, for instance, and then spend many minutes trying to figure out why it went wrong.

The moral of this story? There really isn't one. I think it was just a longwinded and vaguely educational way of expressing some universal aspect of humanity, of sharing a trait that defines us all, of putting forth a brief, textual glimpse of a small yet essential element of the collective consciousness that is modern society.

Yes, one and all, what I really mean to say is this:

*headdesk*

Comments

[mrpyro.livejournal.com]

Is this an extension that you're using? It doesn't work on my current Firefox installation.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

No extensions involved. What verson of Firefox are you using?

[mrpyro.livejournal.com]

1.5.0.9. Some investigation has shown me that I have the function, but that I don't have the 'wp' pre-set for Wikipedia (despite finding another website that confirms that it should be a default setting).

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Oh, ok. If it helps, it should be fairly trivial to just make a new one.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I'm on 1509 as well, and don't have the wp predefined.
Probably because I upgraded to 1509 instead of clean-installing it, so it didn't add any default bookmarks.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Version, even. With an 'i'.

[herekittykitty.livejournal.com]

I feel so educated.

[herekittykitty.livejournal.com]

Dana, who is standing right behind me, says "Me too!"

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

The way I remember it, last time you were both in the same place, you turned into a zombie.

And while she's standing right behind you, could you tacklesquish her for me? Thanks.

[herekittykitty.livejournal.com]

I'm still a zombie though, can I turn into MORE of one?

And that would involve getting out of my chair. Would you like a Willow? I have one of those.

[eighthcloud.livejournal.com]

She didn't do it. Instead, she got up and got in the shower.

No Lindasquishes for me. Woe. :(

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

*sigh* You just can't trust zombies to deliver hugs these days.

*tacklesquish!*

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

I have lj %name, ljinfo %name for profiles and ljpics %name for userpics.

Had them that way ever since you first posted about it :)

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I have lj name, icons name, friends name, foaf name and ljinfo name.

My userinfo one needs to change to http://%s.livejournal.com/profile, though.

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

My info one has been like that since the change to that URL format.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

I tried my name, but Wikipedia search is down right now ("disabled for performance reasons"). The link to Google led me to this rather interesting Wikipedia-page, however.

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, I independently invented "wp {searchterm}" as the shortcut for Wikipedia search, and did not realize it until I tried it on someone else's machine and it worked.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

The problem there is that if I try it on others' machines, they're using IE, and it just does. not. work.

*glares at the IE icon on her desktop*

[packbat.livejournal.com]

Ugh! No-tabs browsing just stinks.

(Yeah, the latest versions have tabbed browsing, but everyone I've seen who has up-to-date IE has Firefox.)

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Rumour has it that IE7 also supports alpha-blended PNGs and most of CSS2.

Hopefully they've fixed their spec interpretation issues too, because IE7 doesn't respond to the star html hack anymore.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Isn't that the same company as makes the Roomba?

[palmer-kun.livejournal.com]

iRobot does indeed make the Roomba. They were into military bots before vaccum cleaners, though.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

Hee! The very idea of Roomba amuses me much more now.

"Commander! Dustbunnies, two o'clock!"
"Prepare to engage!"
"CAT!!! Brace for impact!!"
*Roomba hits cat*
"Reverse! Thirty degrees right!"
"Yes sir. WAIT! It's moved! BRACE!!"
*Roomba hits cat again*
"REVERSE! Thirty degrees right!!"
"It just keeps moving!"
*Roomba hits cat again*
"It's got to go eventually. Reverse, turn thirty degrees right! Vacuum crew, stand ready for cat fur and dustbunnies!"

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

That's really cool! I shall promptly forget about it! Also, yay for Lacuna Coil.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

It is! Oops! Yay indeed; I seem to be developing Quite A Thing for pretty European bands.

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

It's so rare to have a vocalist with a voice like that. With male rock singers you get a fair proportion of "Hoarse sexy", but with girls it seems they're all identical to Ashlee Simpson, so a really amazing singer like Amy Lee etc is to be looked out for.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

*nodnods* That's very true. Amazing singers with talented bands make me develop very sudden addictions - my newest one is Within Temptation. If it were set to music, I could happily have Sharon den Adel sing me the phonebook.

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard them. Is there a clip on the web somewhere?

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

I... haven't a clue.

*Googles*

So! That found film clips on youTube - Memories and Ice Queen.

If I post later, I'll see what online stuff others know of. And if I don't have other stuff to post... then I'll ask them all anyway. :)

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

I like! Very pretty.