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

[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.