I learned about Quix today. It’s a bookmarklet-driven shortcut tool for web browsing and has LOTS of potential for shortcuts and helpful information processing workflow due to its built-in and custom command features.
Here’s an example of my custom quix.txt configuration file. I expect this will evolve rapidly over time (and I’ll eventually get this into github or something)(Done!)
I use Chrome as my primary browser. Unlike safari, it does not allow for keyboard shortcuts for bookmarks or bookmark (ex. if you press cmd-1 while in Safari, the browser launches the first bookmark in the bookmark bar.
To hack this into Chrome (without using one of the clunky extensions available for this purpose), you use the Mac OS X System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts.
Instructions to set keyboard shortcut for bookmarks in Chrome
1. Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts. Select Application Shortcuts and click + to add a new shortcut. Pick Google Chrome exact name for the Quix bookmarklet.
2. I choose ctrl-1, which works pretty well since I use the caps lock key as a second control modifier. You should see the keyboard short right in Chrome’s Bookmarks menu
3. Just ctrl-1 your way to productivity. An added benefit over the extension route is that the shortcut works even if the omnibar has focus.
(via Keyboard Shortcuts for Bookmarklet on Google Chrome – 5typos.net)
So the workflow becomes:
- bang on ctrl-1
- type mt
- bang on cmd-c to copy the already highlighted markdown-formatted link into clipboard
Fast and no mouse required!
Remarkably, quix works on all browsers that support JavaScript bookmarklets — even safari on iOS devices!
Updates
- 2012-01-26: changed link to github gist
Originally Posted on DINO Studio’s blog
Aaron and I are on our way to Book^2 Camp in New York. It’s an “unconference,” an event that has a participatory style of generating bottom-up content from the attendees rather than providing top-down, pre-determined content. In the tech industry this is a very common format. After talking with a couple of our clients also attending, I realized that to people used to “normal” conferences, the notion of unconferences can seem really, really strange.
So in advance of the Book^2 unconference, and in the spirit of open participation that defines this format, I thought I’d jot down a few notes and approaches if for no other reason than to prepare myself for the weekend.
Originally Posted on DINO Studio’s blog
(this was meant to go up last Monday. Oops.) Ugh. Halloween, and by extension, October has come and gone. 2010 is nearing its end.
This has been a hectic couple of weeks for us. Transitory periods have a way of making you feel like time is rushing past and also like you’re not going fast enough.
Some highlights from the past these past couple of weeks:
- Aaron and I participated in the IBM Place Summit 2010 conference. That deserves its own post.
- We shipped some initial story scenes for our current book clients… these are going to be really, really amazing pieces — We’re helping these publishers put enormous amounts of thought and care into the experience of storytelling
- I watched The Social Network, and coincidentally(?) we had a meeting w/ our lawyer to review a few things.
- We pitched a Facebook-oriented “personal story of wellness” game for a potential client.
- I listened to a panel on ebooks at the Why Books? conference at Radcliff/Harvard. Post to follow.
- We launched a very cute flashcard app for toddlers for our client, Mezmedia.
- Aaron has put some great effort into sorting through some infrastructure of AMP, our skunkworks project.
- I bought a bottomless coffee cup from the nearby bagel place — either the smartest investment of the year or the direct contributor to my impending mental breakdown… probably both.
Iggy, our green-scaled HR director, has been unusually frisky… making laps around the studio — climbing onto her high perch and through the supplies shelving. Her request for her new heating pad finally went through, so she’s in a good mood overall. Also, we’re thinking she may be gravid.
Originally Posted on DINO Studio’s Blog
The last weeknotes post was 38 weeks ago. Writing weeknotes, obviously, is one of those things that is very difficult to maintain as a habit, but it feels like one of those things that is really important, as well.
Before I left for a badly needed holiday last week, Aaron and I sat for coffee to have one of our quasi-regular “what the heck are we doing, here?” sessions. Half business and half therapy, it’s a conversation we have with each other on a micro/tactical and also a global/strategic level. It is a good chance for us to put the sales and production pipelines on hold and take stock of our direction.
Apple’s FaceTime ads are really beautiful. They emphasize emotional connections we can create with (and through) our technological artifacts. The critical mass isn’t there yet (needs to be about 20% of my address book having an iPhone w/ FaceTime) for this to be a realistic way for us to communicate regularly.
