TRST_Blog

With the update to Safari 6 (either with or without Mountain Lion) the omnibar is now a standard feature, this means that the SIMBL plugin I had been using earlier is unnecessary. While that seems like a win on the one hand, with the depreciation of the Safari Omnibar SIMBL plugin goes its ability to make use of other search engines.

Fear not, there is a solution to this dilema! Arne Martin has created an extension to provide that very functionality and it's called Safari Keyword Search 2.0.

All you need to do is download the extension, double click to install, and your off to the races. Each search engine has a customizable keyword/letter that pipes your query through that particular search engine.

The default choice, i.e., without a keyword prefixing your query, is Google's Feeling Lucky. Since I'm not a fan of Google Search, I decided to make the smallest tweak to make DuckDuckGo the default choice.

Simply:

1. Right click anywhere on your screen.
2. Select the "Keyword Search Settings…" option from the menu.
3. In the "URL expansion" textfield delete the current item and paste in http://duckduckgo.com/?q=@@@
4. Hit "Save" and enjoy the rest of your day.

Image Unavailable: My Readability powered Scrooge McDuck money pile

I'm writing a piece about Readability and I thought it would be fun to check how much money my publisher's account has accrued since last year. I have to say, I'm quite shocked by the figure.

The total was a whopping $1.31.

I am honestly surprised by this number, I had expected $0. Since I paid into this scheme as well, I also realize that each person contributes a fairly small amount to each writer. So for my account to gain over a dollar I have to believe that at least a couple of people pitched in.

And for that I thank you all. I keep telling myself that no one reads this site (I don't even read this garbage) but I can't ignore the fact there is at least one or two regular readers. I don't know who you are, but I would love to find out. Get in touch on Twitter and I'll mail you a hand-drawn post card with whatever you'd like on it. Don't worry, I'll foot the bill this time.

(By the way, I'd rather the $1.31 went to charity. I'm not going to cash it in. It's less of a waste of your money anyhow.)

I've been trying to motivate myself to write lately. Instead of writing I convince myself that there are so many other talented writers out there it's hard to see why my voice is relevant.

This attitude is non-sense. I didn't start blogging to become internet-famous, to make money, or to even make an ever lasting difference/impression. I started to write online because I enjoy the process of building websites and I wanted a place to improve my writing. The former I accomplished by building this stupid thing, and the latter only happens when I actually force myself to write.

To do so I've concocted a new technique. Instead of aimlessly researching and planning out an article, I pull out my iPhone while I sit at my computer. On my iPhone, there's a little app called Clock—maybe you've heard of it? And inside that application there's a tab called the Timer.

Every time I want to sit down and write I set a timer for ten minutes.^[1] Once that countdown begins I start writing like a bat out of hell. There's absolutely no time to think about solid grammar practices, properly format my text, or any real time to edit things. All I have time to do is to vomit all of the garbage ideas that exist in my head into my text editor.

After the said ten minutes have elapsed. I take an extended break from writing, typically a day or two. Then I come back, look at the garbage I wrote and begin to edit. If there's anything worth salvaging, the process only takes a few minutes. If not, I set the timer again and have-at-'er.

The sense of urgency created by the timer dulls my indolence and focuses my attention on writing. (Not even the best "distraction free writing environment" has the tools to get rid of that.) So far this technique has worked swimmingly.

If you've got any suggestions for me, or have your own opinions about this technique, please, feel free to chime in @trst_blog on Twitter.

I have a couple of reviews that I want to write, in fact, they're in various stages of completion as I type this. But I wanted to take a quick moment to talk about how I review things.

It should be fairly obvious that this site is no big-budget production. So, I feel that the standards should be set accordingly. By no means am I admitting to purposefully producing terrible content (that happens naturally), instead, I just want to draw attention to my own limitations. Apart from making more jokes at my expense, these limitations largely come down to ability, or lack thereof.

For instance, I do not have the ability to conclusively test durability. Each of the products I review were bought with my own hard-won earnings. Add to that fact that (I assume) meaningful data about durability will ultimately be realized through torturing devices until the point of failure. Math was never my strongest suit, so I always estimate the probability of failure as nearly inevitable; therefore I try my best to prolong the inevitable.

Another example of my inability you say? Yes, please. Audio quality, while subjective to an absurd degree, is not something I can comment on with confidence. At best I could, perhaps, muster up something like, "[product X] sounded less bad than [product G]". Inevitably any audio review will be a review steeped in highly relative anecdotes.

I could go on forever, but there are only so many emotional scars I dare to show at any one time.

How then does a single, dull-witted, pseudo-human being write meaningful content about a particular device/tool/whatever given the biblically awesome magnitude of his own incompetence? The answer is an easy one. All I need to do is to look for gaps in the written market.

There are many high-profile/technical reviews about new and exciting hardware. Similarly, there are many personal reviews and accounts of the same hardware. The sheer amount of writing about a single device will undoubtably cover every opinion I could possibly have. Therefore, I have saved my efforts and will focus them on smaller fish. That means covering products that are much more mundane than the newest phablet, e.g., think Marco Arment's extensive lightbulb coverage or Debby Herbenick's search for the best vibrator.

I want to situate myself somewhere between an Siracusan-esque exposé on OS X and a lowly Amazon review. This is my sweet spot.

This is probably a good time to ask myself "why?", or better yet, "so what?" I want to provide value for anyone who may be interested in the same every-day tool that I have experience with. Often times the things I want to review have no meaningfully written experiences that accompany them.

To me, that's a big problem.

I'm incredibly foolish with my money. I buy things on a whim, with no other direction to help steer my opinion, often times because there is none to consult. As you might imagine, I have been both burned and delightfully surprised. So, if I can help just one person stave off a horrible series of burns from a remote-control quadrocopter with integrated waffle iron, despite how cool the product shots look, I will die a happy primate.

I used to be quite self-conscious about the quality of my opinions, however, that stage has long since passed. I realized that these insights of mine are at the very least not the craziest on the internet and broach on useful, perhaps.

While I can't be a high-profile tech reviewer, I can write exactly how I feel about the device/tool/whatever in question. If it feels good in the hand, I'll say so. If it causes sever back pain, I'll continue to use it for another week to verify and then I'll say so. I realize that's vague and unscientific to a massive degree, but them's the breaks.

If you have followed the site at all (and that's a big if), then, perhaps, you have noticed that it hasn't been updated in a spell. Rest assured, I haven't abandoned my blog.

I simply haven't found anything compelling to write about. Maybe it's writer's block… I can't be sure at this point. That said, I have been keeping very up-to-date in my consumption of awesome content written by other (smarter) folks.

If you'd like to follow alongside me while I read and discover, then I humbly invite you to follow the blog's Twitter feed (@trst_blog). I link to all kinds of good stuff there that I don't have mind enough to smartly comment on.

Thanks again for caring. (It really means the world to me that you do.)