It seems that my computer use has primarily become using the Internet these days. As such, I have quite a list of sites that I search on a regular basis, such as Wikipedia, Amazon, and Ebay. In the past, I'd go to their website by typing the URL (or finding a bookmark) and then locate the search box, which is sometimes at the top and sometimes on the left and sometimes on the bottom, and then execute my query.

I'm guessing that many of you also perform this particular activity quite often.

So, what do I do now that is so wonderful and great?

When I want to search Wikipedia for Star Trek, I just enter "wi star trek" in my FireFox URL box and BAM! I go directly there. If I want to search Ebay for a new iPod, I just enter "eb ipod" in the URL box and once again, I'm directly at the search results on Ebay. No more loading their main page and hunting for the search box.

Here's how you can do something similar. We'll use Wikipedia for an example.

1) Go to the URL you want to create the quick-search for. Right-click IN the search box and select "Add a keyword for this search" as seen here:

2) A dialog box will pop-up. Give the quick-search bookmark a name which can be anything you like. In the "Keyword" field, these are the characters you'll type in the URL box to initiate the search (in my example above, the "wi"). I like to place these bookmarks in their own folder in my Bookmarks which happens to be called Quick Search. You can organize them however you like.

3) Click Add. Now, you can try it out! In your URL box, enter the keyword you chose, a space and then the search terms you want. Here, I'll do "wi star trek":

4) Enjoy your search results with lots less clicking, waiting and loading. Now, go create quick-search links for any site that has a search input field. I use wi for Wikipedia, eb for Ebay, and am for Amazon.

Hopefully this FireFox tip is helpful. I use it all the time and love being able to jump directly to the search results of frequently-used sites.

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One of the great things about Apple's OS X is that it's based upon a BSD Unix foundation which makes it very easy to create scripts using Perl, Python, Ruby, AppleScript, or any number of other languages. However, while this is great for people who are comfortable with using a shell commandline, scripts like this generally aren't ideal for the typical user who wants everything done via a GUI.

I found a program called Platypus which creates standalone applications from your scripts which can be executed in the typical manner that you'd expect from any other application. Platypus lets you package artbitrary files, set associated file types, and do other things normally associated with a full-blown compiled app, but written instead in Perl or whatever you prefer. What a great way to create quick programs without delving into Objective-C or anything like that!

Platypus is completely free and open-source, although you might consider making a donation to further the development of the tool (links are on his site). Some of the features include:

* Supports shell scripts, Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, Expect, Tcl, AppleScript
* Supports arbitrary interpreter -- thus support for any script type
* Executing scripts with root privileges via Apple's Security Framework
* Drag and drop files, which are passed to the script as arguments
* Graphical feedback of script execution: progress bar or text window with script output
* Can create applications which run in the background
* Sophisticated app bundle configuration for associated file types, identifier, version etc.
* Graphical interface for bundling support files with script
* Built-in script editor, or linking with external editor of choice
* Set own application icon or select from presets
* Command line tool for automating script application bundling

Grab Platypus and package your interpreted scripts for easy distribution and execution on OS X! If you need further help, there is a two-part tutorial on using Platypus (part 1, part 2).

Yeah, yeah... I can hear all of the people who wrote to me asking for a schematic of my hard drive bargraph project saying, "hey, why don't you use this gEDA stuff and give me a schematic?!" Well, I will, for future circuits, and perhaps I may create a schematic for the bargraph, who knows.

Anyway, making your own boards is one of those potentially complicated things that uses software which can easily cost in the tens of thousands of dollars (think OrCAD). The gEDA (gnu Electronic Design Automation) suite is a set of open-source free tools that let you do similar things to the expensive commercial packages, if you're willing to learn a little.

The gEDA stuff is not new and I've fiddled with it on Linux, but I also found these instructions on how to install it using fink on OS X. With the increasing popularity of the Mac and its Unix based underpinnings, more and more people are "making the switch" and might want to know how to install gEDA on OS X.

Give it a try. I'm going to install it on my MacBook at some point and see how it works.

I generally hate the capchas because some are nearly impossible to read, yet I also realize that they're (sadly) almost required to prevent blog spam. Yet, some spammers can clearly bypass these tests, thus allowing them to use programs which post hundreds of spam messages to hundreds of blogs per day.

Anyway, I've always suspected that they had a programmatic method to decode the capcha images, but since I'm not a spammer myself, I've never actually been in the right place to actually see what these tools look like. Well, tonight, I have seen one example of a tool which can be used to pass the capcha check.

One programmer decided, for various reasons, to write a .NET program using Visual Studio which would grab a capcha image from a blog and then decode it into the required text, thus emulating the functionality of being human, but with the efficiency of a program. I just thought it was kinda neat to see the process and image manipulation that was needed to decipher these particular images and thought some of my readers might enjoy it also.

Check-out the full article on breaking the capcha if you're interested.

For years, I've toyed with virtual robot battle games. Usually, these are called p-robots (pascal), c-robots (C), and use a text based simulation engine which just prints the names of the robots that won each virtual battle. These are a great way to practice your logical thinking and touch-up on your programming skills, but ultimately, they weren't very interesting to watch.

Robot Battle is a free program which takes the educational aspects of the older programs and bolts-on a nice graphical interface to depict the battles. This lets you watch your robot's behavior and aids in debugging and improving the algorithm. Robot Battle uses a simple, custom programming language, so it won't teach you an actual language's syntax, but it will let you hone your abilities to create logical operations and solve problems.

You can submit your robot into a world-wide massive competition or share ideas and code via the community forums. This tool is useful for everyone from rank beginners to seasoned programmers looking to have a little creative fun. You can get Robot Battle directly from the developer.

qliner is a free, open-source program which lets you graphically bind any Windows+key combination press to launch or focus any program. They have some really cool features, which are not even found on the paid programs, such as a graphic on-screen keyboard that you can just drag programs onto to create the bindings.

Also, in the interest of ergonomics, it will re-map the Caps-Lock key to the Windows key, thus allowing you to turn the relatively useless Caps-Lock into a pinky-friendly, easy-to-press combination key sequence.

This program is quite smooth and polished and serves to replace other programs such as WinKey, which are not quite as graphically interesting and have fewer features.

Read about and download qliner - you'll probably like it if you enjoy keyboard shortcuts, and what power-user doesn't?