Filed under: Text, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Web services, Freeware
Spreeder - another online speed-reading application
by Jason Clarke Aug 29th 2006 at 10:00AM
Just like ZAP Reader, Spreeder is an online speed-reading application that will help train your brain to read faster. Although they function very much the same, Spreeder's main goal in life isn't simply to allow you to read articles online more quickly; Spreeder wants to make you into a faster reader in general. Basically, using a speed-reading application like Spreeder forces you to drop the habit of backreading, which is exactly what you think it is - you know, when you read a sentence over and over again. Instead, you learn that you better catch it the first time, because there's no going back. Secondly, it forces your reading to outpace the little voice in your head that subvocalizes everything you read as you read it. Although very common, subvocalizing actually slows your reading down, since we're capable of taking in information faster that it can actually be spoken.
Lastly, Spreeder can be configured to show full chunks of text, rather than one word at a time. Since we can recognize words and groups of words by their shapes alone, learning to read this way can vastly improve our reading speed.
Here's the coolest part. Hidden under a Plugins link at the top of the screen is a bookmarklet that will allow you to simply select text on a page, click the bookmarklet, and have a new Spreeder window or tab spawned with your text already loaded into it.
With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet.
They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...
