Filed under: Internet, Open Source, Browsers
Gleebox: it's like command-line surfing in Firefox or Chrome, but more awesome
Here's a problem all of us face, but few of us acknowledge: the mouse. It's long been known that the humble mouse is a necessary, and sometimes much-loved evil. It's not actually the mouse itself, or the manipulation of it that's bad for us, but the moving of your hands to the mouse -- now that's bad.
I won't get into the details, but a big part of avoiding RSI (repetitive strain injury) from computer use is not moving your hand to the mouse quite so often. And that's what Gleebox does: it actually puts a 'console command line' right there in your Firefox or Chrome window.
Instead of moving your hand to click on a link, hit 'g' and start typing. Gleebox's default behavior is to cycle through links which match your search phrase: type 'Google' and then tab through every link with 'Google' in it. Follow a link by simply hitting enter: voilà!
But it does so much more too -- it's a bit scary, actually. Brace yourself and have a look at some of the commands in the user manual. Amongst others, you can share a page directly to Twitter or Facebook. Search Google or Wikipedia without having to pop open a new tab -- do it directly from the Gleebox. The neatest thing is probably the screen-scraping commands though: type '?h' into Gleebox and tab through every 'header' element in the page, perfect for reading news quickly. Likewise, '?img' cycles through the images on a page - neat!
If that's not enough for you, there's full yubnub and jquery support too. Want to cycle through every input box? No problem. Every piece of italic or bold text? Sure! Convert the page you're on into a PDF? Alright, Gleebox, what can't you do? It's free and open-source too...
If you're the kind of person that simply hates reaching for the mouse, Gleebox is certainly for you. You're doing your hands an injustice by not using it -- and as a computer user, that's just down-right stupid.
Try Gleebox Now (Firefox users will need Greasemonkey.) -- or watch the introductory screencast, if you still need more convincing.
Chromatic is one of the best time-wasters I've recently come across. It's all about the gameplay -- no Flash graphics here. You play a "circle" (it doesn't really have a name in the game). You move around with the arrow keys, and you change colors with Z, X, and C.
You can either be red, blue, or yellow, and you can switch at any time during the game. Each color has different capabilities -- yellow can double-jump, while red has a longer dash (which is like a forward sprint, activated by double-pressing DOWN).
Each ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
lookatthepiggy said 12:15PM on 12-10-2009
IMPORTANT: Remove this line from json2.js before deployment. Ahh, after installing it I get a javascript alert with this in it every time I change pages.
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Sebastian Anthony said 12:30PM on 12-10-2009
Is that a Firefox fix? It was fine in Chrome -- no bugs.
Sebastian Anthony said 12:30PM on 12-10-2009
OMG, I have an avatar!
Karl Horky said 1:13PM on 12-10-2009
Mozilla Labs is also developing an action-based command extension called Ubiquity, which includes a rich platform for users to develop commands too.
Once you get used to hitting Ctrl-Space, you will wonder how you ever did without instant translations / definitions / map lookups. It also supports search providers within Ubiquity itself - same as Gleebox - so that you don't need to pop open that new tab. It becomes so easy to just go directly to the Youtube video or Wikipedia entry you want rather than poring through a list of results.
Intro Video: http://vimeo.com/1561578
Ubiquity Extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9527
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Karl Horky said 1:21PM on 12-10-2009
Oops, that addons page is an old version of the Ubiquity extension. The newest one:
http://ubiquity.mozilla.com/
roleohibachi said 1:34PM on 12-10-2009
what's the difference between this and the "'" (apostrophe) shortcut in firefox?
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darwinsurvivor said 7:25PM on 12-10-2009
thanks. I'd been using "/" for the longest time. Didn't know I could search only links :D
Sameer Ahuja said 12:52PM on 12-10-2009
Thanks for the good words, Sebastian. Sorry about the Firefox bug, it's fixed now. json.org has stopped supporting external downloads of javascript from their server.
If you are seeing the javascript alert on Firefox, here's how to fix it:
1. Uninstall the greasemonkey script.
2. Clear your browser cache (Tools > Clear Recent History...)
3. Go to http://thegleebox.com and reinstall again. This time it will pull the json javascript from our server.
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Sebastian Anthony said 12:53PM on 12-10-2009
Wahay, thanks for the fix :)
And you're most welcome.
Cal! said 9:27PM on 12-10-2009
I also prefer Ubiquity for the reasons stated in post #5. There's no need to open a new tab, you can see the results right away
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laero said 1:54PM on 12-11-2009
Downloaded and tested, extremely pleased. Being a regular cli-user I found it both easy to use the script and edit the options in a very nicely commented text file.
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DukeXC said 1:59PM on 12-11-2009
To offer a counter to Ubiquity taking the *content-gathering* half of this idea to its logical extreme, I recommend Vimperator for doing the same with *navigation.* Pretty much every action from sorting tabs to downloading links is simplified to one or two keystrokes.
The two actually integrate fairly well, although I've found Ubiquity mostly redundant for my own purposes.
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Ankit Ahuja said 9:57AM on 12-15-2009
We just made a new release of gleeBox (v0.6). It has a bunch of new features like bookmark search, bookmarklets as page commands and ability to customize appearance ( including size, position and yes, themes! )
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boardtc said 11:18AM on 12-15-2009
I am a fan of DQSD which has been around for years. Hit Winkey+S and start typing, shortcuts exist for most things you search for/login to on the net
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