Filed under: Text, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Web services, Freeware
Spreeder - another online speed-reading application
by Jason Clarke Aug 29th 2006
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.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
