Indistinguishable from Jesse

Asa is skeptical of the usefulness of Google Calculator. He uses something like the "ja" keyword bookmarklet, so he can type "calc 1+5" into his address bar to do a quick calculation. While that's great for arithmetic (and DOM), Google Calculator does a lot more than arithmetic.

My favorite Google Calculator feature is units.

• Can't remember a conversion factor? Search for 1 foot in cm or feet in a meter.
• You'll notice quickly if you multiply when you should divide or vice versa, because the units in the output will be wrong (1 volt * 1 amp vs 1 volt / 1 amp).
• 128000 bps * 3 minutes is much less error-prone than trying to remember all the conversion factors, even if you ignore than 1000-vs-1024 problem. (1MB is 1024^2 B, but a "128kbps" MP3 is 128000bps, which I verified with a long "160kbps" MP3).

I also like Google Calculator's metric-centricness. Google knows I'm in the US, but a simple search for foot or mile gives me a conversion factor to cm or km, while searching for cm or km does not convert back. Unpatriotic? Maybe.

People often ask if I memorize bug numbers. I've only memorized a few bug numbers; my speed comes from having memorized parts of bug summaries and these searching tricks:

• I use Bugzilla QuickSearch for 99% of my searches. I only use query.cgi when I need "changed in n days" or things only available in boolean charts (such as bug history).
• I include resolved bugs in most of my searches (using "ALL") so I can follow links from duplicates.
• I restrict my searches to bugs with 2 or mote votes (using "votes:2") when I search for a bug I know is "popular". About 9% of open bugs have 2 or more votes.

I also change bugs so I can search for them more easily.

• I change summaries to make bugs show up in searches by adding words that I'm likely to search for.
• I change summaries to make them easy to understand in search results by making them more precise or shorter.
• I cross-reference bugs that are closely related by adding a comment to each bug pointing to the other bug.

If I know that two bugs are cross-referenced, I often use the "collect buglinks" bookmarklet instead of skimming comments for the link.

I started a blog, The Burning Edge, to help Mozilla Firebird fans decide which nightlies to use.

Every once in a while, someone asks how to open the JavaScript Console in a browser tab, or how to make a shortcut that opens the Bookmark Manager. Here are the chrome:// URLs you need.

To make a shortcut, use the -chrome switch, like this: firefox.exe -chrome chrome://browser/content/bookmarks/bookmarksManager.xul. If you leave out the -chrome switch, the Bookmark Manager (etc) will be inside a browser window.

To open one of these in a browser tab, just enter the URL into the address bar. Chrome URLs can be bookmarked like any other type of URL. Opening these chrome URLs in browser tabs is not supported, so don't be surprised if you encounter bugs.

Mozilla Firefox:

Mozilla Seamonkey (suite):

Update 2004-11-30: This entry is now duplicated at MozillaZine Knowledge Base: Chrome URLs. The Knowledge Base entry may be more up-to-date than this blog entry.

Capitol Steps: Interview with "Arnold Schwarzenegger" (mp3).

Meanwhile, SFGate reports that 52% of registered California voters "said the recall does not make California look foolish to the rest of the country". (via Erika Rice)

The Visual Cognition Lab at the University of Illinois has some cool videos.

In one set of videos, "Real-world person-change events", an experimenter asks a subject for directions. Two people carrying a door come between the experimenter and the subject. While the door is between them, the experimenter switches with one of the door-carriers. Subjects noticed the person change between 35% and ~100% of the time, depending on whether the experimenter was part of the same social group as the subject.

The "Gradual changes to scenes" videos are fun. Over a period of about 10 seconds, part of an image changes. Unfortunately, video compression artifacts make it easy to see the change if you focus on the correct portion of the image. I wrote Gradual image change in JavaScript with the intent of submitting it to the lab. The JavaScript works by superimposing two images and varying the transparency of the top image in increments of 1%. It works well in IE 6.0, but it's about three times too slow in Mozilla Firebird on my 1.6 GHz computer.

Bush: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." (State of the Union address)

Rice: "The statement that he made was indeed accurate. The British government did say that."

Rumsfeld: "It turns out that it's technically correct what the president said, that the U.K. does -- did say that -- and still says that."

"Randy": "I never said your wife's a whore. What I said was: Jim found out your wife's a whore." (a comment on dKos via causality)

Strong Badia's flag breaks many of the rules Josh Parsons used when he graded the world's flags. I wonder if the Brothers Chaps consulted that page before creating the flag.