ScribeFire add-on for Firefox—First Test

Today I discovered a new add-on/extension for Firefox called ScribeFire which allows users to compose blog entries directly in Firefox—without actually visiting my SparkBox blog entry composition page. Formatting and publishing are supposed to be simplified, so that it obviates the need to jump back and forth between a couple different applications, or to use the somewhat clunky composing window in the Blogger interface. It supports plain text as well as manual HTML formatting at the flick of a button.

I'm just starting to get it figured out; first problem I've run into is in getting it to upload images from my desktop so that they'll become available for inserting into these entries. I also ran into a problem upon first launching ScribeFire, a javascript error that was caused by a long-ago neglected and incorrectly ser-up link to Feedburner. Once I disabled that from my Blogspot dashboard, I was able to create the proper settings within the ScribeFire UI.

Sooo, here goes. Gonna pull the trigger and see if this uploads.

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Fast 50 in a Little Box

So, you think you know your way around? It's a little tougher than I remembered it to be.

I first heard of the "50 States" test from my Mom. She said they used to play it at parties when she was young, but, well...it couldn't have been called the "50 States" test back then. For some reason I never tried it until 20 years later during a really dull afternoon when a bunch of my buddies and I were rained off of the driving range and into the clubhouse bar.

Think about the United States. When you click on the image at the top left of this post, you'll be taken to the test page. Immediately a 10 minute countdown timer will start. Set your cursor in the little text field and type as many of the 50 states as you can. Spelling counts, and so do spaces. You can use all lower-case letters if you want. When you type it correctly, that state will get added to an alphabetically ordered list below the text field, and the field will reset to get ready for the next entry.

The picture above is the screen shot of my result. I think for everybody, those last few are the ones that will suck up a lot of time on the countdown clock. Took me about 90 seconds to get the last one.

There's also another version that keeps all of your entries visible for inspection in the order you type them (I find this version easier, since I made my mental tour geographically, and not alphabetically).via IronicSans

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