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I closed a lot of browser tabs

rjbs.manxome.org

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Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#241

Post by rjbs »

somehnacct3757 wrote: post #59
lol768 wrote: post #31

Interesting choice to use some sort of proprietary OS scripting language instead of just writing a standard WebExtension, I thought. Presumably chrome.tabs.query would have returned all tabs and a native manifest would've allowed comms with the outside world to build a HTTP server. Still, I suppose the approach taken by the author worked at the end of the day - just not very portable.

Yeah I think the web extension approach is the best one. Shame they ruled it out. Extension background scripts can push data wherever you want. You can sideload the extension and talk to localhost ports or anyone on the internet. Use ajax or native events to talk to a local process. There's even an event system that tells you when tabs are opened, closed, activated, deactivated, etc.

Thanks, I'll have a look at writing a web extension, sometime. It sounds like they might not be such a pain, after all. Here, I just forged forward with what I already knew I could get done while goofing off on the weekend.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#242

Post by cookiengineer »

bane wrote: post #142
cookiengineer wrote: post #16

Isn't this tab fatigue of every user not more a hint that bookmarking is broken? I mean, no matter how I bookmark a website, omnibar is absolutely useless in every browser when it comes to re-discovering your bookmarks via keywords that you remember. Sometimes I bookmark the same URL multiple times, because the Browser is too stupid to realize that a #generated-hashbang or a ?utm_source is a generated tracking parame…

The problem is that browsers have a broken model of memory: 1 - Tabs are current attention. 2 - Bookmarks are long-term memory, but don't store content, only meta-data. What browsers need is 1 - Current attention 2 - Working memory, where old tabs automatically capture content and slide off into some kind of easy to recall state, but are no longer tabs 3 - Bookmarks, but with content storage, better organization, ind…

This literally was the primary reason to build my peer to peer browser that has a persistent cache which can be shared with other (local) peers.

I think the cache needs to be persistent and offline ready, ignoring ETags and other stupid headers. Otherwise it's a useless cache that is not controlled by the user.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#243

Post by rustyminnow »

wly_cdgr wrote: post #167
rsync wrote: post #165

Why can't we just have: about:tabs ... which would be a plain text listing of all the URLs of all the tabs you have open ? You could just copy and paste it to a file or whatever. No fancy bookmarking scheme needed. Instead, we need to dig several directories deep into /Library (or whatever, depending on your OS) and then use JSON tools to export ... I've already lost most people. Go search for "how can I export tabs"…

I get not wanting to install a third party extension just for this, but it would be a simple weekend project to write one to do this yourself (and install it locally to avoid the extension store shitshow)

What is the extension store shitshow?

I have a couple of personal extensions in the store but haven't really used it much. Just wondering what your experience is

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#244

Post by freediver »

1MachineElf wrote: post #138
cookiengineer wrote: post #16

Isn't this tab fatigue of every user not more a hint that bookmarking is broken? I mean, no matter how I bookmark a website, omnibar is absolutely useless in every browser when it comes to re-discovering your bookmarks via keywords that you remember. Sometimes I bookmark the same URL multiple times, because the Browser is too stupid to realize that a #generated-hashbang or a ?utm_source is a generated tracking parame…

I believe it is in Google's and Microsoft's interest to keep bookmarks crippled. Every time you forgo using your bookmarks to lookup something, you instead use their search services, which indirectly translates to money in their pocket.

Interesting theory.

However Apple has no such agenda and yet Safari has probably the worst bookmark/history management of them all. So it seems to be a question of product management priorities really.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#245

Post by freediver »

samatman wrote: post #199

I long for a browser optimized for research. Tab management would be an essential part of what I have in mind. It would offer a management view, where each window is a column with a list of all open tabs. I can select the tabs I want, move them around, group them into a new window, and (this is the key) save them. This would prompt me for a title, and would produce an ordinary Markdown text file with the title as an…

This has the first part (window tabs as columns plus drag&drop management): https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tab-organizer/gbao...

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#246

Post by dragonsngoblins »

vagrantJin wrote: post #140
dredmorbius wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're likely thinking of "We Still Don't Get Things Done", posted 11 days ago: https://www.wired.com/story/to-do-apps-failed-productivity-t... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28010716 And yes, there's a lot there that resonated strongly with me. The cars-under-tarps anecdote is an excellent one. As life goes on, one accumulates an ever-growing list of gates which have closed irrevocably behind one. The German w…

Funny to come across this thread. Just a week ago my best friend had been moaning for two years about tidying his garage. I came with two beers intent on a chill weekend watchinh olympics but I happened to run into his wife as she was parking her car in the garage. We spoke for a minute but I decided we'd rather start working on his garage. My friend came out and we started. A few hours later, tired and hungry, his S…

>> Maybe we need others to get things done. Maybe the man would jumpstart his passion if someone shared his thing for restoration.

I think there is a lot of truth to this actually. Admittedly I'm a little sleep deprived right now in that way that leads you reading a statement and feeling it is incredibly profound in a way you might not otherwise... but still I think you are really onto something.

Working with someone smooths out the edges well when things go poorly (if something goes wrong and you are alone it is easier to be grumpy about it than if you have someone with you to say "oh well, we can do X instead" or "It doesn't really matter"), they make the work feel seen and therefore feel more valuable. I can enjoy cooking for (and especially with my partner) but I can never be bothered to really cook for myself, even if I'd enjoy the meal more in the end it doesn't feel worth the time and energy investment when I could just slap together a sandwich or something.

This extends to hobby projects as well in a big way, perhaps even more. Sure I could spend hours painting a picture and have people say "wow, that's impressive" (this is just an example, I can't actually paint), but it feels hard to justify when I have other things I might need to do. If someone else is working on the same thing with you it makes you feel like you are investing that time in them, which is inherently fulfilling.

Even in your example of you helping your friend, once they've accepted you are helping they will feel like every bit of work they do will make your life easier. It's less intense but they will still feel like they are contributing to your efforts in someway, or at least like they are working towards a mutual goal instead of something kind of isolated.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#247

Post by dredmorbius »

redfern314 wrote: post #212
dredmorbius wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox Desktop at least lets you know if you've aready got a given URL open. Chrome does not. (My "Close tabs" post-it on my desk lamp is dated April 15. 2017.)

Chrome actually does have that feature, but maybe it differs a bit from how Firefox implements it. It gives you a "switch to this tab" option in the omnibox if your input matches the title or URL of an open tab.

It certainly doesn't do that on Mobile.

I abandoned Chrome/desktop years ago.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#248

Post by e3bc54b2 »

agent327 wrote: post #221
e3bc54b2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but leaves you with a lot of tabs open that are cognitively hard to deal with ("why did I think this would be interesting?") Get "Tree Style Tabs". All the tabs are in hierarchy. Anything opened via "Open in new tab" becomes a child tab. This way, the "train of thought" is always preserved.

Yes, but then you end up with fifty tabs open, meaning you'll doomscroll for the rest of the day. I very much prefer to see it the way I described it, with the main page on the left and the content on the right. My screen is plenty wide enough to make that possible.

Doomscroll usually isn't an issue. Tree Style Tabs collapses a tree you're not in by default. So by default you only see the top level tabs, and your current branch is expanded. If your screen is 1080p or higher, you can easily see ~20+ tabs in single view.

The trick is to not switch tabs by mouse. Firefox searches through open tabs with '%' prefix. So I don't have to doomscroll ro find my tab. And the tab that I'm currently viewing has full context history open, instead of just homepage as per your suggestion. Our workflows could be different, but two levels of context is bit limiting. Right now, I have 3 trees with 3 layers of hierarchi and one tree with 4 levels. Occasionally I've reached 5 or 6 levels, but those are very short lived and cleaned up immediately.

The biggest advantage this setup provides me is that I can offload the tab (and by proxy work) state onto my machine instead of holding it in my brain. This comes handy when working on multiple things simultaneously, because I can focus on task in front of me, and when I switch to different task the browser retrieves and presents its state from where I left it.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#249

Post by Haga »

cookiengineer wrote: post #16

Isn't this tab fatigue of every user not more a hint that bookmarking is broken? I mean, no matter how I bookmark a website, omnibar is absolutely useless in every browser when it comes to re-discovering your bookmarks via keywords that you remember. Sometimes I bookmark the same URL multiple times, because the Browser is too stupid to realize that a #generated-hashbang or a ?utm_source is a generated tracking parame…

Tabs should be auto grouped in a interest e. g. "cangoroo obsession". Within these threads, the repeated common elements (authors, producers, stars, most recent visit, Nr of visits) should allow to sort it hierarchical. Now bookmarks are a echo chamber of obsessions and we are to blame. Tabs get sorted by the obsessions they are part of, creating meta tabs. Society collapses on its own weight.

Re: I closed a lot of browser tabs

#250

Post by brokenmachine »

Please forgive me father for I have sinned.

My Firefox with it's hundreds of session tabs was taking over 23Gb of memory on my PC, which was making it difficult to run some other things - VMs, etc. My PC only had 32Gb RAM.

My solution was to buy another 32Gb of RAM.

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