Amazing name.
Well... from the previous HN discussion I had Squirt in my favorites bar, until I did a work presentation and realized the name could be misinterpreted! I then quickly deleted it.
Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
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Re: Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
#12Re: Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well... from the previous HN discussion I had Squirt in my favorites bar, until I did a work presentation and realized the name could be misinterpreted! I then quickly deleted it.
How could it be misinterpreted?
Re: Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
#14Great idea!
I would suggest adding an option to read the highlighted text so as to make sure you can get the plugin to work even when it can't detect the portion of the page where the article is.
Re: Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
#15This kind of things are gimmicky at best, and an awful reading experience at worst. The time it takes for your eyes to adjust to the blinking letters is larger than the saccadic movement, and a single saccade reads a bunch of words instead, allowing you to both comprehend the sentence immediately, and also easily skip back-forward in case of errors.
On the other hand, I found it incredibly useful. My mind often wanders when I read, and Squirt solves that. I found their choice of color scheme jarring. They highlight a specific letter in blue for some reason, and you get a strange optical sensation after staring at that shade of blue for too long. I had to download their js and css, rehost it myself, search through it for the color code, and change it to black. Bu…
I suspect that's done to help anchor your focus, i.e. so your eyes don't move too much
Re: Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
#16Isn't this just a clone of Spritz? http://www.spritzinc.com/
Cameron does give credits to Spritz on his page.
Re: Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
#17This kind of things are gimmicky at best, and an awful reading experience at worst. The time it takes for your eyes to adjust to the blinking letters is larger than the saccadic movement, and a single saccade reads a bunch of words instead, allowing you to both comprehend the sentence immediately, and also easily skip back-forward in case of errors.
On the other hand, I found it incredibly useful. My mind often wanders when I read, and Squirt solves that. I found their choice of color scheme jarring. They highlight a specific letter in blue for some reason, and you get a strange optical sensation after staring at that shade of blue for too long. I had to download their js and css, rehost it myself, search through it for the color code, and change it to black. Bu…
I agree with you. I've found it extremely useful to quickly pass through light reads. But sometimes, I wish there was a feature to display 'fixed width', that way small words can be combined, and will give more fixation time at higher speeds.
Re: Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
#18Re: Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
#19This is ludicrously wrong. Real speed-reading requires reading multiple words at a time.
Re: Squirt: Speed read the web, one word at a time
#20Amazing name.
I've tried Squirt and it's great, but as Steve Ballmer proved naming anything 'squirt' or 'squirting' is not a path to long-term product success.
The thought of anything squirting in my eyes, ears or wherever is one I don't want.