Inquisitor kinda works in Safari 4

March 4, 2009 1 Comment

So Inquisitor doesn’t show up in Safari 4’s toolbar or preferences, but it does work from the bookmarks view (Command-Option-B).

Inquisitor in Safari 4

The menu only shows for a split second, so you have to use keyboard shortcuts. If you haven’t set any shortcuts for Inquisitor you can do so by editing your Safari preference file (~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist) and looking for keys starting with “kInquisitor”. Below is a partial view of my plist file for reference.

safari-plist

If you do not have the Property List Editor (part of Apple Developer Tools) you could try PlistEdit Pro (I have never used this) or just get down and dirty with the XML.

Remember not to use existing keyboard shortcuts to avoid conflicts.

Safari 4

February 26, 2009 2 Comments

So, first impressions: feels pretty snappy; tab placement was confusing for 2 minutes but now I really like it, though I agree it doesn’t make sense for the bookmarks bar to be within a tab; Top Sites is completely useless to me, but CoverFlow for history might come in handy once in a blue moon. Overall it seems like Google Chrome has made quite an impression.

Only one thing REALLY bugging me: keyboard shortcuts for the bookmarks bar is broken for popup bookmarklets.

Ideal behaviour: you hit Cmd-1, and your first (non-folder) item on the bookmarks bar loads in the current window. If it is a JavaScript bookmarklet, it behaves exactly as it would if you’d clicked it, e.g. popup in a new, typically small window. This is not affected by Safari’s Block Pop-up Windows feature.

Safari 3 did exactly that.

Safari 4: you hit Cmd-1, and because Cmd is the modifier for “new tab”, your small bookmarklet opens in a new tab in your large window.

Cmd- for a regular URL bookmark obviously doesn’t open it in a new tab, because the Cmd is part of the shortcut and not the new tab modifier.

I guess nobody on the Safari team uses both popup bookmarklets and shortcut keys for the bookmarks bar.

Update: I think Manton Reece is spot on, regardless of Apple’s intentions (emphasis mine):

In the last 4 years the problem has only gotten worse. Developers are rolling their own tab solutions and there is no consistent behavior or keyboard shortcuts that I have seen. Worse, coding fully-featured tabs with the ability to drag windows in and out of a tab group is very difficult, and most apps don’t go that far.

The Safari 4 tabs are conceptually the right way to go. It’s not “tabs” at all. Instead, think of it as an efficient way to dock multiple windows together.

something broke the theme

February 15, 2009 0 Comments

so I bit the bullet and installed the k2 nightly and I’m too tired to do anything about it really

Punishing

January 30, 2009 4 Comments

Holy cow Punisher: War Zone was bad. At least The Spirit had some style, albeit in a lame not-really-Sin-City kinda way. Punisher was just painful to watch. Horrible acting and dialogue all around, completely nonsensical plot with more gaps and errors than bullet-holes. No idea what the jerkwads over here are smoking.

Ray Stevenson has as much enthusiasm for the role as Homer Simpson might have for a stick of celery. He is not “shredding through his opposition” — he is a man in a body vest who does not get hit by Hollywood bullets, gives absolutely no impression of strength or aggression or general deadliness, shows no sign of tactical intelligence or military training or skill in armed or unarmed combat, and has as many facial expressions as a potato.

Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle, was it really “one of the best action packed and violent films [you've] ever seen in [your] life”? Have you not watched Rambo? Or Shoot ‘Em Up? Or even any one Steven Seagal flick?

This is the fourth new movie I’ve watched this year.

It’s the fourth shitty movie I’ve watched this year.

Old kottke, new kottke, my kottke

January 21, 2009 0 Comments

So kottke recently went from my favourite ugly yellow-green to a series of seizure-inducing blues. It’s actually quite refreshing (and very Apple, murdering of darlings and such), but sometimes I have terrible, recursive nightmares and yearn for the comfort of the familiar yellow bar.

Old kottke, new kottke, my kottke

Here’s the userscript — it hides the blue border and turns the header yellow. I based it on a simple custom CSS script I found and I’ve only tested it with Safari/GreaseKit, so proceed with caution.