UPDATE: I somehow managed to break the below-mentioned Greasemonkey script before uploading it to userscripts.org. If you tried it out and nothing happened, the fault is mine. It is all fixed now.
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Remember how I was trying to get Google Reader to listen to my usability complaint re: links to articles being only at the top?

Well, this problem has not yet been addressed by the Google team…  but it has been addressed by me.

I greased up the monkey and with one fell swoop made Google Reader’s interface one gripe cleaner.  My new Greasemonkey script copies the title/URL from the top of every item and includes it at the bottom as well.

You can install it here.

If, on the other hand, you’re mystified by this whole Greasemonkey thing, I’ll give a brief explanation.  Greasemonkey is a Firefox add-on that lets users create scripts that will affect the content of web pages before they’re displayed in the browser.  There are thousands of pre-made scripts to be found at userscripts.org, affecting all sorts of popular sites, and you can always badger your favorite nerds into making custom ones.  Some of my favorite pre-made scripts are:

1) AutoPagerize, which causes page 2 (then 3 etc) to automatically be inserted at the end of page one for many popular site.  Tired of ‘next’ing your way through your Google search results or Twitter timeline?  This handy script just requires you to scroll and the next bunch magically appear.

2) YousableTubeFix, this does a bunch of handy things to YouTube pages, the most handy of which is defaulting the the “HD” videos, and increasing the size of the player dramatically.  YouTube has never been so pleasant.

That ought to be enough to get you started, but with Greasemonkey, pretty much anything you’ve ever dreamed you could do with a website is possible.

Hey Google,

It’s me again.  Since our last conversation, I’ve realized something else you could do to make our time together in Reader more productive and less angrifying.  Know how I share lots of stuff in my “Shared Items,” despite only like 4 people seeing them?  Well, it’d be really helpful if I didn’t have to be subscribed to my own Shared Items.  I mean, I shared them.  I don’t need you showing them to me again. (Despite that one time that I accidentally saw something cool in there that I forgot had gotten there because of me, and went ahead and shared it again.  Sharing an item from my shared items… that’s classy.)  At the very least, could you make sure they actually get marked as read after I read them?  I perpetually have 11-or-so “new” items in there that I’ve seen a hundred times.

Seriously, Google.  I’m beginning to think this conversation is one-sided.  Don’t make me start writing to SkyNet instead.

With the news of Microsoft possibly buying Yahoo! spreading around the internet, I’ve been hearing doom-and-gloom from people pretty consistently regarding their Flickr accounts.  Left and right I see people lamenting that they’d JUST paid for another year, but now wish they hadn’t because Microsoft is going to ruin Flickr.

To long-time Flickrers, this is nothing new.  Yahoo! “ruined” Flickr a couple years ago, yet it is still going strong.  I’m not sure how many of the complainers are pre-Yahoo! users, but their argument is pretty flimsy.  “Oh no!  A big evil company is buying the photo site I love from… another big evil company?”  If you’re fine with using a cool little photo site that’s been co-opted by Yahoo! to make as much money off it as possible (by doing sleazy things like using its users’s’s photos in advertisements without asking), then you really have no reason to worry if some other company then wants to start making money off your stuff instead.

Look, I’m as anti-Microsoft as the next guy (OK, probably a lot more), but do I think they’re going “ruin” Flickr more than Yahoo! already did?  No way.  So quit yer bitchin’.  Chances are you already use Google Mail, Google Maps, Google IM, Google Documents, Google Analytics and Google Prostate Check and fully intend to buy a Google Phone as soon as they come out, so why all the worry about Microsoft getting into the mix?  If Google bought Flickr the entire blogosphere would cave in upon itself under the strain of a bajillion bloggers rejoicing in unity, sending waves of trackbacks back and forth, obliterating Technorati’s servers.

I don’t know how to end this post.

I’ve recently taken to clicking the ‘share’ button in google reader whenever I come across something I think others would be interested in.

Unfortunately, I have a grand total of 3 ‘friends’ in Google Reader, so I feel that the stuff I’m sharing is falling on largely deaf ears.  So, if anyone’s interested in seeing my shared items, they can be viewed/subscribed to here.

And if you use Google Reader and ever use the ‘share’ functionality yourself, please feel free to add jerwarren@gmail.com to your ‘friends,’ as I’d enjoy seeing new stuff.

Thanks,
management

I’m not sure if I should be proud or disgustipated, but I currently have the #1 spot on google for the following queries: emma watson’s boobs , emma watson boobs , emma watson boob, and the #2 spot for really young girls.

Two things:

1) my love/hate relationship with google continues. Once again, google reader’s mobile interface is borked up, meaning I have nothing to read. (I wrote this yesterday morning; reader mobile is working again now.)

This brings to mind the point that I’m reluctantly participating in their scheme for world domination, and really ought find another option that won’t both leave me in the lurch and use me as a tool for advertising. Maybe this will be the push I need.

2) I hate insurance companies/lawyers. The insurance company of the girl who rear-ended me contacted me over the weekend, asking that I give a recorded statement.

What no one seems to understand is that I’m not out for a settlement or something, and that the only reason we even filed an insurance claim¹ is because I was worried that she’d get stuck with a huge medical bill in the event that I WAS injured. So anyway, they asked whether there were any prior injuries or conditions that could simply be “aggravated” by this accident. I suspect that I would probably have been within my legal rights to not answer it, but I did anyway; I said I have had neck problems, even went through physical therapy to deal with it. This really seemed to please the insurance tool.

I understand that they have to look out for themselves in the event that someone tries to screw them over, but it really pisses me off that as someone who is never going to screw someone over, I still have to deal with this crap. In the event that I DO have problems, I’m sure they’re going to try to weasel out saying “oh no, he had that BEFORE, we’re not payin’.”

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1: she was really scared of the process of making a claim and having her rates go up. She wanted to pay for the damage and any medical bills herself, but after explaining that medical bills can get REALLY high, she reluctantly decided it’d be best to file a claim as a protection in the event that I were injured. She still wants to pay for damage to my vehicle herself, which I think is kind of silly, but not something I’m opposed to.