Murphy Mac

If you can’t get used to the green button for resizing your Safari windows you might like this. Your bookmarks can do more than just take you to a certain website. Using the capabilities baked into javascript you can create bookmarklets that not only open a page, they can also resize a window and set its location on the display.

But there’s more. You can get creative and coax bookmarklets into performing all kinds of tasks. For example, you could use a bookmarklet on your iPhone to search the content of a web page. Here’s a site listing dozens of bookmarklet ideas.

A bookmarklet is actually a clever line of javascript. A single line that is, just like your bookmarks. Here are two examples that Murphy uses. The first one resizes the window from which it’s clicked and positions it on the screen at a custom-set coordinate.

javascript:self.moveTo(275,8);self.resizeTo(900,800);

Right click here and select Copy Link Location to copy the code. Then you can paste it into TextEdit to change it. Or paste it into a bookmark and tweak it there to make a bookmarklet. Or keep it really simple: Drag the line of javascript to your bookmarks bar in Safari. See the screencast to watch Murphy do it.

You can adjust the numbers so the bookmarklet works for you. The first number-pair places the top left corner of the window 275 pixels from the left edge and 8 from the top. The second pair sizes the window 900 pixels tall, 800 wide.

Murphy uses this other bookmarklet to open a window for Remote Buddy, which he uses to control a remote iTunes library. A small window is suitable, and it doesn’t need toolbars or bookmarks at the top. The bookmarklet produces a tidy little window for selecting playlists and rating tracks.

javascript:window.open('http://g5.local:8888',

'MyWindow','toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,

status=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=no,

width=320,height=418,left=100,

top=300');return%20false;

Right-click here to copy this code. It needs to be a single line and is only broken up here for convenience.

The http://g5.local:8888 is my G5 running iTunes. Change that to any url you need to open. The other settings are fairly self-explanatory. Murphy has the scrollbars on so he can scroll through his playlists. You can tweak those settings to meet your own needs.

Not all bookmarklets are created equal. You may need to trawl around a little to find the right javascript that works across multiple browsers. These two were only tested in Safari.

I always thought Safari was adding the .com to addresses I typed in the Address Bar. I think Firefox does. Or did. The other day Road Runner started showing me a search results page with ads if I entered something like “apple” without the .com.

Changing my DNS servers to 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 (Level3) seems to have me back to my lazy ways. I can enter krispykreme and hit enter and I’m all set.

Just go to System Preferences and click Network. Select your network interface on the left. Click Advanced and then DNS. Use the plus sign to add the two DNS servers to your list, just like the screenshot.

Quick post in case you haven’t seen this:

I’ll be the first to admit I knew nothing of Webkit until I saw it mentioned on Digg. I always forget to look at Digg. Murphy does too.

Then I read this glowing review by Seth Weintraub over at ComputerWorld. What is Webkit? It’s a developmental version of Safari you can get your hands on right now. I’ll let the post speak for itself, but in summary Seth thinks Webkit is seriously fast. More importantly, the often-ornery Digg comment crowd seems to agree.

When you start Webkit up you’ll see all your links and bookmarks. Basically, jumping back and forth between Webkit and Safari should be more or less transparent. I only played with it for a few minutes. Gmail wasn’t doing so well with auto-fill on the address line. Let us know how you do in the comments.

Here’s the link to Webkit’s nightly builds.

NOTE: Murphy could use a little help on an Applescript with regard to captured text, paths, and spaces in file names. If you have the required expertise please drop an email to murphy at murphymac dot com.  Thanks.

If you didn’t participate in Macheist you missed out on a great application called 1Password. With 1Password you can store your login credentials from multiple websites and log in with a couple clicks.

Do you have multiple Gmail accounts? 1Password makes it a snap to switch between them. (there are other applications for this purpose) Actually, if you have multiple usernames on ANY website 1Password will help you keep them straight. Watch the screencast to see how Murphy sets up sites for 1Password.

It seems like Murphy is creating new usernames and passwords all the time. Keeping them sorted can be taxing on the brain. The last thing you want to do is use the same password on multiple sites. Better still, 1Password can help you generate strong, unique passwords since you won’t have to remember them. (more…)

Murphy’s never tried to make a Widget before, but it sure was easy using Safari. Take a look at the screencast to see just how easy it was.

We’re not sure what the limits are, you can make yourself some Widgets and see. Murphy made one from a webcam on Waikiki Beach and it updated just like the one on the web page.

If Murphy gets a chance he might try to make a more complicated Widget that runs commands in Terminal.