11 ms·

Squirt.io – Readability Meets Spritz Speed Reading

443 points by pkghost 13y ago

felipeerias 13y ago
I am not sure that I get the point of this. When I read a long piece, I try to enjoy it. Imagine the same approach being used to "fix" food or sex in the name of efficiency.
- talkingquickly 13y ago
  I think the use case for this is the reading we do because we need to consume the information as quickly as possible rather than the reading we're doing for pleasure. Not that the two are mutually exclusive by any means. I love reading but, particularly online, I'll often need to read something which contains a lot of information I need but isn't written in a style I particularly enjoy reading. For these, I can see the benefit of tools like this.
- arikrak 13y ago
  Have you heard of Soylent?
- Jonovono 13y ago
  Just because you are reading quicker does not mean you are not still enjoying what you are reading..
jpincheira 13y ago
Dude, the name
ljf 13y ago
Love it, I can't wait for an ePub reader though, got so many books I'd love to fly through, though novels for pleasure I think I'd read normally as I enjoy stopping and rereading passages.
- chrisballinger 13y ago
  This one has basic ePub support https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android
  - ljf 13y ago
    Awesome thanks for that! Brilliant simple app, does just what I wanted.
navneetpandey 13y ago
This is great, but not able to read play books.
gchokov 13y ago
I'd be much more interested in a solution that effectively minimizes the text or uses another technique about speed reading (like diagonals, etc). The reason why I won't be using this service is simply because it makes the eye lazier. My eyes are already lazy enough because I am in front of the computer 12+ hours a day, so my eyes muscles need movement. Staring at one point for long time can also cause side effects like losing the sense of space and time. Staring at one point is often used as hypnotizing during different kind of therapies.
espressoAndCode 13y ago
This is a terrific idea. I was blown away the first time I saw it. I have been able to consistently get high comprehension at 650WPM for general subject matter (ie non-technical articles), and plan on working my way up to 1000. Love it!
ScottWhigham 13y ago
Great stuff - thanks for sharing. One note: when I drag the bookmarklet from the Install page to my toolbar, then try to use it on a page on my http://localhost/ http://localhost/ (a dev site, for ex.), it (a) does what I expected it to do, but then (b) forwards me to http://localhost/install.html http://localhost/install.html when it is finished. When I browse an actual domain-based site, it gives me the nice "You just read..." message at the end. It would be nice if both local and remote sites had the same experience.
- pkghost 13y ago
  Welcome to my smelly code! It's supposed to go to /install on squirt.io--and also localhost for my own dev purposes. It's a bit of a hack, but saves me from maintaining two bookmarklets. Are you a publisher? Trying to embed it on your blog/site?
  - ScottWhigham 13y ago
    Thanks for the reply. Not a publisher - I just happened to be coding on my own local site in another tab. That was the first place I tried it.
yuchi 13y ago
This is very well executed. But it doesn’t work on HTTPS :\
- yukichan 13y ago
  Yes, this (Chrome not allowing the script to be run) is a good thing. The bookmarklet javascript needs to be served over HTTPS and any communication it makes also need to be over SSL. Seriously if you aren't defaulting to HTTPS for your website and or service in 2014 you're doing it wrong. Plain text HTTP needs to go the way of telnet.
  - d1plo1d 13y ago
    er.. sorry what? Squirt is using plain text HTTP. This is definitely a bad thing. From Chrome Dev Tools: "..was loaded over HTTPS, but ran insecure content from 'http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js' http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js': this content should also be loaded over HTTPS."
    - yukichan 13y ago
      I would have thought that if you read my entire post that I meant that Chrome blocking it is a good thing. I will edit the comment to make that more clear.
      - spektom 13y ago
        Why not just replace "http://" http://" with "//" in your Bookmarklet code?
- avoutthere 13y ago
  I would use this for reading technical documentation (e.g. drupal.org), but a number of such sites force https.
philmcc 13y ago
I'm pretty sure this is just a big middle finger to Spritz. In the most hilarious way possible. Or am I misinterpreting the acknowledgments? ;)
- mnml_ 13y ago
  I wish I could see their faces right now
  - philmcc 13y ago
    in rapid succession. like a flip book.
    - kwyn 13y ago
      great idea.
- kybernetyk 13y ago
  Uhm, what's the difference between Spritz an Squirt.io? I've looked at both demos and I can't see much difference in the concept. Though the Spritz website is more ... ehm ... bullshit bingo compliant it seems. Am I assuming right that the joke lies in Spritz being a VC funded startup and squirt.io just a weekend hack?
  - mr_spothawk 13y ago
    >Am I assuming right that the joke lies in Spritz being a VC funded startup and squirt.io just a weekend hack? Squirt.io was in stealth mode for 6 years!! </snide>
  - pogden 13y ago
    The difference is that I can actually use Squirt.io, today. I like Spritz, but it's useless to me if I can't use it on anything but their site or the email app of the next Samsung phone.
  - sa1 13y ago
spada 13y ago
amazing. My feature request is PDF functionality. thanks for making this.
- kennethcwilbur 13y ago
  Upvote. Please give me a way to use this to read academic papers!
  - j6m8 13y ago
    I'm working on it — https://github.com/j6k4m8/squirt-academic https://github.com/j6k4m8/squirt-academic But I won't really be able to dig in until after this weekend. Feel free to contribute, PR, list requests, etc.
- pkghost 13y ago
  it's on the list! thanks for the feedback :)
- sedeki 13y ago
  To read PDFs with this would be amazing
- Humpel 13y ago
  Yeah PDF or at least a field to paste text in!
colinramsay 13y ago
According to this, my current reading speed is about 750 words a minute - but I have a tendency to be able to skim or "bulk comprehend" sections of non-technical text so that might explain it.
ermintrude 13y ago
Why does each user need to be given an ID? How private is this?
- aroemers 13y ago
  It uses keen.io for analytics, and it might even store the URL you're visiting. You'd better not use this if you're concerned about your privacy: https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/js/io.js#L65-L74 https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/js/io.js#L65...
  - bra1n 13y ago
    In fact, it tracks whenever you use it and sends the URL along with all GET parameters of the page that you are browsing, including the referrer(!), your user agent and your IP to Keen.io: https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js#L549 https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js...
corobo 13y ago
I like the idea however it could do with filtering out HTML and Javascript. Most pages I've tried it on so far without manually selecting text it goes through a bunch of javascript before getting to the content. That may be my bad the way I'm using it but as the site mentions readability I figured it'd chuck it through that first
- pkghost 13y ago
  It uses readability if you don't make a selection. The selection logic is pretty dumb, and could use some help. Thanks for pointing this out!
nayefc 13y ago
It doesn't work well. Reads out Javascript and side text/ads on websites.
- spada 13y ago
  highlight the text you want to read and then click the bookmarklet.
  - deletes 13y ago
    That doesn't work for me; latest Firefox. I tried a couple of random popular sites,including HN, and it didn't work on all of them. This is a nice demo, but not a finished product.
ghc 13y ago
I've never thought much about my reading speed before, but after trying this and finding the deafault setting a bit slow, I decided to compare my natural reading speed. I was able to read the article I chose in about 85% of the time of the default 400WPM of the bookmarklet (I read the article first with a timer, and then reread with the bookmarklet), which would put me at 470WPM. With Squirt, I was only able to get up to 650WPM before it felt too uncomfortable. I wonder if people really read one word at a time, especially when they're short words. If people do read more than one word at a time, I think a more intelligent approach might be necessary to really make the experience both comfortable and fast.
- nilkn 13y ago
  > I wonder if people really read one word at a time They don't. I always thought the whole point of speed reading was to ingest multiple words simultaneously. These speed reading tools should be extended so that they can show multiple words at once rather than one word at a time. A really ambitious improvement would be to automatically recognize very common phrases and constructions and to make an effort to always show those as single groups.
  - phantom_oracle 13y ago
    > These speed reading tools should be extended so that they can show multiple words at once rather than one word at a time. http://spreeder.com/ http://spreeder.com/ allows you to put in multiple words. However, if the code for this is available for anyone to edit/modify, perhaps anyone wanting that feature could add it.
  - benrhughes 13y ago
    For me it depends on the content and my mood. With my app [0] I read at about 5-600wpm, whether it's 1, 2 or 3 words at a time. If I'm having trouble with a particular article, changing the number of words often fixes it. Though of course, for some content, I need to drop the WPM (esp when there's a lot of technical and/or unfamiliar terms). [0]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hughesoft.speedy https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hughesoft....
Mojah 13y ago
This project may consider a name-change, as googling for this after it's gone from the HN homepage will trigger ... interesting results. Especially if you're trying to show this to a co-worker in the office. Note to my boss: I'm sorry!
- ssully 13y ago
  I believe that is part of the whole knock against spritz. In German, where some of the founding members of Spritz are from, spritz means a similar thing that squirt does in American culture.
- ZeGoggles 13y ago
  Oh good lord. That is not a safe image search.
- nazca 13y ago
  Yeah, the name just sounds dirty. I changed the name of the bookmark...
- gohrt 13y ago
  Welcome to humanity. Every verb is a euphemism for a sexual act.
- jamiemchale 13y ago
  Tweeted about it with hashtagging the name. Checked the hashtag. Deleted the Tweet.
- ta9876 13y ago
  > on('squirt.again', startSquirt); https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js#L14 https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js... priceless!
bdg 13y ago
Thank you for this! I intend to drop the script on my blog, it might actually improve real reading rates (rather than thousands coming in from a reddit link and jumping ship after <9s ).
- wmeredith 13y ago
  >> rather than thousands coming in from a reddit link and jumping ship after <9s I think this probably has more to do with Reddit than you or your blog.
robobenjie 13y ago
I like this a lot, my only request would be a slightly longer pause at the end of sentences. Right now it pauses on long words so I mentally chunk all that together.
jfccohen 13y ago
I installed this on my browser bar and hasn't worked for cnn.com, highlighting specific text on cnn.com, medium.com. It worked on techcrunch...what about the HTML of the previous sites renders Squirt unusable?
- pkghost 13y ago
  Good question! I'll be investigating that shortly...
  - bluetidepro 13y ago
    I checked the console and it has to do with HTTPS. When I try to use Squirt on a HTTPS site I get this error in the console: "[blocked] The page at 'https://medium.com/p/cad4a8df73cf' https://medium.com/p/cad4a8df73cf' was loaded over HTTPS, but ran insecure content from 'http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js' http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js': this content should also be loaded over HTTPS."
    - pkghost 13y ago
      Fixed as of tonight, though you'll have to reinstall your bookmarklet :)
marccuban 13y ago
They could not have picked a worse name...
- sitkack 13y ago
  On purpose, it is tongue in cheek.
mp99e99 13y ago
I think this is really fantastic
wpears 13y ago
Similar to what I did with the chrome extension Spree [1]. Though I find your pauses on periods to be a bit much. Code for Spree available on github [2]. The IIFE in spree.js can also function as a bookmarklet. Also, Spree doesn't walk to an element's parent, which usually keeps it from getting into JS and ads, while still reading all of, say, a news article. On another tack, quite a lovely site. 1. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spree/aehoaolhojlmaidnfkhdghceloolfojk https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spree/aehoaolhojlm... 2. https://github.com/wpears/spree https://github.com/wpears/spree
- myrdev 13y ago
  I really like the way this works - much less disruptive to jump in and out. Any reason you cap WPM at 666, and always default to 400wpm? I want to go fasterrrr :) edit: I made my branch do this, are you interested in contributions?
Touche 13y ago
Really like it. The only downside is that you have no idea how far along in the article you are. Would be nice if there was a % complete shown somewhere.
- felipeerias 13y ago
  You would have to move your eyes to check it.
  - Touche 13y ago
    True, but you can pause before checking. And still is better than having no idea whether it will take one minute or one hour to read the article.
  - gagzilla 13y ago
    It should be possible to change the color of the selected letter to indicate where you are on the page. Alternate option could be to position the word on the (current) vertical line to indicate where you are on the whole page. I'd like to believe that if the text is reasonable amount- the transition for either would be gradual. Hoping the open source fairy sprinkles some dust on this one.
  - reustle 13y ago
    Maybe a progress bar along the bottom. Easy to pick up with your peripheral
- pkghost 13y ago
  You're not the only one ;) In the works!
  - superasn 13y ago
    Also an option to bookmark your position would be great. Some articles are difficult to read in one go! i'm also using Foxit pdf-to-text feature to upload my pdf ebooks on pastebin and use this to read them. If you even open this up on github i'll be glad to contribute some features :D
Zarkonnen 13y ago
This is lovely, but how do I adjust the default WPM? I want to use more than 400, and having to adjust it each time is very annoying.
- innaego 13y ago
  Have you tried editing the bookmark and see if there is a parameter in the javascript for that?
- kwyn 13y ago
  Just tap the WPM and it'll give you options
  - RussianCow 13y ago
    I think the parent wants to be able to set a default instead of having to select it each time.
    - mariusmg 13y ago
      Edit dispatch('squirt.wpm', {value: 400, notForKeen: true});
- pkghost 13y ago
  This feature is coming! Glad you're using it :)
jedanbik 13y ago
I love this concept - I hope you can find a way to integrate with Instapaper on iOS!
innaego 13y ago
Cool. Is the idea based on any existing studies on the subject?
jamesfranco 13y ago
Does anyone know of a speed-reading API another than Spritz?
- pkghost 13y ago
  OP here. I'm using readability's old code (arc90) to extract text, and you can use squirt on any page you like--just embed a link with the same JS as the bookmarklet. If you want a real API, add a github issue (http://www.github.com/cameron/squirt http://www.github.com/cameron/squirt) to remind me--it's on my project bucket list :)
  - jamesfranco 13y ago
    Thanks for the reply! I thought Squirt used Spritz technology?
    - pkghost 13y ago
      I'm not sure what "Spritz technology" is. RSVP has been around for a long time—it may be that they genuinely added to it with the centering and the red letter and the nice pauses, or it may be that they're trying to patent the equivalent of a one-click purchase.
timtadh 13y ago
What I noticed using this to read a couple Ars Technica articles was it worked really well for short words. But, if a longer complicated word appeared, at say 600 wpm, I would miss it. It seems like an adaptive algorithm based on word length would improve the speed even more allowing it to go faster on short common words and slow down on longer unusual words. Also, there is bug that sometimes causes two words to appear at once. Sometimes they are overlapping vertically which is basically impossible to read. Try reading http://pragdave.me/blog/2014/03/04/time-to-kill-agile/ http://pragdave.me/blog/2014/03/04/time-to-kill-agile/ to see what I mean.
- eik3_de 13y ago
  Slow down on long words would be very helpful, I just tried it with some german news text[1] at 600wpm: Worked great except for words that occured like Kinderbetreuungsmöglichkeiten US-Geheimdienstausschusses Bundestags-Innenausschuss Bundeswirtschaftsminister Bundesarbeitsministeriums [1] http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/nachrichten.353.de.html http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/nachrichten.353.de.html
  - gohrt 13y ago
    Do you think german words like this would benefit from automatic syllable colorization -- slightly changing the shade of grey to make the syllable boundaries more obvious?
    - eik3_de 13y ago
      Not sure. E.g. 'Kinderbetreuungsmöglichkeiten' means 'child care possibilities', that's three words in one. I suppose the brain just needs more time to parse that. But just counting characters to determine delay won't cut it, since 'Mississippi' is quite quick to parse.
      - ntaso 13y ago
        Then maybe colorize nouns in a compound noun word instead of syllables ?
bbbhn 13y ago
Sometimes it displays two words at a time. Otherwise, very cool!
brokentone 13y ago
This is the "danger," I suppose, with a simple execution even when backed by substantial science. Easy to copy a UI.
veganarchocap 13y ago
I didn't feel that comfortable about having a bookmark called 'Squirt' in my bookmark bar, so I've renamed it. I was hoping someone would release this though since I saw the app version.
coderzach 13y ago
I feel like it ruins the cadence, in my head anything I read with this sounds like it's coming from a robot.
- javanix 13y ago
  Yeah, I tried reading an excerpt from http://deadspin.com/when-englands-greatest-genius-took-over-englands-best-1541327342 http://deadspin.com/when-englands-greatest-genius-took-over-... and not only did it sound odd in my head, I felt like I wasn't really reading any quicker than I normally would. I think that perhaps a line-by-line reader would be appropriate, rather than word per word.
- wpears 13y ago
  You're quite correct that cadence is diminished, though that can be mitigated by adding a delay to each word based on its length.
  - pkghost 13y ago
    There is, in fact, a delay based on word characteristics, but it's not just length that matters, it's the uniqueness of a word's shape. Spritz has a nice blog post on the topic: http://www.spritzinc.com/blog/ http://www.spritzinc.com/blog/.
noel82 13y ago
+1 starting from the name
mallamanis 13y ago
I'd really like to see this model with an adaptive speed. Same speed for all the words isn't always the best. Maybe using an n-gram model to predict how probable the next word is, could pass high probability phrases at a faster rate, while slowing down for "harder" words
- lsb 13y ago
  There's a good Google Books dataset for doing exactly that, and you can doing something in Hive to get you the lowest-entropy n-grams (with something like https://github.com/lsb/text-entropy/blob/master/passphrase-safety.hiveql https://github.com/lsb/text-entropy/blob/master/passphrase-s... ), and then you can the low-entropy n-grams into a Bloom filter (like http://www.leebutterman.com/passphrase-safety/how-it-works.html http://www.leebutterman.com/passphrase-safety/how-it-works.h... ) and your enormous corpus gets fitted into a few dozen megs of memory. (That sounds like a cool idea, hit me up if you're game for hacking on something like that)
  - sitkack 13y ago
    Might also help to get feedback from the user and to know what n-grams the user has already encountered in their life.
  - mallamanis 13y ago
    I've been using n-grams heavily in my PhD. I like a lot what you are describing. Also a simple extension is to use "cache" n-gram models, that can naively simulate longer-term "memory". What's fascinating is that in the entropy/information-theoretic sense, instead of using wpm, one could aim for "constant" information rate of reading (as in bits/token). That's really cool as a concept. I don't know if it would work, obviously. I'd definitely be up to for hacking this up, but currently a bit too busy. Will ping you at some point though!
    - pkghost 13y ago
      You're welcome to fork it! http://www.github.com/cameron/squirt http://www.github.com/cameron/squirt. Would love to see such an implementation
devindotcom 13y ago
It's fun to see these ideas multiply and combine, but experts on reading comprehension seem to think RSVP didn't work even back in the 70s when it was being first tested: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/not-so-fast-speed-reading-app-fails-convince-experts-n46411 http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/not-so-fast-speed-read... Comprehension was worse than skimming, apparently. I can see this as a thing to flash headlines/latest news to you but anything longer than a sentence or two... not so sure.
- rmyers 13y ago
  I’m the creator of Acceleread, which is a reading trainer app for iOS. http://www.acceleread.com http://www.acceleread.com Your point about comprehension is super important and often gets overlooked, so I wanted to add my 2 cents. While the RSVP method seems to being used as a proxy for all things speed reading, it’s really only one part of the picture. RSVP is definitely faster (because eye movements take time) and particularly good for people with learning disabilities like dyslexia (because the tool isolate words), but there are trade-offs. For one, saccades (the normal eye movements you make while reading) give your mind time to process the information. You need that. Secondly, RSVP tends to lead to repetition blindness, so you can miss repeated words, which changes your understanding. Also, people tend to zone out after a while of staring at one point. All of these aspects underpin overall comprehension and show where RSVP falls short. Where RSVP shines is for short bursts of text (as the article states) and also for learning to read words in groups rather than individually, which is really really useful. But back to my original point, speed reading isn’t just RSVP. It’s a collection of techniques that together help you read more effectively. Honestly, it probably shouldn’t be called “speed reading” at all - it’s what naturally strong readers already do. You solve for speed, comprehension and retention. You start with the mechanics (learning to read words in groups, strengthening eye muscles, improving concentration etc) so that you aren’t getting hung up on bad habits, and then assess how well you understand and remember content. In fact, when you learn to read in this way, you don’t even need the tools like RSVP and moving highlighters. Yes, they are useful training wheels, but you’ll already read that way anyway. You also won’t be tied to one service or medium. Believe me, I find the hyped-up, late-night infomercial, eat-cake-get-thin approach really off-putting too, in fact it’s one of the reasons I made Acceleread in the first place, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
jdorfman 13y ago
This is great. To the Developers: please send any DMCA notices to /dev/null so I can use this forever.
AlexSolution 13y ago
I've tried several of these, and I really think jetzt https://github.com/ds300/jetzt https://github.com/ds300/jetzt is the best one. It has a progress bar, keyboard shortcuts, and I particularly like the way it wraps words in enclosing elements - like quotations and parentheses - when the word being displayed is within the enclosure.
scep12 13y ago
I find that i'm not visualizing what I'm reading nearly as effectively. I think contextual clues of seeing words "in place" may be underrated.
darrelld 13y ago
I found that while I could read and gather individual meaning from sentences that I couldn't grasp the meaning of an entire article from this. They all seemed disjoined somehow. My mind wasn't able to pause to digest what a sentence meant and how it linked back to the paragraph I was reading and the article as a whole. By seeing the entire article my mind starts to make connections between paragraphs and then to the entire article. With seeing a single word at a time this was lost. Also I found it hard to follow sentences between brackets for some reason.
Mizza 13y ago
I'll also shamelessly plug my open source implementation, OpenSpritz, which now has a healthy and vibrant community! https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz as well as the Android / Google Glass companion: https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android
- sitkack 13y ago
  U should change your name. You are giving free advertising to something that doesn't need it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_serial_visual_presentation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_serial_visual_presentatio...
- encoderer 13y ago
  Your bookmarklet never worked right for me. It wouldn't start. I'd select WPM and.. nothing. On latest chrome. Just FYI.
  - X4 13y ago
    same here, with Firefox.
chedigitz 13y ago
Looks pretty cool. Personally prefer the Read [1] chrome extension approach, as it has a minimal UI and sits on top of the page. Also, think the red color is slightly distracting, when north of 700 WPM. [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/read/aiijjeoekhpdpfcnejiganpaaacdodko https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/read/aiijjeoekhpdp...
grittathh 13y ago
lots of neat (and hopefully useful) things that can be added! i guess that's what OSS is for hehe. -blink detection (using a webcam or forward facing camera?) to pause while your eyes are closed? -hold-to-pause or hold-to-spritz button, and show context (+- a few lines) when not spritz-ing? -point of focus slides slowly across the screen, to exercise those extraocular muscles
iandanforth 13y ago
Using a "let me google that for you" link on the problem with software patents seems unnecessary. Why imply your users are lazy? At first I thought the contrast between "whose patents are pending" and that link was a great bit of commentary, but that link was an unexpected slap. I was expecting an EFF link.
- pkghost 13y ago
  Oops—did not wake up wanting to slap you :) My thought was more along the lines of "if you're not aware that this is a problem, here's a list of big/obvious headlines to pick from, or just walk away with the sense that there is an active conversation about the issue"
  - nedwin 13y ago
    I clicked the first link and wasn't convinced. Surely you would want to find the most convincing article that you could find and link to that?
    - pkghost 13y ago
      I would. Do you have one top of mind?
      - morrisjm 13y ago
        http://endsoftpatents.org http://endsoftpatents.org perhaps?
        pkghost 13y ago
        I need something that Yogi Bear would understand :)
hert 13y ago
I've been using the Spreed Chrome extension (http://goo.gl/ki49wl http://goo.gl/ki49wl) for about a week. They've recently added an orange focal letter (much like Spritz's red one) in that time. Squirt has a cool UI and works across browsers, but I like Spreed's ability to see progress as I read and the keyboard shortcuts. Looking forward to seeing this tech pop up more and more and evolve!
owenversteeg 13y ago
I prefer the UI of OpenSpritz, and it's open-source and MIT licensed, as opposed to this project which has no license. https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz
- cakeface 13y ago
  What does it mean when a project publishes it's source but doesn't list a license? Does that mean that it is essentially copy-write of the owner completely? Is there an implied license by sharing the source on GitHub?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jagtesh 13y ago
I usually find it hard to digest dense information at a pace of 200 wpm or more. Just because you can read fast, doesn't mean you'll think fast.
lukasm 13y ago
Am I really the only one that LOL'd at the name?
pscsbs 13y ago
Tried this on several articles, and it was displaying a lot of markup.
- pkghost 13y ago
  Ick. URLs?
platz 13y ago
does it work with sites on https?
sravfeyn 13y ago
Why the fuck are there so many Readability apps coming out now. Why everything on internet is exploding without giving the problem much thought. It's becoming more and more of copycheetahs. Game of 2048 goes multiplier, speed-reading articles are more than 4 suddenly. Please be of more thoughtful in your creative endeavors. If you are able to produce something like this, you might as well be capable of creating better original ideas.
- vdaniuk 13y ago
  Evolution of ideas doesnt follow your notion of "thoughtfulness". And remixing content, apps and ideas is great way to add value with relative small investment of time/money.
- doughj3 13y ago
  How often is it repeated on HN that ideas are great and important, but implementation is the key? Why is it a problem if there is more than one version of the same concept? What if some people just aren't creative but are great when it comes to execution? More important, who are you to complain about what other people are making?
- tdiggity 13y ago
  Maybe a new easy text scraper came out that makes these a lot easier to do now. lols.
brianbreslin 13y ago
Funny because when spritz was announced the other day I thought to myself how i would have paid $1-3 for this as a browser plugin.
jpdlla 13y ago
This is awesome and it works great on iOS's Safari!
- pkghost 13y ago
  Dope! Glad you figured that out. I axed the mobile install instructions because bookmarklet installation on mobile is such a mess. I designed it for mobile initially, so the layout should usable, at least.
  - jpdlla 13y ago
    I have to admit I was very surprised it worked so well. I was very skeptical and hopeful when trying it but I'm very glad it does. Thanks for the great work!
nashequilibrium 13y ago
HN always likes the faster is better, I am a genius absorbing this much information quicker than you. Its been proven over and over that comprehension is way more important than speed of consumption. You guys fool yourselves into believing you can comprehend while reading at breakneck speeds, its way more fun & time saving to be able to imagine, driftaway in thought and understand what you are reading.
- shittyanalogy 13y ago
  Not to mention that 1 word at a time makes it hard to: Repeat that word Scan back a few words Quickly see your position in the article Look at any sidenotes, footnotes, or relevant pictures Read with flow and not drum like rhythm Skip large sections of non-relevant material Back reference
- andrewflnr 13y ago
  Spritz is supposed to improve comprehension too. That's how it was pitched in the original article I read.
  - nashequilibrium 13y ago
    How is it going to that, serious question?
    - nmodu 13y ago
      You practice, thats how. You practice eliminating subvocalization and regression. You practice focusing on multiple words at a time rather than a single word. And - once you get a hang of those skills- you practice moving your eyes across a page at a faster pace. I have been practicing for a little under a year with the help of a speed reading app (not Spritz). It was frustrating at first; I won't pretend that I internalized even 50% of what I was reading when I started learning how to speed read. But as my eyes assimilated to reading larger chunks of words at faster speeds, I incrementally increased the speed of the text. Eventually, I was able to increase my reading speed AND understand what I was reading. I can't attest to the effectiveness of this specific app, since I have never used it. But when you write "its way more fun & time saving to be able to imagine, drift-away in thought and understand what you are reading...", you suggest that one can only understand (and enjoy) what he is reading by reading the way you do.
higherpurpose 13y ago
Please make it work with Google Docs (maybe make one of those recently announced Docs add-ons?). I want to read PDFs like that, that I upload to Docs.
zachlatta 13y ago
There's also Jetzt, which is a fully-fledged open-source Chrome plugin. It has much better text-selection support and I've found it a better experience to use than both OpenSpritz and Squirt. https://github.com/ds300/jetzt https://github.com/ds300/jetzt
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
drak0n1c 13y ago
Services like this could benefit from eye-tracking. It would be ideal if it would pause whenever you look away from the red focus point. Samsung phones already have eye-tracking API.
gabriel34 13y ago
small increases in wpm can be easily achieved by beeline[1] it without the drawbacks rsvp has. [1]>http://www.beelinereader.com/install http://www.beelinereader.com/install
- maninalift 13y ago
  Really? It just makes me feel sea-sick. As my eyes scan the words, I can't help the feeling that the colours are changing and staying the same at the same time, it's a most disconcerting optical illusion.
  - gabriel34 13y ago
    anecdotal [1] evidence suggests it works for me, plus it works for me, plus it makes reading long tests more enjoyable and appealing, but I get where you are coming from, it could be a distraction in your case. I guess no size fits all once again. [1] http://www.beelinereader.com/challenge http://www.beelinereader.com/challenge
zenocon 13y ago
I'm not able to get the bookmarklet running in Chrome http://i.imgur.com/4osL2Bp.png http://i.imgur.com/4osL2Bp.png -- albeit I do have a number of extensions running that mainly block lots of stuff, so I suspect one of them is the culprit.
X4 13y ago
Can you please add 1000-2000wpm? 950 is too slow. Honestly, please.
pmichaud 13y ago
I tried using it on a github wiki page, and it broke because github wouldn't load the external javascript. So I copied the text and made a local html file. That didn't work because of these errors: Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND file://www.squirt.io/bm/font-awesome.css Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND file://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.css 62 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'style' of null squirt.js:10 48 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'style' of null
- pkghost 13y ago
  Yeah, it's hosted on github pages right now, and they don't do SSL. It's one many, many, many things I'd like to fix about Squirt.
brador 13y ago
How about making the entire text a single line, that scrolls right to left, like a marquee. With a red marker, like here to mark a single fixed position on screen that the marquee text slides through to guide the eye. This method would allow processing of local words for context rather than flashing single words.
kyberias 13y ago
What's the hurry? Take your time and think what you read, people! :)
poefhkwf 13y ago
you are essentially trolling spritz and it's uncool
bra1n 13y ago
While the idea is nice, I'd rather not use a bookmarklet that tracks me through a unique ID across websites and not only keeps a list of pages that I used it on, but also of pages that I came from: https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js#L549 https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js...
johnwatson11218 13y ago
I always plug the same site on these threads. www.zapreader.com/reader I use that several times a week to get through lengthy articles. What I really want is something that shows all the text in the background kind of blurred out. The words should still flash on screen but with a keyboard shortcut I can make that disappear and have the word I was on hi lighted. I would like the text in the background to scroll while it is blurred out and I'm speed reading. That way if there is an image or diagram I can quickly shift back to normal reading. Or if I just need to re-read a section. Then using only keystrokes have it resume blasting the words on screen.
zealon 13y ago
Awesome, I've looking for something like this for ages! Needs a bit of tuning, though. Fails when reading this article on Chrome 33 for Linux: http://aphyr.com/posts/311-clojure-from-the-ground-up-logistics http://aphyr.com/posts/311-clojure-from-the-ground-up-logist...
- pkghost 13y ago
  Thank you--added to the "problem URL" list.
philfreo 13y ago
Awesome idea, thanks for making & sharing! I tried it on http://blog.eventjoy.com/post/79387694078/how-we-restarted-our-company-in-two-weeks-during-y http://blog.eventjoy.com/post/79387694078/how-we-restarted-o... but it choked/stopped once it came across the first linked.
- pkghost 13y ago
  Thanks for the bug report! Will look into it :)
zeyus 13y ago
Aw, I made a chrome extension, but this is better :( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grokfaster/ncjhaldnadgjkgbcnaobncfeigdcldcb https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grokfaster/ncjhald...
- pkghost 13y ago
  Don't be sad! Be glad that you're not only seeing opportunity that others find valuable, but you're capable of executing on it :) I've installed your ext, going to give it a whirl and see what I can learn from it. Keep building!
  - zeyus 13y ago
    Thanks for the kind words :)
dgfvd 13y ago
There's a bug that I can't really fathom: when reading this paragraph: "The WEIRD mind also appears to be unique in terms of how it comes to understand and interact with the natural world. Studies show that Western urban children grow up so closed off in man-made environments that their brains never form a deep or complex connection to the natural world. While studying children from the U.S., researchers have suggested a developmental timeline for what is called “folkbiological reasoning.” These studies posit that it is not until children are around 7 years old that they stop projecting human qualities onto animals and begin to understand that humans are one animal among many. Compared to Yucatec Maya communities in Mexico, however, Western urban children appear to be developmentally delayed in this regard. Children who grow up constantly interacting with the natural world are much less likely to anthropomorphize other living things into late childhood." it seems to stop displaying words directly after the U.S., string. I had to restart it after that. Another note: words that contain hyphens or em dashes are not tokenized so you get huge words that are impossible to read at speed.
dubeye 13y ago
Most writing has rhythm, a flow and a beat that is completely obliterated by this tool. If this appeals, why not listen to music via MIDI and speed that up too?
ripperdoc 13y ago
Nice layout for this one, a tad better than OpenSpritz. One issue: numbers with points get split up, which is very confusing. E.g. 16.4 becomes 16. and then 4. Another issue: It sometimes starts reading out script code, e.g. here. http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2014/03/05/amazons-war-on-germanys-18-billion-patriarch/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2014/03/05/amazons-wa... One feature request: Keyboard shortcuts to pause and maybe to step back or "zoom" out to see the whole last/current sentence before continuing.
MaybiusStrip 13y ago
Eh... I was one of the many developers that had the same idea to write a bookmarklet/extension implementation of Spritz. I completed something functional (a few hours of coding for any JS dev) and then discovered that there were at least a dozen repos in Github for the exact same purpose. Plus I realized I just couldn't get used to reading this way, so I gave up to focus on my job + other side projects. Quite frankly this is a pretty lazy implementation. It doesn't even slow down for long words, and the highlighted letter is too far to the left most of the time. But the snazzy .io page and sleek interface probably will do way more for the tool's popularity than actually improving features, so kudos to the Author for the smart marketing. I'm rooting for the open source versions.
henrygrew 13y ago
I don't think squirt is the best name, it brings bad thoughts to my mind.
ilovecookies 13y ago
This is nice but reading speed really isn't my bottleneck when it comes to do things.
johnnymonster 13y ago
I'm sorry but I just can't get past the name. Who names any product squirt?
- staffordrj 13y ago
  Someone who wants to be remembered.
ryeguy_24 13y ago
I don't know how Spritz can patent the <blink> HTML tag.
avoutthere 13y ago
My feature request would be that it work with the Kindle Cloud Reader.
ideonexus 13y ago
Small complaint. The following URL doesn't work: http://squirt.io/ http://squirt.io/ You should modify your apache/iis config to account for this. I'd much rather type "squirt.io" in my browser address bar than "www.squirt.io". But kudos to you for a wonderful product. This will replace the JS I've been using for the same purpose.
erikcw 13y ago
Just a heads up -- the naked version of your domain (ie squirt.io) does not resolve. Adding the www subdomain does work. Might want to tweak your configuration. I had to double check that I had the right domain...
nateliason 13y ago
I put together a guide to use it with any text on your computer, not just web articles: https://medium.com/p/cb5aee8b75e3 https://medium.com/p/cb5aee8b75e3
yawz 13y ago
Feedback: The reading stops in the middle of the following link: http://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-speed-reading-1542508398 http://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-speed-reading-15425083...
alexdown 13y ago
the real spritz ;;;;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spritz_(alcoholic_beverage) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spritz_(alcoholic_beverage)

443 points by pkghost 13y ago

I am not sure that I get the point of this. When I read a long piece, I try to enjoy it. Imagine the same approach being used to "fix" food or sex in the name of efficiency.

talkingquickly 13y ago
I think the use case for this is the reading we do because we need to consume the information as quickly as possible rather than the reading we're doing for pleasure. Not that the two are mutually exclusive by any means. I love reading but, particularly online, I'll often need to read something which contains a lot of information I need but isn't written in a style I particularly enjoy reading. For these, I can see the benefit of tools like this.
arikrak 13y ago
Have you heard of Soylent?
Jonovono 13y ago
Just because you are reading quicker does not mean you are not still enjoying what you are reading..

jpincheira 13y ago

Dude, the name

ljf 13y ago

Love it, I can't wait for an ePub reader though, got so many books I'd love to fly through, though novels for pleasure I think I'd read normally as I enjoy stopping and rereading passages.

chrisballinger 13y ago
This one has basic ePub support https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android
- ljf 13y ago
  Awesome thanks for that! Brilliant simple app, does just what I wanted.

navneetpandey 13y ago

This is great, but not able to read play books.

gchokov 13y ago

I'd be much more interested in a solution that effectively minimizes the text or uses another technique about speed reading (like diagonals, etc). The reason why I won't be using this service is simply because it makes the eye lazier. My eyes are already lazy enough because I am in front of the computer 12+ hours a day, so my eyes muscles need movement. Staring at one point for long time can also cause side effects like losing the sense of space and time. Staring at one point is often used as hypnotizing during different kind of therapies.

espressoAndCode 13y ago

This is a terrific idea. I was blown away the first time I saw it. I have been able to consistently get high comprehension at 650WPM for general subject matter (ie non-technical articles), and plan on working my way up to 1000. Love it!

ScottWhigham 13y ago

Great stuff - thanks for sharing. One note: when I drag the bookmarklet from the Install page to my toolbar, then try to use it on a page on my http://localhost/ http://localhost/ (a dev site, for ex.), it (a) does what I expected it to do, but then (b) forwards me to http://localhost/install.html http://localhost/install.html when it is finished. When I browse an actual domain-based site, it gives me the nice "You just read..." message at the end. It would be nice if both local and remote sites had the same experience.

pkghost 13y ago
Welcome to my smelly code! It's supposed to go to /install on squirt.io--and also localhost for my own dev purposes. It's a bit of a hack, but saves me from maintaining two bookmarklets. Are you a publisher? Trying to embed it on your blog/site?
- ScottWhigham 13y ago
  Thanks for the reply. Not a publisher - I just happened to be coding on my own local site in another tab. That was the first place I tried it.

yuchi 13y ago

This is very well executed. But it doesn’t work on HTTPS :\

yukichan 13y ago
Yes, this (Chrome not allowing the script to be run) is a good thing. The bookmarklet javascript needs to be served over HTTPS and any communication it makes also need to be over SSL. Seriously if you aren't defaulting to HTTPS for your website and or service in 2014 you're doing it wrong. Plain text HTTP needs to go the way of telnet.
- d1plo1d 13y ago
  er.. sorry what? Squirt is using plain text HTTP. This is definitely a bad thing. From Chrome Dev Tools: "..was loaded over HTTPS, but ran insecure content from 'http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js' http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js': this content should also be loaded over HTTPS."
  - yukichan 13y ago
    I would have thought that if you read my entire post that I meant that Chrome blocking it is a good thing. I will edit the comment to make that more clear.
    - spektom 13y ago
      Why not just replace "http://" http://" with "//" in your Bookmarklet code?
avoutthere 13y ago
I would use this for reading technical documentation (e.g. drupal.org), but a number of such sites force https.

philmcc 13y ago

I'm pretty sure this is just a big middle finger to Spritz. In the most hilarious way possible. Or am I misinterpreting the acknowledgments? ;)

mnml_ 13y ago
I wish I could see their faces right now
- philmcc 13y ago
  in rapid succession. like a flip book.
  - kwyn 13y ago
    great idea.
kybernetyk 13y ago
Uhm, what's the difference between Spritz an Squirt.io? I've looked at both demos and I can't see much difference in the concept. Though the Spritz website is more ... ehm ... bullshit bingo compliant it seems. Am I assuming right that the joke lies in Spritz being a VC funded startup and squirt.io just a weekend hack?
- mr_spothawk 13y ago
  >Am I assuming right that the joke lies in Spritz being a VC funded startup and squirt.io just a weekend hack? Squirt.io was in stealth mode for 6 years!! </snide>
- pogden 13y ago
  The difference is that I can actually use Squirt.io, today. I like Spritz, but it's useless to me if I can't use it on anything but their site or the email app of the next Samsung phone.
- sa1 13y ago

spada 13y ago

amazing. My feature request is PDF functionality. thanks for making this.

kennethcwilbur 13y ago
Upvote. Please give me a way to use this to read academic papers!
- j6m8 13y ago
  I'm working on it — https://github.com/j6k4m8/squirt-academic https://github.com/j6k4m8/squirt-academic But I won't really be able to dig in until after this weekend. Feel free to contribute, PR, list requests, etc.
pkghost 13y ago
it's on the list! thanks for the feedback :)
sedeki 13y ago
To read PDFs with this would be amazing
Humpel 13y ago
Yeah PDF or at least a field to paste text in!

colinramsay 13y ago

According to this, my current reading speed is about 750 words a minute - but I have a tendency to be able to skim or "bulk comprehend" sections of non-technical text so that might explain it.

ermintrude 13y ago

Why does each user need to be given an ID? How private is this?

aroemers 13y ago
It uses keen.io for analytics, and it might even store the URL you're visiting. You'd better not use this if you're concerned about your privacy: https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/js/io.js#L65-L74 https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/js/io.js#L65...
- bra1n 13y ago
  In fact, it tracks whenever you use it and sends the URL along with all GET parameters of the page that you are browsing, including the referrer(!), your user agent and your IP to Keen.io: https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js#L549 https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js...

corobo 13y ago

I like the idea however it could do with filtering out HTML and Javascript. Most pages I've tried it on so far without manually selecting text it goes through a bunch of javascript before getting to the content. That may be my bad the way I'm using it but as the site mentions readability I figured it'd chuck it through that first

pkghost 13y ago
It uses readability if you don't make a selection. The selection logic is pretty dumb, and could use some help. Thanks for pointing this out!

nayefc 13y ago

It doesn't work well. Reads out Javascript and side text/ads on websites.

spada 13y ago
highlight the text you want to read and then click the bookmarklet.
- deletes 13y ago
  That doesn't work for me; latest Firefox. I tried a couple of random popular sites,including HN, and it didn't work on all of them. This is a nice demo, but not a finished product.

ghc 13y ago

I've never thought much about my reading speed before, but after trying this and finding the deafault setting a bit slow, I decided to compare my natural reading speed. I was able to read the article I chose in about 85% of the time of the default 400WPM of the bookmarklet (I read the article first with a timer, and then reread with the bookmarklet), which would put me at 470WPM. With Squirt, I was only able to get up to 650WPM before it felt too uncomfortable. I wonder if people really read one word at a time, especially when they're short words. If people do read more than one word at a time, I think a more intelligent approach might be necessary to really make the experience both comfortable and fast.

nilkn 13y ago
> I wonder if people really read one word at a time They don't. I always thought the whole point of speed reading was to ingest multiple words simultaneously. These speed reading tools should be extended so that they can show multiple words at once rather than one word at a time. A really ambitious improvement would be to automatically recognize very common phrases and constructions and to make an effort to always show those as single groups.
- phantom_oracle 13y ago
  > These speed reading tools should be extended so that they can show multiple words at once rather than one word at a time. http://spreeder.com/ http://spreeder.com/ allows you to put in multiple words. However, if the code for this is available for anyone to edit/modify, perhaps anyone wanting that feature could add it.
- benrhughes 13y ago
  For me it depends on the content and my mood. With my app [0] I read at about 5-600wpm, whether it's 1, 2 or 3 words at a time. If I'm having trouble with a particular article, changing the number of words often fixes it. Though of course, for some content, I need to drop the WPM (esp when there's a lot of technical and/or unfamiliar terms). [0]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hughesoft.speedy https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hughesoft....

Mojah 13y ago

This project may consider a name-change, as googling for this after it's gone from the HN homepage will trigger ... interesting results. Especially if you're trying to show this to a co-worker in the office. Note to my boss: I'm sorry!

ssully 13y ago
I believe that is part of the whole knock against spritz. In German, where some of the founding members of Spritz are from, spritz means a similar thing that squirt does in American culture.
ZeGoggles 13y ago
Oh good lord. That is not a safe image search.
nazca 13y ago
Yeah, the name just sounds dirty. I changed the name of the bookmark...
gohrt 13y ago
Welcome to humanity. Every verb is a euphemism for a sexual act.
jamiemchale 13y ago
Tweeted about it with hashtagging the name. Checked the hashtag. Deleted the Tweet.
ta9876 13y ago
> on('squirt.again', startSquirt); https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js#L14 https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js... priceless!

bdg 13y ago

Thank you for this! I intend to drop the script on my blog, it might actually improve real reading rates (rather than thousands coming in from a reddit link and jumping ship after <9s ).

wmeredith 13y ago
>> rather than thousands coming in from a reddit link and jumping ship after <9s I think this probably has more to do with Reddit than you or your blog.

robobenjie 13y ago

I like this a lot, my only request would be a slightly longer pause at the end of sentences. Right now it pauses on long words so I mentally chunk all that together.

jfccohen 13y ago

I installed this on my browser bar and hasn't worked for cnn.com, highlighting specific text on cnn.com, medium.com. It worked on techcrunch...what about the HTML of the previous sites renders Squirt unusable?

pkghost 13y ago
Good question! I'll be investigating that shortly...
- bluetidepro 13y ago
  I checked the console and it has to do with HTTPS. When I try to use Squirt on a HTTPS site I get this error in the console: "[blocked] The page at 'https://medium.com/p/cad4a8df73cf' https://medium.com/p/cad4a8df73cf' was loaded over HTTPS, but ran insecure content from 'http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js' http://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.js': this content should also be loaded over HTTPS."
  - pkghost 13y ago
    Fixed as of tonight, though you'll have to reinstall your bookmarklet :)

marccuban 13y ago

They could not have picked a worse name...

sitkack 13y ago
On purpose, it is tongue in cheek.

mp99e99 13y ago

I think this is really fantastic

wpears 13y ago

Similar to what I did with the chrome extension Spree [1]. Though I find your pauses on periods to be a bit much. Code for Spree available on github [2]. The IIFE in spree.js can also function as a bookmarklet. Also, Spree doesn't walk to an element's parent, which usually keeps it from getting into JS and ads, while still reading all of, say, a news article. On another tack, quite a lovely site. 1. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spree/aehoaolhojlmaidnfkhdghceloolfojk https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spree/aehoaolhojlm... 2. https://github.com/wpears/spree https://github.com/wpears/spree

myrdev 13y ago
I really like the way this works - much less disruptive to jump in and out. Any reason you cap WPM at 666, and always default to 400wpm? I want to go fasterrrr :) edit: I made my branch do this, are you interested in contributions?

Touche 13y ago

Really like it. The only downside is that you have no idea how far along in the article you are. Would be nice if there was a % complete shown somewhere.

felipeerias 13y ago
You would have to move your eyes to check it.
- Touche 13y ago
  True, but you can pause before checking. And still is better than having no idea whether it will take one minute or one hour to read the article.
- gagzilla 13y ago
  It should be possible to change the color of the selected letter to indicate where you are on the page. Alternate option could be to position the word on the (current) vertical line to indicate where you are on the whole page. I'd like to believe that if the text is reasonable amount- the transition for either would be gradual. Hoping the open source fairy sprinkles some dust on this one.
- reustle 13y ago
  Maybe a progress bar along the bottom. Easy to pick up with your peripheral
pkghost 13y ago
You're not the only one ;) In the works!
- superasn 13y ago
  Also an option to bookmark your position would be great. Some articles are difficult to read in one go! i'm also using Foxit pdf-to-text feature to upload my pdf ebooks on pastebin and use this to read them. If you even open this up on github i'll be glad to contribute some features :D

Zarkonnen 13y ago

This is lovely, but how do I adjust the default WPM? I want to use more than 400, and having to adjust it each time is very annoying.

innaego 13y ago
Have you tried editing the bookmark and see if there is a parameter in the javascript for that?
kwyn 13y ago
Just tap the WPM and it'll give you options
- RussianCow 13y ago
  I think the parent wants to be able to set a default instead of having to select it each time.
  - mariusmg 13y ago
    Edit dispatch('squirt.wpm', {value: 400, notForKeen: true});
pkghost 13y ago
This feature is coming! Glad you're using it :)

jedanbik 13y ago

I love this concept - I hope you can find a way to integrate with Instapaper on iOS!

innaego 13y ago

Cool. Is the idea based on any existing studies on the subject?

jamesfranco 13y ago

Does anyone know of a speed-reading API another than Spritz?

pkghost 13y ago
OP here. I'm using readability's old code (arc90) to extract text, and you can use squirt on any page you like--just embed a link with the same JS as the bookmarklet. If you want a real API, add a github issue (http://www.github.com/cameron/squirt http://www.github.com/cameron/squirt) to remind me--it's on my project bucket list :)
- jamesfranco 13y ago
  Thanks for the reply! I thought Squirt used Spritz technology?
  - pkghost 13y ago
    I'm not sure what "Spritz technology" is. RSVP has been around for a long time—it may be that they genuinely added to it with the centering and the red letter and the nice pauses, or it may be that they're trying to patent the equivalent of a one-click purchase.

timtadh 13y ago

What I noticed using this to read a couple Ars Technica articles was it worked really well for short words. But, if a longer complicated word appeared, at say 600 wpm, I would miss it. It seems like an adaptive algorithm based on word length would improve the speed even more allowing it to go faster on short common words and slow down on longer unusual words. Also, there is bug that sometimes causes two words to appear at once. Sometimes they are overlapping vertically which is basically impossible to read. Try reading http://pragdave.me/blog/2014/03/04/time-to-kill-agile/ http://pragdave.me/blog/2014/03/04/time-to-kill-agile/ to see what I mean.

eik3_de 13y ago
Slow down on long words would be very helpful, I just tried it with some german news text[1] at 600wpm: Worked great except for words that occured like Kinderbetreuungsmöglichkeiten US-Geheimdienstausschusses Bundestags-Innenausschuss Bundeswirtschaftsminister Bundesarbeitsministeriums [1] http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/nachrichten.353.de.html http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/nachrichten.353.de.html
- gohrt 13y ago
  Do you think german words like this would benefit from automatic syllable colorization -- slightly changing the shade of grey to make the syllable boundaries more obvious?
  - eik3_de 13y ago
    Not sure. E.g. 'Kinderbetreuungsmöglichkeiten' means 'child care possibilities', that's three words in one. I suppose the brain just needs more time to parse that. But just counting characters to determine delay won't cut it, since 'Mississippi' is quite quick to parse.
    - ntaso 13y ago
      Then maybe colorize nouns in a compound noun word instead of syllables ?

bbbhn 13y ago

Sometimes it displays two words at a time. Otherwise, very cool!

brokentone 13y ago

This is the "danger," I suppose, with a simple execution even when backed by substantial science. Easy to copy a UI.

veganarchocap 13y ago

I didn't feel that comfortable about having a bookmark called 'Squirt' in my bookmark bar, so I've renamed it. I was hoping someone would release this though since I saw the app version.

coderzach 13y ago

I feel like it ruins the cadence, in my head anything I read with this sounds like it's coming from a robot.

javanix 13y ago
Yeah, I tried reading an excerpt from http://deadspin.com/when-englands-greatest-genius-took-over-englands-best-1541327342 http://deadspin.com/when-englands-greatest-genius-took-over-... and not only did it sound odd in my head, I felt like I wasn't really reading any quicker than I normally would. I think that perhaps a line-by-line reader would be appropriate, rather than word per word.
wpears 13y ago
You're quite correct that cadence is diminished, though that can be mitigated by adding a delay to each word based on its length.
- pkghost 13y ago
  There is, in fact, a delay based on word characteristics, but it's not just length that matters, it's the uniqueness of a word's shape. Spritz has a nice blog post on the topic: http://www.spritzinc.com/blog/ http://www.spritzinc.com/blog/.

noel82 13y ago

+1 starting from the name

mallamanis 13y ago

I'd really like to see this model with an adaptive speed. Same speed for all the words isn't always the best. Maybe using an n-gram model to predict how probable the next word is, could pass high probability phrases at a faster rate, while slowing down for "harder" words

lsb 13y ago
There's a good Google Books dataset for doing exactly that, and you can doing something in Hive to get you the lowest-entropy n-grams (with something like https://github.com/lsb/text-entropy/blob/master/passphrase-safety.hiveql https://github.com/lsb/text-entropy/blob/master/passphrase-s... ), and then you can the low-entropy n-grams into a Bloom filter (like http://www.leebutterman.com/passphrase-safety/how-it-works.html http://www.leebutterman.com/passphrase-safety/how-it-works.h... ) and your enormous corpus gets fitted into a few dozen megs of memory. (That sounds like a cool idea, hit me up if you're game for hacking on something like that)
- sitkack 13y ago
  Might also help to get feedback from the user and to know what n-grams the user has already encountered in their life.
- mallamanis 13y ago
  I've been using n-grams heavily in my PhD. I like a lot what you are describing. Also a simple extension is to use "cache" n-gram models, that can naively simulate longer-term "memory". What's fascinating is that in the entropy/information-theoretic sense, instead of using wpm, one could aim for "constant" information rate of reading (as in bits/token). That's really cool as a concept. I don't know if it would work, obviously. I'd definitely be up to for hacking this up, but currently a bit too busy. Will ping you at some point though!
  - pkghost 13y ago
    You're welcome to fork it! http://www.github.com/cameron/squirt http://www.github.com/cameron/squirt. Would love to see such an implementation

devindotcom 13y ago

It's fun to see these ideas multiply and combine, but experts on reading comprehension seem to think RSVP didn't work even back in the 70s when it was being first tested: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/not-so-fast-speed-reading-app-fails-convince-experts-n46411 http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/not-so-fast-speed-read... Comprehension was worse than skimming, apparently. I can see this as a thing to flash headlines/latest news to you but anything longer than a sentence or two... not so sure.

rmyers 13y ago
I’m the creator of Acceleread, which is a reading trainer app for iOS. http://www.acceleread.com http://www.acceleread.com Your point about comprehension is super important and often gets overlooked, so I wanted to add my 2 cents. While the RSVP method seems to being used as a proxy for all things speed reading, it’s really only one part of the picture. RSVP is definitely faster (because eye movements take time) and particularly good for people with learning disabilities like dyslexia (because the tool isolate words), but there are trade-offs. For one, saccades (the normal eye movements you make while reading) give your mind time to process the information. You need that. Secondly, RSVP tends to lead to repetition blindness, so you can miss repeated words, which changes your understanding. Also, people tend to zone out after a while of staring at one point. All of these aspects underpin overall comprehension and show where RSVP falls short. Where RSVP shines is for short bursts of text (as the article states) and also for learning to read words in groups rather than individually, which is really really useful. But back to my original point, speed reading isn’t just RSVP. It’s a collection of techniques that together help you read more effectively. Honestly, it probably shouldn’t be called “speed reading” at all - it’s what naturally strong readers already do. You solve for speed, comprehension and retention. You start with the mechanics (learning to read words in groups, strengthening eye muscles, improving concentration etc) so that you aren’t getting hung up on bad habits, and then assess how well you understand and remember content. In fact, when you learn to read in this way, you don’t even need the tools like RSVP and moving highlighters. Yes, they are useful training wheels, but you’ll already read that way anyway. You also won’t be tied to one service or medium. Believe me, I find the hyped-up, late-night infomercial, eat-cake-get-thin approach really off-putting too, in fact it’s one of the reasons I made Acceleread in the first place, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

jdorfman 13y ago

This is great. To the Developers: please send any DMCA notices to /dev/null so I can use this forever.

AlexSolution 13y ago

I've tried several of these, and I really think jetzt https://github.com/ds300/jetzt https://github.com/ds300/jetzt is the best one. It has a progress bar, keyboard shortcuts, and I particularly like the way it wraps words in enclosing elements - like quotations and parentheses - when the word being displayed is within the enclosure.

scep12 13y ago

I find that i'm not visualizing what I'm reading nearly as effectively. I think contextual clues of seeing words "in place" may be underrated.

darrelld 13y ago

I found that while I could read and gather individual meaning from sentences that I couldn't grasp the meaning of an entire article from this. They all seemed disjoined somehow. My mind wasn't able to pause to digest what a sentence meant and how it linked back to the paragraph I was reading and the article as a whole. By seeing the entire article my mind starts to make connections between paragraphs and then to the entire article. With seeing a single word at a time this was lost. Also I found it hard to follow sentences between brackets for some reason.

Mizza 13y ago

I'll also shamelessly plug my open source implementation, OpenSpritz, which now has a healthy and vibrant community! https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz as well as the Android / Google Glass companion: https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android

sitkack 13y ago
U should change your name. You are giving free advertising to something that doesn't need it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_serial_visual_presentation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_serial_visual_presentatio...
encoderer 13y ago
Your bookmarklet never worked right for me. It wouldn't start. I'd select WPM and.. nothing. On latest chrome. Just FYI.
- X4 13y ago
  same here, with Firefox.

chedigitz 13y ago

Looks pretty cool. Personally prefer the Read [1] chrome extension approach, as it has a minimal UI and sits on top of the page. Also, think the red color is slightly distracting, when north of 700 WPM. [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/read/aiijjeoekhpdpfcnejiganpaaacdodko https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/read/aiijjeoekhpdp...

grittathh 13y ago

lots of neat (and hopefully useful) things that can be added! i guess that's what OSS is for hehe. -blink detection (using a webcam or forward facing camera?) to pause while your eyes are closed? -hold-to-pause or hold-to-spritz button, and show context (+- a few lines) when not spritz-ing? -point of focus slides slowly across the screen, to exercise those extraocular muscles

iandanforth 13y ago

Using a "let me google that for you" link on the problem with software patents seems unnecessary. Why imply your users are lazy? At first I thought the contrast between "whose patents are pending" and that link was a great bit of commentary, but that link was an unexpected slap. I was expecting an EFF link.

pkghost 13y ago
Oops—did not wake up wanting to slap you :) My thought was more along the lines of "if you're not aware that this is a problem, here's a list of big/obvious headlines to pick from, or just walk away with the sense that there is an active conversation about the issue"
- nedwin 13y ago
  I clicked the first link and wasn't convinced. Surely you would want to find the most convincing article that you could find and link to that?
  - pkghost 13y ago
    I would. Do you have one top of mind?
    - morrisjm 13y ago
      http://endsoftpatents.org http://endsoftpatents.org perhaps?
      - pkghost 13y ago
        I need something that Yogi Bear would understand :)

hert 13y ago

I've been using the Spreed Chrome extension (http://goo.gl/ki49wl http://goo.gl/ki49wl) for about a week. They've recently added an orange focal letter (much like Spritz's red one) in that time. Squirt has a cool UI and works across browsers, but I like Spreed's ability to see progress as I read and the keyboard shortcuts. Looking forward to seeing this tech pop up more and more and evolve!

owenversteeg 13y ago

I prefer the UI of OpenSpritz, and it's open-source and MIT licensed, as opposed to this project which has no license. https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz

cakeface 13y ago
What does it mean when a project publishes it's source but doesn't list a license? Does that mean that it is essentially copy-write of the owner completely? Is there an implied license by sharing the source on GitHub?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

jagtesh 13y ago

I usually find it hard to digest dense information at a pace of 200 wpm or more. Just because you can read fast, doesn't mean you'll think fast.

lukasm 13y ago

Am I really the only one that LOL'd at the name?

pscsbs 13y ago

Tried this on several articles, and it was displaying a lot of markup.

pkghost 13y ago
Ick. URLs?

platz 13y ago

does it work with sites on https?

sravfeyn 13y ago

Why the fuck are there so many Readability apps coming out now. Why everything on internet is exploding without giving the problem much thought. It's becoming more and more of copycheetahs. Game of 2048 goes multiplier, speed-reading articles are more than 4 suddenly. Please be of more thoughtful in your creative endeavors. If you are able to produce something like this, you might as well be capable of creating better original ideas.

vdaniuk 13y ago
Evolution of ideas doesnt follow your notion of "thoughtfulness". And remixing content, apps and ideas is great way to add value with relative small investment of time/money.
doughj3 13y ago
How often is it repeated on HN that ideas are great and important, but implementation is the key? Why is it a problem if there is more than one version of the same concept? What if some people just aren't creative but are great when it comes to execution? More important, who are you to complain about what other people are making?
tdiggity 13y ago
Maybe a new easy text scraper came out that makes these a lot easier to do now. lols.

brianbreslin 13y ago

Funny because when spritz was announced the other day I thought to myself how i would have paid $1-3 for this as a browser plugin.

jpdlla 13y ago

This is awesome and it works great on iOS's Safari!

pkghost 13y ago
Dope! Glad you figured that out. I axed the mobile install instructions because bookmarklet installation on mobile is such a mess. I designed it for mobile initially, so the layout should usable, at least.
- jpdlla 13y ago
  I have to admit I was very surprised it worked so well. I was very skeptical and hopeful when trying it but I'm very glad it does. Thanks for the great work!

nashequilibrium 13y ago

HN always likes the faster is better, I am a genius absorbing this much information quicker than you. Its been proven over and over that comprehension is way more important than speed of consumption. You guys fool yourselves into believing you can comprehend while reading at breakneck speeds, its way more fun & time saving to be able to imagine, driftaway in thought and understand what you are reading.

shittyanalogy 13y ago
Not to mention that 1 word at a time makes it hard to: Repeat that word Scan back a few words Quickly see your position in the article Look at any sidenotes, footnotes, or relevant pictures Read with flow and not drum like rhythm Skip large sections of non-relevant material Back reference
andrewflnr 13y ago
Spritz is supposed to improve comprehension too. That's how it was pitched in the original article I read.
- nashequilibrium 13y ago
  How is it going to that, serious question?
  - nmodu 13y ago
    You practice, thats how. You practice eliminating subvocalization and regression. You practice focusing on multiple words at a time rather than a single word. And - once you get a hang of those skills- you practice moving your eyes across a page at a faster pace. I have been practicing for a little under a year with the help of a speed reading app (not Spritz). It was frustrating at first; I won't pretend that I internalized even 50% of what I was reading when I started learning how to speed read. But as my eyes assimilated to reading larger chunks of words at faster speeds, I incrementally increased the speed of the text. Eventually, I was able to increase my reading speed AND understand what I was reading. I can't attest to the effectiveness of this specific app, since I have never used it. But when you write "its way more fun & time saving to be able to imagine, drift-away in thought and understand what you are reading...", you suggest that one can only understand (and enjoy) what he is reading by reading the way you do.

higherpurpose 13y ago

Please make it work with Google Docs (maybe make one of those recently announced Docs add-ons?). I want to read PDFs like that, that I upload to Docs.

zachlatta 13y ago

There's also Jetzt, which is a fully-fledged open-source Chrome plugin. It has much better text-selection support and I've found it a better experience to use than both OpenSpritz and Squirt. https://github.com/ds300/jetzt https://github.com/ds300/jetzt

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

drak0n1c 13y ago

Services like this could benefit from eye-tracking. It would be ideal if it would pause whenever you look away from the red focus point. Samsung phones already have eye-tracking API.

gabriel34 13y ago

small increases in wpm can be easily achieved by beeline[1] it without the drawbacks rsvp has. [1]>http://www.beelinereader.com/install http://www.beelinereader.com/install

maninalift 13y ago
Really? It just makes me feel sea-sick. As my eyes scan the words, I can't help the feeling that the colours are changing and staying the same at the same time, it's a most disconcerting optical illusion.
- gabriel34 13y ago
  anecdotal [1] evidence suggests it works for me, plus it works for me, plus it makes reading long tests more enjoyable and appealing, but I get where you are coming from, it could be a distraction in your case. I guess no size fits all once again. [1] http://www.beelinereader.com/challenge http://www.beelinereader.com/challenge

zenocon 13y ago

I'm not able to get the bookmarklet running in Chrome http://i.imgur.com/4osL2Bp.png http://i.imgur.com/4osL2Bp.png -- albeit I do have a number of extensions running that mainly block lots of stuff, so I suspect one of them is the culprit.

X4 13y ago

Can you please add 1000-2000wpm? 950 is too slow. Honestly, please.

pmichaud 13y ago

I tried using it on a github wiki page, and it broke because github wouldn't load the external javascript. So I copied the text and made a local html file. That didn't work because of these errors: Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND file://www.squirt.io/bm/font-awesome.css Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND file://www.squirt.io/bm/squirt.css 62 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'style' of null squirt.js:10 48 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'style' of null

pkghost 13y ago
Yeah, it's hosted on github pages right now, and they don't do SSL. It's one many, many, many things I'd like to fix about Squirt.

brador 13y ago

How about making the entire text a single line, that scrolls right to left, like a marquee. With a red marker, like here to mark a single fixed position on screen that the marquee text slides through to guide the eye. This method would allow processing of local words for context rather than flashing single words.

kyberias 13y ago

What's the hurry? Take your time and think what you read, people! :)

poefhkwf 13y ago

you are essentially trolling spritz and it's uncool

bra1n 13y ago

While the idea is nice, I'd rather not use a bookmarklet that tracks me through a unique ID across websites and not only keeps a list of pages that I used it on, but also of pages that I came from: https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js#L549 https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-pages/bm/squirt.js...

johnwatson11218 13y ago

I always plug the same site on these threads. www.zapreader.com/reader I use that several times a week to get through lengthy articles. What I really want is something that shows all the text in the background kind of blurred out. The words should still flash on screen but with a keyboard shortcut I can make that disappear and have the word I was on hi lighted. I would like the text in the background to scroll while it is blurred out and I'm speed reading. That way if there is an image or diagram I can quickly shift back to normal reading. Or if I just need to re-read a section. Then using only keystrokes have it resume blasting the words on screen.

zealon 13y ago

Awesome, I've looking for something like this for ages! Needs a bit of tuning, though. Fails when reading this article on Chrome 33 for Linux: http://aphyr.com/posts/311-clojure-from-the-ground-up-logistics http://aphyr.com/posts/311-clojure-from-the-ground-up-logist...

pkghost 13y ago
Thank you--added to the "problem URL" list.

philfreo 13y ago

Awesome idea, thanks for making & sharing! I tried it on http://blog.eventjoy.com/post/79387694078/how-we-restarted-our-company-in-two-weeks-during-y http://blog.eventjoy.com/post/79387694078/how-we-restarted-o... but it choked/stopped once it came across the first linked.

pkghost 13y ago
Thanks for the bug report! Will look into it :)

zeyus 13y ago

Aw, I made a chrome extension, but this is better :( https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grokfaster/ncjhaldnadgjkgbcnaobncfeigdcldcb https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grokfaster/ncjhald...

pkghost 13y ago
Don't be sad! Be glad that you're not only seeing opportunity that others find valuable, but you're capable of executing on it :) I've installed your ext, going to give it a whirl and see what I can learn from it. Keep building!
- zeyus 13y ago
  Thanks for the kind words :)

dgfvd 13y ago

There's a bug that I can't really fathom: when reading this paragraph: "The WEIRD mind also appears to be unique in terms of how it comes to understand and interact with the natural world. Studies show that Western urban children grow up so closed off in man-made environments that their brains never form a deep or complex connection to the natural world. While studying children from the U.S., researchers have suggested a developmental timeline for what is called “folkbiological reasoning.” These studies posit that it is not until children are around 7 years old that they stop projecting human qualities onto animals and begin to understand that humans are one animal among many. Compared to Yucatec Maya communities in Mexico, however, Western urban children appear to be developmentally delayed in this regard. Children who grow up constantly interacting with the natural world are much less likely to anthropomorphize other living things into late childhood." it seems to stop displaying words directly after the U.S., string. I had to restart it after that. Another note: words that contain hyphens or em dashes are not tokenized so you get huge words that are impossible to read at speed.

dubeye 13y ago

Most writing has rhythm, a flow and a beat that is completely obliterated by this tool. If this appeals, why not listen to music via MIDI and speed that up too?

ripperdoc 13y ago

Nice layout for this one, a tad better than OpenSpritz. One issue: numbers with points get split up, which is very confusing. E.g. 16.4 becomes 16. and then 4. Another issue: It sometimes starts reading out script code, e.g. here. http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2014/03/05/amazons-war-on-germanys-18-billion-patriarch/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2014/03/05/amazons-wa... One feature request: Keyboard shortcuts to pause and maybe to step back or "zoom" out to see the whole last/current sentence before continuing.

MaybiusStrip 13y ago

Eh... I was one of the many developers that had the same idea to write a bookmarklet/extension implementation of Spritz. I completed something functional (a few hours of coding for any JS dev) and then discovered that there were at least a dozen repos in Github for the exact same purpose. Plus I realized I just couldn't get used to reading this way, so I gave up to focus on my job + other side projects. Quite frankly this is a pretty lazy implementation. It doesn't even slow down for long words, and the highlighted letter is too far to the left most of the time. But the snazzy .io page and sleek interface probably will do way more for the tool's popularity than actually improving features, so kudos to the Author for the smart marketing. I'm rooting for the open source versions.

henrygrew 13y ago

I don't think squirt is the best name, it brings bad thoughts to my mind.

ilovecookies 13y ago

This is nice but reading speed really isn't my bottleneck when it comes to do things.

johnnymonster 13y ago

I'm sorry but I just can't get past the name. Who names any product squirt?

staffordrj 13y ago
Someone who wants to be remembered.

ryeguy_24 13y ago

I don't know how Spritz can patent the <blink> HTML tag.

avoutthere 13y ago

My feature request would be that it work with the Kindle Cloud Reader.

ideonexus 13y ago

Small complaint. The following URL doesn't work: http://squirt.io/ http://squirt.io/ You should modify your apache/iis config to account for this. I'd much rather type "squirt.io" in my browser address bar than "www.squirt.io". But kudos to you for a wonderful product. This will replace the JS I've been using for the same purpose.

erikcw 13y ago

Just a heads up -- the naked version of your domain (ie squirt.io) does not resolve. Adding the www subdomain does work. Might want to tweak your configuration. I had to double check that I had the right domain...

nateliason 13y ago

I put together a guide to use it with any text on your computer, not just web articles: https://medium.com/p/cb5aee8b75e3 https://medium.com/p/cb5aee8b75e3

yawz 13y ago

Feedback: The reading stops in the middle of the following link: http://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-speed-reading-1542508398 http://lifehacker.com/the-truth-about-speed-reading-15425083...

alexdown 13y ago

the real spritz ;;;;) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spritz_(alcoholic_beverage) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spritz_(alcoholic_beverage)