
Squirt.io – Readability Meets Spritz Speed Reading - pkghost
http://www.squirt.io
======
timtadh
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
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
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
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.

~~~
robertjwebb
Couldn't you split compound words so the components appear in sequence? e.g.

Kinder- -betreuungs- -möglichkeiten

~~~
dimon
One could, but most likely one would need a proper morphological analysis[2]
to make it work correctly for the endless possibilities to combine words in
German. Pretty hard to implement in the browser, but maybe an 80:20 like
approach using a good dictionary could help for common terms in combination
with slowdown on terms it doesn't know how to split.

[1] for example, one could use wiktionary data and try to extract how to
properly separate common terms:
[https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Schifffahrt](https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/Schifffahrt)

Edit: [2] German demo of how that usually looks
[http://www.tagh.de/demo.php](http://www.tagh.de/demo.php) (not affiliated)

------
nashequilibrium
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.

~~~
olalonde
There isn't that much substance in most blog posts / articles I read online.
Of course, I wouldn't use this to read "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern
Approach".

~~~
bduerst
Agreed. The signal density in many news articles is lower than what you would
expect in a journal article or even a novel. This could be a very useful tool
there.

------
philmcc
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? ;)

~~~
kybernetyk
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?

~~~
pogden
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.

------
ghc
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
> 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.

~~~
benrhughes
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....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hughesoft.speedy)

~~~
X4
Good point! The tool should create a reading difficulty score and only offer
selecting wpm, if it's beneficial.

Readability tests:

    
    
        * Accelerated Reader ATOS
        * Automated Readability Index (ARI)
        * Coleman-Liau Index
        * Dale-Chall Readability Formula
        * Flesch-Kincaid readability tests:
            * Flesch Reading Ease
            * Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
        * Fry Readability Formula
        * Gunning-Fog Index
        * Lexile Framework for Reading
        * Linsear Write
        * LIX
        * Raygor Estimate Graph
        * SMOG (Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook)
        * Spache Readability Formula
    

Tool: [https://readability-score.com/](https://readability-score.com/) Source:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readability_test#Readability_te...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readability_test#Readability_tests)

------
pmichaud
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
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.

------
Mizza
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)

~~~
encoderer
Your bookmarklet never worked right for me. It wouldn't start. I'd select WPM
and.. nothing. On latest chrome. Just FYI.

~~~
X4
same here, with Firefox.

------
Mojah
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
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.

------
devindotcom
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-
read...](http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/not-so-fast-speed-reading-app-
fails-convince-experts-n46411)

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
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.

------
iandanforth
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
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
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
I would. Do you have one top of mind?

~~~
morrisjm
[http://endsoftpatents.org](http://endsoftpatents.org) perhaps?

~~~
pkghost
I need something that Yogi Bear would understand :)

------
Touche
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
You would have to move your eyes to check it.

~~~
gagzilla
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.

------
mallamanis
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
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-s...](https://github.com/lsb/text-
entropy/blob/master/passphrase-safety.hiveql) ), and then you can the low-
entropy n-grams into a Bloom filter (like
[http://www.leebutterman.com/passphrase-safety/how-it-
works.h...](http://www.leebutterman.com/passphrase-safety/how-it-works.html) )
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)

~~~
mallamanis
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
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

------
johnwatson11218
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.

------
wpears
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/aehoaolhojlm...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spree/aehoaolhojlmaidnfkhdghceloolfojk)

2\. [https://github.com/wpears/spree](https://github.com/wpears/spree)

~~~
myrdev
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?

------
ScottWhigham
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
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
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.

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

~~~
wpears
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
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/).

------
gchokov
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.

------
felipeerias
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
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.

------
dgfvd
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.

------
bra1n
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...](https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-
pages/bm/squirt.js#L549)

------
AlexSolution
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.

------
Zarkonnen
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.

~~~
kwyn
Just tap the WPM and it'll give you options

~~~
RussianCow
I think the parent wants to be able to set a default instead of having to
select it each time.

~~~
mariusmg
Edit dispatch('squirt.wpm', {value: 400, notForKeen: true});

------
MaybiusStrip
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.

------
owenversteeg
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
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?

------
jfccohen
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
Good question! I'll be investigating that shortly...

~~~
bluetidepro
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
Fixed as of tonight, though you'll have to reinstall your bookmarklet :)

------
ripperdoc
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-
wa...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2014/03/05/amazons-war-on-
germanys-18-billion-patriarch/)

One feature request: Keyboard shortcuts to pause and maybe to step back or
"zoom" out to see the whole last/current sentence before continuing.

------
darrelld
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.

------
ljf
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
This one has basic ePub support [https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-
Android](https://github.com/OnlyInAmerica/OpenSpritz-Android)

~~~
ljf
Awesome thanks for that! Brilliant simple app, does just what I wanted.

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

~~~
aroemers
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...](https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-
pages/js/io.js#L65-L74)

~~~
bra1n
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...](https://github.com/cameron/squirt/blob/gh-
pages/bm/squirt.js#L549)

------
hert
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!

------
scep12
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.

------
chedigitz
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/aiijjeoekhpdp...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/read/aiijjeoekhpdpfcnejiganpaaacdodko)

------
ideonexus
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.

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

~~~
kennethcwilbur
Upvote. Please give me a way to use this to read academic papers!

~~~
j6m8
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.

------
grittathh
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

------
corobo
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
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!

------
zealon
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-
logist...](http://aphyr.com/posts/311-clojure-from-the-ground-up-logistics)

~~~
pkghost
Thank you--added to the "problem URL" list.

------
philfreo
Awesome idea, thanks for making & sharing!

I tried it on [http://blog.eventjoy.com/post/79387694078/how-we-
restarted-o...](http://blog.eventjoy.com/post/79387694078/how-we-restarted-
our-company-in-two-weeks-during-y) but it choked/stopped once it came across
the first linked.

~~~
pkghost
Thanks for the bug report! Will look into it :)

------
zenocon
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.

------
brador
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.

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

------
espressoAndCode
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!

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

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

~~~
spada
highlight the text you want to read and then click the bookmarklet.

~~~
deletes
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.

------
erikcw
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...

------
veganarchocap
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.

------
nateliason
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)

------
colinramsay
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.

------
gabriel34
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
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
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)

------
bdg
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
>> 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.

------
drak0n1c
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.

------
X4
Can you please add 1000-2000wpm? 950 is too slow. Honestly, please.

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

------
robobenjie
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.

------
dubeye
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?

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

~~~
yukichan
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
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
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
Why not just replace "[http://"](http://") with "//" in your Bookmarklet code?

------
jagtesh
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.

------
higherpurpose
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.

------
brianbreslin
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.

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

------
sravfeyn
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.

~~~
doughj3
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?

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

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

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

~~~
staffordrj
Someone who wants to be remembered.

------
mp99e99
I think this is really fantastic

------
zachlatta
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)

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

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

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

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

~~~
pkghost
Ick. URLs?

------
noel82
+1 starting from the name

------
ryeguy_24
I don't know how Spritz can patent the <blink> HTML tag.

------
zeyus
Aw, I made a chrome extension, but this is better :(

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grokfaster/ncjhald...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/grokfaster/ncjhaldnadgjkgbcnaobncfeigdcldcb)

~~~
pkghost
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
Thanks for the kind words :)

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

------
alexdown
the real spritz ;;;;)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spritz_(alcoholic_beverage)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spritz_\(alcoholic_beverage\))

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

~~~
pkghost
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
Thanks for the reply! I thought Squirt used Spritz technology?

~~~
pkghost
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.

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

~~~
pkghost
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
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!

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

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

------
poefhkwf
you are essentially trolling spritz and it's uncool

------
jpincheira
Dude, the name

------
platz
does it work with sites on https?

------
marccuban
They could not have picked a worse name...

~~~
sitkack
On purpose, it is tongue in cheek.

