Using YubNub to recall short snippets of text

Sometimes I'm not in the mood for instant messaging. I'd like to have at hand a standard reply that I can paste into my chat client whenever I don't feel like engaging in an IM conversation. So I decided to create a YubNub command called jon-auto that displays a short snippet of text that I can paste into the IM window. The code for jon-auto is very simple:

echo Auto-Response: Jon may not be in the mood for chatting right now. Please leave a message.

It just uses the echo command to display a snippet of text.


Is YubNub the (social) clipboard of the web?

YubNub slow

I'm finding that YubNub is very slow today. I traced the problem down to the redirects -- evidently there is a bug in lighttpd 1.4 where redirects take around 30 seconds. Since YubNub's sole purpose is to do redirects, this is not good.

I have submitted a trouble ticket to my web host to try the workaround mentioned in the above article. So hopefully YubNub will be fast again soon.

YubNub tip: if it's slow, give it another kick

Sometimes I find YubNub stalls for some reason, and if I run the command a second time it's quick. So if you find YubNub is taking a while, just try entering your command again. In other words, give it a swift second kick!

YubNub article in Maisonneuve Magazine by Mathieu Balez

Mathieu Balez (who pops into the YubNub forums now and then) writes for a magazine called Maisonneuve: Eclectic Curiosity. He's written an inspiring 2-page article on YubNub entitled YubNub Is Your New Internet Dashboard:

But unlike Google, YubNub can leverage (i.e., get inside and pull information from) almost any other search utility on the Web today, and not just find pages strictly under the purview of the Googleplex.

Mathieu writes clearly -- it's a great article for explaining to people what YubNub is. Go Mathieu!

YubNub GNOME/Linux integration

Nigel Tao has made a video showcasing his GNOME/Linux deskbar, which features integration with YubNub -- just start by typing a backtick (`). Nigel's deskbar does lots of other nifty things, like searching your mail and integration with Beagle Desktop Search. Neat!