diff --git a/src/FbTk/StringUtil.hh b/src/FbTk/StringUtil.hh
index 930e0b58..bc17158f 100644
--- a/src/FbTk/StringUtil.hh
+++ b/src/FbTk/StringUtil.hh
@@ -94,12 +94,6 @@ std::string::size_type removeTrailingWhitespace(std::string &str);
 /// splits input at first non-leading whitespace and returns both parts
 void getFirstWord(const std::string &in, std::string &first, std::string &rest);
 
-template <typename T>
-void fromString(const char *in, T &out) {
-    FbTk_istringstream iss(in);
-    iss >> out;
-}
-
 template <typename Container>
 static void stringTokensBetween(Container &container, const std::string &in,
         std::string &rest, char first, char last,
diff --git a/src/FbTk/Timer.cc b/src/FbTk/Timer.cc
index 61875f7f..05d938b6 100644
--- a/src/FbTk/Timer.cc
+++ b/src/FbTk/Timer.cc
@@ -239,7 +239,7 @@ Command<void> *DelayedCmd::parse(const std::string &command,
         return 0;
 
     uint64_t delay = 200;
-    StringUtil::fromString<uint64_t>(args.c_str() + err, delay);
+    StringUtil::extractNumber(args.c_str() + err, delay);
 
     return new DelayedCmd(cmd, delay);
 }
diff --git a/src/Resources.cc b/src/Resources.cc
index affaf199..aacff60f 100644
--- a/src/Resources.cc
+++ b/src/Resources.cc
@@ -35,8 +35,6 @@
 using std::string;
 using std::vector;
 
-using namespace FbTk;
-
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------
 //---- accessors for int, bool, and some enums with Resource ------
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------