April 14, 2001

5:54 AM

I used to have a 1.2Mbps DSL link when I lived in Atlanta. Now I am back home in Europe and I log on to the Net on a thin old 33kbps dialup. But old habits die hard. I want my web man, I need it. So, I did some thinking, went on Google and found this. And now my question is: how many people out there would like to get thinner, faster versions of their favorite sites? Is there an index of such versions? And if not, how many of you would like to see one? I got some interesting Python spiders lying around...
posted by costas (16 comments total)

Handheld Browser Palm Visor CE Links should get you started.
posted by chrish at 6:15 AM on April 14, 2001

Excellent link thanks! Now, need to get rid of that about.com redirect CGI that takes up half the clicking time... It would also be cool if there was an index of "printable" versions of sites. I think someone has done it for Salon already...
posted by costas at 6:20 AM on April 14, 2001

beaker.net is a portal site for wireless content and not just boring news feeds. there are personal sites and more.
www.beaker.net
posted by centrs at 8:25 AM on April 14, 2001

(irrelevant note:) "Back home in Europe" means "back home in Greece"?
If so, welcome to my reality, my friend.
posted by kchristidis at 8:46 AM on April 14, 2001

The web, when optimized for wireless or PDA delivery, looks rather like the web did in 1995.
posted by Dean_Paxton at 10:30 AM on April 14, 2001

Agreed Dean. I guess I will just have to have DSL or better for the rest of my life - I can't tolerate the plainness. :)
posted by swank6 at 12:08 PM on April 14, 2001

I would personally love to see a PDA version of MeFi. What do you think mathowie?
posted by joshua at 12:22 PM on April 14, 2001

here's tomalak's avantgo version; here's mine.

I do that by hand, but I'm thinking that once I ditch tables and go standards compliant, I should be able to automate the process.

in any case, I'll add a section on my portal page of pda-friendly versions of people's weblogs if anyone would like to submit. I probably get 2 hits a day to the pda version (and those may be spiders) but everytime I decide to discontinue it all the way, I get 10 hits in one day and then I think I should keep it.

rcb
posted by rebeccablood at 12:44 PM on April 14, 2001

I tend to write Perl filters to simplify sites I visit often: here are a few for Salon, Slate, and Newlinx. And, of course, Dilbert.
posted by nicwolff at 2:56 PM on April 14, 2001

MeFi seems pretty PDA-ready already, except for maybe the top nav table. What's missing?
posted by rodii at 3:38 PM on April 14, 2001

Even Auntie Beeb offer a quicker interface. Pity it's so sinister . . .
posted by feelinglistless at 4:47 PM on April 14, 2001

Ow! My eyes!
posted by rodii at 5:33 PM on April 14, 2001

You mean ... http://www.metafilter.com/bar/ ? IE users can also throw MeFi into the Search pane. These and more exciting features are available by reading the "front page" of MetaFilter. (See: the cute little side bar)
posted by chrish at 5:42 PM on April 14, 2001

I've managed to read MetaFilter via AvantGo on my Palm III connected to the net by a cell phone, and it looks fine.
posted by gyc at 6:11 PM on April 14, 2001

Actually, all kidding aside, this fairly well rocks. I've never owned a palm or handspring so, all the development for the stuff evaded me. Thanks, this is even better than junk buster!
posted by Dean_Paxton at 7:52 PM on April 14, 2001

kchristidis: yes, that's exactly what that means :-)... But I do travel a lot these days, and believe me the situation is as bad in the rest of the continent (the slowest dialup I have experienced since I owned an external 2400 bps modem was right in the center of Paris).

Thanks for all the links folks.... I am willing to put something together and announce it back here --just not on the front page :-)...
posted by costas at 1:01 AM on April 15, 2001