> It would greatly help if the URLs for many Avantgo channels were known.
> Many sites have Avantgo channels set up, but do not link to the URL that
> implements them. So, while they do have a Palm-ready service, which would
> be usable through Plucker, Plucker users can not use it because they do
> not know the URL.
I have a database here locally with 543 Palm-formatted website URLs in
it, ranging from sports to foreign to finance, business, etc. Many are these
"hidden" URLs which AvantGo tries to keep from public eyes. Many others are
URLs which AvantGo themselves don't even have in their coven.
I'm trying to aggregate them into a better system so users can "Pluck"
them, either scheduled, or on their own.
> I will start to write email to the webmasters for those sites where I wish
> I knew the URL, and suggest that you suggest for other Plucker users to do
> the same. This "we plan for Avantgo and not for others" is quite similar
> and attitude to the "Netscape enhanced HTML" attitude back when that was
> en vogue.
I've emailed a few of them, observe:
[...]
"...The person I am speaking of was graceful enough to allow me to use
his writings but we have an agreement that the material not be
distributed and he be kept anonymous. With this in mind, I must
decline your request. The AvantGo platform does not allow copy/paste
and is for this reason an excellent tool to slow down illegal
distribution. I am not saying you would distribute this but we need
to keep a policy which can be kept consistent.
Now that being said, I realize it might be a little difficult, but
you could type it out yourself. After all, that is up to you..."
[...]
and
[...]
"As a content provider, the nice thing about AvantGo is that I can
insure that the only people who access the "lean" content are those
using AvantGo. This insures that regular web surfers will always use
the full version of the site, and therefore my advertising revenues
continue."
[...]
The URLs I have in my database, such as:
http://www.compleatbellairs.com/pigwidgeon/
http://www.linuxplaza.com/palm/
...and others, were hand-scraped by me, using several techniques, in
about two weeks time. That's about 220 URLs a week for one person searching.
The system is called PODS, which stands for the Palm Open Directory
Syndicate, modeled after DMOZ's Open Directory system. I notice AvantGo now
has a PODS system of their own, completely unrelated, but curiously
coincidental.
http://avantgo.com/developer/reference/pods/overvie3.html#929826
I also whipped up a quick webpage which will allow you to pick a URL
from this database, and "test it" in the browser, so you can see what it will
look and feel like when you put it on your Palm. The links remain intact, and
the site is fully navigable inside the 160x160 browser view. Here's a quick
screenshot of that:
http://www.gnu-designs.com/images/pods-website-tester.png
And here's the first cut at the PODS interface from early April:
http://www.gnu-designs.com/images/pods-04042001.gif
I started to come up with a "Plucker-friendly Website" banner type of
program, but it never really kicked off as well as I thought it would... yet.
I tried to start up the t-shirt contest to gain some interest, and get us a
bit more publicity, but since that posting on the website, I have received
zero emails or submissions on it. Depressing.
Once I get the new URL-based system up and running, I'll make all of
these URLs public, since they were all publically accessible to begin with.
Remember though, Plucker is a client-side-parsing solution, so
modeling the way AvantGo does their business now wouldn't work with Plucker
specifically. Yes, we could put the spider and parser on the server, run it
there, store the content there, but then your limited by the server and it's
bandwidth.
Stay tuned though. I have a few other pressing projects on my plate
currently, but once I get back to the tools, things will start appearing.
If you'd like to help me out with this, or have some ideas of your
own, please contact me directly, to keep the extra noise on the development
lists down for the moment. I welcome any extra pairs of hands and eyes I can
get right now. My time is extremely overbooked.
/d
