Slashdot On Palm, No Wires Required

A number of people have asked about getting Slashdot on their Palm VIIs and such -- now the people at DigitalPaths have put together a Palm Query App. Download, install, and soon you too will be able to better justify your wireless Palm bill and test your provider's capacity. The best part of the app, IMHO, is the ability to specify the amount to download, so no nasty throughput surprises with an 800-comment story. And as completely unbiased source jamie says, that makes it better than Slashdot's light mode, but "of course, a starved, feral orangutan with razor-sharp claws and a taste for blood let loose in a daycare would be better than light mode." Thanks to DigitalPaths for their work.

Comments

Errata: Orangutans

[jamiemccarthy]

For the record, orangutans eat mostly fruit, leaves, bark, and other plant material and, if you had to choose dangerous animals to release into a daycare, orangs would be way down the list. The name does sound fierce, though, doesn't it?, and like all primates except our species, they do have that creepy image to overcome. Come to think of us, our species does too.

But as you can see, they don't really have claws (they seem to have nails, just like we do).

They are the only so-called "great ape" from Asia, living in Borneo and Indonesia. They are endangered (duh) and if clear-cutting continues, you may live longer than this species does.

All about orangutans.

Jamie McCarthy

What about WAP?

[weave]

Several months ago, connecting to slashdot.org from a WAP device (like a mobile phone) produced a simple menu of stories, obviously served just for wap devices.

Now that hasn't worked for months. What happened?

or

[holzp]

www.slashdot.org/palm

been using it for awhile now...

What's the point?

[RollingThunder]

It's way too slow (text entry and download/upload speeds) to have ANY chance of getting a First Post in. ;)

How about an AvantGo channel?

[jalefkowit]

A PQA? Waste of time. How about giving us something anyone with a small form-factor device can use to browse Slashdot on the go, like, say, an AvantGo channel. So much great content is available in AvantGo format already that anyone who's anyone already has the reader on their Palm or PocketPC, and they've got good support for developers too. Sure, it's not wireless, but until we all have 3G wireless web-browsing cell phones, it's about as cool as cool can get -- at least compared to the dead-end of PQA.

-- Jason Lefkowitz

Strange....

[mashy]

I had just finished writing a custom PHP-parsed Slashdot page from the slashdot XML file for use with AvantGo on my Palm..

I switched the file location in the script from a local copy to the real slashdot one and this was the first thing that showed up!

Buzzword alert!

[sulli]

Hey, did y'all see the Products page? Pretty amusing - sounds like the output of a random buzzword generator:

The new e-conomy is growing at warp speed and companies are being forced to re-assess their ability to deliver timely and important data to their employees, partners and customers. Digital Paths' comprehensive array of industry-leading wireless products can ensure your success. Our mobile software solutions can meet your every business need. Digital Paths' server and client applications are strategic to your business. Digital Paths is your partner with the technology, performance, and vision to enable you to continue to scale and enhance your product and service offering capabilities, globally.

Through its use of patent-pending Pathway Technology, Digital Paths extends the reach of web resources to handheld electronic devices and Internet appliances such as PDAs and the new generation of smart phones. Browse Digital Paths' product offerings here:

1. DPWeb Server Application

2. DPWAP Server Application

3. DPWeb Client Palm Application

4. DPWeb ASP Services

Globally, I say. Globally!

Here is a better version for your palm

[Mr_Silver]

Instead of using slashdots own version at http://www.slashdot.org/palm take a look at Avantslash at http://www.custard.org/~richard/avantslash instead.

Its better than Slashdots own effort in the following ways:

• You see synopsis of each of the postings on Avantslash where you do not on /palm
• It removes all the useless gubbins you don't need to see
• You can read comments rated 3 or above

There are probably others but I've forgotten them now. Avantslash would have been listed on slashdots links page but I've emailed the url to them three times so far and they seem to have forgotten to do it.

At some point I'm going to completely rewrite it so that it copes with external sites and is even more customisable. However as it is, it still is IMO better than slashdots own.

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