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Wikipedia Goes Mobile
eldavojohn writes, "Webaroo has added Wikipedia to their services on mobile devices. There have also been open source efforts to deliver it to the iPod (also check out the wiki) or a PDA. I guess if I were still a bartender, this would be a necessity in solving bar disputes before they escalate to fisticuffs." Wikipedia requires 6 GB of free space, 10 GB recommended. And remember: Don't Panic.
Wikipedia requires 6 GB of free space, 10 GB recommended.
Damn, I got to get myself a bigger PDA. Having 32MB isn't what it used to be!
I own the zaurus S-3200 running application Zbedic. Files are compressed to no more than 400mb total and fits in my 6gb internal hardisk of my pda just fine. the project location for the zaurus http://sourceforge.net/projects/bedic Look under english wikipedia and you can use it on a zaurus. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group _id=51673
While one of the basic strengths of Wikipedia is its updatability, I would question the point of storing all the articles offline. Admittedly, TFA does say it'll sync up the data the next time you go online, but it'll practically eat up all your disk space eventually.
I think I'll stick to just checking it online quickly on my humble Motorola A780.
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
The Wiki addition to iPod Linux (WikiPodLinux I believe it was called) has been around for awhile. At least since I had installed iPod Linux back in March.
What are you saying? A complete breakdown of the world of warcraft episode of south park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft_co mes_to_South_Park) or the complete, 8 pages if you print it out, biography of Bender from futurama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bender_Bending_Rodr% C3%ADguez) are useless?
That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable.
... initial excitement died down after a major publishing house announced the release of a competing device. With a cheaper price, and the words "Don't Panic" written in large, friendly letters on the cover, the new version, tentatively called "The Guide Mk 1", is expected to dramatically outsell Wikipedia's own offering.
Wikipedia regularly dumps the entire database, which is available to download. However, It looks like they're having trouble getting them out lately (link is to a September 25 English dump, which hasn't yet successfully completed).
The compressed dump files are huge, and I wouldn't want to even attempt downloading them without wget or unless a torrent were provided directly by Wikipedia (why is this not being done yet?)
In 2009 slinging 100 GB data files across the net or between devices should be trivial, but not yet.
However, I have a truly marvelous demonstration of how to compress Wikipedia, which the margin of this comment is just barely large enough to contain:
Call somebody with Internet access and ask them. P.S. Wow, this also works for compressing Google... Hey, this margin is not as narrow as I thought.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
Just connect to Wapedia with your phone/PDA.
Seriously, that's the only reason I ever use the internet on my phone.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
...I've been accessing Wikipedia often on my phone, using the Opera Mini browser. If it will work on your phone (Java), then you can just view the normal site. It looks great.
Sorry, but I actually know something about this... My job this summer revolved around this issue, and seeing how much of Wikipedia we could cram into about 10 MB. (Hint: OLPC is using a subset of Wikipedia as its primary out-of-the-box reference material.)
The images on Wikipedia as of this January are about 76 GB in size. Now, assume we can switch to low-quality JPEGs and cut the size down to 5% of its current - about the size you'd get from switching all the images to black-and-white, in fact. Making that jump is a big assumption, but even that only gets you down to about 4 GB.
Text-wise, the Wikipedia database containing all current article info (no discussion pages, no history, etc.) is 1.7 GB - compressed. It's significantly larger when uncompressed.
There - 6 GB total. And that's an achievement...
Say goodbye to Pub Trivia.
But then we would need swap space to unzip it on the fly and extract the page we are looking for!
I shudder to think of how to go about doing that in real time with minimal memory
All your base are belong to us!
Why doesn't Wikipedia make their own mobile? It could be updated when connected to the computer, like an iPod, and I'm sure ads for it would replace any mentionings of donations...
My name would be Pi_r_[]ed, but this stupid thing wouldn't allow it. Well, at least now you know.
for when they put Uncyclopedia on mobile devices as well. I need access to the funny stuff as well.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
When I can put Wikipedia on an HP48, then I will be happy.
--
BMO
That whole post was an explanation. I have a feeling he/she wasn't a troll, but a regular slashdot reader who was fed up with all the modding down. Too few good posts are let out of the trash pile, and too many are modded down to the seventh circle. It was sort of funny that he posted that he was wasting a mod point, because whoever modded him down could not have used it for something better.
I think the discussion system could use improvement, and so did whoever posted that.
I have freaks! I did something right...
"I guess if I were still a bartender, this would be a necessity in solving bar disputes before they escalate to fisticuffs."
Which is exactly why Guinness, the brewery, started publishing an anual book of world records: To resolve bar disputes about the longest, fastest, first, etc... Perhaps you've heard of it?
- ------- There are ten kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who... Huh?
Now I think this is a great idea, unfortunately it's not available for the latest model, iPod Video 5G. I'm not trying to be a troll here, but does anyone know why that is?
I have been carrying around Wikipedia on my PDA for years. TomeRaider has a "complete" version of Wikipedia, with some pictures, for about 1GB.
And it is very good for settling bar bets.