Solve : Offline Browsing question I got hit up with from a mobile lapt

1.	Solve : Offline Browsing question I got hit up with from a mobile laptop user?
Answer» I was hit up with a question today from a truck driver who occasionally gets free wifi hotspots to connect to, but sometimes he is without internet access. I was asked if it was possible to set up his laptop with the ability to link to an open wifi connection and get an updated copy of yahoo, cnn, and a few other news websites for offline browsing, so that when he is connected to a hotspot his system is updating with latest news articles etc automatically or VIA a 1 click solution. I told him that I would have to get back to him on this as for its going to require a routine to go out and fetch the information. I told him that normally you can setup your offline cache on your browser to save a copy of pages viewed and it saves them as they are accessed with newest info, but what he is asking for is an ability to for lack of better terms ( to dock ) the laptop to the open wifi and get all latest updates for a LIST of news websites without visiting each and every website while squatting at a wifi hotspot location. I was thinking HTTRACK, but that would require navigating to the folder where a website was copied to. Was also thinking about making a batch file that would execute internet explorer and point directly to websites that he wanted cached copies of such as a list of ... start iexplore "www.website1.com" sleep taskkill iexplorer or website1 window name start iexplore "www.website2.com" sleep taskkill iexplorer or website2 window name start iexplore "www.website3.com" sleep taskkill iexplorer or website 3 window name To update the browsers cache, but this is a very ugly method as for his system would not be able to be used for anything else while this is happening because the browser windows would be opening and after a period of sleep timer to allow for the website to load certain pages kill the browser window etc and repeat for other sites. To fetch the latest information of specific pages, but this list would be very lengthy and due to just about all news websites having dynamic paths that are always changing on a daily basis this wouldnt work out so well, which points me back in the direction of HTTRACK which can crawl a URL path in SEARCH for other paths etc, so that you could point it to http://news.yahoo.com/ and it will find all articles/paths from that location and you can designate how many levels in to create a cached copy of. Anyone have any suggestions, and is HTTRACK the only solution for him? ALSO... another request he had was if there was an ability to view the pages without the flash and ads. My only solution I can think of is to disable flash, however it seems as though he doesnt want to be pestered with ads at yahoo news etc, but yet he still wants youtube to work when he is connected. He understands that youtube can not be cached. I am not aware of any program that allows for rules set for browser to support flash for some sites and when it hits a blacklist to not run flash in relation to blacklisted sites. I also told him that the ads etc are what pay for the news etc, and he grinned. I feel as though this request is like a cable customer hating commercials and asking for a way for their TV to block commercials, but operate seamlessly without dead air while a commercial was on for example. As well as a car stereo that blocks commercials on the FM band because they only want music. Times like this I feel like Dr. Leonard McCoy of Star Trek wanting to state out loud ... "For god's sake, JIM, I'm a Doctor not a Magician"Quote JIM, I'm a Doctor not a Magician Offline viewing works well with static pages that seldom refresh content. Web sites kike CNN.com have dynamic content that changes hourly. Or Moe often. The best hope is RSS feeds that can be downloaded and seen later. I'm actually wondering what his motivation for this is... Refreshing WEBPAGES at a new hotspot wouldn't take much... His mention of flash and ads means he understands neither... I wouldn't spend too much time figuring out his dilemna.What is a dilemna? Dilemna...*The famous spelling error, the origin of which is a mystery... Quote I'm actually wondering what his motivation for this is... Refreshing webpages at a new hotspot wouldn't take much... His mention of flash and ads means he understands neither... I wouldn't spend too much time figuring out his dilemna. Well his motivation to cache the sites is that he doesnt have wifi everywhere he goes, which these days can be solved by buying a card through Verizon etc and paying a monthly fee to have cellular/3G/4G internet access etc. There are lots of people out there who want everything for next to nothing and this guy is one of them. I suggested getting a mobile internet service package from verizon or another provider and he said that he doesnt want to spend any money. For the fact that the guy is not rolling in dough, I figured I'd offer assistance, but limited assistance since I am assisting on a voluntary basis. And yes, refreshing web pages at each location wouldnt take much, but he doesnt want to have to manually visit each website to get an update from, he was hoping to have a 1 click solution and say a list of websites that would be visited by his system to draw the latest info from. Which works for static paths, but gets tricky with dynamically changing paths without use of a crawler such as HTTRACK. And yes he is not computer savy and his statement of not wanting flash and ads for specific websites but for them to work on others is asking for a bit much. I dont know of any way to make this happen unless you are using 2 browsers such as IE which has Flash Installed and enabled, and say using Firebox with Flash Disabled, and you would have to use whichever brower you want in which one supports flash and the other does not. BUT, this would not work for ads that are banners etc which are just images. Yah I am not putting much time into this. Just figured I'd post it here to see what everyone had to say,suggest about it. I think I am just going to tell him that he is better off getting a mobile internet service package from verizon etc to have 3G or 4G etc. They make adapters that can plug into PCMCIA slots, as well as USB adapters, as well as the wifi hotspot 3G/4G devices to tether a connection to.

Solve : Offline Browsing question I got hit up with from a mobile laptop user?

Answer»

I was hit up with a question today from a truck driver who occasionally gets free wifi hotspots to connect to, but sometimes he is without internet access. I was asked if it was possible to set up his laptop with the ability to link to an open wifi connection and get an updated copy of yahoo, cnn, and a few other news websites for offline browsing, so that when he is connected to a hotspot his system is updating with latest news articles etc automatically or VIA a 1 click solution.

I told him that I would have to get back to him on this as for its going to require a routine to go out and fetch the information. I told him that normally you can setup your offline cache on your browser to save a copy of pages viewed and it saves them as they are accessed with newest info, but what he is asking for is an ability to for lack of better terms ( to dock ) the laptop to the open wifi and get all latest updates for a LIST of news websites without visiting each and every website while squatting at a wifi hotspot location.

I was thinking HTTRACK, but that would require navigating to the folder where a website was copied to. Was also thinking about making a batch file that would execute internet explorer and point directly to websites that he wanted cached copies of such as a list of ...

start iexplore "www.website1.com"
sleep
taskkill iexplorer or website1 window name
start iexplore "www.website2.com"
sleep
taskkill iexplorer or website2 window name
start iexplore "www.website3.com"
sleep
taskkill iexplorer or website 3 window name

To update the browsers cache, but this is a very ugly method as for his system would not be able to be used for anything else while this is happening because the browser windows would be opening and after a period of sleep timer to allow for the website to load certain pages kill the browser window etc and repeat for other sites.

To fetch the latest information of specific pages, but this list would be very lengthy and due to just about all news websites having dynamic paths that are always changing on a daily basis this wouldnt work out so well, which points me back in the direction of HTTRACK which can crawl a URL path in SEARCH for other paths etc, so that you could point it to http://news.yahoo.com/ and it will find all articles/paths from that location and you can designate how many levels in to create a cached copy of.

Anyone have any suggestions, and is HTTRACK the only solution for him?

*ALSO... another request he had was if there was an ability to view the pages without the flash and ads. My only solution I can think of is to disable flash, however it seems as though he doesnt want to be pestered with ads at yahoo news etc, but yet he still wants youtube to work when he is connected. He understands that youtube can not be cached. I am not aware of any program that allows for rules set for browser to support flash for some sites and when it hits a blacklist to not run flash in relation to blacklisted sites. I also told him that the ads etc are what pay for the news etc, and he grinned.

I feel as though this request is like a cable customer hating commercials and asking for a way for their TV to block commercials, but operate seamlessly without dead air while a commercial was on for example. As well as a car stereo that blocks commercials on the FM band because they only want music.

Times like this I feel like Dr. Leonard McCoy of Star Trek wanting to state out loud ... "For god's sake, JIM, I'm a Doctor not a Magician"Quote

JIM, I'm a Doctor not a Magician

Offline viewing works well with static pages that seldom refresh content.
Web sites kike CNN.com have dynamic content that changes hourly. Or Moe often.

The best hope is RSS feeds that can be downloaded and seen later.
I'm actually wondering what his motivation for this is...
Refreshing WEBPAGES at a new hotspot wouldn't take much...
His mention of flash and ads means he understands neither...
I wouldn't spend too much time figuring out his dilemna.What is a dilemna?
Dilemna...The famous spelling error, the origin of which is a mystery...

Quote

I'm actually wondering what his motivation for this is...
Refreshing webpages at a new hotspot wouldn't take much...
His mention of flash and ads means he understands neither...
I wouldn't spend too much time figuring out his dilemna.

Well his motivation to cache the sites is that he doesnt have wifi everywhere he goes, which these days can be solved by buying a card through Verizon etc and paying a monthly fee to have cellular/3G/4G internet access etc.

There are lots of people out there who want everything for next to nothing and this guy is one of them. I suggested getting a mobile internet service package from verizon or another provider and he said that he doesnt want to spend any money.

For the fact that the guy is not rolling in dough, I figured I'd offer assistance, but limited assistance since I am assisting on a voluntary basis.

And yes, refreshing web pages at each location wouldnt take much, but he doesnt want to have to manually visit each website to get an update from, he was hoping to have a 1 click solution and say a list of websites that would be visited by his system to draw the latest info from. Which works for static paths, but gets tricky with dynamically changing paths without use of a crawler such as HTTRACK.

And yes he is not computer savy and his statement of not wanting flash and ads for specific websites but for them to work on others is asking for a bit much. I dont know of any way to make this happen unless you are using 2 browsers such as IE which has Flash Installed and enabled, and say using Firebox with Flash Disabled, and you would have to use whichever brower you want in which one supports flash and the other does not. BUT, this would not work for ads that are banners etc which are just images.

Yah I am not putting much time into this. Just figured I'd post it here to see what everyone had to say,suggest about it. I think I am just going to tell him that he is better off getting a mobile internet service package from verizon etc to have 3G or 4G etc. They make adapters that can plug into PCMCIA slots, as well as USB adapters, as well as the wifi hotspot 3G/4G devices to tether a connection to.

Solve : Offline Browsing question I got hit up with from a mobile laptop user?

Discussion

No Comment Found

Related InterviewSolutions

Reply to Comment