Plucker Puts Web on Your Palm for Free
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Dirk Pilat - 2002.11.18
Very good day everybody!
Today's text was generated in Germany, 18,600 km (or ca 10,000 miles) away from New Zealand, so the title of the column really doesn't make a lot of sense, but hey, what does in my editorials?
Anyway, as I and my significant other don't see each other a lot, I thought it would be nice to actually devote two months of my time to her, stay at her place, and do all the things a good man does for his working girlfriend: clean the place, cook, do the laundry, and have the place sparkling and a bottle of wine opened when the weary woman comes home at night from work.
As her place is not Buckingham Palace, the household chores can be sorted pretty quickly, leaving me with my technology park (which poor Air New Zealand and I had to carry all the way from New Zealand to Germany), a rather slow modem connection, and plenty of time to improve my Java and Unix skills (as they are nonexistent). So far this arrangement is working out fine, and the S.O. is so far rather pleased having me around for some time.
As I couldn't take my car as well as my iBook and associated gadgets with me from NZ, this leaves me dependent on Germany's excellent public transport system, in effect giving me plenty of opportunity to read while I am being taken from A to B at 300 km per hour (German trains +++).
As I like my Slashdot, Low End Mac, and the Independent with me, and there are unfortunately no print versions yet globally available (that would kill too many trees anyway), I thought it was finally time to utilize my Palm m500, so I checked out the market leader in Web-to-palm communication, AvantGo - but alas, they do not support Max OS X. Well, to be correct, they don't support the new Palm Desktop for OS X, so my dreams of reading Low End Mac on the train were quickly shattered.
I was actually quite surprised, as this really was the first major inconvenience I had encountered since running OS X, so I was obviously not very pleased about AvantGo's decision not to support us. Fortunately I found a little reference to Plucker, a little freeware program (free as in beer - AvantGo would have taken plenty of money for the channels I wanted) that was available for most POSIX compatible OS's, including OS X. They even have a little installer script for the command line-challenged that places the documentation, a Java library, and an executable on your hard drive.
After placing all files in the appropriate directories, installing the Plucker-reader onto your Palm, and studying the help files, it is quite straightforward to get the content you want onto your Palm, and as this is Unix (well, Free BSD, I know) you can easily setup a script that cron can execute before you get up in the morning, sucking all the content off the Net so all you have to do is hotsync your Palm before you go, and then it's Low End Mac or The Pilum all the way to work.
As I fortunately don't have these constraints at the moment (2-1/2 months holidays anyone? Unpaid, though. That's the beauty [and curse] of being self employed), I just set up a little shell script that I can start from the Finder, and fump! - all the nerdy stuff I so dearly crave travels with me in one of my jacket pockets.
I would be interested what kind of functionality you, my dear readers, achieve with OS X and your Palms and invite you over to the Pilum to share it with the rest of us.
This is Dirk Pilat in Germany, signing out.
Recent Down But Not Out Columns
- Thoughts and advice on replacing a two-year-old iBook G4, 02.01. This iBook G4 has taken a beating. Does it make more sense to buy a new iBook G4, wait for the Intel models, or look at the used market?
- iBook on last legs, Mac mini saves marriage, and Macintel meanderings, 01.23. With the iBook G4 "falling apart at the seams", does it make more sense to buy a new G4 iBook or wait for the Intellified next gen iBook?
- First impressions of the 14" iBook G4, 11.13. "Apple has managed to produce a machine that combines everything I want from a portable computer with appropriate processor performance for a competitive price."
- Apple shines after a poorly timed iBook order, 11.06. The frustration of ordering a G3 iBook just two days before it was replaced by a G4 model.
- More in the Down But Not Out index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: Mac Portable, Sep. 1989 - The almost 16-lb. behemoth was innovative but not a smashing success.
- Group of the Day: PowerList for those using Power Computing Mac clones.
- January 8 in LEM history: 02: Lament for a budget iMac - Macs get the job done - 03: Big 'Book, little 'Book - Things I really like about Jaguar - 07: One thing OS X should learn from Windows - Shiira 2.0b2 - 08: Mac Pro (2008) - Xserve (Quad Core) - This old Pismo - DRM in OS X anything to fear? - G3 iMac upgrade resources
Recent Content on Low End Mac
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- Waterfield First with SleeveCase for New 17" Unibody MacBook Pro, Charles W. Moore, 'Book Value, 01.08. Waterfield has a reputation for top quality bags at appropriate prices, and it's already designed a sleeve for the new 17" Unibody MacBook Pro.
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- The Innovative Lisa, Dan Knight, Online Tech Journal, 01.08. Apple's Lisa and how it paved the way for the Macintosh.
- The Lisa Legacy, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.08. We should always remember how Apple's innovation paved the way for all future computers.
- Lisa's DNA Is All Over Modern Computing, Ray Arachelian, Apple Seeds, 01.08. Those who label Apple's Lisa a failure are ignoring the computer's legacy that shows up in every personal computer sold today.
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- How Netbooks Impact Microsoft and Apple, Tim Nash, Taking Back the Market, 01.07. Netbooks are keeping Windows XP alive, which may slow adoption of Windows 7, and perceived value keeps the Mac market share growing at the expense of Windows.
- Apple's Worst Business Decisions: Another Perspective, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.07. Apple's poor business decisions predate the Macintosh. Let's hope they learn from their mistakes.
- The Ill-Fated Apple III, Jason Walsh, Apple Before the Mac, 01.07. "...not only was the Apple III mind crunchingly expensive, it was made with none of the passion of the Apple II or Macintosh."
- 2 Apple Failures: Apple III and Lisa, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.07. Apple's two not-so-great product lines between the Apple II line and the Macintosh.
- Apple III Chaos: Apple's First Failure, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.07. Apple had known nothing but success with its Apple II product line, but when it tried to enter the business world with the Apple III, the learned the cost of failure.
- 17" Unibody MacBook Pro, 01.06. Thinner and lighter than ever, the unibody model tops out with 8 GB of RAM and a 2.93 GHz clock speed.
- Apple's Half-Baked Support for DisplayPort, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 01.06. The DisplayPort specification supports audio, so why does Apple use USB to route sound to the LED Cinema Display?
- Adventures with an Overheating PowerBook, the 10.5.6 Update, and Other Things, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 01.06. After three years of reliable service, the PowerBook began to run so hot that the fan was almost always on. What was causing the problem, and what would fix it?
- No, an Overgrown iPod touch Is Not a Netbook, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.06. BlackBerry pretends its Storm is a netbook, but a netbook needs to be big enough for a typable keyboard.
- Apple IIe Nostalgia: A Reunion 15 Years in the Making, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 01.06. Sometimes nostalgia is all you remembered, like when you get to recreate your first computing experience from the Apple II era.
- Apples from Other Orchards: Apple II Clones, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.06. Before the IBM PC spawned compatibles, companies around the world cloned the Apple II - some with more success than others.
- VisiCalc and the Rise of the Apple II, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.06. "VisiCalc was first released for the Apple II, which quickly became an invaluable tool for businesspeople - at least until IBM moved into the 'personal computing' market in 1981."
- Interview with Dan Bricklin, Inventor of the Electronic Spreadsheet, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.06. Until 1979, a spreadsheet was something you did by hand. VisiCalc changed all that and gave personal computers the first 'killer app'.
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best Mac Pro Deals, 01.08. New 2.8 GHz 4-core, $2,099 after rebate; refurb 8-core, $2,399; new, $2,589 a/r; 3.0 $3,398 a/r; refurb 3.2, $4,099; new, $4,099 a/r.
- Best Apple TV Deals, 01.08. Refurb 40 GB Apple TV, $199; new, $220; refurb 160 GB, $279; new, $320. Prices include ground shipping.
- Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 01.08. Used 867 MHz Combo, $490; 1.33 GHz, $548; 1.5 GHz SuperDrive, $595.
- Best 17" MacBook Pro Deals, 01.07. Used 2.16 GHz Core Duo, $1,190; 2.33 Core 2, $1,400; 2.4, $1,799; refurb 2.33, $1,799; 2.5, $1,899; new, $1,900; refurb 2.6, $2,299.
- Best Power Mac G5 Deals, 01.07. Used 1.8 GHz single, $500; dual, $629, 2.0, $700; dual-core, $929; 2.3, $999; 2.5 dual, $900; 2.7, $1,089; 2.5 Quad, $1,399.
- Best iPod shuffle Deals, 01.07. Refurb 1 GB '07, $39 shipped; new, $43; '08, $45; refurb 2 GB '07, $59 shipped; new, $58; '08, $63.
- Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 01.06. Used 1.83 GHz, $900; 2.16, $1,090; 2.33, $1,295; new 2.4 Penryn, $1,350 after rebate; 2.5, $1,485 a/r; 2.6, $1,649; new 2.4 Unibody, $1,824 a/r.
- Best G3 iMac Deals, 01.06. Used 350 MHz CD, $42; 500 MHz, $59; 450 MHz DVD, $60; 600 MHz CD-RW, $200 shipped; 700 MHz Combo, $379 shipped.
- Best Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' Deals, 01.06. Mac OS X 10.5, single user, $104 shipped; 5 users, $148 shipped; 10.5 Server, 10 users, $363 shipped; unlimited users, $752 shipped.
- More deals in our archive.
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