Autodownload webpages when an internet connection is present for later vieiwing?

dualfragment · 03-28-2004, 08:04 PM

I'm using 802.11g in my soon to be completed car pc and what I want is to possibly automatically download some websites like the weather, for example, whenever an internet connection is present. If that isn't possible, what about at a set time each day, perhaps in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping?

I've searched around google but can't seem to find anything and I hope somebody here can help.

Thanks!

skippy76 · 03-28-2004, 08:30 PM

How about something like avantGo? This is generally used for synchronising webpages for PDAs but would probably be pretty good in this instance....

Marsupial · 03-28-2004, 10:30 PM

I think there should be a part of your browser for "offline content" - you know when erasing temp files in iexplore you can erase all offline content? when activated, I think you can select pages to autodownload if net is present...

but I don't do that as I navigate the web only when the web is present, so I might be wrong, but I'd look into that being you

Filip · 03-29-2004, 02:50 PM

I've been wanting to come up with something like this as well. I use AvantGo and Vindigo (restaurant, movie, sports info) for my PDA and I'd love to be able to use something like that. Note: I don't have a CarPC yet.

So far I have downloaded a few news readers that can comb through websites, extract the text and read it out to me using text-to-speech. I can set the program to sync on startup and then read the news to me while I cook breakfast. I have thought about using a Palm emulator with AvantGo but I haven't tried it out yet.

What do you need yours for? I will use mine for reading up on news and RSS feeds.

greenglo · 03-29-2004, 05:20 PM

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index....pid;1277378924

Neat topic, got me thinking. I never realized xp had built in file synching.

greenglo · 03-29-2004, 05:21 PM

Also, if you goto windows help and search for "Make Web pages available offline" you file find how to do it.

Filip · 03-29-2004, 05:33 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by greenglo

Also, if you goto windows help and search for "Make Web pages available offline" you file find how to do it.

Right. Except I think we are looking for something that is tailored more to the CarPC. Avantgo strips out the graphics and just presents the text, at a standardized font and size. I know you can just setup IExplorer to use larger fonts (View >> Text Size >> Largest) and to not download images, but that still doesn't fix some of the formatting issues (not to mention that some of the text does not increase in size - specifically if the web designer has coded the font to be a certain amount of pixels (12px) tall and not using points (ie 12pt).

Personally I want to be able to push a button, sync all my news channels, and then listen to the news uninterrupted while I drive to work. We could integrate the track fwd/reverse buttons to switch between news stories etc. As I said earlier, I have (err had) a news reader that would do this - but it had set sources and the UI was clunky - not fit for Car PC use.

wompser · 03-30-2004, 06:07 PM

I don't know too much about the technology, but perhaps the solution is in RSS feed? I defer to someone who knows more about it though...

navig8r · 03-31-2004, 06:37 PM

I have used HTTP://www.weatherbug.com in the past. It resided in the system tray as current temperature, and will send you weather alerts. If you wander through a WAP zone, it will update automatically.

Chairboy · 03-31-2004, 07:35 PM

Another solution is to use an RSS reader. Whenever you wander through a WAP, it should connect and see if there are any new items in the RSS feeds.

NewTechFool · 03-31-2004, 09:45 PM

At risk of showing my age......

Does anyone remember PointCast? That was the coolest app. Back in the .com days they got purchased, the purchaser got purchased, and I think they went bancrupt.

Anything PointCast still around?

Scorpnstail · 04-02-2004, 09:53 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by dualfragment

I'm using 802.11g in my soon to be completed car pc and what I want is to possibly automatically download some websites like the weather, for example, whenever an internet connection is present. If that isn't possible, what about at a set time each day, perhaps in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping?

I've searched around google but can't seem to find anything and I hope somebody here can help.

Thanks!

I dont know just how difficult it would be but some gifted programer should be able to write a basic app that would sign on and save a webpage to a location on your harddisk. You could then use a text to speech program to read to you the daily news stories. Also it should be possible to write another small app to only pull peices from the html document and incorporate this to give you weather reports etc..

I am not a programmer so that whole idea may be a bit to far stretched and there are most likely many better ideas , but i just wanted to toss my 2c into this topic

Scorpnstail

ukchris · 04-02-2004, 10:28 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Scorpnstail

I dont know just how difficult it would be but some gifted programer should be able to write a basic app that would sign on and save a webpage to a location on your harddisk. You could then use a text to speech program to read to you the daily news stories. Also it should be possible to write another small app to only pull peices from the html document and incorporate this to give you weather reports etc..

I am not a programmer so that whole idea may be a bit to far stretched and there are most likely many better ideas , but i just wanted to toss my 2c into this topic

Scorpnstail

I started writing an app to do this which was in the prototype stage when my hard drive died. It basically took a URL and polled every x seconds, if it found it then it would save it offline for you to view. My testing was intended to download raffic reports from free hotspots. It was working prety well given that I don't have much of an antenna on my car but then I tested on my Win2k machine and the Orinoco would not roam access points so it was pretty ineffective.

Although the source is gone I probably still have the compiled prototype if you'd like to experiment with it, it's too big to post but you can PM me your email address. Note it isn't polished... it was intended to prove the concept, and recreating it may take a while due to other priorities.

Chris.

wirelessprelude · 04-02-2004, 10:49 AM

Ok, well I have the opposite working for me, my car trys every 10 seconds to send a picture, and it actually works pretty well!!, at least in the city. I've been wanting an app that can detect if it has a wi-fi connection, then based on that info take actions such as, send location, or download weather, or send picture. Check of my web site
http://wirelesslude.com

adrian

powertiger · 04-02-2004, 04:56 PM

i installed a Webserver on my car pc with a mysql database.
If i get to a hotspot it gets all infos i store on my main Webserver.
There is trafficinformation, News, Weather, Emails etc..
It then puts the informations into touchscreen fitting Websites with speech output.

Its not all ready and a little tricky to install everything. But it works already!