Dec 012004
No, I will not update my links to make them PocketPC compatible, since they allready are. Use AvantGO, like I do, and you can read these pages on your PocketPC powered device (like my iPaq 3870) wherever you want…
Now stop filling up my referer-hits: if you don’t like it here, don’t come here.
Thanks for listening.
update: The creator of Feederreader has read this post, and is actually working with me (via a conversation that can be followed in the comments of this post) to give Feederreader-users a better reading experience on their PocketPC. Ain’t blogging great?
My apologies.
I am the author of FeederReader and my plea for compatible links may have been overly zealous.
Many links provided in RSS feeds are not viewable or view very poorly on Pocket Internet Explorer.
If you feel strongly about this (it looks like you do), I can remove the referer field from the program (or make it smaller).
I welcome an email (or public) conversation on this.
If you write RSS-reader software, it would be wise to address the CREATOR of the RSS-feeds you can’t parse or can’t view for some reason. I use B2Evolution, and I am not going to change (althoug I can, since it’s Open Source) their software. Talk to them, instead of leaving trails in every blog that uses their software.
Just my 2 cents.
SwitchBL8
Well put. I think you are right. Especially since the referer field “harms” both those that have PocketPC compatible links and those that don’t.
I will be changing this in the next version to something much smaller.
Please bear with this inconvenience until the next version comes out. I would expect within a few days to a week.
Thanks for your comments!
Bear in mind that I use an older version (0.8.9) of B2Evolution, I’m not sure if the latest stable version has a different RSS-generator.
The Referer plea does not distinguish between feeds or HTML pages that are and are not Pocket PC “compatible”.
I tested your RSS2.0 feed and it is very readable on Pocket PC (because it doesn’t contain formatting or font commands).
Your blog entries are readable (better than most) but not ideal. The text and comments are contained within tables with margins that take up a lot of Pocket PC viewing area. Also, all the items in the right hand column are formatted non-optimally on Pocket Internet Explorer.
My hope is that you can feed back to the b2e community that you are seeing more and more Pocket PC’s viewing your site and that they should test and improve the blog HTML pages for optimal viewing on Pocket Internet Explorer.
Again, thank you for bringing this to my attention!
The incorrectly formatted rightside has something to do with the way the pages are built: via stylesheets. If I change the stylesheet a bit, one of the first things that are broke is the menu on the right.
I’ll remove the mandatory theme/skin (this evening), so that it will revert to the default. Let me know if that changes things.
As a FeederReader user thanks for the conversation.
Thanks also for the blog. One of the top blogs I keep an eye on. I had a surprise on the Georgina entry here at work!! 🙂
Keep up the good topics.
Sorry about the Georgina-picture(s). Hope they (pun intended) didn’t scare you away B)
Thanks for the compliment. I try to do my utmost to present something worthy of reading, whilst trying not to turn this blog into another newssite.
Don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed the Georgina images! 😉 Maybe put a disclaimer “Not for Work” in the future? Put keep the content coming.
I try to make my blog something more personalized also. That is a good reason why I keep yours high on the list with others that share that same view.
Two people, one thought: I just created a category “Do not view at work”. Anything to keep the readers happy…
I just checked, but the mandatory skin was not enabled. So I don’t think I can be of much help by changing B2E’s configuration. Please let me know if there is something you want to test and need me to do.
Is there a way to test for the browser and use a different skin based on the browser type?
Is there a skin that works well with Pocket Internet Explorer?
Thanks for looking into this!
As I said, the functionality of B2E is not something I want to change, so you should ask the first question to the creators of B2E.
The second question is somehting I have to test myself. What I think, is that Pocket Internet Explorer is not capable of rendering CSS-based websites properly. All standard skins in B2E are CSS-based. One can always create a custom skins based on frames and/or tables, but that’s a matter of taste. I was in the proces of creating a table-based skin, but older versions of FireFox didn’t render that like in IE, so I stopped. Perhaps I can give it another try.
Another thing: Pocket PC 2003 (which I have) supports CSS, older versions (Pocket PC 2000 and 2002) do not.
You’re right about PPC 2003 vs PPC 2000 and 2002.
Pocket PC 2003 supports CSS1 but not CSS2.
I’d vote for targeting just PPC 2003. Eventually, the PPC 2000 and 2002 will die out.
Sounds great! Let me know when you’ve got something to test. I’d like to include your experience on http://www.FeederReader.com. As you figure this out, can you write your experience down so we can provide tips to other b2e users for supporting Pocket Internet Explorer? That would be great!
How do I contact the b2e author/developers?
b2e can be found at http://www.b2evolution.net, I guess you can find contact-info there.
I’ll contact you when I will work on the skin.