March 7, 2003

  • Techno-Tittilations or Things I Do While My Muse is Away


    I’ve spent a little time lately updating yet another website, www.pianofest.org.  This site is austerely functional (meaning: graphically unadorned) per request of Pianofest’s director, Paul Schenly, who’s a drinking buddy of mine.  Ah, culture!  When will it ever rub off on me?


    I got a G3 or 3G—whatever—type cell vision-type phone just recently.  Using it’s built-in web browser still sucks since the input is still by phone keys and not keyboard and that entails arduous repetitions (hitting ‘7’ four times, for instance just to type a single ‘s’).  So I don’t use that browser at all.  The big advantage to me is using the phone as a modem to my laptop.  Finally, I’m able to connect mobilely and remote at speeds of 120 kbps or better (like an ISDN line or double the speed of a typical phone line connection at home).  And with my phone provider, Sprint, the time I spend thusly ‘online’ is considered ‘unlimited minutes’ and, hence, not charged to me beyond the basic rate.  So, essentially, it’s cellular service with free-and-fast-ISP included.  The catch: Sprint is no longer selling the laptop cables and software for laptop-dialing.  In fact, they’ve recalled the unsold connection kits from RadioShack.  Seems that people who have these kits are going hog-wild with uncharged bandwidth usage that Sprint failed to foresee and finds hard to live with.  *shrugs*   Not me, of course!



    I found a free Windows 2000/XP time-saving front-end shell for Internet Explorer: iTrix…


    is an Internet Explorer-based web browser that can manage up to 64 web browsers in a grid with basic browser functionality. iTrix features a Navigational Grid with thumbnails for easily locating browsers within the primary grid and an Address Manager for keeping up with your favorites which includes a address queue for controlled browser launchings.


    What the above blurb means for me with regards to blogging is that I can easily create multiple ‘groups’ of my SIR which I can send as a group to a queue to load into my browser, say one address every 10 seconds (configurable).  If the group contains a list of sixty blogs, it will take 6 minutes for all sites to load. (time to make coffee).  After (or even as) the sites load, they are accessible in both the full-browser sized grid and as informative thumbnails.


    Essentially, it can act as a staggered staging of the Sites You Read (my SIR is your SYR!) with just one click access. 


    This is most useful  and timesaving for visiting the same sites day after day after day. 


    If you’re really organized, you could even create a ‘daily’ group, an ‘every-other day’ group, a ‘weekly’ group, a ‘they haven’t posted forever but check-up on them group’, etc.


    And, yes, silly rabbit, iTrix is for iKids.

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