Offline Browsers (web robot) – options to review

I’ve been working a way to create a local copy of a Sharepoint wiki. I haven’t solved the problem yet!

I’m working through a series of offline browsers, apps that we once called web robots. They claim to retrieve web pages and store them locally. I pulled this list from CNET view: Offline Browser by download, Vista support; I don’t use Vista but I wanted apps that were being actively supported (Vista is a good marker for that). Here’s the list:

• WebCopier (has iSaveWeb for iPhone, Mac, Windows versions, $30)
• SuperBot Offline Browser
• Offline Explorer Pro
• Website Extractor
• Website Ripper Copier
• QuadSucker/Web
• Teleport Pro (I’ve used this one for years – but I already know it won’t authenticate against an SP server)

I currently use SiteSucker on my Mac, but that doesn’t help with this problem.

So far I’ve been able to set WebCopier to authenticate against SP server (NTLM style authentication) but my first attempts to retrieve the wiki web pages and store them locally didn’t work very well.

I’ll update this list if I come up with anything that works. I think it’s useful as a list of offline browsers to consider for any purpose.

Looking for your Google Calendar Sync Log files?

This morning I discovered all information about the log files for Google Calendar Sync had been deleted from the net.

No, seriously. It’s all gone.

Weird.

But, if you’re reading this, you know that. You’ll only have gotten to this post if all your other searches have failed.

Anyway, if you’re having problems with Google Calendar Sync you’ll usually need to check the logs. They’re here on XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\[your account name]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Calendar Sync\logs

In my case GCS has actually been behaving fairly well lately. The current bug is only a nuisance; if Outlook isn’t running GCS throws up an error message "could not obtain microsoft outlook version". It’s annoying, but harmless.

Note I only do one way sync – from Outlook/Exchange to Google Calendar. I consider two way sync to be an unreachable dream; Microsoft and Google calendaring are much too different. I sync from Outlook to gCal, and from gCal to my iPhone using Google’s exchange calendar services.

Retrospect 8 for PPC

I've been waiting for this. I'd like to move backup off my old XP box to my not-quite-so-old G5 iMac ...

MacInTouch

.... As promised in March, EMC released Retrospect 8.1.148, which brings PowerPC support to the latest version of the venerable Mac backup software. The release also offers increased performance, interface enhancements, and important bug fixes....

I'll give it a month or two to settle down.

How can I create a local copy of a Sharepoint wiki?

I asked this one on Microsoft TechNet (seems to have replaced their usenet groups):

How can I create a local copy of a Sharepoint wiki

I'd like to have a local copy of the wiki pages on my hard drive so it's available when I'm offline. The links and editor don't need to work, I just need to be able to feed it to Windows Search so I can find the wiki material.

I've tried a couple of offline browser products to see if I could havest the page, but so far the results have been mediocre. I also tried accessing the wiki list using Access 2007 to see if I could get at the files (documents) attached in the list. No luck.

I'm a SP administrator, but I have no server access.

Is there any way to get a local copy of the wiki?

I think the answer is “no”, unfortunately. For me this is the biggest drawback of Microsoft’s Wiki implementation. (Number 2, curiously, is the absence of a “paste as text” option. The rich text editor gets hopelessly confused by formatted text.)

Update 7/6/09: The Colligo suite of products provides offline access to a lot of SP content. Unfortunately, they’re just starting to look at support for the wiki content. Their application architecture is not ideal for this purpose however.

The Colligo application suite is designed to support offline editing and synchronization of SP content. That’s a very ambitious goal, and it’s easy to see why they need to use a proprietary database to store content and to hide the data from ‘backdoor’ manipulation in ‘…. Local Settings\Application Data\ColligoOfflineClient\Storage5…’.

Sadly, this doesn’t fit that well with Microsoft’s oddball Wiki implementation. I’d like to be able to view the Wiki pages in IE, to have local links become ‘relative links’ (so they work against the local store), and expose the data to Windows Search. None of that works with the proprietary store. (I don’t care about offline editing as much as having an offline store, so the main value of the Colligo architecture doesn’t apply to me.)

Lastly their HTML viewer is just a placeholder for future work, it’s keyhole view of the Wiki data. Of course they’ll improve this, but the other challenges are tougher.

There’s not a lot of alternatives however. I’d go for it if Colligo were to add an export feature that would create a static HTML view of the wiki data on demand.

Update 11/2/09: There's still no answer.

Dumb: iPhone OS 3 changes the screen lock while phoning behavior

I've verified this. It's a really dumb change Apple made with the OS 3 update:

Macintouch - iPhone/iPod Touch Platform: OS 3

... It took me some time to figure it out, but in my experience, OS 3.0 will use the top button to hang up when you use the iPhone as a handset. Prior OS versions let you lock the phone, and only hang up when you hit the scary red button.

The feature isn't without its inconsistencies. If you use the iPhone with a headset or as a speaker phone, it still behaves as prior versions, locking the phone rather than hanging up when the top button is pressed.

My opinion: it will take some getting used to, and may even be useful as a quick hang up when its a handset (i.e. when you're done with a call, just hit the top button to hang up while its next to your ear.) However, my opinion is that the mere inconsistency of this potentially unwanted and unexpected behavior is a serious minus. If you have a conference call or call-waiting, I don't know what to expect.

Unlabeled and obscure features were a thing other smartphones do with their plastic buttons, not the iPhone. It should be left to the clearly labeled red button. I expect it to revert to the old behavior with 3.0.1.

One of the few downsides of the iPhone as a phone is that it's incredibly easy to accidentally disconnect a call, especially when you're using an earset or the speakerphone. The red disconnect screen button is very sensitive.

So I was delighted when I learned the power-off button would blank the screen when I was on a phone call. I use it all the time.

Since I mostly use my earset I wasn't aware the behavior had changed. If you use an earset, it still works properly. Otherwise, it's a problem.

Bad Apple.

PS. Macintouch is a great place to learn about bugs and issues with OS 3 and with the 3GS. I can confirm my 3G's battery life has fallen sharply, but that might because I've enabled Push notification for Beejive. I haven't noticed the Wifi and network issues others report, but I usually connect to an Apple Airport.

Radical approach to fixing an iPhone sync problem

If you're really stuck with an iPhone sync problem, this Macintouch advice might be useful to have on hand ...

iPhone/iPod Touch Platform: iPhone 3G S

...Regarding my problem syncing my 3GS iPhones with my iMac G5 - I finally figured out the solution by doing all of these, in order:

1) Completely remove iTunes files: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1224
AND
2) Remove Apple Mobile Device Service files: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1747
BEFORE rebooting. Then:
3) Reboot
4) Empty Trash
5) Reset sync history: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627
(ran the perl script in Terminal thus: /System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsync.pl full )
6) Reboot again
7) Reinstall iTunes from the current download (v. 8.2 at this time)

Lots of wizardry here, including resetting the sync history.

Things for task and project management: fastest product evaluation ever

My evaluation of Things - task management on the Mac went like this:

1. Visit site: note price $50
2. Download trial and launch: 2 min
3. Look for (missing) import and export functionality: 2 min
4. Open empty help file: 1 min (might be OS X bug)
5. Delete app

Who would be crazy enough to put all their tasks and projects into a tool that had absolutely no data mobility options?