The low-end internet

Getting ebooks with low end hardware

2011-12-10T02:16:00.000+02:00

http://m.gutenberg.org/
Project gutenberg is mobile friendly ebook archive

http://www.manybooks.net/
Manybooks is more visual free ebook site

PS. there is also really good and light Pdf reader for windows: Sumatra PDF. It's special version (v0.8x 98) by Andrea Russo that works also on Win98SE should found with some googling...

Compaq Contura Aero 4/25

2011-10-04T17:41:00.000+03:00

Here's myt take on low-end hacking:
http://wind-up.tumblr.com/post/5242315244/nerdcore-compaq-contura-aero-4-25-laptop-with-b-w

I was able to install windows 95 to that crappy old Compaq Aero 4/25 subnotebook from 1994... Aero is 486 machine, but without any coprocessor in it. So even it was running win95. It was not able to handle many win32 programs...
Still... It was interesting test.

Watching youtube

2011-06-16T18:58:00.002+03:00

If the low-end machine can't handle modern flash player and streaming video, you can always try mobile version of Youtube with Realplayer or compatible software (as instructed on this link).
Or you can can download and convert youtube videos using Tubidy intenret service.

I prefer the last option:
Usually I download videos via tubidy and watch them with VLC palyer...

Blogger/Blogspot goes mobile

2011-06-14T19:53:00.001+03:00

At last...

Google Blogger service got finally fully working mobile template!

It works also on traditional desktop web browsers, so it is perfect solution for low-end blog reading with slower computer systems :)

-You can enable mobile device detection from your blogger settings

-If you like to view current blogger blog in mobile friendly mode, just add: ?m=1 after: *.blogspot.com/

-Example: http://low-end.blogspot.com/?m=1

Console screensaver

2011-05-10T02:44:00.001+03:00

In Linux (Ubuntu) I'm using "phosphor" screensaver showing news feed or other interesting text... And just recently, I found similar screensaver for low-end windows machines.

http://noisybox.net/computers/text_term/

It displays any local or online plain text file as screensaver in classic terminal style.

Works in win9x and NT4.0

PS.
All credit goes to Jason from noisybox.net

Edit:
Text Terminal Screen Saver displays only plain text, so it may be tricky to find progressively updating plain txt files online...
Personally I'm using it to display data from Nexstorm detector located in our home city (Nexstorm software creates plain text report file called TRACReport.txt showing current thunderstorm data)

Use always Google mobile web search

2011-04-09T04:44:00.001+03:00

In default, google's mobile/pda version of search shows results from "normal" web
and you have to manually select the "mobile web" option.
In low-resource machine it may be more practical to search from mobile web by default:

http://www.google.com/m/search?&q=&site=mobile

Simply added URL above to my bookmarks and now i can search directly from mobile web.

Xtreme low-end hacking #1

2011-03-29T19:21:00.000+03:00

To run windows XP on 8Mhz CPU...

http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/xpmini_eng.htm

That's what I call low-end hacking!

Another MMO for low-end hardware

2011-03-15T20:49:00.000+02:00

Just found interesting graphical MMORPG:
-EUO A multiplayer online adventure
http://euotopia.com/

-Works in win98

Social media: Twitter

2011-02-24T19:59:00.000+02:00

You need to stay in touch with outer world... Even with Low-end hardware.

Twitter is:
-really flexible service (many different applications)
-works on many platforms (works on win9x)
-simple (does what it have to do and no more)

Mobile site:
https://mobile.twitter.com/

Twitter api:
http://apiwiki.twitter.com/

*I found solution for posting tweets from windows command line:
http://phalacee.com/index.php?page=development&section=app&development=19

+
There is also other interestin twitter low-end "hacks" not related to windows 9x:
(Twitter monitoring typewriter):
http://oomlout.co.uk/?p=79
&
(Twittjr twitter for PCjr)
http://grantovich.net/projects/twittjr/

Browsing the mobile internet

2011-02-20T23:07:00.002+02:00

Some web pages detect if one is using mobile or desktop hardware. This is problematic when trying to browse internet sites with low-resource machine; So you have to tell the site that you want see lighter mobile version (if aviable).

-Custom user agent string for win98 box with K-meleon
*Code:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1) Gecko/20100228 K-Meleon/1.5.4

-Browse WAP sites using wml-extension for K-meleon
Download wml-extension for k-meleon:
http://kmext.sourceforge.net/files/wmlbrowser.7z

To The WWW!

2011-02-17T19:25:00.005+02:00

When using old windows operating system like windows 98SE or DamnSmallLinux, you need modern and light desktop web browser software cabable of showing lightweight web bages: There is Dillo for linux and K-meleon for Windows 98SE.

-There is also text-mode browsers like Lynx for linux and Links (and it's many forks) for Win, *Nix, MacOS.

Greetings Adventurer!

2011-02-16T04:30:00.002+02:00

Searching for:
*Low end Massively Multi-Player games and/or MUDs
-Works under windows 98SE, Linux...
-Low-resource friendly client

*Found:
Mangband -Online version of Angband
http://mangband.org/
Medieva -One of the oldest MMO games around
http://www.medievia.com/connecting.html
Algadon -Browser based online game, supports mobile web browsers
http://m.algadon.com/index.php

Account(s) created...

About: The low-end internet

2011-02-16T03:54:00.004+02:00

The story so far:
I got really old (Toshiba Satellite Pro 440CDX) laptop from my job and
decided to update it with Orinoco Gold Wireless PC Card
...and get it to the World Wide Web

Specs are:
133Mhz intel MMX
32mb RAM
8Gb HDD
with Windows 98 SE

(Average mobile phone is about 4-5 times more powerfull)

LOADING "Low-end internet",8

2011-02-16T02:09:00.001+02:00

READY