Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with offline

Does an RSS feed reader exist that can save the linked HTML pages locally?

chrisamiller — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:04:19 -0800

Is there an RSS reader that can follow a feed's links and download html pages for offline reading? I'm primarily a Google Reader user, but its offline mode only downloads the content of the RSS feeds themselves. Many of my feeds hide some of their content "after the jump", so getting just the feed doesn't help me.

I'm looking for a script or program that will follow the links, then pull down the html page (including associated images) and save them locally so that I can peruse them on my laptop at 30,000 feet.

I could slap something together with an XML parser and wget, but I'd rather not reinvent the wheel. I feel like someone has probably solved this problem already.

I'll be using this on linux, but I'm willing to consider windows software as well, if it's something that might work reasonably under Wine.

I'll take a look at anything from full-blown desktop readers to cli scripts in perl/ruby/python etc.

iCal for windows?

Phire — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:48:09 -0800

Offline Calendar application for Windows that is not Sunbird? I find myself without the internet far more often than without my computer, so I would prefer keeping something as vital to my peace of mind as my calendar offline. I've experimented with Mozilla Sunbird, but it's got a bunch of little quirks and flaws that bug me, and I'd like to see what else is out there.

I would essentially like to replicate the features of Sunbird, but perhaps in the form of a more smooth and polished interface. If Google Calendar were available as a standalone desktop application (and perhaps it is, and I'm just not aware of it), I'd be all over that. So far, I use Sunbird to list classes, wildly fluctuating meetings, as well as micromanage and plan out my study schedule - it's as much a to-do list as an events calendar.

So is there a Windows calendar application out there that does what iCal does better than Sunbird?

Offline AskMe reading with iPod/iPhone?

Napoleonic Terrier — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:45:20 -0800

Using an iPod Touch, is there a way to automatically download the latest 50 (or some preset number) Ask MetaFilter questions and answers for off-line reading on the Touch?

Offline Blog Reader?

tesseract420 — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:04:46 -0800

Offline blog reader? I've backed up my blog into an XML file. I'd like to read it offline. Open Office has XML support but this is not an efficient solution. There are online solutions--importing the xml file into a new blog, for example--but I'd just like to read while offline from the xml file. Is there a program that will permit this?

Can I auto-expand a bunch of Javascript message toggles

Kirklander — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:19:57 -0800

I'm trying to archive, in PDF form, a series of Web pages where the content won't expand unless I click "more" dozens and dozens of times to reveal each hidden item. Is there some time-saving Firefox add on--or other tool--that could do this for me automatically? It's a Javascript thing... In code terms, the full content is all there in the source code (maybe I ought to just give up and save as HTML--what do you think?) but hidden via a Javascript gimmick.

Each of the many items on the page is concealed from view using a Javascript "onClick" attached to the links. When you click the link it runs a .js script called "toggleMessage," which gets the ID# of the item and then opens it. What I am envisioning is some sort of Firefox Web designer plugin where I could tell it the name of the script and it would go run it for me, expanding every panel.

Is this something Firebug, for example, would do?

Here's the script.

function toggleMessage(id)
{
var span = document.getElementById('msg'+id);
if (span.style.display == 'none')
{
// hide the more link
document.getElementById('msglink'+id).style.display='none';
// show the div
span.style.display = 'inline';
// show the less link
document.getElementById('msglesslink'+id).style.display='inline';
// switch the image
document.getElementById('image'+id).src=img_open;
}
else // it's already showing
{
// hide the less link
document.getElementById('msglesslink'+id).style.display='none';
// show the more link
document.getElementById('msglink'+id).style.display='inline';
// hide the span
span.style.display = 'none';
// switch the image
document.getElementById('image'+id).src=img_closed;
}
}

Can I download a website and all its contents for offline surfing?

HotPatatta — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 07:22:42 -0800

Can I download an entire website, including all hosted files, and burn it all onto a DVD-ROM for offline use? I'd like to be able to "surf" the site as if I'm using the real online version. I'm on a Mac. I tried Wget but couldn't figure out how to use it.

Wikipedia offline on a mac?

ooklala — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:45:07 -0800

How can I read Wikipedia offline on my mac (bonus points for portable and cross-platform)? I am going on a long trip (3 months) on which I will not have internet. I want to be able to have wikipedia with me when I go. I am aware of the many options for Windows (WikiTaxi seems to be the best) but I know no good up-to-date ones for Mac. I have no real coding ability (a smidge of processing...) and want something moderately easy to use.
I have tried (and failed at using) ksana4wiki.

Looking for ideas on managing files from multiple locations

djgh — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:25:56 -0800

Give me some ideas to manage my files, my data, my general computer setup etc. etc. for best use from multiple locations. Basically, I have the following situation:

I have a laptop (Macbook, Tiger), which I use to take notes on etc. I also occasionally make notes on other computers elsewhere (PCs, can't install software on them - they've got web browsers and Cygwin, and some have the option to boot Linux - can't remember which distro). I don't leave my laptop on and on the internet all the time (so I don't think remote desktop is a viable solution).

Sometimes I have an internet connection, sometimes I don't.

I'd like to be able to access all my files from everywhere (this includes PDFs), edit from everywhere etc. - but I also quite fancy version control, and having my own backups.

I have shell access to a shared server, and some (but not a huge amount) of technical competence (I've set up PHP/MySQL sites, dabbled in Ruby, but I'm far short of rolling my own fullblown solution).

I have access to an iDisk.

Could you outline (and provide any links) to my various options - so far I'm thinking Google Docs solution (but I'm worried about reliability - my worst nightmare is making notes offline, and them not syncing and then losing them all - plus I'd quite like to have overall control of my stuff), or some kind of version control system (but what if I have no connection - I probably can't get the latest version of a doc to edit).

Other stuff being available (address book etc.) would be great.

Any ideas appreciated, including purchase of new hardware (within reason - eeePC etc ok, rack mounted server less so).

Book 'em Danno

Iteki — Sat, 17 May 2008 05:18:01 -0800

Suggest an offline booking system, no wait... Suggest a one-click WAMP solution, no wait... Flash and flat files mebbe? Scroll right down to skip the rambling details and answer the short version of this question.

Situation:
I have 25 computers each handed out for up to an hour twice per am and twice per pm.
I have 500 users competing for these resources on a first come first served basis.
I am required to know who was using what computer when for legal purposes.

Present solution::
At present the doors open and people come and queue for a "ticket", we hand them the ticket for their computer and then choose their name from a dropdown in this excel file(screendump).
This was fine when there was 50 of them, but the list is getting a little nuts now, and we sometimes get a ticket back in less than an hour and so pass it out again, so there is a lot of farting around in the file basically. The only actual problem with this system (apart from it being insane!) is that it takes too much time.

Suggested solution?
We are looking at various long-term solutions, but in the meantime I need a better short-term one than the one we patched together above. I like the aspect of the physical tickets as people don't forget they have booked, and also it gives me a physical notification that they are done at their machine when they hand it back (I am not, nor want to be, deskbound). Giving each person a user-id and password is probably what the long-term solution will be, and installing some sort of internet-café/library software, but that's outside my perogative. I also like the aspect of having the userlist as I learn each persons name, and I also would like to use that to tie to some other aspects of the users account, for example "needs help" or whatever.

What I ideally want is to have a user-database with a few fields, and then drop it into a similar setup as we have, but where I can just start typing their name to get the list (as opposed to having to click in excel), and where I can see a clear visual representation of the entire fleet of puters and their status. I rekon I can do this myself easily as a web-based solution, but I absolutly cannot have this online, the userbase is confidential, and yet myself and my colleauge both need to be able to access it from our own computers at work. We have a common folder on the server where the excel file presently sits. Is that something I can do with xampp or easyphp or wamp5 or what? WITSuite looks like the smallest all-in-one solution, but is it safe to run like this and can it be run in the way I am describing?

I am also open to the thought of doing it in Flash as a standalone, and am also happy for suggestions of actual software to deal with this in a simple way, I don't want the bells and whistles that I have seen on some cafe/library/resourse management progs.

EXTREMELY SHORT VERSION
What is the smallest, best, lightest, oneclickiest version of a local WAMP solution that I can keep offline and run from a shared folder on our server for a simple ajax based site. Xampp, easyphp, WITSuite?

What is the psychology of friendship?

pipstar — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:10:55 -0800

Lately, the concept of "friends" seems to have become incredibly diluted by the casual use of the term by Facebook, MySpace et al. But in "the real world" what do you consider to be important when you are making and becoming friends? Is it how long you've known someone? How frequently you meet up? What you have in common? Something more intangible? Also, I'd love recommendations of any books looking at the psychology of how people become friends.

The power of the touch!

matthelm — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:23:02 -0800

Just bought Ipod Touch....I love it, but sometimes not having internet connection makes most of my widget apps useless. Are there Todo list/grocery list etc type apps that one can use offline? Or do I have to wait till the devkit is released before any of these types of apps will appear?....and can you list your favorite online/offline apps that really utilize this device...thanks!

Name some playable RPG's, please

Solomon — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:02:48 -0800

Please recommend some 2D RPG's I can play on my PC. I absolutely loved Legend of Zelda on the original Gameboy. I also absolutely loved it on the SNES. I hated it on the N64 it because it was 3D, and my brain is apparently incapable of dealing with 3D rendering. I managed about 20 minutes of jumping round the screen before I turned it off, never to play it again, because I couldn't work out where I was in relation to everything else. I do occasionally dig the SNES out of storage, and play LoZ again. I also really liked Secret of Mana.

What are some other similar 2D games I might like? Things I'm looking for especially are playability, power-ups, characterisation, etc. Going on some kind of quest would be cool. Graphics aren't important at all, as long as I can tell the player from the enemy. Single player would be best.

I'd prefer to be able to play them offline, but online is cool too. I've trying Googling free games, but there's so much chaff out there, it's hard to separate the wheat. I'm running XP, if that's relevant. I'm prepared to pay for a game, if it's worth it.

Backing up Groupwise mails to DVD to be accessed by a different mail program later?

Iteki — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:21:43 -0800

Backing up Groupwise mails to DVD to be accessed by a different mail program later? I am switching jobs soon and will need to still be available to answer questions on various projects. My boss and I have discussed making an offsite backup of my Groupwise mails (also with attachments etc ideally) so that I can access them from my home computer on a DVD if I need to check on old mail conversations.

I am going to contact the IT guy and ask him to fix this for me, but I am wondering what would be the easiest solution (for me!). I don't really have a mail program at the moment, but would rather use for example Thunderbird than Outlook to access these mails later if this is even possible. I am on a PC btw. What do I ask my IT guy to do?

Accepting credit card (paypal) payments offline?

cp7 — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:29:11 -0800

My singing group sells CDs online using paypal (accepting credit cards) on our website. We also sell CDs at shows where we perform, and so far have been accepting only cash and check. We would like to accept credit cards in hopes of getting even more sales. I'm having trouble finding/understanding the information on the paypal website. Basically, can we get peoples' credit card info (the chick chunk slider?) and manually enter the credit card info into paypal at a later time? (I don't mind doing this manually, it's 50 transactions at the most.) We are straying away from the automatic machines because 1) we won't always have access to power and phone lines 2)we don't want to sign up with another merchant account. Thanks for the help!

I need to backup a website to DVD.

asuh — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:06:46 -0800

What's the best software and method for completely backing up a website to DVD? I need to archive a website completely to DVD. My dad's cousin passed away and his website is still online so his widow wants a complete backup of his writings and comments.

I have tested software for both Windows and OS X including SurfOffline and Blue Crab but there are usually invalid links, missing images or no @import css files. Once I find the right software, I want to burn the backed up website to DVD and have a cross platform autorun for the index file (so that you don't have to open up Finder or Explorer to find it).

What solutions are there for offline website backups and cross platform dvd backups?

Download secured content to read later?

tiamat — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:47:46 -0800

How can I download/cache web pages that require cookies and/or a login for later reading in Firefox (or IE). Is there a spider plugin for either browsers, or a stand alone program that will support authentication? I'm going away to somewhere I likely won't have internet access full time. I'd love to be able to download my livejournal friends page and some other pages for reading offline. Say, the root page plus 1 level of links deep, for articles and content not on the main page.

The hard part: many of the pages I want are password or login protected. NYT premium content, private livejournal pages, etc.

IE6 used to be able to do this, but it looks like they've dropped the feature in 7. I've tried HTTrack, Getright, Flashget and wget, but can't get around the cookies/login issue.

I think I need to do this from inside IE or Firefox, so that I can take advantage of pre-existing cookies, but I can't seem to find a way. Please help.

Otherwise, is there a way to use getright, flashget or some other caching-downloader to authenticate before downloading?

This is on Vista Ultimate with FF2 or IE7.

I'd even be willing to pay for software if it does a good job, so free is not a requirement.

help me index my backup media

mattr — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 10:36:44 -0800

Is there a smart way of indexing/cataloging my offline media? This has been partially asked before (I can't work out how to establish a link in here) - but the links that were in the post (diskbase), were mostly dead (and I didn't like 'Cathy' much). There is of course more inside. I have 40 or 50 DVD's which serve as my backup media - full of a variety of files (mostly MP3s, videos and pictures) - I'd like to be able to put each one of these into my drive and for some software to index the files and make a searchable list of them.

I'm using a PC and I don't want to bring them back to 'online' media (hard drive etc) if possible to do this. I don't access the files often - but particularly for music I'd love to be able to search and find 'offline' files as well.

I don't need to index the text inside documents - most of my filenaming is pretty good.

Bonus points if the application that can do this is a) free and b) cool.

SoftwareFilter: help me find a good way to view Firefox pages offline for MacOSX.

rmm — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 12:58:50 -0800

SoftwareFilter: help me find a good way to view Firefox pages offline for MacOSX. Hi folks,

A long time ago, I used a great Mac app called Netscape History (which sadly I can't find - it was back in the day when people used Navigator). It was a handy application - it would download pages for offline viewing using a page's cache. Is there an equivalent of something now for MacOSX and Firefox that people use? This question previously kind of addressed the same problem, but again I'm looking for an automated thing for MacOS.

I'm trying out the DownThemAll extension, and it's handy, but not exactly what I'm looking for - I'd like an app that would automatically save the HTMLs and images from, let's say, x number of days. I've also got the Work Offline extension, and use that to browse through my history, but I'd really like an actual separate application that does this automatically, if possible. Sometimes the Work Offline extension works for some sites, sometimes not for others.

Any ideas? This is probably a pretty easy problem to solve - I'm obviously overlooking something here, so I appreciate the help.

Thanks!

What product can I buy offline what I can't online?

Chunder — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 05:20:21 -0800

Offline vs. online shopping - is there anything (other than services) that you can buy offline, but not online? This Christmas season, the mother-in-law has become a convert to the joys of buying everything online - a major boon considering how much she hates trawling around town.

Hearing this made me stop and think - is there anything (physical) that you can buy offline which cannot also be purchased online, irrespective of differences in cost and delivery?
I've wracked my brain, and can't think of anything, but the wife thinks that there must be something out there... can any Mefites think of anything?

shove that Briefcase up your...

bartleby — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:25:42 -0800

Briefcase vs. Offline files - please help get the boss out of my hair. Too much One of the partners at the firm has been having trouble with 'orphan' files in his My Briefcase. Sometimes they're OK, sometimes they show up orphaned. He can commit to calling me and talking about it for ten minutes each day, but can't commit to noting what he's done prior to getting orphans so I might be able to diagnose. I'm not that familiar with My Briefcase, and I have more pressing matters right now than spending the day poking through the MS KB. And he uses the My Briefcase on his work laptop which he takes home every night, so I can't take it away and try to reproduce the problem. Please help!

Here's how he works:
We have two offices, Main and Branch.
He has a docking station at each office and 1 laptop that he carries between them, and also uses to do work at home.
There are half a dozen small MS Office files that he works on often, which reside on a share on the server at Main office at \\servermain\foo\bar\baz\Boss's files.
{So he's not quite using Briefcase as it seems to have been intended, for keeping two machines in sync, or syncing files from removable storage back to a PC. Right?}

So he copies these files from the share and drops them in his Briefcase on his Desktop, and then wanders on his merry way, modifying them at home and on the road, syncing his changes back to the originals on the server share when he docks again at either office.

He started this on his own, and apparently it has been working for him for a while, but now it's not. Sometimes, and lately often, when he docks again a few of the files come up as 'orphan'. From what I can gather from MS, this happens when the originals have been moved, and the Briefcase cannot find them to sync with. But I doubt that the originals are moving, as he started the whole Briefcase thing because he can't be bothered to browse out to \\servermain\foo\bar\baz\Boss etc. So he's not doing it, and I can't see anyone else bothering with them either.

{One note which may help is that I finally got him to show me the Briefcase this morning before he docked, and all of the paths read "\\servermain\" etc.; but when he then docked and the Briefcase sync'ed, the paths all read "F:\bar\baz" etc. = The correct file path in both cases, but using the UNC in one case and the mapped share letter in the other. Is there possibly a problem with Briefcase resolving the two conventions?}

And since he can't ever tell me what he does differently between when it works or when it doesn't, or even if it's the same files that end up orphaned every time, I'm stuck trying to help him blind and hands tied. It's the usual "fix my car, while I'm driving it, and take no time in doing so" request.

Anyway, I've already used up my available time today getting this posting up. But has anyone seen this before?
Any suggestions for an idiotproof desktop "container" for a few files to be modified offline and then synced back to a network share? This morning's googling led me to several "Briefcase vs. Offline files" threads - should I be pursuing that?

Oh, and he has already promised me that he would lose a USB key with his Briefcase on it, and he doesn't want to spend money or time learning new software.

Gah! Metafilter genuises? Anyone?

It's just a page with links on it...why is it so complicated?

Sallysings — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:05:40 -0800

What's the best way to save files from a website that requires authentication? I'm trying to save a list of search results from an online database. Right now it's just a page with 400 links on it, and I want both the index file that I'm seeing as well as the pages that are linked (1 level.)

What is the best way to do this? I've tried using acrobat, but I can't over the authentication. The offline browsers I've tried returned permission denied errors even though I've set up the security sections with username/password.

Is there a macro that can achieve this?

Is there such a thing as an offline, single-player MUD?

obiwanwasabi — Thu, 04 May 2006 18:49:59 -0800

Is there such a thing as an offline, single-player MUD? I quite enjoy wandering around a text-based landscape, completing simple quests, bashing random monsters, collecting loot and buying swag. However, I rarely have anything to do with other players, who seem to only want to kill me or borrow money.

So, is there such a thing as a single player MUD? (Yes, I know it's an oxymoron.) Can I install a MUD server on my XP box? Do any MUDs make their world available for off-line use? I know all about rogue-likes, thanks, but I'm looking for something in a MUD interface.

Offline Browser programs

zephyrbill — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:30:12 -0800

Is there a program that will download websites that include dynamic table functionality? For example, if a website has statistical information on all 50 states (e.g., most government websites) and, by inputting the names of, say 3 states (plus vehicle data) you get a screen that compares car insurance rates in those states for the car in question. My goal is to be able to download such a site and browse it offline in instances where I can't connect to the web.

Why does Outlook 2000 think I am offline when I am not?

mr_silver — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 06:46:24 -0800

Outlook 2000 thinks I am offline, however I'm not. Is there any way I can make it see sense without rebooting the computer? I've got a work Windows XP laptop which has Outlook 2000 installed that connects to the work exchange server using a VPN client. I have it configured so that it synchronises all emails so I can access them offline.

If I open Outlook before I connect to the internet then it goes into offline mode and I can access all my synchronised emails. This is all well and good.

The problem comes when I exit Outlook, connect to the internet and then try to start Outlook again. Every single time it thinks I am still offline and refuses to go online. I've doubled checked the processes and Outlook is definately shutting down fully.

I've Googled the problem and all the solutions are for Outlook 2003 which reference a right-click menu on the offline icon which will allow you to go back online. Unfortunately, Outlook 2000 doesn't have this functionality as clicking the icon does nothing.

At present the only way I can "solve" this is to completely reboot my laptop, connect to the internet and then start Outlook. This seems like a rather drastic solution and I would like to find a way that doesn't involve rebooting.

I also get this problem at work when I disconnect the latop from the network, use Outlook and then plug it back into the network again. In that case too, I have to reboot the computer otherwise Outlook refuses to believe that I am back online. This makes me rule out a problem with the VPN client since I don't use it in this scenario.

Can anyone suggest a solution?

One-click download of websites

Saucy Intruder — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 17:22:34 -0800

Help me get through long classes without Internet access - I want to click one button while I'm online and download all my newspapers, blogs, etc. into a flat file that I can view offline. Bloglines often doesn't give me the full article.