Topic: Changes to front page
started by: Liberal
Posted by Liberal on Oct. 13 2009,11:06 pm
Trying to make the front page a little more compact for people with portable devices. I made the columns a little larger and I put the ads on the right hand column so that people that view with lower resolution won't have to scroll right to view the page.I also made all the media sources the same size with a scroll bar on ones that have too many headlines to be displayed.
If you want to check it out it's < http://www.albertlea.com/index1.shtml > let me know if you think anything should be changed. Kimt will have more headlines in the next couple days when I get a chance to look over the program that retrieves the headlines.
Posted by nphilbro on Oct. 14 2009,12:26 am
On my my Blackberry Curve 8330 it has been coming up nicely for some time with the forum as the main topic and easy to navigate. The PMs and messaging doesn't work on my mobile, but I've got no complaints. I'm probably switching to the BB Storm or something else in a few weeks that is hyped up and will ultimately let me down ('cuz I'm a degenerate when it comes to this stuff), but the site looks and works very well as it is on the Blackberry 8330.
By the way - the BB 8330 does many things well - surfs the web, plays music, plays video, takes pictures, streams audio, sends and receives email seamlessly. One thing it doesn't do well? Send and receive PHONE CALLS! I can't hear crap and bluetooth barely helps.
Posted by hot84svo on Oct. 14 2009,10:32 am
Have you tried albertleamobile.com on your Blackberry 8830?I had the same problem with my 8830 not being able to hear, I cleaned it with compressed air and it solved the problem.
What type of blue-tooth are you using, I got a Moto S9 this month and love it, both for calls and listening to music and radio. It's the best headset I have used to date.
Yes, RADIO (download the iheartradio app) I can listen to all of ClearChannels radio stations across the county with no problems.
Posted by ICU812 on Oct. 14 2009,12:58 pm
Looks and works great on iPod Touch. I checked out the S9's after the bluetooth was enabled on the Touch, but went with a little set of bluetooth speakers for casual listening. Also have a Sony bluetooth receiver hooked into Sony's Digital Media Port on my home system, I can listen to ipod (or any other bluetooth device) without being connected via wires.
Posted by Common Citizen on Oct. 14 2009,1:45 pm
Since we're on the subject. Alltel is switching to Verizon on the 17th.
Anyone have any recommendations for smartphones and blue tooth head sets? I currently have the Moto Q which has worked fine but the dog took a big chunk out of it and I need to upgrade.
Priorities are phone functionality, outlook email, and camera.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by Common Citizen on Oct. 14 2009,1:50 pm
The biggest problem I've had with the moto q is the short battery life. The company wants you to sign a two year agreement but will not invlude a battery built to last that long and those batteries are expensive. You'd think for $150 bucks a month they could include an extra battery replacement during the contract period for the phones.
Posted by ControlledHyperness on Oct. 14 2009,2:44 pm
CC,I would say for what you want, a blackberry would be the best choice. I am with TMobile, but I know that my hubby and I studied Verizon's phones back when we thought Unicel was going to Verizon (before FCC said Altell could have em).
As for the mobile site...I can't really do much with it. I can get to the main page, but I can't navigate off of there on my phone. I have internet capabilities on my phone, but it is nothing like a blackberry or a touch phone. Is there anyway to make a WAP version of it...where it is mainly text only, so those of us with the smaller phones can visit??
Posted by ICU812 on Oct. 14 2009,2:47 pm
I thought Unicel was going to AT&T as part of the Alltel Verizon purchase then we (Albert Lea area) would have a provider for the iPhone. It this not the case?
Posted by ControlledHyperness on Oct. 14 2009,2:59 pm
It is the case. Originally, Verizon bought out Unicel...then they bought out Alltel. FCC regulations say that they can only have one tower per city to avoid monopoly, so FCC handed Verizon over to Alltel, while Unicel went into a Managed Trust (and lost our contract). Before Altell could officially become Verizon, someone had to buy out the managed trust in our area. Before that happened, T-mobile came along and joined Albert Lea (people thought THEY were going to buy Unicel). Shortly before word came down of the transfer between Alltel and Verizon, AT&T bought out Unicel...bringing iPhone to Albert Lea.
Posted by hot84svo on Oct. 14 2009,3:56 pm
QUOTE
As for the mobile site...I can't really do much with it. I can get to the main page, but I can't navigate off of there on my phone.
I can't either right now, I think there is problem with the code.
Could someone double check it on a smartphone? Does it work for you?
albertleamobile.com
Posted by ControlledHyperness on Oct. 14 2009,4:12 pm
^a couple of people have already said theirs works well (blackberry or iphone). If it were a WAP then those of us who have the "smaller" phones could see it fine as well. Difference being one is an all text mode and the other allows graphics and such. For my phone, I can handle some graphics, but if there is alot going on, then teh phone short circuits on me. Smartphones have the capability to run windows (or like program), which allows the graphics to appear without too much memory override 
Wow..I sounded a bit techie there...hehehehe
Posted by Liberal on Oct. 14 2009,5:27 pm
It works for my small phone, but I had to remove the google adsense code so that my father's phone could get the weather.Are you getting an error?
If you're getting an error does this page work? < http://www.albertlea.com/mobile/dad.shtml >
Posted by hot84svo on Oct. 14 2009,6:06 pm
QUOTE
If you're getting an error does this page work? [URL=http://www.albertlea.com/mobile/dad.shtml
I can get that page to work fine.
The errors I get when off the albertleamobile.com homepage are the following for each link:
1 - weather - Error encountered during XML parse: Expecting an attribute value
2 -movie time - Error encountered during XML parse: Expecting an attribute value
3 - driving directions - Error encountered during XML parse: Expecting a Name
4 - top ten forum topics - Error encountered during XML parse: end tag does not match start tag 'div'
5 - tribute headlines - Error encountered during XML parse: end tag does not match start tag 'div'
6- kimt headlines - Error encountered during XML parse: end tag does not match start tag 'div'
7 - kaal headlines - Error encountered during XML parse: end tag does not match start tag 'div'
8 - pioneer press headlines - Error encountered during XML parse: end tag does not match start tag 'div'
The google search box work fine.
Posted by ControlledHyperness on Oct. 14 2009,6:37 pm
^ I second that.
Posted by Liberal on Oct. 14 2009,6:49 pm
I pulled the adsense code off the rest of the pages, hopefully they work now, and should be faster.
Posted by nphilbro on Oct. 15 2009,12:06 am
I checked out the new link from the first post on my BB(posting from it now). Interesting result- the front page loaded very quickly and looked very nice. Once I clicked on a topic the page load speed slowed way down again. I don't know if it's worth the time to build a mirror page on forum comments like you did the front page. It would be really nice but probably a real pain.
Posted by nphilbro on Oct. 15 2009,12:20 am
On a related provider note. I have Verizon with all the offerings. I have coverage everywhere and haven't dropped a call in a few months. Beware if you're switching to them- they tend to cost about 25-35% more than most other carriers. If AL only has a single tower and that's primarily where you'll be using your cell, I don't think you'll get the full value. If you travel like I do on a daily basis,you'll find you can't live without it. I can be in the boondocks and receive gmail and work emails from MS enterprise server right on my phone. I can seemlessly respond and many don't know that I'm not working from an office. I can plug it into my laptop and it's like having a 2 meg connection- not super fast but about the same as dsl.
I've even plugged it into a 4 port wireless switch and given 3 other people internet access during a presentation.
Additionally, I'm doing a lot of work in DAS (distributed antenna systems) right now where it extends and distributes cell service inside enterprise structures and campuses. With DAS being more and more prevalent, you'll find all the features available from the cell phone will be more robust and reliable. It's a very exciting vertical to be working in right now.
Posted by nphilbro on Oct. 15 2009,12:21 am
On a related provider note. I have Verizon with all the offerings. I have coverage everywhere and haven't dropped a call in a few months. Beware if you're switching to them- they tend to cost about 25-35% more than most other carriers. If AL only has a single tower and that's primarily where you'll be using your cell, I don't think you'll get the full value. If you travel like I do on a daily basis,you'll find you can't live without it. I can be in the boondocks and receive gmail and work emails from MS enterprise server right on my phone. I can seemlessly respond and many don't know that I'm not working from an office. I can plug it into my laptop and it's like having a 2 meg connection- not super fast but about the same as dsl.
I've even plugged it into a 4 port wireless switch and given 3 other people internet access during a presentation.
Additionally, I'm doing a lot of work in DAS (distributed antenna systems) right now where it extends and distributes cell service inside enterprise structures and campuses. With DAS being more and more prevalent, you'll find all the features available from the cell phone will be more robust and reliable. It's a very exciting vertical to be working in right now.
Posted by Liberal on Oct. 15 2009,12:23 am
The forum speed is dependent on my providers overloaded SQL server, so it's laggy when the net is busyWhat do you mean a mirror page on forum contents?
Posted by nphilbro on Oct. 15 2009,12:51 am
I'm not sure how they work exactly, but I think they repackage the active content but remove the other stuff- like the ad stuff you took off on the front page for mobile viewing. I'm not a web or html guy so I can't speak beyond that. It's also hard telling what the provider's traffic does vs the content. My double post above happened while it took nearly 5 minutes to post. I don't know if that was on my end or yours. Probably mine. I just reset the BB and things are a little quicker.
Posted by Liberal on Oct. 15 2009,12:59 pm
I'll look into it but one of the problems with phones is that they have such a limited amount of system memory that you can't display a lot of data on a page.
Posted by ControlledHyperness on Oct. 15 2009,4:45 pm
I tried it again earlier, and it loaded front page nicely, and quickly I might add. I clicked on the top ten forum topics, and it went there quickly as well. Once I clicked a topic tho, it came up with a failure to load or a failure to respond error (Error 400), which is a memory issue if I am not mistaken. I run off of a Gravity (imho a functional phone, but due to so many errors that I personally have found, is now ranked POS by a customer who is frustrated...oh yeah...Gravity2 came out less then 10 months after the first...im done now)...so that could be the issue...hence why I am asking for a WAP address for teh forum part. Trib works off of a WAP, the weather channel, fox news, and NOAA all run off of one as well. nph, we actually have 2 towers here in ALea. Verizon/Altell/Midwest Wireless and Unicel/AT&T/Celluar One. T-Mobile works off the latter antenna. And while Verizon has a higher price tag, they are no where near as expensive as US Celluar or Sprint. Yes, I know I misspelled a word...my brain had a malfunction
Posted by nphilbro on Oct. 16 2009,2:47 am
I get the same error on my mobile too now. I'm on my home computer now and have no issues. I think there might be too much content for the mobile page load on the main forum. Just a guess. Chad's beta page was smooth and seemless on BB, could I not get into the foroum. Phone (bb) died a slow, painful, shutdown.
Posted by ControlledHyperness on Oct. 17 2009,8:37 am
I see my quick reply did not make it on here... 
Anyway, I tried last night via my hubby's blackberry. The mobile link gave some error (something like XTML code was broken at line div). When I accessed the actual page (normal address) I could not only get in, but I could post (supposedly). I am thinking it is something about the mobile part of the link, but as I am not a programmer, I can not say it officially. I was just a lowly Lab Tech at two different colleges...
Posted by Liberal on Oct. 17 2009,4:47 pm
Does anyone have a moblie device that's capable of receiving the streaming media from the scanner link on the front page?
Posted by ControlledHyperness on Oct. 17 2009,5:08 pm
Lib,Looked at homepage as it is on the comp, and couldn't find a link to try with hubby's phone (he can access pandora, so the scanner link should work just fine). So I went back to find the link you posted, and came up with an interesting return. This is VERY close to anything that I get on my phone when I try to log in.
Not Found
The requested URL /index1.shtml was not found on this server
That is usually followed with a "line broken at div" or somehting of similar consequence
Posted by Liberal on Oct. 18 2009,7:15 pm
working on putting in browser detection so that Iphones and other smart phones go to the proper page.