Mobile / WAP

Since I got a more capable mobile phone recently, I've been learning about ever more sites catering to these phones. Here's what I've put together from my discoveries:
http://stag62.50webs.com/url/nonwin.htm#mobile

Previously I had no idea that AmEx and Wells Fargo (I'm a client of both) made it possible to perform certain account management functions with my cell phone. Kinda neato. You U.S. Bank and Wachovia customers have mobile support, too. For my part, mostly I just read USA Today and some Tech News sites. I can keep up with that stuff during my Metro commute and usually have time left over for a game (or 3) of Sudoku, all the while listening to music, using the phone as an MP3 player. Oh yeah, if I happen to get a phone call or text message, (how 2007!) I can deal with that too.

I think it's somehow funny (though ultimately cool) that one can pay his/her AmEx, order a pizza, buy a movie ticket and check out their Facebook or MySpace status all from a mobile phone.

One thing I found surprising was that the Seattle Public Library didn't have any sort of mobile site that I could find. Netflix allows one to search for movies and add them to your queue via their mobile site (though I'm baffled that I can't rate movies from there.) Anyway, I wanted to do the same thing via a mobile library site. Up to now I'd done my library book/movie queue'ing from desktop computers. (Is queue'ing a real word? Hmmm)

Well, suddenly (to me, at least) a new link showed up on the library web-site. Just last week, I think. You won't see it from http://www.spl.org. You have to go to the catalog/login page. Keeping to the very top of the page, scroll to the right. You'll now see a URL for
Text only/Mobile, something like this:
https://catalog.spl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=P226188152M52.18968&profile=txt

However, after some trial & error, I finally discovered a simpler, logical URL for my phone:
http://catalog.spl.org/mobile/default.htm
(it will probably work without the 'default.htm' on the end) From there you can find branches and hours, login and manage your queue, etc. Just what I wanted!

btw if anyone knows how to use the Tracker / MyBus Metro mobile site, please help me out. I just can't figure it out.

Also, does anyone use GlideOS? That's http://www.glidedigital.com or glideos.com from your PC. Google Docs mobile is dubious and I can't get Zoho mobile to work so I'm kind of curious about Glide.

Addendum again (this must be about the third update to this entry!
I originally mentioned a Bank of America mobile site toward the beginning of this entry. Then I discovered there was a catch. Those who DON'T live in Idaho or Washington can use the mobile site. Those of us who live in those 2 states seem to be left out. Go figure.

It's the small things

Aww... first off, that's a song by an artist I really liked in bygone days. I hadn't thought of it in ages. Possibly years. But today, the small things refers to how easily I'm amused. I'm sitting here in my over-stimulating environs... tv, computer, music, lights and sounds and smells, surrounded by stuff I SHOULD be doing. The laundry basket is sitting a few feet away from me. It's full of clothes to be folded and/or sorted and put away. Bedding should be changed. My room should be neatened up. But here I sit... in front of the computer. Choosing songs to use as ring-tones on my cellular telephone. It makes me very happy, really, to sort through my music... to rediscover, to get lost in, some of this music. Obviously I like it all. But then I got down to the N's. Nirvana, you see. It's so simple, really, that I shouldn't blog about it. But I really got the giggles when I realized what a good "ring-tone" 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' would be. After all... I'll edit out the first part and begin with hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello.
Good-bye.