
Show HN: Pocket Puter - DoreenMichele
http://pocketputer.com
======
peterburkimsher
I've put a lot of effort into making my life work offline. As a foreigner,
it's difficult for me to get 3G/4G data because my life isn't stable enough to
have a subscription. Some of my favourite apps (iPhone 4S):

\- Wiki2Touch (offline Wikipedia) and PlinyPedia.

\- Galileo Offline Maps (with Google Maps tiles from MOBAC)

\- Offline StackOverflow (my own project)

[https://github.com/peterburk/stackoverflowlocal](https://github.com/peterburk/stackoverflowlocal)

\- Offline Bible

\- MyWi (extend the range of a WiFi signal)

\- A lot of other scraped websites (web comics, 9gag, FML, UrbanDictionary,
shortjokes).

Regarding removable batteries, I have a Third Rail case which lets me attach a
battery only when I need it.

[https://www.amazon.com/Third-Rail-Protective-Universal-
Recha...](https://www.amazon.com/Third-Rail-Protective-Universal-
Rechargeable/dp/B0050SHBRM)

I also have a lot of adaptors so I can plug in anywhere (mains-8 female to
kettle cable, light socket to mains, etc).

Although I haven't slept on the streets for more than one night at a time
(thanks, CouchSurfing), I expect that I'll end up in a tent one of these
years. Before I can get that privilege though, I need to keep trying to work
in order to maintain my visa status, or move on to another country that might
welcome me.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Thank you.

I will work on incorporating your suggestions into the site.

------
gelstudios
Congrats, that’s a catchy domain name you got there.

I noticed it’s setup with a redirect, have you considered blogspot’s CNAME
feature? It lets you host your blogspot blog at a custom domain like yours
without redirecting to a subdomain.

The benefit is if you ever switch where the content/blog is hosted, any
links/bookmarks to your site can still work.

They have a guide for various registrars (see below), but there’s likely a
guide for whichever vendor you are using.

[https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/58317?hl=en](https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/58317?hl=en)

~~~
DoreenMichele
_Congrats, that’s a catchy domain name you got there._

Thanks. It took some effort to come up with it.

 _have you considered blogspot’s CNAME feature?_

No, I am not planning on using blogspot's CNAME feature. It breaks when you
type in yourdomainname.com. You have to include the www for it to work. This
is a bug that causes problems.

I would rather it just be a redirect for now. That serves my stated purpose in
buying a domain name. Given the budget for this project ($0) and my own
finances (dicey, at best), I don't anticipate changing to paid hosting.
Besides, I am quite fond of blogspot.

~~~
gelstudios
I don’t currently use blogspot so I don’t know about that bug, or if they
support multiple CNAME records.

It’s not obvious but, using the same mechanism that allowed you redirect to
blogspot will allow you to redirect the bare “@“ record (pocketputer.com) to
www.pocketputer.com

~~~
DoreenMichele
Just an FYI:

Since the last time I fussed with this, they fixed some of the issues that
were problematic with custom domain names. One of those that I had forgotten
was a security issue. So I do now have this set up as the actual domain name
for the site and I think it all works without any weird security issues or
bugs that I know of.

------
vortico
In the "battery" section, perhaps it is useful to mention that if you have a
phone with a removable battery, you can buy extra batteries (normally $5 each
on eBay) and a battery charger (also $5) to charge two batteries at once. You
can carry multiple batteries to extend your battery life to a week if you
want.

~~~
skeleton
Just a personal experience: I had bought several ~$20AU iPhone 4S batteries
from eBay from different sellers, and while they started off okay their
capacity dramatically decreased after a few weeks.

Also I'm unsure on how a device determines battery charge, but I forever had
issues with the phone turning off while reporting the battery had ~30% left.

Maybe I didn't treat the batteries correctly, but I can't recall as this was
several years ago.

~~~
vortico
I've had great success ordering OEM Samsung batteries for Galaxy S3 and S5, $3
and $7 respectively, that are still working after several years.

------
masukomi
I don't get it. I see a page with a bunch of large brown boxes and almost no
text in each. Am i missing images? Am i missing text? I'm not sure what this
sites wants me to do. It's asking me to support it with patreon or paypal but
it is so far from even giving me a clue what i'm supporting or why i should
support it

~~~
hamslamwich
I'm with you. I don't know what the heck is going on. Someone fill us in!

------
DoreenMichele
This project wouldn't exist without valuable feedback in conversation on HN
and from someone "met" via the HN networking thingy called Kismet, which
intros members here via email.

Thank you for making this possible. It has been rattling around in my head for
years and failing to go anywhere until I got a smidgeon of valuable feedback.

~~~
lisper
Just out of curiosity, what is the "this" that your kismet contact made
possible? It's a little hard to tell from the site, but I get the impression
that the pocketputer is just an idea at this point, not even at the point of
being a serious proposal (like with a plan and a budget). Is that wrong?
Because if it is, you should make that clearer.

~~~
DoreenMichele
TLDR The "this" in question is the Pocket Puter website with a good domain
name that covers both tablets and phones. This website is a useful resource
for people on the street or at risk of homelessness. It can be shared verbally
or pre-installed on (used) phones or tablets to be given away to homeless or
poor individuals.

I already have several websites relevant to this project, like San Diego
Homeless Survival Guide and Write Pay. My initial thought was that I would do
something like load up links to those sites on phones or tablets and give them
away. The conversation clarified for me that I really need to be able to put a
single link on a phone as a bookmark or default homepage that could be updated
(rather than trying to put a growing list of links on each device, causing
different devices to get different info). Previous discussions on HN were
suggesting a custom ROM or app.

So I started this website with just the links page to gather together existing
resources for the project. Then it occurred to me that I should add some pages
with useful information about recurring issues, like working offline and
managing battery power.

This site stands on its own as the informational piece of the project and can
be updated as I see fit, or just left as a few useful pages. It doesn't
necessarily have to grow.

Other pieces of the project are still in the works. I have a rough draft
update on those bits that stalled in part because this post got unexpected
traction on HN, leading me to post here and do some updates on the Pocket
Puter site.

There is no plan to create a device called a Pocket Puter. The idea is to put
together useful information making existing tech -- phones and tablets -- more
useful for a particular problem space and to foster the ability to give away
tech with information pre-installed in the form of a link.

Someone on HN asked me what could be done to encourage other homeless people
to do what I had done and make use of the internet as a means to problem
solve. One of the things I suggested was give away phones or tablets. They
said they would take that bet, leading me to try to develop the information
piece.

I currently have contacts on the ground and I hope to develop a pilot program
locally that can be copied elsewhere for minimal investment and effort.

------
jannes
I love this project! Great work!

Quite a few years ago I was using the combo of a feature phone + iPod Touch
(basically an iPhone without the phone). So I definitely remember the struggle
of having to find WiFi hotspots and plan ahead the offline material for times
without connectivity. I was living in a country with very few places that
offered free WiFi at the time - compared to the US - due to legal liability
reasons.

I was using apps like Instapaper, "Read it Later" (now called Pocket), Khan
Academy, iTunes U (it has many absolutely great university lecture recordings)
and occasionally YouTube downloads. These days both Chrome and Safari can
download entire web pages as an archive for offline reading, so now I would
probably just use those browsers instead of Instapaper or Pocket.

Sometimes I miss being a bit more "disconnected" like that, though.

~~~
RyanShook
Where is the download page feature in Chrome and Safari?

~~~
jannes
In Chrome for Android the feature is available in the first row of its menu.
Look for a download icon without any text (the third icon from the left).

In Safari you just have to add a page to your reading list and it will be
saved for offline access to your device.

------
jarnix2
Sorry but why is it upvoted? It's a blog with 4 pages with no content or
anything new. Is just says "to use less battery, turn off the brightness of
the screen..."

------
miguelrochefort
I've used my smartphone as my only personal computer for the past 3 years.
Overall, it's been a positive experience.

The only thing I can't do efficiently is software development. Is anyone
familiar with the state of the art in mobile software development?

~~~
mark_l_watson
As jmiller099 suggested, AIDE is a nice IDE that runs on an Android. I used to
use it before I switched to an iPhone.

On my iPhone and iPad I use an SSH app to access a VPS that I use only for
coding, running machine learning problems overnight, etc. This works well on
an iPad but is cumbersome on an iPhone. I like emacs, and remote dev in an SSH
session works for me.

On my iPhone and iPad I really enjoy Raskell: a very nice Haskell IDE that is
fine for writing short programs.

For Python, Pythonista is a very good IDE! Really good.

I like traveling lite with only a phone. I would have real difficulties doing
what you do, using a smartphone as only personal computer but what you do
would really help work/life balance.

------
mschuster91
Thanks for the project, might be valuable for people on the streets.

What I'd suggest if you decide to expand it: security. Passcodes, ways to back
stuff up - and which prepaid providers will replace your SIM card with one
with the same number (e.g. it's hit-and-miss in Germany if you're on pre-
paid). People on the streets are often enough easy prey for robbers and other
criminals, and electronics tend to not really like influence from the
elements..-

------
KC8ZKF
Another battery hint. Turn off wifi, bluetooth and location services when they
are not in use. These can be a huge drain.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Thank you. Added.

------
mark_l_watson
I really enjoyed the author's story - spent 10 minutes looking at her web
sites and donated.

The textbroker.com writing service she mentioned looks cool - just forwarded
that link to a friend who is an excellent writer and who needs work.

------
dschep
I can't get [https://pocketputer.com](https://pocketputer.com) to load, but
[https://pocketputer.blogspot.com](https://pocketputer.blogspot.com) works and
is the same blog AFAICT

------
e12e
Nice project. Would it make more sense as a wiki, though? In order to better
allow contributions, corrections and ideas from readers?

~~~
miguelrochefort
I think a subreddit would be ideal, if one doesn't already exists.

~~~
DoreenMichele
That I am actually considering doing. I am fond of Reddit.

Edit: And here you go:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pocketputer/](https://www.reddit.com/r/pocketputer/)

------
bradknowles
So, this website doesn’t appear to work on iOS.

Was that intentional?

~~~
jannes
Another data point: It seems to work fine on an iPad.

------
RyanShook
Great resource!

