The WikiReader
Imagine being able to carry Wikipedia in your pocket and access it without requiring a connection to the internet - the WikiReader made this possible.
____________________________________________________________________________
If you've noticed that I've put out a couple of less elaborate videos like this one recently it's because I needed to create a bit space in my schedule to tackle one of my deep dives on a defunct format. Those projects usually take a long time to put together so I needed to clear the decks first. That video should be along in a week. I've stayed in the house all this week working on putting it all together.
Things here have been a touch hectic, my father had a stroke two weeks ago - he's not doing badly now considering - but he's still in a hospital at the other side of the country so visiting him takes time. Fortunately doing this job means I can drop what I'm doing whenever I need to.
There's a lot being juggled right now. When things settle down a bit, I'll make another patreon exclusive video. The support received from patrons has become more important as youtube income slowed somewhat over the summer months.
Hope you have a great weekend, and take care.
WikiReader - Offline Wikipedia "The Internet without the Internet" (YouTube)
Comments (43)
Very late to the party here but great video. I remember about that time there were a surge of devices on the market trying to do all sorts of interesting things because companies like Texas Instruments were filling the market with ARM core based SOC (system in chip) devices that were previously only available to the massive smart phone market. This spawned all manner of gadgets including TV streaming / recording devices and NAS storage as well as people were trying to carve out new markets. I think the generation before this was PDAs, you couldn't move for 'em! 😂
Funnily enough I opened up a box of electronics yesterday to see how it worked and all the clever stuff was being done by a Raspberry Pi A+. It kind of felt a bit like cheating...but it worked, so why not.
Late to this video (again), but if anyone still likes the idea of an offline Wikipedia, and you have a smartphone with a lot of internal storage, the "Kiwix" app will let you keep the entire thing stored on your phone.
I seem to remember offline apps for Wikipedia as soon as it started up. I think they might have been for Windows CE and Palm PDAs, but I don’t know if that timeline fits with reality.
A couple of things I think you should address in the final version, as a Wikipedia editor: does it only store articles, or also pages that aren't in the article namespace? Second, is there any vetting to make sure that no one snuck in any vandalism into the databases? After all, there was a documented case of a vandalism edit that only lasted 5 minutes but resulted in a pretty big printing error in a magazine; see the very last item in the very last section of <a href="http://enwp.org/Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://enwp.org/Wikipedia:List_of_hoaxes_on_Wikipedia</a>
The Techmoan page on Wikipedia was vandalised a while ago, but was repaired after a few weeks. It's just part of the self policing of the free to access site. The contents of the WikiReader are just a download of the database at one period in time. There's no editing to it.
Best of luck to you & your family. I hope your father recovers swiftly.
I'm sorry to hear about your dad's health! I hope he gets on the mend soon. Remember to take care of yourself, too. Don't work too hard. <3
A device like this will be so useful once WIkipedia is finished! ;-) Best wishes for your dad.
This device is indeed a curiosity. It drives home, though, the latent power of the by-now ubiquitous smart phone, a computer in your pocket. How quickly things change. Thanks for letting us visit this brief period in consumer electronics.
best wishes for you Dad.
I bought one of these in April of 2012, new for $15 from Newegg. I had completely forgotten about it. I need to search my house and track it down and update it. I live in FL so I figure sooner or later a hurricane will wipe out the power grid for a few weeks/months so my plan was to have one of these, which would make me the smartest man in the world (well within my gated community anyways, assuming people had burned their encyclopedias as material to cook food).
Funnily enough a similar idea crossed my mind as far as becoming the most knowledgeable person in an offline world. It could be a movie about one man and his hunt for a couple of AAA batteries.
Take care. Family first
Indeed. Hope he's home soon.
Prayers and best wishes to you, Matt, for your dad to make a full recovery. Strokes are not trifling problems.
The slightly crazy thing about this is that it contains a "Forth" interpreter. It really gives me the impression it was designed by a load of gentlemen in their late 50's, assisted by some recent university graduates. It's the 2009 equivalent of saying "My iPhone 3 also plays 78's :-)"
I suspect your impression is probably spot on.
Hi Mat, Great video as always. As so often you find the interesting things that I have missed knowing about before. Sorry to hear about your father's stroke, sending best wishes.
Well I just had an idea of distributing those Wikireaders to countries that blocked access to Wikipedia, like China, for example. This would help a lot of people I think.
Wow, I hope that device has automatic updating like wikipedia using wifi. Also, hopefully your dad gets a speedy recovery.
I hope a speedy recovery for your dad. :(
It's remarkable how much in the zeitgeist Wikipedia was during this time, yet I never recall hearing anything about this product. I hope for a speedy recovery for you dad. And I miss your face in the video haha.
I always wonder what effect an onscreen appearance has on viewing figures. I think some people prefer it if I’m heard and not seen.
Here's hoping for a speedy recovery for your father, Its a tough recovery, my grandmother has had two already, and its hard work coming back form.
Seems an odd idea, a static version of a dynamic resource, but there you go, still an interesting application. Hope your Dad gets well soon, it seems that we all hit this point in life where the parents that looked after us for so long suddenly need looking after.
I remember these. But I always thought it was a bit strange. I mean, you could buy a used smartphone or ipod touch or something to accomplish the same thing, plus so much more. The only downside is the battery life, but even if you live off-grid you could always charge it via a small solar usb charger or something.
Mat, best wishes to your Dad for a speedy recovery. Please don't let this Techmoan stuff interfere with family- as much as we all enjoy it, family is much more important.
Thanks for all the well wishes for my father. I can’t tell him about them though, he’s quite a proud man and probably wouldn’t appreciate me mentioning his predicament, but I appreciate it. As a family we’re quite phlegmatic, we just get on with things. As both my parents are in their mid 80s and aren’t Highlanders they’re both reaching the end of their journey. It’s just something we all deal with, that and taxes.
Best of British. Stiff upper lip and all that. Warm regards and best wishes for a good result all the same.
Hope your father makes a speedy and full recovery. Best wishes.
Best of luck Mat. More then enough well deserved goodwill going around here.
Sorry to hear Mat, glad to hear at least that he's on the mend. I'm glad that you feel like you can step aside for a bit when stuff like this comes up; that's exactly what Patreon is for. Separately, I'm excited to learn about this device—it reminds me of the Twitter Peek, a similar single-trick pony.
Yes there was a little Sony device as well that was along the same lines - for SMS or something.
That is exactly the sort of device my late father-in-law would have bought. He loved gadgets and bought many, but was absolutely phobic about taking out subscriptions to anything such as an internet service. He spent far more on useless articles such as this than he ever would have on a laptop and ISP subscription. This reminds me, have you thought of looking at Personal Organisers, such as Psion or the Cassiopeia? I used both quite extensively back in the 1990s as you could synchronize your desktop Outlook calendar and carry it about with you, long before smart phones existed. Best wishes to you and also to your father for a speedy recovery!
I’ve thought about them, but I’m not really enthusiastic enough about them to make a video. Perhaps one day though.
Best wishes to your dad!
All my well wishes and good thoughts to your family. (Videos can wait!)
Prayers for your Father. I liked the Hitchhikers Guide reference. I could see a regular tablet holding an offline version of Wikipedia.
I like the variety of your videos. Don’t think I have seen you produce a bad one yet! All the best to your father!
Best wishes to your father for a quick recovery
Is this how The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy began? Edit: yes.
Best of luck to you and your whole family.