Pem’s Tech Blog

Intro
The obvious thing to do is call #MIN and #DATA from your phone.  But I’m also going to share some methods I am now using to make it easier/faster to check from a computer.

URL Bookmark / Shortcut:
The first method is to just use a bookmark to the URL (or a shortcut for Windows desktop, taskbar, hotkey, etc) (https://wbillpay.verizonwireless.com/vzw/accountholder/overview/Overview.action); here’s an example using Google Chrome:

FireFox Plugin, or other application:
A second, even easier, method is this awesome FireFox plugin (which according to the web site, is still being maintained/updated: version 2.1 was released just yesterday) (http://verizon-minutes-used.blogspot.com/):

I expect the code for this FireFox plugin would just be a matter of logging into the webpage over http, and parsing the web page source code (HTML/XML) to extract the number from the right place.  I checked the web page view source and the source code (without extraneous paces) showed this XML:

<strong>Shared Usage:</strong>&nbsp;863 Anytime minutes</span>

So you could make additional programs to just parse this data, such as a widget for Vista or Yahoo Widgets or Google Desktop (or Mac OS X dashboard).  Put it next to a stock ticker and weather widget.  Or write a program/script to email or text yourself once a day, or even to check the value and send you an email/text when it goes over a certain number of minutes (such as each 100: 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, etc) and maybe once a week in addition to that.

The caveat is if Verizon changes the web page, you might have to update your code.  Fortunately, this FireFox plugin is still maintained/supported (version 2.1 was just released yesterday, 2009/07/10).

Calendar: set a reminder:
A third simple thing you can do (which I may do) (that doesn’t require to write and maintain code/script) is just set a reminder in your calendar to remind you to check it at a certain date/time.  The reminder could even include a link to the webpage.  With my example, I’m using Outlook, because I also have this reminder show-up on my Windows Mobile phone, and it can be set to recurring (such as every Wed at 8pm).

Developers, developers, developers, develop:
Ideally speaking, and long-term probably the better solution is to write code:

1) a Yahoo widget so I just press F8 in Windows to see my minutes ticker

2) a program that runs in the background (maybe even on a server) and sends me both a text message and an email (once a week) and (every time it reaches a landmark, such as: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 750, 800, 850, etc)

However, short-term I’m planning to try out the other methods I’ve mentioned, which don’t require code development/maintenance on my end.

Pem (Admin) :: Jul.11.2009 :: Mobility :: 1 Comment »

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