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A few months ago I offered a bookmarklet that makes life easier for users with IMDb Pro subscriptions. In early September, I offered an update. Today, I offer a 3rd update to overcome problems the bookmarklet had with TV shows and TV episodes.

This bookmarklet, as before, does two things: 1. It will take you to a specific IMDb Pro page if you click on it when you’re not on IMDb. The default is in the box below; if you prefer to visit a specific IMDb page instead, like yours, enter it below first. 2. If you’re looking at a regular IMDb page when you click on this bookmarklet, you’ll be whisked to the IMDb Pro version of that page.

So, enter your favorite “home” URL above, then drag this link to your bookmarks bar, and you’re good to go: [IMDb Pro].

I am primarily a Safari user, but this bookmarklet appears to work in Chrome, too. Firefox is being persnickety, however, and I’m working on getting a version that works in that browser.

When you are on a Facebook page that links to an external site, clicking on the link will take you to an intermediate Facebook page that starts with http://www.facebook.com/l.php before it takes you to the link you want to access. The JavaScript code Facebook uses reveals why they do this. The code says “UntrustedLink” and some other junk.

But if you trust the links, and if you want to bypass that intermediate business on any one Facebook page, just click this bookmarklet first and you will be good to go: [Trust].

A few months ago I offered a bookmarklet that makes life easier for Safari users with IMDb Pro subscriptions. Today, an update. It works now in mobile Safari on the iPhone.

This bookmarklet by default will take you to IMDb Pro’s home page if you click on it when you’re not on IMDb. If you prefer instead to visit a specific IMDb page, like yours, enter it in the box below first. Whether you enter a URL below or not, if you’re looking at a regular IMDb page when you click on this bookmarklet, you’ll be whisked to the Pro version of that page.

So, enter your favorite “home” URL above, then drag this link to your bookmarks bar, and you’re good to go: [IMDb Pro].

I’ve created a bookmarklet to switch from IMDb to IMDb Pro more easily. If you subscribe to IMDb Pro, do this.

Drag this link [Pro] to your bookmark bar. This link will now switch you to the IMDb Pro version of any IMDb page, or it will take you to the IMDb Pro home page if you click on it when not on regular IMDb.

Now, you may be saying that this is useless because every regular IMDb page has a link to its IMDb Pro version. Yes, but with this bookmarklet, you can click on one reliable place, a place that doesn’t scroll, a place whose horizontal location is not dependent on the length of an actor’s or agency’s name, and a place not blocked by very invasive ads that IMDb sometimes puts up! It was the invasive Flash ads for Alice in Wonderland that drove me to develop this. If you use Safari, you can also use a keyboard shortcut to the first 10 bookmarks in your bookmark bar. Speedy!

I find this handy. Leave a comment if you find it handy, too!

P.S. If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts of this bookmarklet, here is its Javascript code:

h=location.href;
w=h.indexOf("http://www.imdb.com");
p=h.indexOf("http://pro.imdb.com");
if(w==0){window.location=h.replace("www","pro")}
else if(p==-1){window.location="http://pro.imdb.com/"};

This is how I get street addresses from my home computer to my iPhone with ease.

The tricky part for most users is this one requirement: Have a server somewhere that runs PHP and that can send you email. If you have access to such a server, here’s an easy solution I call Mappie Map. It’s kind of like iPhoneSender, but you don’t have to type in an email address every time you use it.

1. Create a file in the html root directory of your server and name it iphone.php.

2. Edit iphone.php with this text (replacing YOUREMAIL with your actual email):

< ?php
function mystrip($s) {
	$s = trim($s);
	$s = str_replace("\xA0",' ',$s);
	$s = preg_replace('/\s+/','+',$s);
	return $s;
}
$to = "YOUREMAIL";
$address = $_REQUEST["address"];
echo $address . "<br />";
$subject = "Map: " . $address;
$address = mystrip($address);
$message = "http://maps.google.com/?q=" . $address;
$from = "Mappie Map YOUREMAIL";
$headers = "From: $from";
mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
echo $address;
?>

3. Drag this link [Mappie Map] to your Safari bookmark bar.

4. Right-click the Mappie Map link in your Safari bookmark bar and select “Edit Address.” Replace YOURSERVER with the URL of your server root, such as www.FirstnameLastname.com.

5. You’re good to go! Click on the Mappie Map bookmark link after highlighting an address in your web page, a new window pops up showing the sent info which you must close manually, and you’ll soon get a message from Mappie Map. Just tap on its contents, and the address will now appear in your iPhone’s Maps app without you having to type it in.

I find this real real handy. Leave a comment if you find it handy, too!