Got a Kindle? Here's an alternative start page

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- The Amazon Kindle's design is totally focused on reading books, magazines, newspapers and blogs. But it's also a general-purpose connected computer -- in a pinch.

Compared with a real PC -- or even an Apple iPhone -- surfing the Web on a Kindle sucks. Its browser, called Basic Web, supports cookies, JavaScript and SSL, but doesn't support plug-ins like Flash or Shockwave, or even Java applets. It can't read XML pages, either.

Because of those limitations and others -- everything is presented one "page" at a time, it's a black-and-white screen, and both UI and data connection are slow -- the Kindle is far from ideal as a general-purpose Web-surfing device

However, if you're out and about, have only your Kindle with you, and would like to check your e-mail, RSS feeds or calendar, it's nice to be able to do so. That's why I wrote step-by-step instructions a column posted yesterday.

And because typing in URLs isn't all that great, either, I created an alternative "Start" page, with links both to Kindle-friendly online resources and to columns I've written on the device. This "Start" page is designed to be used from a Kindle. Here's the page: 

http://elgan.com/k

If you have a Kindle, I invite you to visit this page frequently. I'll be updating it with new resources and new columns as I discover or write them.

Enjoy!