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Epoc Digest Mon, 01 Jul 2002 Volume 01 : Number 024
Sent to: 403 subscribers
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In today's Epoc Digest 14 messages:
==============================
- epoc viruses
- Re: VReader, TCR and Jotter
- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 021
- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 023
- If it ain't broke....don't fix it
- Order of macros,
- Vacation, MochasoftPPP, your EPOC
- Nokia 9290, Opinions
- RE: Synchronization Problem
- NetBook 156 img file ready to download
- Ref: Mocha PPP, French screenshots
- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 023, Order of Macros list in ExAb
- Re: Screen cable & Cost pricing
- vReaderv2.01 (un)TCR
*++++++++++&
Date: 30 Jun 2002 06:12:21 +0000
From: "Henri Spagnolo"
Subject: epoc viruses
Hello,
About viruses on Epoc machines:
There are no viruses software (may exist, but...) on Epoc machine. The ones which are related in the anti-virus information, are in fact jokes developed by a guy (I do not remember his real name, but his page was named "Braindrain" at: http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/heights/5596/ - it is closed now) who has written some programs for Series3 (like irtag) and also others for Series5. Then he write some joke programs that do funny or strange things on your machine, but for what I remember without any risk.
I presume that anti-virus producer have seen with these "epoc viruses" the possibility to have some houndred of thousand potential new client, but...
Regards.
Henri Spahttp://mypage.bluewin.ch/YetAnotherHomePage/
*++++++++++&
Date: 30 Jun 2002 09:51:03 +0000
From: "Sergio"
Subject: Re: VReader, TCR and Jotter
On 28 Jun 2002 Woody B wrote:
<<
Could you provide a website for VReader? I just found this list, recently gone back to my Psion 5, and would like an updated version. I found it a very useful, free ;-) program for reading old books.
Re- TCR - Question... I need help ...there was a reader program for the Psion 3 that contained a small DOS program that converted text type files to files VReader could handle. Does anyone know the name and location of that program. -- If you had a 5-5mx you downloaded the 3 program, unzipped it... tossed the 3 reader program and kept the converter program to use for files you wanted to read on your Psion 5.
>>
Can't remember the website, but I can send to you (and everyone who's interested), the program (vReader 2.01), the PC utility to make a TCR file (read23ab.zip 78Kb) and the "TCR COMPRESSOR AND DECOMPRESSOR v1.04" for Epoc (tcr_epoc.zip 79 Kb)
Let me know
Sergio Alisi
Mialno - Italy
*++++++++++&
Date: 30 Jun 2002 18:12:02 +0000
From: Arent_Kits_van_Heijningen[106016.3614]
Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 021
Itamar Engelsman wrote about: ultraportable/ultrapersonal PC's on:
25 Jun 2002 12:53:33 +0000
>>Re. ultraportable/ultrapersonal PC's - Where can one find further details about these new machines ? I never heard of them before (am I that ignorant ?)<<
There are currently four vendors :
http://www.saintsong.com.tw ( desktop systems )
http://www.iei.com.tw ( industrial/embedded/in-vehicle mobile )
http://www.oqo.com ( mobile )
http://www.tiquit.com ( also mobile)
Oqo and Tiquit are the ones that aim at the high-end PDA markets
Oqo uses heavily customized hardware ,making for some cool design , whereas Tiquit bulds its offering around COTS (= ugly brick )
Screen size on both is 640 by 480 ,Oqo runs on a Transmeta Crusoe 5800 ,the Tiquit uses a 300 MHz National Semiconductor Geode
There's no build-in keyboard on the Oqo , the Tiquit has a Blackberry-style thumbboard
Harddrive size is of course limited ( 5mm 1.8inchers running at 4800 rpm giving up to 5 GB (5 GOkt for our Continental European readers ) is probably the largest that will fit in the definitely cramped cases ) Re Power consumption : These have definitely much better power consumption figures than regular notebooks/desktops/industrial/vehicle systems but the battery sizes that are fitted are also much smaller so the net result will be the same i.e runtime per charge will be pathetic compared to Palm and Psion They DO however make up excellent PDA/HPC/PPC companion devices as they stillcan do all the tasks a regular PC can do ,including acting as network gateways
>>
Re. IR modem - Last night again the lighting in my study caused the travelmodem to misbehave until I covered the 5MX an modem with a peace of paper ... lighting definitely does affect the modem.<<
Energy-saving lightbulbs appear to be the biggest culprits , especially when run of a raw AC supply
k
"kits"
*++++++++++&
Date: 30 Jun 2002 18:12:06 +0000
From: Arent_Kits_van_Heijningen[106016.3614]
Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 023
Eric Lindsay wrote about: 2gb PCMCIA on :
28 Jun 2002 04:04:09 +0000
>>My guess would be that the 2gb hard drive isn't PCMCIA, but is instead a CardBus device.<<
The Kingston/Toshiba 5mm 1.8 inch harddrives are bog-standard ATA/IDE devices ,probably it is the absence of IDE mode that raises the compatibility issue in EPOC Last year I tested the 2gig one on a Siemens Simpad ( Tablet-style HPC 2000 device based on the same hardware platform as the large Psions ) and my HP 680LX ( also HPCPro but based on a 32-bit Hitachi SH-7700 chip ) It worked on both
And it also works on the Compaq Ipaq in both WindowsCE and Linux
Re : screen cables
>>Back when I was playing with gadgets, I heard
that the production cost of components vs the selling price had to be more like 4, rather
than the 2 to 2.5 ratio Rolf mentioned.<<
Well if you are living in outlying areas -like most of Continental Europe - you have to take into account local taxation ( volumes often too low for direct imports ) dealer markups and shipping costs
>>The big one is reliability. Unless you have an exclusive, you can't afford to be
reliable. <<
My opinion is here that salvation will come from the major consumer electronics corporations like Casio , PanaSonic and Sony
PanaSonic has its range of ToughBooks , ruggedized notebooks wich they now aim at the consumer/recreational/generic-business markets as well , they introduced recently their ToughBook 01 ,a Mil-specced ruggedized tablet-style HPCPro weighing in at around a pound and costing EUR 1500 ( dunno with wich options ) and Casio has ruggedized versions of its E-115/E-125 PocketPC devices
>>Hardly anyone used a ten year old computer.<<
Because of the enormous progress made in terms of capabilities ,but as soon as capabilities catch up with real or perceived wishes for large market segments then people can 1. hang on longer 2. afford to purchase the more expensive high-reliability version as it will last them much longer ( There is also the hidden cost of any new device ,namely you have to configure it to your needs as well as getting the hang of it , wich takes months ,in some cases up to a year )
Your comments welcome
k
Mike McConnell wrote about :
CompuServe in France on:
28 Jun 2002 10:13:28 +0000
>>Although I no longer belong to CompuServe, it was my belief that UUD could be accessed with the normal CIS script. <<
UUD = uunet/MCI-Worldcom and it is to be seen how long this will stay up in the light of the latest revelations , it is the default access network for CompuServe Classic
>>I suspect, may have been discontinued in a similar way to many of the Equant nodes<<
Equant has been taken over by France Telecom/Orange thereby the Transpac network either became redundant or was folded into the Equant one
k
"kits"
*++++++++++&
Date: 30 Jun 2002 20:58:23 +0000
From: Kevin Thorne
Subject: If it ain't broke....don't fix it
As I hadn't used my copy of Atelier's CheckDisk for some months now I decided to check both my C and D drives on my S7 to make sure everything was OK. My D drive (340Mb IBM Microdrive) was fine but C (16Mb plus additional 16Mb upgrade RAM) was not. This is the message displayed:
"The Fat Indirection Table 646 (Hex 85) is corrupt. This is a MAJOR problem that this version of CheckDisk is unable to fix at this stage. You should reformat your disk and restore it from a previous backup. Try NOT to delete any file or directory from it, as it can corrupt it even more. CheckDisk cannot repair this problem."
This worried me (I don't understandably like MAJOR problems reported!) even though I haven't experienced any trouble for 2 years of using my S7. I copied the entire contents of C onto my 5mx, reformatted C drive on the S7 and then copied it all back again. Same problem message again. So I tried using CheckDisk on the 5mx with the copy of my S7's C drive and lo and behold, CheckDisk reported no problems at all. I feel maybe I should just ignore it but I'd be grateful if someone could tell me what I should do or what CheckDisk is actually saying. I'm not worried about data loss (as I backup on a regular basis) but I'm a bit worried that there is a hardware fault on the S7. I also tried using the "check disk" option in Navigator on the S7 and that reported "no disk errors detected" so I'm also wondering if CheckDisk is maybe misreporting a non-existent problem.
Regards
Kevin Thorne
*++++++++++&
Date: 30 Jun 2002 22:11:24 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman
Subject: Order of macros,
Answer to: Bram Amsel
Re. Order of macros - I think I did understand you. My answer was 1/ instead of the run macro function in Macro5 to use the panels where you can activate a macro in two steps, 1/ activate the panel and 2/ press the letter designated to the macro. My second answer was to use Assistant, a third program. After choosing to run a macro you type the first letter the A and the second letter the "2" (in your example) which will bring you straight to that macro. I have no experience with ExAb, and don't know the answer about the list of documents.
Bye,
Itamar Engelsman
London, United Kingdom
*++++++++++&
Date: 30 Jun 2002 23:28:45 +0000
From: Trygve Henriksen
Subject: Vacation, MochasoftPPP, your EPOC
Greetings!
Itamar Engelsman wrote:
> Answer to: Trygve Henriksen
> (By the way, with that holiday allowance, any jobs available at your place of
> work ... ?)
Nope...
I work at 'Public Roads Authority, County Roads Office', so unless you LIKE to lie about where you work in the winter(everyone complains about the snow ploughs not doing the job, the salting, which they REALLY don't like and just about everything else even if you don't have anything to do with it)
As for 4 weeks of vacation...
That's the norm here in Norway. (I think people over 60 gets a 5th week)
The two weeks that I've yet to use is saved up from earlier years.
> Re. Promotion - The only thing I can think of at the moment (and don't
> have the time myself) is to follow the Psion webring and write to each
> website to add a link to this digest and the website mentioned at the top
Most of those sites are dead...
(They haven't been updated for yonks!)
With the cost of GSM, I'm afraid that I have to wait until I get back to the office before I do any real surfing.
----
> Subject: MochaPPP
> My second surprise with this program is that, contrary to earlier info, it
> does work with Psion and MochaPPP both set to 115,200 and works at a
> tremendous speed. I use it now both at home and at work, so it's time to
> register the program (costs $ 9.95).
Yes, but to get that speed, you have to lie and tell the program that it's connecting to a WinCE machine... //Add gagging and puke sounds here//
Other than that, the program has worked very well on my PC (Running NT4.0)
Sometimes it doesn't seem to connect on the port, but when that happens, it always works if I just close and restart it.
---
Peter Keene wrote:
> For Andy Hayes re Your EPOC:
> It wasn't the content that irritated me Andy, it was the sixth form nudge-
> nudge wink-wink attempt at humour. Also, it was a little too emotional, after
> all our Psions are only products, aren't they, not holy grails?
They're not?
I remember the day I put my clammy hands around the Psion S3a and gingerly unfolded it. Then I pressed a single key to let the magic flow...
when the S5 came, I had been on the preorder list for 4 months, and I can still remember the moment after inserting the batteries, when I turned it over and opened it up to let the keyboard slide out... (Accompanied by a lot off 'oohs' and 'ah's' and other sounds of praise. I couldn't wait until I got home, so I unpacked it in the store. One of the workers in that store later got an S5 himself. the storeowner didn't. He's still using his S3 Classic :-)
I won't bother mentioning the awe when I unpacked the Psion organiser(One), the elation upon receiving the MC400, or the feeling of power when I switched on the netBook for the first time...
Yes, I also have Palms, so know what they are capable of, and have spent hours trying to make an iPac 3780 do something as simple as dial up a RAS server without adding a whole lot of crap to the number or replacing the username with something weird...
(The same operation took less than a minute on the netBook, which incidentally irritated the heck out of my boss :-)
Ooops...
There I began to evangelise again...
:-)
Trygve
Who's getting himself a blue kayak tomorrow...
(I've already tried it, and no, I didn't get wet...)
*++++++++++&
Date: 30 Jun 2002 23:44:46 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman
Subject: Nokia 9290, Opinions
Re. Nokia 9290
Mark Fraklin informs the digest that CompUSA, a computer chainstore in North America, has details of the Nokia 9290 on their website www.copmusa.com
Answer to: Peter (still freezing)
Re. Opinions - I agree wholeheartedly with your message. Let's keep this new digest clean of old disagreements and keep the messages to the point and without personal attacks.
Bye,
Itamar Engelsman
London, United Kingdom
*++++++++++&
Date: 1 Jul 2002 01:36:32 +0000
From: "Janet I. Fine"
Subject: RE: Synchronization Problem
I am suddenly having difficulty synchronizing my 5mx with my PC (OS=Windows 98), although this has not been a problem before. The synch kept getting "stuck" writing to the Psion and I had no choice but to stop the process. When I did, the log file was so large it had to be written to WordPad instead of Notepad and, when viewed, it listed the following message many, many times:
Psion To-Do
08/17/2002 - 08/17/2002 [No Description]
The Synchronizer encountered an error with the EPOC interface.
The interface reported "Invalid argument".
An unspecified error occurred on the Psion!
At that point I reviewed my To-Dos and found I did have a repeating entry that included 8/17/02. I then deleted all instances of that entry from both the Psion and the PC. When I tried to synch again, the process still did not finish correctly, but this time I only got one instance of a slightly different error message:
Psion
The Synchronizer encountered an error with the EPOC interface.
An unspecified error occurred on the Psion!
Any helpful ideas out there as to what I should do to stop getting more error messages during synch??
*++++++++++&
Date: 1 Jul 2002 07:59:21 +0000
From: Jeffrey de Grijs
Subject: NetBook 156 img file ready to download
Hi,
I was happy to find the 156 in an old archive. I put it online: http://jeffrey.degrijs.com/psion/ (zipped).
Best regards,
Jeffrey de Grijs
*++++++++++&
Date: 1 Jul 2002 07:59:25 +0000
From: "Thomas F. VAN DER ZIJDEN"
Subject: Ref: Mocha PPP, French screenshots
Hello group,
About Mocha PPP: I agree with Itamar that it works splendidly. It is an ideal way to test new Psion communications software without making your mobile provider VERY happy. ;-)
May I also plug my website http://review.vdzijden.net which contains an article on the required settings for Mocha?
I also stumbled upon the website http://5-tux.ifrance.com which contains descriptions on how to do the same trick (getting the Psion to use your PC's internet connection) with Linux. It's in French, but I think Google Translation can do a fine deal with it (did not try it, though...).
Question:
I have a Dutch Psion 5mx myself and I regularly write articles in English. For the screenshots or the translations of typical Psion words I use the emulator. Now I have started to write articles in French as well, but how can I get the French translations and screenshots? I am thinking to get the emulator to 'talk' French, but how do I do that?
Yours truly,
Thomas van der Zijde
*++++++++++&
Date: 1 Jul 2002 13:11:44 +0000
From: "Huub Linthorst"
Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 023, Order of Macros list in ExAb
>>Answer to: Bram Amsel
>>
>>Re. Order of macro's - Hi there, trust all well with you and family. You omitted to write which program you use. With Assistant you get an alphabetical list and typing the first few letters will jump to the requested macro. In Macro5 you can arrange the 3 panels in such a way that only the ones you use most will appear.
>Thanks for your interest, Itamar. Best wishes from me to you, too.
Also thank you for your answer, but perhaps I did not make myself clear. I use either ExAb (i.e. the <menu>-J combination) or a macro5 hotkey that starts "run macro". I then press the first letter of the macro I want and >push it as often as I need to get to the right macro. Let's say I have three macro's starting with the letter A, called A1, A2 en A3 and that I use A2 a lot, A3 less frequently, and A1 rarely. How do I get A2 after pressing A once,
>A3 after pressing A twice, and A1 after pressing A three times?
Hi Bram, Itamar, all,
I read your question to the digest on the order of the macros in the macro list after <Menu+J>.
Indeed the list is not sorted. Use the following trick to get it in alphabetical order.
Go to System. Copy the whole Macros folder on the spot. You will get a duplicat folder named Macros(01). Now delete folder Macros and rename
Macros(01) to Macros.
I'm afraid it is not possible to sort the list using your own preferences. Huub
*++++++++++&
Date: 1 Jul 2002 21:29:26 +0000
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Screen cable & Cost pricing
Dear Eric,
<< Back when I was playing with gadgets, I heard that the production cost of components vs the selling price had to be more like 4, rather than the 2 to 2.5 ratio Rolf mentioned. If I am closer to the figure, that makes it even harder for the manufacturer >>
Note that I mentioned two prices - cost price and retail price. Cost price is what it took to manufacture the Series 5mx that's now in its box on a warehouse shelf, waiting to be shipped. The retail, or selling, price is higher as it includes distribution costs, import duties and VAT, the margin for the importer (national representative) and the retailer, etc. This makes cost price the better figure to use in a discussion as a cost factor like import duties depends on the country where the 5mx is sold.
As an aside - the multiplier to turn component price into retail price depends on the industry and its products. The multiplier for pharmaceuticals is very much higher that 4, for example, due to high R&D and approval spending.
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Delft - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 1 Jul 2002 22:22:01 +0000
From: Jack
Subject: vReaderv2.01 (un)TCR
> To Rick Gillyon Subject: vReader
>
......tends to crash without warning when you open some
> files. (Particularly > ..TCR)
> it also tends to display a lot of garbage from these
> files. It's almost as > if the creator didn't really study
> the file formats...
RE These kind of problem and specially not always allowing to read the last page was real with v2 BUT NOT with v2.01 as referenced in my last msg
--
To Woody B
>Subject: VReader, TCR...
>Could you provide a website for VReader? ........'
RE Try Tucows or epocboulevard.com/er5
>TCR - Question...
>I need help ...there was a reader program............that >converted text type files to files VReader could handle. >Does anyone know the name......
RE Might be TCR.exe and UNTCR.exe ; the demo versions being slower than the registered one
HTH
Jack
--
*++++++++++&
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