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Epoc Digest Sun, 29 Dec 2002 Volume 01 : Number 134

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Sent to: 714 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 15 messages:

==============================

- TaskNote and FreeNote

- S5 and rechargeables, newsgroups, Newton keyboards

- Thanks to the Epoc Digest team

- Magellan Meridian and Psion 5MX?

- Ham related soft for psion

- Re: 5mx battery, Backups,

- Re: Satellite tracking software. (2nd try)

- Re: Radio software and morse generator.

- Re: ethical issues and Digihandler

- Changing language OS

- Re: PSION newsgroups

- (Dis)Agreement only, please!

- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 131 : Are the clamshells coming back ?

- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 132

- Crypto Programs

*++++++++++&

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*++++++++++&

Date: 26 Dec 2002 15:36:24 +0000

From: "Philip Bister"

Subject: TaskNote and FreeNote

Hi Everyone

For all that are interested, the new versions of FreeNote and TaskNote are now available from http://www.philipbister.ukonline.co.uk

Osaris users may be interested in FreeNote, as this program has recently been upgraded to run on this machine.

Best Wishes for the New Year

Philip.

*++++++++++&

Date: 26 Dec 2002 23:15:30 +0000

From: Trygve Henriksen

Subject: S5 and rechargeables, newsgroups, Newton keyboards

Greetings!

Aleck Cartwright wrote:

> I read in a series 5 hints and tips file that some rechargable batteries

> can actually recharge inside the series 5 while plugged into the mains

> adaptor. Is the same true for a 5mx?

Yes, it's true that the S5 acted this way, but... this IS NOT INTENTIONAL!

(No, I haven't heard whether or not the design flaw exists on the S5mx)

The S5 will 'trickle-charge' Ni-Cad cells when connected to a mains adaptor.

But it will also become hot...

> Saving the hassle of carrying the battery charger around with me

> would be great. I heard this is true for NiMh, but what about Nicd

> rechargeables?

I heard it worked with Ni-cad's (or is my memory failing me?)

Anyway, it's not safe to leave it connected for extended periods of time...

Having a mains adapter at work to 'top up' the cells for the trip home is OK, but relying on it on a longer trip?

You're better off bringing with you a few spares.

> Also if anyone knows of any good PSION related newsgroups that

> are running, please recommend them to me, primarily regarding

> software, reviews, tips, series 5mx and Revo.

Comp.Sys.Psion.Apps

Comp.Sys.Psion.Misc

I think those are what you're looking for.

There's also:

Comp.Sys.Psion.Announce but either it's dead, or the server I'm using no longer updates it.

(there are also 'Marketplace' for shopping, and 'Programmin' for you know... )

> MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!!!

Right back at ya!

:-)

---

Melvin Woody wrote:

> 2. Has anyone on this list suceeded in connecting a REVO to the

> keyboard for the Apple Newton. I bought a keybosrd and followed

====

> I got a competent techie to sodder the connections -- but nothing

> happens when I try to use the Newton keyboard. It would be SO

> handy if I could get it to work.

1. You've loaded the driver?

(I assume there's a driver involved, since the Revo doesn't expect keypress info coming on the serial port)

2. You know that the keyboard is OK?

(A lot of stuff sold on eBay and other sites are sold 'as is' or with 'worked when I packed it away yonks ago'... )

To test it, try firing up Comms(Is it included on the Revo, I can't remember)

and typing away on the keyboard....

I assume that you didn't get it soldered directly to the cable of a spare base, but got an 9pin-to-newton-plug adater made, right?

(No, cutting off the Newton plug is NOT a nice thing to do...)

If so, it should be possible to connect it together with a null-modem to the Serial port on a PC and use a terminal emulator program on that, too.

:-)

Trygve

Who wouldn't mind having one of those keyboards in his collection...

*++++++++++&

Date: 27 Dec 2002 12:06:24 +0000

From: Jan R Gustafsson

Subject: Thanks to the Epoc Digest team

Just want to send my thanks and wishes for a

HAPPY NEW YEAR

to the Epoc Digest team for keeping this digest going so well during 2002. Hope you will be able to continue your good work the coming year.

Best New Year greetings to all you digesters,

Jan G

Stockholm, Sweden

*++++++++++&

Date: 27 Dec 2002 13:55:06 +0000

From: Andy Hardy

Subject: Magellan Meridian and Psion 5MX?

Hi,

Santa brought me a Magellan Meridian GPS for Christmas.

I'd like to connect it up to my Psion 5MX running Palmtop Route Planner

version 2.13 Millennium. Unfortunately, when I try to look at the GPS

preferences in Routeplanner I get an 'Unable to load GPS engine. Not

found' error.

I've tried all the NMEA versions on my GPS (1.5 API/XTE and 2.1GSA).

I have turned communications off.

If I access the GPS via 'COMMS' I can see the data being passed down in

NMEA version 2.1.

As a standby, I tried the GPSion5 utility, but although it could connect

to the Meridian and correctly determine the software version, etc. it

could not accept any data without getting an error in 'GPSION5/MENSD' -

'String is too long'.

Any thoughts?

Andy

Andy Hardy. PGP ID: 0xA62A4849

*++++++++++&

Date: 27 Dec 2002 17:32:21 +0000

From: "John Gilbert"

Subject: Ham related soft for psion

Hello Andy

http://www.cix.co.uk/~hzk/programs.htm

have a look at the above

I don't know exactly what you are looking for but he has made some soft for ham's (packet as one)

John - ON4AGJ (only cw)

*++++++++++&

Date: 27 Dec 2002 17:42:57 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: 5mx battery, Backups,

Howdy!

Itamar Engelsman wrote (> ):

> Re. 5mx battery - I think you are mistaken,

> neither the 5 nor the 5MX has got the capabillity

> to recharge batteries.

Apparently, the mx has a "leak" so that the battery does get a very small trickle charge when external power is connected. There is also a company in Germany that will modify the machine to give it a "real" charger. However, I have not been able to find out whether they also do the memory upgrades and screen repairs. My MC218 has a cracked touch sensitive layer, and I'd like to send it to one place for repair, a memory upgrade and adding a charging circuit.

Owen

Thought for the day:

The rat race is over, the rats won.

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-53°20.87'N 6°14.83'W

Dublin City Moorings

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Ireland: +353 (0)87 7474173

In Norway: +47 92053097

*++++++++++&

Date: 27 Dec 2002 17:43:05 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Satellite tracking software. (2nd try)

Howdy!

Alan Morris wrote (> ):

> When sailing do you adjust the direction of the

> antenna when the signal starts to degrade? Or

> have a clever motor system for doing this.

I haven't actually been out sailing since I got the radio, but unless I'm tacking, I will usually try to keep on a straight course to my destination (or the next headland to go around), so I hopefully won't have to mess too much with it. Apparently, there will be an omnidirectional WorldSpace antenna available some time next year which should solve the problem.

> I used an Isogonal map of Europe to input the Mag

> Var, but would have liked to have found a data set

> to incorporate in the program.

Most GPS units have automatic compensation for the magnetic variation which seems to be pretty accurate, so you could get it from the GPS from the difference between your magnetic and true headings in the NMEA signal.

> With the

> program handling Mag Var, folk like me (who are

> not yachtsmen) don't have to remember if to add or

> subtract it!

I still have to think it through every time...

> There will be a table of satellites in a later

> version selectable via <Tab> to give the Longitude

> of Satellites.

Good idea.

> A misunderstanding Owen. I was refering to the

> 'Positioning System' used by Palmtop RP & SP.

<SNIP>

> The later versions can both access the NMEA data

> from the GPS without the switching off and on

> problem. I would expect that their GPS Engine

> (which uses the Psion's serial port as input) puts

> the NMEA data at specific memory addresses while

> running in the backbground.

If other software, including things like PsiNMEA, RealMaps, Navigate etc. could all read data from the GPS at the same time, that would be very useful indeed.

Owen

Thought for the day:

To be happy for a night, get drunk;

To be happy for a month, get married;

To be happy for life, get a sailboat.

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-53°20.87'N 6°14.83'W

Dublin City Moorings

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Ireland: +353 (0)87 7474173

In Norway: +47 92053097

*++++++++++&

Date: 27 Dec 2002 17:44:17 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Radio software and morse generator.

Howdy!

Andrew Longdon wrote (> ):

> Alan, I note you're a radio ham - would you know

> if there is any software around for the Psion

> similar to Hamcomm, or such?

Decoding RTTY or Weatherfax via the RS-232 need very exact timing which requires the software to have tight control over the processor. This is difficult to achieve in a multitasking OS like EPOC (or WindoZe). The OS simply won't allow the software to get that close to the processor. That is why most Weatherfax and RTTY software for WindoZe and Mac use the sound card rather than the RS-232 with a Hamcom demodulator.

I use an old Hewlett Packard 200LX MS-DOS palmtop for weatherfaxes with my NASA Target short-wave radio with built-in Hamcom demodulator and it works very well. If you are going to use weatherfaxes or RTTY on a daily basis rather than just play with it, you really need a dedicated machine for the task, so there's no reason why it has to run EPOC. I suggest you consider getting a HPLX and finding some old DOS RTTY software to run on it. You'll probably have to try a few different applications as the LX is a PC XT, so won't run software designed for the 286 or higher processors.

My weatherfax setup is described in an article on my web site. Receiving RTTY on a HP200LX would be very similar, so have a look at the article and let me know if you succeed. You should be able to find a HP200LX on ebay at a reasonable price and I have a friend in Austria who is a radio Ham and is on intimate terms with the HPLX. He was a great help to me on getting my weatherfax station set up. If you decide to go this route, I can put you in contact with him.

> I'm interested in any

> decoding, put more particularly ACARS.

What's on ACARS?

BTW, for anyone interested in NavTex, NASA Marine Instruments in Stevenage make a NavTex receiver engine which simply sends the text down an RS232 signal as ASCII text. It comes with WindoZe software, but I'm sure something could be written for EPOC. The author of Navigate was working on this a while ago, but it seems to have ground to a halt. It would work out of the box with Comms of course, but not have any of the functions of a proper NavTex receiver for saving or filtering messages. This is one EPOC Shareware application I'd gladly pay for and I would also be very interested to help with Beta testing if anyone would like to take up the challenge.

While we're on the subject, does anyone know if there is a morse code generator for EPOC? I have noticed that some new phones will morse your SMS messages for you. This seems like a good way to learn to read morse for those who are interested in getting a ham licence without the drudgery of sitting down to have random rubbish read out to you by a morse generator or computer. Maybe we could persuade Zenobyte to add this function to PhoneMan? Failing that, a macro that simply morses whatever text is selected on screen would work for Phoneman as well as any other text based software and should be relatively simple to write.

Owen

Thought for the day:

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and it holds the Universe together.

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-53°20.87'N 6°14.83'W

Dublin City Moorings

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Ireland: +353 (0)87 7474173

In Norway: +47 92053097

*++++++++++&

Date: 27 Dec 2002 17:44:28 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: ethical issues and Digihandler

Howdy!

Rolf Vonau wrote (> ):

> May this person has cracked the code for

> DigHandler and sells it, too?

To the best of my knowledge, he has never taken money for codes, but the way I've understood him he can make registration codes for any EPOC shareware and for any username. I don't think he actively distributes codes, he just "helps" his friends if they ask. I don't know how many friends he has, but probably not enough to make a serious dent in the income of any shareware authors.

As I said, I have no idea how he does it and I suppose we should be thankful that he has not made his discovery public. I don't even know how the username and code bit in EPOC Shareware is programmed, but if there is a standard way of doing it, maybe it would be a good idea for shareware authors to device their own system that is different from the standard to make things a bit more difficult for a hacker.

With all the stink this has caused, I may think twice before I ask my contact to provide a code for abandoned Shareware another time. Not that I think that it's really morally wrong if the software is truly abandoned or that he or I run any real risk of getting caught. It's simply that I seem to have gotten more than enough aggro out of trying to help a few people with an application that I don't even use myself. I didn't know Lieuwe de Vries myself, but find it hard to believe that he would have wanted his software to die with him.

BTW, I think it is probably best that we do not continue to discuss a person who is not present on the list, even if we haven't given his name. Suffice to say that someone has figured out how to crack the shareware codes, and I know this person. However, I would like to hear from other Shareware authors what their positon would be if they for some reason were permanently unable to support their software.

Owen

Thought for the day:

People often find it easier to be a result of the past, rather than a cause of the future.

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-53°20.87'N 6°14.83'W

Dublin City Moorings

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Ireland: +353 (0)87 7474173

In Norway: +47 92053097

*++++++++++&

Date: 27 Dec 2002 19:04:00 +0000

From: Christoph

(Christoph Pulster)

Subject: Changing language OS

Giving back some infos to this useful list and their members: I have a German mxPRO EPOC Systemdisk and a English netbook EPOC

Systemdisk. Giving these results:

German 5mxPRO with German OS: German unit :)

German 5mxPRO with English OS: doesnt boot up at all :(

English 5mxPRO (from POS Ltd.) with German OS: works fine.

English 5mxPRO with English OS: doesnt work.

English netbook works with German and English OS, some with German

netbook.

Summary AFAIK: with a netbook you can change language OS, i.e. making a

German model to an English one.

I was not able switch language OS on a 5mxPRO.

Open point is, POS Ltd. is selling 5mxPRO as english language models. They seem to have a bootable ENGLISH mxPRO System...

Hope this information is a bit of use,

Christoph

(www.pulster.de)

*++++++++++&

Date: 27 Dec 2002 23:10:56 +0000

From: Alan Morris

Subject: Re: PSION newsgroups

Aleck Cartwright wrote:-

< if anyone knows of any good PSION related newsgroups that are running, please recommend them to me, primarily regarding software, reviews, tips, series 5mx and Revo. >>

Aleck the epocworld server has the best set in my opinion. They are not on general servers. If my memory is correct there is also a C+ one but I've never been one for C. BASIC and/with ASM were my preferred :-

publicnews.epocworld.com

discussion.general

discussion.epoc.OPL

discussion.epoc.hardware

My ISP's news server has the following, which will probably be on your own ISP's server:-

newshost.computerweekly.net

comp.sys.psion.announce

comp.sys.psion.apps

comp.sys.psion.comm

comp.sys.psion.misc

comp.sys.psion.programmer

Alan R Morris, G4ENS.

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.

Using a Psion 7 & Nokia 6210e

*++++++++++&

Date: 28 Dec 2002 12:10:00 +0000

From: Philip Adkins Potter

Subject: (Dis)Agreement only, please!

Hi all,

First, may I wish all a Happy New Year?

Jaan Sass said Owen Morgan should get caught.

If he were indiscriminately offering cracked registration codes then I wouldn't disagree, If he were selling such codes I'd certainly agree. He is not.

And Rolf Vonau implied that such codes are for sale. I doubt it. Owen certainly doesn't sell them and no-one I know does. In the EPOC world such things are more commonly given away anyway, or so it seems to me. And it's usually immoral by my standards.

But nobody involved in this debate condones warez, stealing or any associated criminal act. Such people wouldn't be involved in this debate - they'd just keep quiet and laugh at us all.

So please, please, no more accusations. Owen's offer may be a lot of things but it was prompted by *generosity*. For that alone he deserves thanks no matter what the disagreements may be.

Here Owen's integrity is beyond reproach.

I suspect mine needs polishing by comparison.

Happy days (Beltane next),

Phil.

"Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny."

*++++++++++&

Date: 28 Dec 2002 12:33:50 +0000

From: "Arent Kits van Heijningen[106016.3614]"

Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 131 : Are the clamshells coming back ?

On: 23 Dec 2002 15:15:23 +0000

Keith Giles <ohsix AT bikerider.com> wrote about : Sharp Sharp

>>Take a look at this:

http://www.nvmax.com/cgi-bin/community.pl?num=1040534208

<snip>

But maybe the clamshell is on its way back.<<

Yes but this is just another incarnation of the Borg of the PDA universe a.k.a. Pocket PC

From what I gleaned from various Web sites :

Keyboard looks great but :

Numeric keypad embedded ( like Sony's NR/NX series )

Screen is 640 by 480 active matrix colour DSTN (great )

Battery runtime pathetic ( 4 hours max , pop in a 802.11 and it will drop to less than 2 hrs )

Ram is limited to 32 megs , as PocketPC in whatever incarnation is endowed with a far less efficient Operating Environment this is woefully inadequate ( Yes they use no ramdisk ! )

As far as pricing is concerned , this is acceptable with this feature set , but it now has to compete with ultraPC's that are only moderately more expensive

*++++++++++&

Date: 28 Dec 2002 13:16:10 +0000

From: Toby Butler

Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 132

Dear all

happy new year to you - I'm having a clear out of some psion stuff - I'm selling spare stylus for both the revo and the series 5/mx; a revo docking station and a copy of Palmtop's Money

Email me off digest if you want more details

Best wishes

Toby

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*++++++++++&

Date: 28 Dec 2002 17:52:24 +0000

From: "Woody B"

Subject: Crypto Programs

I've taken a new interest in my Psion (a 5 and 5MX). Loaded the world on new CFs (68 and 256) and am off and running. Santa was really cute on Solun!

Since I'm going to try using ABP this year, I think it would be a good idea to... besides backing up my files .. to encrypt what is on the Psions.

I've downloaded several programs from Tucows-- crypto114, encrypt40, freecrypt. Also CodeSafe for passwords.

An recomendations, suggestions, problems with any of these, or other suggestions?

Thanks, Woody

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*++++++++++&

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