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Epoc Digest Sun, 06 Apr 2003 Volume 01 : Number 223
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Sent to: 772 subscribers
In today's Epoc Digest 13 messages:
==============================
- MBook Report
- PC vs Mac file system.
- Re: A Question on Modems
- Re: Laws
- Re: netBook power, etc
- Re: A Question on Modems
- Re: Battery care
- Englishmen and Frenchmen
- BCC Problem on C$erve Classsic
- Re: Psion-friendly website design?
- Power up time
- Re: Psion IR 56K Travel Modem # 221 (6)
- Digest posting
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Date: 5 Apr 2003 08:32:34 +0000
From: Keith Giles
Subject: MBook Report
I've had my Malaysian netBook a couple of days now and it *was* excellent. I bought a SanDisk 256MB CF card for it. This evening (I can now say yesterday evening because it just pasted the midnight hour) I loaded a lot of apps onto it. Suddenly when I turned it on all I got was a flashing screen. I could see the last app I had been using before turning it off. Neither keyboard nor stylus worked.
I did a soft reset. Tried Ctrl+Shift+Fn+K. Nothing - still flashing. Removed both batteries for a hard reset. That resulted in the "My Schoolbook" welcome screen but nothing else - stylus/keybaored still not working. I realized I had to have the MBook os.img CF card inserted. Removed the 256 card and both batteries. Inserted the 26 card then the batteries. Worked fine.
Replaced the 16 card with the 256 card. When I turned on the machine, I got an error message which flashed so fast I couldn't read it. Then the flashing screen started again. Went through the hard reset/16 card routine again and the machine works, but whereas before all this started the battery icon showed 1/2 full and was green, it now showed 1/2 full and was red. In addition I got a notice to recharge the battery.
I have to wait until I get a US adapter rigged up before I can recharge. Meanwhile, I think it is either the 256 card or an app I had loaded - my gut feeling it is the card. I had just made a backup before all this started so not problems about losing anything.
There appear to be 2 options open for me. 1: Delete everything on the card via the PC's card reader then copy back one app at a time ti see if there is some app causing all this. 2: Returning the 256 card for an exchange and trying again. The outfit where I bought the card 2 days ago is pretty good about returns. I've never before had a problem with any of the SanDisk CF cards I have.
I'm also open to any suggestions from you.
Happy Cycling,
Keith
Sunnyvale, CA
http://home.attbi.com/~ohsix827/
Thought For The Day: Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark - you know what you are doing, but nobody else does.
All my outgoing e-mails have been checked by Norton Anti-virus.
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Date: 5 Apr 2003 09:08:17 +0000
From: Owen Morgan
Subject: PC vs Mac file system.
Hi
As I've mentioned, I have an external USB harddisk. It's small and handy enough to slip in a (shirt) pocket and is very useful for sharing data between PC's. Can I use this drive to move data between a PC and a Mac, or are there differences in the file system on PC's and Macs that make this problematic? The data would mainly be MP3 and JPG files. The drive is formatted with FAT 32.
I've seen that other members on the list have experienced some problems using their EPOC CF's on Macs, but didn't pay much attention at the time as I don't have a Mac myself.
PS. Somebody else mentioned they had just bougth a harddisk enclosure for 3.5" disks. I have one of those as well, but mine has a PCMCIA interface. The big difference between this and the 2.5" model which uses laptop drives is that the smaller one fits in a pocket and doesn't need an external power supply. Another point is that the PCMCIA interface only works with laptops. I'm therefore selling the PCMCIA external drive and upgrading the small USB one with a larger capacity laptop harddisk. Any suggestions for where to buy cheap laptop drives? I'm looking for 20 gigs or larger.
Owen
Thought for the day:
A hospital is no place to be sick.
--
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 9205309
*++++++++++&
Date: 5 Apr 2003 09:08:26 +0000
From: Owen Morgan
Subject: Re: A Question on Modems
Howdy!
Gary Y Reyes wrote (> ):
> From the time the first modems came out, there was
> a very fast move to higher speed modems until the
> industry came out with 56kbps modems.
Not all that fast... I still remember using 300 baud modems as well as 75/1200 modems back in the very dark ages... When I went on holiday in the mid 80's, I set up an Amstrad CP/M machine with a 300 baud modem at home and used a Tandy TRS-80 / 100 to connect from England to keep in contact with my mother. No security at all. Connecting to the Amstrad simply dumped me at the A:> prompt in CP/M. I did get mom to swap diskettes in B: where we kept our messages at regular intervals though.
> But why does it seem now like the development has
> stopped and we don't see any news about modem
> speeds greated than 56k for desktop or internal PC
> modems?
Because it's now the phone line that is the bottleneck. The developers have pretty much reached the maximum of what is possible on a normal phone line. In fact, unless you have a perfect phone line, you won't even be able to get 56k most of the time. I suppose it might just be theoretically possible to push the speed on a phone line a bit higher, but as more and more areas are now implementing broadband, it probably isn't worth the effort.
Owen
Thought for the day:
Compromise: The fine art of making sure that nobody gets what they really want.
--
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: 5 Apr 2003 11:40:39 +0000
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Laws
Dear Rick,
<< Which countries? >>
The Netherlands, Germany, France ...
<< It seems crazy to me that people could be prosecuted for pointing out the whereabouts of public information! >>
Since when is the registration code a shareware developer has sent to a customer public information?
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 5 Apr 2003 11:40:41 +0000
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: netBook power, etc
Dear Andrew,
<< For a 'colour 5mx' to be used as a photo album, the memory requirements for display would be just 640x240x2 for 16-bit colour, or 300K. However, most photos would actually display at 320x240 so you just need 150K. >>
Which is fine when you want to have a set of thumbnail-like images of your photos. I already have this function on my camera, however. What I'd like to use the Psion for is, indeed, to zoom in and out, pan from one side to another, look at the details of my photos, and select the ones I like to keep.
<< ... the smart program still would only keep the data actually needed for display and re-decompress on demand >>
Which is that user-friendly in practice. Say that you want to have a look at another section of the picture. You scroll to that section, which you have to do blind, wait till the application has decompressed the section ... then to find you've scrolled too far. Hardware assisted decompression helps as it allows the sections to be decompressed on the fly as you scroll. Besides, I don't think that photos will be only thing people like to display. I'm also thinking about movie clips which can do with some hardware assistance.
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 5 Apr 2003 11:40:44 +0000
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: A Question on Modems
Dear Gary,
<< From the time the first modems came out, there was a very fast move to higher speed modems until the industry came out with 56kbps modems. But why does it seem now like the development has stopped and we don't see any news about modem speeds greated than 56k for desktop or internal PC modems? >>
The reason is that modems are at the so-called Shannon Limit. Claude Shannon did a theoretical study of data communication and wrote the definitive work on the subject in the '50s - a true masterpiece. What Shannon found was that data communication speeds can't be increased indefinitely. That the various data transmission methods have their fundamental limits. And 56 kbps is extremely close to the Shannon Limit for the plain old telephone system.
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 5 Apr 2003 11:40:51 +0000
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Battery care
Dear Tony,
<< I have purchased a spare S7 battery which is still in it's box unused. Do I keep it unused as it is or should I charge it up every so often? >>
It's best to keep a rechargeable battery 'in training' so to speak. What I'd do is to rotate the Series 7 batteries. That is, to use battery 'A' for a month, than battery 'B' for a month, then battery 'A' ... etc. As for the Revo, I also have one which I use infrequently but recharge one every month.
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 5 Apr 2003 15:55:32 +0000
From: "Stephane Sage"
Subject: Englishmen and Frenchmen
Hello to all
To: Antony (see EPOC DIGEST V1 # 222 (6)
Just as a matter of curiosity, I should very much like, as a Frenchman (otherwise known as "frog-eater"), what exactly you mean (doesn't sound very kind, according to my brand new Collins Dic...) with:
"it's a moot point because it is more likely that a Frenchman will grow a spine before Psion update the 5mx with a colour screen".
Kind regards.
Stephane Sage (Grenoble, France)
*++++++++++&
Date: 5 Apr 2003 15:56:58 +0000
From: Jim Watson~Gove
Subject: BCC Problem on C$erve Classsic
The good news is I have C$erve up and working as a second EMail client on my Mako.
The bad news is it doesn't seem to work on BCC.
I sent a test message to my Earthlink account and copied some friends in the BCC box (not the CC box). The message I received on my Earthlink account showed undeliverable as if I had sent it via my Earthlink ISP (which I hadn't) and when I pulled down my wife's emai, all of the addresses were there in the CC box.
Is it possible that because I have the problem of the outgoing message being stamped as from the Earthlink client that I am landing the CompuServe server, then being routed back to Earthlink for processing because of the misidentification?
Perhaps if I solve the misidentification problem, it will solve the BCC problem when using the CompuServe ISP.
Help someone?
TIA,
jim
*++++++++++&
Date: 5 Apr 2003 16:15:20 +0000
From: us
Subject: Re: Psion-friendly website design?
Well i would disagree with Jim partly, all the websites I have made / run have been pretty much 100% psion-friendly, while at the same time satisfying PC based design-concious patrons. (the only real exception being embedded Quicktime movies on some pages at http://www.clarsach.net). I would draw a distinction between useful photos / illustrations and "graphic elements". A page with 4 or 5 illustrations set into simple tables can be both pleasant to view and quick to load even on a Psion, whereas a page with 30 "graphic elements", even if pretty, is not worth the wait.
Also there is no end of fancy stuff like javascripts and the like that can fill your page with cool gimmicks. I would completely avoid these.
Simon
*++++++++++&
Date: 5 Apr 2003 22:30:36 +0000
From: Kevin Thorne
Subject: Power up time
Mark DEPPE wrote:
< tried a 1GB microdrive and it had the effect of slowing everything down even the start up by a second or 2 before I could enter my password, I was amazed at how disagreeable I found this, having got used to and taken for granted the instant on. The loss of responsiveness to button pushes - among other problems - led to me returning the Card. I know this is a personal thing but for me instant is what I want :-)>
I found this quite irritating too and as I mentioned in a recent posting, once the Microdrive gets well over half full, this access time seems to increase. However, I put up with it 'cos my 1 Gb Microdrive gives me the huge storage space I want for very little money compared to CF prices. Just out of interest, I've just tried switching on my S7 to accurately time how long it takes to spin up to speed - 19 seconds before the S7 can respond to stylus taps! It currently has 584 Mb of data stored on it. Apart from the slow access time, what other problems did you have with it?
Regards
Kevin Thorne
*++++++++++&
Date: 6 Apr 2003 00:31:58 +0000
From: Mark DEPPE
Subject: Re: Psion IR 56K Travel Modem # 221 (6)
<<<Eric Lindsay: Does anyone know if I can use my Psion InfraRed 56K Travel Modem with my Windows 98 laptop?....I have no manual or driver disk.....Couldn't locate drivers on the Psion site, nor a copy of the manual (if there ever was one).>>> Not sure I know the answer for sure as the manual does not mention using it with a PC but I think it does as I know it worked with Wince machines. Yes it does come with a manual and a floppy disk with "easySwitch" utilities on it, not drivers I think it has something to do with configuring for different countries. As you can tell I never used it and don't have a PC, otherwise I would happily Burn you a copy, maybe someonelse can help you, if you do want it and no-one else can help I can see if I can find a way of doing it, though its not much use I think, and the manual which looks nice and glossy is not very enlightening either no mention of drivers or use with a PC.
While on the subject I have a brand new boxed Psion IR modem for sale (brought it 2 years ago at same time as a 7 and gold card and never used it, had to return a defective one and replaced with the latest version with the new chip in) with Manual and floppy, I would prefer to sell it with a brand-new unused Psion Revo+ leather case and spare stylus (much appreciate having won it at epocChat but never used it as the 5mx and netbook have all the bases covered and I like having replaceable AA battery option, never really got to grips with it, though maybe didn't try hard enough as I liked the 5mx and backlight too much) If anyone is interested please contact me off digest.
Kind Regards
Mark
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Date: 6 Apr 2003 09:45:33 +0000
From: Epoc Digest
Subject: Digest posting
To : stom
Dear Sir,
Since 25/03/2003 the Epoc Digest sent to your email address has been rejected several times now with the reason:
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We had no other option but to delete you from the list of subscribers.
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To: berntrostrom
Dear Sir,
Since digest no. 220 the Digest has been returned to us with reason "account has been disabled or discontinued" and we had no other option but to temporarily unsubscribe you for one week. We hope you will read this from another source and solve this problem.
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Epoc Digest Team
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