Epocdigest V1 # 338

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Epoc Digest Sun, 14 Sep 2003 Volume 01 : Number 338

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Sent to: 795 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 14 messages:

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

- Re: Owen - Cable failure

- Restoring too much

- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 337

- More about the netBook Pro, S3c to S5mx....

- Re: TubeRoute in Scotland

- Re: Taxation... - to Jaan

- Re: Phone Rant

- Thanks Itamar!

- Re: TubeRoute

- Sony's Hot Crossover PDA

- Re: crash

- Re: Owen - Cable failure

- phoneman pro

- Phone rant - Revo rules!, Word wrap and Database, Different databases on Psion,

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

Date: 12 Sep 2003 14:57:37 +0000

From: Andrew Sinclair

Subject: Re: Owen - Cable failure

>So, Owen, are you saying that the people from POS repair centre believe >that flexing the cable makes it harden?! If they ARE saying that, >could you ask 'em how that could be? Thanx!

Flexing metals does lead to what is called work hardening which makes the metal brittle and more likely to break. I have seen this appear in the solid copper connection links of power plant generators that are susceptible to vibration (but this is long term vibration when operational at 50 or 60 Hz and not the once or twice we have opening up our Psions).

To demonstrate this you can take a wire coathanger and flex it backwards and forwards and eventually it will suffer a brittle failure and break, this is exactly what happens to ribbon cables and conductors that are subject to flexing. However, unless you open and close the Psion every minute I find it hard to believe that work hardening of the copper conductors in the ribbon cable would lead to failure at the speed we see (my repaired 5 is showing signs of cable failure only 10 months after it was repaired). The cable design is flawed and replacing it with the same design won't improve matters. Isn't there a German outfit that sells a modified cable that is supposed to get round the problem?

Happy weekend everyone!

Andy

Andrew SINCLAIR, andrew.sinclair

Operations and Engineering,

International Power plc.

Tel: +44 (0)1793 441 842 Fax: +44 (0)1793 441 605

Mobile: +44 (0)7989 492 518 Web: http://www.ipplc.com

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

Date: 12 Sep 2003 16:04:21 +0000

From: Philip Carlisle

Subject: Restoring too much

Hi everyone

This is a very late response to a correspondent complaining that restoring from PsiWin gave back too many old files. Sorry I cannot remember who asked, but I remember this was discussed about , what, 9-10 months or so ago.

As I remember the consensus was to -

a. Restrict the number of archive folders created by PsiWin as more folders means more aged files

b. Remove the main backed up folder to elsewhere on the PC's drive. The result is that the next back up will be a complete fresh one. The disadvantage is the time the back up will take, the advantage is that each back up is only of the latest state of the Psion file structure.

Dear Rolf

Thanks for the insight. Guess I'll just cross my fingers and hope for no repeat. at least, I'll have an effective restore option (see above) if the problem comes back!

Regards to all

Philip Carlisle

London

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

Date: 12 Sep 2003 19:26:33 +0000

From: vlad a

Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 337

> Epoc Digest wrote:

> recover the card and preferably the data?

Essential Disk Utilities: CheckDisk. Unfortunately shareware, from Atelier - which afaik is not among us anymore.

best,

vlad

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

Date: 12 Sep 2003 21:11:19 +0000

From: Martin Maxwell

Subject: More about the netBook Pro, S3c to S5mx....

Answer to: Trygve Henriksen

Subject: More about the netBook Pro, S3c to S5mx....

Hej Trygve!

>>>But what the users want is a netBook Pro WITH drivers for the new hardware, right? Drivers that exists in Symbian V7.0?

Why not a model with V7.0, but with the familiar Eikon UI on top?<<<

Our research indicates that the most interesting option would be to use Symbian OS 7.0 and a UI based on UIQ on top of it. We have given this UI the working name UIn (User Interface netBook). UIn would have a familiarity with *both* UIQ and Eikon. There are four key reasons to go along this path:

1. It would minimise the need for additional development and maximise commonality with future migration paths.

2. It would make it easy to leverage on UIQ application development. Applications developed for UIQ could be ported with very little effort.

3. Even though Eikon is still used internally by Symbian to test new versions of the OS as well as in the application development environment (TechView), there is no active development on Eikon itself. UIQ on the other hand has an active development team already. In addition UIQ is owned by Symbian through a fully owned subsidiary. Thus no licencing issues as would be the case if we had decided to base the UI on the Series 80.

4. UIQ and Eikon are actually not very far apart. The UIQ has an application bar and an application picker as icons. It also has an active status bar. This is *perfect* for the netBook Pro because the netBook Pro does *not* have any silkscreen buttons. Take a P800 and put it next to a netBook or an S7. Tilt the P800 90 degrees to the right so that it's screen is now landscape. Compare!

>>>Only if they plan to add anything not already IN the new machine.

(The HW is supposedly already compatible with V7.0)<<<

That is true!

>>>Any OS (with the exception of Linux or Aros, of course) costs.

I don't know what Symbian take, though.<<<

Unfortunately quite high since the Symbian licencing scheme is customised for consumer mass market volumes.

Hopefully Symbian will recognise the strategic impact and come up with another licencing scheme suitable for low volume but higher margin devices.

>>>Spit in one hand and wish in the other, then see which one you get the most in....

I'm afraid that I must agree with you on that point. Unless PT feel VERY certain to get a whole lot of repeat orders they're unlikely to take the bait on the first order.

And with the PDA market as it is, those orders are not very likely to appear in large enough numbers.<<<

On the contrary, I think there would be a strong demand for a Symbian OS netBook Pro in the enterprise market for a number of reasons.

Greetings

Martin

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

Date: 12 Sep 2003 22:52:39 +0000

From: Astrid Stappenbeck

Subject: Re: TubeRoute in Scotland

Hi Colin,

>> Users are free (and encouraged!) to make their own database & map for their own countries, although sadly no-one has sent me any yet... <<

> Chris,

You have Scotland's complete underground system! So another country is covered in one respect. I am mortified that my efforts have been so casually dismissed. ;-) <

Scotland's complete underground system? Are we talking here about the Clockwork Orange? Then at least I am really impressed - how did you manage this this gigantic project all on your own? ;-)

with my highest admiration

Astrid

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

Date: 12 Sep 2003 22:52:41 +0000

From: Astrid Stappenbeck

Subject: Re: Taxation... - to Jaan

Hi Jaan,

>> Keith Giles wrote:

Thought For The Day: Ever wonder if taxation without representation might have been cheaper? (Perhaps only significant to US readers.) <<

> I am sorry but I do not find this funny ...

Anyway this message is not appropriate for the group. I wasnt aware this was a political group I thought this was about PSION's and epoc devices. <

I know that opinions on Thoughts For The Day are divided but these comments don't take up much space and I for one rather enjoy the little off topic banter that occasionally derives from them.

I would rather have it that all contributers to this digest went through the little trouble of editing their messages and were not just hitting the 'Reply' button and thereby quoting a lot of irrelevant stuff - and taking up lots of space.

Just my 2c

Astrid

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

Date: 12 Sep 2003 23:40:27 +0000

From: Carlos Rodriguez

Subject: Re: Phone Rant

>Date: 12 Sep 2003 06:08:46 +0000

From: Marcus von Cube Subject: Re: Phone Rant

>Hallo Carlos,

>do you still have your 6310i or did you have to return the device to your company? As it works well with our Psions, why not keep it? There is no need to get a new phone with a new contract, I believe you can get a discount on your contract, if you do not get a new handset from your network operator.

>BTW, wo in Deutschland?

>Marcus

Hi Marcus,

you're right, the 6310i worked very well. Unfortunately, I will have to return it. In the meantime, I was tempted by the, IMHO, much more modern look & feel of the Sharp GX10 by Vodafone. Vodafone claims that the Revo work well with this phone, and have included it in their "PDA Konfigurator" (on www.vodafone.de). Turns out, it ain't so easy. At first go, when I tried to transfer my phone numbers from the Revo Phone function on to the SIM card, the last letters of the entry (name) were cut off. So I thought the phone only supports a limited number of characters. Then I put the new SIM card back into the 6310i, and all entries were sent from the Revo without a problem. I then put the SIM card, now with my new phone book on it, back into the Sharp, and yes, all the entries were there, in full length. I then changed an entry on the Revo Phone, updated the entries, and the new entry was again cut off, but the old ones still ok. I can still add characters manually on the Sharp entry, though! Why doesn't it work properly with the Revo, then??? I'm still experimenting...

The IR connection, furthermore, doesn't always "take" at first go. I get a time-out error ("Zeitlimit überschritten") a number of times before it finally works. It seems that the Sharp IR doesn't quite work the same way as the Nokia.

Further, I still haven't got my email configuration straight. It works from the Nokia (with the new SIM card) but not (yet) with the Sharp. I hope there's something in the Revo Modems settings I need to change to make it work. If not, it's going to be huge disappointment.

Ich lebe übrigens in Frankfurt.

Ciao

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

Date: 13 Sep 2003 01:55:04 +0000

From: Gary Jenkinson

Subject: Thanks Itamar!

After reading that bit of Itmar’s post in EPOC Digest 336, which said “I

would like a light, small, easy PDA to carry with me in a pocket (shirt or

jacket) when going out, visiting friends, theatre, etc. to carry my diary

and contacts with me” it made me look very hard and objectively at my own IT

needs, i.e. what was I really looking for from a PDA, sorry handheld

computer!?

For some time now I've been fretting about making the final break away from

using a Psion. I started this process off by buying and using a JVC MP-XP

7230 Mini Notebook in those situations that I used my netBook, i.e. mainly

for taking University lecture notes. This machine has the same form factor

as my netBook, so it's ideal as regards size, and I have the advantage that

I've done away with any compatibility problems as it runs M/$ Win XP Pro,

and M/$ Office XP Pro. Battery life, storage space and speed aren't any

problems because it has a P3 mobile 933Mhz processor, a 30GB HDD and two

extended batteries that gives me at least 10 hours use when combined with

the in-built one. It has an on-board WiFi, so I can synchronise my files

effortlessly with my networked 8lb! Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop that also has

on-board WiFi.

However, because I was carrying the JVC about meant I stopped taking the

netBook with me when I left home and, believe it or not, I reverted to pen

and paper for my To Do list and time specific events during the day. I did

continue though to use my netBook indoors for agenda and contacts.

This was becoming farcical, and I knew I had to do something, but what? Not

only did I think that I wouldn't be able to do without the features of my

netBook, but also for sentimental reasons after years of using Psions I

didn't want to make the break from the comforting familiarity of my netBook.

Then I read Itmar's post and it made me realise for at least the last couple

of years I'd only been using my netBook for its agenda and contacts

applications, and now that I didn't even carry it with me outside any more,

I realised I only needed a PDA which was light and small to carry about in

addition to my JVC which provided these functions.

Also I surmised I didn't need to concern myself with compatibility issues as

it was unlikely I'd need this facility if I used a PDA replacement as a

standalone machine just like I'd been using my netBook.

So, as a long time user of Dell computers, I bought myself today a Dell Axim

Wireless handheld. FOR LESS THAN HALF THE PRICE OF A NEW NETBOOK (£427 inc

shipping) I bought the handheld, which comes with a cradle and WiFi card

(just in case I did need to synchronise), plus the following extras, a

folding keyboard, second rechargeable battery, additional synch and charging

cable, 3 extra stylus', additional 2nd year warranty, and all with a free

64MB flash card thrown in for good measure. It runs the latest version of

(dare I say it on an EPOC news group!) Pocket PC 2003, which includes

cut-down versions of M/$ Office. For the money I thought this was pretty

good value.

Therefore as a consequence of sorting out my IT needs I have a redundant

netBook for sale which I thought I'd offer to the Digest readers first

before I advertised it elsewhere.

Please contact me off Digest with any offers for the following, either for

an individual item, or for the whole lot:

netBook complete and boxed - Excellent condition

32MB RAM expansion card

Psion Docking Station

JaGA Leather Zipped Case

Rechargeable Battery

Psion Gold Card WAN Global PC card - 56K + Fax + Cable

Spare cable for above

Psion Travel Modem

2 x Spare AC Mains adaptors

Car AC adaptor

3 Spare PsiWin cables

Siemens Pocket Reader Hand Scanner

2 chrome Proporta styli

Pack of 3 (unused) Psion styli

Virtually every Palmtop/TomTom programme

Plus many more commercial & registered shareware programmes (Just ask, I'm

fairly sure I'll have it, e.g. Powerbase, Sim City, all the Collins Foreign

Language Dictionaries, Dream Connect, nConvert, Backup, Pdf+, Terra Force,

TomeRaider, Plan (Project Management), 20 Pocket Manager titles,

Calligrapher, Pocket Bible (Got NIV & KJV), Golf Pro, PhoneMan, Presentation

Maker, Con5Pro, etc, etc!

All the above items are in as new condition and complete, i.e. I have all

parts, instruction/installation guides and boxes, where appropriate.

Regards,

Gary Jenkinson

email: garyjenkinson AT email DOT com

Tel/Fax/Ansaphone: +44 (0) 2476 361242

Mobile: +44 (0) 7771 635764

Pager: +44 (0) 766 891712

Post: 10 Vinecote Road

Coventry

CV6 6EA

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

Date: 13 Sep 2003 07:48:42 +0000

From: Chris S Handley

Subject: Re: TubeRoute

Hi Colin,

> Chris,

> You have Scotland's complete underground system!

Do you mean the Glasgow Circle line, which is just 15 stations in a circle? :-)

> I live to the west of the end of the District line and have

> added bus routes and overland routes around Twickenham that

> link with existing train stations. For example the

> Feltham-Heathrow rail-air service. Works for me.

The Circle line, with some additional bus routes, might start to be useful, and prompt other people to extend it further - if you gave me it...

Regards,

Chris Handley

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

Date: 13 Sep 2003 08:40:11 +0000

From: J

Subject: Sony's Hot Crossover PDA

Pls find below that latest on the Sony Clié PEG-UX50 also see "Stuff and T3 Mags" for mini preview.

Sony's Hot Crossover PDA August 11, 2003

Street price: $700

Requires: Pentium II/400 equivalent processor or better (PIII/500 recommended); 96MB RAM (128MB recommended); 200MB hard drive space (350MB recommended); Microsoft Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000 Professional, or XP

www.sony.com/handheld

Once again, Sony makes us reconsider what PDAs are all about. The Clié PEG-UX50 ($700 street), billed not as a PDA but as a PEO (personal entertainment organizer), combines a digital camera, an MP3 player, a thumb-style keyboard, and two flavors of wireless connectivity for entertainment and communications. The landscape screen—which makes the unit look like a doll-size laptop—really shows off Sony's superior interface for the Palm OS.

Yet even with all its features and software, the question is: Should you spend $700 for a personal entertainment device? We vote yes.

Sony packs the UX50 with productivity, PIM, and entertainment software, with accompanying desktop software for data conversion and editing. We particularly like the PDA's—er, PEO's—image viewing and editing software, Clié Viewer. The utility displays both image and video files with accompanying photo-editing and photo-album software.

The 480-by-320 (also known as half-VGA) color TFT display proves quite good for viewing Web content using the included NetFront 3.0 browser.

With the screen up, you can use the keyboard in the unit's miniature laptop configuration, or you can swivel the screen 180 degrees and fold it flat against the keyboard for PDA functions that don't require typing.

Control keys along the edge of the case work well in either configuration. And despite the keyboard (and camera), the clamshell case weighs just 6 ounces (other Cliés top 10 ounces) and measures 0.7 by 4.1 by 3.4 inches—easily fitting in a pocket or bag.

The integrated wireless works well—connecting to the Internet over our home wireless network using the UX50's 802.11b adapter took only three taps.

And Sony's Bluetooth manager, which makes the built-in Bluetooth reasonably simple to use (given that technology's realities), comes with presets for connecting to leading Bluetooth-enabled phones.

The on-board camera is easy to use. The lens, which is built into the hinge, swivels freely for capturing images in front and in back of the PDA. Resolution is only 640-by-480 (about a third of a megapixel) though, so don't expect to print or enlarge photos.

The UX50 uses Sony's new proprietary CXD2230GA Handheld Engine PDA processor and chipset and includes nonvolatile memory for data backup should the battery run down completely. In all, there is 104MB of onboard memory including 16MB available for backup, 16MB for user files and programs, and 29MB reserved for multimedia files.

As with Cliés before it, the UX50 has raised the bar for all PDAs—both Palm OS and Pocket PC—in terms of features, connectivity, and multimedia applications. It's not cheap, but being in a class by yourself lets you command a premium.

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

Date: 13 Sep 2003 09:05:42 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: crash

Howdy!

Ealasaid and Simon wrote (> ):

> I'm also still slightly confused that the modem

> could freeze the computers -is it really possible?

Your e-mail problem sounds more like EPOC Email has gone batty, something I have experienced a couple of times. I think it happens if the line goes down at exactly the wrong moment whilst you're getting your e-mails. The last time this happened, Email would crash everytime the total number of e-mails in all folders rose above a fixed numer (around 80 in my case). I assume the Index file was corrupted, but the problem only occurred when it tried to use more than a certain number of records.The cure is:

A: Make a backup copy of the \System\Mail folder to a different location on your Psion in case you mess up.

B: Delete the \System\Mail\Index file

C: Create a new empty TEXT file named "\System\Mail\Index" (Use the EPOC editor, or if you haven't got that, export to text from an empty Word document. If you use Word, you won't be able to save the file direct to the \System\Mail\ folder, so you'll have to save it somewhere else and move it to \System\Mail\.)

D: Open the Email application. (This may take some time, as it has to recreate the Index file. You may also find that some old e-mails you deleted long ago magically re-appear.)

E: Make sure you create a new e-mail and save it as draft before you close the e-mail application after the index file has been recreated.

If this doesn't help, you may be correct in assuming there's something wrong with your modem.

Owen

Thought for the day:

I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.

- Joe Walsh

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-953°27.22'N 6°09.05'W

Malahide, Ireland

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Ireland: +353 (0)87 7474173

In Norway: +47 9205309

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

Date: 13 Sep 2003 09:05:59 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Owen - Cable failure

Howdy!

Buzzjazz wrote (> ):

(Don't you have a name?)

> So, Owen, are you saying that the people from POS

> repair centre believe that flexing the cable makes

> it harden?! If they ARE saying that, could you

> ask 'em how that could be? Thanx!

No, if you read the post, you'll see that I said no such thing. Malcolm told us in his first ever post (welcome! :o) that this is what POS said, and I quoted him.

What I said in my reply was:

BULLSHIT!

And I stand by my words.

Owen

Thought for the day:

Is this bullshit or fertilizer?

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-942°07.33'N 8°50.54'W

Bayona, Spain

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Spain: +34 620520079

In Norway: +47 92053097

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

Date: 13 Sep 2003 13:34:26 +0000

From: Gianluca Gallino

Subject: phoneman pro

Dear All,

1) I've recently upgraded my Phoneman PRO with the latest release available on the Zenobyte site.

Unfortunately, it seems to me that I have lost much functionality if compared an old, previous version i was using.

for istance, I cannot change "basic gsm phone" and even set the clock of my t68i.

there is probably something i am doing wrong... has anybody any hint for this?

2) here is a question I am posting on behalf of a friend of mine, who is a happy user of a 9210i and a 6310i.

He has got two sim cards and would like to organize the phone numbers and contacts included into them in a easy way from one of his mobiles.

Does anybody know how to use a 9210i (or a 6310i) as a sim card manager?

I thought that Phoneman might be a good solution, but I have just found that there is not a version for the 9210i.

Does anybody happen to have a hint?

Gianluca Gallino AKA Cangiante

(this mail was written on the email app on his netBook and sent via the cheapest mobile ISP thanks to SMTPauth java program)

NB: please keep on supporting the petition for an EPOC/Symbian new netBook PRO on www.petitiononline.com/nbookpro/petition.html

(1619 endorsers at time of writing and the number keeps on growing steadily;-)

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

Date: 13 Sep 2003 23:54:04 +0000

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Phone rant - Revo rules!, Word wrap and Database, Different databases on Psion,

Answer to: Carlos Rodriguez

Re.: Phone rant - Revo rules! - If size is your main matter than I would advise you to stick with the 6310i. It is a "work horse" and will work without problems. There are more Nokia phones that will do the same for you and the settings should not be different. The 7210 or 7250 is also a good one. My T610 is indeed small and I don't need the camera either, but otherwise it is a good phone with colour screen and polyphonic sounds.

Answer to: Christopher Holly

Re. Word wrap and Database - Could you not use the "export to text file", enter it into a WORD file and print it from there ?

Answer to: U Hornstein

Re. Different databases on Psion - Once I moved the email addresses to Contacts from my DATA files I don't update the DATA files anymore with email addresses. I keep email addresses _only_ in Contacts and the other details _only_ in DATA. When I treavel for work I use my S7 to receive my office emails sent on with an Outlook rule from the office and answer clients as well. With the S7 email program it is easy enough to send email answers with the email address from work mentioned so clients don't even know I am not in the office. What does ContactsPlus add to the Contacts program ?