Epocdigest V1 # 518

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Epoc Digest Thu, 06 May 2004 Volume 01 : Number 518

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Sent to: 780 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 12 messages:

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- Re: Program quality

- Re: Macro Question

- OPXs, ER5 only

- Richy's Sketch Uncertainty Principle

- Alarm+ & CronTab, Calibrating accuracy,

- Ibattery

- #517 screen calibration

- Cisco Aironet Wireless

- slightly OT cell phone curiosity

- Mobile access in Texas - the solution

- FW: Cisco Aironet Wireless

- Safer backup method

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Date: 5 May 2004 03:25:01 -0500

From: Dick Chatjaval

Subject: Re: Program quality

Hello Antony

>>If it is written well, it will work perfectly and will not interfere with the functionality and stability of the system.<<

Thanks very much for your explanation of what it takes to write a good program. As a non-programmer, I appreciate more now the complications of writing good software, especially without crashing the o/s while running it.

>>Microsoft own so much of Apple that they are effectively Microsoft anyway<<

I tried to go the Apple way a few years back, buying both a blue G3 tower

for myself and iBook for my wife. We had so many problems with screen

hangs, programs freezing that I had to buy a Mac Bible to try sort things out. We are now back to using Windows (xp). My laptop is a Sony Vaio v505 series and usually hibernate rather than shutdown. Restarting takes 5

seconds. It has never hung on me. I bought a bigger battery which gives me

5 1/2 - 6 hours. Along with my S7, it is the best computer I have bought.

Best regards,

Dick Chatjaval

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Date: 5 May 2004 09:17:27 -0500

From: Jack

Subject: Re: Macro Question

To: Andy Hayes

>>>"Would it be possible to write a macro that closed all of the open applications down except for the application that called the macro?"<<<

Re:

A KillTasks macro already exists (thanks forever Pascal Nicolas)

Jack

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Date: 5 May 2004 10:17:42 -0500

From: Phil Aypee

Subject: OPXs, ER5 only

Hi Folks,

All that Martin Maxwell said made sense, but I only have Psion 5mxs (apart from my SIBO machines).

I was referring to programs that simply refuse to run if any other than a *specific* OPX version is installed, (I think it's usually been sysinfo1.opx, sysram1.opx or systinfo.opx). I have actually tried installing an old OPX, after backing up the current one, and the errant program runs. I've done this with several programs but then a more useful, and probably better written, program fails because the old OPX doesn't have a function it calls.

So I ditch any program for my 5mxs that needs an older OPX!

Happy days,

Phil.

"A zygote is a gamete's way of producing more gametes.

This may be the purpose of the universe."

Try http://www.aypee2.net if you dare.

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

Date: 5 May 2004 10:57:54 -0500

From: vlad a

Subject: Richy's Sketch Uncertainty Principle

&wrote on 5.5.2004 5:59 Uhr:

> Sketch & touchscreen weirdness

Dear Richy,

lol!

I tried your play. I tried it with two touchpens (a finger is not a very precise tool).

What Sketch seems to do if you touch two points simltaneously (I would guess it would be interesting to add a third ;-) is: Sketch seems to build an average position and reacts apparently erratically. It seems to me to be switching with its processor tact frequency between the limits of a small imprecision when you move one of the touchpens (if it had two processors or at least a faster one, you would trace a straight line I suppose: a computer is a discrete apparatus, if I understand processing correctly). If you remove one of them, it will end the path towards the remaining one as expected. What is curious is that it sometimes, as soon as you apply the 2nd pen, surges from the origin (the 1st pen applied) in a direction crossing the imaginary line between the two pens, then wavers a bit somewhere in the middle. The same applies to Doodler and other draw programmes.

I always said: the Psion lives ;-)

Thanks, it was fun! Anyone a technical explanation, I wonder?

best,

vlad a

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Date: 5 May 2004 13:09:30 -0500

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Alarm+ & CronTab, Calibrating accuracy,

Answer to: Phil Aypee

Re.: Alarm+ & CronTab - Well, my solution was to disable Alarm+. I hardly use alarma anyhow while the other functions of Alarm+ are equally well handled by other programs.

Answer to: Richard

Re.: Calibrating accuracy - I tried it on my mBook and it worked as perfect as my hand is steady <G>. As to your second message, what are you trying to tell us, just an interesting occurance to play around with or a problem ?

Best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

London, UK

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

Date: 5 May 2004 19:43:01 -0500

From: Fotograf Anders Henriksen

Subject: Ibattery

I have got my new Mbook configured to suit my needs, and I downloaded "Ibattery" to test.

Finding it covering my needs I paid 13$ via Reg.Net for a licence. However, I have not received my code. I have tried to contact the author on the adresses mentioned on Reg.Net's pages. Mailes are bounced, webpage nonexisting.

Anybody out there knowing if the author i still in business?

anders henriksen

59.55 N, 10.45 E

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

Date: 5 May 2004 22:07:55 -0500

From: Kate Head

Subject: #517 screen calibration

>>Date: 4 May 2004 11:29:41 -0500

>>From: Richard >>Subject: Calibrating accuracy

>>Dear Chums,

>>I can never get my screen to calibrate 100% accurately. (It's fine for everyday use, but if accuracy to the nearest 2mm was important, >>then I would be in trouble. How accurate does your touchscreen get?) >>Strangely, I can't seem to get the screen calibration to compensate for an occasional 2mm drift to the left.

>>Do screens gently lapse into mis-calibration, or is there a sudden change? >>Yours inquisitively,

>>RiCo

Hi there,

My netBook has a tendency to "drift" (to the right) if there's been any change in temperature - if I tap on System, I get Mail, and Control Panel gives me Web; which means that I can't get Mail to work from the screen.Sometimes just recalibrating once or twice works, but recently I've had to "restore factory settings" and then done another recalibrate which seems to work for a time.

I was wondering if it was due to the age of the netBook?

All the best,

Kate!!

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

Date: 6 May 2004 01:57:24 -0500

From: Bob

Subject: Cisco Aironet Wireless

I saw on the Digest the other day one of the group talking about using a Cisco wireless card to connect to the web. I have a D-link card and am trying to figure it out. Not sure, but trying. I think the person said that a Cisco card plugs right in and works. If this is so is it one of the ones that is shown in the set up on my Netbook for Ethernet connections???? Does anyone know if the D-Link cards work, and if so maybe the setup stuff if you have it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

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

Date: 6 May 2004 08:09:13 -0500

From: Studio 70

Subject: slightly OT cell phone curiosity

Hi Folks

My wife and I have identical Nokia 6100 phones set up in Australia with Vodaphone. They are travelling with us currently in the UK via a "roaming" option initiated in Aus before we left home. throughout Germany and Scandia we both picked up the same service providor as we moved from area to area here in the UK starting from when we arived in Newcastle, both (travelling about a metre apart) have each picked up a different service providor here in London I'm on 02-UK and she is on Orange. ... Why is it so? any ideas out there? TIA

Bob

PS Any perceived spelling errors are just the "australian way"<G>

Bob+Loris Hancock

USUALLY

beside sunny Currumbin Beach

on the Gold Coast of Queensland AUS

now in rather coolish London

you are welcome to visit at http://www.lorishancock.com

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

Date: 6 May 2004 13:44:50 -0500

From: Thomas F. VAN DER ZIJDEN

Subject: Mobile access in Texas - the solution

Hello group,

Well, I took the plunge and I went into a T-Mobile shop. Weird. A SIM card costs $ 50 to activate and you can get either a Nokia and 60 minutes included in the deal or no phone, but 120 minutes airtime. I took the latter. Booh, hisss... but I already got the R380, so airtime minutes are more useful now. :-)

I needed to have a prepaid, because I do not yet have a fixed address, nor a bank account.

$ 50 is disgusting, but my Dutch chip was also quite expensive.

What I also don't like is that -even in my home area- I get charged when someone calls *me*.

"Airtime" they call it.

It seems by the way that a mobile phone is still a luxury product in America. There are far less Americans with cell phones than Europeans.

I can imagine this, because this "airtime" principle makes cell phones a very expensive alternative to normal phones.

As for the internet access: the Inn where I stay provides WLAN access for $9.95 per day (glup !), but they have left POP3 and SMTP open ! Isn't that nice ? :-)

The mBook works very nicely with it.

However, I don't even know if I could buy access with my Amex. I can go onto the signup page, but I need a lot of tampering with Opera 3, Opera 5. I also need to look up the HTML source code to manually enter the necessary URL's.

The modern WLAN inscription processes are apparently not designed for Opera, but only for IE.

Yours truly,

Thomas van der Zijden

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

Date: 6 May 2004 17:55:02 -0500

From: Bob

Subject: FW: Cisco Aironet Wireless

I sent this to myself, so I thought to get an answer, I had better get this to the Digest. :o)

Let me ask one more question too please. I saw on one of the Psion sites talking about configuring the Netbook for cards. I have a CD with my D-Link and I think that you get a CD with most of them to help with the set up. Since you can't use the card in our Psions, what do you use to get the configuration requirements for the Netbook. I already have my router and all that set up and it does work with a regular laptop. Just need the help on my Netbook as there are not many instructions that I can find. If someone has this kind of info, maybe they can email it to me off the Digest.

Thanks,

Bob

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

Date: 6 May 2004 20:14:21 -0500

From: Moshe Nahir

Subject: Safer backup method

Hi All,

As it looks like I have to reformat Drive A (perhaps also my CF) on my 5mx, I wonder if it has been tested and/or established which is a safer method of backing up (i.e., will restore more of the original codes, registrations, configurations, etc.) - a traditional backup to the PC or copying Drive A to a CF. Also, when restoring from a PC after reformatting, is it better to do a complete 'restore' or to copy folders manually from the backup folder on the PC to Drive A on the 5mx?