Epocdigest V1 # 543

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tips for Posting to the Digest and how to unsubscribe

at the end of the Digest

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Epoc Digest Fri, 18 Jun 2004 Volume 01 : Number 543

************************************************************************

Sent to: 776 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 17 messages:

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

- Re: Farewell Screen

- Re: Li-Ion batts

- Re: Grand-Rapid

- Movies on the netBook

- NBook restore/Moonclock

- Accessing PayPal via 5mx or MC218

- RE: Opera vs. Web

- Re: Mail Archiving

- Revo,

- Mail Archiving, Fonts, Auto soft reset on Nbook, maximum number offolders,

- Sitashop

- Re: Grand-Rapid Browser

- Cyclone drive

- Re: Farewell screen?

- Symbian virus

- Re: Li-Ion batts

- Re: Revo

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 11:33:42 +0700

From: Paul Wright

Subject: Re: Farewell Screen

Keith

Your symptoms sound like your flexi is on the way out. Hopefully I can help you out (as I already have with nearly 500 other Psion lovers!!). Have a look at my web site www.psionflexi.co.uk it should help you to 'love' your Psion again! Paul

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 12:05:10 +0700

From: Ian Chapple

Subject: Re: Li-Ion batts

Richard,

>>You wrote that you had a netBook and a Psion7: I've read a couple of websites that Li-Ion batteries die after 2-3 years if stored empty, and that it's worth occassionally using the battery. (I also seem to remember reading that Li-Ion batteries die after 2-3 years regardless of use.

Anyway, if your netBook battery sits there empty, it might be worth giving it a bit of juice every now & then.<<

I wasn't aware of that, so I'll give my 7 a quick charge tonight...

Cheers, Ian.

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 13:25:46 +0700

From: King Midas

Subject: Re: Grand-Rapid

To: Christopher Holly

ED> Has anyone used Grand-Rapid as their web browser on a netBook? I ED> think I have lots of memory to run it. Does it work well with the ED> Java runtime environment for EPOC 32? Which version do you use?

Yes it works perfectly on my netBook. I find it even better than Opera. You can try it by yourself, http://www.mypsion.ru/soft/1656/grandrapid.zip

Best regards,

King Midas

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 13:36:09 +0700

From: Colin Messer

Subject: Movies on the netBook

It must be a year since Phil Gouch documented how to play Video/Movies on Psions. Intending to try at some time I bookmarked the site, then a couple of weeks ago, by chance, I revisited his site and noticed that his request for information about how Movies perform on Series 7s, netBooks etc was still on the site.

So I Installed the Java Media Framework and downloaded Phil Gouch's example Scream.qt. It all works great though the sample movie file Scream.qt is 2MB and lasts just 2 minutes.

Phil's sample for the 5mx was created with the following characteristics:

- Bit rate 8MHz

- Sound 8 bit mono

- Frame Rate 5 frames per second

- Cinepack compression

The file loaded in 2 seconds, the sound was understandable, 5fps gives a strobe effect and the images have a low resolution.

Time to make a movie file myself.

Phil used Quicktime Pro on a Mac to convert to quicktime format. I don't have a Mac and didn't want to pay for Quicktime Pro, so I looked for a freeware multimedia converter. After a few false starts I found RADTools which converts to quicktime format when Quicktime is installed.

I found some *.MOV files on www.thosedarnaccordians.com (serendipity)

All the movies I prepared appeared to have higher resolution and larger file sizes. I don't know how Phil achieved a lower resolution.

Changing the characteristics gave the following results

- Bit rate from 8MHz to 11.5Mhz - jerky, frames dropped. I stuck with 8MHz.

- Sound 16 bit mono - no appreciable improvement. I stuck with 8 bit mono.

- Frame Rate from 5fps to 10fps - Much improved viewing experience but the size of the movie is doubled.

- Cinepack compression - I didn't change this feature.

My longest movie lasts for 3 minutes and is 8.4MHz in size. I would like to experiment with other formats, characteristics etc and wondered if anyone on the digest could share their experience.

What conversion software did you use?

What settings worked best for you?

Can you increase the volume?

Where can you download movies from?

Regards

Colin Messer

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 13:46:29 +0700

From: Philip Carlisle

Subject: NBook restore/Moonclock

To: Marcus von Cube

You described how the hard reset/reboot functions for the NBook, and you recommended a format of the C drive on restoration. Thanks very much for answering my question so clearly and comprehensively.

To: Keith Giles

As Treebeard would have said, I've been 'too hasty'. Must read messages more carefully. I do have Moonclock on my 5mx, and I agree that it is a neat little application - that's why I was looking to putting it onto the NBook. That will be my next task.

To everybody:

Isn't it nice to amongst a group of such helpful people?

Kindest regards to all

Philip Carlisle

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 15:20:32 +0700

From: "Giorgio O."

Subject: Accessing PayPal via 5mx or MC218

Dear friends,

I would frequently need to access www.paypal.com via my 5mx or MC218 and

I noticed this being impossible via the browsers originally present in these

machines.

Anybody having solved this problem ?

How?

Many thanks

Ciao

:-)

Giorgio Odazio

Rome, Italy

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 19:45:18 +0700

From: Bob

Subject: RE: Opera vs. Web

I have used both on my 5mx and Opera is better for secure sites and has some advantages over web and in some cases Web will do some things that Opear won't do. It would be nice if Web was on the Series 7 or Netbook as an alternative browser.

Thanks,

Bobbyr

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 20:45:27 +0700

From: Steve Hodgson

Subject: Re: Mail Archiving

ED> Why bother trying it using the facilities on the Psion, ED> unless you can only rarely get at your email from a ED> computer with mass storage space.

ED> When receiving email on your Psion, do NOT MOVE your email to ED> the Psion, just COPY relevant items to the Psion, so

ED> the original is still on the mail server ready to be

ED> collected when you are next online using The Bat.

ED> When sending email from the Psion, email yourself a carbon ED> copy. True, it will waste some access time, and it

ED> will show up in your received mail headers. Then when you ED> next use The Bat, you have a copy of all your Sent email

ED> ready to download for archiving. Also, it gives you complete ED> off-site backup until you get to your PC again. No

ED> conversions of any sort are required doing it this way.

ED> Should work with any computer system also, whether you

ED> are using Windows, Linux or Macintosh.

Eric,

A good plan, and one that I always partially adopted. I always left mail on the server when receiving mail on the Psion. I have tried a few email clients and operating systems in the last few years and it was always useful to have one client that functions as the main archive. The only time I broke this policy was when I was using BeOS long-term and thought that was the future. In the end I was able to transfer all these mails into The Bat.

My problem with the Psion only really concerns sent mail. Your suggestion of sending a copy to myself would be a good one but at the time I never realised I would ever have to transfer it. At the time I started using the Psion I never appreciated that there would come a

day when the machine was basically obsolete. Okay it works, but

no-one can deny things are starting to look primitive in some areas:

no USB connectivity (poor Mac users having to work around this all

over the place), no bluetooth, limited wireless networking, loss of application developers, Java apps only with a struggle,

synchronisation can be ropey, no Mac or Linux synchronisation, can't brew a decent cup of tea etc.

As an aside, I can almost hear the responses already - it's fast,

it's stable, Word is better then anything on PocketPC or Palm, object embodiment has never been used by anyone else, nor has CopyAnywhere, EPOC has proper multitasking unlike Palm.

Is there any way to synchronise sent mail to Outlook, so that it can

be transferred to a PC that way and would still exist as a 'proper' mail message rather than a PDF or data file?

Regards,

Steve Hodgson

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 21:43:50 +0700

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Revo,

Answer to: Timothy H.D. Williams

Re.: Revo - I think the REVO battery problems are well documented and well known. It is a hardware problem and some users had the battery replaced by Psion after which it worked better again. There are also third parties that can do this for probably less money (I have no Revo so no experience). As to the S5 and 5MX, these us regular AA batteries and whatever problems they had I never heard of battery problems with a 5/5MX. The S7 and mBook have a very good Li-ion battery that never gave me any problems. Psion probably went out of business due to many mistakes, but I doubt that this was one of them.

Best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

London, UK

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

Date: 16 Jun 2004 21:43:56 +0700

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Mail Archiving, Fonts, Auto soft reset on Nbook, maximum number offolders,

Answer to: Eric Lindsay

Re.: Mail Archiving - Whenever I travel I get my work email passed on to my private mailbox which I download with my mBook. I also send myself copies to my work address of all emails I sent out. However, even with shorter trips of 3 or 4 days it is a bother to go over all the emails when back in the office and it usually takes me over an hour to handle them all. I suppose it is the downside of modern communications.

Answer to: Astrid Stappenbeck

Re.: Fonts - Thanks for your answer. I decided to pass on Fontmachine and use the Floader program with the few fonts I already have. I lived with these for many years and can continue the same way for many more (hopefully).

Answer to: Philip Carlisle

Re.: Auto soft reset on Nbook - The rests on my mBook were all initiated by me, but in the end somehow I got it into a loop that would continue to reset itself the moment it got out of it, so I had to do a hard reset to stop that (afterwards I realised that taking out the D disk with all the programs on it would have helped as well ...). The update of MAcro5 works well on my mBook.

Answer to: robertsont

Re.: maximum number of folders - You wrote "maximum number of folders that can be viewed in any one folder". Are you not somewher emixing up "folders" with "files" ? I have not heard of any maximum no. of folders or files you can watch on a Psion. What is it exactly you are tyring to do when you get the error ? When you do Ctrl-Tab in the system screen you can view your root folder. As to browsing on the netbook, could it be you ran out of disk space / memory ? One of the main problems with Opera is that it swallows memory and needs a lot of it.

Best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

London, UK

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

Date: 17 Jun 2004 01:20:29 +0700

From: Bruce A.Knox

Subject: Sitashop

In a message a couple of days ago, I said that the Sitashop seemed to have disappeared. Happily, this is not so. A couple of emails from contacts there assure me that a) they are moving premises, and b) their website will be back in business in a day or two. (And my mBook should be sent next week!)

Bruce Knox

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

Date: 17 Jun 2004 08:17:07 +0700

From: Marcus von Cube

Subject: Re: Grand-Rapid Browser

Hi,

I just had a quick look at the Grand-rapid browser engine written in Java. First off all, I *did not* yet try it on a Psion, just my PC.

Grand-Rapid has a homepage on the Net: http://www.grandrapid.com.

The browser is not a complete application but a component which must be embedded in a Java

application. It shouldn't be too hard to create an EPOC app, using the EpocUtil framework I created for SmtpAuth. That, in turn, could be easily packaged as a SIS file. The Grand-Rapid component itself

comes in different versions (basic versus full function, Swing versus AWT.) In theory, the AWT

versions are suitable for EPOC, either the basic or the full function version could be installed,

depeneding on the memory contraints off the target machine and/or the preferences of the user.

Now to the drawbacks: Grand-Rapid is not free software. A developer (like me) can buy a license +

maintenance for $895 + $200/yr (a special introductory offer reduces the initial costs by $300 but I'm

unsure whether I qualify.) I short, to port the browser to EPOC I would need some money back from

the community, let's say about $20 per copy (+VAT).

I tried the component (it comes with a barebone starter application) on my PC and it had serious

trouble with my own pages. The Swing version was the worst experience, the AWT version was better

but still not perfect. I'm still hoping that the developers can sort that out if I contact them. The maintenance contract should entitle me to do that.

To make a long story short:

1) Some tests on EPOC must be done to ensure the JVM is capable of the application.

2) The technical problems with Grand-Rapid must be solved.

3) I need some time to complete the job.

4) I need some money to get back my expenses.

If anyone is interested, let's discuss the topic here on the digest (to keep it busy!)

Marcus

http://www.mvcsys.de

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

Date: 17 Jun 2004 12:43:02 +0700

From: Phil Aypee

Subject: Cyclone drive

Hi Folks,

Tom, the cable terminal is *exactly* the same as the Psion 5mx, etc., but the communicating protocol may be quite different. The SIBO OS is very different to the ER5 OS. It's like someone who doesn't speak Madarin trying to understand Shakespeare performed in Mandarin. They know what it's all about but it's still incomprehensible. The communication software *must* be on the Cyclone as well as the Psion but if the protocol used is dedicated to the SIBO/Cyclone interface then it's no use connecting to anything else.

I rather doubt that any software has been written by a third party but Purple might have written some - I think they did. Unfortunately Purple themselves have gone belly-up but even before that they couldn't help anyone about the Cyclone. The new company might but I doubt it.

The 3a cable termination is dedicated to the earlier Psions.

The RunImg facility is SIBO-specific.

If no software is available it could be written - but it only be used by a few people.

Happy days,

Phil.

"Everybody should believe in something.

I believe I'll have another drink."

http://www.aypee2.net

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

Date: 17 Jun 2004 14:13:20 +0700

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Farewell screen?

Howdy!

Keith Clarke wrote (> ):

> Oh heck, I've started to get black lines on the

> screen sometimes on startup. Most times the

> display comes on as normal, but now and again it's

> just the lines, or a combinaion of both. Does this

> mean the dreaded cable is on the way out again?

Sounds like it. :o(

> It doesn't seem that long since I had it replaced. Oh

> woe.

Now for the million Euro question: Who replaced it and what did they replace it with? Was it the standard Psion cable or the improved German one? I'm about to have my own 5mx fixed and the memory upgraded at the same time, but if it turns out the improved cable doesn't last any longer than the standard item, I may have to rethink.

PS. When my 5mx broke down a couple of months ago, a kind digest member in Germany wrote to me and said he lives close to the repair centre and suggested I snail the mx to him and he'd hand delive it. I've lost your e-mail addrss in my recent crash. Could you please e-mail me if the offer is still open?

Owen

Thought for the day:

If your feet smell and your nose runs, you were built upside down.

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-9311

At anc27°46.28'N 15°41.65'W

Anfi Del Mar de Gran Canaria

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Spain: +34 620520079

In Norway: +47 92053097

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

Date: 17 Jun 2004 20:23:53 +0700

From: Ian Chapple

Subject: Symbian virus

I heard today that the first real mobile phone virus has appeared in Russia; unfortunately, after having been virus-free for all these years, it seems that Symbian is the target for this apparently harmless virus, which spreads itself via Bluetooth. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3809855.stm for more information.

Cheers, Ian.

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

Date: 17 Jun 2004 23:21:39 +0700

From: Alan Morris

Subject: Re: Li-Ion batts

Richard wrote:-

> You wrote that you had a netBook and a Psion7:

> I've read a couple of websites that Li-Ion batteries die

> after 2-3 years if stored empty, and that it's worth

> occassionally using the battery. (I also seem to remember

> reading that Li-Ion batteries die after 2-3 years regardless

> of use.

I also have a nB and a 7, plus a spare battery. On the first of each month (or soon after) I take the fully charged battery out of the nB and put it in the 7 (the spare Psion). The 7's battery becomes the spare and the old spare goes to the nB.

Alan R Morris, G4ENS.

Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.

Using a Psion netBook & Nokia 6210e.

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

Date: 17 Jun 2004 23:21:48 +0700

From: Alan Morris

Subject: Re: Revo

Timothy H.D. Williams

> I have bought 4 ER5 machines over the last two years - and

> not one of them works properly. Apart from the 5mxserie

> screen cable, the problem is ALWAYS the battery.

I've only had one battery related problem with Psions. My first, a 3a/512Kb, had a broken wire to the battery. Psion posted me a replacement and a spare, which remains unused.

As for EPOC, my 6 machines - 5, 5mx, 5mx (2nd), Revo+, 7, nB and a spare 7/nB battery - I've never had a battery related problem, even on the Revo+.