- Essential Disk Utilities

- Re: CF cards in Psion and PC

- Re: The Digest V1 # 683 (14)

- re: Siemens text-reader

- Re: Siemens Pocket Reader

- EDU & C Drive

- netBook backup battery recognition

- Rare software

- Re: The Digest V1 # 683 (13)

- Using EDUs,

- Re: eMail Indenting, Also a 1 Go card

Date: 26 Jan 2005 10:57:33 +0700
From: Powell, David T <address truncated>
Subject: Essential Disk Utilities

Hi

Philip Carlisle wrote
<.....However, the software, when pointed at the internal, C, drive,
reports an error saying it cannot operate on the target disk while another programme has a document open upon it.>

Don't know the answer but can tell you I downloaded EDU, also on the 24th,
and recived the same sort of message until I had closed my open apps down.
It then worked perfectly except for giving me a minor heart attack when, as you also report, nothing worked after the processing. I twigged the "soft reset" after I had calmed down, had a drink etc.

I concur with Kim Smith that the Pscience5 page is a fantastic resource! Thanks Martin.

Best Regards

Dave Powell

Date: 26 Jan 2005 11:52:37 +0700
From: Ian Chapple <address truncated>
Subject: Re: CF cards in Psion and PC

>>I find this 100 Mo waste quite severe and I would like to experiment
with it. However... putting Psion CF's in Window$ machines seems to be a goodway to damage the CF. I am now considering how to actually transfer my files.<<

I use a 128B card as a backup card, which is connected (via a SanDisk card reader) to a Win XP PC at least once a week, without any ill-effects whatsoever. As far as I am aware, you will only experience problems if you
try to format the card, and even then, only if you choose the wrong format.

Cheers, Ian.

Date: 26 Jan 2005 13:21:16 +0700
From: Bernard Hill <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 683 (14)

In message <address truncated>, The
Digest <address truncated> writes
>
>6575 files in 804 subdirectories
>Size of the files: 233,519,258 bytes
>Size on disk: 322,064 ko.
>
>
>*glup*
>That's approximately 100 Mo bye-bye !
>
>I do not know the formatting parameters of a standard Psion format, but I notice that the creation of a file of 1 ko indeed takes 32 ko, so I >guess
we have the same settings.
>The same 1 ko file takes only 4 ko on my old 128 Mo card.

All this is quite normal.

When a file is saved it takes more space than its actual size: it has to
use complete "clusters" to save. Now the cluster size depends on the
particular program you formatted it with. My 1Gb card, formatted in the
PC has a cluster size of 16K, so any file under 16K size will take 16K
of disk space.

The trade-off which cluster size gives is speed for storage, so you can
expect on average your 32K cluster size to give a faster disk than my
16K.

And note that on average on a 32K cluster size you can expect to lose
16K per file, so with 6575 files that's 102Mb. So all is in order.

1Gb flash cards are often use for storing photos in cameras, and when
each photo is 5Mb in size you only get about 200 on a card. So in thatcircumstance a photographer only loses about 3Mb - but your files are
less than a thousandth of that size so you lose a lot more.

(I have another 1Gb card which has 4K cluster size).


>
>I find this 100 Mo waste quite severe and I would like to experiment with
it. However... putting Psion CF's in Window$ machines seems to be a >good
way to damage the CF.

I've had no problems at all reading and formatting CF cards between all
the devices I have:

Psion 5mx
Psion netBook
PC Win 98
PC Win XP
Olympus digital camera
Canon digital camera
Nex MP3 player



--

Bernard Hill
Selkirk, Scotland

Date: 26 Jan 2005 13:43:31 +0700
From: Jack <address truncated>
Subject: re: Siemens text-reader

to: Kim Smith
Subject: In search of (rare) software?

Hi Kim,
who <<<<...bought a Siemens text-reading pen ....could be used to
transfer data to a Psion (either
s5 or 5mx) via a null modem dongle & cable or similar, and appropriate software...
Does anybody know where (or if?) this software and dongle/cable are still available?>>>

RE
Yee! another piece of soft needed for Martin' attic ;-)


You need the famous "psion NullModem"+the "Pwiwin cable"+the Reader one.
The best soft is "Reader" by Mark Fleming
It was downloadable from:  www.psicix.com/

Mind n(m)B users need v1.41 (last v1.42 is for mx!)

Happy skiing on lines ;-)

Jack

Date: 26 Jan 2005 14:54:24 +0700
From: Chris Cooper
Subject: Re: Siemens Pocket Reader

Kim, for a cable try   http://www.serialleads.co.uk/ Relevant software:Heinrich Huber's Pocket Reader v 1.0
Reader v 1.42 by Mark Fleeming (
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MarkFleeming/)

Also check the Pocket Reader Forum
http://f50.parsimony.net/forum201629/index.htm
Chris
>>>Kim Smith wrote:
> Last year I bought a Siemens text-reading pen which 'reads' and then transfers typed text to PC or laptop via serial cable.  I seem to recall
that originally the pen could be used to transfer data to a Psion (either
s5 or 5mx) via a null modem dongle & cable or similar, and appropriate software. I think Clove were the distributors, but their product range has moved on a bit since then ;-)


> Does anybody know where (or if?) this software and dongle/cable are
still available?

Date: 26 Jan 2005 15:03:29 +0700
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: EDU & C Drive

Hi Folks,

Philip (Carlisle), I've had minor and similar problems using EDU on the C drive of my 5mx. When I got that error message it was because AlarmPlus was enabled. AlarmPlus is a Control Panel rather than a program proper. There
are probably other utilities that don't show as programs either. That might
be one cause.

But if you copy everything on the C drive to the D (CF) drive you'll
probably find what is open (and back up too). Close or disable it and run
EDU again. Alternatively just delete the entire C drive after copying it,
then run EDU and restore.

Happy days,
Phil.

"How infinite is the debt owed to metaphors
by politicians who want to speak strongly
but are not sure what they are going to say."

http://www.philaypee.co.uk/

Date: 26 Jan 2005 17:19:00 +0700
From: JRG DK3NG <address truncated>
Subject: netBook backup battery recognition

Thanks to all who responded with ideas to fix my battery recognition problem.

One,suggesting a hard reset followed by a squential power-up using mains supply, followed by rinsertion of main and back-up batties (in that
order),was particularly helpful.

It worked first shot out of the barrel on both my netBooks but, alas,
turned out to be a very short-lived fixed for one (the problem reappeared after just a few seconds) while the other one seems to have been cured for
good(?). Repeated attempts to cure the first machine following the same procedure have not yet met with success.

Why one and why not the other? Really sandpapers my butt........


J Groeger


--

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a
revolutionary act."

George Orwell

Date: 26 Jan 2005 19:03:43 +0700
From: Nigel Elbourne <address truncated>
Subject: Rare software

Kim Smith asks about linking a Siemens reader to his Psion. I have been
doing this successfully for a few years with a lead purchased for ?15 from
S P Archer
Serialleads,
3 Pinehill Court,
Bangor,
Co. Down
BT19 6SG
The software I use is Mark Fleeming's Reader 1.42 - you can download it
from http://www.8ung.at/pocketreader/sw_e.htm .

There are one or two other useful sites which a Google search throws up.

All the best.

Nigel Elbourne

Date: 26 Jan 2005 23:06:20 +0700
From: Alan Morris <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The Digest V1 # 683 (13)

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005, The Digest wrote:-



> From: Excess Effects <address truncated>
> Subject: New Technology.
>
> Why, Oh Why. Is it that new Technology takes 2 steps
> forward and 1 step back? I have both the new Nokia 9500 &
> Sony Ericsson P910i .... So its back to my faithful 9210i
> and another wait for the next latest gadget to arrive ....
> Please email if you are interested, before they go on
> Ebay.


Sorry for your very expensive experience.  But I've been saying this for a
few years, but mostly this gets a reply that I don't want to progress with
the times.

We do, but these desirable new products aren't available.

I bought a new PPC with a full VGA screen to display my digital
photographs.  It does this reasonably well, but I had expected to do a few other (unspecified) things on it.

But for writing on, it's as useful as blotting paper in a shower.

> From: Kim Smith <address truncated>
> Subject: In search of (rare) software?

> Last year I bought a Siemens text-reading pen which
> 'reads' and then transfers typed text to PC or laptop via
> serial cable.  I seem to recall that originally the pen
> could be used to transfer data to a Psion (either s5 or
> 5mx) via a null modem dongle & cable or similar, and
> appropriate software.
>
> Does anybody know where (or if?) this software and
> dongle/cable are still available?

Kim, I have that info buried inside a windows PC somewhere, but I also have
a Siemens pocket reader, so could send you a copy if I can't find the URL after I take a look.  If I recall correctly the DOS or windows program came
on a floppy.


--

Alan R Morris, G4ENS.
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.
Using a Psion netBook & Nokia 6210e.

Date: 27 Jan 2005 07:37:16 +0700
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: Using EDUs,

Answer to: Philip Carlisle

Re.: Using EDUs - That is interesting. Some weeks ago I started to
defragment my internal disk and the program gave an error on the disk. I
got a little frightened according to the rule that "if it ain't broke,
ain't fix it" and just left it. A few days ago I tried it again and it
worked without any problems. Personally I would not try it on a CF card, I would back it up, reformat it and copy the data back to the CF card again.
You already did a soft reset, so I don't know what else to tell you.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 27 Jan 2005 12:10:37 +0700
From: Chris S Handley
Subject: Re: eMail Indenting, Also a 1 Go card

Subject: eMail Indenting
On 24 Jan 2005, Phil Aypee wrote:
> But I want a macro that *deletes* the text that isn't
> highlighted as well as indenting the text which is. Your
> macro doesn't do this (and is not meant to).

I think you can easily modify my macro to do what you want.  Find this code near the top:

SendKeyCode:(Ctl%+%c,Ctrl%,1) : Pause 5
IF ClipLen&: = 0
REM (no text was marked) so mark & copy all the text
SendKey:("Ct+a")
SendKeyCode:(Ctl%+%c,Ctrl%,1) : Pause 5
ENDIF

And replace the last line (ENDIF) with this:

ELSE
SendKey:("Ct+a")
ENDIF


---

Chris Handley
Visit the web page email.cshandley.co.uk for my address

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

Small note:  "Go" seems to mean "Gb" (Gigabyte), and "Ko" seems to mean
"Kb" (Kilobyte).


Subject: Also a 1 Go card
On 25 Jan 2005, Thomas F. van der Zijden wrote:
> So I did, with the standard Psion function.

> 6575 files in 804 subdirectories
> Size of the files: 233,519,258 bytes
> Size on disk: 322,064 ko.

> That's approximately 100 Mo bye-bye !

92Mb lost, or 14Kb lost per file (remember this figure).


> I notice that the creation of a file of 1 ko indeed
> takes 32 ko

Sounds like it was formatted with a cluster size of 32Kb, which for SmartFormat would be Sectors per cluster=64 .

This makes sense, as I would expect you to (on average) loose 16Kb per file (i.e. half a cluster at the end of a file), and this is pretty close to the 14Kb that you actually lost.


> I find this 100 Mo waste quite severe and I would like to
> experiment with it. However... putting Psion CF's in Window$
> machines seems to be a good way to damage the CF.

You can halve that waste, to about 46Mb, by formatting it with SmartFormat using half the cluster size.  However, due to the limitations of FAT16,
that is only possible if the partition size of your whole CF is below
1024Mb - lets say 1020Mb for safety.

To reduce the partition size, you need to put it into a Windows machine,
and use some Disk Partition software on it.  This is what I did to my old
1Gb Microdrive, and it saved me a LOT of disk space.  However, because Disk Partitioning software is quite dangerous, I shan't explain - unless you (or
a friend) already know enough to do it yourself, it would be too dangerous
to try.  Modify the wrong disk, and you could trash your Windows machine!


The problem can only get worse with larger CF sizes, e.g. 2Gb.  However,
since FAT16 is limited to 2-4Gb partitions, it won't become completely ridiculous.  So a 2Gb CF should have (say) a 2044Mb partition, to allow a cluster size of 32Kb.

There is also ANOTHER way around inefficient cluster sizes - buy
SecureDrive, and create a number a "virtual disks" with much smaller
virtual cluster sizes.  This method at least does not require using
dangerous software on a Windows machine, but it DOES prevent non-Psion
devices from reading those same files (which could be a problem if your
Psion dies...).


---

Chris Handley
Visit the web page email.cshandley.co.uk for my address