- A slow farewell? (e-mail, basics, arabic, GPS)

- Re Itamar Engelsman, Nokia 9500 Queries

- Freeware Registration

- Copyright

- Expectations of something 'free'

- 9500,

- Gradual migration of data from S7 to 9500

- Re: Fair, Fairness, Freeware

- Nokia 9500 update

- Thanks and answers 9500

Date: 17 Apr 2005 18:40:34 +0100
From: Axel Moberg <address truncated>
Subject: A slow farewell? (e-mail, basics, arabic, GPS)

Dear friends,
I have followed the Digest for over a year now, but I'm now considering unsubscribing in the not to distant future. The main reason is that it takes too much time to read it. (Yes, I know I don't have to read all, but I can't help it, even if a lot is beyond me.) Thanks a lot for very instructive and often amusing reading.
Sometimes the debate gets a bit heated. There are bound to be sectarian squabbles in a secret brotherhood like this (no offence meant, ladies) . But I think the team has ruled with discretion and wisdom.
What worries me more is that many of the discussants don't seem to understand that the subscribers are a rather mixed crowd. In particular when hardware is discussed, too many seem to assume that everybody has the same interests and needs, and naturally the same need as the speaker him/herself. But the contributions show that some are hardly interested in more than just mobile phones. Some focus on calender functions and contacts. Some need a keyboard for serious writing, while others don't care. Some are interested in media and even spend 2 hrs 40 minutes to convert and install a film. (But, dear Itamar, why didn't you go to a cinema instead? Or was one of those classics you can see over and over again?).
This is also obvious in the discussion about e-mail in handhelds, like Steve Lichtfields somewhat haughty comment in #723 ("I really can't see the point in anyone syncing email over to a palmtop"). The needs are different. It depends on your way of life, work and travel habits. Some, not least in the business community, are quite happy with short messages like "We'll meet at 1400 hrs. Bring the XYZ-file." And it seems that the producers have decided to concentrate on catering for those needs. However, there are quite a few professional groups that live in a very text-based world, and need to toss long texts around even when on the road: bureaucrats (like myself), journalists, scientist, "intellectuals" and even politicians. Hence the need for real keyboards. And they have more or less been abandonned by the producers. One of the few rays of hope, with Psion dieing, is Nokia 9300/9500.
Having said that, Mr Chairman, I must confess that, after reading the digest for 15 months, I am still a neophyte, and I have to bother you with a handful of elementary questions.
- First, where do I find the basics about Epoc. Relationship to Symbian? What file formats are there? What on earth is Tombraider? Is there an elementary reference book, or something, about all this?
- Secondly, in the PC world there are lots of software for writing in non-Latin characters. Last year I got a number of tips about EPOC software for Russian and Arabic, but I'm afraid I've lost them. Is this only for reading these languages? Can they read Word 97 documents made with Global Office? Or made with Windows XP? Or can they also be used for writing them, right to left in the Arabic case? I recall that Itamar also had tips about Hebrew. Is there anything for Chinese?
- There has been a lot of talk of WiFI-cards for nB? How about GPRS-cards, which be much more useful on the road?
- Last, there is sometimes discussion about GPS. Is there really any hardware for my MC218? And software? And what kind of maps are there? Just city plans and driving directions? Or also real maps over the countryside in Europe, which would interest me more?
Ditto for netBook, which I have not got yet. But maybe I should get one, before they become collector's items.

Axel Moberg
Stockholm, Sweden
living mainly on PCs, but also with a MC218, mainly for fun, a Pocket PC, and in the office Nokia 9210i, and now testing Ipaq 6340

Date: 18 Apr 2005 09:52:39 +0100
From: Chris Fox <address truncated>
Subject: Re Itamar Engelsman, Nokia 9500 Queries

"Could I safely balance a 9500 on the dashboard or is there a car holder ?"

There is a car holder, see
http://www.communicator-shop.de/webshop/product_info.php?products_id=3035&os Csid=61e7807bfd5ede4cdab2622e5bacef09

There's also a thread about this on the All About Series 80 forum, see
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35555

Cheers

Chris Fox
Cheshire
UK

Date: 18 Apr 2005 10:25:47 +0100
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: Freeware Registration

Hi Folks,

Ian (Chapple), I think you might have misunderstood me a bit (not surprising as I can be a wordy bastard at times). I said that "My point, the first part of which you seem to appreciate, is that the freeware registration requirement is both silly . . . and wrong". Please believe that I didn't mean that I thought you agreed.

As for "I think it is legally wrong . . . ", it is software, given away freely, that is effectively broken but which purports to work. If it is illegal to give away something broken unless you say it is broken (and in the UK it is) then surely that applies to software too?

Shareware is a different matter as any "crippling" can be removed by buying a licence for it. The "crippling" of free software is different - for a start you can't buy a licence for it.
: • )

Happy days,
Phil.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it,
doesn't go away."

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

Date: 18 Apr 2005 10:29:17 +0100
From: Ian Chapple <address truncated>
Subject: Copyright

Given that I raised the subject of copyright, I thought that I ought to do
a bit more research. After consulting a patent attorney friend of mine and
searching in Google, I came across the following article, which I have
copied from the UK government's website on Intellectual Property
(http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/std/faq/copyright/protect_rights.htm).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How can I protect my copyrights?

Copyright protection is automatic as soon as there is a record in any form
of what has been created (there is no official registration). However,
steps can be taken by the creator of a work to provide evidence that he or
she had the work at a particular time. For example, a copy could be
deposited with a bank or solicitor. Alternatively, a creator could send
himself or herself a copy by special delivery post (which gives a clear
date stamp on the envelope), leaving the envelope unopened on its return.
A number of private companies operate unofficial registers, but it would
be sensible to check carefully what you will be paying for before choosing
this route

It is important to note, that this does not prove that a work is original
or created by you. But it may be useful to be able to show that the work
was in your possession at a particular date, for example where someone
else claims that you have copied something of theirs that was only created
at a later date.

Another useful step for a copyright owner to take when copyright material
is published is to mark it with the international copyright symbol ©
followed by the name of the copyright owner and year of publication. This
is not essential in the UK, but may assist you in infringement
proceedings, and will be needed in certain foreign countries.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I suspect that most software authors are not aware of what copyright
really entails. As I said in a previous post, merely asserting copyright
is not enough; should it come to a situation where you have to prove that
you really are the originator of a piece of software/source code, this
would be virtually impossible unless you had followed the steps outlined
above.

For more background on copyright, see
http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/index.htm,
http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/std/resources/copyright/index.htm
and http://www.copyright.gov/.

Cheers, Ian.

Date: 18 Apr 2005 16:04:13 +0100
From: Philip Carlisle <address truncated>
Subject: Expectations of something 'free'

Dear Rolf

May I just take issue with your chosen example of the 'free' LCD TV as part Hyundai's sales campaign and linking this to freeware.

I do not think it to be a good example, as the TV is either an inducement to spend, or a reward for spending with Hyundai.  Freeware does not require the beneficiary to spend anything.

I submit that the expectations (justly held) would and should be higher in the case of a Hyundai customer than the person choosing to take advantage of freeware.

Rolf, I'm not saying that your argument is necessarily wrong, just that the way you've argued it in this example is not convincing.

Best wishes to you and all digestees

Yours
Philip Carlisle
London

Date: 18 Apr 2005 16:11:11 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: 9500,

Answer to: Steve & Kevin

Re.: 9500 - Thanks for the answers, certainly to take into account with future decisions !

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 18 Apr 2005 20:50:18 +0100
From: Kevin Thorne <address truncated>
Subject: Gradual migration of data from S7 to 9500

I've now decided I am definitely now going to gradually transfer all my data from my Psion S7 onto my 9500 Communicator and this will be my only machine in use in the future - I find it rather inconvenient to continue holding information on both machines and I certainly don't want to carry both around with me!  As I have approximately 600Mb worth of spreadsheets, Word files, Jotter files, Data files, Agenda files, archived emails, faxes, photos, financial info etc etc I am going to migrate all this data to the 9500 gradually over time.  Indeed, one could argue this is really a job for those long winter evenings at home!  First off, I am going to obtain a 1Gb MMC for the 9500 to give me the room to store all this data as these are quite cheap nowadays.  The 400Mb or so that will remain free will be handy to store a few CD's worth of MP3s along with all this data.

So, my first task I have chosen is to get all my Psion Data files imported onto a database on the 9500.  I quite like the look and feel of Ydata and my question to you expert Digestees is how to go about doing this.  Do I simply export my chosen Psion Data file to CSV format, place this file into the 9500 and select import within Ydata to import the data?  Or do I need to make up an empty database within Ydata first, with exactly the same field names and locations before importing the CSV?

Regards
Kevin Thorne

Date: 18 Apr 2005 21:02:14 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Fair, Fairness, Freeware

Dear Edo,

<< Especially when some unresolved questions of same kind came across, after I have, quite recently, released a peace of freeware. There have appeared strong complaints about lack of any help&instructions for using the application. The complaints came close to the argument of unfairness. Although I have clearly stated, in the release notes, that it was quite impossible for me to supply a proper and usual help file for such a huge application (with enormous number of features) >>

I'm sorry, but you can only get away with supplying the software without documentation (manual and/or help file) when it's released for beta testing. You need to supply documentation when the test phase is over and your software goes into general release. Keeping the application in beta appears to be the solution. I trust you understand, however, that people will start to smell a rat when the application remains in beta for months and months and months. There comes a point at which you can no longer defend an indefinite beta test phase.

That you need to supply documentation is down to EC regulations - the Consumer Protection Directive. However, when you look at what the directive says you'll laugh as what you're asked to provide is quite minimal. What it boils down to is:
a) That you tell who you are an how you can be contacted,
b) Mention the minimum hardware and operating system requirements,
b) Instruct people how to install your application,
and,
c) Describe the features contained in it.
That's all. I'm not joking, that's all there is to it.

<< I couldn't prepare help file simply because I didn't have time to do it and it would delay the release for unpredictable time. At the same time, I was asked (hurried up) to release it. So, it's been a huge dilemma for me, to relase it as it is, or not at all >>

Let's be honest, Edo. As you've written a shareware application you haven't been under any commercial pressures. You didn't need to have
the application ready by a certain date as it would be launched at an exhibition two weeks later. The application didn't need to have
features A to P because it wouldn't sell without them. Nor did you need to beat a competitor by being first to market with your application. Writing shareware gives you the freedom to launch the application when *you* think it's ready.

Secondly, you describe what you've created as a "huge application" which contains an "enormous number of features". Such an application isn't created in a day, nor a week. I think it's fair to say that
you've spent a substantial amount of time on it. People will understand that software developers prefer to write code rather than manuals. But what they won't understand is the enormous imbalance between a huge application on the one hand and no user documentation on the other.
It's not a question of time as you can't create a huge application without having time. It's a question of what you've done with your time.

<< To me, as an author, it's difficult to comprehend whether and how the average users could come to grips with it, w/o proper instructions
>>

Well, it's easier that you think as the people who are going use a manual the most are the complete newcomers. Not only is your
application new to them, it's their first application of this type. I don't know what type of application you've written, but let's suppose that it's a word processor. The idea you have to keep in mind when writing the manual is that you're writing it for somebody who hasn't used a word processor before. I trust you'll understand that such a manual will cover much more than the minimum requirements mentioned above.

<< I've been convinced from my friends that application is, anyway, aimed at advanced users, who would easily get by. But, I can see from the responses I got, that it is not quite, even with that category of users >>

I can tell you as a professional manual writer that categories like 'average user' or 'advanced user' are of no practical use whatsoever. Nobody can say how much knowledge and experience you need to gain in order to change from novice user to average user. Nor how much additional knowledge and experience you need to acquire before you can call yourself an advanced user.

<< So, have I been unfair releasing such a _crippled_ application? Or it was a good decision to release it as it is, than not to release it
at all? >>

Whether it's fair or unfair can be debated till Kingdom comes. It's better to take a more practical approach. A few thousand applications are released each year in the form of shareware, freeware, open source or commercial software. When the vast majority are supplied complete with user documentation in the form of a manual, help file or both it's reasonable to expect that your application also comes with user documentation. Download (say) 30 freeware applications in a number of software categories and have a look at the documentation that's
supplied with them. This will give you an idea of the type of documentation that's supplied. And that's the yardstick people will use when they judge your application.

<< From the number of people that use the application (60 dnloads in first 24 hours after latest version released) I can conclude that users really put the effort to comprehend the application and try to get it usefull for themselves >>

I've downloaded applications because they looked interesting, installed them, had a good look at them and removed them from my computer because they weren't the applications I was looking for. Sixty downloands therefore doesn't tell you anything about what happened after the download.

---
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Beilen - Netherlands

Date: 19 Apr 2005 09:50:21 +0100
From: Max Ozinsky <address truncated>
Subject: Nokia 9500 update

Dear Psioneers & Nokians

I thought I should share with you some of my experiences having used my 9500 for 2 and a half months now. I also have a few questions.

I am also getting more used to it and growing to appreciate the advantages of having one integrated machine. Internet use (web & email) remain its most effective features. My use of sms' has also grown, given the convenience sending them. My use of my MC218 has declined substantially, but I still use it occasionally when I need to input large amounts of text, to access databases which I still have not found a way to transfer to the 9500 and those contacts which did not synchronise over to the 9500.

I am seriously considering buying a bluetooth keyboard. Although I am getting more used to the tiny keys, there is no way they can be considered a serious input device. I need to be able to touchtype and this is not possible at present. I have been in contact with Think Outside about their product and am considering becoming part of their testing program (which gives  you 50% discount). Does anyone have experience with this or any other BT keyboard?

I am increasingly frustrated with the fact that all my contacts did not synchronise over from my MC218, via M$ Outcrook, to the 9500. It seems that those which were not synchronised were the last lot (at least 200) which I entered on the MC218. I have now exported them to a large vcard file, which I have copied to the 9500.

Amazingly I cannot find any way to import Vcards into the Contacts app! This is even though you can send a contact as a vcard via sms, etc. At present I can access the text of the file as a word document, and do searches on it, but as the file is very large opening it slows the 9500 down to a snail's pace. This is a work around, not a solution.

I am currently trying out Ydata to see if I can import my Epoc Databases and use them. If I succeed I will register it. I cannot understand why the Spreadsheet app is not able to import CSV files?

I have not yet found a way to print my received faxes. I do not have an infrared printer and am amazed that I cannot print to the printer conected to my PC when it is connected to the 9500. The 9500 asks for an IP address for the printer when I try to do this, but it does not have an IP as it is not a network printer?

I have tried exporting the faxes to JPG and TIFF formats, but these files are not paginated, so I have struggled to print them from my PC

Any help with the above will be appreciated. I regard these questions as part of my learning process and remain happy with my choice of replacement for my psions.

Regards from a rainy Cape Town

Max
***************
Max Ozinsky
+27 82 4 147 147

Date: 19 Apr 2005 15:38:57 +0100
From: Ashley Burrows <address truncated>
Subject: Thanks and answers 9500

Hi all.

I must start with a huge thanks to those who responded to my 9500 questions, especially regarding 9500 email,

and Database question.  Ydata, is at last a 3, 5, style simple database.
I dont mean simple in an insulting way.

Answers to questions.

9500 as a pass through modem.  works fine.

ABP banking  programme.  9210 version works fine on the 9500.   shows 10 lines of detail with headers,

Just bought a Trinity case (leather) from Ebay £14 including P&P  from Germany, excellent quality,  includes belt clip,  it zips all around,  to allow total use within.  cut outs for Camera.

Best wishes

Ashley