- Re: K700i connecting problems

- MS Windows (was Re: The future for UIQ)

- On the subject of upgrades, synchronisation, and so on....

- Psion to Mac

- GPS, K700i connecting problems,

- Re: E mail with broadband

- Re: SMTP "accounts" and "Passwords"

Date: 30 Sep 2005 09:13:50 +0000
From: Carl von Einem <address truncated>
Subject: Re: K700i connecting problems

From: Wong Koi Hin <address truncated>
>
> I am currently using the Sony Ericsson K700i. I have been unable to talk > to the phone from my Mnetbook using infra-red (my only option) I have
> been using the same options for SE phones like my previous SE T610 and > SE T68i. Neither Internet dial-up nor faxing works.

I chose the K700i for the other option was a nokia and I wanted that phone to communicate with both my Mac Powerbook (over Bluetooth) and the Psion (over IR). The Nokia I tried couldn't connect to the PB, it just disconnected immediately. The SE phone does that very nicely and
supports some interesting functions even if I don't use them very often. I'm just so used to my 5mx (calendar, notes, contacts).

Now K700i <-> 5mx: I used to read/write my SMS messages on my Psion and sent/received them over my old Siemens s35i which sadly died. That
phone's built-in modem even had some fax capabilities. I was at least able to send a fax created on my psion over the Siemens cell phone. Not possible with a K700i as the german SE support told me, it's modem has
no fax support, a real shame as I think.

SMS: I couldn't get the K700i to work as a SMS "router" for my Psion
yet. Guess it doesn't work. I have to note that this phone still has Vodaphone's own system software installed, I will try to get the
original software in the near future and try again.

Internet dial-up should work if your ISP (technically) and your phone account ("pay more to get some features") allows that. It's just a difference if you  want to use basic email / web functionality on the phone or use it as a modem (see above about SMS, I guess those are
related connectivity problems).

Contacts: exchanging contacts between phone and 5mx works like a charm, one contact at a time only, haven't tried yet to exchange files between both.

My modem settings are

modem tab:
- 115200 Baud
- Connect over Infrared
- Fax class: automatic (I think I tried all other options here, without success)

Initialisation tab:
- Init String: ATZ
- Data Init String: (nothing here right now)
- Fax Init String: (nothing here right now)

Advanced tab:
- Flow control: Software (XON/XOFF)
- Terminal Signal: (nothing here right now)
- Carrier Signal: (nothing here right now)
- Modem Type: cell phone

Question is: which cell phone on the market is the 'ideal' companion of
a Psion? (Maybe some device with proper technical documentation about built-in modem etc.)

Then in the System screen: Menu Extras -> Communication: Link=off

Carl

BTW: I once was told that every GSM unit (not counting data only
devices) MUST have an emergency call function available at the login prompt so that emergency calls are possible even without a SIM card inserted. Is this no obligation anymore? Or does my ISPs own system software just mess up the standards?

Date: 30 Sep 2005 09:15:24 +0000
From: Chris S Handley
Subject: MS Windows (was Re: The future for UIQ)

On 28 Sep 2005, Itamar Engelsman wrote:
> First of all I would like to say that it is interesting that
> with all the criticism of Microsoft their OS's are fully
> backward compatible. I still run a program on my Windows XP
> computer that was written in the 1980's (!) to run on a PC
> with 2 floppy disks and DOS only.

Many of Window's problems (and hence criticisms) stem from the fact that it IS mostly backwards compatible to a really awful & ancient design from the 1990s.  (That isn't a typo, as MS-DOS is no-longer truely there - since XP removed that legacy component & added basic DOS emulation instead).

Microsoft has sacrificed some compatibility though - many really old games won't run (or run badly), and Windows Vista is set to loose compatability with even some modern games, due to changes in DirectX & OpenGL.


Note that its quite possible that WINE (the Windows 'emulator' for Linux) may actually become more compatible with Windows 9x software, than Windows itself, at some point!  Already DosEmu provides much better MS-DOS emulation than Windows XP does :-)
---
Chris Handley

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

Date: 30 Sep 2005 10:27:57 +0000
From: Cyril Catt <address truncated>
Subject: On the subject of upgrades, synchronisation, and so on....

Kim Smith, in answer to your query, unfortunately, whilst trouble free software is available to sync files between Palms and Macs, there has been nothing similar between Macs and Psions since the Series 3. If you want to do anything more than text messages, when away from a power outlet for more than a few hours, it will be necessary to lug your iBook (and a few expensive spare batteries or equivalent) along with you. There is simply no longer anything available with the battery life, keyboard convenience and relatively large landscape screen format of the Psions, which will permit reasonable work to be done with basic WP, SS, DB or diary apps. Why so many clamshell designs were abandoned in favour of the limited Palm format in a me-too stampede defeats me. But why miniscule Psion thought it could persist without easy links to several other platforms is equally perplexing.

Cyril Catt

Date: 30 Sep 2005 11:09:36 +0000
From: Timothy H.D. Williams <address truncated>
Subject: Psion to Mac

On 30 Sep 2005, at 04:49, Kim Smith in the Digest wrote:

> MacConnect, but for the purpose of back-ups this may not be 
> necessary and I'll still use the Win platform only for this.

Like you, Kim, I have opted to stick with Psion. Admittedly, I don't 
use my  Revo for email - I travel with an iBook - but I carry it with 
me at all times.

The excellent Java Psion Link is sufficient for all my needs in 
connecting to the Mac. It doesn't synchronise but there are 
workarounds. JPL has the virtue of being stable and fast.

I can't help wondering, though, with the demise of Palm OS and 
Apple's recent launch of a phone, whether Apple will soon include a 
genuine pda in the iPod.

T

Gu Cheng announced that he had stopped writing and spent a great deal 
of his time sleeping: that was his real work. ‘I only realise how 
cold the human heart is when I wake up.’

London Review of Books

Date: 30 Sep 2005 14:07:04 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: GPS, K700i connecting problems,

Answer to: Plutopants (George)

Re.: GPS - Thanks for the explanation. One of the reasons I still stick with Street/Routeplanner is the well thought out functionality with overlays. As to the Garmin's, do you have to plan your route on the PC and than transfer it to the Garmin or do you do that on the Garmin itself ?  And does it go all over Europe up to srteetlevel in all cities or is that only in the UK ?

Answer to: Wong Koi Hin

Re.: K700i connecting problems - I think you will not succeed to connect with your mBook. I suppose y ou are trying it with Phoneman but Phoneman is not able to talk to the latest range of SE products running Symbian. I don't succeed with my P910i either. But if I am wrong, I would be delighted to hear it !

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 30 Sep 2005 22:19:48 +0000
From: Rolf Brunsting <address truncated>
Subject: Re: E mail with broadband

Dear Carl,

<< Every email account is identified by a 'user' (or account name) 
and a 'password', otherwise everyone else would be able to send 
messages with your identity or read messages addressed to you. That's 
part of the email account created on a specific SMTP server by some 
person with admin rights >>

That's not really the case when I look at the configuration 
parameters on the Psion. There are two tabbed dialogs dealing with 
the two servers involved. What you enter is the following:

    Tab : Incoming (Mail retrieval)
       - Name of the POP3 server
       - Your mailbox user name
       - Your mailbox password
    Tab : Outgoing (Mail transmission)
       - Name of the SMTP server

Putting my Mr. Spock ears on, thereby turning myself into a Vulcan, 
I'd say that this is logical. What you want when you retrieve your e- mail from the POP3 server are all messages addressed to Carl von 
Einem. You therefore need to tell the server who you are by means of 
a user name. The password is there to confirm that you are who you 
say you are. Situation is different for the SMTP server in that it's 
the first station an e-mail passes in a relay chain from system to 
system until it lands in the right mailbox. What the SMTP server 
effectively does, is to accept the e-mail, read the address of the 
recipient and to pass it on. It's not important to know who the 
sender of the e-mail is. Unless the e-mail can't be delivered and is 
sent back together with a non-delivery note. What the SMTP server 
therefore needs to know are the e-mail addresses of the sender and 
the recipient. Which it can get from the e-mail itself. So that the 
above four parameters are all you need to exchange e-mail.

Well ... the word "need" can now be replaced by "needed" as it 
reflects a situation in which SMTP servers were open to all comers. 
Not that this created problems as the vast majority of people would 
enter the name of the SMTP server of their ISP, company, university, 
etc. Though you could enter the name of another SMTP server if you 
wanted. The people who loved this, of course, were the spam 
merchants. Reason why schemes were introduced to keep undesirables 
off SMTP servers. Now, what you describe is one of the four schemes I 
know of.

1) When you use an ISP's SMTP server it's checked whether you've 
gained access to the Internet via the ISP's systems. It's an ID check 
at the point of entry as you need to supply your Internet log-on user 
name and password before you get Internet access.

2) When you use an ISP's SMTP server it's checked whether you've used 
the ISP's POP3 server first (POP Before SMTP). Your ID is your POP3 
mailbox's user name and password (which tend to be different from 
your Internet log-on user name and password).

3) You need to supply a user name and password for the SMTP server in 
addition to the user name and password for the POP3 server (SMTP 
Authentication). The user name and password can be the same for both 
POP3 and SMTP servers but can also be different.

4) When you use an ISP's SMTP server you need to establish a secure 
(SSL) link between e-mail client and SMTP server. For which you have 
to supply an SSL password.

Which is the reason why people have been talking at cross purposes in 
the "E mail with broadband" message exchange. Armin Podtschaske and 
yourself have your eyes firmly focussed on scheme no. 3 while Itamar 
Engelsman has his eyes on scheme no. 1. It's the reason why you 
didn't understand that Itamar has to change SMTP server settings and 
why Itamar sees an SMTP server which doesn't use scheme no. 1 as open 
to each and everybody.

Coming back to our Psions, these schemes have the following effects:

Scheme No. 1 : You can use Psion's standard Email application but may 
need to change SMTP server settings when you connect to the Internet 
via a different ISP.

Scheme No. 2 : You can use Psion's standard Email application but 
have to switch the "Automatic Send" function off and to retrieve your 
e-mail (manually) from the remote mailbox before you send the e-mail 
(manually) that's in your local outbox.

Scheme No. 3 : You need to add Marcus von Cube's SmtpAuth tool to 
Psion's Email application. The way I understand it is that SmtpAuth 
intercepts and responds to the request for the SMTP user name and 
password.

Scheme No. 4 : You have to replace Psion's Email application by a 
third-party e-mail client (JMail??) written to handle the double-byte 
encoding of Chinese and Japanese characters. This e-mail client has 
the required SSL support.

<< They do it perhaps but it is not technically neccessary, that's 
what I wanted to point out >>

I'm very sorry, but you clearly wrote that "... a SMTP server is 
*always* technically independent from the physical connection of the 
client to the internet" [My emphasis on the word always : RB]. Given 
schemes no. 1 and 2 above we can say that an SMTP server is a 
separate system but not always a truly independent system.

<< They just sell you both when you only need one (the access) >>

I think you're too hard on ISPs as they supply a one-stop solution 
many people like. A family gets Internet access - mom, dad and the 
kids get their own e-mail address and mailbox - there's one technical 
support department to call when something goes wrong - etc. All that 
for a reasonable price as the competition between ISPs keeps prices 
low. OK, you may be able to save a few dollars/pounds/euros by 
keeping e-mail separate. But is it worthwhile to make that saving? It 
all depends on personal requirements - what do you need and what can 
you do without? When ISPs satisfy the needs of a sizeable consumer 
group than three cheers for these ISPs.

<< So in this case you speak of the user/pw of your mail account you 
expose to a different server? I guess it's the user/pw for your 
temporary Internet connection. And that server transports every mail 
you feed it? >>

I trust the description of the above four schemes has made this clear.

<< Funny, then you can spam everybody with faked FROM and REPLY-TO 
addresses, don't you? >>

What these four schemes do is to restrict SMTP server access - that's 
all. They won't eliminate spam as a spam merchant can take an account 
with one of those free e-mail services (Hotmail or other), send out 
the spam and never use this account again. Besides, it can be 
perfectly legal to send out unsolicited commercial e-mail as the law 
in several countries is based on the "Opt Out" principle. Meaning 
that a company can send you e-mails unless you tell the company to 
stop sending them. It can also be perfectly legal for a company to 
pass your e-mail address on to an associated company. Like a car 
maker giving your e-mail address to a tyre manufacturer as your car 
will need a new set of tyres at some point in time.

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

Date: 30 Sep 2005 22:28:21 +0000
From: Rolf Brunsting <address truncated>
Subject: Re: SMTP "accounts" and "Passwords"

Dear Marcus,

<< SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) has been extended a few years 
ago ... >>

My apologies, but I'm well aware of that. The purpose behind me 
asking about accounts and passwords - and the reference to the 
configuration parameters on the Psion - was to make Carl think again 
on what he wrote.

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