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Epoc Digest Fri, 12 Jul 2002 Volume 01 : Number 030

Sent to: 442 subscribers

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In today's Epoc Digest 16 messages:

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

- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 029

- Communicating with PC's, netBook...

- Data file conversion / MC218 internet dialer bug / help with the digest

- Psions in Malaysia/Sri Lanka

- NETBOOK BATTERY / OS

- C Drive problem - 256 MB CF deal

- Freesurf.fr dial-up

- RE: Gone Sailing

- Re Disconnecting Travelmodem

- Netbook

- Emulator or Netbook

- Psion U-turn,

- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 029

- CD ROM, disconnecting Travel Modem

- PsiNMEA

- Re: Web vs Opera icon, iPass, Off-topic

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

Date: 10 Jul 2002 22:36:47 +0100

From: JShapiro53

Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 029

Does anyone know if by any chance there is any Word software in Hebrew (or other non-English letter language for that matter) for the Psion? What would happen in the translation process?

Cheers

Jonathan Sha

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 00:38:11 +0100

From: Trygve Henriksen

Subject: Communicating with PC's, netBook...

Greetings!

Steve Baker

> Regarding communicating with PC (other than using PsiWon't), try using

> the good old-fashioned 'rcomm' program. It works fine for me with my

> occassionally-used Libretto L50 - running MS-DOS 6.22 of course!. I can

> exchange data using the serial connection or the PC card slot, and

> download whatever I need from a PC-Card CD-ROM into the bargain.

Possibly, but the machine I REALLY would like to easily copy files from doesn't have any spare serial ports...

(I'm using it for logging of serial data, among other things)

-----

netBook:

> 1. Is the PCMCIA slot suitable for a PCMCIA modem?

It supports most 'ordinary' serial cards that doesn't draw more than 750mA

(The S7 has a limit of about 450mA)

The Nokia cardphone II is among the devices that doesn't work...

> 2. Zip® has released a PCMCIA reader for 40MB Zip® disks. Is that

> suitable for the Netbook?

Don't think so...

It only supports ATA Flash compatible cards...

Some other memory cards than CF will work if you get the PC-Card adapter for the type.

> 3. Does the Netbook work better with a printer?

Not really....

It's the same basic OS as the S5mx, so if what you want printed looks awful from the S5mx, it's a good bet that it doesn't look any better from the netBook...

My advice is to 1: look for alternative drivers(What's his name again? Andrew?), and 2: get a small HP laser with IRDa... (They give a reasonably decent printout using either the LJ III or the LJ4 driver)

> 4. Are all the programms that run on my 5MX compatible to the Netbook?

If you can accept that most are hardcoded for the smaller screen, then yes.

> 5. Is the EPOC Emulator running on a Notebook an alternative to the

> Netbook?

That depends...

The notebook will only give you a few hours active use, the emulator is very processor and memory intensive....

It has the standard apps, so you can use the same data files, but most third pary programs won't work.

Those that's written in C++ won't run at all(They're compiled to run on an ARM processor, not the Intel platform)

OPL programs will work if they don't use any .OPX files.

(.OPX files are made in C++ so same constraints)

This can sometimes be overcome by downloading and installing special WINS versions of the files.(Not all .OPX files exists in that version)

The reason this problem exists is that this 'emulator' doesn't emulate the processor. It only provides the 'hooks' for the programs to access the OS functions.

---

Itamar Engelsman wrote:

> Re. GPRS - I think you can find further details on Mike's website at

> http://www.mikemcc.net/.

I tried that site...

It's NOT Psion/GSM friendly!

The lefthand menu bar uses images for navigation, so I couldn't see anything on it. (I don't download pictures when surfing )

I think I've found what I need now, though.

> Re. Netbook - I've got another question. How long can one work on a full

> battery load, how long before you have to replace the battery pack and can

> you do that yourself ? (Would it be feasible to take an extra full battery with

> you ?)

You're thinking of buying one?

Mine gives from 4 to 5 hours active usage, depending on how much comms work I do, but mine was bought used, so I have no idea of how well the battery was treated...

The manual claims 8.5hours, but that's marketing...

As for replacing it, it slides out very easily.

(It's built to be replaced with a spare. Can't have a chairman or VP running out of power, can we? :-)

So, yes you can take a spare with you, but I belive they cost about £100...

(They're expensive as heck here in Norway )

The same battery is used on the S7...

The recharge time is about 1Hour, or at least that's how long it takes from 'empty' (10V) to completely full(12.6V), but I've found that the recharge circuitry can be fooled as the battery heats up.

I advice keeping it plugged in for an hour AFTER the power led changes to green.

I've read somewhere that Li-ion batteries typically survives 300 - 500 full recharges if treated well. How long that lasts depends on usage...

(But say 2 to 3 years)

It is nice to type on...

I usually bring it on all courses and seminars, and have yet to run out of power in the middle of the lectures. (this really annoys the 'laptop' rednecks)

I can also mention that I have a 700KB EPOC Word document(almost 200 pages) stored on the D: drive.

When it opens to where I left off somewhere near the end in about 3 seconds, the M$ preachers suddenly find that they need to brag about the ability to play multimedia files...

(Quite often something crashes :)

For the really obstinate, I have a few .MP3 files(ripped from CD's that I own), so can dampen their enthusiasm a little...

The netBook even have enough spare processing power that I can work in Word or Sheet, or even translate in the OPL editor, without noticeable problems while it plays .MP3 files. (I loose the keyklicks, but that I can live with)

A few other things:

ISDN cards: I've yet to make any work in mine.

They're probably NOT serial, so will need REAL drivers.

(They didn't work in the PCMCIA pod for the S5 either, so it's not a power limitation)

There's very few drivers available for network cards:

Cisco Aironet 3500/4800/350

Infrared Lan (Using the FAST IrDa port going at 4Mbit/S)

Lucent WaveLan / Orinoco Card

Psion Dacom Gold Card

Psion Gold Card

Why they haven't made driver for either Xircom or 3Com cards is beyond me. (We have both in plenty supply at the office :-)

And finally, it's 'netBook' not 'Netbook'...

:-)

Trygve

Who still prefer the MC400 for serious writing...

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 04:08:41 +0100

From: Steve Truesdale

Subject: Data file conversion / MC218 internet dialer bug / help with the digest

Data file conversion:

I have found it more reliable to use Data itself to export to a text (comma separated file), copy that file over to a PC via PsiWin, and import the file into Excel or Access.

To export from Data:

1. Select File ! More ! Export to text file

2. Tap on Options button

3. Set your file name (make sure and end it with .csv )

To copy via PsiWin

1. double click on My Psion icon

2. Wait fo connection to be made

3. Select the fie you exported.

4. Select Edit ! Copy

5. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to where you want the file on your PC

6. Select Edit ! Paste

7. On the PsiWin conversion dialog that pops up, make sure that you select the Copy, no conversion button.

To import the file:

1. If you have Excel, double click on the file on the PC that you just copied. it should open up in Excel just fine.

or, to use Access

1. Start Access

2. Open or Create a new database

3. Select FIle ! Import file

4. I forget the exact options, but one of the file types Access can import is Delimited Text (.CSV). Pick this option and follow the wizard dialogs, and you should have a working file

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

MC218 Internet dialer bug:

Anyone ever experience this?

I have had a MC218 for about 8 months now, and for the past 3-4 months it has started doing this.

When I open Message or Internet or Opera and attempt to make a connection, the application locks up at the point where the Inernet Connection dialog would normally appear.

I then have to kill (not close) the application from the task list.

When I restart the applicaiton and try it agian, it works fine.

If I disconect from the internet and try to connect again, I have to repeat the freeze/kill/restart process again.

I have tried a soft reset and trying with no other applications running with the same results.

Any ideas?? This is a really annoying thing!

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

After we buy and move into our new house, I would be glad to help out in keeping this digest going.

Thanks,

Steve Truesdale

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 04:12:01 +0100

From: "D.N.Wijewardane"

Subject: Psions in Malaysia/Sri Lanka

Re. Query by Mike Fellhauer on Psions in Singapore

This may not directly help, but Revo Plus and 5mx machines were available in several main computer shops in downtown Kuala Lumpur as of last autumn (I don't think the situation has changed todate). I can not recollect the exact name of the mall, but it was the direct equivalent to "Sim Lim" complex of Singapore. I think the complex was in Bukit Bintang, near Lot 10 Mall and everyone knows it as the main computer spares/software complex in KL. If someone really wants the contact details I can fish it out from a past invoice...

We used to have competitively priced Psions in Sri Lanka but these are now thin on the ground (but I think still available in odd shops for anyone passing through here).

Regards,

Nishy

Colombo

Sri Lanka

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 05:07:23 +0100

From: Peter Keene

Subject: NETBOOK BATTERY / OS

Hi Guys,

For Itamar re netBook battery:

I get six hours out of my battery in normal use with a screen brightness setting of 4, Itamar. In economical use (no use of the PCMCIA modem or IR, no writing to CF, screen brightness at 2) you may be able to squeeze eight hours out of it. Build 158 of the OS seems to be lighter on battery use.

Yes, the battery is user-interchangeable and you can carry a charged spare.

Apparently the battery has a life of 500 charge/discharge cycles. At two cycles per week that would give you a life of about five years. (I'm about halfway through and the battery is performing better than when it was new.)

For Mike Woodward re netBook OS:

I really wouldn't recommend anyone to use Build 158 of the OS until it's fixed Mike. Rather use 156.

Regards,

Peter

Cape Town

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 07:03:21 +0100

From: "Marios Haridimou"

Subject: C Drive problem - 256 MB CF deal

Hi Itamar and fellow Psion enthusiasts,

To be honest I have used Psions for the last 5 years or so

starting from an S5, S5mx and now an S7. I have not experienced any

problems with either the C drive nor any of the CF disks that I have

used. On occasion when I take out my CF card from the S7 it does not

recognize it when I insert it back but re-inserting it again does the

trick.

A couple of questions:

I have found a good deal on a 256MB Lexar Media CF card at www.buy.com.

The price after a USD $ 10.00 rebate comes down to USD $ 89.95 which is

excellent. There are no shipping charges in the US (lucky me mom will

be visiting the US shortly).

Does anyone have experience in using such large cards in the Psion?

Can the S5mx and S7 handle a CF this size?

I have been using Simpletech and Sandisk cards with no problems. Any

positive experience in our midst with Lexar Media products?

Best regards to all,

Marios

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 08:24:07 +0100

From: "Thomas F. VAN DER ZIJDEN"

Subject: Freesurf.fr dial-up

On the subject of Freesurf.fr dial-up numbers:

Their FAQ says this (I am rather sure that readers who know English can understand it...):

Est-ce que je peux me connecter à FreeSurf partout en France pour le coût d'une communication locale ? Peut-on se connecter à partir d'un pays étranger ?

Le numéro d'accès national fonctionne dans toute la France Métropolitaine (Corse comprise) et en Grande-Bretagne pour le coût d'une communication locale.

So the only other country where you can reach your Freesurf account is the UK, because you are also inscribed with FreeUK (so it says in another question).

And on the subject of mobile phones this:

Peut-on se connecter à FreeSurf en utilisant un téléphone portable ?

Vous pouvez vous connecter à FreeSurf avec votre téléphone portable. Vous devez utiliser ce numero : 0 860 91 26 00.

(What they don't say is that some providers charge you a hefty surcharge on your normal costs per minute. I never noticed this with my Dutch phone, while in France, but then again: EUR 1,10/minute is already high enough! Careful with French phones, though!)

I pleaded for another number in a personal mail to the support, but they just confirmed that it was not possible, because the ART (the regulation authority of telecom) prohibited it. Good news: they don't suspend your account if you are regularly checking your e-mail.

Unfortunately, Freesurf is of British origin and it follows ART's rules. French companies know their way around rules ;-) so Free (www.free.fr) DOES offer you an international/mobile number. That's why Jack and I both have an account at Free and at Freesurf. Since Free is...euh... free, I suggest you do it also. It's very stable and it offers you a lot of features. The only snag with Free is that it sends your password by snail mail and this takes weeks. They do accept your foreign postal address, but you have to take ample time to arrange an account.

Out of curiosity: why would you want to dial in onto Freesurf from another country?

Hope this helps. Yours truly,

Thomas van der Zijden

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 09:01:10 +0100

From: Alan Rabbitte

Subject: RE: Gone Sailing

Hi Owen

I saw Kevin's reply in today's digest. There are 3 GSM service suppliers in Ireland: Vodaphone (Kevin talked about these in today's digest), I use O2 and there is also Meteor which I know nothing about. I use GPRS with O2 on my Siemens S45 (With W2000, haven't got it to work with my Psion yet) and I believe that HSDC is also available but haven't used it. Mind you, this is on my billable contract. If you want definite answers, em

Let me know if you are in the Dublin area (Irish Sea) and we might get a chance to say hello!

All the best

Alan From Ireland

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 15:07:31 +0100

From: Astrid Stappenbeck

Subject: Re Disconnecting Travelmodem

To Thomas van der Zijden

>Subject: What's the story on the disconnecting travelmodem

>whenever the Psion needs some time and doesn't send something (e.g. Opera is rending a >page) the modem decides it does not receive data... and the telephone line gets disconnected!

Have you checked your settings? It is in either the modem or the internet-settings where you can choose the disconnecting time when no more data is received. The default setting time is quite short.

I don't use a travelmodem with my 5mx but a PMCIA adapter but experienced the same problems at first - just until I had a closer look at the settings options and allowed some more time.

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 15:46:22 +0100

From: "Tony Cabot"

Subject: Netbook

Itamar,

Last March I took my Netbook complete with Kevin Millican's excellent RealMaps program and a GPS to the Virgin Islands on a sailing vacation. While it was not necessary to navigate with RealMaps it was fun watching the track and knowing where we were. Anyway, before we left I tried to find a charger that would operate off the boat's 12 volt system but since the Netbook battery is nominally 12.6v at full charge and the Psion charger provides 15v I was unsuccessful. So I bought ($95) a second battery. It is very easy to change batteries. I find that I get 6 + hours until the voltage gets down to 10.5 or so and I start getting the "charge me" nag. I then bought a small 12 volt converter so I could bring my 110 volt charger. This seemed to work OK, but it didn't seem particularly efficient converting 12 volts to 110 and back to 15. Maybe someone can answer the question whether it is OK to run the Netbook directly off a 12 Volt source such as a car or boat. I know that 12v batteries are often at 13+ volts when charging so it would seem to be feasible.

By the way, I also used the Netbook, with a 256MB D drive, to store the digital photos I took on the trip. I could swap the 64 MB compact flash card that I have in the camera into the netbook E drive with a PCMCIA adapter when it was full and transfer the pictures. I think I took about 150 at 1MB each. I used MBM View from Lieuw deVries to convert the jpgs to mbms so we could look at them on the Netbook. The 256 color screen is acceptable, certainly a lot better than monochrome. MBM view is slow but it does convert color jpgs to color mbms. I have not yet found a PC program that will do that. XnView, which I used on the PC for the Psion 5, only converts to monochrome. If you (or anyone on the list) know of a PC program that will convert color jpgs or bmps or tiffs to color mbms I would appreciate hearing about it.

Tony Cabot

*****Original Message*****

Re. Netbook - I've got another question. How long can one work on a full battery load, how long before you have to replace the battery pack and can you do that yourself ? (Would it be feasible to take an extra full battery with you ?)

Bye,

Itamar Engelsman

********

London, United Kingdom

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 16:08:50 +0100

From: Christopher Marwood

Subject: Emulator or Netbook

Answer to a question f

Hello Guillaume,

I use the emulator on my PC a lot in the way you describe - especially for viewing agenda and contacts, editing spreadsheet files and viewing large data files of archived emails. Its much faster than the 5mx and you have the advantage of a huge screen.

Of course you have to be careful to remember which files you have changed on the PC and which on the Psion. I know that it is possible to use Epocsync to help with this, but the possibilities for confusion are still there

There are some limitations:

- as far as I can figure out you cannot print from the emulator (but of course you can edit on the emulator, save to the 5mx and print from there with Psiwin, with rather better results than going direct Netbook to Printer)

- as far as I can figure out you cannot connect to the Internet from the emulator

- as far as I can figure out you cannot copy and paste between the emulator and PC programmes in the way that CopyAnywhere enables you to.

- keyboard shortcuts are a bit different, but I think they are all there, its just a question of finding them.

Given that a cheap laptop and a netbook are about the same price, my feeling is that 5mx plus laptop offers the best of both worlds.

A question for everyone: I am sure I read a while ago that a USB connection for Psiwin was in the offing, but I have never seen one - have I just missed it or was it dumped along with everything else?

Good luck, Chris

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 16:26:49 +0100

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: Psion U-turn,

Answer to: Kevin Thorne

Re. Psion U-turn - I don't think anything we will do would change their mind, but who knows, they might themselves come to that conclusion based on the popularity of the 9210, the strength of the 5MX continued sales and the continued development of the Netbook amongst others.

Bye,

Itamar Engelsman

London, United Kingdom

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 19:10:20 +0100

From: "vlad

Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 029

> Kevin Thorne Epocdigest wrote:

> should do our own market survey and try to persuade Psion to do a policy U > turn?

I guess we all dream of that. Collective petition, at least? :-)

best,

vlad

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

Date: 11 Jul 2002 22:55:58 +0100

From: Kevin Thorne

Subject: CD ROM, disconnecting Travel Modem

Reply to Darryl Kempster:

Subject: CD ROM

I also don't own (or have easy access to a PC) so having the ability to read from CD ROMs would be useful, especially those darn Palmtop BV apps which HAVE to be installed from the original source. Widget still offer to supply commercial software on CF but as you said, at a price. I remember using the Cyclone myself - a very handy extra drive and very useful when you consider the cost of SSD memory in those days.

Reply to Thomas F. VAN DER ZIJDEN

Subject: What's the story on the disconnecting travelmodem

<I have just purchased a Psion IR travel modem from Dixons NL. The box looks battered, so it could be old stock. Now, at the discount I got I don't mind, but...

whenever the Psion needs some time and doesn't send something (e.g. Opera is rending a page) the modem decides it does not receive data... and the telephone line gets disconnected! I know other people have suffered from this as well. Is there a solution? I tried to keep the connection open by leaving an e-mail box open, but that does not help! Is this because I have an early modem or do all travel modems have this annoying 'feature'?>

I don't know if this trouble has been cured with later Travel Modems or not - some owners appear to have no trouble, others have exactly the problem you are getting, including me. When Palmtop Magazine tested the first release of this modem, they too experienced this trouble. Personally I find I can't rely on it and have confined it to my Psion "museum" to gather dust. I now use a Nokia with a built-in IR modem and never experience this annoying stopping of data flow with this set-up, however long my S7 takes to render a web page. The Psion modem should not go to sleep or disconnect you just because there is no data flow, yet it does....time and time again. I'll stick with my 100% reliable Nokia thanks ;-)

Regards

Kevin Thorne

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

Date: 12 Jul 2002 01:06:51 +0100

From: "Owen H. Morgan"

Subject: PsiNMEA

Howdy.

I'm using PsiNMEA ver 2.12 (2000/05/10) on my MC218. I was wondering:

A: Is this the newest version?

B: Has development stopped completely?

C: Will it run on the Revo / Mako? (Yeah, I know I could try it on my own Mako, but I'm asking this for a friend and mine is full, so since I'm posting anyway...)

I'm using it with charts made by taking screen dumps from the C-map chart plotter on the PC, and it works very well. I save the charts as .GIF files on the PC and use nConvert to convert them to .MBM. Even with a 256 Mb CF, there's a limit to how big and many charts I can have on the MC218 of course, but I have found running overview charts at 1:200000 or 1:300000 in PsiNMEA very useful to get quick visual confirmation that I am where I think I am. There isn't much point in running 1:50000 or better in PsiNMEA as the small screen covers too small an area.

I am aware of RealMaps, but found it rather awkward to use, particularly when calibrating new charts. Are there any other alternatives available that use bitmap charts? As far as I know, Navigate still only supports coastline files.

PS: If anyone is interested, I've made a file with the constants for all the Norwegian standard ports for Ocean 5. It's on Trygve's site.

Owen

Thought for the day:

The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity, the rest is overhead for the operating system.

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

<66°06.56'N 12°29.01'E

Sørviken in Helgeland, Northern Norway

Heading south

http://home.no.net/naomij

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

Date: 12 Jul 2002 14:03:04 +0100

From: Michael Backes

Subject: Re: Web vs Opera icon, iPass, Off-topic

"Daniel Meyer" wrote at 8 Jul 2002 19:45:30 +0100 in EPOC DIGEST V1 # 028

Hi out there!

> There was a program that does "Psion localisation"

> Psiloc? that has a free version which does a limited number

> of things, one of which was to enable the user to decide

> which program opened which sort of file by default. This

> solved the web pages with Opera icon problem and let me

> choose my favourite text editor etc. I am not sure if it was

> Psiloc or another program by the PiBeam people (or both)

> but it was quite useful.

The program you mean, Daniel, is named "plOpen" and you're right, it's from www.PsiLOC.com. You can get it here:

http://www.psiloc.com/html/eng/download/index.html

Have a happy day

Michael

Michael Backes *** live could be so easy :-) ***ICQ: 100010309

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

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