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Epoc Digest Wed, 21 Aug 2002 Volume 01 : Number 055
Sent to: 533 subscribers
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In today's Epoc Digest 22 messages:
==============================
- Answer re: Phonebook sync.
- The 5mx screen.
- Spam Problems
- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 054 S45 cable
- RE street / route SISes; John spams
- PsiWin/PDF mag/Palmtop
- NIGERIAN SCAM / NETPAD PART ONE
- 2ConnectU url
- Come down, SPAM, PDF magazine,
- Re:Psion & iBook
- GPRS
- At sea.
- Re: Palmtec Cases, Dixons
- Poll/Spam/Palmtop User
- E-mail noise
- Re: Nokia 7210
- Re: Enhance Full Rate
- Re: Psion & iBook
- Siemens phone connections
- SPAM, S45
- The Nigerian (or Unsolicited African Emails)
- SMS in foreign countries
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 06:08:35 +0100
From: Alexei
Subject: Answer re: Phonebook sync.
> The ability to sync properly with a 6310i is
> missing. Syncing a full phonebook to a blank phone wipes > the entries in the phonebook. Remember to back up the
> file. Best way to attack the problem is to only update
> the entries in the Psion and then copy them to the
> phone.
That is because you did not use the Phoneman correctly. Phoneman thinks that you have most up to date phonebook on the phone, so when you choose "Sync with phone" it takes the phones from Nokia and fully replaces phonebook stored on Phoneman. This is how it works.
So, if you have empty phonebook on Nokia, and want to transfer from Phoneman, just choose "Copy to Phone".
By the way Phoneman working very good with Nokia phones, but unfortunately I can not get it to work with Siemens S45.
Rgds,
Alex
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 07:10:04 +0100
From: "Rooke, David Philip"
Subject: The 5mx screen.
Date: 20 August
Subject: The Psion screen
I have owned a Psion 5 mx for well over a year now. It is a great machine with all the functionality I need. But the screen! It is so hard to read, so dark and almost impossible to see under certain circumstances. All the great functions and programmes in the world don`t help if you can`t see them on the screen. I am afraid it is reason enough for me to consider buying something else. Is there nothing that can be done? No upgrade or possibility for changing the screen? Why did Psion make such an appalling screen?
Also, PsiWin 2 on a Windows 2000 machine creates some interesting anomalies when I try to synchronise Outlook 98 with my Psion calender and contacts. Often my contacts list on the Psion gets multiple entries with the same persons name appearing 3 or 4 times. My to-do list from Outlook appears as an entry in the Psions calender. I get a message saying that syncronisation did not complete succesfully. All very odd.
Regards
David Roo
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 07:37:52 +0100
From: "Simon Wolf"
Subject: Spam Problems
Hi All and Itamar in particular.
I believe that the spam email you have received would be because someone has harvested the addresses from the on-line archive. Search engines such as Google search the web automatically adding new pages as they find them. It appears that Google will initially add the home page and the page which it first arrived at and then other pages will be added as and when it finds them. It is possible to stop search engines from indexing web pages through the use of a robots.txt file but email harvesters will simply ignore this file and search the pages for email addresses anyway.
The only solution I can see to this problem would be one of the following: 1. Do not show people's email addresses in the digests.
2. Do not store an on-line archive (how about having past digests emailed to you on request ... If you want me to help you find some software to do this then I will).
You might also want to use a robots.txt file to stop search engines from registering pages other than the home one (have a look at
http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/robots.html).
Kind regards.
Simon Wolf
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 08:27:46 +0100
From: Robin Davies-Rollinson
Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 054 S45 cable
From: Alexei
Subject: Psion cable for Siemens S45?
Does anybody know if there are psion data cables available for Siemens S45 phone? IR connection not very reliable - any moreover when in car, for me better to use cable connection between Psion and phone.
Any advise highly appreciated.
B Rgds,
Alex
Hi Alex,
You will have to use the data cable that came with your phone and connect it to your Psion cable with a null modem connector. This is what I am using to send this reply via my S45 with Vodafone GPRS.
I think Palmtec uk advertise these adaptors - + remember seeing an advert for them in the last Palmtop magazine.
HTH,
Regards,
Robin
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 09:25:30 +0100
From: Jack
Subject: RE street / route SISes; John spams
Subject : street / route SISes
To Kevin Thorne, who :
>.....was wondering if one kind Digestee with a copy of the SIS files for each program could email them to me? I don't have easy access to a PC.<
RE
Hi
It's indeed a pity when programs stricly made for PDA need a PC to be (re)installed!
I'm ready to send Europe street appcolor.sis and gps.sis (500Ko.zip) to you if you are still in need of them. Please write to me off Digest
What about the maps themselves?
Subject : John Spams
RE To Owen H. Morgan
I too have received SPAM messages from "john"
We ought to *^+_%$** those $£€¥ spammers... They'll never catch my €uros this way!
All the best to all psionmaniacs out there
._,.-*'`\._,.-*'`Jack ._,.-*'`\._,.-*'`on the._,.-*'`\._,.-*'`sea ._,.-*'`\._,.-*'`by now._,.-*'`\._,.-*'`
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 10:02:05 +0100
From: "Philip Carlisle"
Subject: PsiWin/PDF mag/Palmtop
Simon Wolf mentioned moving to Palm as PsiWin lacked reliability.
Simon,
It's still not perfect, but PsiWin 2.3 is running on my PC equipped with
Office/Windows 2000 and synchronizes well. The old problem of
duplicated contacts is certainly gone. The only niggle I experience is
that, after using 'my psion' to transfer files and such, the following
applications will not fire up from the desktop:
My Documents, My Network, Recycle Bin, My Computer and my psion
Log off/Log on or Restart on the PC cures the problem, if necessary.
Andy Hayes floated the idea of a pdf magazine.
Andy
I'd be interested in such a project and am willing to contribute notes
on living with applications, if that would help.
Finally,
I complained to Steve Clack that an article promised for Issue 38 of
Palmtop did not appear in Issue 1 of Palmtop User. I was impressed and
grateful for the trouble he took to send me a brief summary of what it
would have covered. Thank you, Steve.
Regards
Philip Carlisle
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 10:02:06 +0100
From: Peter Keene
Subject: NIGERIAN SCAM / NETPAD PART ONE
Hi Guys,
For Alan re Nigerian scam:
If I'm not mistaken the gentleman (or gang) concerned has already been arrested Alan. In any case, I forwarded the message, with full path, to MWeb Abuse a few weeks ago. I don't think that you need to take any further action.
Netpad Part One:
As promised, here is the first instalment of my report on the netpad. I confirm that it's all lower-case - on the machines themselves the "net" is italicised. I have broken the report up into several parts to avoid a very long posting. These parts will be posted over the next week or so. Andy, feel free to use them in your PDF fanzine if you like - with acknowledgement :-) I can also let you have many screenshots.
First Impressions.
Psion have an amazing ability to create machines that are instantly desirable. Everyone that I have shown the netpad to has had the same look on their face - passionate longing. It most closely resembles the Newton MessagePad I suppose, but has subtle curves and other design touches that are not apparent in photographs.
This is not a consumer machine, this is a machine that you could go to war with - it is built like a tank. If you ran out of ammo you could use it as a club and still write an e-mail to your loved-ones afterwards. It comes in six configurations. The 1100 is the base model with 16MB SDRAM, transmissive screen and no navigation buttons. The 1200 has the same screen but adds navigation buttons and has 64 MB SDRAM. The 1400 has a transflective screen. The 3500 adds a Symbol scanner but reverts to the transmissive screen, while the 3700 has the scanner and transflective screen.
The transmissive screen is optimised for low-light indoor use while the transflective screen is optimised for bright-light outdoor use. More about the screen in a later instalment.
Although I have said that this is not a consumer machine, I think that, after you have read the full report, you will agree that it is a machine that consumers would love - especially ex-Newton users.
All configurations run Symbian OS V5 (ER 5 to us) and have an upgradeable 16MB Flash ROM. The machine that I have been evaluating is a 1400, made in Canada. The OS is Release 1.51 (189). The ROM is dated 19 July 2002.
The casing of the machine is a very solid, blue polycarbonate with black rubber protectors at the ends. It has an IP Rating of 67 and can survive multiple drops onto concrete from 1,5 metres and is water-resistant to 1,5 metres.
That's it for this part. Please don't send any questions until you have read all the parts - hopefully you will find all the answers there. In the next part I'll cover applications and the battery.
Regards,
Peter
Cape Town
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 11:09:53 +0100
From: "Arent Kits Van Heijningen [106016.3614]"
Subject: 2ConnectU url
There was some debate on the digest about this program, wich allows "non-partnered" PC's ( even those running non-MicroSoft OS'es )to connect to your Psion
http://www.x-soft.cz/download/2ConnectU.CZ.s5mx-Revo_LIMITED.sis
Sorry ,Czech language only
k
P.S xConnect can also be downloaded from this site ,again Czech only
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 14:46:02 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman
Subject: Come down, SPAM, PDF magazine,
Answer to: Peter Keene
Re.: Come down - Sure, sent me a ticket and I'll be right there ... <BG>
Answer to: All
Re.: SPAM - Last week the old digest email address also got these emails of John which I duly deleted. As it did not repeat itself, I suppose in the meantime no further action is required. If SPAM will become a direct result of this digest, we could delete the email addresses, but it would mean direct answers with a copy to the digest would not be possible anymore.
Answer to: Andy Hayes
Re. PDF magazine - I think you got the go ahead sign from this digest readers ... <G>. Success.
Bye,
Itamar Engelsman
London, United Kingdom
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 16:57:55 +0100
From: us
Subject: Re:Psion & iBook
Dear Sanjay,
I too am using that odd combination of S5 classic and white iBook (OSX). I have managed to get them to talk to each other using a Keyspan USB pda adapter and jpl (Java Psion Link) by John Montgomery http://website.lineone.net/~john.montgomery/ although the s5 is getting very long in the tooth and keeps breaking down - end of its natural life? - so I am on the lookout for a 2nd hand 5mx. JPL is apparently due to have an OSX version released later this year, but in the meantime its working fine in "classic mode", after very carefully installing the appropriate drivers for the usb link. Unfortunately jpl is quite basic and only does normal transfer psion-mac and single file transfer mac-psion. I have been unable to try MacConnect as I can't get the installation file off the floppy into my iBook, and I wonder if it would work in OSX. I tried and gave up on using a CF card reader because for every trouble-free transfer there was another when the CF became utterly corrupted by the mac and I was starting to fear serious loss of data.
Just for what its worth I find OSX by far the nicest and most EPOC-like of all "big computer" systems I've used, and the iBook is a nice machine with good features (small, light, instant on/off, useful battery life etc) but to be honest its still a big computer and won't fit in my pocket!
Simon
http://www.simon-s.net/
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 17:23:30 +0100
From: Itamar
Subject: GPRS
Hi All,
Well, I made the step and connected myself to GPRS, I bought the Nokia 6310i. After some thought I decided to stick with Nokia and not to get an all flying machine that does everything I don't need <G>.
It took me some time to connect and will share the few problems I had with you for future reference for other starters :
1/ The instructions on Mike's website for connecting the Nokia 8310 are good for the 6310i too and all settings are correct
2/ After entering all settings I tried to connect and got "already exist". On Mike;'s advise I did a soft reset which cured that problem
3/ Than I got the message on my phone "First subscribe to GPRS". Via customer service I got to Data Service who told me that the cheapest tariff only gives connection to WAP service and not full service to the web. So had to subscribe one tariff up (not much difference). 4/ Now I was succesful in receiving my mail but could not yet send mail. The answer was that one has got to use the smtp server of the ISP in order to send messages [for Vodaphone this is smtp.vizzavi.co.uk] and once entered I finally succeeded in sending emails. One email was 25 Kb large and the total of 2 emails was 41 Kb which costs about 10 pence to send.
I created a sheet file to keep track of how much DATA each session was and accordingly will check whether it is cost effective in Europe or not.
Bye,
Itamar Engelsman
London, United Kingdom
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 19:31:29 +0100
From: Owen H.Morgan
Subject: At sea.
Howdy!
Just a little message to announce that I'm halfway across the Norwegian sea. If the wind holds (, but it won't), I should be in Lerwick, Shetland within 24 hours.
Sending this courtesy of TeleNor's masts on the oilrigs.
Owen
Thought for the day:
It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.
Owen
Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-Sjøhussenteret marina
61°28.17'N 2°35.5'E
Middle of nowhere, Norwegian Sea
http://home.no.net/naomij
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 20:15:50 +0100
From: Andrew Longdon
Subject: Re: Palmtec Cases, Dixons
In my excitement at actually finding two of the above in Dixons in
Manchester, it wasn't until I got them home that I realised that they were
for the Revo not the 5mx!
Therefore, if I can't return them, I will try and flog them here - they
were reduced from £29.99 to £4.97, so I'm open to offers...
,\ndy
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 20:42:48 +0100
From: Keith Giles
Subject: Poll/Spam/Palmtop User
Finally have time to contribute to the poll of 5 most used apps.
1. BikLog (bicycle ride log, statistics, graphs)
2. Agenda (a bit more abbreviated than the PC calendar program I
have - each week I print out a 3-week calendar from it and post it
on the refrigerator)
3. Data (library books I'm looking for, photo record when I'm
traveling)
4. JB5StopGo (for daily backups)
5. Macro5 (does it qualify as an app? - but it is certainly
frequently used)
If I'm allowed to go beyond 5, then, particularly when touring, the
freeware banking program, abp, must be added as well as Word and
Sheet, while Agenda and JB5StopGo are not used at all.
As you can see, I never use any of my Psions for e-mail or internet.
Perhaps I'm missing something not using the Psions for those things,
but my PC (WindowsXP) does just fine. I use 3rd-party e-mail client
(TheBat) and browser (Opera), and never use Outlook.
Re the spam thread: I have gotten very little spam. I have recently
gotten 3 of those "Nigerian" zillion dollar offers but somehow I
don't think they'd pay off. :-) I use a web site e-mail address
for 'contact' on my web site to try and avoid spam on my 'real'
address.
Re Palmtop User: While I'd like to see more EPOC info, I realize
that my Psions, like me, are terminal cases, and there's not much
being done anymore for ER3 and ER5. I don't have any ER6 hardware
and, unless there's an ER6 replacement for the 5mx (no phone) I
probably won't get any. So I must begin to gather more info on other
OS. Therefore I'm not unhappy with the change in Palmtop. I can't
make a big deal out of the fact that they didn't ask my permission
to change format.
Happy Cycling,
Keith - who marches to a different drummer :-)
Sunnyvale, CA
http://home.attbi.com/~ohsix827/
Thought For The Day: A man can usually tell what kind of a time he's
having at a party by the look on his wife's face.
All my outgoing e-mails have been checked by Norton Anti-virus.
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 22:13:18 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: E-mail noise
Dear Friends,
Don't know how it's with you but I find the latest issues of the EPOC Digest more difficult to read due to the increase in 'e-mail noise'.
By e-mail noise I mean:
- The quoting and requoting of whole messages.
- Adding company contact details and disclaimers regarding message contents.
- Quoting the Date, From and Subject lines of the message that's responded to. Specially when multiple replies are combined into a single message.
- Putting a complete e-mail header in the the message.
- Repeating "EPOC DIGEST V1 # xxx" as subject line.
- Etc.
This has the effect that it's not always clear who is writing what. Whether the words I'm reading form the reply or the message that's being replied to. And that it's more difficult to follow people's arguments or explanations.
As it's not the job of the Digest staff to prune and edit our messages before they're fit for publication the request to all is to do the pruning and editing ourselves. Even such a simple thing as putting a blank line between the quote and the response does wonders.
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 22:13:21 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Nokia 7210
Dear Darryl,
<< Itamar asked about the 7210. This is to replace the 6210i and will have ... >>
There's no Nokia 6210i, only the 6210 and the 6210e, an OEM variant for UK network operator Orange. The 6210 has been replaced by the 6310 which, in turn, has been replaced by the 6310i. The new 7210 takes the place of the 7110.
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 22:15:00 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Enhance Full Rate
Dear Gary,
<< EFR is Enhanced Full Rate. The gurus in this group can give you a better explanation but as I was told, this feature imporves the send and receive sensitivity of Nokia mobile phones but eats into your battery time more >>
It has to do with the voice codec inside the phone - the electronics that translate the spoken word into a digital bitstream and back. GSM had two digital voice encoding schemes when it was launched - Full Rate and Half Rate. The latter offers a lower bit rate and allows the network operator to support more active calls that with Full Rate. It's at the expense of encoding accuracy - Half Rate has the familiar 'tin man speaking' quality.
Improvements in voice encoding technology allowed more information to be packed in a bitstream of the same rate. One of these improved schemes was implemented as an extension of Full Rate - Enhanced Full Rate. EFR takes a bit of extra processing power but, as chip sets have become more energy efficient, the effects are relatively minor (about 3% to 5%) and only applies when you're making a voice call.
As Andrew indicates, the *3370# command doesn't work on all Nokia phones that are equipped with an EFR codec. Another thing to note is that all European networks have implemented EFR and Nokia supplies its phones with EFR active as default. The people who used *3370# to activate EFR on their phone have actually switched it off as the command is the equivalent of a toggle switch.
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Darp - Netherlands
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 22:44:53 +0100
From: William Fuggle
Subject: Re: Psion & iBook
Sanjay,
I have an unopened boxed MacConnect which you are welcome to, just contact
me so I can arrange to send you it. I swapped to Palm two years ago because
of the failure of psion to update to the promised new version of MacConnect
- it never did appear. It took 4 months to get hold of the old version
(doesn't work with Mac OSX I've been told) and I had bought a palm by that
time. Sold my 5mx and Revo and haven't regretted it (sorry to say).
>
> I have finally made the switch and bought an iBook for my wife who also uses
> an S5. Does anyone have experience with this setup?
>
> What is a good place to get a cheap copy of MacConnect or is there a better
> alternative method for backing up?
>
Before you all bombard me for those last remarks I am intending to get a
sonyericsson p800 to replace palm and have pre-ordered with Clove. The
reason: Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) demo of new Mac software iSync working
with bluetooth and t68i phone has convinced me that Symbian/psion based
solutions will integrate into my Mac environment. I already use t68, GPRS,
bluetooth (to iBook and Palm). One less device to carry around. My only
worry is the rumour that Apple are going to design an iPhone which will be
sexier than the p800 (but I guess run Symbian) and will match my iBook, iPod
and flat panel iMac!
Bill Fuggle,
Birmingham
UK
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 22:54:42 +0100
From: MartinYirrell
Subject: Siemens phone connections
Alex
I used a Siemens cable from a S25 (which is presumably the same connection as the S45) and connected it to a female 9W D plugged Psion cable connected to a series 3C. The Siemens cable has some ICs in it and can be built but I couldn't be bothered. I've seen some designs on the web. I found IR very reliable (and much more convenient) between the S25 and my current S35 and the 5MX.
Martin
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 22:58:17 +0100
From: Trygve Henriksen
Subject: SPAM, S45
Greetings!
I, too, received the spam, but deleted it without downloading it.
If I had received it on my other address, I would of course have, not only reported it to the ISP who own the server it came via, but the host of their site also.
And for those who use a third party credit card system, I send yet another mail... (Some of those companies are scared silly of being associated with anything that _might_ be illegal)
---
Alexei wrote:
> Does anybody know if there are psion data cables available for Siemens
> S45 phone?
I use the standard Siemens Data cable together with the Psiwart cable and a 'null-modem' bit in the middle to connect my M50 to my netBook.
(I belive the S45 uses the same connector)
It's a little bit unwieldy, but it works...
Also, wasn't there a site 'Psionleads' where you could order special cables?
:-)
Trygve
Who has now added a Psion II CM to his collection...
(I now have 10 Psion's and a Geofox... )
*++++++++++&
Date: 20 Aug 2002 23:04:27 +0100
From: MartinYirrell
Subject: The Nigerian (or Unsolicited African Emails)
I was advised to send all emails of this type to the local police Fraud Squad. In the UK they use the data to keep an eye on these things.
Martin Yirrell
*++++++++++&
Date: 21 Aug 2002 04:06:35 +0100
From: Gary Y Reyes
Subject: SMS in foreign countries
>Date: 19 Aug 2002 21:19:09 +0100
>From: Rolf Brunsting
>Subject: Re: SMS in foreign countries
The latest "thing" in our country is our two major mobile telcos are advertising international roaming for both voice and text (both postpaid and prepaid). It appears from the ads, you do not need to make any changes to your configuration for this to happen.
I guess those intending to text in areas not their country of residence can first check if their telco has a roaming agreement. If so, this should facilitate the setup.
Gary
*++++++++++&
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