-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tips for Posting to the Digest and how to unsubscribe
at the end of the Digest
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Epoc Digest Sun, 15 Dec 2002 Volume 01 : Number 126
************************************************************************
Sent to: 710 subscribers
In today's Epoc Digest 14 messages:
==============================
- Re: macro for opening any file in an Editor
- Re: Tomtom cityplanner
- ideas for the "E"drive ?, Morality & Shareware, CityMaps/TomTom,
- scanning with digital camera
- Re: Scanning using a digital camera
- Re: Satellite tracking software.
- Opening unknown filetypes
- Re: RMRNews
- 5mx Pro
- Screen Cable Failure
- unsuscribe
- Re: scanning
- Multiclip
- Re:Problem with Contacts and Spell
*++++++++++&
Date: 12 Dec 2002 21:38:55 +0000
From: Wolfgang Golder
Subject: Re: macro for opening any file in an Editor
Hi Ulrich,
concerning your question in EpocDigest. Some time ago I had a similar problem.
Try FgSystem: before calling CurrentFolder$:/CurrentFile$: - it solved the problem for me.
BTW: together with some people I am still developing a filemanager application (Psion Commander) which is able to launch many apps/files/orwhatever. Currently we are working on internationalisation. Is anybody interested in other languages than english or german. If yes, could she/he take over the translation in this language?
A VERY outdated version is available at my homepage (see below). The current developer version has fixed most (hopefully all) problems.
Anybody who is interested please contact me.
Cheers
Wolfgang
--
http://www.golder.de
*++++++++++&
Date: 12 Dec 2002 23:35:56 +0000
From: Alan Morris
Subject: Re: Tomtom cityplanner
Kevin Thorne wrote:-
<<<Another point is that .SIS files for maps changed. They have a new proprietary file format that is similar to .ZIP files.>>>
<< Presumably this is to stop people distributing multiple copies perhaps? i.e. it MUST be installed directly from the PC intentionally. In any case, a right pain as I'll have to get to a PC every time I want to install (or re-install it at some future date). Drat and bother. >>
My comments were about the individual maps and not the app and GPS support.
I've just checked the CD (which is why a long delay in replying) and there are 3 .SIS files on the CD - mono, colour & GPS. So the apps can be copied to a Psion and held there (on say a 1Gb HD) for later installation. But this does not solve the maps problem.
--
Alan R Morris, G4ENS.
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.
Using a Psion & Nokia 6210e.
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Dec 2002 00:17:44 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman
Subject: ideas for the "E"drive ?, Morality & Shareware, CityMaps/TomTom,
Answer to: All
Re: ideas for the "E"drive ? - Sofar I di dnot read any other answers than using it for extra storage space. Is there anything else one can do with the E drive ?
Answer to: Gary Y Reyes & others
Re. Morality & Shareware - I kept out of this discussion and will basically keep out of it. I just wondered, would anyone question today the taping of music on a tape recorder or the copying of films on videotape ? Don't we all do that sometimes ?
To All
Re. CityMaps/TomTom - Still no answer from a lucky owner whether the maps have really improved dramatically or not and what if any changes there are in the program itself. Anyone ?
Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Dec 2002 02:34:55 +0000
From: PaulDDB
Subject: scanning with digital camera
Reply to Kevin Thorne
This is a bit off topic - but using a digital camera to copy documets, it must be truly perpendicular or you get terrible "keystone" distortion (a rhombus).
Place a mirror in the middle of the document you're going to copy - line up the camera and move it (sideways or up and down) till you can see an image of the lens exactly in the middle of the viewfinder/ monitor.
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Dec 2002 17:19:53 +0000
From: Owen H. Morgan
Subject: Re: Scanning using a digital camera
Howdy!
Kevin Thorne wrote (> ):
> I'm not sure whether my 1.3 megapixal
> Pentax E100 would have enough resolution though?
I routinely use my 2.2 megapixel Nikon to take snaps of information boards at tourist attractions so that I will not forget the details of the place. Even though the boards are usually quite a bit bigger than a printed document, the text is often small enough to be comparable or even smaller as a percentage of the whole.
The snaps are always perfectly readable when I zoom in to 1:1 resolution on the PC screen, and I would expect them to be equally readable on a NetBook. It should work fine even with a 1.3 megapixel camera providing your camera is able to focus at the relatively short distance needed to fill the image with a standard sheet of paper. You may need to use the macro setting if it has one.
> Perhaps someone with good knowledge of photography
> could kindly advise me on the best lighting,
> settings etc (off-digest perhaps as this is not
> really EPOC related) so I could make sure I'm
> getting the best results?
Proper repro stands are still available from good photo shops or try mail-order from Jessop's. I don't have the URL, but would guess they are at www.jessops.co.uk. If that doesn't work, try without the "s" or replace the ".co.uk" with ".com".
Repro stands are used by professional photographers to create reproductions of photographs where the negative is unavailable. The stand is a table with the camera centred above it and four light sources above and a bit out from the corners pointing towards the middle at a 45 degree (or adjustable) angle. Some stands have small holes that hold the original to the stand by connecting it to a vacuum cleaner. I'm sure someone still makes portable ones.
> I'm thinking of making a simple clipboard mounting
> vertically and then just putting the camera on a
> tripod.
That should work just fine providing you can make the original document hang flat (use blue tack?) and have a way of making the camera perfectly level. A camera stand with a built in spirit level in the tilt and pan head will help with this.
The most important thing if you need good quality is to get the camera perfectly square to the original, have even lighting over the whole surface and avoid reflections. One of the best light sources for this (or any photography for that matter) is in fact ambient light outdoors in the shade, but even direct sunlight should work fine as long as you're only reproducing documents and not taking portraits.
Providing your camera is able to make long exposures (up to a couple of seconds) and you are able to switch off the built in flash, you'd probably be OK with just the ambient light in an office with the camera on a stand. It depends how important the quality is. The poor man's camera stand is the humble bean bag.
If you cannot turn off the built-in flash, try deflecting it with a piece of paper or cardboard taped to the camera and using two flashes, one either side of the original as slaves. Jessop's have a small slave sensor that plugs into a flash and sets it off if another flash is fired in the vicinity. I've used them with studio flashes where I'd have one small cheap flash aimed away from the subject attached to the camera and have a slave on each of the studio lights. It saved having a cable connected to the camera and people tripping over cables around the studio. Most modern studio flashes have built in slaves, but for this job, you'd probably go for a pair of small and cheap handhelds, so would need the slave adapters.
You'd have to experiment with the settings on the flashes and probably turn them way down, as your aim is to provide the same amount of light as the puny built-in one (that's what the camera thinks it's getting), but get the light source(s) further away from the lens to avoid glare and reflections. If the repro is still overexposed or you get reflections, try bouncing the flashes off sheets of white paper or fire through diffusers or even through paper. Once you've found a system that works, you should be able to do it the same way next time without further experiment.
You may find that the black and white setting of your camera gives a crisper result, particularly if it doesn't have a manual adjustment for white balance (or a very good automatic one) and it may be a good idea to increase the contrast setting on the camera if it has a manual override. The end result will be a lot better if the white is really white, not light grey and the black is really black, not dark grey. However, I seem to remember having problems opening black and white jpegs in Web on my EPOC machines.
Owen
Thought for the day:
A fool and his honey are soon parted.
--
Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-53°20.87'N 6°14.83'W
Dublin City Moorings
http://home.no.net/naomij
Phone and SMS:
In Ireland: +353 (0)87 7474173
In Norway: +47 92053097
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Dec 2002 17:20:10 +0000
From: Owen H. Morgan
Subject: Re: Satellite tracking software.
Howdy!
Alan Morris wrote (> ):
> Are the three WorldSpace radio satellites
> AfriStar, AmeriStar and AsiaStar geostationary?
Yes. If they hadn't been, I would have had to constantly move my antenna...
> It's simple BASIC that runs on a
> DOS/windows PC, but I have intentions of
> converting it to OPL.
I already got a spreadsheet that does the job admirably from another list member, but would still like to write a program to do it and perhaps automatically use the current GPS position if available. I suppose I can "steal" the formulas from the spreadsheet, but if you could e-mail me the source code for the Basic program, I'd like to have that too. I will report back to the list when I have something functional.
Owen
Thought for the day:
Remember, the paper is always strongest at the perforations.
--
Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-53°20.87'N 6°14.83'W
Dublin City Moorings
http://home.no.net/naomij
Phone and SMS:
In Ireland: +353 (0)87 7474173
In Norway: +47 92053097
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Dec 2002 17:26:58 +0000
From: Astrid Stappenbeck
Subject: Opening unknown filetypes
U Hornstein wrote:
>I (and many of you too) have need for a Macro5 that acts like this:
>1) On system screen, being in any directory of any drive, mark the file of interest. >2) Call the macro (or as an app, I do not care).
>3) The marked file is opened in the Symbian Text editor or in another (Hex) editor.
There is an application or rather a plugin for PsiLoc called plOpen which lets you choose which application is to open a certain filetype. There are also options for unknown filetypes. I remember I had set it to ASK, so whenever I tried to open a ?-file, a window popped up with all installed applications listed and I could select an editor or viewer. The unregistered demo-version allows only one added filetype-application pair. I did not register the application because it stopped to work: when I tried to launch a file it remained silent. There is nothing said about a 30 days period or so (it was less on my machine when the problem occurred). De- and reinstallation didn't help but after a hard reset I tried it again and it worked (for a while).
Homepage and Demo.zip are here:
http://www.psiloc.com/psion/eng/plopen/
http://www.psiloc.com/pub/plOpenEn.zip
Maybe others have more luck with this program.
Astrid
______________________________________________________________________________
Den Komfort von WEB.DE FreeMail nutzen, aber die alten E-Mail-Adressen nicht
aufgeben? Kein Problem: http://freemail.web.de/features/?mc=021128
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Dec 2002 21:20:16 +0000
From: PRAR
Subject: Re: RMRNews
>
>There is no solution. I reported the problem to RMR when I encountered >it, and they initially said that a fix would be released. Sadly the >author then decided it was too difficult, so I requested and received a >refund. This problem also affects Telewest/Blueyonder's News Server.
<http://www.newzbot.com> will give you a list of alternative news-servers. One of these should be suitable for RMRNews. News.CIS.DFN.DE is a good start for many groups (but not binaries generally).
The other approach would be to contact your ISP and complain about their server!
PRAR
--
(Insert witty comment here.)
*++++++++++&
Date: 14 Dec 2002 11:51:33 +0000
From: Darryl Kempster
Subject: 5mx Pro
Jason Garbutt informed us that Clove Technology are apparently getting some 5mx Pro's in about 2 weeks. I checked the website but doesn't mention that these were german only machines so the os including all menu commands etc will be in german.
I have emailed Clove to see if they have somehow managed to switch Os's (POS apparently refurbished the machines) I seem to remember one of our French members tried to change the language interface but without success.So if these do run in english would be very interesting to find out how they did it.
I always wondered if it would have been possible to install the flash ROM from a netbook onto a 5mx pro, that way you could get an english machine and an upgraded os! Anyone fancy trying?
Darryl
*++++++++++&
Date: 14 Dec 2002 18:41:20 +0000
From: "John Wellock"
Subject: Screen Cable Failure
Hi everyone
After 3 years of constant abuse, my 5MX has finally succumbed to the dreaded screen cable failure, ie after opening up this morning, nothing on the screen but horizontal lines. Could somebody offer me any advice on where to send it for repair, POS Ltd or the Psion repair centre. Which is the best place? any recommendations, not too bothered about price or time taken to repair as long as it's a good job!
Regards
John Wellock (Now having to use Toshiba Pocket PC and Nokia 6210 to read this forum untill 5MX repaired)
*++++++++++&
Date: 14 Dec 2002 23:07:43 +0000
From: Alan Morris
Subject: Re: scanning
Kevin Thorne wrote:-
<<<What's it called that pen-shaped scanner thingie?>>>
<< I think it was called a C-Pen. But it's an OCR scanner which isn't much use to me. >>
There is also the 'Pocket Reader' made by Siemens. I use it with my 5mx and the app 'Reader 1.42'. Also an OCR scanner and very useful at times. A good buy at about £30. See:-
www.psicix.co.uk (taken from 'About')
--
Alan R Morris, G4ENS.
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK.
Using a Psion & Nokia 6210e.
*++++++++++&
Date: 15 Dec 2002 02:33:28 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman
Subject: Multiclip
Some time ago we discussed programs to effect multiple copying of data instead of the standard "Copy" and "Paste" function. We only found the program "Cocopapa" or something like that that copies and pastes multiple texts in the same order only.
Today I found on the website of Tucows the macro Multiclip, which allows you to copy multiple texts. When pasting it gives you a choice of the texts you copied to paste in the order you want to. It gives a total of 20 texts after which it will overwrite the oldest one, but you can also delete texts from the list yourself. Definitely worth a try.
Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
*++++++++++&
Date: 15 Dec 2002 19:22:10 +0000
From: Aleck Cartwright
Subject: Re:Problem with Contacts and Spell
I wonder whether anyone can help me, I recently bought a series 5mx for myself and gave my Revo to my wife, but have recently come across a problem opening Contacts and Spell, the error I get is
EIKON-CLOCK
Reason number 1
for both applications it is the exact same problem. I'm sure it is reasonably simple to fix, just wondered if anyone had any thoughts. I have fixed something similar in the past on my Revo, but can't remember how!?!
Thanks,
Aleck Cartwright
Cell: 07786962598
web: www.god-life.com
*++++++++++&
************************************************************************
Website : http://www.psioneering.co.uk/digest.html
************************************************************************
***** Tips for Posting to the Digest *****
1 - Never send the previous Digest with your reply !!!
2 - Remember to write a meaningful Subject Line [and do
not repeat the subject text of the digest].
3 - Avoid sending HTML ("rich email") or MIME encoded,
it's not ASCII text. The HTML attachment will blow up
your email and increase the download time 3 times or
more.
4. Send your messages to the above email address with the
following in the subject field:
- a meaningfull subject description for your messages
- (UN)SUBSCRIBE to join or leave the digest
- ADMIN for all other matters for the digest team
5. How to Unsubscribe/Subscribe from the Epoc Digest:
Send a message with in
the subject line the word SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE
and no text in the message. Only messages (un)subscribing
the email message in the "From" line will be accepted
(you cannot unsubscribe someone else).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You've Been Reading the Epoc Digest
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3
To reply or to send your own messages,
subscribe by sending an email to
with SUBSCRIBE in the subject.