Epocdigest V1 # 430

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Epoc Digest Fri, 23 Jan 2004 Volume 01 : Number 430

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Sent to: 798 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 18 messages:

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

- Revo: Loose Keys and Battery Charge Fix

- US Spell

- Netbook US adapter / Internet in Houston / WLAN

- Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 427 (11)

- Netpad,power supplys, wonderful digest

- New Psion Fan

- Re: Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protection

- Re: Netbook power specs

- Re: Difference between Psion and Pocket PC users

- Re: Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protection

- Cable Repair

- Re: Ebook replace macro

- Re: Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protection

- Work from out of the office

- US Spell , Atomic time & Crontab, CronTab, Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protect

- Re: Random numbers

- Email addresses

- Re: USB Psi Win cable

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 17:15:06 +0100

From: Stephen Stone

Subject: Revo: Loose Keys and Battery Charge Fix

Whoops, the power of suggestion in my subject line caused me to hit the return key for send with an empty message seen above. Apologies!

*Revo loose keys*

My Revo has developed a problem that I've seen mentioned but no repair has been described. The keys on the Revo are "hinged" at their bottoms thus: a horizontal tab at the bottom of each key sits in a depression in the rubber membrane that forms the base of the keyboard. The hinge is secured by some type of glue or mastic. My most used keys -- Ctrl and Fn -- have lost their moorings. The mastic has lost its grip -- probably due to the slight twisting of the keys as I've stretched to tap other keys simultaneously while executing macros and commands.

I will have only one chance I think to use the proper mastic to resecure the key hinges. Does anyone know what that mastic is?

*Revo Battery System Reset*

Many people complain of various problems with Revo battery recharging. I've seen all sorts of speculation about the fix for these problems. I've had my Revo on the charger most days 24 hours. My batteries still work well 2.5 years after putting my Revo in service. The suggestion that keeping the Revo off the charge and recharging it only when it is nearly discharge is erroneous. NiMH batteries like to be kept topped up if possible -- they deliver only so many charge cycles, so you don't want to discharge them, unless, of course, you are using your Revo for portability.

The fix for most Revo problems is simply to do an extra hard reset: hold the reset pins down for 4 minutes, not just the poke that the manual instructs. It will be interesting to discuss results with those readers who try the extra hard reset. The charging system simply gets confused every once in a while and needs to be reinstructed by the e.h.r.

Resettably yours,

Stephen Stone

former Psion Dealer

Santa Barbara, California

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 17:19:08 +0100

From: Woody B

Subject: US Spell

I was the one that asked about US Spell -dictionary- for my Mbook. I don't know if it is the same "spell" as in a 5 or Revo. Any suggestions? Woody

>>Owen said... "The Diamond Mako comes with the US Spell application on CD. As I prefer UK English, I installed the UK one that came with my first Revo instead. I'm sure some nice Mako owner with a faster Internet connection than me would be happy to e-mail you the US spell application, assuming it's the Revo you need it for. The 5ives and MC218 have Spell in ROM, but you can use an alternative dictionary with it. I don't know what the case is with 7evens and Books."

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 18:26:49 +0100

From: Thomas F. VAN DER ZIJDEN

Subject: Netbook US adapter / Internet in Houston / WLAN

Hello group,

Today I received the news that I will be moving to Houston or its surroundings in the coming months, so I have some questions for the technical people here.

1) I followed the discussion on this list, but failed to draw the conclusion. Which is the cheapest / best way to obtain a US power adapter for my beloved Malaybook ? I am now still in Belgium. Would Expansys then still be the way ?

2) I was wondering : do Americans have broadband Internet for home use ? What is available in the Houston area ?

3) I have now installed a WLAN network for my Malaybook, but I fail to see the following points:

a. How do I use encryption on the Malaybook ? I do not see an option for that.

b. In Delft there is a wireless network for students, but you need to insert your password and username. For PC's there seems to be a client that does that, but can the Malaybook do this ? With a dialup internet connection there is a possibility, but apparently not with a WLAN connection.

c. I now do not use encryption, but if I tell the router that only one specific MAC address is allowed, would this then be safe enough to prevent the rest of the street from surfing my Internet connection ?

d. Does anybody has an nFTP friendly FTP-server for my PC ? I use ServU, but when I log in on the PC's 192.168.xxx.xxx IP-address with nFTP, it crashes.

Any other comments on life in Texas by either expats or Texans are very welcome by PM, as I do not have any idea on what I just put myself in. :-)

Yours sincerely,

Thomas VAN DER ZIJDEN

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 18:40:29 +0100

From: Paula1323

Subject: Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 427 (11)

US spell program- _www.iespell.com_ (http://www.iespell.com) . Ths program works with internet programs as well.

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 18:50:40 +0100

From: Paula1323

Subject: Netpad,power supplys, wonderful digest

Targas has an adapter that works with the MnetBook. I bought mine from

CompUSA.

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 19:25:29 +0100

From: vlad a

Subject: New Psion Fan

Friend of mine just bought a 5MX. I came back from a vacation & found him grinning looking ten years younger. Showed him 2 tricks - & seldom saw a happier face...

The destiny of the Psion is SO damn' silly... If I was a millionaire I would buy the production line and wouldn't care if it made a profit or not. Wouldn't be the silliest charity one could think of, either ;-)

He's travelling to South Africa shortly, I'd like to enable him to read his email there either with a Nokia series 6- or 7- (works perfectly with his gracious PhoneMan) or I'll lend him my GoldCard.

I'd much appreciate settings, providers, details about phone-connections/ connectors etc. in sufficient detail to have his system up & mailing...

Thanks,

best,

vlad a

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 19:31:22 +0100

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protection

Howdy!

Chris S Handley wrote (> ):

> A big tip: If you suddenly start getting some (or

> more) spam, you may have accidentally made your

> address public

The first line of defence is to do a search on a few different search engines to see if anyone else has made your address public. If you find it, contact whoever posted it and let them know what you think about it. (Note to self, check this the next time I'm at an Internet Café.)

> For example, if you are on a private email list

> (such as Epoc Digest!), perhaps a spammer has

> subscribed himself, so that he can see the

> addresses of those subscribed (or at least those

> posting).

I think this is quite unlikely. Spammers work on the principle that they send out truckloads of e-mails and if only one in a thousand bite, they are making money. Manually harvesting addresses from an e-mail based list wouldn't be worth their while. Only a small percentage of the 700 odd users on this list ever post to the list. Harvesting from the www or usenet lists or an online archive of an e-mail based list can be done automatically without any work from the spammer other than setting the software going and is far more worthwhile for them.

The exception would be if someone selling Psion related stuff decided to start spamming the users on the list, as they could expect a much larger percentage of hits from a Psion list than from the general public. This is largely prevented by self policing. If someone in the Psion business started spamming the digest members, this would quickly lead to the shit hitting the fan on the list, and the spammer would lose business.

I'm a bit surprised that nobody has reacted to the posts from Chris Pulster. I suppose the reason is that his posts are short, on topic and he seems to be leaving a trail of happy customers. I wonder what would happen if someone we _didn't_ like started posting Psion related stuff for sale on the list. How could we make that person stop when (s)he can point to the posts from www.pulster.de and say we've been letting Chris get away with it?

(I'm not asking anyone to make Chris Pulster stop. I may even buy an mBook from him one day if the lust overcomes the pain in my wallet.)

Owen

Thought for the day:

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job.

- Douglas Adams, "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-928°05.31'N 17°06.53'W

San Sebastian, La Gomera, Canary Islands

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Spain +34 620520079

In Norway: +47 92053097

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 19:31:30 +0100

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Netbook power specs

Howdy!

Scott Lloyd wrote (> ):

> In the last digest someone ask the question about

> the power specs for the netbook they are as

> follows: 15.5 volts 1.5 amps

If anyone is interested in using a 7even or -Book on a boat or in a car, they might like to have a look at the Vanson™ SDR70W power supply. Input is 11-14V DC and output is user selectable 15, 16, 18, 19, or 20V CD 3.5A and 22 or 24V DC 2.9A.

I bought mine at Maplin's in Dublin for around € 30-40. I use it for a Toshiba notebook and my Canon BJC80 printer, but I seem to remember someone said that one of the plugs that came with it will fit the big Psions.

I think the URL is www.vanson.com, but if i'm wrong, a google should find it. I remeber looking at the site when some friends of mine were looking for a 12V adapter for a laptop. They're sailing to Australia from the UK, and had shipped their Toshiba to Australia with the power supply for the Dell, so they had a laptop and a powersupply on their boat, but nothing working.

Owen

Thought for the day:

If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think they'll hate you.

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-928°05.31'N 17°06.53'W

San Sebastian, La Gomera, Canary Islands

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Spain: +34 620520079

In Norway: +47 92053097

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 19:31:37 +0100

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Difference between Psion and Pocket PC users

Howdy!

Moshe Nahir wrote (> ):

> IMHO there is a clear difference between a Psion

> user and a PocketPC user. The Psion user only

> needs the Psion - a desktop PC is not an essential

> part of the package. The Psion is used in the

> office (but not for email)

Whyever not? I've been using Psions for all my e-mail for years.

Owen

Thought for the day:

I know about the early bird and the worm, but what would I want with a worm? - Owen

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-928°05.31'N 17°06.53'W

San Sebastian, La Gomera, Canary Islands

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Spain +34 620520079

In Norway: +47 92053097

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

Date: 21 Jan 2004 22:16:50 +0100

From: Rolf Vonau

Subject: Re: Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protection

Reference is made to the mail in the Epoc Digest V1 # 429 (15) :

Chris S Handley wrote at 21.01 2004 (> ):

> What worries me is that the Digest still provides

> FULL email addresses in actual Digest posts (but

> not archives), and this means that SOONER OR LATER

> a clever enough spammer will get himself

> subscribed, and then harvest our addresses.

Hi Chris and all,

you are right. As we don't put the whole addresses in the archive site, the onliest possibility of spammers is to subscribe the digest and get the addresses of writers.

> The simple solution would be for me to post using a

> fake address, but unfortunately Psion Email will

> not automatically do this for only Digest posts,

> so I can't.

Psion Email can't, but _we_ can put things right:

the EpocDigest handling program gives us the possibility to put in the Digest only author's name, e.g.

Date: 21 Jan 2004 09:30:51 +0100

From: Chris S Handley

Subject: Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protection

Who wishes to see his/her address in this form in the Digest, should only inform us (you remember: with ADMIN in the subject) and we will set the address flag in our database accordingly to your wishes.

For the other team members: open the address database with Digest.opo, find the appropriate address, press Enter and remove the hook in the field "Addr. visible".

If someone want to know the whole address of a subscriber for replying him by PM, I'm ready to send a PM with this address. I think the other Digest team member also will do so.

> email addresses, but I believe I am one step ahead

> of them by splitting my address into MULTIPLE

> parts (each a separate picture), and then showing

> them side-by-side on my web page.

I'm showing my address at my homepage also as GIF file, only

It's a good idea, to split this picture into some parts. I will change my picture,too.

Best Regards

Rolf

Munich

http://home.arcor.de/rhvonau/index.htm

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

Date: 22 Jan 2004 03:57:52 +0100

From: Astrid Stappenbeck

Subject: Cable Repair

Hi all,

my Psion is back and I want to report my experiences with the repair.

When the screencable decided it had enough I wasn't sure where to send the 5mx - SRS GmbH or ka-flex. Both use an improved cable without holes.

SRS is a bit more expensive but the more or less official Psion repaircenter replacement and it offers all kinds of repairs (my mains socket was down as well).

Ka-flex is a screencable specialist and as such has an enlargement of the cable-compartment on offer as well which should take some further strain from the cable. Ka-flex was born out of the community and part of the price charged goes to the German Psionwelt to support their site.

I mailed to Matthias Klein of ka-flex (on a Friday evening) and asked whether he could repair the power supply as well. The answer came on Saturday and he offered to have a look at it (suspecting that it only had come loose and would just require some soldering).

So I packed my Psion (removing all stuff as instructed: batteries, stylus, cf) and posted it on Monday. Credit transfer (srs offers only COD in Germany) took my bank a while as usual but next Monday my Psion was posted again as I was told by ka-flex and has now arrived - fully repaired, the power supply even free of charge, the broken cable came back as well and the faulty spot marked (close to a hole as expected). The Psion has even some batteries in it and the os was loaded - great service!

Prices:

32,50 € cable (no holes!)

69 € cable + repair

76 € cable + repair + cable compartment enlargement

Guarantee: 6 months

Site: www.ka-flex.de

If you find yourself with a stripy or blank screen in the future do consider ka-flex.

Astrid

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

Date: 22 Jan 2004 03:57:57 +0100

From: Astrid Stappenbeck

Subject: Re: Ebook replace macro

Hi Grant,

> A couple of weeks ago the following macro was posted to automate the task of adding line breaks to text:

. . .

SendKey:("Ctrl+f")

SendKey:("Fn+

. . .

Is it possible to search for the "Tab" character rather than tcharacter with OPL/Macro5? I've attempted a few possibilities but to no avail... <

I fear you have run into the same problem as I did when I wanted to replace with "Enter". Both "Enter" and "Tab" do have functions in a find and replace operation and can therefore not be entered in the ordinary way as characters.

You could get round this problem by manually marking the tab-space in the document before calling the replace routine. The tab will then be in the first field. You can then enin the second field and so replace all tabs wand run the macro.

If you have in your original text simply choose another sign "#" e.g. and change the macro accordingly.

Hope this helps,

Astrid

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

Date: 22 Jan 2004 03:58:04 +0100

From: Astrid Stappenbeck

Subject: Re: Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protection

Chris S Handley wrote:

> If you suddenly start getting some (or more) spam, you may have accidentally made your address public ... <

> For example, if you are on a private email list (such as Epoc Digest!), perhaps a spammer has subscribed himself, so that he can see the addresses of those subscribed (or at least those posting). <

> What worries me is that the Digest still provides FULL email addresses in actual Digest posts (but not archives), and this means that SOONER OR LATER a clever enough spammer will get himself subscribed, and then harvest our addresses... <

> I therefore would REALLY like the Digest to change it's policy on revealing full email addresses. If someone TRUELY needs to reply to someone else in private, they can ask that someone to (on purpose) post their address to the Digest - or alternatively post their own address & ask the other person to email them privately. <

I strongly disagree. I doubt that a (clever) spammer would go to that much trouble and subscribe to a digest send to about 800 people most of them rather readers than contributers. And he would have to wait quite a number of digests to get say 100 different addresses.

There are far easier and faster ways to reach that number.

On the other hand it would make direct replies more difficult (and probably rarer), address management would become a major topic in digests (not that interesting to read) and I think we had this suggestion some time ago and a good many weren't exactly delighted.

It would add very little security (because the risk of a sneak is very remote) but the digest and communication would suffer disproportionately.

Chris, if you are that much concerned about your privacy that you feel you have to cover every eventuality you're free to post from a fake address now that it no longer has to come from your subscription address...

If a majority of digestees preferred not to see their addresses posted it would be different but at the moment, I think, we should leave further precautions to the individual.

The main danger was the net and the old digests that you can access that way. This has been taken care of and we shouldn't sacrifice a very comfortable feature for a tiny bit of extra security.

Astrid

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

Date: 22 Jan 2004 04:36:30 +0100

From: Joe Fell

Subject: Work from out of the office

> to John Wetton

I've been home for three months (broken leg) and kept working by having a friend set up "gotomypc" at my computer at work. Now, from any internet-enabled computer, I can "sit" at my desk and work. Disadvantage: all printouts are in the office!

Joe

"www.gotomypc.com"

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

Date: 22 Jan 2004 13:16:45 +0100

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: US Spell , Atomic time & Crontab, CronTab, Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protect

Answer to: Owen, Jack & others

Re.: US Spell - There are also several programs and macros to allow you to switch between spell checkers and dictionaires like SpellX (if I remember correctly) and Switchdico.

Re. Atomic time & Crontab - Thanks for the idea, but the advantage of Atomic Time is to have it on automatic so every time you connect the time on the Psion is automatically checked and updated. Secondly, Crontab is a great little program unique in it's functions, but it was quite poorly written. There is no menu function to enter a new alarm and you can only do it by screen commands. I've put Atomit Time on manual now and will just activate it from time to time whilest connected (ah ! a good use of multiple function <G>).

Answer to: Andy Hayes

Re. CronTab - In your case Owen's solution will work very well. Write (or record) a macro to close Crontab, back-up your Agenda file and open Crontab again.

Answer to: Chris S Handley

Re. Spam & the Digest's anti-spam protection - Thanks for your message. Personally I don't believe that the digest is important enough for a Spammer to actually manually subscribe himself to get several hundred email addresses while they can get thousands and thousands easier and automaticly. Each subscriber is added manually to the digest by the operators, it is not a fully automatic process. Theoretically you are right, in practice I don't feel that the danger warrants a change. However, if others disagree let us know.

Best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

London, UK

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

Date: 22 Jan 2004 16:35:56 +0100

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Random numbers

Howdy!

Thanks to all who replied to this. I have implemented Chris Handley's suggestion and used

RANDOMIZE INT((((MONTH*31.0 + DAY)*24.0 + HOUR)*60.0 + MINUTE) * 60.0 + SECOND)

I also placed the RANDOMIZE sentence outside the loop as suggested by several people. My life is now a lot less predictable. :o) I may also follow David Steer's' advice and store the seed value to make sure the next one is not identical.

Then Andrew Gregory comes along and confuses the issue by suggesting:

RANDOMIZE DATETOSECS(YEAR,MONTH,DAY,HOUR,MINUTE,SECOND)

Is this better than Chris Handley's ultimate randomize number? What, if anything is the difference?

BTW, I guess some of you may be curious just what it is I'm randomizing. It's simply a list of all the albums I have on my MP3 player. I have found that one of the few disadvantages of replacing all my CD's with a 20gig MP3 player is that I can no longer browse through a bookshelf of CD's looking at the covers when I don't really know what I want to listen to. This leads to music lurking in a dusty corner of the MP3 player and being forgotten about. Out of sight out of mind.

My program simply brings up the name of an album on screen in a dialog box where I can hit ESC to quit the program or ENTER to come up with another suggestion if I'm not in the mood for what the program suggests.

BTW, this isn't the full relational database of albums I was talking about setting up a while ago. I haven't got around to this yet. It's simply a list of all the albums without artist names or any other details.

Owen

Thought for the day:

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package.

Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-928°02.83'N 16°42.89'W

Los Cristianos, Tenerife

http://home.no.net/naomij

Phone and SMS:

In Spain: +34 620520079

In Norway: +47 92053097

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

Date: 22 Jan 2004 19:59:49 +0100

From: Ian Chapple

Subject: Email addresses

Chris wrote,

>>I therefore would REALLY like the Digest to change it's policy on revealing full email addresses. If someone TRUELY needs to reply to someone else in private, they can ask that someone to (on purpose) post their address to the Digest - or alternatively post their own address & ask the other person to email them privately.<<

I agree with Chris on this point. I have just had my work email address changed due to excessive spam problems; of the 210 emails that I received over Christmas, 180 were spam, and most were undetected by my Office's spam filter. I have unsubscribed from the Digest at my old work address, and am loathe to re-subscribe using my new address for this very reason. As Chris said, if someone REALLY wants contacting, they can choose to include their address. At the end of the day, including all addresses is really not necessary, and can only potentially cause problems.

Having already been expanded, lengthened, made firm, given unbelievable ****** stamina, bought all the printer cartridges I can, as well as much v**gr* as I can shake a stick at, I feel that the people bombarding me with spam have nothing more to offer me....

Cheers, Ian.

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

Date: 22 Jan 2004 23:29:03 +0100

From: Alan Morris

Subject: Re: USB Psi Win cable

Melvin Woody wrote:-

> Will the USB PsiWin cable that both expansys and other

> places serve just as well as the RS232 cable for

> communicaton with my desktop and laptop? It would be much

> more convenient to plug into my USB hub than to run an

> RSB232 cable around to the back of my desktop.

A couple of points Melvin. You don't say which version of windows you are using. I can't get a USB/serial Belkin adapter to work with XP - yes I have a new laptop, so no important serial port. Others have similar problems, while some say they have no problems. Like many other 'windows problems', some have problems others don't - it's pot luck.

On a w98 desktop I have a male/female extension cable always plugged in to the back of the floor mounted tower. The other end is conveniently positioned to plug in any serial device, including 5 Psions.