Epocdigest V1 # 434

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Epoc Digest Thu, 29 Jan 2004 Volume 01 : Number 434

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Sent to: 805 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 21 messages:

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- Digest Services

- Anti-static case for Revo or 5 mx

- Re email2notepad (4 Eric & Owen)

- EC standard plugs

- Re nConvert & html

- Backing up Revo to 5mx, backing up 5mx to CF

- For Neil -- communication problem

- Re: Power/Backlight, Dictiionary

- Re Little Sense (& cobuilt 4 )

- Re: RANDOMIZE

- Re: Scandinavian keys # 433

- 5mx Heart Beat

- CronTab

- Advansys

- netBook problem?

- re: New Psion Fan, Nokia # 433

- Re: Netbook with Scandinavian keys/characters

- Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 430 (7) : Re : Internet in Houston (4Thomas )

- Re: Software registration codes.

- Hotmail plain text setting.

- Re: Micro$oft

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Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004

From: Digest administrator

Subject: Digest Services

Dear All,

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The Epocdigest Team

With best regards

Itamar Engelsman

The Epoc Digest Team

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Date: 27 Jan 2004 14:39:09 +0000

From: Antony

Subject: Anti-static case for Revo or 5 mx

To: Elizabeth C. Baker

> ... Is there any anti-static material that is light weight that might be available in a zipper case that will shield a Psion or Revo or small digital camera ? ... <

Yes. Aluminium foil. Great for cooking chickens and baking potatoes too!

Antony Booth

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Date: 27 Jan 2004 14:54:45 +0000

From: Jack

Subject: Re email2notepad (4 Eric & Owen)

Re : To Eric Lindsay reply to Owen H. Morgan's html conversion failures

Subject: ... email in Internet Cafes..

>>...When you have an HTML email open on an Internet Cafe machine, how about

using Ctrl A to select all the text, Ctrl C to copy it to the clipboard. Then open Notepad, and Ctrl V paste the email into it. Keep doing that with all your email. Notepad has the

great advantage that it saves as plain ASCII. .....<<<

Re :

Works out of the cafe too;-)

Or if using MSOE (how many still dare to do that at home?),

when looking at the mail body,

Ctl+F2 ... is magic!

HTP

Jack

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Date: 27 Jan 2004 14:58:26 +0000

From: Antony

Subject: EC standard plugs

To: Ian Chapple

> ... The big disadvantage of a British plug is that it hurts like hell if you tread on one with bare feet... <

There is another. Whilst safer than most, having an Earth connection to protect against short circuits, it also increases the amount of wiring required in a premises. This is a further cost to add to an overall standardisation.

There are simply too many factors to justify standardisation. What's wrong with a travel plug?

Stupid European Beaurocrats. If it aint broke don't fix it.

Antony Booth

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Date: 27 Jan 2004 15:20:01 +0000

From: Jack

Subject: Re nConvert & html

To Eric L.

>>>> Does anyone know whether nConvert comes with a

recogniser? The recogniser may be the problem.<<<

nConvert comes in Control Panel with a "MIME type mappings" for Html

How far does it work is guess or try!

Jack

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Date: 27 Jan 2004 15:26:53 +0000

From: Hoffman, Susan

Subject: Backing up Revo to 5mx, backing up 5mx to CF

Since my husband refuses to connect his Revo to his PC (and therefore never backs it up), we use my 5mx CF card as his backup. Periodically, he infrareds his agenda and other files (he doesn't use contacts) to my 5mx, where I store them on my CF card. If his Revo hard resets on him (which hasn't happened in quite a while), I infrared the saved files back to him. I also use the CF card to store my essential files (such as my banking program) in between full back-ups or synchronizations. I synch much more often than I do a backup, since it is agenda and contacts that I use most often and therefore change most often. If I am creating a long Word or Sheet document while out of the office, I will save that on my CF card periodically as a temporary backup until I can get back to the office to transfer it to the network. You just have to make sure to switch the "system" screen back to the C drive, because I understand that if it is on the D drive when the machine crashes, it corrupts the CF card. Never happened to me personally, maybe because I always am "aimed" at the C drive.

Susan Katz Hoffman

Pepper Hamilton LLP--------------

3000 Two Logan Square

18th & Arch Streets

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Tel: 215-981-4990

Fax: 215-827-5909

e-mail: hoffmans

web address: www.pepperlaw.com

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Date: 27 Jan 2004 15:30:47 +0000

From: Hoffman, Susan

Subject: For Neil -- communication problem

I recently downloaded PsiWin 2.3.3 onto my new home PC (running XP Pro), and went to connect my 5mx. Everything seemed to be working fine, except that it couldn't connect. I tried unplugging and reconnecting the serial cable, then shut PsiWin and opened it again, and it worked fine. Gremlins? Everything is working better than ever, now. I still can't print through the office PC, but no problem at home. It took just under 2 hours to download the program via dialup modem.

Susan Katz Hoffman

Pepper Hamilton LLP--------------

3000 Two Logan Square

18th & Arch Streets

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Tel: 215-981-4990

Fax: 215-827-5909

e-mail: hoffmans

web address: www.pepperlaw.com

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

Date: 27 Jan 2004 15:51:55 +0000

From: Keith Giles

Subject: Re: Power/Backlight, Dictiionary

Philip S. Adkins Potter wrote:

> With the power LED (left-hand side of the keyboard) on the backlight > occasionally switches off and on erratically.

I'm running StickyKeys and Macro5 on my 5mx, have backlight set to Automatic switch-off if no external power in Control Panel, and have Backlight on under external power in Macro5 Preferences. Usually, when I turn the Psion on and it's being powered via the docking station, the backlight is on, but then goes off, apparently after the time set to go off if no external power. I have to Fn+Space to get it on again - yet off it goes later. As you say:

> This problem is intermittent (translation: bl**dy frustrating).

I, too, would like to find out how to solve this.

In another posting, Philip wrote, re dictionaries:

> as well as one by Ronnie Barker!

Where can I find one? Loved what little of the 2 Ronnies we got to see in the States.

Happy Cycling,

Keith

Sunnyvale, CA

http://ohsix827.home.comcast.net

Thought For The Day: If water pollution gets any worse, walking on it will be a cinch.

All my outgoing e-mails have been checked by Norton Anti-virus.

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

Date: 27 Jan 2004 15:56:50 +0000

From: Jack

Subject: Re Little Sense (& cobuilt 4 )

To : Moshe Nahir

<<<<<Thanks for the information and help. I went to the interesting and useful Web site you suggested, but there does not seem to be a Collins Cobuild English-English dictionary there for Psion. Very sad.>>>>

Do not stay sad...

After four "Next" clicks from the earlier suggested googled URL, You could find :

http://www.palmtopregister.com/Registrations.nsf/Registration?OpenForm&Type=Plain&Platform=EPOC32

where (3rd product in list) one could register the Collins ENG (plain) Cobuilt dic.

HTH

Jack

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

Date: 27 Jan 2004 16:03:20 +0000

From: Marcus von Cube

Subject: Re: RANDOMIZE

Alan,

>Chris I did not suggest using a fixed number as the seed, you did! Call RANDOMIZE with a time related seed, as all have used so far. Then use the result as the new seed when calling RANDOMIZE a second time.

>This will make it _more_ random as initially required.

Hey, either it's random or it isn't, is it?

A pseudo random generator is a sequence of numbers where each number is determined entirely by its predecessor. The RANDOMIZE function simply sets the first number, preferably to something that is really random, e. g. the date/time in seconds.

The resulting sequence has statistical properties which satisfy some "randomness" tests (one of them is the "chi square" test) that real random sequences pass, too. If you skip every other number of a random sequence, the resulting sequence is still random. This is also true for a pseudo random sequence generated by the "linear congruental method" D. Knuth describes in his book.

Calling RANDOMIZE with the result of the first RND call after another RANDOMIZE is essentially the same as skipping some part of the sequence. That's almost exact, because random number

generators are free to use a different bit count for the internal sequence, seeded by the RANDIMZE call, than for the results presented by the RND function. (In Java, the internal number has 64 bits and the external result only 48 bits! This has to do with the "randomness" of the lower bits of such a sequence, see Knuth.)

So you can't make it better by complicating the sequence of calls to RANDOMIZE and RND. If the parameters of the generator are carefully chosen (ask Symbian!), the sequence is good enough for

most purposes if you call RANDOMIZE once and then simply use the results of consecutive calls to

RND without any further tricks. Any trick has the risk to make the "randomness" worse!

Marcus

http://www.mvcsys.de

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

Date: 27 Jan 2004 17:49:43 +0000

From: vlad a

Subject: Re: Scandinavian keys # 433

> Axel Moberg wrote:

> to produce æ, ø and å

... and any spec chars you may also use TwinKey, a small freeware. It will

let you define keypresses for any characters in the font not mapped to the

keyboard. When it's on, it catches keypresses and hands them down to any

software without any perceptible delay. My experience with it is very good.

best,

vlad a

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

Date: 27 Jan 2004 18:25:49 +0000

From: Will Green

Subject: 5mx Heart Beat

Here's a thing.

For 5 MX & MC218 owners.

Switch the back light on.

Open a blank Sketch document.

Using the free hand pen tool draw a straight line across the screen. As you draw you will see weird 'spikes' on screen, almost like one of those heart beat monitor things they have in hospital.

Doesn't happen when the backlight is switched off.

Worry when the line remains straight I suppose!

Cheers,

Will.

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

Date: 27 Jan 2004 18:40:49 +0000

From: m.garrett

Subject: no subject

>> Date: 25 Jan 2004 22:30:19 +0000

>> From: Andy Hayes >> Subject: CronTab

>> Hi All

>> Whilst I appreciate the help on CronTab, with the suggestion of silent >> alarms, I find it hard to believe that someone hasn't written something like

>> CronTab that works. Am I alone on this list in wanting to run applications

>> such as backups when I know that the Psion will not be in use and to save

>> me having to remember to do it manually, i.e. in the middle of the night? Is

>> it really monstrously difficult to awaken a slumbering Psion and have it do

>> something, and then go back into its sleep?

>> Andy Hayes

Hi Andy,

I think I may have missed the full thread of your problems, but I have been using Crontab for ages now to backup a series of special files from my C drive as well as doing a full dally backup of my C drive to my 256Mb CF card. Crontab runs two separate backups set to go off at 4am and 5am each day.

I use FastBackup for the full save and a little freeware Backup Macro for Crontab written by Theo de Groot. It works by taking its instructions from a simple little database.

Email me on or off Digest and I'll help or pass on my programs

Never had any problems with any of this; I like the fact that Crontab does all this work for me while I get my beauty sleep and believe me I need all the

help I can get in that region! ;o)

Kind Regards,

Malcolm

Cold and Snowy Darlington - UK

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

Date: 27 Jan 2004 21:49:26 +0000

From: Jim Cooke

Subject: Advansys

> Date: 26 Jan 2004 08:07:36 +0000

> From: Eric Lindsay

> Subject: ACT!, ebooks, email in Internet Cafes, MP3

> alternative, URLin Opera, handwriting recognition, nConvert

> Advansys

> Synchronisation software to Novell, Lotus, ACT, etc. Linkwise

> for Epoc Contacts and Novell Directory Services (NDS). eSync

> for email between Outlook, Novell GroupWise, Eudora Pro and

> ER3 Psion 5 (Classic). eSync Warehouse for Outlook or Novell

> GroupWise multiple folders and Epoc Data or Message Suite.

> Also versions for ACT! and Ericsson R380 phones. Lots of

> variations to handle products beyond PsiWin. Excellent FAQ

> pages describing problems with syncing and many solutions.

> www.advansyscorp.com

Sorry, but you need to check the web page for Advansys now. Your description

must have come from a long ago blurb. They now only support GroupWise, not

ACT, Outlook, or any other desktop PIM.

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

Date: 28 Jan 2004 15:52:32 +0000

From: Tony Cabot

Subject: netBook problem?

My netBook was on a two drawer file cabinet, open, when the cabinet capsised depositing the netbook on the floor. Except for a loosened backspace key which I replaced everything seems to work fine. However, last night after I got home and started the machine I was greeted with a screen full of garbage. All the file names had been replaced with symbols and little lines. Trying to open one got the dreaded error box but I couldn't read it. A soft reset resulted in the system hanging at the opening screen so it was on to a hard reset. This worked as advertised and after restoring the C Drive I think everything is well once again. Could there be something coming loose inside which would cause this problem? Also I live near Boston, MA where it has been very cold lately and with the cold there has been more static electricity around. The netBook probably got down to 20F on the way to the car. Could static be the cause?

Thanks, Tony Cabot

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

Date: 27 Jan 2004 05:49:43 +0000

From: vlad arghir

re: New Psion Fan, Nokia # 433

Thanks, as always, Rolf, for the relevant details. I'd still do it, what could that cost?! Alas I am by far *not* a millionaire...

re the Nokia: Jorge Ramos kindly gave me the coordinates of Psion South Africa and I referred my friend to them. When he comes back I'll come back to you if I may.

best,

vlad a

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

Date: 28 Jan 2004 19:10:48 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Netbook with Scandinavian keys/characters

Howdy!

Michael Degn wrote (> ):

> The netBook was shipped in a Nordic model like the

> Series 5/mx with Scandinavian keys and was

> distributed by Psion Teklogix Denmark in Denmark

> and SIE in Sweden. It will be hard if not

> impossible to acquire one as the production of

> these stopped long time ago.

<SNIP>

> If you can't find any Nordic netBook you can

> easily use the UK netBook. My Series 7 is the UK

> one without the Scandinavian keys, but I've just

> made my own hotkeys in Macro5 to produce æ, ø and

> å. You can do the same or maybe use Remapper.

I've found the best way of redefining the keyboard is Alexander Zavorine's key mapper. I have placed æ, ø and å on Fn+j, k and l on my Revo. If you look under user contributions on Alexander's site (zavorine.com ?), you'll find a ready made settings file for the Diamond Mako provided by yours truly. I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work with a 7even or -book.

Owen

Thought for the day:

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for.

- John A. Shedd

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: 28 Jan 2004 19:11:14 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Epoc Digest V1 # 430 (7) : Re : Internet in Houston (4Thomas )

Howdy!

Arent Kits van Heijningen wrote (> ):

> In plain text this means you have to put up with

> their policies with respect to privacy and

> unsolicited/indirectly solicited mass email To

> make a long story short , expect to get spam and

> lots of that to boot , no matter how careful you

> are with your email adress

There's nothing stopping a user from continuing to use a different address and completely ignoring the one provided by the ISP. I have accessed my frisurf address via a dozen different ISP's around Europe. In many cases the access to the local ISP comes with a mailbox which I don't even bother to check. It doesn't matter much if the mailbox provided with the Internet connection fills up with spam if you don't use it.

Owen

Thought for the day:

To be happy for a night, get drunk;

To be happy for a month, get married;

To be happy for life, get a sailboat.

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: 28 Jan 2004 19:11:22 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Re: Software registration codes.

Howdy!

Itamar Engelsman wrote (> ):

> I basically write this (unhelpful) answer to

> remind others to write down all registration

> details for all the software you have running on

> your Psion and other computers.

I keep all my registration details for EPOC software as well as Internet settings and codes for WindoZe software in dedicated files in CodeSafe.

Owen

Thought for the day:

Saint:

A dead sinner revised and edited.

- Ambrose Bierce

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: 28 Jan 2004 19:11:29 +0000

From: Owen H. Morgan

Subject: Hotmail plain text setting.

A while ago, I received an e-mail from some friends of mine sent from their Hotmail account in HTML format. I replied and asked them to swith off the text formatting, but they were unable to figure out how. Now their boat is moored next to mine here in San Sebastian, so I went with them to an Internet Café to help them adjust the settings. I was unable to find any way of setting the default e-mail format to plain text in Hotmail. The only thing I found was a way of switching off RTF formatting for an individual message. Did I miss something, or did M$ just go one step further in dictating which format e-mails should be sent in?

Owen

Thought for the day:

You never find an article until you replace it.

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: 28 Jan 2004 21:32:23 +0000

From: Alan Morris

Subject: Re: Micro$oft

"GawnSoft" wrote:-

> On 26 Jan 2004, at 1:09, Rolf Brunsting wrote:

>> ...

>> Microsoft aims to keep its users satisfied by

>> responding to their wishes.

So why is the world still suffering from the virus problem that is only active because of Micro$oft and only on Micro$oft products? Micro$oft could very easily remove this problem but it has not because it makes a lot of money from it.

It's interesting that a very recent news article reported that Micro$oft will be releasing a new software product that will stop the virus problem. Another way of extracting cash from the poor user.

> I enjoyed your essay, Rolf, but I would amend the above

> statement you made to 'Microsoft aims to keep its users

> ... by' locking alternatives out of the market.

I also enjoyed the lengthy epistle, but can't agree about Microsoft.

I've been in the PC business since a year after it started in 1977 until I retired, and held Commodore, Sirius, Victor, Apricot and Canon dealerships. These were when manufacturers sold only to their dealerships. These dealerships were difficult to obtain. During that time there are a few events that were bad for PCs.

The worst was when Microsoft inserted Windows between the OS and the program.

Since then the efficiency of those computers deteriorated and an new phrase has now entered our language - 'office rage'.

Rolf does supply some very interesting information to this digest, but unfortunately his views on Windows is so out of touch with the real world.

I've just been reading an article in Visual Systems Journal (Feb 04) about poor Windows usability, and that is more in keeping with the real world.