Epocdigest V1 # 515

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Epoc Digest Sun, 02 May 2004 Volume 01 : Number 515

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Sent to: 777 subscribers

In today's Epoc Digest 09 messages:

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- nBook vs. S7, FAQ???, Alarm+,

- RE: Mobile Internet in US

- Program quality

- netBook netWorking & coMms

- Palmtop magazines available to a good home

- Re: Nothing taboo on digest ?

- epoc

- Re: Mobile Internet in US

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Date: 2 May 2004 01:56:07 +0000

From: Itamar Engelsman

Subject: nBook vs. S7, FAQ???, Alarm+,

Answer to: Moshe Nahir

Re.: nBook vs. S7 - First of all it gave me a back-up machine. Secondly it gave me the usage of a Wifi card that sends the digest out to over 700 addresses in exactly 38 seconds. It is faster than the S7, it has got more colours and that is about it. As to the new magazine, Will Green is on the digest and hopefully he will contact you upon reading your message.

Answer to: Mike Dyer

Re.: FAQ??? - Any volunteers for putting one together ? Maybe we could publish it on the website, otherwise we could send it to all subscribers, or both.

To All:

Re.: Alarm+ - It appears that this program, probably running together with CronTab, creates problem on my mBook when alarms from CronTab go off. Sometimes it leaves the Psion running after an alarm goes off and strange actions are effected. Some days ago I opened my mBook to find it almost without battery life and in RMRZip all by itself. Since I switched Alarm+ off the problems seem to have disappeared. Anyone with similar experiences ?

Best regards,

Itamar Engelsman

London, UK

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

Date: 2 May 2004 04:06:05 +0000

From: Bob

Subject: RE: Mobile Internet in US

Hi Thomas,

I am in Washington State and lived many years in England and just got back in December. At the time I had a Mobile P280,which work in America, the UK and most of the rest of the world. I now have a Sony Ericsson T-610 and its also a triband. Its a great phone. Yes we have sim cards here also. I have Earthlink and have had for years and its great. They have numbers all over the place here, Canada, and the UK. Probably more but I don't know who all the locations. Also, I have T-Mobile and they are also great. They obviously work here and I travel all around the States and have never had a problem. In England they its also very east as as soon as I set it on the English system, it said welcome to Vodephone, we support T-Mobile customers. As I traveled around England it automatically changed to Orange and other providers very seemlessly. T-Mobile has many options to choose from. By the way, I don't work for T-Mobile, just a satisfied customer. I don't know if this helps at all, but I hope it does,

Thanks,

Bob

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

Date: 2 May 2004 04:17:33 +0000

From: Bob

Subject: RE: Mobile Internet in US

Hi again Thomas,

I knew that I forgot something on my previous email-----I also used my P280 and now use my T-610 as a modem for my Series 5mx and my Netbook. So with Earthlink and T-Mobile work well with the phones and Psions.

Thanks,

Bob

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

Date: 2 May 2004 08:18:49 +0000

From: Ian Chapple

Subject: Program quality

Phil,

>>Error handling is quite often poorly handled too, and a program with poor error handling that is also prone to falling over is probably worse than useless.

But if a program runs like a dream then it is, by my definition anyway, superbly written.<<

While I agree with you to a certain extent, it is actually quite difficult to write a program which is *guaranteed* to run on all platforms. I know for a fact that one of my programs does not run on a Series 5 (ER3), but until I get some detailed feedback on this matter, I shall not be able to do anything about it; I have no access to an ER3 machine, so I am unable to test this for myself. Presumably, some Series 5 users who have tried my program think it is bad because it is an EPOC program which doesn't run correctly.

The same also applies when making major changes to a program, ie. to file/data structures. As a programmer, you can test and test until the cows come home, but it is very difficult to take into account all possible versions of your program that users may upgrade from, and the problems that this may cause.

I think a measure of a program/programmer's quality is more accurately determined by the response that you get when pointing out that a problem exists; I always thank people for pointing out that there is a problem, I always try to provide tham with a work-around, and I always try to fix the problem as quickly as possible. This obviously varies from programmer to programmer, but I am sure most programmers would rather know that there is a problem and try to fix it, than simpy have their software branded as "bad" because of an issue that they may have no knowledge of...

Cheers, Ian.

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

Date: 2 May 2004 10:51:15 +0000

From: Andy Hayes

Subject: netBook netWorking & coMms

A quick question for the more comms-aware of you out there. I have a Psion Dacom 56k+Fax + 10mb ethernet card. I have connected it to the network at work and being able to surf using a 2mbps link is great. I can pick up my mail from Freeserve, but I can't send. The email app just advises that it is connecting, but nothing actually happens. Is SMTPAuth going to solve this problem? I have never used this, having stuck to Sink2 to avoid the port connection problems.

Broadband arrives in Shetland next month - hooray. Is anyone on the list using a 54g wireless broaband router to which they are connecting their netBook using a 11b WiFi card? I remember reading that there was the potential for problems regarding backward compatibility and don't want to fall into any traps. What brand / model of products are you using? I have two 11b cards already, Cisco and NetGear so I would be interested to know if anyone has got a 54g card that works with the netbook. My system initially will be a new laptop, probably with WiFi built in, and a one of a couple of netBooks working through the wireless broadband router. I really would like to keep the cards that I have. I think that the Cisco was over 100ukp and has only been used a few times. No hotspots up here. In fact we haven't got digital radio either yet.

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

Date: 2 May 2004 12:01:18 +0000

From: Steve Hodgson

Subject: Palmtop magazines available to a good home

I've decided that this would be a good time to clear the 18cm of shelf

space taken up by my old Palmtop magazines. I have issues 23 to 37 of

Palmtop, "The journal for Psion computers". I also have issues 10 and 11

of PalmUser magazine and five issues of Palmtop User (1 - 4 and 6, issue

5 is missing for some reason).

Basically, I never refer to the Psion stuff these days, and coverage of

EPOC in the current incarnation of the magazine is minimal at best.

There doesn't seem any point in them taking up shelf space if they could

be of use to someone else.

If anyone would like these magazines then email me off-digest and I will

pick someone (assuming there might be multiple responses - or even

one!). My only requirement is that it doesn't cost me anything to get

rid of them, so someone around Edinburgh would be ideal but failing

that, just cover my postage costs. Other than that I would prefer to

send them all off to one receipient rather than splitting things up. The

weight of all the magazines together could be up to 5kg.

There willl be a delay in getting the magazines send off, as it will

probably be around two weeks before I will get round to it.

Regards,

Steve Hodgson mailto:steve

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

Date: 2 May 2004 13:31:55 +0000

From: Bill Hardman

Subject: Re: Nothing taboo on digest ?

From: "roy r"

Subject: Nothing taboo on digest ?

>>Just for sake of good order, there does not exist a list of topics one cannot talk about on the digest. Itamar Engelsman <<<

Excellent. I have thing really irritation itch in my groin , should I reformat it ?

Roy.R, Essex, UK

Yes, reformat the floppy, change the power supply, install a new Operating System then see if the hardware will boot up..

Quote attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham when reproving an underperforming lady cellist:-

'Madam, between your legs is one of the finest instruments known to man and all you can do is scratch it'.

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

Date: 2 May 2004 15:29:42 +0000

From: boller

Subject: epoc

dear Itamar

thanks for your message following my cancellation of Epoc digest. There was very little of interest to me at this point (I mainly use a P900) I want to tell you I very much enjoyed the interaction with you and the others all these years

cheers

francois

Francois Boller, MD, PhD

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

Date: 2 May 2004 16:34:14 +0000

From: Mike Dyer

Subject: Re: Mobile Internet in US

> Date: 30 Apr 2004 12:12:31 +0000

> From: Thomas F. VAN DER ZIJDEN > Subject: Mobile Internet in US

> Hello group,

> I will be moving to Texas from Monday, May 3rd on. First 3 > months on a business trip to arrange my affairs and from

> September on it will be permanent. Could one of the Americans > on this list help me with the following question ?

> I heard from an American that

> "Americans do not use SIM cards", but I think/hope this is

> not correct. I have an Ericsson R380 World that works at 1900 > MHz and I would like to use this phone with an American SIM. > Any ideas on a favourable phone provider in Houston, Texas ? > How about T-Mobile ?

Hiya,

it's my understanding that the American CDMA networks do not use simcards, but their GSM networks do.