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Epoc Digest Fri, 13 Sep 2002 Volume 01 : Number 074
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Sent to: 600 subscribers
In today's Epoc Digest 15 messages:
==============================
- RE: S7 cleaning of screen
- Jornada HPC 720....
- Geofox battery doors
- Revo-friendly email account
- Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 072
- Re: Data Sending over GPRS
- Tip for reading the digest again ...
- Donations
- Space-case
- TIME, 5MX viewing angle, Address change,
- Mako switches off during Savemail (Is Sergio here?)
- CF Card prices / PdfPrinter / DigHandler
- PSION withrawal & repair
- netBook & S7 Screen cleaning
- Screen cleaning.
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 00:18:57 +0100
From: "David Steer"
Subject: RE: S7 cleaning of screen
To Itamar Engelsman
To clean my S7 screen I use a PC cleaning tissue such as PC-Clene available in PC world and Rynmans. It works well on the keyboard too.
David
London, United Kingdom
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 00:37:08 +0100
From: "Mick Kilbride"
Subject: Jornada HPC 720....
David Lir wrote:
> but: many owners of the 720 have
> found the screen to be *noticeably fuzzier* than a good TFT.
Hmm, possibly, but given the scale it's difficult to compare, but I know what you mean.
> Also, most 720's have dimming in the lower corners of their
> display
Haven't noticed this on either my 680 or 720 TBH.
> and, of course, the passive display of the 720 must
> exhibit at least some *blurring* when scrolling or displaying
> animation.
For sure, yes, but I was comparing more with the Psion range in this respect IYSWIM.
> but the
> 720 uses a true mechanical design (this is what I've heard -
> I haven't taken one apart) and consequently there are
> probably far more points of entry for liquid to enter into
> and fry either the keyboard circuitry or wiring or the
> motherboard or what-have-you.
It's a bit of both construction wise. I've had the keyboard off on my 680 to upgrade the memory (to a 690 'size') and yes, there are more possible points of access but I really don't think the design makes it any less susceptible to damage, but then, I've never heard anyone complaining about it either, so you may well have a fair point.
> The 720 has the superior
> keyboard, in terms of feel, but I do think it is a bit more
> delicate in some ways.
Not my experience, on both my Psion models the keyboards look awful and worn now, even after cleaning, my 680 is fine, no wear etc. and it's had way more use in the last couple of years.
The screen is fine too, no cable trouble yet, which is more than I can say for my 5mx unfortunately.
But yes, it's pluses and minuses with the hardware but IMHO I reckon the HP machines shade it - but they are more expensive and are a lot heavier.
==========================================
Jim Watson-Gove wrote:
> Darn!!! Now you went and done it.
Oops :)
> Will the 720 print to a printer
> direct (cable connection)?
Yup, no problem - via Infra Red too if you want, that's how I use it. I have an HP portable printer which is great.
I'd recommend getting the Westek printing app/drivers though, gives you lots of desktop features.
http://www.westtek.com/uniprint.htm
Cheers
Mick
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 04:53:57 +0100
From: Chester Choi
Subject: Geofox battery doors
Sorry that this is bit off topic, but I have a Geofox (part of the last Adept production runs) with a broken starboard battery door (the one closest to the on-off switch). Does anyone know of repair or replacement options? For now, I keep the door closed with a rubber band, but it occasionally flies off if dislodged (certainly wakes up the sleeping participants in some of my meetings). I like the machine and I even use it to do Powerpoint projections with Colorshow (er,
Colourshow?), but these battery doors seem to be an "achilles heel."
Thanks for any help. Hope this shows up without MIME. I'm sending via a Mac with its mail format set to "plain text."
Chester Choi
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 06:00:17 +0100
From: peter.rand
Subject: Revo-friendly email account
After testing several free email services, I can highly recommend www.softhome.net. It offers a good webmail interface, and also works very well with Mail on the Revo.
Peter Rand
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 08:07:58 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: EPOC DIGEST V1 # 072
Dear Darryl,
netBook OS 158
<< Just interested to know if full IrOBEX functionality ala PIbeam has been included or is it still limited to Contacts and Agenda? >>
GROAN!!!
See my message to Thomas van der Zijden. There's no such thing as "full IrOBEX functionality ala PIbeam"!
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - On holidays in the UK
Message written at the Red Lion Hotel - Grasmere - Cumbria
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 08:08:01 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting
Subject: Re: Data Sending over GPRS
Dear Kevin,
<< And, on the cost side, in this country at any rate, I reckon HSCSD is quite cheaper >>
Depends on what you're doing.
Instruct the phone to make a 28,800 bps HSCSD connection and you're all but guaranteed to get this speed for the whole duration of the call. Disadvantage is that HSCSD is billed per time unit. Waiting for the remote computer to respond costs. Ditto for filling in a web form as the clock keeps ticking while you enter the information.
Communication speed for GPRS is variable. You won't get the maximum 43,100 bps a Nokia 6310(i) is capable of when the mobile network is busy. When the network is really busy you can get an effective data speed less than the 9600 bps of plain GSM. The advantage of GPRS is that you're billed by data volume. Filling in that web form won't hurt as there's hardly any data transferred while you're entering the information.
HSCSD is therefore the better choice when a guaranteed bandwidth is called for. Like downloading files and e-mails with large attachments. GPRS is the better choice when browsing the web as you can take all the time you need to read pages.
You'd need to make a log of what you did, how much time it took and the data volumes transferred in order to work out whether HSCSD is really less expensive than GPRS.
--
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - On holidays in the UK
Message written at the Red Lion Hotel - Grasmere - Cumbria
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 09:34:09 +0100
From: "Sergio"
Subject: Tip for reading the digest again ...
Hi there!
First of all many thanks for the suggestion about the macro DrB5Read !!!
This Digest is really great, thanks to Itamar and all the team ;-)
I've just made some little changes to it, and now it can jump to the next message in the email application without the need of closing the macro and relaunching it... just press "n"
If anybody is interested, I can mail a copy!
... and any suggestion for improvements or new functions is welcome too ;-)
Ciao
Sergio Alisi
Milano - Italy
----------- Original message -----------
Date: 12 Sep 2002 14:47:10 +0100
From: David Lir
Subject: RE: Tip for reading the digest :) (4 Jason)
Jason wrote:
"Hi David,
I have a simpler solution using Macro5, I've remapped the Infra-Red screen button to do a page-down - I can hold the Psion in my left hand with my thumb over the edge screen and tap the the IR button as I need to, which works well for me for single-handed reading (eg. when in the washroom!)"
Thanks for the tip, Jason.
I still prefer DrB5Read for these reasons: it uses the hard keys - which feel much better to me than tapping a soft-icon; your method only pages down, I especially don't like the idea of pushing my thumb - on a regular basis - against the side of the screen - I'm afraid I might crack it!; I've already got the IrDA softkey mapped to ExAb; DrB5Read pages down and up, as well as offering *one* key access to all of the following: backlight, toolbar toggle, zoom cycling, start of file, end of file, scroll 2 lines only, show time. Quite a bit more useful than a simple page-down, wouldn't you say?
Thanks much for the suggestion though :)
BTW, I thought I was the only one who brings a Psion into the washroom - nice to see someone else admitting to it. ;>)
------------------------
David Lir - \\:>{o>
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 11:32:42 +0100
From: "J. Hamwee"
Subject: Donations
Rolf Brunsting wrote:
>Donating old PDA gear to a worthy cause is something I'd like to recommend to all EPOC Digest readers.
I fully support this (and not only for PDA gear).
I normally find interested buyers and either donate the proceeds to charity myself or request that the buyer pays directly to the charity.
If the digest would be interested in providing a platform or network I would be pleased to offer several (current and in good condition) items of PDA gear for charitable purposes, subject to terms proposed by the digest administrators.
For example, it could be provided that: (a) charities must have been in existence for a minimum number of years, (b) depending on the amount involved the proceeds could be split 50/50 between two (or more) charities selected by
the buyer and the seller, (c) in the unlikely case of a disagreement over the charity the views of the seller or the digest administrators would prevail, (d) in the event of disagreement over the price, the views of the digest administrators will prevail. Once a basic transaction (item and
price) has been agreed, perhaps the details should be handled off-digest?
Regards
Joseph Hamwee
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 12:43:10 +0100
From: "Rick Gillyon"
Subject: Space-case
Hi,
David Lir wrote:
> Anyone know why the subject header of one of my posts in the last digest changed from this:
>
> HPC and all that stuff (4 Steve)
> into this:
> HPC =?ISO-8859-1?Q?=10?=v and all that stuff (4 Steve)?
Yep, I think this happens because you held the shift key down while typing the first space. Shift-space is a different character to space on the Psion, as you will see if you put it in a datafile etc.
You just need to be more careful! :)
Bye,
Rick http://www.gillyon.com/
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 13:43:08 +0100
From: Itamar
Subject: TIME, 5MX viewing angle, Address change,
Answer to: Paul Bishop
Re. TIME - Welcom to London, and no, I have never been in L.A. ... <G>. I change the home town in TIME to Los Angeles (USA) and the city to London (UK) and got 8 hours difference. Tried several other European cities, all in order.
Answer to : David Lir
Re. 5MX viewing angle - It is correct that sometimes the angle catches glare, but the aluminium desk stand takes care of this. It was not that expensive to buy.
Re. Address change - No further address changes are planned, only if the ISP would go out of business. Anyhow, I think enough said about this subject, no need to "bash" Rolf (any further).
Bye,
Itamar Engelsman
London, United Kingdom
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 14:15:03 +0100
From: Owen H. Morgan
Subject: Mako switches off during Savemail (Is Sergio here?)
Howdy!
I have a Mako and an MC218, both running SaveMail version 3.12 ER5. (Is this the latest version?)
When using SaveMail to store messages, the Mako always switches itself off halfway through the third message, while the MC218 always completes SaveMail without timing out. The settings for system timeout on the Control Panel are the same for both machines, as are the settings in Merlin which I use to launch SaveMail on both machines. The only difference is that I've set Merlin to provide a longer timeout for the backlight on the MC218, a setting which is not appropriate for the Mako.
If I turn the Mako on again, it will continue executing SaveMail without any problems, so there's no great harm done, but it is annoying. I believe Sergio reads the digest, so that's why I'm asking here rather than direct to him, as I expect other readers may benefit from the answer.
Owen
Thought for the day:
If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Owen H. Morgan, Yacht "Naomi J.", LD-57°08.8'N 4°40.6'W
Fort Augustus, SW end of Loch Ness, Scotland
http://home.no.net/naomij
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 14:47:39 +0100
From: Astrid Stappenbeck
Subject: CF Card prices / PdfPrinter / DigHandler
CF Card prices
Kevin Thorne wrote:
>Just a few price comparisons I've noted whilst recently surfing various memory media sites:
>1Gb IBM Microdrive - £188
>1 Gb CF card - £680 (second mortgage required or sell your wife!)
>512 Mb CF card - £234
>256 Mb CF card - £75
>128 Mb CF card - £50
Goodness, is that rip-off Britain we're talking about or did you only look check prices for SanDisk Ultra cards at high street retailers?
I'm just waiting for my new less illustrious 256MB card to arrive, which I bought for 82€. If I hadn't opted for the smaller size I might have tried a 512MB one from an Australian online shop that got excellent reviews for speed (the card) and is to get for 'just' about 210€ incl. shipping; I'm still talking about Euros not Pounds!
Anyone still for the Pound?
________________________
PdfPrinter
There has been a lot of talk about the beta from mBrain in this digest. Has anyone tried out text2pdf from sanface? It is in Pearl but apparently to run on ER5 machines as well. I have no idea about pearl or the program but maybe some of the more experienced members of the digest could say something about it. Perhaps its useful for the planned fanzine? The link is:
http://www.sanface.com/txt2pdf.html
__________________________
DigHandler
Since there was some talk on how this digest could be read most comfortably I would like to add a further program (shareware this time) Rolf vonAu's digest handler. I'm still trying it out but it seems to work very well as far as reading or goto... is concerned. I can't get it yet to store any messages without crashing it, though. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or it's a genuine bug. But as said, reading is very nice with it. If you like to try it out yourself, here's the link:
http://home.arcor.de/rhvonau/dhdl.htm
Bye,
Astrid
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 16:19:37 +0100
From: "Edgar Brazda Ph.D."
Subject: PSION withrawal & repair
Rolf wrote:
"It's withdrawing gracefully ... Support and repair services are guaranteed to remain available till the end of 2004."
David wrote:
This combined with their continued repair service means that despite all complaints to the contrary Psion *is* honouring their obligations towards the consumer.
It is really very kind not being a cheat, but hm.... producers of goods in the price range of netBook or S7 are ordered by law to repair and supply spare parts for 8 (I mean eigth) years in Hungary. It is about the end of 2010 not 2004. In 5mx price range a 3-year-long similar after-production follow-up is obligatory. It gives 2005.
I do not know the regulations in the EU, but they can be similar. Following them is really *honest*, but I would not consider it exceptional or fantastic.
(And IMHO buying any product means buying the product itself *and* the repair service, etc. The calculated prices of any product always includes the repair/change costs, damages, etc. - depending on the product). So it is not a gift, if we get the service we have paid for.)
Edgar, Budapest
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 17:08:52 +0100
From: "Steve Hodgson"
Subject: netBook & S7 Screen cleaning
> How do the S7 and netBook users clean their screen ?
When things get really bad I use Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) but try not to
do this too often as I don't know how compatible it is. 90% of the
time it's just my hot breath and a clean lint-free cloth.
Regards,
Steve Hodgson
P.S Any spelling errors in this short message are due to other forms of
Alciehol (Edinburgh's finest output from the Caledonian brewery)
*++++++++++&
Date: 13 Sep 2002 17:47:08 +0100
From: Trygve Henriksen
Subject: Screen cleaning.
Greetings!
Itamar Engelsman asked:
> How do the S7 and netBook users clean their screen ?
I use a gelatinous spray made by a Danish company that produces all kinds of cleaning agents.
'AM' or something, I think they're called.
(No doubt someone from Denmark will correct me :-)
It's just 'spray on, wipe off', and because it's gelatinous, it doesn't run, either.
:-)
Trygve
BTW: Anyone out there who has had any experience with or manuals about the Husky Hunter portable computer from about 1984?
*++++++++++&
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