Re: Copyright

Re: Freeware

Re: Copyright

Comment

comment , The previous discussion of evolution, Problems with Atelier Check Disk

Osaris Battery Problem

Freeware registration

Legallity and Morality

Fashionable Morality

Atelier & Stuff

CF Formatting

Re: Freeware Registration

#731 How many languages are there in the EU?

Discussions of "ethical" matters in the Digest

GMT

Re: A slow farewell? (e-mail, basics, arabic, GPS)

SmtpAuth updated

Nokia 9300/9500 = Psion replacement?

the king is dead - long life the king 1

Apology

Tomtom CityMaps Europe - MC218 help please!

Re: The previous discussion of evolution

Date: 22 Apr 2005 11:13:06 +0100
From: Ian Chapple <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Copyright

Franco,

>>Many thanks to Ian Chapple for his excellent short contribution on
copywrights.<<

You're welcome.

>>This shows that you never know when and where you find useful info. I am
dumb as a rock in computing so I will hardly ever need copyrighting a
piece of software. But I just started sending around to publishers and
literature critics the manuscript of a 350-pages book and will use the trick
of the self-addressed registred envelope. May be, to save on postage costs, I
will send me a .pdf exported version of the book burned on a write-only CD,
including all the older dated versions, rather than the heavy paper copy.<<

This is a potentially risky way of doing this, as it's not clear if an
electronic copy has the same validity as a paper copy. I would suggest
that you mail yourself at least one paper copy, just to be on the safe side,
but I am no expert on this subject...

Cheers, Ian.

Date: 22 Apr 2005 11:42:33 +0100
From: Ian Chapple <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Freeware

Dear Rolf,

>>Well ... has the supply of freeware which requires registration been tested
in court? When that's not the case it follows that your argument about
freeware and registration is based on copyright leaving the way in which
software is distributed to the software author. It's then strange to read
that you don't believe there's a legal basis for freeware supplier to fix
bugs. That this hasn't been tested in court doesn't mean there's no basis for
it. The EC Consumer Protection Directive's "free from defects" implies that
defects are corrected when found.<<

So far, nothing that Phil has said about the legality of releasing freeware
which requires registration has shown why this practise is illegal. I stand
by what I said; I see nothing illegal in doing this. Similarly, nothing that
has been said proves that a freeware author is *obliged* to fix bugs.

>>Software authors have used electronic discussion forums like this one to
request the assistance from Series 7, Osaris or Revo users, asking them to
test a new/revised application for them. It's therefore perfectly possible to
check whether the application runs fine on an Osaris without owning one
yourself. <<

True, but not all authors are subscribers to such forums.

>>And, please, note that the EC Consumer Protection Directive's "free from
defects" shouldn't be taken to extremes. It's considered *reasonable* for the
software user to expect that an application is free from defects. Not that
the application has to be absolutely free from defects. That would be
unreasonable. The directive simply asks software authors to take due care
during development and to test the features that are in the application.
Needless to say that this doesn't guarantee that an application is free from
defects.<<

Phew, that's a relief...

>>What the directive therefore implies is that the software author takes
corrective actions when a user does find a defect.<<

The problem here is that you say "implies"; as I've already said, there does
not appear to be a law *requiring* a freeware author to fix bugs.

The way I see it is as follows. A freeware author may choose to release his
software in any way he sees fit, with or without registration. He may choose
to fix bugs, or he may not; a good author will do so, but there is no law
compelling him to do so. Documentation and/or help should be provided, but
this is not a prerequisite; obviously, it makes sense to provide some sort of
documentation, and I personally tend to steer clear
of applications which do not have any documentation. Should there be
documentation, it does not need to be provided in more than one language; for
most freeware authors, it is not practical to provide translations.
His obligations regarding support are minimal, and he may choose to stop
support whenever he feels like it, for whatever reason. He is not obliged to
make his source code freely available should he stop providing support.

The success of a particular author and his programs is determined by the
quality of the software and the level of support provided; however, I
think it is very difficult to apply the law to something as intangible as
freeware, when much of what is available is provided out of the "goodness of
one's heart".

Cheers, Ian.

PS: my apologies to any female freeware authors, but I didn't want to type
"they" or "he/she", as this seems somewhat clumsy.

Date: 22 Apr 2005 13:08:54 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Copyright

Dear Ian,

<< As I said in a previous post, merely asserting copyright is not enough;
should it come to a situation where you have to prove that you really are the
originator of a piece of software/source code, this would be virtually
impossible unless you had followed the steps outlined above >>

You can take additional provisions by keeping a record of the work in
progress. I trust many software authors divide the development of an
application into phases complete with a prototype version number (0.1, 0.2,
etc.). When you keep copies of these versions (source code, libraries,
compiled version, user documentation) you can demonstrate how development
progressed. Another thing is that there are a limited number of things I can
keep track off without writing them down. I trust the same is true for
developers so that they keep a kind of log mentioning things to do, things to
check, bugs to fix, etc. When you add dates to these notes (date of entry and
date of completion) you have a record of how development went in time. And
you can show that the note about "Jittery screen refresh" refers to the
inelegant screen handling of version 0.3 that was fixed in version 0.4.

You can expand on this by adding version numbers and dates to individual code
modules, etc. Still, what I've mentioned above will be sufficient. When you
add it to the finished product that's deposited at a solicitor or a bank you
not only have a record of the finished product but also a record of how you
came to the finished product. And the only thing you have to do is to take a
slightly more formalised approach to your existing practices.

---
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Beilen - Netherlands

Date: 22 Apr 2005 13:59:56 +0100
From: Cyril Catt <address truncated>
Subject: Comment

Axel Moberg wrote: "However, there are quite a few professional groups that
live in a very text-based world, and need to toss long texts around even when
on the road: bureaucrats (like myself), journalists, scientist,
"intellectuals" and even politicians. Hence the need for real keyboards. And
they have more or less been abandonned by the producers."

I wonder how much of that text-based world really needs colour and graphics,
and, whilst on the road and away from mains power, would settle for longer
battery life (preferably from rechargeable AA cells?) and the ability to
switch off all other bells and whistles, just to be able to get on with their
core activities whenever and wherever they need to?

Cyril Catt

Date: 22 Apr 2005 15:52:41 +0100
From: Itamar Engelsman <address truncated>
Subject: comment , The previous discussion of evolution, Problems with Atelier Check Disk

Answer to: Franco Cozzani

Re.: comment  - Quite the opposite. If you have a different view from most
people on the digest it is definitely of interest to let us know these views.

Answer to: Chris S Handley

Re.: The previous discussion of evolution - This is always a mighty
interesting subject but not exactly on the subject of this digest. Before I
answer in this forum could anyone objecting to this subject reappearing
please make their objection heard, either on the digest or with a private
email to the digest with the word "ADMIN" in the subject field ?  Thanks.

Answer to: Nicholas Bloch

Re.: Problems with Atelier Check Disk - Maybe not the answer you are looking
for, but why the ... do you run checkdisk every week ?  EPOC is such a stable
operating system, I actually never run a checkdisk unless I have a particular
problem that needs to check the disk.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

Date: 22 Apr 2005 19:12:11 +0100
From: Jakfish <address truncated>
Subject: Osaris Battery Problem

This is a shot in the dark, but here goes.  I just bought an Osaris on ebay,
and it is indeed a buyer-beware land--after about five minutes of usage, the
Osaris suddenly loses contact with its main batteries.  A "Replace Main
Batteries" sign flashes, and the battery monitor shows main batteries "Not
present."

If I take the new batteries out and reinsert, the machine is fine for another
five minutes, but then the problem comes back.

So far, I've packed aluminum foil at both ends of the battery pack.  The seal
is tight, so I think the problem may be deeper in the machine, though the
backup battery, backup light, compact flash, and everything else checks out
fine.

(I'm writing for help, since the seller doesn't answer my e-mails)

Thanks for any advice,
Jake

Date: 22 Apr 2005 19:44:23 +0100
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: Freeware registration

Hi Folks,

Ian (Chapple), I know you disagree about the morality of freeware that
*requires* registration.

But the other thing, the *legality* of giving away something broken but not
telling the receiver, that you should consult a legal eagle about. The logic
is inescapable even though it *seems* ridiculous to you and many others.

Happy days,
Phil.

"Natural laws have no pity."

http://www.philaypee.co.uk/index.html

Date: 22 Apr 2005 19:44:27 +0100
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: Legallity and Morality

Hi Folks,

Rolf (Brunsting), why is it contradictory for me to say that someone can do
as they will as long as they don't harm others? That *is* freedom, just a
constrained freedom. Unconstrained freedom is, I think, anarchy.

And I did *not* say that a freeware registration scheme itself was wrong. I
did say, and here repeat, that I think that abandoning such a scheme is
wrong. I think it is illegal too. And to repeat, it is my *opinion*. You
might well disagree, as is your right. It is my right to disagree with -
anyone I disagree with!

I did say << It worries me a little that you apparently think that something
legal must be both moral and fair >> and it still worries me.

Laws vary from country to country and time to time. In NAZI Germany it was
illegal for Jews to live outside ghettos - *illegal* by the laws of Germany.
Before that, here in Britain it was illegal for Jews to own real estate. More
recently Uganda revoked the citizenship of many residents who were citizens
before on racial grounds. Not long ago all prospective immigrants to
Australia had to be approved on racial grounds - by law. In many countries
slavery was legal.

And I think all these *legal* practices immoral. I expect you do too.

Laws are not graven in stone, they are evolving all the time. I think some
are wrong and I'm sure some other people find they think different ones are
wrong. The laws of the Medes and the Persians may well have suited the Medes
and the Persians - they do not suit many countries today, probably none.

Further I don't, can't, accept that the concept of free will, nebulous or
not, has been effectively destroyed by any directive, E.C. or no. To me
that's nonsense.

I did indeed say << But I'm glad you agree that authors may retain copyright
on software they give away >> but I don't see anything wrong with that
statement. If they give away the copyright too then they cannot also retain
it. Hence "may" rather than your "do".

Happy days,
Phil.

"In a democracy, the voices of the vicious and stupid count.
But under any other system, they might be running the show."

http://www.philaypee.co.uk/index.html

Date: 22 Apr 2005 19:44:32 +0100
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: Fashionable Morality

Hi Folks,

Rolf (Brunsting), you said the Chris. Handley and I "are very quickly talking
about morality" and that's true. Morals and ethics are generally considered
more important than laws. Laws are an attempt to codify the morals and ethics
they represent - wrong and right. Laws will always lag behind by their very
nature.

But perhaps you'd expand on what you mean by "that morality is used in a
one-sided fashion".

Happy days,
Phil.

http://www.philaypee.co.uk/index.html

Date: 22 Apr 2005 19:44:34 +0100
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: Atelier & Stuff

Hi Folks,

Nicholas (Bloch), are you running Check Disk on the C: drive with documents
open? Even if you think all documents are closed there may be some still open
- font files, Control Panel utilities and so on. If it's the C: drive and
that's the problem you probably don't need to worry. Use Chris. Handley'
macro to back up the C: drive, format it and restore!

That will also "Optimise" the C: drive but it isn't necessary. The C: drive
is volatile RAM so defragments itself automatically. But some programs do not
release RAM to the system (Opera is terrible this way). You may need a
utility to persuade them to do that. Sometimes this is called "memory
defragmentation".

The non-existent file is probably the CF card. CF cards on the Psion work a
little loose over time and the solution is to switch the Psion off, remove
the card, replace it and turn the Psion back on. A thin bit of card under the
CF may be a longer-lasting solution.

If your eMail store is on C: I'm afraid you've lost the files altogether. If
they're elsewhere Atelier's DiskEditor will help - but you need a lot of
knowledge to use it effectively. But there may be other utilities that can
help.

However, if you've defragmented the drive since you've lost the files. If
you've altered or added files you may have lost them. Just restore your 5mx
*without* overwriting newer files (the default).

Happy days,
Phil.

"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of -
but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards."

http://www.philaypee.co.uk/index.html

Date: 22 Apr 2005 19:44:38 +0100
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: CF Formatting

Hi Folks,

I've recently got an old laptop PC (backing up is a lot easier now!) running
Windoze 98. It has two PCMCIA slots so I got two CF/PCMCIA adapters and I
partitioned an old 4 MB CF card to two 2MB logical disks (and formatted them)
to see if my 5mx could see both partitions. It couldn't.

Windoze sees them and can read from or write to them - but my 5mx can only
see the first partition. Does anyone know why?

I'd like this to work as I'd like to put a B-I-G card in there with two
usable partitions.

Happy days,
Phil.

"If love is the answer,
could you rephrase the question?"

http://www.philaypee.co.uk/index.html

Date: 22 Apr 2005 20:27:42 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting <address truncated>
Subject: Re: Freeware Registration

Dear Phil,

<< As for "I think it is legally wrong . . . ", it is software, given away
freely, that is effectively broken but which purports to work. If it is
illegal to give away something broken unless you say it is broken (and in the
UK it is) then surely that applies to software too? >>

It's all very well to say that it's broken. Question then is : Broken in what
way? When the author is able to demonstrate that the software works, both in
its unregistered and registered form, the software isn't broken as no defects
are found. That the unregistered application has a reduced functionality
compared to the registered application makes no difference. The author is
allowed to distribute the software as it's in accordance with the EC Consumer
Protection Directive (which is the UK law you refer to).

<< Shareware is a different matter as any "crippling" can be removed by
buying a licence for it. The "crippling" of free software is different
- for a start you can't buy a licence for it >>

And that's where you're making the BIG mistake by linking registration to (A)
a change in functionality, (B) paying for the software and (C) having the
license to use it. While registration means making yourself known to the
software author as a user of [Enter application name and version number].
Nothing more - nothing less. Any software author can therefore ask people to
register it. Be it shareware, freeware, open source or commercial software.
Registration and payment are therefore not linked.

Nor is it true that no registration means that the application has a reduced
functionality. There are shareware authors who are of the opinion that it's
not a good idea to restrict users during the evaluation of their
applications. When, for example, people want to
know how the application behaves when it has 1,000 entries to deal with they
should be able to do so. Limiting the unregistered application to 50 entries
doesn't allow them to perform such a test. It's that people can take
advantage of this, by never paying for the software, that many an
unregistered shareware application has a reduced functionality. In other
words, it has nothing to do with registration but everything to
do with the unscrupulous people of this world.

It's also not true that you only get a license after having registered the
software. Let's be honest, you wouldn't be allowed to use an unregistered
application when you didn't already have a license for it in one form or
other. Shareware tends to have a limited license which describes the
conditions under which you're allowed to evaluate the unregistered
application before purchase. That the maximum evaluation period is 30 days,
for example. For freeware the license is an implicit one which doesn't change
after registration. For commercial software that's supplied in a box via
retailers you have a full license, irrespective of whether you install it
and/or register it.

I'm very sorry, Phil, but the maxim you've added to your message (Reality is
that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away) applies here. It
may be quite unusual for a software author to distribute a freeware
application with a reduced functionality that needs to be registered in order
to become fully functional. Fact is, that the author is allowed to do that.
And it's not such a bad idea
when the freeware application has to do with data security and/or safety.
When the author suddenly discovers that his/her file encryption application
encodes files, but doesn't decode them, when the password starts with 'ax'
the author can inform all users about it.

---
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Beilen - Netherlands

Date: 23 Apr 2005 07:26:23 +0100
From: Axel Moberg <address truncated>
Subject: #731 How many languages are there in the EU?

To Eric Lindsay #731
"How many langugages are there in the EU? There are at least in the UK for a
start."

Eric,
This is my third attempt to answer your question. I sent it on the 17, and
then again on the 20, but it has not yet appeared in the Digest. I am still
waiting for a satisfactory explanation from the Digest team.

In the meantime you have received an answer from Rolf in #733. Therefore I
have to reshuffle my message. I shall refrain from any comments on the
EU-regulations, which Rolf covers. However, Rolf does not answer you precise
question: How many langugages are there in the EU?

According to the treaties there are 21 "official languages and working
languages in the EU" (quoting from memory). They are basically the official
languages of all member states. More or less from north to south and west to
east: Finnish, Swedish, Danish, Irish, English, Netherlands (which is
considered to cover both Dutch and Flemish), German, French, Portuguese,
Spanish, Italian, Greek, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech,
Slovak, Hungarian, Slovene and Maltese. Romanian and Bulgarian will be added
soon, and so will probably Turkish and possibly other languages.
An interesting paralell to the discussion about software is the proposed
Community Patent which has been discussed for decades, but stumbled on the
question which languages the documents should be translated into.
Needless to say, not everybody masters all the official languages, so there
is a need for interpretation at meetings. If member states wish to speak
their own language (which has been the rather fictive assumption in Council
meetings until recently) there has to be a (native) interpreter into each
language from each of the others. In the original EEC with four languages it
was not so difficult, 3x4=12 directions of interpretation. In the present EU
it is 20x21=420 directions and a corresponding increase in the number of
interpreters.
Some steps have been taken to limit the number of languages at meetings, but
there are also initiatives in the opposite direction.So far, Irish has been a
treaty langugage, but has not been used in daily work. Now that Maltese has
become official, the Irish have demanded to use their language. Spain has
also demanded that it should be possible to use its other three official
languages Galician, Basque and Catalan, at least within limits and at their
expense.
In addition to the official languages of each country, there are of course
numerous langugages spoken by minorities, with or without some official
status, locally or nation-wide. The smallest langugage is said to be Livian,
spoken by a few hundred in Latvia. The European Bureau for the Lesser
Languages in Dublin and Brussels http://www.eblul.org/ can certainly provide
all details.

Axel Moberg
Stockholm, Sweden

Date: 23 Apr 2005 09:35:31 +0100
From: John Morris <address truncated>
Subject: Discussions of  "ethical" matters in the Digest

Can I make a request that the Digest is divided into two parts - one on
technical matters relating to Psion/Symbian etc and one on the "ethical"
discussions regarding copyrights and freeware etc? The latter I find
uninteresting, overlong & repetitive; by dividing the Digest into two it
would be easier to avoid this element.

Kind regards

John Morris, Cambs UK

Date: 23 Apr 2005 15:28:00 +0100
From: Jim Watson-Gove <address truncated>
Subject: GMT

An off topic question.  What is the relationship between GMT and local
(Winter to keep daylight savings time out of it) time in London.   I want to
set up my PDA to track GMT in my ham shack.

Jim - port townsend wa usa
___

Date: 23 Apr 2005 20:11:53 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting <address truncated>
Subject: Re: A slow farewell? (e-mail, basics, arabic, GPS)

Dear Axel,

<< What worries me more is that many of the discussants don't seem to
understand that the subscribers are a rather mixed crowd. In particular when
hardware is discussed, too many seem to assume that everybody has the same
interests and needs, and naturally the same need as the speaker him/herself >>

Well ... the header of the issue in which your message was posted mentions
that the Digest currently has 747 subscribers. Look at the names of the
people who have posted messages during 2004 and you'll find that it's a
relatively small subsection. A large number of subscribers are therefore
readers rather than writers. Which is fine, were it not that you don't get to
know these people. Which makes it difficult to write a message in which you
take their interests into account. Another limiting factor is, for example,
that you don't know what's interesting for people who work in the medical
field because you work in engineering, the law or teaching. You effectively
supply the answer to your "What worries me..." comment by saying that what
you need in a PDA, handheld computer or smartphone "depends on your way of
life, work and travel habits". What we're able to write about also depends on
our way of life, work and travel habits.

<< First, where do I find the basics about Epoc. Relationship to Symbian? >>

The origins of EPOC can be found in the operating system of the Psion MC200,
MC400 and MCWord sub-notebook computers which weren't a success, to put it
mildly. What was on the MC models was heavily revised, expanded and
relaunched with the Psion Series 3 handheld computer. The successor to
Psion's Organiser II models. The hardware of the Series 3 was named SIBO
(SIxteen Bit Organiser - the Organiser and Organiser II were 8-bit) and the
operating system EPOC. It's generally believed that EPOC comes from the term
'epoch making' as Psion had high expectations when it launched the Series 3.
Though it's also referred to as Electronic Piece Of Cheese - there was even a
one-of Series 3 with an outer coating that made it look like a large piece of
Emmenthaler. Psion updated the SIBO/EPOC combination in the Series 3a, Series
3c and Series 3mx, the small format Siena and the industrial WorkAbout and
WorkAbout MX.

It became clear to Psion users that EPOC was starting to become an elderly
operation system around the time that the Series 3c and Siena were launched.
Which was roughly the time when Psion started work on a 32-bit successor to
EPOC that would run on a completely new hardware platform. The result was the
Series 5. Whether Psion considered the Series 5 to be as epoch making as the
Series is something I don't know. Fact is that the new 32-bit operating
system retained the EPOC name. As Psion sold the Series 3c and Series 3mx in
parallel to the Series 5 for time, their operating systems were quickly
referred to as EPOC16 and EPOC32.

Another development was, that Psion separated the hardware development from
software development and created two companies - Psion Computers and Psion
Software. This took place about 1.5 years before the launch of the Series 5.
Reason for the split was that Psion wanted to license the new (32-bit) EPOC
operating system to third parties. One of the first licensees was a start-up
company called Geofox that created the short-lived Geofox One handheld
computer - an early Series 5 rival. Another early licensee was Dutch
electronics giant Philips. The only thing we ever saw from Philips was a
pre-production prototype of a PDA, called Accent, that could be clipped on a
mobile phone, called Illium, to form a smartphone. The Philips Illium/Accent
combination was demonstrated at exhibitions and ... disappeared.

That Psion had attracted some other big fish became clear a few months after
the launch of the Series 5. I was announced that Psion, Nokia and Ericsson
had formed a joint-venture, Symbian Ltd., for the further development of the
EPOC operating system. Motorola had signed a letter of understanding and
would join Symbian a few months later. Basically, what Psion brought into
Symbian was Psion Software (personnel and technology) and what Nokia,
Ericsson and Motorola brought in was money and some additional personnel.
Though the whole deal also involved the transfer of patents, the cross
licensing of patents, additional payments to Psion, etc. Needless to say that
Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson weren't interested in the ageing 16-bit EPOC. As
the life of the Series 3c/3mx was coming to an end it was decided to transfer
the ownership of EPOC16 to Psion Industrial Computing - the division behind
the WorkAbout - while Symbian would own the EPOC name. The old EPOC16 was
therefore renamed SIBO.

Symbian therefore became responsible for the development of the EPOC
operating system and applications during the lifetime of the Series 5. I
don't know the exact sequence but understand that EPOC Release 1 was used by
Psion Software to attract licensees and that Release 2 went into the Series
5. What was missing in the Series 5 were and E-mail client and a web browser
that would be made available for (free) download a few months after the
launch. Install Message Suite on a Series 5 and the Email and Web
applications plus additional components turned the EPOC version into Release
3. Though Symbian was established around the same time it's fair to say that
Psion Software was responsible for EPOC Release 1 to 3. Release 4 - an
adaptation of Release 3 - was created for another EPOC licensee - Oregon
Scientific - and was used in the Osaris. EPOC Release 5 was launched together
with the Series 5mx and was also used in the Revo and Revo Plus.

Psion Industrial Computing wasn't standing still either, it presented
prototypes of a sub-notebook and tablet computer at CeBit we now know as the
netBook and netPad. Both using the EPOC operating system and applications
(just as the WorkAbout had been EPOC16/SIBO based). EPOC was into release 5
by the time the netBook and netPad appeared on the market and that's what
they're equipped with. Though the netBook was designed for industrial and
corporate applications there proved to be sufficient consumer interest in it
for Psion Computers to launch the lower-specced Series 7. The MC218 is the
result of Ericsson not having a competitor to the Nokia 9000 and 9110
Communicators. Ericsson first used rebadged Windows CE based Hewlett Packard
H/PC models and switched to a rebadged Series 5mx after Symbian was
established. While the Mako is the result of Diamond licensing the Psion Revo.

Returning to Symbian, Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola were followed by such
companies as Sony, Samsung, Matsushita and Siemens so that the then top 5 of
mobile phone manufacturers were focussed on using EPOC. The actual
development of EPOC into an operating system and application set ready for
use in smartphones and communicators took longer than expected. Ericsson used
EPOC Release 5 together with a home-grown user interface in the R380 - the
only EPOC smartphone ever released. Still, the first true
smartphone/communicator release that had the necessary components was no. 6.
By which time it had been decided to drop the EPOC name and the use of the
word 'release'. Meaning that EPOC Release 5 was succeeded by Symbian OS
version 6. Psion never used it, though it was working on a new device
together with Motorola in a joint-development project called Odin. That
Motorola withdrew from the Odin project is one of the reasons why Psion
decided to stop making handheld computers and to withdraw from the consumer
market altogether. Symbian OS 6 gave use the Nokia 7660, Symbian OS 7 the
SonyEricsson P800, etc, etc.

<< What file formats are there? >>

Native application like Word, Sheet and Data use Symbian's own formats. They
use a form of object orientation called 'Stream Store' that's not
a file format in the strict sense of the term. Many third-party applications
that store data as databases tend to use the Symbian database engine and
therefore use files similar to those of Data. Other applications use their
own formats, are able to read and/or write PC based formats like CSV, BMP,
etc.

<< What on earth is Tombraider? >>

Tombraider is an adventure game in which you play the role of Lara Croft.
Tomeraider is a reference application for EPOC and other mobile platforms. It
allows you take text-based data with you in a compressed format, whether
unstructured (a book) or structured (a parts database). The advantage of
Tomeraider is that its compressed files are much smaller than their plain
text originals.

<< Is there an elementary reference book, or something, about all this?
>>

Though there are a few FAQ documents there's no single source for all
Psion/Symbian related information. When you want to know more about stream
stores, for example, it's best to download the Symbina OS White Papers from
Symbian's web site.

---
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Beilen - Netherlands

Date: 23 Apr 2005 23:00:47 +0100
From: Marcus von Cube <address truncated>
Subject: SmtpAuth updated

Hi all,

I've updated SmtpAuth to version 0.80. You must download EpocUtil 0.60 too,
because I've changed both!

EpocUtil now has routines to connect to / disconnect from the network. This
prevents a crash when you cancel the network selection dialog and, in
addition, returns the assigned IP address to the calling programm (this is
just a workaround for another bug in Java on EPOC: you cannot get the local
address of a dial up TCP socket.)

The EPOC error codes are now translated to (short) texts.

SmtpAuth uses the new functions:

The HELO/EHLO command to the SMTP server now contains the network IP address
instead of the 127.0.0.1/localhost address that is sent by EPOC mail.

Ctrl+U diconnects you from the Internet (without asking twice!)

More changes:

You can name your editor in SmtpAuth.ini with the line "editor=Editor" in
section [Global]. The default is the Symbian Editor.

The help file is now in HTML, just the same file as on the Net
(http://www.mvcsys.de/doc/smtpauth.html). It was to much trouble to keep more
then one version of
the file in sync. Opera (or Web) is needed to view the help file. The size of
the SIS file has increased because of the graphics.

Download from http://www.mvcsys.de/download or from the links in the help
file (see URL above.) And don't forget to keep me updated on any (new) bugs!!!

Marcus

http://www.mvcsys.de

Date: 24 Apr 2005 05:08:37 +0100
From: Andy Beale <address truncated>
Subject: Nokia 9300/9500 = Psion replacement?

I have to agree I'm with Franco on this one.

Like many of the people on this digest, I suspect, I waited and hoped that
the new Nokias would turn out to be the kind of 5mx/7 replacements we'd all
been looking for.

Sadly, from the coverage/reviews generously given here, that doesn't appear
to be the case. As much as we *want* to believe that the new machines do
everything the old 5mx did, the fact is they don't.

Yes, you get the phone and the better connectivity, but I'm personally not
interested in that unless it can do everything the 5mx did, which hardly
seems an unreasonable request given that we're talking about 8 year old
machines!

I love the idea of a bright clear colour screen, but what about its small
size? Same goes for the new keyboard.

So for me, personally, the new Nokias were contenders that didn't quite make
it, and I'm sticking with the Psions for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, I'm happy for those whose needs changed and were subsequently met
by moving over to the new Nokias!

Andy
..in 30C sunny Arizona.

Date: 24 Apr 2005 14:42:20 +0100
From:<address truncated><address truncated>
Subject: the king is dead - long life the king 1

Hello everybody,

attentive readers of the Digest would have noticed the following pattern in
my recent postings:

my MC 218 was creaking
I was ranting against Nokias 9300 & 9500 and posing some questions about SE
P910 and the Clove 5MX

I am now sorry to announce that indeed my indispensable MC 218 went
ballistic for good and now it lies in my attic, retired beyond any wish for
further repair.

My Psion went dead on April 12 on a fast train to Amsterdam. On April 13,
palmOne introduced the rumored Tungsten E2. On April 15, I ordered my TE2,
probably one the first in Europe to do so, off the palmOne on-line store. My
T2E arrived last Thursday and my life gets to be bearable again.

I ordered it as a transition machine, not as a permanent replacement to the
Psion functionality (will write on this - read later) and it is my intention
- if Itamar & other editors so agree - to keep you all posted about this
experience. This would be of course nothing new - another story of a
Psioneer moving on with his life - if it were not for the following:
1.    I am looking forward to come back as soon as I can to Symbian land
2.    I am not so 100% enthusiast about Symbian + Symbian devices as they
are at present
3.    My feelings for Psion were to be summarized in a word: love. But I had
a few serious queries with them (perhaps I think I am more critical than
most of the people on the digest), so I guess this will make me more
objective on the Palm experience than some experts on Symbian who - no
offence meant - seem praising it a tiny bit too much than it is worth.
4.    So I hope that a bit of good things about Palm and a few ranting
against Symbian would amplify the debate, may even percolate to Symbian
websites, and get us all better Symbian machines sooner than later.


TOTD: "Well, you did not mourn your mini computer for long, I guess." My
wife on April 15, 2005

Best regards,

F. Cozzani
Brussels

Date: 24 Apr 2005 21:35:20 +0100
From: Phil Aypee <address truncated>
Subject: Apology

Hi Folks,

Rolf (Brunsting), I'm sorry. I did say that a freeware registration scheme
was wrong.

What I meant to say was that, thought I think that such a scheme is in most
ways wrong, it is not normally immoral. The trouble is that these words have
many related definitions and I need to be even more careful not to stretch
them too far.

To repeat, I'm sorry.

Happy days,
Phil.

"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of -
but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards."

http://www.philaypee.co.uk/index.html

Date: 24 Apr 2005 22:15:57 +0100
From: Ed Kaneen <address truncated>
Subject: Tomtom CityMaps Europe - MC218 help please!

I've recently bought on Ebay the 2002 edition of CityMaps Europe (v.3, build
204), along with a Globalsat BR-304 GPS for my MC218 (plus a lot of hassle
getting the right cables!). While I've got it all working at last, I have a
couple of questions that I'd be grateful for any help with:

1) By default, the maps are installed into a directory called CityMaps.
However, the application is in a directory called Street. In order to get it
working, the maps need to be moved into the "Street" directory.

Question: Do I have an old version of CityMaps, and is this fixed in a more
recent version (I read somewhere that Tomtom released a patched version but
don't have any details)?

2) When using it with the GPS, it seems slow to update, so I'll have arrived
at a junction when it is still telling me I'm 100 metres away (and I don't
drive all that fast!). This means that I don't always get the next
instruction as quickly as I need it.

Question: Is this because the MC218 processor is too slow, the GPS is too
slow, or the software is not updating often enough? And is there anything I
can do about it?!

3) Question: Is there a way of using Tomtom Route and CityMaps together, in
some kind of integrated way?

Thanks very much for your help. Apologies for the long post.

Ed Kaneen.

Date: 25 Apr 2005 22:00:36 +0100
From: Rolf Brunsting <address truncated>
Subject: Re: The previous discussion of evolution

Dear Chris,

<< I now strongly suspect that some scientific issues (such as evolution)
have become dogmatised, so that serious problems with some existing theories
are being shoved under the carpet, or even grossly misprepresented (so as to
dismiss them), at least to the public >>

Well ... each and every scientific idea runs the risk of becoming dogma. Not
because of the idea itself but because science is a human endeavour.
Scientists aren't immune from human frailty. The history of science is
therefore littered with scientific ideas that became dogma. With scientists
that were pushed aside because they had the temerity to question such an idea.

<< Although I have often had nagging doubts about some scientific theories,
until recently I was able to dismiss them as being due to a laymans poor
understanding of the theory & limited knowledge of the available evidence.
Having read Kicking The Sacred Cow by James P Hogan (who's opinion I had
already come to highly respect), I can't easily dismiss such doubts any
longer >>

I haven't read the book but, as it has Kicking The Sacred Cow as title, it
looks to me that Mr. Hogan is questioning authority. There's nothing against
questioning authority, as long as the authority of Mr. Hogan himself is
questioned. Respect for Mr. Hogan's opinions is one thing. Whether Mr. Hogan
is right another.

<< Scientific issues should be open to public debate, based upon evidence,
and not halted by ONLY "expert" opinion >>

I'm afraid that having a true public debate about scientific ideas implies a
number of prerequisites that prevent it from becoming a
public debate. Let's take the Big Bang theory you're now sceptical about as
an example.

I trust you're able to describe the essence of the theory in a few sentences.
But are you able to walk into the Cosmology Department of a university and
discuss the Big Bang theory with the scientists who work there? Discussing a
theory like that of the Big Bang inevitably means going into the technical
details of it. Many people will have to leave the discussion at that point
because they aren't scientists and don't have the talents to become one. When
a scientists describes a
particular phenomenon, and explains why it fits the Big Bang theory, they
have to accept it. Just as they have to accept a doctor's
diagnosis as well as the medication the doctor prescribes.

Science is an elite business, whether we like it or not. When the general
public wants to get deeply involved in discussing a scientific theory they
effectively need to become experts themselves. Otherwise they wouldn't be
able to judge the evidence that's presented to them. Nor would they be able
to judge whether the Steady State theory by
Hoyle and Narlikar is a better theory than the Big Bang theory. The same
applies to the question whether HIV causes AIDS. You need to have
a very good understanding of virology and immunology before you're able to
judge the evidence.

<< So for my part, if anyone feels that they still have things to say on the
topic of evolution (even though it may be off-topic), I'd be happy for them
to voice them... >>

Well, several questions have been asked during past discussions so that you
could say that Darwin's theory has been challenged. Look at the questions
more closely, however, and 95% of them are dealing with
issues that are outside Darwin's theory of evolution. The answers to these
question therefore explained what Darwin's theory is and why
these issues don't challenge the theory. Trouble is, these questions have
popped up more than once. Meaning that the explanations haven't worked. New
explanations using different approaches, different examples or different
analogies may be needed before the proverbial penny drops. I'm perfectly
willing to have another go at explaining why these things don't challenge the
theory. But there comes a point at which I can't find hew ways to explain it.

Another aspect is that some statements have been made more than once. Like
the one that we, humans, are the only species to have self-conciousness.
Despite the reply that Chimpanzees and Bobobos are self-concious as well. And
with reference to the work of such eminent people as Frans de Waal and Jane
Goodall. People don't have to accept the reply, of course. However, the
burden is then on them to explain
why it is that de Waal and Goodall have got it wrong. Nobody ever did, the
statement was simple repeated. This dampens the willingness to explain
Darwin's theory to the extent that I think it better for some people read
some books about the theory, as well as some books about
the nature of science, before they enter another debate.

<< For interest, but at the risk of starting a heated debate, the scientific
theories on which I am currently openly sceptical of
include: ..... I am also much more open to (but undecided about) some
'heretical' theories, including ..... >>

Hmmmmmm ... Dark Matter - Black Holes - Oort Cloud - Big Bang - The mechanism
of natural selection - CO2 as greenhouse gas - Catastrophy alternative to
Plate Tectonics - The sun not being a giant fusion reactor - C14 and other
time scales - Alternatives to Einstein's
General Relativity.

Again, I haven't read Mr. Hogan's Kicking The Sacred Cow. But when it's Mr.
Hogan's book that his triggered or reinforced your doubts on the above it
becomes clear what Mr. Hogan is aiming at. The items I've picked out have all
to do with the formation of the universe, the formation of stars and planets,
how life evolved and the speed at which this all took place. This, combined
with your use of "scientific
dogma", is a strong indicator that Mr. Hogan wants us to take the Intelligent
Design theory as serious as the Big Bang theory, Darwin's Evolution By
natural Selection, etc. At which point I checked the book on Amazon and found
the following in the first reader's review.

[Quote]
The point where Hogan lost me, and I started to take the book much less
seriously, turned out to be in the very first chapter. While Hogan argues
against traditional Creationism, for some bizarre reason he proposes
so-called Intelligent Design as worthy of consideration. [Unquote]

And the reviewer describes the book as "does for hard science what the works
of Graham Hancock and Erich Von Daniken do for the serious study of
archeology and history". In other words, it's one of those 'Scientists don't
want us to know this to protect their interests' kind of conspiracy theory
Americans seem to be very fond of. Trouble is, the Intelligent Design theory
is effectively the first chapter of the Bible - the Book of Genesis - dressed
up modern clothes and presented as science.

It's perfectly OK for Mr. Hogan to recommend that we look at scientific
theories with sceptical eyes. Scepticism is, after all, one of the key
elements of what's called the Scientific Method. However, Mr. Hogan has
entered the realm of science when discussing such theories as the Big Bang
and Evolution By natural Selection. And the realm of science has a set of
rules that are quite different from the rules of the realm of religion. Take
the Bible into the realm of science and it will be
judged according the rules of science. Now, the Bible doesn't contain one
account of the Creation in the Book of Genesis but two. This is no problem as
long as they're complementary. Trouble is, they disagree
with each other on a few key points. We don't have to go into the details to
say that the rules of science don't allow the submission of
a theory that's self-contradictory. You'll be asked to rework the theory and
get the contradictions out, or to withdraw it. As rework is an impossible job
- you don't mess with the Bible - it means that Mr. Hogan has to leave the
Bible at the door when he enters the realm of science. Also when he calls it
Creationism, Intelligent Design, Guided Design or whatever name rather
fundamentalist Christians have used to get the Bible into US classrooms by
stealth.

<< I leave it up to the discretion of others as to whether they reply
publically or privately on any of these topics! >>

I'm perfectly willing to discuss science and scientific ideas as long as
those of any religious persuasion observe the principle of Non Overlapping
Magisteria (See: Rocks Of Ages - Science and Religion In
the Fullness Of Life by Stephen J. Gould).

---
Kind Regards,
Rolf Brunsting - Beilen - Netherlands