- Re: SMTP servers, GPS & XPPsiWin

- Nokia 9500 Excel Problem.

- Re : Winmail.dat

- Not working site

- The future for UIQ

- Re: SMTP "accounts" and "Passwords"

- RE: Upgrade to XP

Date: 25 Sep 2005 12:19:30 +0000
From: plutopants <address truncated>
Subject: Re: SMTP servers, GPS & XPPsiWin

Rolf (Brunsting) said:  "As I pay Planet Internet for the use of its SMTP server as part of its services I don't want freeloaders to clog up its systems...Planet's scheme allows me to keep using my Psions as well as their standard e-mail client."
Rolf - your reasoning is spot on I believe. Our tendency to expect full freedom comes at a price these days, and we need some guarantees of service. There is often some effort, and occasionally a well thought out investment,  required if one wishes to work from different locations (especially like Rolf who goes between countries) and with different devices, especially when a choice of service has been made that might not suit all eventualities.
However, we do learn to work around issues. I suffer the inconveniences and use AUTHSMTP to access my oneandone.co.uk and freenetname accounts (not dependent upon who I connect with. I also more recently have started using uk2.net for webmail. This works fine over mobile GSM connection with my netbook, using the uk2 dialup account in the UK. I simply use the account purely to receive emails in one place forwarded form my other accounts when I'm out and about. I send replies when necessary from it. I guess like the flexibility some members have found with gmail etc.
For me, the Psions still do the job for me!

AS for GPS... I now have brought a Garmin Quest that  does a great job (it is a dedicated GPS rather than a hybrid Pocket PC/ Palm device, as I could not envisage being unfaithful to my still working Psions). Although Itamar and others are soldiering on with their route planners. I found that there were too many new roads where I travelled that I was missing with my Psion. Ironically, I know that in a couple of years time I'll be in the same position again with my Garmin - same old story.

Jim (Watson-Gove) - best of luck with your XP. I did the same a while back and had no problems. PsiWin 2.3.3 is what you need. XP is now a nice mature OS which has had so many updates, it's bound to be relatively stable. I just wish the planned 5MX clone PsiXPda from POSLtd seemed to be more up to date offering USB connection, as (cheaper) new PCs now seem to be coming without serial and even parallel ports. One reason to upgrade these days is because new drivers tend not to be extensively tested on the older OSes, if at all. I remember when a printer driver used to be just a nice little file that would easily fit on a fl;oppy disk. Nowadays you invariably need a CD or memory stick to store them. I found one client's HP (all in one) drivers took 30 minutes to install (on a NEW XP PC!). I am not surprised that with the complexity of today's driver (and bundled software) packages that other things are thrown off line.

Regards to all Digestees -
George

Date: 25 Sep 2005 12:57:24 +0000
From: Charles Davies <address truncated>
Subject: Nokia 9500 Excel Problem.

I at last got around to acquiring a 9500 but have run into the
following problem whilst trying to load an Excel program.
This program was originally on my Pson 5mx and transferred to laptop.
From there it has been transferred ok to my iPaq 5550 but when I try
to load it into the 9500 it spends at least 5 minutes loading and
sometimes hangs necessitating a battery out.  If I do eventually get
it loaded and try to save it goes into a long convert again.  If it
ever saves it becomes a corrupt file.
Other progs load ok so that I can only presume that there is something
in the prog. that is upsetting the 9500 although the Psion, laptop and
iPaq are all happy with it.
Could it be the size not that it is all that big but bigger than the
other small ones that load ok.  No error messages appear so I have no
starting point.
Any suggestions gratelfully received
Charles Davies

Date: 25 Sep 2005 19:04:47 +0000
From: MJ D <address truncated>
Subject: Re : Winmail.dat

To: Mark & Bob
Complementing Mark's references :
""http://www.gpc.edu/~jbenson/resource/winmail.htm"
I'ld suggest the following quote from WinMail Readme :
[Quote]
"WinMail V1.04
Extract Attachments from Outlook RTF Messages
By Steve Beadlehttp://www.biblet.freeserve.co.uk
What does it do?
This program is a utility you can use in conjunction with the Psion/Symbian
e-mail program.  When you receive a message from a user who has 'mistakenly'
sent you a message in Outlook RTF format, you will receive the normal message
text along with an attached file named 'winmail.dat'.  Strictly speaking it's
not a Word rich text file and you can't use Word to read it.
This winmail.dat file contains a formatted version of the message (which this
program ignores) and any attached files.  Save the winmail.dat file to any
folder and then run this program.  It will scan the selected winmail.dat file
for attachments and prompt you to save them individually, defaulting to the
original (long) filename.
Installation To install WinMail run the SIS file....
... more information at :
http://www.biblet.freeserve.co.uk/
http://www.psionplace.com/software/series5/WinMail-2000-08-08-psion-series5.htm
http://www.pchell.com/support/winmaildat.shtml
http://www.gpc.edu/~jbenson/resource/winmail.htm.".
[UNquote]
HTH
Jack

Date: 26 Sep 2005 08:22:29 +0000
From: Franco Cozzani <address truncated>
Subject: Not working site

Dear all,

I have been feeling bad recently, when I provided you with a link to an
interesting site on the much rumoured SE Hermione, which also mentioned a
P1000, which did not open.

Itamar had inquired back to me, in particular, and indeed the site was no
longer available.

I just found this other site, simply by googling for "P950", and the titles
look interesting.

Of course, these are just rumours and some rumours tend to be nothing more
than projections of what some of us would like to see… but have a look. In
particular, there is indeed another refererence to a communicator P1000, in
addition to the p950 proper.

Regards,

http://www.p950.com/ <http://www.p950.com/>



> Franco COZZANI
> Brussels
>

Date: 26 Sep 2005 12:14:30 +0000
From: Arabbitte <address truncated>
Subject: The future for UIQ

To: Ian Chapple, Itamar Engelsman, Rolf Brunsting, etc Subject: The future for UIQ

<<<
Date: 22 Sep 2005 09:29:08 +0000
From: Ian Chapple
Subject: Re. UIQ

Rolf,

>>It's more a case of "could mean" rather than "would mean" when it comes to changing smartphone. Replace your SonyEricsson P910 by a P950 and you keep using the UIQ platform. There's a fairly high chance that you don't have to make any changes to your third-party applications as they run as well on a P950.<<

There are rumours, and they are only rumours, that UIQ 2.1 applications may not be compatible with UIQ 3, and vice versa. I have also read that Symbian (or Sony Ericsson) may make Symbian v9 (or UIQ 3) more restrictive, so that only certified applications can be installed; this apparently has something to do with the operators trying to prevent users from installing "any old" software. Whether these rumours are true and how they will affect what software can be installed remains to be seen...

Cheers, Ian.
>>>


These are a lot more than just rumours. There has been lots of speculation on this over the last few months but in recent times the detail has become much clearer. Here are some facts (detailing how the UIQ 3/Symbian 9 application environment will differ from UIQ2.1/Symbian 7) that may surprise you:

1) *No* existing C++ UIQ application will run on the new architecture without recompilation. This represents most "serious" commercial applications (and some not so serious!)
2) There will be no Personal Java on the new platform therefore none of these programs will *ever* run. List includes Malcolm Bryant's excellent (& free!) JABP, JRC4, JText, Jzip, etc, etc. MIDP java programs - as you might expect - will continue to run without change
3) OPL itself will need to be ported to the new environment before it - and therefore any existing OPL programs - can work. Some of these include Steve Litchfield's excellent games and utilities available from his http://3lib.ukonline.co.uk website
4) About 40% of the APIs in the new architecture are restricted. (APIs allow programmers to access the functionality provided in the phone). The restrictions are intended to stop a malicious program such as a virus carrying out unauthorised operations such as accessing the web, changing your phone's settings, etc.  Programs can be any of:
a) Don't use the restricted APIs. At install time, the user grants a once-off, permanent, authorisation and this program will then continue to run without any user intervention from then on. This would be an unsigned application.
b) Uses some of the restricted APIs and unsigned. The user will be asked to authorise particular operations when the programs requires them. These authorisations are once-off and need to be provided by the user every time the program needs them. Doesn't sound too good for the user ...
c) The Author gets the program signed by Smybian. This means the user can install and run the program and will not be asked any questions regarding this new environment. Easiest for the user but more difficult for the program author who needs to go through a process to digitally sign the application. This is a free process but does represent an overhead. As this is a digital signiture, any changes to the application will require the Author to go through the process again.

My fear is that the new environment is so different to the old that some program authors may begin to question if it's worth the effort. Other than MIDP apps, I can't think of one thing that runs on today's P910i that will run on the new (P950?) without some work. In recent times, Palm brought out a brand-new operating system called Cobalt which was technically far superior to the old Palm OS. I'm sure Palm assumed that all authors would just follow them but something went wrong. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but Palm are now looking at Linux for their future needs. Maybe comparing Palm with Symbian is a little unfair, but regardless of how much you agree or disagree with the comparison, it does sound a note of caution for the future of UIQ.

So Itamar, a program like Route 66 than today runs on a P910i would NOT run on a P950. Assuming it is a C++ application, it would need to be recompiled. It would also probably need changes to allow it to take advantage of the new User Interface. In addition, as it deals with comms to a GPS unit, it would either need to be constantly authorised by the user in operation (unrealistic) or digitally signed by the program authors initially and then each time an upgrade was issued. Let's hope this will not be too difficult in operation.

Can I ask an existing Symbian author to comment on what they feel the impact of this new environment will be? Will they continue to support Symbian. Will it mark the end of freeware applications because of the extra effort involved? Mr Litchfield?

For those of you who are interested in more detail, click here on the Official Symbian site for more: http://www.symbian.com/developer/techlib/papers/implementing_platsec_ISV/implementing_platform_security_for_ISVs_v1.0.pdf There is also an interesting discussion on this subject here: http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008610.html#comments

All the best from Dublin, Ireland
Alan Rabbitte

Date: 26 Sep 2005 12:29:52 +0000
From: Marcus von Cube <address truncated>
Subject: Re: SMTP "accounts" and "Passwords"

Rolf,

>I'm sorry, but what are the "password" and "account" you're referring 
>to? I've never, ever, entered a password for the SMTP server in the e- mail account settings on all the computers, PDAs and smartphones I've 
>used. What's more, have a look at the account settings for the Psion 
>Email application where you can enter the SMTP server name (like 
>mail.isp.com or smtp.isp.com) but no password.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) has been extended a few years ago to add an additional step in the greeting phase between the mail client and the server: authentication. My SmtpAuth program does nothing more than just adding the neccessary steps in the communication between the two. Naturally, the account name and pasword are entered in a seperate configuration file.

Recent email clients allow entering the neccessary information directly as part of the SMTP configuration.

Marcus

http://www.mvcsys.de

Date: 26 Sep 2005 17:57:11 +0000
From: Mark Kenepp <address truncated>
Subject: RE: Upgrade to XP

To: Jim Watson-Gove
Re: Upgrading to XP

Hello Jim,

About a year ago, I upgraded to XP in the office where I connect my MC218. I used EPOC Connect from Ericsson and did not want to upgrade to PsiWin 2.3.3 mainly because I used the Ericsson licensed My Pocket to synchronize some files on my MC218 with my desktop computer. I understood that My Pocket would not work with PsiWin.

I don't remember specifics, but I know that the only reason I needed to upgrade to PsiWin 2.3.3 was because of issues with Outlook Synchronization. I don't recall testing file transfer with EPOC Connect but I would assume that I set up My Pocket and I don't recall having issues with it. My Pocket did not work with PsiWin 2.3.3 so I had to make that sacrifice in order to synchronize with Outlook.

I would say, there is no negatives to installing PsiWin 2.3.3 over an earlier version. On the contrary, it may very well fix some bugs you didn't know you have.

Since you will be performing a clean install on your new computer, I see no reason not to install the latest version of PsiWin.

Good luck,

Mark Kenepp
San Francisco, CA