- Panasonic Toughbook CF-T5

- Synchronising Agenda & Outlook (Office 2003)

- File date/time stamp

- Synchronising Agenda & Outlook (Office 2003)

- Netbook wifi, M600i,

Date: 17 Jan 2007 20:15:52 +0000
From: Chris Handley
Subject: Panasonic Toughbook CF-T5

Alan Morris wrote:
> } The device to most interest me is the new Panasonic Toughbook > } CF-T5.  It's a laptop with a touchscreen, not much bigger or
> } heavier than a Netbook, which has a 7 to 14 hour battery
> } life.

> I've been looking at the CF-18 for a couple of years, so I'll have to > look at the T5.  Is it a 'real' touchscreen like on Psions or does it > have the special expensive pens as on most other Tablet-PCs, that don't > work with a finger nail ?

Last time I checked, there was VERY little concrete info on this model - I'm not even sure if it has been released yet (in the UK or anywhere else).

I would like an answer to the touchscreen question too!  But I do get the *impression* that it is a "real" touchscreen (with 'mouse' buttons located on the keyboard) rather than a Tablet-PC stylus.  If that's true, then I would probably be LESS keen on the CF-T5, because Windows wasn't designed to handle "real" touchscreen, so I imagine it could be a cumbersome experience...  (Hopefully some reviews will enlighten us, since I doubt John Lewis will be stocking this, like they did my current Acer Tablet PC.)

BTW, just like my current Tablet PC, it does not have a built-in CD or DVD drive, BUT they don't supply an external one either.  That's a bit cheeky of them if you ask me, but the truth is that I've almost never needed to use the external DVD drive with my Tablet PC (and Alcohol 52%'s CD emulation has let me work-around most situations when it would have been needed).

Regards,
Chris Handley

Date: 17 Jan 2007 22:36:56 +0000
From: Colin & Ali Messer <address truncated>
Subject: Synchronising Agenda & Outlook (Office 2003)

Gary Jenkinson <address truncated> wrote on 11 Jan 2007

> "Does anyone have any tips/ideas/suggestions of how best to > synchronise Agenda/5mx with Outlook/Office 2003-WinXP
> so I avoid all those duplicated and inaccurate entries that I got > the last time I tried this??"

The only way I know to avoid duplicate entries is to use one system as the master and the other as slave.  All other attempts turn up duplicates eventually, though the XP/Office2003 combination has been the least troublesome.  Even so I still occasionally find events duplicated.

The most trouble free synchronisation I use is between my work outlook and an agenda file I call Desk Diary where I rarely update my netBook.
Synchronisation with the home system Win98SE/Office97 is another matter.
If a large contacts update has taken place then I see large number of duplicates on the netBook, though not if the updates are small.

> ...  it was particularly disappointing not to get a SINGLE reply.

I too have requested help on a couple of issues and have also received no reply, but as my university tutor would say, "If you have nothing to say, say nothing.", so I didn't take it personally.  Though perhaps I could take this opportunity to ask the assembled knowledge base if anyone has has success converting video files for playing on a netBook, and if so, how?

Regards
Colin Messer
using a Revo/netBook combination

Date: 18 Jan 2007 00:22:57 +0000
From: Eric Lindsay <address truncated>
Subject: File date/time stamp

>   The Digest    Wed, 17 Jan 2007    Volume 01  :  Number 1045 > From: Alan Morris <address truncated>
> Subject: RE: File date/time stamp

> However the date/time stamp problem has changed with different > versions
> of windows.

> I've recently been looking into the date/time stamps of digital camera > CF cards that I use on all 3 of my cameras.

> Plugging a CF card into a Psion gives the same (within a fraction of a > second) time as the EXIF time taken data.

> Plug the same CF card into a windows card reader and get a change > in the
> hour.

Many of the Time Stamp problems with Windows come from ancient decisions to use Local Time rather than UTC time on files. Given PCs didn't have real time clocks when first released, that wasn't totally unreasonable. Unix (and Linux and Epoc and Mac OSX) used UTC from the start, and applied a Time Zone offset when displaying the time. Windows is capable of doing this, and there is an undocumented (and I believe unsupported) Registry change you can make on recent Windows versions, to allow UTC on PCs not set up that way. In addition, Windows has special problems with FAT file systems (which is what is used in camera cards and USB memory cards) when running Daylight Saving. This is why you can sometimes have Windows working fine with files on its hard drive, and then get things wrong with files from a memory card.

Lots of details here http://www.codeproject.com/datetime/dstbugs.asp and elsewhere on the web. It is a known problem (it is not a bug, as Windows is working as designed - they just shouldn't have designed it that way). You can also easily run into it if you dual boot Linux and Windows, or Mac OSX and Windows, which is why some people like using the Windows registry kluge.

Date: 18 Jan 2007 08:23:39 +0000
From: Gareth J M Saunders <address truncated>
Subject: Synchronising Agenda & Outlook (Office 2003)

Hi Gary,

"Does anyone have any tips/ideas/suggestions of how best to synchronise Agenda/5mx with Outlook/Office 2003-WinXP so I avoid all those duplicated and inaccurate entries that I got the last time I tried this??"

BACKUP
Karl had the right idea when he suggested that you back-up both the Psion (using PsiWin) and Outlook 2003 before you do anything.  Did you know that Microsoft offer a Personal Folders Backup Add-in for Outlook that allows you to automatically back-up your .PST file at regular intervals (or when instructed)?  You can find it at http://tinyurl.com/peq8

REMOVE DUPLICATED ENTRIES
I've had a few sync nightmares that left me with 1,200 contacts instead of my usualy 600.  I can thoroughly recommend Sperry Software's Outlook Add-ins (www.sperrysoftware.com)

They produce separate Add-ins for removing Duplicate Appointments (http://tinyurl.com/2g3d86) and Duplicate Contacts (http://tinyurl.com/3rqdq).  These are not free, costing $17.95 and $24.95 respectively but you can download the trial versions to try them out.
That's what I did and found it so effective that I bought them.

SYNC PROBLEMS
I've found that if I'm in any doubt as to whether I may have a sync problem I delete the sync profile in PsiWin and create a new one -- it only takes seconds to do via the wizard -- and then when I synchronize again PsiWin regards this as a first-time sync.

With my Series 7 I had repeated problems until I completely backed-up, did a hard reset and restored my data.  Not sure what happened to it but that sure fixed it.

With seriously messed-up Contacts I have been known to go into
C:\System\Data\ and rename Contacts.cdb to Contacts.old and then press the Contacts button to have the Psion create a new contacts file before syncing with Outlook again. (This is assuming that all my contacts are fine in Outlook.)

I hope these are some helpful tips.

Gareth J M Saunders
Anstruther, Scotland, UK

Date: 18 Jan 2007 23:28:27 +0000
From: Itamar Engelsman
Subject: Netbook wifi, M600i,

Answer to: Lewis Hartman

Re.: Netbook wifi - No, I never tried it but can tell you that the 5MX can definitely not handle any Wifi card whatsoever.

Answer to: Ian Chapple & Prar

Re.: M600i - If inded it is the same as the P910 you might be able to run Smartmovie on it. This program reduces the size of films and DVD's to much smaller file sizes so you can store many more films on your datacard. It is the only reason I still take the P910 with me on trips, to watch movies during boring flights or train rides.

Best regards,
Itamar Engelsman
London, UK

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