Cranky Coffee Computers

VOIP

2009-08-17T16:45:00.003-04:00

Alright... I said never again, but two months ago I jumped back to a VOIP provider to see how it had improved. All I can say is the difference between 2006 and now is like night and day. The quality is perfect! No down times, just WOW!

Ported my work number over and things have been smooth!

Check out www.thefeaturephone.com for the starting of my new business. I have partnered with some amazing providers to offer the best features and service available! I even stock piled some ATA's if people need equipment and don't want to spend a whole lot.

www.thefeaturephone.com - Hit me up via phone or email and I will help you select the best package and equipment for you!

Pocket Informant for Blackberry

2009-03-02T13:09:00.002-05:00

I love icons and categories in my calender. I've been using them for 10 years in Datebk for PalmOS and Agendus for PocketPC.

When I switched to the blackberry I was worried about being able to keep things organized the way I like to. I don't like using TODO's or Task lists. I need to /SEE/ what's going on and the only way it works for me is using the calender format. (Much like I used to do with highlighters and my paper organizer).

This morning I found pocket informant for Blackberry and realized they had found a way to let me use categories, colors, and icons in the blackberry world without having to give anything up! They use their own database, but include a "Syncing feature" that let's me sync their database to the internal BB database (Stripping the category and icon etc) and from there Astrasync send's it to my exchange account. It sounds more complex then it really is.

I spent an hour going hardcore with Pocket informant and loved it. Even though they offer 14 days trial (FULL FEATURES TOO!) I registered after only a few minutes of use.

I also did the same with their note2self program but I'll write about that another day. ;)

Amazing email hosting.

2009-03-01T10:23:00.004-05:00

I've been using inftekhosting to host my email for aprox 2 months now. I just wanted to go on record and let everyone know how great this service is.

I was specifically looking for a hosted Kerio account as I like the web interface much more then Exchange, but also needed the exchange features to OTA sync my (At the time Treo 755p) handheld device.

I've used it with the Treo 755p, HTC Touch, and now a Blackberry 8330. To get the blackberry to sync I did need to use a third party software package called Astrasync The people at Astrasync were amazing, I had some small issues and they helped me fast in their forums, and followed up via email. Once my trial was almost expired I licensed the product.

If you are in the need for a hosted exchange account at a GREAT price you have to check out Inftekhosting.

Hell froze over.

2009-02-25T13:59:00.003-05:00

Hell froze over. I have bowed to public pressure and purchased a Blackberry Curve.

The HTC touch decided one monday morning two weeks ago to simply explode when I plugged it into it's charger. Telus had offered me a good package to "upgrade" to a blackberry anyway so I decided to take it.

It's been about 4 days now and I'm starting to get used to it. Big changes are no touch screen which I have had for over 10 years, and the fact that there are no categories in the calender.

For the most part the categories don't bother me anymore as I still set them in outlook, and just use the BB's application when I'm on the road.

I will post in more detail in the next couple of days about my experience getting the blackberry to sync with my "exchange" account and the hoops I jumped through. ;)

Newsbreak

2008-11-08T10:08:00.003-05:00

On the Treo's I've always been a huge fan of Quicknews. Since moving back to Windows mobile I needed to find a RSS reader that didn't throw ads at me, slow my phone down, or make me crazy insane with slow download speeds.

The program I ended up with (and registered) was News Break by Iliumsoft.

As you can see it looks a lot like Quicknews for the Palm platform, and supports auto updating, and is able to download the channels at a speed you hardly notice! The closest other RSS reader was slow as molasses and didn't support auto updating.

If your on a Windows Mobile device and want a great RSS reader at a reasonable price you can't go wrong with News Break! Check them out with the link above!

Personal Finance Manager

2008-11-03T19:32:00.002-05:00

So I've been looking for a number of years for a software package to take care of my personal finances. My personal fiances are very simple, and a spread sheet has done the job for a number of years, though I found I had a hard time keeping up with the spread sheet.

I found something called "Ace Money" (Link above) and I was able to download QIX files from my bank, and import them into this program in a matter of minutes. I then spent 1/2 hour this evening setting all the categories I use and modifying a years worth of entrees / balancing them etc. (Yes you read that right, a YEARS worth in 1/2 an hour!!!!)

This program is great! I registered it for only $30, and the $20 Pocket PC version for my HTC Touch (They both use the same file format as well!!!!). Cheaper then Quicken, easier to use, the reports it generates are much better looking then the NOTHING I got from a spread-sheet.

I only run Windows on my "Server" at the house, but because I can do all my entry on my smartphone, and just sync the file to the "server" I don't even miss not having a native mac application.

Something else I recently started doing, was scanning receipts. Now I scan them and add them as "Attachments" into ace money and I can always cross reference items.

If you need something to manage your personal finances I recommend this one HIGHLY.

HTC Touch

2008-10-23T08:20:00.002-04:00

Yeah yeah yeah I know.

The Treo755p is now sitting on my desk. I picked up a HTC touch on ebay and after playing with it for about 10 mins, paid telus the $10 rip off charge to "upgrade" my handset on their website.

(That charge is another story)

I know I hated windows the last two times I tried it, but this time it seems different... I don't know if it's the 6.1 version, or the fact that the hardware is much better then the last junk box I had.

Installed Agendus Pro again, and it's almost good enough to use. The email application SPANKS versamail!! Pushing all happens in the cloud, evernote, etc etc etc. Software is much fresher and quite pretty.

I'll post more on this after I've had the device for about a week!

Safari and Bookmark syncing.

2008-10-20T14:51:00.001-04:00

Having been a mac user for about two years now, I have come to really love Safari as my web browser, unfortunialy it has a missing feature. In Firefox there was an add on called “Foxmarks” that totally rocks if you use multiple computers as often as I do and need to keep your bookmarks up to date.

My friend Brad-x and I were bitching about this and Brad came up with an idea about using symbolic links and dropbox.

Guess what? It works!

On the First computer (The one with your bookmarks)

1) Backup your settings. (tar cvf ~/Desktop/Safari.tar ~/Library/Safari)
2) Move the settings to dropbox (mv ~/Library/Safari ~/Dropbox/Safari)
3) Create the link (ln –s ~/Dropbox/Safari ~/Library/Safari)

On the Second (and third etc Computers)

1) Backup (mv ~/Library/Safari ~/Library/Safari-backup)
2) Link (ln –s ~/Dropbox/Safari ~/Library/Safari)

This is all there is to it! One thing I have noticed is if you update a bookmark on computer 1 while computer 2 has safari open it won’t show the new bookmark until you restart safari.

Be sure to check out www.brad-x.com!

Funny...

2008-09-15T18:07:00.002-04:00

Funny how we now live in a time when cellphones are more reliable then our home phones isn't it? All my services at home are provided by Rogers cable. My Internet, TWO phone lines, and television.

They are all down.

I called and begged them to manually forward my work like to my cell, and thankfully they were able to do that, but now with no services except for my Telus cellphone.... (Which is providing internet access as well)....

Maybe the whole concept of bundling really doesn't make sense. If Bell had my phone lines, at least I'd still have those... Maybe it's time to un-bundle and go back to paying four different bills.

New old laptop.

2008-09-12T11:28:00.002-04:00

So I got my new (old) laptop. I decided since I was going to have to spend at least $500 I might as well get something I wanted. So I popped down to the fancy authorized apple dealer downtown and found a nice 12" iBook waiting for me.

This is my first non intel computer (Since the Commodore days) and while I am used to the operating system as my main machien is an Intel iMac there were no surprises for me. Everything works as I would expect it too. All software works, printing, etc etc. No more squinting at 3 lines of text in the work software.

Job this weekend is update the RAM from 512 to 1.5Gb! I installed Leopard yesterday and it needs the new ram as Tiger was very snappy on this box, but I really missed the quicklook preview. ;)

Dropbox

2008-09-06T09:50:00.002-04:00

A while back I watched the video for dropbox on their website and totally wanted in. ;) It took a number of months and I finally got invited to join. Since that time I have had a friend of mine give me a webdav account which I've been using, here are my thoughts on the two:

WD - Unlimited space

DB - Couple gigs.

WD - Manually syncing / copying of files.

DB - Syncs automagicaly to all computers or the web interface.

WD - No web interface, so if I don't have access to the add network places I'm boned.

DB - Web interface.

WD - Fast as hell.

DB - Fast as hell.

Basically at this time (Keeping in mind it's not been long) the winner is Dropbox for the simple fact that I am able to work on the documents on my local hard drive and not have to worry about anything else, they just magically appear on the other computers.

eeePC again.

2008-09-04T09:23:00.003-04:00

You can read my glowing review for the eeePC from a while back. Unfortunately the whole netbook idea just bit me in the butt. Over the last little while I've been getting everything configured over here so I can compute in the cloud for pretty much everything, (Online storage, webmail, push mail to the treo etc. etc. etc.) Everything works PERFECTLY!

So what's the problem?

The package I use for work used to be windows based, around June they changed to a web based package which worked great, (again in the cloud) until the most recent update. The recent update splits your browser into 4 frames. the last frame is the one to enter your clients information etc. It is 3 lines long on the eeepc's screen. Yes 3 lines. The info screen is 16.

My netbook is no longer useful to me. I enjoyed the fact I could work anywhere, and now I'm heading to Dell's website for a loaded up Inspiron. (Or I'll bite the bullet and get a Macbook, as I love my mac!) ;)

IT was a nice couple of months carrying something so small around.

Versamail update.

2008-08-30T21:08:00.003-04:00

For those of you with the Treo 755p, this update works perfectly on my device. It also has an important fix that stops Versamail from "loosing" the fact its supposed to be receiving push mail from an Exchange server.

Obviously use at your own risk, but I upgraded this morning, and have been receiving email and appointments all day without a hitch.

The Ebookwise 1150

2008-08-18T15:49:00.002-04:00

I've been a HUGE fan of ebooks since 1999 when I bought my first Palm IIIe and found the peanutpress.com website. (Now owned by Fictionwise and called Ereader secure). Over the years I have bought over 300 books from various web stores, and converted a heck of a lot of fan fiction and been from Project Gutenberg.

I've always read on my PDA starting with the iiie, iiic, Tungsten T, Lifedrive, Treo 650, and Treo 755p.

If you look those models up you'll notice the screen has gotten smaller as time went
on, my eyes have also gotten older. Last week I started the hunt for a dedicated ebook
reader.

My first stop was amazon to have a look at the Kindle since that's the one getting
all the press right now. Unfortunately for Amazon I live in Canada and they only sell their
device in the US so I moved on.

Sonystyle. Now this was a reader that had some features and the price wasn't that
bad at all. I had pretty much decided to go with this one since the other e-ink readers
all had price tags that I just didn't want to deal with right now.

I then read the reviews of E-Ink and while most people love it, the one thing that bothered
me was the lack of a backlight (Or the lack of a free light for the reader, the backlight from
Sony is another $70.

Since I don't sleep my wife spoke up and told me I would need to find something that wouldn't
require a bedside lamp.

I started hunting for a LCD reader with a backlight, and stumbled across the www.ebookwise.com site which is owned by Fictionwise. I read the specs, and checked out the reviews online and even though this is seriously old tech people still LOVE them. I hauled out the old plastic and ordered one up.

The device got here in 3 business days, and was packaged very nice, the case it comes with
is functional and I can chuck my ebook in my briefcase with everything else and feel it won't
be damaged.

I promptly set everything up and registered the device and had access to my online bookshelf.
It asked me if I wanted to import all my previous fictionwise purchases (Multi format only) to
the new bookshelf and I let it.

I also picked up the librarian software from their website which allows one to use the USB cable
and "Online Bookshelf" to connect to your local computer where you can place your own created
books. With a bit of work I was able to remove the DRM and convert some of my previous .LIT and Mobipocket books into HTML and from HTML it was a breeze to convert to the IMP format.

The fonts are very easy to read and the brightness / contrast controls allow you to tweak it
to be viewable in almost any light. I went outside and in everything but DIRECT sunlight the
ebookwise is very readable.

The big buttons for changing pages are GREAT, and so is the touch screen for entering some
search terms. I also really appreciate the dictionary that comes with the device, as it is very
easy to highlight a work and look up the meaning. The device also lets you take notes on the
book directly on the page itself, if you need more room you can add a blank page and write or
draw until your hearts content. This will come in very handy!

While it's not been a long time yet, I think I will be happy with this device for a while to come.

www.ebookwise.com for more info.

PDA Reach

2008-08-18T10:09:00.002-04:00

PDA Reach by June Fabrics is another application that I have owned for quite a while now and have recently started using again.

The talk about the Redfly winmo device got me thinking again how much I really wanted a Palm Foleo instead of the eeepc I ended up with.

One of the things about PDA Reach is that with the limited space on the EEEPC (Once windows XP is in there) is the fact that I wanted a quick and easy way to use my email clients / contacts without installing a lot of crap.

This works amazing. Just like the redfly I am using the programs directly on my palm, but with the keyboard on my eeepc. You can also just connect to the internet on your phone and use the Blazer web app etc on the eeepc where wifi isn't available without breaking any contracts.

June Fabrics does have another program called PDA Net that allows you to use your Treo as a modem for connecting to the internet on any windows computer. I have tested it out and it does work, but it wasn't one I stuck with due to the current license with Telus mobility. (I now have unlimited data for $30 a month on the phone, and don't want to loose that!)

More Treo 755p Goodness.

2008-08-18T10:02:00.003-04:00

Couple of cool things I've done with the Treo the last week and a bit. The main thing is switching launchers from Launcher-X, to Initiate. This is a really sweet launcher that allows you to just type what your looking for and voila. Including contacts, apps, files, etc. Check out the website for the full deets.

He also has a number of other software that I use and love. The genious! program makes searching for things very easy as it can search online or locally etc.

The other one I love is Power hero. My favorite parts of PH are simple, the scheduling of the phone on and off, and the bluetooth auto connecting when in my car. Yes the treo takes a few seconds to connect but I just answer by picking up the phone and in no time at all the speaker in my car kicks in.

Treo 755p

2008-06-23T12:36:00.003-04:00

So in the last two weeks I have been using my Treo 755p more and more, I have come to the conclusion that it really is a great device. My friend recently started running a Kerio mail server and now I can sync everything "in the cloud" using my Telus connection or when I'm at home I connect to the home network via Bluetooth so I can save some money on my data plan.

The biggest issue I have with the Treo is not with the treo, but is with my cellphone provider (Telus) the Data plan is still WAAAAAAAAy to expensive. $25 a month for 4mb. You can burn through 4mb in about 5 minutes of being connected to a IM server.

Some of the features I'm using that are new (to me anyway) are Facebook with the new client from Palm, and let me tell you, it's great, the client is fast the pictures download and upload quickly and it's easy to blast a couple pictures from the camera there. Another new (to me) feature is the wireless syncing discussed above, and the new version of Mundo messenger works great on the 755p!

Evernote

2008-05-09T20:23:00.002-04:00

I started looking for a way to keep everything organized, and I've found it! The beta version of Evernote is amazing. Everything you throw at it gets indexed and is quick to find again. If you take a picture of a notepad evernote will sometimes be able to read that handwriting and allow it to be searchable. (I say sometimes. as my handwriting is AWFUL and it can't even begin to guess at what I'm writing)

All in all it's a good one. Check out the demo and if you want an invite I have 15 here to give away.

Asus EEEPC 701

2008-02-10T16:58:00.000-05:00

Asus EEEPC.

The other day I went to the local Geek toy store, and picked up an Asus EEEPC, the model I have is the Perl white 4gb 701. I also picked up a 4GB SDHC card while I was there for $30.

I brought the wee beastie home, unpacked it and turned it on for the first time and was amazed at just how quickly it booted to its default Linux OS. I am an experienced Linux user and was sure the dummied down GUI was going to make me insane, but in truth I like it.

The other concern I had was the CPU power was a lot less then the laptop I was coming from, as well as the small 7” screen was a worry. I took a chance anyway.

I'm going to try to break this down into a few sections just so I can (I hope) get my thoughts out before they leave my head forever.

Keyboard: The keyboard is very small, I tested it quickly at the store on a demo model and thought I would be able to learn it fairly quickly, and I didn't disappoint myself. The spacing is very close together, but I used to use an old external keyboard for my Palm (Gotype) that was about the same size so my fingers got used to not traveling very far quickly. I'm writing this review while listening to “Internet Radio” and talking on MSN to my wife.

Screen: Okay the resolution is only 800x480 (Or 800x600 scrolling), I am used to using a 15” laptop at work, and a 20” iMac at home. So I was a little worried about dealing with the small screen size. Truthfully it's not really a problem. I am able to surf the web, read and write email easily (After some quick changed in Thunderbird) and after 9 hours straight of working with it today (3 more to go...) my eyes are still not bugging out of my head and I'm still feeling good.

Sound: Ohhh WOW!! The on-board sound with the internal speakers are very VERY impressive for their size, I'm listening to music and it's just a very beautiful sound coming out of the speakers and they are aimed correctly so that the 3D sound wraps around you.

Wifi: The wifi works perfectly, it's connected to the office lan, the public one down in the coffee shop, and my home lan without worries.

USB Ports: Wow.. 3 USB ports on something this small is PERFECT! I hate all touchpad’s, even this one so one of the first things I do is disable the touchpad and plug in my portable mouse. I also store all documents for work on a USB flash drive so I can access them from any computer I use. /AND/ I can still plug the printer in. :)

Printer Support: Just plugged in the multi function HP to the USB port and Linux automatically detected it correctly and installed the right drivers. I have not tried my insane Lexmark printer at home yet, but will do so soon.

Operating System(s): One of the first things I did was follow a howto for installing Windows XP to a SDHC card for a type of “Dual Boot” on the eeepc. This works perfectly for that one darn program I need for work. Thankfully most of the time I can work out of Linux, but about a couple hours a day I need the actual work software and when I boot windows (in under 30 seconds) I can be in Mortgagebase in a couple of minutes. WinXP gets an A++ for working on this machine as quickly as it does! I also tried installing Windows XP to the internal drive and it is very VERY fast that way. I wanted to dual boot as the Linux tools are just a bit quicker IMO and do the job for me.

The version of Linux is a customized version of xandros linux, and it works perfectly. I tried enabling the “Advanced Desktop” which runs KDE, but remembered how much I don't like KDE so quickly came back to the “Easy Desktop” which works quite well and is so user friendly you forget its Linux.

The software that comes with the Linux version is exactly what you need. Openoffice, Thunderbird, Firefox, and a variety of other tools, and games. I can tell you FF and TB both work stable and even with flash / java sites.

VGA Output: Yes it outputs to a standard VGA monitor, if you need the bigger screen. This works very well under both Windows and Linux.

Battery Life: This is something I really like about the unit; the battery in the wee beastie seems to last forever. I was running it full tilt with USB devices, web cam, wifi, the works for a number of hours ad the battery still had 40% left. I can find nothing bad about the battery.

Conclusion: Well as you can probably tell from this review I really like the unit. You must keep in mind if you are going to use it as a replacement for a laptop (Like I am) you need to think long and hard about the screen size and size of the storage space. Neither of these things bothers me as I've explained above.

Days later: It’s been about a week since I start writing the above review, and I’ll let you know where I am with the operating system thing. I switched to WindowsXP full time for a week, and realized I hated it. So I’m back to xandros with the full desktop enabled. I also hate Openoffice, so I had to purchase Crossover office so I could use MS Office.

Well… That’s all I’m going to say about the EEEPC for now, but basically I still love the wee little thing.

DFSee

2008-01-02T15:38:00.000-05:00

I had a hard drive crash yesterday on my Old BBS computer. The operating system I choose for that box is ECS 2.0 RC4 (I keep it updated), I also backup the main BBS parts to my iMac every week or so, and am able to re-install OS/2 and all my apps in about an hour if something happens.

Well needless to say the drive conked out when I didn't want it too, and I found a 10GB "Lawsuit" drive from FUjitsu laying around not doing anything, so proceeded to install it into the computer and get ECS running.

The Fuji is very old, slow and small. so I kept digging and found a 40GB WD laying on a bench that came out of my daughters machine, so I installed that as a slave and googled to see if there was any utilities out there like "Partition Magic" but that could handle the JFS file system.

I found DFSee.

It was able to clone the JFS disk to another drive keeping the LVM information and everything. The system booted!

I registered it right after that. Currently using it to create backup images of my laptop and

BBS machine and storing them on my 120GB USB drive. Will make for quick restores!

The interface is very complex, but I recommend checking it out anyway, as if you need a tool like this you will not mind reading some docs / playing with a test computer etc.

The Parrot Easy-Drive

2007-12-13T15:26:00.000-05:00

The Parrot Easy-Drive.

This is not a new product, but something new to me. One of my business associates is a big believed in the hands free devices for your car, and having watched him use it countless times in his car convinced me I needed this more then I needed a stupid device sticking in my ear flashing blue every 2 seconds.

I didn't want to spend the big money on something that's permanently installed as I wasn't sure how much I'd like it. So i opted for the Parrot Easy-Drive as it's simple to install and can be somewhat permanently installed (or at least able to get things out of the way).

You simply attach a small plastic holder to your dash (With the included 2 way tape) and plug the other end into your cigar lighter. Once you plug it in the easy-drive will ask you to pair your phone, and within about 3 seconds it's ready for use.

The speaker is /VERY/ Loud and clear, and the microphone is also quite nice. Only one person is unable to hear me on a regular basis unless I raise my voice and she works in a VERY loud office with people yelling all around her, everyone else has no problems and it's a total god send for me to just be able to leave my phone in my jacket while driving now as I am in and out of my car quite regular. When I get back in my car after 3-6 seconds of starting the engine the easy-drive beeps at me to let me know it's re-paired with my phone.

I /highly/ recommend the Parrot easy-drive if you are looking for a very affordable yet high quality addon for your car. (The plus side is I can also use it in my wife's minivan as the button part fits nice in a small "hole" in the dash.)

5 Days of Palm fun.

2007-12-11T14:57:00.000-05:00

Yeah... So I had to pay off a friend of mine Sunday night, when I jumped to the HTC device he bet me I wouldn't make it 6 months with it. That free phone just cost me another $50. ;)

So it's been 5 days since I've been back with a PalmOS device, and I have never been happier. The 755p is just amazingly fast. Quicknews is a pleasure, datebk6 is wonderful, the phone app works PERFECTLY, there is so much ram I have all my software installed adn still have 20mb free, and don't even have any external miniSD in there yet.

I am still disappointed in Palm fucking the Folio release, but if you've ever tried to use a Win mobile 5 or 6 device, you'll come running back BEGGING Palm for a device.

I love you Treo 755p.

Jump back!

2007-12-08T16:30:00.001-05:00

A free phone cost me a fortune!

So here’s the thing, I briefly mentioned before that I received a free PDA from a friend of mine to take over his contract at Telus. I was going to jump to Telus anyway based on the incredible customer support they have, so that’s not the problem, the problem is the device.

I was given a very expensive P4000 (HTC Mogul elsewhere) running Winmobile 6, sliding keyboard, huge amounts of ram, all the new and fancy features including Multi tasking etc.

Windows mobile SUCKS.

Okay that’s a broad statement, but some of the issues I had are:

Crashing when on phone

Bluetooth stack crashing constantly

Bluetooth headset would cause the device to lock so hard reset required.

Couldn’t use the device one handed

Dialing the phone required way too many steps

Third party software was very expensive

I could go on for days and days about all the problems I had with it. I even had the device replaced under warranty thinking it had to be a hardware error, but no, Win mobile just doesn’t work.

So what did I do?

Went back to Telus and paid full price for a Palm 755p.

Sure PalmOS is old and outdated, doesn’t multi task, hasn’t been updated in

10 years, but it works and it works well! the software is amazing, third party software is cheaper and works better too.

I’m happy with it, and will stick out the Treo 755p until Palm goes out of business and forces us all to buy crappy winmobile devices. ;)

Palm might as well close.

2007-09-15T10:59:00.001-04:00

Normally I have something interesting to post here, but I just haven't been in the mood for a while, the whole experience with the Foleo has really made me think about Palm as a company and about their devices.

I keep looking at some of the new devices coming out of the HTC camp, they have mobile office machines, machines that boot both win mobile, and vista, phones with features, making advances in features, and looks. What has Palm done?

Let's think about this... the last /amazing/ palm PDA was the Lifedrive and they fucked it up! It was slow, it crashed, the screen was fucking beautiful, and teh wifi worked, but all in all it sucked.

The last smartphone Palm released was the Treo 650. Guess what!? Handspring designed it.

Palm has now lost my business, there has been just too many mistakes in recent years, and I honestly don't think it's worth supporting a platform that is quickly becoming a second class OS. Windows mobile has improved to the point that it is something that can be used by a non windows fan now, even a die hard Mac friend of mine has jumped ship away from his Palm to a HTC device and he says you can work around the bugs in windows now. :)

Going over my software list, there are one or two applications I can't find the equiv for under windows, but those are getting so few and far between that I am making the jump!

Foleo is canceled.

2007-09-04T20:24:00.000-04:00

So Palm makes yet another bone head move. If you read the long wordy article on palm's blog they say a lot without saying much at all. Those of us who actually thought about this device knew it could have been something good.

Oh well, maybe it is time to look at windows mobile devices again... palm really makes me insane sometimes, and the third party developers have been picking up the paces in the Mobile windows market anyway. Hrmmm.... Might be time to ebay something. ;)

Away time...

2007-09-04T17:48:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, I was in the hospital on the 23'rd and after staying there a few days needed time to recover at home. First time under the knife and while I'm still in pain I'm feeling a lot better overall! (Damn cancer! Dr thinks I'm cured now though!)

I will get back into the swing of things "Real Soon now"(tm)

Foleo and Pocket Tunes!

2007-08-20T09:25:00.000-04:00

I told you!

Is the BBS Dead?

2007-08-17T13:42:00.000-04:00

Yeah I'm one of those crazy BBS guys. Been calling and running BBS's since around 1985 now. The community is not dead! Granted there might be better ways to get your discussion fix now, but a lot of the sysops who care have moved with the times. as an Example:

You can access Fidonet using your NNTP reader now! (Thunderbird, Outlook Express etc)

There are also great free Telnet clients like Mtel and Syncterm. There are also Java telnet programs built into web pages for people who want to quickly logon and play door games like Lord, The Pit, Etc etc. The link above to my BBS (Tiny's) offers everything mentioned above and over 40 online games from the past!

Those of you who want to get back into Fidonet can do so via NNTP or Telnet, even working on a web based forum for those of you who don't want to leave your web browser. ;)

Check it out! Tiny's BBS at telnet://t1ny.kicks-ass.org or via web by clicking here.

Timothys World Coffee.

2007-08-16T18:19:00.000-04:00

Timothy's world coffee.

You knew I'd eventually get to the coffee part of this blog didn't you?

Well I ordered a batch of fresh whole beans from Timothy's the other day and it arrived by courier the next day. The smell opening the box was heaven. I've ordered from them before and found the beans to be a little on the stale side, but this last time they must have been roasted the day before I ordered them as they are amazing.

I ordered a few flavours and so far enjoy the Mocha Parasiene and the Italian the most.

I would give a more in depth review, but I am too shaky from drinking waaaay too much coffee today and will try again soon. ;)

U3 Vrs Portableapps.

2007-08-14T12:01:00.001-04:00

About a year and a 1/2 ago I saw an online advert for the then new U3 USB flash memory devices and knew it was something I had to have. Drove out to Futureshop and picked up a Memorex Mini travel drive with U3 (512mb).

Installed all my software, synced my documents folder etc. etc. Was pretty darn happy with it even with the shortcomings. When I bought my iMac last December the flash drive no longer worked (U3 has 2 partitions, a emulated CDROM where the Launch pad is stored, and your data partition, unfortunately the iMac only sees the CDrom partition. so I downloaded a tool to remove the U# launchpad and convert it to a standard flash drive.

I then installed the "Portable apps" suite and that worked great on both the windows computers I use at work for my portable applications as well as carrying my data around. Things were fine and this is where I thought I'd stay. I then noticed an update on Memorex's web site that allowed it to work with Vista and I thought, WTH I'll see if it will turn the drive back into a U3 compatible device, guess what? It worked! ;)

Verdict with the iMac? I just plug it in and let XP pick it up from Parallels, and my documents folder is synced again with the U3 software. I'm going to stick with U3 for now, as I like the way the Migo software works for carrying my "Desktop" with me including auto syncing of my documents.

http://www.u3.com/

Portable Apps.

Treo 650!

2007-08-12T11:37:00.000-04:00

The Treo 650 and why I love it!

I'll admit it; I'm one of the new generation of people who are too busy doing a thousand different things all at once. I can't remember if I've eaten some days, let along remember if I forgot my Anniversary or Wife's birthday.

I've been a palm used since 1999 when I purchased a Palm IIIe from Staples and promptly realized how amazing the thing was, at first I thought it was going to be a passing fad something I'd play with for a short while then go back to my paper based day planner. I haven't used paper since! ;)

I realized after only a week with the IIIe that the 2mb of ram wouldn't be enough so before I got too attached to it mailed it off for an Upgrade to 8mb, now we're talking! I used the IIIe until I decided I needed colour and picked up the IIIc, from there picked up a Tungsten T and used it for years, when I realized I had one too many devices to carry around I sold the T, and picked up a Treo 650.

One device, for everything!? Stores my memos, date book, contacts, MP3's, books, games, movies!?

This thing is the be all and end all of mobile computing! I've had the 650 for two years and counting now, and still don't need anything else, everything the iPhone can do I've been doing for a long time now. (Not that I don't want an iPhone for the whole ìwowî factor but that's another story...)

Recently I added a data to my monthly cell phone bill and now the Treo is also an Internet device, Sure Blazer isn't as nice as Safari, but for the most part it displays pages nice (Especially after I run them through Squeezer or Google for formatting.) Let's not forget Quicknews, as an RSS reader it's flawless, heck I like it more then NetNewsWire on my iMac!

Accessing email using Agendus Mail SSL is easy; also jump between DateBk6 and Agendus 12 depending on my mood. :) The datebook is my most used feature, with Ereader coming in a close second. I've read more ebooks on my Palm devices over the years, and then some people read in a lifetime. They are PERFECT for reading in bed with as they are lightweight and easy to hold. Docs to Go is another must have, I donít' bother with conduits anymore just use Silver Keeper to keep my Documents folders on my iMac and my 2GB SDCard in sync with each other. Currently sync to Google using Goosync as I've had some issues with Missing Sync lately, and can't stand Palm desktop for MacOS.

My entire life lives in my Treo, and if it beep and flash at me a thousand times a day I don't know what Iíd do.

More Foleo...

2007-08-11T11:03:00.001-04:00

I'm sorry, this blog seems to be turning into a Palm Foleo propaganda machine. I can't help it this is going to be a great device!

I was thinking about all the hype HTC is getting on the HTC Advantage X7501 Mobile Office, people are insane for this device. What is it!? It's the foleo running Windows Mobile, it's more expensive then the Foleo. Granted the HTC has it's own phone built in, but what a large ass phone that is!

Think of the foleo as Palm's version of the HTC Mobile office. The difference being the Foleo needs a smartphone for access to the internet where there is no Wifi available. Is this a disadvantage? I don't think so, again imagine carrying something as big as the HTC everywhere all the time and having to use it as your phone. Granted with a BT headset there's no real difference but as I'm sure you know bluetooth headsets run out of juice when you don't want them too, with a seperate smartphone I can pull over and finish my conversation!

Man I can't wait! ;)

PC World doesn't get it.

2007-08-10T16:10:00.000-04:00

Here is a link to a hands on review of the Palm Foleo by PCWorld.

I don't have a problem with the review until the last paragraph where the author says:

But for $600 ($500 with a $100 mail-in-rebate), I'd hunt around for a used laptop, especially if I already had anywhere-access with my Treo. I settle for a limited selection of limited-function apps on a smartphone as a trade-off for it fitting in my pocket. If I'm going to have to carry something around, it may as well be a laptop.

But why? I'm not sure where he's getting this whole limited function apps nonsense, sure there are not a whole lot of applications available NOW, but the developers are not going to be sitting around /NOT/ developing for the Foleo. The small guys may not be able to get their hands on the pre-release, or be able to afford the trip to the big conference etc.

Documents to go isn't a limited function application, heck the version on my Treo650 does everything I've ever asked of it. Opera browser is limited? Because it doesn't support tabs?
How much you want to bet it will support tabs by Christmas? or failing that a third party web browser will be available.

This is a whole new market, and it's NOT a laptop, but why do you need to carry a laptop around with you? You want to carry something that takes minutes to boot, is prone to getting spyware, runs for a limited amount of time without being plugged into a wall. Heck If I'm going to carry anything around I'd rather the Foleo, but again please remember I only carry it for WORK. I play on my iMac, I work on my Treo.

Email Solutions.

2007-08-10T13:51:00.000-04:00

If your anything like me you have way to many email accounts, and can’t seem to cut them down either.

I have a total of 6 email addresses I’ve had for many years, they are for various companys I have worked for or started or even work supplied accounts for getting spam. ;)
To keep track of all my emails I use a combination of Google’s Gmail, and IMAP folders.

POP Accounts: gmail, yahoo, work2, rogers. Rogers is the address I received from my ISP and I use it for receiving bills, and spam from Rogers, the work2 account is another one that was setup by the company who writes the software we use at work, it’s mainly there for them to send spam. Yahoo is my email address I give out to all web forms, and web forums and is basically a spam trap. Gmail is my personal email address that friends and family use to contact me.

Imap accounts: Personal, work1. The personal account is my previous main email address for personal and business use from the last company I ran. The server is running Exchange, but I connect to it via IMAP for something more “standard”. Currently this email address mainly gets spam from old wholesalers, and I receive enough personal email that it’s worth keeping online, I also have 8 gigs of stored messages in IMAP folders for this account! Work1 is my main work email address for my existing job, again all messages are saved in IMAP folders on this account.

Consolidation: I’ve thought long and hard over this, and came up with a solution that seems to work great! I’ve configured Gmail to get all email for my POP accounts. It grabs, work2, yahoo, rogers and does it’s google magic to them. Gmail’s spam filter is amazing so that cuts down on a lot of issues there, not to mention the fact that when I use my email clients to grab POP mail from Gmail it is all auto archived for searching. I have also added my
Configuring email clients: I use a total of 2 email clients, Agendus SSL on my Treo 650, and Mail.app on my imac. (I also have Thunderbird configured on my USB key for accessing mail from my laptop). Now you just need to configure 2 addresses, your IMAP work address, and the Gmail address.

If you check mail on your handheld and want to respond later from a full size keyboard, it no longer matters if your email client is configured to remove them from the server as Gmail archives everything!

Works for me!

More Foleo news from Brighthand!

2007-08-09T15:27:00.000-04:00

Just read this on Brighthand and thought I'd better comment on it before the dweebs convince you it's evil. ;)

>The first device on Palm's new Mobile Companion category of products will be built around a >416 MHz Intel/Marvell PXA27x processor.

This is fine! 416Mhz is not slow. You have to remember this unit is not going to run Windows, and all the bloat that goes along with it. heck it's not even going to run a standard bloaty Linux install. Trust me this is fast.

> this model will have a CompactFlash slot located behind its battery.

Compact flash slot behind the battery! So what if the internal storage is only going to be aprox 128mb. You can cram a 4GB CF card in there for under $20 now. Plus the Foleo takes SDCard, and has a USB port that allows any USB key to operate. We have storage coming out the wazoo now! Imagine, just store all your work documents on a USB key and cram that in all your computers (Most people probably do this now!, or you have a file on your SDCard you downloaded on your treo on the train? Plug it in and copy it to your foleo.

I predict a lot of Linux software packages like VLC will be able to port without a whole lot of work, so expect a full featured video player in no time.

This is a device I'm going to want! ;)

Palm Foleo.

2007-08-09T10:28:00.000-04:00

The Palm foleo. This device has created such an uproar in the geek hand held computing circle that entire wars have been fought both online and offline, people have DIED over Jeff Hawkings vision! (Okay I might be exaggerating a bit there).

People are convinced this is the end for Palm since it's a "Useless" device and you can do more with a keyboard for your Treo. Heck Shawn, you can buy a Acer laptop that has way more features for the same price now!

Yes, but can that laptop computer boot instantly? Can that laptop computer fit into your briefcase? Can that laptop computer edit Office documents out of the box?

No, No, and I suppose if you downloaded Openoffice. Here's the thing, Palm is marketing this as a second device to help you make your Treo (Or other smartphone) your /MAIN/ computer. The average business user (Who this is targeted for, this is /NOT/ a gaming computer or a computer for your average Geek who needs horsepower for Linux hacking) uses their computer for a few tasks.

1) Email. The Foleo will do this perfectly. Palm knows what they are doing when it comes to email, Versamail on the treo works great.

2) Web browsing. The foleo will include a version of the Opera browser! Opera knows how to make a browser!

3) Editing office documents. The Foleo includes a version of Dataviz's Documents to go which has for many years been keeping Palm users in Office files. Heck I prefer it to Openoffice now as every single document or spreadsheat I've thrown at it looks great on my Treo and since it stores files in their native formats now the email attachment theory is solved.

There are other programs you may need to run that the Foleo won't have support for, as an example my company uses a program that's older then dirt for all our business, until we are forced to upgrade to the new web based software I need a way to access that program. Well guess what? Logmein has been added to the list of developers who are coding for the Foleo!
This will give you access to your desktop computer where you can run your software remotely!

I'm sure the opensource people will port a version of VNC to the Foleo platform as well which would do the same thing for free, and since there is a version of VNC for the Treo I don't see an issue with that! (BTW, while the screen on the treo is small, I've used it with VNC to look up information in the old as dirt program mentioned above!)

In my next post I'll be discussing ways to keep multi email address in sync when your on the road!

About..

2007-08-09T10:20:00.000-04:00

Some of the things I will be writing about here, are mobile computing, various geek things, my love affair for fine coffee and general rants about any subject that pops into my mind.

I work out of my home, my co worker is an orange cat named Mike, and my better half's name is Andrea, all of whom will make appearances here from time to time.

I can't spell worth a damn, so if my iMac's spell checker doesn't catch it good luck figuring it out. ;) I also don't write worth a damn either so you will be expected to deal with someone who has the vocabulary of a 14 year old.

Talk to you soon!