Re: Adventures in TeXas

On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 6:31 PM, Dwight C. Carr <carrdwight-/[email protected]> wrote:

> Thanks for the apps and the post.  I am drafting a list of things criteria for a device that might replace my Palm TX.

You're quite welcome.  What might serve as a replacement will depend
upon what you normally do with the TX.

My PDA is my extension brain.  It exists to be a pocket repository of
information I prefer not to memorize.  About half of what it does is
function as an eBook viewer.  By preference, I get content in HTML
form and convert for Plucker, but I have eReader (formerly
PalmReader), Mobipocket Reader, PalmPDF, and PalmFiction for dealing
with eReader, Mobi. PDF, and Palmdoc/text/ztext files respectively.
The only thing the PDA won't handle is ePub because no one wrote an
ePub viewer for PalmOS.  That's not a problem, as I can convert ePub
to Mobi with Calibre on the PC.

There are still some unresolved mysteries.  One is why Hotsync dies
horribly when run on the machine I'm posting from, when it *used* to
work at least partially.  (Windows Event Log gives no meaningful
information, and what remains in HP of Palm's documentation is not
helpful.)

Another is wifi connectivity.  The TX theoretically does WPA-PSK
encryption, but I've been unable to get it to connect to my network
which uses that.  I had the problem on the Zodiac connection through a
SanDisk Wifi SD card, because the extant drivers only did WEP, and I
wasn't willing to downgrade the security of my network for the Zodiac.
 Instead, I plugged another  router I had around into my main router
and configured it as an access point.  I left security off, but turned
on MAC address filtering, and my desktop and the Zodiac were the only
things allowed to connect to it.  The Zodiac could authenticate to the
second router, and the primary router saw the secondary as a trusted
client, so it would provide an IP address and network access to the
Zodiac coming through it. I'm in the process of reproducing that here,
with an old Linksys router that is aan 801b device.  The TX is 801b,
so there's a match.  I can get the TX to connect with the Linksys, but
still need the magic invocation to make the Belkin primary router
treat the Linksys as a trusted client and provide an IP address
through DHCP to the connected TX.

After that, I get to figure out why when the TX *does* successfully
connect to an unsecured network, the Blazer web browser is likely to
crash and reset the device.

There are also a happier quirk or two.

One issue with LX that Bozidar planned to work on before his death was
a limit to how large the LX configuration data file could be,  If it
grew over 64K, LX choked.  (I believe I was the one to first report
this.  Most folks never reached the point of having an LX data file
that big, but I had enough tabs defined and enough apps loaded that I
did.)

This was apparently Palm OS version dependent.  On my old Zodiac,
running OS 5.2, I had a beta of LX that did not suffer from it, and
was able to create an LX datafile 220+K in size with no ill effects.
A subsequent beta broke that, and I had the 64K limit again.  Neither
Jeff Gibson, who had bought LX from Bozidar's family, nor I knew what
the issue was, but I said "Get the new version out the door.  I'll
live with the limit.  It can be addressed another time.")

The TX, running OS 5.4.9 seems not to bite on that limit - the current
LX data file is 66K with no ill effects.  (I keep a spare older copy
below the limit on the card I can copy into RAM if it does bite, so I
can remove things and pare the LX config back.)

I still have plans to try to get a working Zodiac again with parts
transplant (since I have three).  Should I do so, some of what I've
learned in configuring the TX will be applied to the Zodiac, too.

What criteria have you listed thus far as "must haves" for a possible
replacement?

> Best Regards,
> Dwight...
______
Dennis
https://plus.google.com/u/0/105128793974319004519


------------------------------------

Latest pedit/pToolSet/LapTopHack at http://www.osuweb.net/~pc/pca/pc_all.zip
pedit/pToolSet/LapTopHack scripting info/resources at http://www.peditors.com
Peditors Forum http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peditors
Unsubscribe by writing to peditors-unsubscribe-hHKSG33Tihh4sT85+ipIM4ckdKdSAMto@public.gmane.org! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peditors/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peditors/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    [email protected] 
    [email protected]

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [email protected]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/