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BlogEntry/2009/12/19

Microblogging

The dearth of updates this year can be attributed to a crazy work schedule that just won't quit. I've had plenty of ideas for posts, but just can't find the time to jot down more than a few sentences. I'll finally have some time off around the end of the year, so perhaps I can write up something on why I replaced my Aspire One with a ThinkPad X200s, my experiences with a Moxi DVR, or the Twitter client I hacked together to avoid some draconian firewall restrictions.

In the mean time, I'm experimenting with with microblogging (a.k.a. Twitter). No guarantees my micro posts will be any more frequent than macro posts, but it's worth a try. If you would like to receive my updates, simply add @kopsis to the people you follow on Twitter.

BlogEntry/2009/01/13

E71 Software

I've been carrying a Nokia smartphone since 2006. First the E61 which was a bit large but incredibly capable. Last summer I switched to an E71. Same great feature set as the E61 plus 3G, GPS, camera, all in a package smaller and slimmer than an iPhone. I could not be happier with the E71, so when a friend announced he was getting one too, I decided to make a list of what I've found to be the most useful E71 compatible S60 applications:

  • Psiloc Connect - Virtual data connection that switches automatically between wifi and 3G. Without this apps need explicit support for this kind of comm switching.

  • Opera Mini - Much faster (though less capable) than the built in Webkit based browser. Great for sites that don't rely heavily on Javascript.

  • Nokia Sports Tracker - GPS enabled exercise tracker. Keeps workout diary and can export to Google Earth files.

  • Nokia Chat - XMPP based IM with Google Talk interoperability. Integrates with Contacts app.

  • WorldMate - Free version is limited but still useful for world time, weather and currency conversion.

  • Quickoffice 5 upgrade - Full R/W support for Office 2007 document formats. Quickoffice 6 is coming out soon -- buyers of 5.0 now will get a free upgrade. Note that you can upgrade directly from the Quickoffice 4.6 app on the E71.

  • Python - Easiest way to code S60 apps. Python scripts can access a surprising amount of phone functionality including GPS, messaging, data connections, etc. If nothing else, it makes a great calculator :)

  • Google Maps - Has street view and easier search than built in Nokia Maps. GPS enabled of course.

  • JbakTaskMan - Improved OS task manager with tons of features

  • ProfiMail - Ultra full featured mail client with complete IMAP IDLE (push) and mailbox support. I held out and tried to use the built in mail client for a long time. That was a mistake! I should have bought ProfiMail day one.

  • cCalcPro - Free scientific calculator that takes full advantage of keyboard. Probably overkill for some users, but a must have for engineers and scientists.

  • PuTTY - SSH client tweaked to work well on Nokia smartphones

  • Themes - A great collection of free SVG themes is available at http://www.mahunyal.com/

  • Dweller - A Rogue-like dungeon game. Kind of old school, but for those of us who spent a big chunk of our youth playing Rougue on the school's timesharing system, this is a great blast of nostalga and a good way to kill time (and Goblin Kings).

If you think I've missed any "killer apps", please feel free to comment.

BlogEntry/2009/01/11

Retiring My SH8

I've been using Kohjinsha machines for a few years now. I imported an SA1 from Japan nearly as soon as they became available. Two years later I upgraded to an SH8 to take advantage of the dramatic speed improvement of the 800 MHz Intel A110 CPU over the 500 MHz AMD Geode that was used in the SA1.

The SH8 proved to be a great machine in terms of features and capability. However, a month before the 12 month warranty expired, the machine developed a problem where even the slightest movement after it had warmed up would cause an instant lock-up. The only way to recover was to power off and let the machine sit for a couple hours. Not a great "feature" in an ultra-portable machine.

Fortunately the good folks at Conics.net came through and helped me get the machine shipped back to Kohjinsha for repairs. A few weeks later the SH8 came back as good as new, but the experience made me start wondering about the wisdom of relying on a UMPC that needs to travel half way around the world for repairs (especially now that my warranty is up).

When I purchased the SA1, a "netbook" was a discontinued model of Psion PDA. When I got the SH8, the EeePC had made netbooks commonplace, but none had feature sets that could hold a candle to the SH8. A lot has changed in the year since, and now the machines from Acer, Dell, MSI, and HP offer most of what I used in the SH8 at a fraction of the price. In fact the only SH8 feature not commonly found in current netbooks is the convertible touchscreen that allows operation in "tablet" mode. That may be a killer feature for some, but I can count the number of times I've used it in the last year on one hand.

So the SH8 found a new home courtesy of eBay. In its place I'm now using an Acer Aspire One 150. Only slightly larger than the SH8, the AA0 offers a bigger LCD (at the same resolution), a big hard drive, wifi, webcam, and an incredible keyboard. Notably absent is Bluetooth, but that's easily remedied by a thumbnail size USB Bluetooth module. At the price ($349), the AAO actually cost less than what the year old SH8 sold for.

Time will tell how the AAO stacks up in daily use (particularly traveling), but after a few weeks of use, I suspect I'll be quite happy with it. Watch this site for updates.

BlogEntry/2008/12/07

The Joy of RAID

RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) is a way to duplicate your data across multiple drives so that if one fails you can replace it and you lose nothing. That's the theory anyway. In practice, things always find a way to become much more complicated. I've written up the story of my recent experience with drive failure in the RAID5 array in my home server. If you're relying on a software RAID5 setup to protect your data, you may want to study my "lessons learned". Read More...

BlogEntry/2008/11/23

Slowly Coming Back to Life

Due to a drive failure, this site has been off-line for the last couple months. It's slowly coming back to life with a new look and a new server operating system (Open Solaris). I'll be posting an account of the failure and recovery (once I verify the site is back to 100%) in hopes that others can learn from my experience. Stay tuned.

last edited 2008-06-25 15:22:52 by DavidKessler