2007 Blog Entries
Giving Up On Email
Studies have shown that email has fallen out of favor with young people as a tool for personal communication. They are increasingly turning to Instant Messaging (IM), domain specific messaging (such as MySpace and Facebook), and mobile messaging (SMS). I may not be "young", but I feel their email angst. Spam is rapidly turning personal email into a vast wasteland of pump-and-dump stock scams, discount Viagra, and porn ads.
This isn't a new phenomenon. Spam has been a serious problem for at least a dozen years. My own statistics show that the problem is actually improving slightly as ISPs and large email services (like Yahoo and AOL) roll out changes intended to stem the flood of spam through their systems. These changes however suffer from two problems. The simple problem is that they are too little, too late. The "defections" are already in full swing and the competing tools have had time to develop into viable alternatives.
The more complex problem is that the "cures" are nearly as damaging to email as the disease. For the last ten years or so I have run my own SMTP server. In the early days it ran on my desktop Linux machine. Later it moved to my external business server. Then, a couple years ago, as my business went from a full-time to a part-time endeavor, I pulled the business server into my home network. That's when the problems began.
Spam itself has always been a problem. But after trying a variety of tools, I found that Spam Assassin was effective enough to keep email usable. The real issue stemmed from the fact that my server was behind a dynamic IP address. The problem of mapping an internet mail server name to a dynamic IP address is easily solved. However, anti-spam tools recognize that my outgoing mail is coming from a dynamic IP address. Best case, they just count that fact against me when figuring the "spamicity" of my emails. Worst case, they completely "blacklist" me. In some cases I could get recipients to "whitelist" me an my mail would get through, but I've found that lately even that isn't working.
To make matters worse, many ISPs are completely blocking port 25 (SMTP) to and from their home users. I found recently that RoadRunner in my area had moved their SMTP servers to a non-standard port. I suspect this is a prelude to them blocking port 25 for outbound traffic. Now, even with those restrictions it is possible to set up most MTAs to use a "smart host", but I doubt the port restrictions are the end of it. I also experienced a period of a few days where RR's SMTP server would reject any mail that didn't have a "From" address matching my RR account. This extra security measure (which fortunately disappeared a few days later) really interfered with smart-host behavior. There are probably ways around that with address rewriting rules, but at some point it just becomes more effort that it's worth.
So the bottom line is I've given up on the idea of running my own SMTP server. As much as I like the idea of having that level of control, it just isn't worth the trouble. I'll go back to relying on my ISP or Gmail to serve as my email interface to the internet. It will require an adjustment in the short term, but I suspect that 10 years from now the role of email in personal communication (outside the corporate world) will have changed to the point where email will be a necessary evil no more interesting than the regular postal service is today.
Categories: CategoryRamblings
SH8 First Report
My SH8 ordered from Conics.net arrived today! So far I am _very_ impressed. I'll have a much more detailed review later, but my number one initial impression is that the keyboard on the SH8 is so much better than the SA1 that it's hard to even describe the difference. I'm typing this entry on the SH8 and I find that I can touch-type nearly as fast as I can on a regular laptop keyboard.
A few other random observations:
- Machine feels very solid
- Sitting here with the TV on I can't hear any noise from the SH8 even with "silent mode" turned off
- This is my first experience with Vista -- I can't say I like it but I'll give it a chance to win me over
- 1024x600 on the SH8 vs. 800x480 on the SA1 is a much bigger difference than I expected
I wasn't sure the upgrade would be worth the extra expense, but I can definitely say that it was money well spent!
Categories: CategoryKohjinsha
Kohjinsha Upgrade Time
Well, I made the "mistake" of visiting Conics.net today and discovered that they are now carrying the Kohjinsha SH811W. The SH811W is 800MHz version of the SH series in pearl white and with an English keyboard layout. I had toyed with the idea of upgrading from the SA to the SH, but the previous 600MHz models didn't offer enough of a speed boost to make it worthwhile for me. But 800MHz, an English keyboard, and easing restrictions on laptops with integrated webcams where I work made this just too tempting to pass up.
So I placed the order and knowing Conics.net's crazy-fast shipping I should have it early next week. Once I've had some time to really test it out, I should be able to post an SA vs. SH head-to-head comparison. I've seen plenty of SH reviews, but few that compare it hands-on with the SA models.
And that also means that, assuming I'm happy with the new model, my old SA1F (complete with upgraded keyboard) will go up on the auction block. If you've been wishing to get an Kohjinsha SA model that you can actually type on, keep an eye on this space.
Categories: CategoryKohjinsha
Standard SA1 Keyboard Layout
I have seen a number of requests for a way to re-install the Windows XP keyboard layout that comes with Kohjinsha SA1s that have been converted to English. Since people have had good luck installing my customized US keyboard layout, I figured I'd go ahead and build an installer for the original layout as well.
Download: kohjsa1_kb.zip
Installation is simple, just download the .zip file above, unzip, and run the kohjsa1.msi installer program. Once installed, you should have a keyboard layout option in your Regional and Language Options named KohjSA1. Select that as your keyboard layout and you should get the same layout as the original "Sarutek" layout.
Categories: CategoryKohjinsha
Kohjinsha SA1 Keyboard Improvements
My biggest complaint with the Kohjinsha SA1 has always been its keyboard. There are two fundamental problems. The first is that my brain doesn't want to adapt to the Japanese key layout. Particularly the symbols on the shifted number keys. The '@', '^', and parens really throw me off. Remapping them isn't a problem but then the keycaps are lying to me. Not a big deal when touch-typing, but on those occasions where I need to drop into hunt-and-peck mode, I don't really want to have to do the mental gymnastics to remember what got mapped where.
The second, and far bigger, problem is the keyboard's propensity to miss keystrokes. The design of the keyswitch mechanism is such that you have to hit the keys hard and you have to hit them dead center. The compressed form factor of the keyboard makes off-center keystrikes a pretty common occurrence, and out-of-the-box the SA1 is going to drop those. Keys at the far left and far right sides of the keyboard I find particularly problematic.
So with the help of http://pc.usy.jp/wiki/index.php and Google Translate, I set off to solve both of these problems ...
... Read the whole article ...
Categories: CategoryKohjinsha
Kohjinsha SA Driver Updates
Perusing Kohjinsha's Website today I discovered that they have released a number of SA series Windows XP driver updates:
Driver |
Download |
Sound Driver |
|
Chipset Driver (Geode AES) |
|
Video Driver |
|
Touchpad Driver |
There's not much detail on what these fix, and I haven't had a chance to try them yet so if anyone does a comment reporting your experience is most welcome.
Categories: CategoryKohjinsha
Kohjinsha SA1F00 User's Group
It looks like English speaking Kohjinsha users now have a mailing list in which they can participate. Angel de Vicente has set up a Google Group for us at http://groups.google.com/group/kohjinsha-sa1f00-users. It will need a lot more members to reach critical mass, so if you are a Kohjinsha enthusiast, I encourage you to sign up!
Categories: CategoryKohjinsha
Linux on Kohjinsha Revisited
I've encountered a number of people here and in the OESF Zaurus Forum who are working to get Linux running on the SA1. Though there's been quite a bit of success, the built-in WiFi continues to pose a challenge.
Though the purists and zealots may scoff at what I'm about to reveal, the pragmatists among us may find it useful 
I have succeeded in running Ubuntu 6.06LTS on my SA1 with full wireless network connectivity though the wonder of virtualization!
You may already be familiar with PC virtualization software such as VMWare, Parallels, and Microsoft's Virtual PC. I've been using VMWare Workstation for a very long time now as a way to run Linux on Windows PCs and vice versa. But I was disappointed to find that VMWare is incompatible with the Geode LX800 CPU in the SA1. A quick test of Parallels showed it suffered the same problem. Virtual PC technically doesn't support Linux guest operating systems so I didn't attempt it. I had some success with QEMU, but even with its acceleration drivers installed, performance was quite poor.
I'd almost given up on the idea of virtualization on the Kohjinsha when I stumbled across VirtalBox. VirtualBox is a relative newcomer to the virtual PC market. My initial thought when I first heard of it was "why another virtualization app?" VMWare already has an incredibly effective product line (much of which you can use free of charge). That question was answered when I discovered (much to my surprise) that VirtualBox works on the Kohjinsha!
After an afternoon of installing I was able to get Ubuntu up and running in a VirtualBox VM. The installation of the guest OS is mighty slow, but once installed, the performance is quite acceptable. The best part is that the guest OS sees not the SA1's odd proprietary WiFi card but a virtual AMD PCNet wired etherenet card. Nearly every OS in the world has drivers for that (except Vista) so my Linux guest OS found the network automaticaly without me having to touch a single setting.
A bit more tweaking and I had X.org running at the display's native 800x480 resolution. With VirtualBox's fullscreen option and that X.org resolution setting, I can run Ubuntu with a crystal clear display the fills the screen and gives no hint of the Windows ugliness beneath
Another pleasant surprise was that the ACPI support in VirtualBox is pretty good so the guest OS is able to see and display things like battery status. It's nice when you're running the guest fullscreen to not have to flip back to Windows occasionally to check your battery.
Note that I still haven't tried to do anything "real" with the guest OS, so I can't say how robust it is or how well it will stand up to heavy use. I suspect that until I upgrade the RAM to 1GB (which will happen soon), doing real work in the VM (which I have constrained to 256M of RAM) may not be terribly practical. But with a full gig of RAM behind it, this approach may prove to be a completely viable way to get Linux on the SA1 with a minimum of pain and suffering.
Categories: CategoryKohjinsha CategoryLinux
Kohjinsha WiFi Chipset
Unfortunately I've been way too busy to blog much lately, but I can state that my Kohjinsha is still going strong and being used just about every day. It looks like life/work may be returning to normal here for at least a short time so I hope to get some new information up here soon.
In the mean time, I had a request for information on the Kohjinsha's WiFi chipset from someone looking to install Linux on the machine. I haven't been able to learn very much, but I do know that the WiFi is using a Winbond USB WiFi chipset (possibly the W89C35D but I can't say for sure). For more details the complete device report (per the HunterSoft UnknownDeviceIdentifier program) is available here:
The bad news for Linux fans is that a quick bit of Googling didn't uncover any obvious source for Winbond WiFi kernel drivers. It may be possible to get something going with ndiswrapper, but as I suspected, a fully working Linux install on the Kohjinsha is unlikely to be "easy".
Categories: CategoryKohjinsha
