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Slashback: Debianism, Nukes, Discretion
Lots of pretty pictures. An unnamed reader wrote to say "that notes and pictures from the Debian Conference are now available." There are lots of cool (somewhat KDE-centric, go figure) shots from the recent LinuxTag in an article at dot.kde.org, too ;)
Adobe: an especially thick, recalcitrant material. aicra writes: "according to an email sent to the list:
KIllustrator is now known as 'Kontour' (after Adobe claimed that KIllustrator was too close to Adobe Illustrator, in case you haven't followed the news).Cute nuclear material shipment, has all shots, answers to "Lucky." We miss it very much. Please call. Random Walk writes: "The Russian memo, and the email exchange between Russian and U.S. principals involved in the problem of nuclear material lost in a MS database, is available online from the CDI. I found the following sentence particularly funny: 'Relatively poor quality of Microsoft SQL Server has created very serious problems in development and implementation of CMAS.' There is a very detailed discussion of the problem(s) with MS SQL Servers 6.5 and 7.0. The Russian report also has interesting words about the 'common fault failure' problem and the need to be more careful when selecting software for critical systems."This obviously breaks translations... I have kept the name killustrator.po[t] for the message files, so this remains. But the appearances of the word KIllustrator have been replaced.
This delays the release by about 2 days -- so that there is time to get the new messages translated for rc1 if you're fast (and for the final release otherwise)."
Take this exchange for what you will. As michael posted the other day though, the issue isn't necessarily all (or even primarily) Microsoft. The importance of robust software doing the dirty work doesn't get much clearer though.
Absolutely, positively, undeniably, unmitigatedly maybe. Later. Last week, we relayed a report that Psion was getting out of the consumer products market. An Anonymous Coward writes now, however, that "according to this article at Psion Place: Peter Bancroft, a senior spokesman for Psion, released a follow-up statement saying that 'There will be more Psion consumer products in the future.' According to Bancroft Psion is merely 'suspending' their plans to develop a consumer Bluetooth device."
The same statment, though, indicates that if Psion does eventually develop consumer products again (with hints about Bluetooth), it may make them in combination with a partner, or sell off the rights entirely.
Well, after reading a comment in last week's Psion article about the Diamond Mako (a rebadged Revo Plus) being available at Outpost and a few other places for just $100, I ordered one. What the heck - I have a Palm Vx now and a HP Jornada 520 (the HP was free), and I've had a Newton and a Sharp Wizard in the past, along with a couple of prior Palms. I also have a Blackberry (mostly e-mail, I don't use the PDA functionality on it). I've been looking for a "perfect" PDA since before they were called PDA's, and I'd always wanted to try a Psion but they were too damned expensive.
.txt file over. Which put it into Psion Word, not their Notepad app. Oh well.
So after using it for a full weekend +, I can see the usefulness of it to some people but I also can see why Psion's made pretty much zero dent in the consumer PDA market as a whole. I'd played with some other models before, but the Revo Plus is the first one I've owned.
Good points to the Psion:
-When folded, the shell is pretty solid. It's the only plastic PDA I've ever felt comfortable with in a pants pocket (the converse, though, is it's a little tall for shirt pockets).
-The weight is comfortable to carry.
-Battery life is excellent, and there's clear battery life indicators.
-It's pretty quick - switching applications is fast once you get used to the clunky way to do it (or download a nice free task switcher).
-EPOC apps seem to generally be pretty compact. With 16MB of RAM you can cram a lot o stuff into it.
-Licensing Opera: Good Move!
-Like CE, you can browse the palmtop's filesystem when it's docked from your PC. It makes transfers pretty easy.
Unfortunately, it's balanced by things that truly suck:
-The screen (the Revo is non-backlit) can be murky.
-When open, it feels pretty flimsy and flexes in my hand. It's much nicer on a table than in the hand.
- The connectivity software included with the Diamond version is horrid (an older EPOC Connect version). Downloading the current version from Psion (and patching it to the latest fixes) makes it usable, but it still has an alarming habit of disconnecting itself from my Windows laptop with no warning.
-The CopyAnywhere software for Psion/Windows clipboard sharing sucks hard.
-Syncing with Outlook (which I hate, but it is the standard for us) results in Outlook popping up to ask permission to share the e-mail addresses. Outlook thinks PsiWin's a damned macro virus! My Palm and Blackberry don't have this problem - they actually integrate with Outlook well.
-Syncing with my Mac at home - the Palm does it for free (with a free download or software on the disc nowadays, I believe). Buy a Mac, and the software to sync a Palm is already on the hard drive. Psion charges $65 for it, and all it can do is file backups.
-On a related note, all you can easily share from Outlook is the Contacts and Calendar files (which are probably the strongest of the built-in Psion apps, IMO). And the notes from Contacts don't transfer. Also, the Notes section of Outlook doesn't map to anything at all (no conduit), so I had to export to Notepad and copy the
Basically, I like the unit, it's useful, rugged (when closed), has a nice geek factor to it, and I don't regret buying it at all. That said, I think the average consumer would be far better served with a Palm (or maybe CE), and here's why:
-Palms are far cheaper on average. Easier impulse buy.
-A Palm has much more seamless connectivity with the two main desktop platforms out there (Mac and Windows), and it's all included for free with the organizers. Linux support is pretty good, too.
-Palms are smaller, lighter, and more easily pass the shirt pocket test. They also feel more solid when being used. Pocket PC's usually feel like tanks (and excepting the iPaq, are usually built like them) - they're even more rugged than the Psion is.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
The memo explains the testing in detail and clarifies that the fault was isolated as a MS SQL Server bug. The problem in v6.5 was 'fixed' in 7.0, but it turned out that 7.0 had only reduced the bug's impact, not fixed it. As a regular SQL Server user (now using 2000) I can confirm that SELECT integrity bugs are not unusual, as can be seen by reviewing the bug-fix list for each service pack. The relevent part of the memo is here:
Additional tests were developed in order to detect a systematic appearance of this SQL Server 6.5 software flaw. These tests were constructed in a such way that a presence of a flaw in the SQL Server 6.5 has been proved for sure. Microsoft did confirm a presence of this software flaw. This flaw has been filed by Microsoft as flaw No. SRX000403600845.
In a course of transition of KI-MACS application software core from version 6.5 to 7.0 and intensive testing of the modified KI-MACS, at the end of July, 2000 one more flaw has been detected in the SQL Server 7.0. This flaw has been recognized by the Microsoft and filed as flaw No. SRX000727603512. Principal modifications introduced by the Microsoft in SQL Server 7.0 which are relating to the data security and data protection in a Database, and presence of the said flaw, are considered as creating a direct threat to data security and data protection in the SQL Server 7.0 Databases.
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