My agency bought Samsung SPH-i300s two years ago; embarrassingly slow and low-res now, they eBay for about $20. However, if you want tri-mode, dual band (analog being essential for the US West), and just want integration of phone and data functions, e-mail and light web browsing, they're great. SPCS charges $5/mo extra to use my voice minutes for data, which is reasonable.
I personally bought a PalmOne Tungsten W last year, and the 320x320 screen is head and shoulders above the i300. T-Mobile sells me all the data I can download for $30/mo, and since I never use it for voice, that's a great plan for me.
SD card memory expansion allows me to have hundreds of e-books, and with AvantGo and Plucker, I've got a whole library of publications auto-updated daily, even without using any minutes.
I even synch my schedule, and my wife's (she carries a T3 and a BT phone) across them all with WeSync , and am about to start syncing my address books that way as well.
Yes, I have _two_ PalmPhones; how many different operating systems do you need to know?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/13/021124 8&mode=thread&tid=126&tid=137&tid=172&tid= 193
shows there are still more problems with WiFi security than we had dreamed of, Horatio.
Folks, SIP just ain't a secure protocol. 802.11 is not a protocol I want to put my confidential voice traffic over.
I think I am about 50th percentile when compared to other/. viewers and paranoia, and I chose a CDMA carrier for my office celfons because it is much harder to crack than TDMA, GSM and iDEN. Those systems don't properly encrypt, or don't encrypt at all.
Granted, the traditional way to tap a phone is to slip ten C-notes to a switchroom tech, but since Qworst moved all of theirs to Tropical Minnesota, they are getting harder and harder to find, and I presume other cellular providers are also centralizing and downsizing their System Lords, too.
Frequently, when I am in fire houses, I read magazines tailored to the professional rescuer. Within the past year, I've read an article on how to open the Toyota Prius, which gave specific points of the chassis where it was, and was not, safe to open with power tools.
I can't speak to the engineers and what they thought, "when designing vehicles, how much, if any, thought is given to the safety of everyone involved *after* an accident?" However, North America's rescue community has given a lot of thought to the subject.
I will ask this question to PDA phone mavens at Mobile Showcase Showcase, which I am attending. You can see the result once I've gotten to ask some of the notables present.
However, Linux bears the seed of its own lack of progress; who's going to water the tree from which it grows?
PDA phone development is not just hacking code to throw on a PC, whose architecture is planned years in advance at every WinHEC and painstaking documented in dozens of new titles every year (my fave being Robert Bruce Thompson's PC Hardware in a Nutshell).
Utterly different devices, PDA phones are. Since they are phones, their internal radio architecture is morphing on incredibly rapid cycles, as the cellular carriers are pushing the bleeding edge with new modulation systems as rapidly as their supply of 'the most important engineering material' (money) will permit.
PDA phones also must be approved before market by the FCC Stateside, and similar regulatory agencies Elsewhere, using standards far more involved and rigorous than are applied to PCs. More delays, more money.
There's no Linux sugardaddy like PalmSource or Microsoft to push that progress, is there? Maybe that explains why Linux phones don't exist.
Look at PDA phones. Right now, the US market distribution (as per IDC) is:
Smartphones:
PalmOS has 32%, Other OS have 24%, Symbian has 23% and Microsoft has 11%. Linux is 0%.
Handhelds:
PalmOS has 65%, WinCE/Pocket PC has 34% and Linux has 1%. One per cent.
But, you really don't _need_ a manufacturer, anymore. Samsung and other PalmPhone makers are turning loose their specs and firmware source to developers.
If you want a Linux PDA phone, go right ahead. Write the code to turn a SPH-i500 into a Linux Phone.
Me, from my Olympian perspective, I and I think it won't happen. By the time it could, the cellular mutant of the PSTN will be replaced by an ubiquitious IP cloud, through WiFi and WiMAX, and Linux devices will wirelessly use IP telephony, the heirs of Skype, to enulate telephony, and skip right over the idea of a LinuxPhone.
Well, yes. Just get a Tungsten W from PalmOne, or their Treo 600, and add an SD card with a gig of RAM.
But, then, you could just get a $10-less-$10 rebate SD card USB reader/writer, and a gig SD card, and all you would then need to carry to move a gig of data around would be the SD card.
WeSync - wireless and wired multiuser autosyncing of calendar and address books
5N Launch - assigns 21 apps to one hardware button
HandyShopper - mutliple databases, not all of which need be shopping lists
jPluck - capture web sites automatically, refresh at every wired sync
Mobipocket - eBook and eNews reader
1TouchTimer - quick handy reminder
EudoraWeb - text browser well suited to GPRS use
YAHM - the best hack (OS extensions) manager for Palms
Documents To Go 6 - read/write Word and Excel files better than PocketPCs
Mapopolis - all my state's maps on hand, always
It's a matter of both personal tastes and personal abilities.
I'm glad paper and a calculator work for you, but they were inadequate for me. My productivity and my sanity have improved greatly since I got my first Palm.
With the ADD I have struggled with all my working life, I find it pretty damned useful to have a Palm track my trivia, including filtering my e-mail for me, as well as keeping my schedule so when it's time for me to do X, I don;t absent-mindedly fail to do so.
A friend from high school is Pos now; he uses his Palm to keep him on his med schedule. Without something like a Palm, with it's multi-reminders per day, he would have severe problems with his medication compliance schedule.
Yeah, we might not have Flubber if Professor Ned Brainard http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue59/classic .html had a Palm, but I'll accept that risk.
I'm not worrying about fossil fuel shortages, or US$3/gallon gas... I'm building an e-bike.
Whether tried-and-true sealed lead acid batteries, or the up-and-coming lithium-ion cells are used,, it's a whole lot of miles and fun for a little money. It keeps me off the roads and on the bike trails (since Oregon dedicates a fixed percentage of road money to bike paths), and increases my cardio-vascular fitness, so I live longer.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/power-assist is a list (with over 1,100 members) I moderate, of folks who discuss bikes, trikes, and other vehicles which mostly run on pedal power, but use electric, gas and other motors for those boosts when you need them. Drop on by....
And, for Vancouverites, there's a UBC e-bike fair Monday and Thuesday, April 5-6.
Swedish studies show there _is_ an optimal radiation exposure level for best health - and most folks get only about half of it. Therefore, bumping up from the typical 10-12 microroentgen background radiation would be useful from a public health standpoint, just like the increased rish of oral cancer from the use of flouridated water and toothpaste is more than outweighed by the greater decrease in bacteriologically-induced heart attack and other benefits of reducing oral bacterial load. Public health issues and the best solutions to them are sometimes counter-intuitive, until you actually run the numbers. Look up "radiation hormesis" to learn more.
"Are not these rabble-rousers' demands for freedom of speech, or the press, the right to keep and bear arms, of free assembly, 'grossly offensive' to the Crown and His Majesty?"
--
Geeze, George, it's enough to make me want to resign from the Republican Party. I think I'll go buy a LEGALIZE FREEDOM bumper sticker.
I did a search on Science Fiction... http://local.google.com/local?sc=1&q=s cience+ficti on&near=97267&btnG=Google+Search and the first listing received was for a Xtian bookseller. Is this editorializing on the part of Google regarding religion? Hmm.
Another search, for BBQ near home, resulted in the best local BBQ joint appearing; alongside an ad for escort services. http://local.google.com/local?q=BBQ&hl= en&lr=&ie=U TF-8&sa=G&near=97267&radius=1 The restaurant was underthrilled; I did not contact the escort service for their comment.
Ya know, if you're rich (like, compared to most of the world, most North Americans & Euros are), you can afford to cut your income radically, and still afford a satisfying life.
Some of us do both - keep the day jobs (once we've gotten good enough at it to adapt it to us, instead of vice versa), and find a satisfying hobby. AMBULANCE GIRL is the true-life story of a gal whose books and radio reviews I've enjoyed for years (Jan Stern - yea, ROADFOOD co-author and SPENDID TABLE commentator).
At age 50, she becomes a volunteer EMT, and finds a new perspective on life, which solves her major depression.
Me, I did kinda the same thing by throwing over my old hobbies, and training up for CERT and Red Cross Disaster Volunteer work, getting a ham radio license, and joining my local Amateur Radio Emergency Services group.
The idea of chucking the current 9-to-5 and becoming a 911 operator, or getting a master's in emergency services, has appeal, but the crazy hours I would have to work to change fields is offputting, much more so than the probably 40% salary cut. So, I just have a Hobby, which is *much* more rewarding than golf.
Yes, local repeaters will work fine; but, then, these BPL proposals were designed not to interfere with them. Those use VHF and UHF bands.
The problem is with the HF bands we need to send signals a long distance, by bouncing off the inner ionosphere. BPL uses HF frequencies and will have the entire grid transmitting on those bands.
I would not say power companies are going out of their way to kill long-distance, uncontrolled free radio, no, no siree, Mr. Ashcroft.
1A). If there's an emergency, then BPL systems hundred, thousands of miles away can interfere with my ability to receive.
1B). BPL anywhere can interfere with my ability to receive media which have not been censored by routers, gateways and other government-monitored information systems. Shortwave radio allows any body to tell their story. Do you trust your media? Are they 'Fair And Balanced'? How do you know? Ans: Listen to lots of other media. BPL and its ability to block international shortwave will further reduce our already monocultural media.
2A). Yes, something may replace it; but it won't work as well nor will it be accessible as a hunk o' wire and tranceiver which can be homebuilt.
2B). Whatever replaces it will be Aschroft-Approved(TM).
BPL uses frequencies which bounce off the F and F2 layers of the ionosphere. Those are the same frequencies used for long-range radio, voice, morse, packet and other digital modes.
So, when I have a local emergency, can I count on getting every other BPL operator everywhere in the world to shut down so I can communicate? Including, say, Cuba and Iran, places which have no reason to love us?
Slashdot Mirror
My agency bought Samsung SPH-i300s two years ago; embarrassingly slow and low-res now, they eBay for about $20. However, if you want tri-mode, dual band (analog being essential for the US West), and just want integration of phone and data functions, e-mail and light web browsing, they're great. SPCS charges $5/mo extra to use my voice minutes for data, which is reasonable.
I personally bought a PalmOne Tungsten W last year, and the 320x320 screen is head and shoulders above the i300. T-Mobile sells me all the data I can download for $30/mo, and since I never use it for voice, that's a great plan for me.
SD card memory expansion allows me to have hundreds of e-books, and with AvantGo and Plucker, I've got a whole library of publications auto-updated daily, even without using any minutes.
I even synch my schedule, and my wife's (she carries a T3 and a BT phone) across them all with WeSync , and am about to start syncing my address books that way as well.
Yes, I have _two_ PalmPhones; how many different operating systems do you need to know?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/13/021124 8&mode=thread&tid=126&tid=137&tid=172&tid= 193
shows there are still more problems with WiFi security than we had dreamed of, Horatio.
Folks, SIP just ain't a secure protocol. 802.11 is not a protocol I want to put my confidential voice traffic over.
/. viewers and paranoia, and I chose a CDMA carrier for my office celfons because it is much harder to crack than TDMA, GSM and iDEN. Those systems don't properly encrypt, or don't encrypt at all.
I think I am about 50th percentile when compared to other
Granted, the traditional way to tap a phone is to slip ten C-notes to a switchroom tech, but since Qworst moved all of theirs to Tropical Minnesota, they are getting harder and harder to find, and I presume other cellular providers are also centralizing and downsizing their System Lords, too.
Frequently, when I am in fire houses, I read magazines tailored to the professional rescuer. Within the past year, I've read an article on how to open the Toyota Prius, which gave specific points of the chassis where it was, and was not, safe to open with power tools. I can't speak to the engineers and what they thought, "when designing vehicles, how much, if any, thought is given to the safety of everyone involved *after* an accident?" However, North America's rescue community has given a lot of thought to the subject.
It's sooo nice to see someone at Sony has a sense of humor.
I do RMAs for an IT shop (among a bazillion other things). My #1 item is AIT tapes (#2 is 3Com NICs, BTW).
We use Sony branded tapes (SDX2-50C and SDX2-36C) and Sony branded drives.
I figure we have about 500 tapes, and run four a night, Monday through Friday. Maybe, 263*4= 1,052 tape runs a year.
I replace 20 tapes a year under RMA. Geeze, that's as bad as my first-gen Matsushita "RCA" VHS VCR.
I will ask this question to PDA phone mavens at Mobile Showcase Showcase, which I am attending. You can see the result once I've gotten to ask some of the notables present.
However, Linux bears the seed of its own lack of progress; who's going to water the tree from which it grows?
PDA phone development is not just hacking code to throw on a PC, whose architecture is planned years in advance at every WinHEC and painstaking documented in dozens of new titles every year (my fave being Robert Bruce Thompson's PC Hardware in a Nutshell).
Utterly different devices, PDA phones are. Since they are phones, their internal radio architecture is morphing on incredibly rapid cycles, as the cellular carriers are pushing the bleeding edge with new modulation systems as rapidly as their supply of 'the most important engineering material' (money) will permit.
PDA phones also must be approved before market by the FCC Stateside, and similar regulatory agencies Elsewhere, using standards far more involved and rigorous than are applied to PCs. More delays, more money.
There's no Linux sugardaddy like PalmSource or Microsoft to push that progress, is there? Maybe that explains why Linux phones don't exist.
Look at PDA phones. Right now, the US market distribution (as per IDC) is:
Smartphones:
PalmOS has 32%, Other OS have 24%, Symbian has 23% and Microsoft has 11%. Linux is 0%.
Handhelds:
PalmOS has 65%, WinCE/Pocket PC has 34% and Linux has 1%. One per cent.
But, you really don't _need_ a manufacturer, anymore. Samsung and other PalmPhone makers are turning loose their specs and firmware source to developers.
If you want a Linux PDA phone, go right ahead. Write the code to turn a SPH-i500 into a Linux Phone.
Me, from my Olympian perspective, I and I think it won't happen. By the time it could, the cellular mutant of the PSTN will be replaced by an ubiquitious IP cloud, through WiFi and WiMAX, and Linux devices will wirelessly use IP telephony, the heirs of Skype, to enulate telephony, and skip right over the idea of a LinuxPhone.
You read it here first.
Well, yes. Just get a Tungsten W from PalmOne, or their Treo 600, and add an SD card with a gig of RAM.
But, then, you could just get a $10-less-$10 rebate SD card USB reader/writer, and a gig SD card, and all you would then need to carry to move a gig of data around would be the SD card.
Done good, Rob! Excellent use of, well, science.
I still have my radioactive dime, in its blue PVC holder, from Oak Ridge.
which is a Tungsten dub-ya PalmPhone:
WeSync - wireless and wired multiuser autosyncing of calendar and address books
5N Launch - assigns 21 apps to one hardware button
HandyShopper - mutliple databases, not all of which need be shopping lists
jPluck - capture web sites automatically, refresh at every wired sync
Mobipocket - eBook and eNews reader
1TouchTimer - quick handy reminder
EudoraWeb - text browser well suited to GPRS use
YAHM - the best hack (OS extensions) manager for Palms
Documents To Go 6 - read/write Word and Excel files better than PocketPCs
Mapopolis - all my state's maps on hand, always
Oh, and all but the last two are Freeware.
Dean Ing wrote about this in the 80's in THE RANSOM OF BLACK STEALTH ONE
3 12 034725/qid=1083005523/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-777401 9-5681751?v=glance&s=books#product-details
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0
It's a matter of both personal tastes and personal abilities.
c .html
I'm glad paper and a calculator work for you, but they were inadequate for me. My productivity and my sanity have improved greatly since I got my first Palm.
With the ADD I have struggled with all my working life, I find it pretty damned useful to have a Palm track my trivia, including filtering my e-mail for me, as well as keeping my schedule so when it's time for me to do X, I don;t absent-mindedly fail to do so.
A friend from high school is Pos now; he uses his Palm to keep him on his med schedule. Without something like a Palm, with it's multi-reminders per day, he would have severe problems with his medication compliance schedule.
Yeah, we might not have Flubber if Professor Ned Brainard
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue59/classi
had a Palm, but I'll accept that risk.
http://www.homepower.com/
I'm not worrying about fossil fuel shortages, or US$3/gallon gas... I'm building an e-bike.
Whether tried-and-true sealed lead acid batteries, or the up-and-coming lithium-ion cells are used,, it's a whole lot of miles and fun for a little money. It keeps me off the roads and on the bike trails (since Oregon dedicates a fixed percentage of road money to bike paths), and increases my cardio-vascular fitness, so I live longer.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/power-assist is a list (with over 1,100 members) I moderate, of folks who discuss bikes, trikes, and other vehicles which mostly run on pedal power, but use electric, gas and other motors for those boosts when you need them. Drop on by....
And, for Vancouverites, there's a UBC e-bike fair Monday and Thuesday, April 5-6.
and invented the saddlephone (BETWEEN PLANETS).
Why did SovUnion do *anything*? Politicians of *all* stripes are illogical, just like pointy-haired managers {/technocrat rant}.
Swedish studies show there _is_ an optimal radiation exposure level for best health - and most folks get only about half of it. Therefore, bumping up from the typical 10-12 microroentgen background radiation would be useful from a public health standpoint, just like the increased rish of oral cancer from the use of flouridated water and toothpaste is more than outweighed by the greater decrease in bacteriologically-induced heart attack and other benefits of reducing oral bacterial load. Public health issues and the best solutions to them are sometimes counter-intuitive, until you actually run the numbers. Look up "radiation hormesis" to learn more.
"of His Royal Majesty King George III (or IV):
"Are not these rabble-rousers' demands for freedom of speech, or the press, the right to keep and bear arms, of free assembly, 'grossly offensive' to the Crown and His Majesty?"
--
Geeze, George, it's enough to make me want to resign from the Republican Party. I think I'll go buy a LEGALIZE FREEDOM bumper sticker.
I did a search on Science Fiction...s cience+ficti on&near=97267&btnG=Google+Search
= en&lr=&ie=U TF-8&sa=G&near=97267&radius=1
http://local.google.com/local?sc=1&q=
and the first listing received was for a Xtian bookseller. Is this editorializing on the part of Google regarding religion? Hmm.
Another search, for BBQ near home, resulted in the best local BBQ joint appearing; alongside an ad for escort services.
http://local.google.com/local?q=BBQ&hl
The restaurant was underthrilled; I did not contact the escort service for their comment.
Conclusion: Very Beta.
on SHOWTIME:
FAMILY BUSINESS
http://www.sho.com/site/fbiz/
Interociter (THIS ISLAND EARTH, 1955) is not listed!
Ya know, if you're rich (like, compared to most of the world, most North Americans & Euros are), you can afford to cut your income radically, and still afford a satisfying life.
Some of us do both - keep the day jobs (once we've gotten good enough at it to adapt it to us, instead of vice versa), and find a satisfying hobby. AMBULANCE GIRL is the true-life story of a gal whose books and radio reviews I've enjoyed for years (Jan Stern - yea, ROADFOOD co-author and SPENDID TABLE commentator).
At age 50, she becomes a volunteer EMT, and finds a new perspective on life, which solves her major depression.
Me, I did kinda the same thing by throwing over my old hobbies, and training up for CERT and Red Cross Disaster Volunteer work, getting a ham radio license, and joining my local Amateur Radio Emergency Services group.
The idea of chucking the current 9-to-5 and becoming a 911 operator, or getting a master's in emergency services, has appeal, but the crazy hours I would have to work to change fields is offputting, much more so than the probably 40% salary cut. So, I just have a Hobby, which is *much* more rewarding than golf.
Yes, local repeaters will work fine; but, then, these BPL proposals were designed not to interfere with them. Those use VHF and UHF bands.
The problem is with the HF bands we need to send signals a long distance, by bouncing off the inner ionosphere. BPL uses HF frequencies and will have the entire grid transmitting on those bands.
I would not say power companies are going out of their way to kill long-distance, uncontrolled free radio, no, no siree, Mr. Ashcroft.
1A). If there's an emergency, then BPL systems hundred, thousands of miles away can interfere with my ability to receive.
1B). BPL anywhere can interfere with my ability to receive media which have not been censored by routers, gateways and other government-monitored information systems. Shortwave radio allows any body to tell their story. Do you trust your media? Are they 'Fair And Balanced'? How do you know? Ans: Listen to lots of other media. BPL and its ability to block international shortwave will further reduce our already monocultural media.
2A). Yes, something may replace it; but it won't work as well nor will it be accessible as a hunk o' wire and tranceiver which can be homebuilt.
2B). Whatever replaces it will be Aschroft-Approved(TM).
BPL uses frequencies which bounce off the F and F2 layers of the ionosphere. Those are the same frequencies used for long-range radio, voice, morse, packet and other digital modes.
So, when I have a local emergency, can I count on getting every other BPL operator everywhere in the world to shut down so I can communicate? Including, say, Cuba and Iran, places which have no reason to love us?
Kindly recheck your assumptions.