n a matter of hours I will head off to a plenary research meeting at Oxford University. I decided to catch the 5 AM train rather than arriving at Oxford yesterday. It has become rather difficult to stay off-line for more than half a day, let alone a day or two. Many hundreds of messages accumulate in the newsgroups, many dozens in mailing lists, and about 100 RSS feeds need catching up with. Moreover, error logs expire, server have potential of crashing, and physically speaking, no proper exercise can be undertaken.

A talk I look forward to describes work by Lewis and Chen. The presentation Lewis will deliver bears a title which intrigues me.

Below are 2 photos that I took in the previous Oxford plenary meeting in May 24^th – 25^th. I retain a comprehensive daily photolog so the corresponding entries of the first and the second day are included, as always.

Google have introduced yet another ‘toy’ which re-uses the software from Google Satellite maps. This time, all data being used is imagery from NASA‘s past moon landings.

With nicer innovations and envious ad-free page layouts, is it truly a surprise when Microsoft executives migrate to Google? Tension is growing between these two camps as Miscrsoft recently acquired similar technologies and map data. These interactive maps have enormous value as they add a geographical aspect to the World Wide Web, which is presently in chaos. This has a huge advertising potential.

Does the following scenario sound familiar?

I have a T3 and whenever I have to re-digitize the pen (ie, reboot), it sometimes takes 30 to 40 cycles of ‘upper left’, ‘center’, ‘lower right’ before it stops.

(source: nttp://alt.comp.sys.palmtops.pilot — July 19^th, 2005)

This situation often gets worse. I used to go through hundreds of such cycles at some stage. The number of necessary repetitions seemed to have gone up progressively and, at one point, I had my 8-year-old sister do it for me. I told her it was a game. I finally decided to ask the Palm community and got some suggestions. The problem turned out to have been far more wide-spread than I had anticipated.

Steve confessed about his bad experiences yesterday:

…I have had my Clié for 2 years now and never had to reset the digitizer. My two Palm T3 needed a reset at least 2-3 times each time I was powering it on. That drove me crazy and Palm didn’t acknowledged the problem while thousands of customers were complaining.

Finally, some possible solutions were offered by Aaron last night:

The mad digitizer syndrome is a mechanical defect just like a broken switch. There is software that will compensate (like DigiFix) but the only real solution is to repair the unit. Some have found that cleaning and reseating the internal cables solved the problem. If all else fails, and you’re handy the digitizer can be replaced for US$40.

So, it turns out that digitizers are easily replaceable, although soldering work is involved. Over the years, I gave up on the damaged unit and handed it over to my brother. Sadly, the issue never resolved itself. On the other hand, somebody has fewer reasons to be bitter:

I had a T2 fail on me last year with the same symptoms and Palm replaced it under warranty with a new T3! Others were not so fortunate.

Cited by: PalmAddict

PDF‘s, text files, HTML‘s and
directories in the KDE Desktop with previews (click to enlarge)

ver had the experience of staring at a collection of files, wondering which one is which and puzzled by the best way of finding the text or images you are after? This was a wide-spread operating system deficiency in the nineties (there was a brute-force barrier). Nowadays, directories reflect on their content and file previews are generated on-the-fly, even over FTP, i.e. remote data.

With a large enough icon size as shown above (an example from KDE), even entire documents reflect on their content. Similar types of previews exist for animations and — oddly enough — sound.

By obtaining this reflection on content, there is no longer a need to open files in vain. Location of content becomes an easier task as it can be done visually rather than relying on filenames. Files are simply more recognisable since they express their purpose in the most natural way. If a pictures is worth a thousands words, the user is able to scan more data, more quickly.

Preview are not the only way of improving productivity. Work is being done on extending the “drag-and-drop” functionality for items, e.g. animated folding and dropping (videos included) and richer desktop interactions. As a matter of preference, I like keeping my Desktop clean, making it a ‘yet-to-complete’ list. Previews on files cannot resolve the issue of clutter and scale; they can, however, compensate for the expressiveness of filenames.

For those who do not know yet, Windows Longhorn was intended to introduce WinFS. This new filesystem, rather than using filetables (notably FAT32), was aimed at getting rid of traditional file management and filenames altogether. Nevetheless, Longhorn ended up incorporating none of the promised innovative features though.

A guy called Derek posted photos from a personal project to nntp://uk.tech.home-automation. His work is inspiring and a lot of DIY was involved. Posted below are some specs and features, explained in his own words.

…

• Monitor mounted
• Fan and vent installed in cupboard
• Benchtop drilled
• Test fire of PC!

Some of the uses of this system:

• Recipe database (incl barcode scanning of ingredients for online supermarket ordering)
• Entertainment (MP3s, videos, TV etc from the LAN and internet)
• Web browsing
• VoIP calls
• Security (four cams around the house + alarm)
• Lighting control (possibly power down the track)

Awaiting additions:

• Globetech keyboard/trackball
• Install/config of Meedio

Looking a decade back, only a small proportion of homes had a computer. Nowadays, with costs that continue to fall and functionality that is on the rise, computers are lavishly bought, much like TV sets in the previous decade.

t has come to my attention that a few people purchase anti-virus software for Palm-powered devices. Buying virus defence for the Palm is much like buying premium insurance for a boy’s 50 watt toy motorcycle. Even free software, which claims to offer strong virus protection, will most likely hog resources for no justified reason.

In practical terms, anti virus software for Palm handhelds is utterly unnecessary. There are two known Palm viruses, which are “proof of concept”; nothing has been shown to be malicious beyond this fabricated illusion. Such viruses are created by anti-virus developers and vendors in order to create a scare and prove that Palm handhelds are potentially penetrable. The viruses have not been found “in the wild” yet and this state is unlikely to change any time soon. Remember that Palm handhelds have remote access capabilities (SSH, telnet, VNC etc.) but do not yet allow access and control from the outside. It is simply not practical because they are mobile — it is their nature to be the controlling device (master), not the controlled device (slave). You can use your remote control to affect your TV, but not the TV to affect your remote control.

There are a couple of Trojans which depend on naivety of the users. Most experienced users, however, are wise enough avoid downloading, installing, and running software which was acquired from some obscure Web site. If such applications are run, they can wreak their havoc but cannot spread from one handheld to another. Therefore, they are not infectious like the most devastating viruses which Windows users have become familiar with.

Similar selling tactics were used on the PC in the older days. Viruses like “Pong” scared users who would then purchase protection from the same people that introduced the illness in the first place. The bottom line is: do not bother with anti virus software for Palm.

Cited by: PalmAddict

My machine at work, which
runs Ubuntu Linux (see daily photolog)

buntu is a Linux distribution that is based on Debian and resembles it too. This Gnome-based (also see KDE version) distro from Canonical is self-contained, very reliable and comes as a 1-CD installation (will be shipped to your home for free), which is a big pro in many people’s eyes. Its simple user environment and low level of verbosity make it friendly, much like Mac OS and Windows. Under the hood, it still offers the full strengths that Linux possesses.

Ubunutu is well-known as a great distro for Linux beginners. Moreover, its straight-forward and fast installation process (took me 20 minutes to install), as well as stability made it the subject of envy to many. It comes with many excellent programs, e.g. Open Office, the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), Firefox and Evolution. Quite amazingly, all are contained in the single CD, not to mention a wide range of drivers and add-ons.

As a final cautionary word, do not judge the whole of Linux based on Ubuntu. I run Ubuntu in the office only to function as a node by which to SSH my SuSE box at the University. Ubuntu is reliable, but somewhat weak compared with pre-loaded operating systems.