newest gadget.... belated birthday goodness

so overall my past birthday was a good one... this is the last item to arrive... a nice new (refurbished) TomTom Go730.

I like my ASUS EeePC more today

Well if you saw my last few Twitter posts... you know that I don't like windows... and if you've been following my twitter posts... you'll know that I replaced my Desktop with a n EeePC. (surprisingly... I never did a review/unboxing of my EeePC like I did for my wife's Acer Aspire one).

Anyways... so some history... late last year my desktop computer of 5 years, running Ubuntu linux, died... I mean really died, the powersupply died and fried the motherboard in the process. So... I went without a computer and depended on my work provided MacBook Pro for a bit... but I've never liked depending on hardware provided by others... So I start a replacement search... initally I was planning on simply rebuilding my desktop, but when Lauren decided she was taking the Acer Aspire One with her to Vietnam.... it meant I needed a portable computer solution. Being that the MacBook is work's and work is US Gov't... something told me I wasn't taking it it with me out of the country and not Vietnam. So I needed a notebook... I like the Acer I got for Lauren, but I wanted a bigger screen. Acer's 10inch was not yet release and I was running out of time so I selected the Asus EeePC... the 1000HA with XP and 160GB harddrive, plus I up'd the RAM to 2 GB. So there you have the specs...

So why windows you ask? well I couldn't get the 160GB hard drive with Linux, well I couldn't find it. So job 1: install linux. Deciding on an Ubuntu variant was not a big decision, I've been using Ubuntu for years. the challenge was that I wanted to keep the windows partition. Furtunately the EeePC comes preinstalled with 2 partitions (3 in reality, but I'll get to that later). So Using gparted on a Live linux USB, I resized the 2 partitions to shrink the Windows partition to about 40GB, and setup LVM on the remaining partion. Then I installed linux.

So now I have linux... and I had windows... and why I kept windows, well I wanted to be able to watch  Netflix and to-date they still don't have a linux client. Plus I play World of Warcraft, and while it plays fine with Wine and Crossover, it updates a lot faster native in Windows. So my hope was to move the Windows partitoni to a Virtual Machine, but that failed... and in reality a reboot is not that critical especially since Hibernate now works on Ubuntu 8.10....

Now that the basic history has been discussed... so now to what happened... I've basically been using my Eee solely in Windows, but the other day (while in Vietnam) I wanted to watch a video so I booted up Windows, downloaded, and watched... rebooted in Linux and was done. Then on Sunday (almost 3 weeks since my last boot into Windows) I launched Windows to watch a show and well... I noticed that my browser had been Hijacked... and not just Firefox... also IE... and basically everything... my virus scanner started complaining that it was not installed correctly and everything started acting weird.

I tried a few Malware removers, but as you can guess since I was already hijacked, they didn't work... so the solution: reformat and reinstall. Argh a "reformat"... well then I remembered something about a hidden partition on the Eee... are restore partition... also in the process of multiple reboots trying to fix the problem, I kept noticing an additional boot option in GRUB. So I booted and was prompted with a screen warning of a complete loss.... (fear).... I quickly canceled out, and checked the 'backup' status of my Linux partition.

So..... then I reboot and ran the restore tool. to my surprise and joy, it only replaced the install on drive C which also happened to be the first partition, plus since I used GParted to resize the partion, it left the partition starting at the same place on the disk and again to my joy, my linux partition wasn't touched. Hence my liking my EeePC more today.

well sorry about my ramble... I'm just happy that all looks to be better with mininal interuption to me... not I just need to finish the Windows updating on the restore system and install my protection and move on.

The Acer Aspire One

Well I've been wanting to get a netbook for some time now... initially I had been thinking UMPC but then when I heard about the EeePC and then the OLPC I new this form factor would be a better solution. So at that point I wanted the EeePC, plus it was the only netbook available, but thankfully I'm a big talker and actually take for ever to finally make th decision on any items (it also helps that I'm cheap when it comes to things like electronics, I guess I'm kind of strange for a gadget freak). So by the time I finally convinced Lauren (and myself) that is was a good purchase, I started my final research. I've heard great things about almost all of the netbooks on the market. I was thinking that I was going to like the one from Dell, I already thought that the one from HP was a good piece of equipement so I thought that they would be pretty competitive. So I started thinking about it, and what I noticed almost all of the netbooks were using 'small' SSD, and I mean small, from what I saw, we're talking 8-16GB... heck SD cards can almost hold that much... and being that part of the reason I wanted to get a netbook was for travelling I wanted something that I could off load my camera card onto. I've got a 2GB camera card and I can fill it pretty quick if I'm not carefull, and when travelling, no one has enough time to look at the view screen and filter them. So basically 8GB was not going to work.

Other limitation was that bulk of them were Linux based. Now don't get me wrong, for those of you who know me, I'm a Linux fan though out... my desktop is linux, I've got VMWare on my Mac so I can run linux, not windows.... I'm anything but a windows fan... heck even the reason I chose the G1 from T-Mobile was because of its linux base (also I'm a huge fan of open source which lead partially to my linux fandom). But even with my love for Linux I felt that this machine was not just for me, and currently the primary push for getting a netbook was for Lauren. She has to lug her 6.6lbs laptop back and forth to school everyday.... not fun. So basically there I had my requirements... light (solved by all netbooks), ms windows (solved by some, and actually I think all have a windows flavor now) and I wanted a 'big' hard drive.

Well that lead me to the Acer Aspire One. It comes in both Linux and Windows flavors, but more importantly the Windows version comes with a 160GB harddrive. It also comes with a 6cell battery which is suppose to get about 4-6 hrs off life (I'll comment on this later)... So there you have it, I selected the Acer Aspire One....

Well it arrived on Tuesday, the same day as my G1, you can guess which I opened first... surprisingly the Acer. Now yes I've blogged out of order than, but I wanted to get the Acer unboxed so Lauren could take it with her to Ohio.

 

By the way, besides the computer itself being small, the power adapter is no bigger than the average cell phone charger.

So with the Acer out of its box, on it went... initial startup was extreme slow. It had to go through the standard initial windows setup for a new machine, but then it start loading the 12 or so packages that optimizes Windows for the small form factor. But I think by the time it was done and the various patches from Microsoft were downloaded and installed, the battery was fully charged... well if I remember correctly it started at around 60%.

So with the system up and running it was ready to go in about 30 minutes... it also took a bit longer since at first it didn't recognize our wireless. For an interesting comparison in size here is a pic of the Acer resting on top of Lauren's current laptop.

 

So you can image review comment #1... size does matter, but I think any of the netbooks would have a similar review statement....

Well as for a review... I think it is great. The keyboard is small (if that is a hurdle, take a look at the HP, I believe it has a full-size keyboard that expands out), but the keyboard size was a know factor, heck this entire blog post was typed on the Acer, so with time you get use to the keys, I'm even using all 8 fingers (10 if you include the thumbs for the spacebar). My only 'complaint'  on the input side of the picture would be the touch pad. I don't find the touchpad responsive enough, but then again I'm used to the touchpad of a Mac which is great, I don't even like the touchpad on Lauren's laptop. But regardless, the machine has 3 USB ports so I think we can sacrafice one for a mouse.

Speaking of ports... the Acer has 3 USB, headphone/microphone jacks, built-in webcam, ethernet (also has builtin wireless) and 2 card readers. One of the card readers is SD cards only but the other is can read almost any format. This is something I think is really cool... this means I can actually copy pictures from one card to another, or be reading from one while clearing or writing to another. The fact that it has a card reader was another big selling point... while I think the Acer will be great for Lauren to take notes, I would not recommend a netbook as a primary machine... this is definitely a supplement computer, I can't imagine Lauren running regression analysis on this thing, the Atom chip from Intel is good, but my guess is not that good... So if you ask why I think the card reader is such a good factor when thinking about Lauren's use... well her current laptop also has a card reader, so what I'm envisioning is having her store her active documents on a card and then that way she can easily transfer them back and forth between machines... I guess I should buy a card reader and install it in my desktop...

So there you have it.. the Acer Aspire One... a great versitile netbook that with its built-in 160GB harddrive and card readers makes it an even more excellent supplament machine and travel companion.

Oh wait, I mentioned the battery life earlier... I kind of made it sound like the battery wasn't all it was cracked up to be.... well I lied... it's excellent... we plugged in the Acer when it arrived and I unplugged it when it finished charging. My plan is to drain the battery completely before recharinging it.... I know any manual you read will say that it is not necessary to drain a Lithium battery, but I've seen the difference on Macs, if you charge-drain-charge-drain-charge you'll get a much longer battery life (Apple actually has documented this and if you search their support site, you'll find it). So we charged the battery on Tuesday, Lauren took the Acer with her to Ohio on Wednesday, she used it for an hour or so (or that is what she tells me) and now I've used it for about 2 hours today... When it was finished charging, the icon said it had approx. 6hrs, well the battery is still saying is still saying that it has about 2hrs remaining. And this has been with the wireless on the entire time, and if you've ever checked, the wireless is what drains batteries the fastest... so the 6-cell battery is definitely worth the extra money.

One other comment Lauren's only complaint about the Acer as of yet has been the 'eye-level' factor... she says that it is to low... now I can see where she is coming from, but as I've only been using it on my lap, I didn't expect it to be at eye-level. Also the screen can lean back almost another 45degrees so when on your lap, it works out perfectly in my opinion, but I've noticed that everybody has there prefered positions for comfortably using any computer desktop or laptop. So if this is a factor, I suggest testing before buying. I heard that MicroCenter has a good selection of netbook on display you can play with, and today we saw the Acer at Costco, and for those of you who may be reading this and attending MSB-Georgetown, find Lauren, she'll show it to you.

update (940pm): I just tested Pandora and Hulu, sound is not great and it is a bit jumpy, but it handles both media sights pretty well... I'll need to test Hulu with the TV and Pandora with a pair of headphones. Also Hulu barely fits into the firefox window with the basic toolbars loaded but full screen works fine... next besides testing Hulu with the TV I'll need to test out Netflix on demand.

update 2 (1030pm): well I'm trying to test the Acer with NetFlix, but it turns out I need to install all the  Silverlight/ActiveX/MS crap.... so it is taking longer than I expected, but while I'm waiting, I plugged the Acer into the TV... wow this graphic card is impressive, it can power the big old 32" LCD with ease, and it has both clone and extended capabilities... I'm liking this Acer more and more... and this is still all on the first battery charge, over 30minutes left.

1.5 Days with my New G1

Yesterday, roughly after lunch I received my G1. Time to migrate and move on from my Treo 650. Step 1 un-boxing and activation. Thankfully already being a T-Mobile user, my SIM card (2G not 3G) was ready to go.

Powered On.... and ready to go. It took few seconds to get totally started and to login to Gmail. For those who don't know, if you plan to get an Android based phone, or at least the G1 you are required to have a Gmail account. If you don't have an account, it provides you with an option to create one. But once you've logged in, at least in my case, it automatically sync'd my contacts and my calendar. Surprisingly it only took a few seconds, on some demo's I've seen, it took considerably longer. I guess at this point I should step back a bit and give thanks to the people at GooSync for making it possible to me to sync my Calendar and Contacts from my Treo 650 running PalmOS. So at this point thanks to the joy of synchronization I was up and running. Even pictures associated with contacts on Gmail/GTalk were sync'd.

So on the physical side... the G1 is roughly the same size as my old Treo 650. Roughly the same thickness, same weight, just a heck of a better screen, better browser, better communication. Unfortunately the one current downside to the G1.... a big lack of applications. I've been a Palm OS user since 2000, and I've grown use to the fact that if I needed an application some quick searching and viola, there it would be. Unfortunately Android is too new and the Android Market is still relativily empty at the moment as is the collection at Handango. While I'm not worried that applications won't become available, the question is more of when. I've found a number of apps that are in development stage, many that were submitted as part of the ADC. I've also found a number of apps that look very promising,but for unknown reasons they won't install. So as for applications... so far I've installed The T-Mobile Hotspot Connect client, Bonsi Blast (an addictive game) Brain Genius Deluxe (another game), PicSay, iMap, and iSkoot (for those familiar a great Skype client for mobiles). I also installed one app outside the Market: ConnectBot an SSH client. i'm still looking for a decent IRC client and filemanager.

But overall, the G1 is turning out to be a great device. The primary items I wanted are there. The browser is amazingly good as compared to Blazer on the Treo 650. The native mail client with IMAP and Gmail support work smoothly. Like the Palm, the G1 includes threaded SMS but also includes a builtin IM client that works with AIM, GTalk, Yahoo and MSN.The nicest part is how intuitive it all is, I have yet to open the manuals.

The only down side so far has been the battery life, but then again I have been working it pretty hard surfing the internet and playing a couple games I downloaded off the Market. With the WiFi enabled, surfing is lighting quick, but the battery drain extremely quick. Bluetooth also takes a bit of a toll, but I have yet to pair it with my headset and see the battery life. Thankfully charging is pretty quick. With the USB charger it only takes about an hour to regain most of the spent time.

As for browsing.... works great. Browsing with WebKit is great and makes the mobile web some much more enjoyable (sorry for the ghetto screenshot, still can't figure out how to take screenshots from the G1 itself).

 

So that concludes day 1, and it looks like the first patch may be being released as early as tomorrow. More to come from the G1 as time goes by.

listening to the cloud, cloud computing part 1

Earlier today I mentioned that I'm in Nashville this week with Lauren at her project site. My earlier post today refered to my 'idea/dream' mobile office. I mentioned that today's cloud reduces the overall requirements on a notebook/laptop/netbook. So with that I start my first post thinking about actually surviving on a cloud. For my first item, I'll start with multimedia.... well music. I could include video, but I there is not enough screen real estate to watch a movie/tv show while working on a laptop.

Traditionally the first thought when it comes to bringing music with you on the go would have to be an iPod/mp3 player.... and yes I have one (my brother gave me a Zen for my birthday last March, and it kicks ass, I never did write that post about connecting my Zen to my linux box... one day I do that), but mp3 players limit you to what you can listen to. Until they come out with an Infinte sized iPod, we will always be limited. So what is the answer... streaming music.

Streaming music is not a new idea or concept, it has been around for a long time. Almost every mp3 software package can play streaming music from sources like Shoutcast, I recommend Sky.fm, DI.fm and SomaFM.com. But while using a software player to listen to streaming music solves the limited storage problem, it is not necessarily considered part of the cloud. Cloud computing does several things, one big item in my mind is reduce the diskspace footprint required by software. So ideally a cloud solution should be software light or in other words in a browser.

For that I'm sure there are several other options but the too I've been very happy with are Pandora.com and Last.fm. Last.fm is a social network for music, you can listen to music playlist of friends or recommendations based on songs you've scrobbled. That said you need to first submit music you've listened to, to Last.fm.  So, in comes Pandora... Pandora is a great music solution. You can again listen to 'stations' 'friends' put together, or you can create your own 'stations'.

So my solution for listening to music on the cloud: Pandora. (click here for my shared stations)

+

Also using a plugin/add-on from http://code.yerblog.com/lastfm/ you can scrobble your Pandora songs straight to Last.FM.

My Dream Mobile Office

This week I went with Lauren to her project in Nashville. We've been talking about bringing me out for a week since she accepted her internship with Deloitte. So we finally did it. The main reason for wanting to bring me out is to see how feasible it would be for me to do it on a regular basis being that I work from home. Well first off, working from a hotel room is not much physically different than that of working from home (except that you get the added benefit of a housekeeper). Anyways so yesterday at dinner Lauren asked me what I thought so far. My answer was 'vague', but basically I said I could easily do it, but I'd need to really upgrade my 'gadget' collection to make it more feasible. Upon that statement we started discussing how I would design my 'mobile office'.

Necessities:

1. Mobile line of communication: my Treo650 does that perfectly (not that another phone or a newer Palm wouldn't but my trusty 650 has yet to truly fail me). With iSkoot I even get my Skype calls.
2. Laptop/notebook: the lighter the better... especially today with the slew of NetBooks and the availability to work from the 'cloud' you don't need an extremely powerful notebook just one with a strong wifi (maybe evdo/edge/etc) receiver and a long battery life. My (well work's) Powerbook (and hopefully soon to be replaced with a MacBookPro) do the job just fine but that said I would be happy to work with a smaller piece of equipment.
   

Really that is all I  would really need, but again now I'm designing a mobile office so you want to be as light as possible. Being a developer and working in an 'operational' environment with tropical cyclone data, I have a slew of references I carry around. Yes the internet/google has almost anything you could want and need, but... I also have a number of tech manuals and such I refer to regularly, a number of these I have in PDF/digital formats and can carry them on my laptop or store on a web drive, but it is really hard to keep a document in screen while using Eclipse or other such editor, especially with the limited real estate on a laptop screen (even worse I'm assuming on a NetBook). Solution, an eBook reader. Since it came out I've not really liked the Kindle, but I decided to give it another look, especially with version 2 just around the corner. I think this would be the ultimate travel companion. Basically you could keep an entire reference library at a finger touch on a Kindle and never waste an inch of screen space on your laptop... heck this would even be very useful at home/office for the same purpose.

Other tools that I think may be useful, a mini wifi router (not all hotels have wireless yet, maybe Airport Express or Dlink pocket wifi router) and surge protector (preferably with USB adapter for charging devices like the one from Belkin).

So there you have it, my 'dream' mobile office:

1. Palm-based smart phone
2. lightweight notebook/laptop/netbook
3. Kindle
4. mini wifi router (preference probably would be the Airport Express since it has a built-in power source)
   
5. Belkin travel surge protector

Not bad, I think I could easily fit all this into my current bag of choice:

but then again almost anything and everything fits in this bag.

Google Reader vs Bloglines

Well now that I've been using Google Reader for a decent amount of time, which has included many hours on my Treo 650, and even a trip out of town, I find myself really liking it, and much more than Bloglines of late. Mostly I'm sure that I'm liking it since it is 'new' but since it is newer than Bloglines, it has included many features that lets face it, Bloglines is missing, okay maybe it is not missing, but I sure haven't found them useful.... then again, now that I'm also a big fan of Tumblr and FriendFeed, Google Reader fits in a little better (but again I'm sure that I could figure out the same tricks with Bloglines)... Well I guess I should list the a few of the features that I'm finding GR to be better than BL:

• Sharing: well hmm.... BL has its built in blog and clips, but with GR... it is simply easier... plus the easy intergration with FF just makes it even easier to share.
• Saving for later: well, actually I think BL has this one done better with the beta version. The pinning feature in BL is great, plus articles that have been pinned are always in view with the other articles. GR has its 'Starred' items which I've been using in basically the same manner as 'pinning' but since they are not always in view, well I have to remember to go look at them, but at the same time, the 'starred' tools is a great way to separate articles for later review...
  
• Mobile: Well both the beta of BL and GR have great mobile versions. but I don't know, there is something about the mobile version of GR that is seems more intuitive. Now mind you, I'm on an 'ancient' smart phone (the Treo 650), so if a mobile app works, I'm happy, so first off, I'm just happy that they both work.
  

Now the only aspect that is still up for debate in my mind is the 'order' in which articles are displayed. For a long time I was a fan of the display one feed at a time and in the order I selected (aka the BL method), but now that my list of feeds is well over 100, I'm starting to see the benefit of pure chronological order. I never realized how much 'duplicate' content was out there, but it is nice to be able to read one writers view followed immediately by another's, and in some cases it helps to able to skip articles that you don't need to read multiple times (things like press releases and new products...). Anyways for now I'll be sticking with GR... (I think I posted way back when GR first came out that I didn't like it, but now...)

One last think... FriendFeed... many have mentioned that it could be the end of Google Reader for them... I don't know, but I will say this... I'm no longer tracking many peoples blogs and other feeds now that I'm following them on FF. So in a way, I kind of like the fact that I can separate some things betweem FF and GR (okay I really don't do that, I actually am subscribed to my FF feed in GR)

New Treo 850?!?!

So Palm has announced its latest Treo on its way the 850! I've also seen a number of posts listing the specs. And for the most part I keep hearing praises. Yes this phone is a good thing, not only has Palm finally added WiFi but they've also added GPS. So why do I not sound so exited about this? Very simple.... check out the last spec line in the PalmAddicts post linked here: PalmAddicts: Palm again makes me want one!

Do you see my problem with the 850? You don't... how can you not... its running WINDOWS MOBILE(WM). Palm keeps telling the market and there followers that they are committed to there own OS and that they are working hard to release a new linux-based version of PalmOS, but if this is the case, why more WM phones?

I know, there are separate development teams at work, one working on the new OS and one on Palm-based hardware and another on WM-based hardware, but other than a miniturized Treo (aka the Centro, which don't get me wrong if it was available for T-Mobile USA I'd already have one), but what have you done for Palm OS? Wasn't one of the reasons given for discontinuing the Foleo that you didn't want to be developing and maintaining 2 OS flavors? so what is the difference, okay so MS is developing WM, but don't you have to support it on your phones?

So Palm, Congrats on moving in the right direction by adding WiFi and GPS (and a much better with the Centro). Also the move to mini-USB is also a good one. But please do something for the PalmOS world soon, otherwise, I see a nice new shiny BlackBerry in my furture, with the exception of a touchscreen the Curve has everything you've just added to the WM-Treo with the bonus that it is not WM.

Mobile Posting

Ever want to post to multiple blogger blogs at once? Well if so take a look at using the mail-to-blog option in your settings. Besides being more flexible than the go@blogger.com as typically used. Besides that, on my treo, I'm limited on the size of an image I can send via MMS, but no Email. As a suggestion, send via BCC that way there is a very slim chance that the address will get viewed. Also the beauty of email-to-blog is that you can actually send the post to people who don't typically view your blog by including them in the cc or bcc line.

Anyways... just thought I'd share the tip since I just used it. I sent a post to both my blog (the one you are reading) and to the blog that Lauren and I share.
http://nickc321.blogspot.com/2008/02/working-from-hotel-zaza.html
http://laurenandnick.blogspot.com/2008/02/working-from-hotel-zaza.html

Nokia acquires Trolltech, goes cross-platform

I wonder what this will mean for the mobile market and for Symbian. I also wonder what are the real plans for the TrollTech product line. TrollTech is the maker of Qtopia but also QT the cross platform windowing package, which until recently KDE was based on. I can see where this move works with the linux tablets, but Qtopia is also linux-based and meant for phones.... do you think Nokia has plans on merging the two? or shifting away from Sybian, or do you think they may just do what they've done with every other mobile app company they bought... maintain for a year or two and then shutdown.... They did it with IntelliSync and a few others?

read more | digg story

The power of Apple

News stories like this one from BusinessWeek are all over the place with Apple and its iPhone. They all make it sound like Apple created the idea of using a touch screen. And far be it from Apple from admitting that they were not the first. Yes way back Apple had the Newton, but Palm (or back the as part of 3Com) had the first PDA the Palm Pilot with a touch screen too. Then in the late 90s HandSpring released the first Treo, which was a phone/pda and yes with a touch screen..... Over the years Palm has release a number of Treos (I think to date we are up to 11 maybe more), even Microsoft has release a number of touch screen based phones (including some by Palm), HTC has been at the forefront of their hardware. But then Apple comes along and they decide that buttons are a thing of the past.... and thus the iPhone is released and now the whole world talks like they created the touch screen, heck they even created an iPodTouch and tried to trade mark the use of the name Touch with handheld devices... Anyways... I like Apple as much as the next, heck I'm even an MacOSX admin, but I'm a bit tired of all this articles about Apple and how its iPhone with a touch screen has revolutionized the market. That is not to say that is hasn't had an affect on the market, heck its affect has been one of the greatest... but history.... tells all.

read more | digg story

Podcast test!

Well this is a test of Gabcast, just seeing if it works and if it is useful. I was also looking at using hipcast but since that service is not free.... anyways... we might also just try using my box.net account as well. Lauren sat in on a seminar at MDC today that discussed podcasting and then she called me saying that she wanted to podcasts to our wedding blog (link). Well good ol' me, I've just spent the last hour playing with podcasting. The only downside I see from gabcast is that I can't send video, but I think I can via MMS to the blog I'll play with that idea later. Enough toying around I need to get back to my thesis work.
Gabcast! My Rants #4

Mobile Posting

Sometimes I just don't understand mobile posting, that or I'm just impatient. Last Saturday, I attempted to post 2 entries from my phone. Typically I get a response back from the server saying that they were posted with in a few minutes, this time, those replies never came. I tried and tried, sent the same posts several times, and nothing happened. The next day, the only way I managed to get the post to work was by deleting the device from the mobile list and then re-adding the device. While a pain, not a problem, things seemed to be working from that point on. Now for the interesting part.... today I've received 4 replies to the blog entries I sent on Saturday. My question is, was it my phone/service provider causing the issue, or was it a blogger issue? Who know... I just hope that it doesn't happen too often.

The Old Phone

Well my new Treo 650 arrived today. This will actually be the first entry sent via my new 650. Out with old 600 in with new 650, so I hope. I'll be giving this phone a spin and hpefully make the complete move soon.

Working on the road: SiEd for Palm OS

While sitting at the Firestone this morning (link) I had a good chance to try out an app I had just installed on my Palm Treo600. Actually last night I first tried it out with use of my external keyboard, but this morning was the great test.... I'm currently in the process of trying to complete my Master's Thesis and this requires sitting at a computer and typing. I'm writing my thesis using LaTeX. While I have yet to find a good LaTeX editor for the Palm, I did run across SiEd. I've tried others including tjepWriter and SrcEdit, but while both have their merits... SiEd's ability to work with any text file found on a memory card is the clincher for me. I was ably to keep working on my thesis while sitting at firestone with out losing time. With this ability to work on the road.... hopefully I will finish sooner than later.

PS: in the near future I plan to finally put together a "whats on my Treo 600" post that and give a more detailed review of the above mentioned text editors.

first treo 600 photo post

well I'm trying out the mobile side of blogger.... in the process I'm also testing the ability to send viewable photos from my treo.... we will see how this all goes

first mobile blog

well mobile blogging.... we will see how this goes

If half of this proves true, I can't wait for an ALP powered Palm

While link jumping from a post at PalmAddicts, I stumbled across this post through Palmsource's Opensource news site. If have of what is posted is true about the ALP system, I can wait to grab hold of a new Treo running ALP as soon as it is available. I'm really beginning to be happy that I decided tosave my money and buy a used 600, instead of goinging with the 650 since hopfully ALP should hit the market mid next year. I wouldn't be able to justify buy 2 $400 dollor phones in 1 year.
Software Everywhere � Top 10 things for developers to love about the ACCESS Linux Platform