There are a few things you have to remember when trying to keep your pilot synchronised with your Linux workstation. Most of these caveats are due to general Gnome 2.2 shittiness. My opinion that many open source programmers should rather go back to school has just been enforced by this opinion. :)

Testing kernel setup with pilot-xfer

Make sure your kernel has full support for usb and that you’ve built usbserial and visor modules as well. Make sure the visor module is installed. Connect your visor with the supplied mini-usb cable, switch it on and tap the sync thingy (that little star in the corner). Now type the following:

Read More

At least judging by my experience with the Tungsten E so far, Palm has really done it again. The durn thing Just Works(tm) and will do just wonderfully as PDA, just like my trusty old Palm IIIx.

It’s still a real CHORE to get it working with Debian Woody (well, with Debian stable everything always has to be a chore), but Mandrake cooker (soon to be 9.2) handles it just fine. I’m beginning to like Mandrake more and more; this probably has to do with the fact that I’m getting lazier and lazier and prefer to have my Linux machines just work. One problem of synching with Linux is of course that things like Kinoma Movie Producer (you need this to pre-process film clips before being able to view them on the palm), DataViz DocumentsToGo and the Acrobat Reader for Palm pre-processor don’t work…

Read More

Yesterday at 15:55 I placed my order for a Palm Tungsten E at The PDA Shop. This morning at about 10:00 the friendly TPG postman delivered it at my door. :)

Specs in short: 320×320 transreflective colour screen, 32MB memory, SDIO slot (for extra flash and peripherals), TI OMAP (ARM) 126MHz processor, a solid collection of software and oodles of prettiness.

Read More

This is already in stock it seems. Tungsten E (approx. EUR200) or T3, what would you choose?

Addendum:

Thanks to Dirk Postma, we can now also keep track of the Tungsten E prices, live:

Read More

Thank you, oh Register for all the fine rumours. This time, the Register boys report on a slip-up at a Palm reseller resulting in a slight leak of Palm Tungsten-E and T3 specifications ahead of the October 1 launch. See here.

That Tungsten-E is looking really attractive…

Read More

Anna Wiersbicka is a Polish-Australian researcher in language semantics who is proposing that all concepts in all languages can be defined in terms of 61 basic concepts, called “primitives”. In a very interesting article in the NRC Handelsblad of Saturday, September 20, 2003, she elaborates on this theory.

In short, these 61 primitives can be represented by 61 words (or word groups) in all languages. By stringing these 61 words together with a suitable mini-grammar, any concept can be explained. Strangely enough, the definitions themselves read like poems. For example:

Read More

Yesterday was September 15, exactly 3 years after I officially started with my Ph.D. Time is fun when you’re having flies! This means that today I have just under a year left to go, which in turn means that the stress is beginning to pile up.

I apologise in advance if I accidentally bite your head off.

Read More

Good Old Ben just sent me this link. I am lusting after a new PDA (T2 or Zire 71), but can’t justify purchasing one because my trusty Palm IIIx (now three years old) is still performing its PDA-duties with unwavering loyalty. However, if the prices on the new modules drop significantly, the equation changes…

Read More

Yes children, Bob the Angry Flower explains when to use “its” and when to use “it’s”. It’s not that difficult!

Now if only somebody can also educate the millions of idiot losers (most of them on slashdot) abusing the phrase “begging the question” so often. See here for the correct meaning of the phrase.

Read More

My dual 933MHz PIII that was state of the art three years ago has now become quite long in the tooth. Fortunately, Ari has graciously allowed me to use his old workstation (since he’ll probably be spending significantly more time with his new employer). This “hand-me-down” :) has a 2.4GHz P4, 512MB DDR (soon to be upgraded), lotsa disc space, a GeForce4 4600 with 128MB ram of its own and a beautiful 18″ Dell UltraSharp LCD screen. Subjectively, everything just flies!

Read More