bignoseduglyguy

Santa, I missed one!

I don't know about you but I dread folks asking me 'What do you want for Christmas/your birthday?' because I never know what to ask for. Even if I kept a wishlist on my Palm, I'm just not comfortable making suggestions. Having said that, I wish I had included the Tungsten Leather PDA case by Nutshell® in my letter to Santa as I am greatly impressed by the mix 'n' match options that allow the buyer to get they case they want, not just the nearest approxiamation available. I also like the fact that the folks there have a good sense of humour if their guarantee is anything to go by!

The outside world beckons

Having neatly avoided anything resembling my normal daily routine since last Wednesday, I am steeling myself for three days back in harness. Having said that, I am hoping that they will be low-key and afford me some time for planning and organising all manner of things for the year to come.

Despite the penultimate post before Christmas, I decided there was little to blog about over the Christmas week so I gave myself the week off. Having said that, I have spent some time lurking in my usual online haunts like the Tungsten T3 group and Palm OS5 group reading other's tips and posting a few hints. Other than this, I have been making a few enquiries into a long term project which needs a lot of thought and planning and will probably be taking up some time from now on.

Happy Christmas

Well, it's Christmas Day. The first lot of presents have been opened and the rest of the family are at church.

I'm online with my on-duty team at work - checking the lunch we've booked for them arrives and that they're having as much fun as possible given they are at their desks.

All the best wishes of the season to regular readers and first time visitors alike!

bignoseduglyguy :O)

Where did the week go?

Between long, long days of hectic work activities, an absolutely crazy office party, a superb England win over the New Zealand Barbarians and a sneaky trip to catch the third Lord Of The Rings film at the weekend, I have had zero time to post.

A more effusive update will follow soon, as I have a few days off over the holiday period in which to catch up with such things.

I know how Victor Meldrew felt

Do you ever have one of those moments when you realise that sometimes you simply have to accept what life throws at you? That no matter what you do, your loved ones will blindside you every once in a while. Well, I just had one of those moments.

I don't often buy DVDs but we do rent them pretty regularly, with me preferring the 7 day postal service from from www.movietrak.com and SWMBO giving her patronage to the Blockbuster concession at the local supermarket.

However, a couple of weeks ago, I walked past the DVD section in the supermarket when 'Stuart Little 2' caught my eye. The kids had enjoyed the original so, with the winter weather upon us and the nights closing in, I needed little prompting to buy a copy to take home and enjoy. Having watched it, I didn't give it much thought until the other day when the youngest asked to watch it again. I hunted high and low but I couldn't find it and neither could anyone else. SWMBO was strangely silent on the missing disc and it was only today that the truth emerged. Despite the fact that the DVD was in a picture case with a price label on it, she'd calmly and carefully posted the DVD I'd bought into Blockbuster's returns drop-box!.

Staff at the Blockbuster concession smugly denied all knowledge of the over-zealous return so I guess someone's kid is getting a freebie gift in 10 day's time.

So they got him, what now?

Whilst the world takes in the news that Saddam Hussein was captured last night near Tikrit and the self-righteous revel in the jingoism of Paul Bremer's statement, I suspect many, like me, are now wondering: what is Bush going to do next?

Is it to be a few week's reflective R&R before heading on to the next battle?

US troops relax inside one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. Source:BBC

...or working ever closer with those embedded reporters?

The BBC's John Simpson staggers away from the scene of a US airstrike on the convoy of vehicles in which he was travelling in northern Iraq. Ten journalists died during the war, most after coming under fire from coalition forces. Source:BBC

...or the continuing efforts to win the hearts and minds of the liberated?

The coalition steps up air strikes over the capital, intensifying concerns over mounting civilian casualties. Source:BBC

Make that a Palm Date

One of the small but labourious task that crops up around this time of year is entering the next year's public holidays and memorable dates into my Palm. Whilst there seems to be a plethora of sites that provide such content for US-based Palm users, I have never found a UK equivalent - until now.

This year, Adrian Hennessy who, I note with approval, is webmaster for his local CAMRA group has saved me the hassle by producing two downloadable .dba files and posting them on his Palm Dates Software Page. These .dba files are simply downloaded to the PC where your Palm Desktop resides, from where you can use the Calendar's import function to create untimed events on the relevant days thoughtout the next twelve months. Whilst many of us would be satisfied with that, Adrian has gone one better by adding informative notes to many of the events. For instance, Spring Equinox on 21st March has the brief note: 'The Celtic festival of Ostara. As Spring reaches its midpoint, night and day stand in perfect balance, with daylight on the increase.' However, double-clicking on St.Patrick's Day earlier that week takes you to the following history lesson: 'St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He was born probably in Scotland (traditionally at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton) in 387AD as Maewyn Succat and was of Romano-British origin. Pope Celestine I sent him to Ireland as a missionary, and in the summer of 430AD Patrick and his companions landed on the Irish shore. On Easter Sunday, March 26th, 433, Patrick used the shamrock to illustrate the concept of the Holy Trinity - three leaves, yet still one leaf - and Ireland's national symbol was born. He died on March 17th, 464, at age of 77.' Adrian, I raise a pint of Old Stoatwobbler in your (NNEasterly) direction.

Elsewhere on my T3, I have just upgraded to version 1.1 of LauncherX. Launcher X now supports full-screen and landscape modes on the Palm Tungsten T3 and a few more cracking features have been added.

• Option to set all categories as "default," so you no longer have to set font choices, etc., individually by category.
• Displays newest version of app, rather than duplicate icons if an older copy exists in ROM.
• Added local and network HotSync to the Tool gadget - horray!
• Enhanced five-way navigation behavior.

And it doen't end there because in the same zip file is an app called AfterSync. AfterSync lets you define an application that will be launched after a Hotsync. This is something I have always wanted but never knew it. Every time a HotSync finished and you were faced with the red and blue roundel, this is the app you subconciously wanted as it will take you to your chosen app the second the sync finishes. For me, that's my Launcher X 'main' app tab. Finally, a nice touch for the terminally lazy like me is that if you already have Launcher X, there is no need to remove your previous version. Just install version 1.1 over your existing version.

More T3 tweaking

Amongst the esoterica in my Plucker blog listings are the Palm-related Musings of FoxPop's Tom Stoneham - and not just because he's recently linked to me. His PDA and philosophy blogs, though very different, are both fine reads and I have enjoyed dipping into them over recent weeks.

Tom's also writes for the multi-platform PDA site FoxPop and it was through that site's bulletin board that I scooped up a couple of goodies that Tom posted last week - a Palm Portable Keyboard and a Brando WorkShop Retractable SyncCharger Cable.

A keyboard is a real must-have piece of kit for me as I spend a lot of time taking notes and developing action plans in meetings away from my desk. Pen and paper are all well and good but transcribing notes onto my desktop is a time-sapping pain I am keen to rid myself of. For me, Graffiti is simply not quick enough for large amounts of text entry and so the PPK will be a big help. Having previous used an early version of the old solid GoType keyboard, the collapsible PPK takes a little getting used to. However, I am already getting used to it's feel and trying to get to where the function key combinations are more intuitive.

The retractable SyncCharger cable does what it says on the blister pack without fuss and is small enough to fit in the palm of a closed hand or keep in my laptop bag. Whats more, it comes from Brando, the home of my favourite reusable screen protector (Task: Order T3 sized Brando screen protector).

Drop by the FoxPop bulletin board if you are looking for or selling PDAs and accessories - the prices are reasonable and the range covers General, EPOC, WIN CE, and Palm-related products. In this day and age of online auctions and thrusting ecommerce, it is nice to find the online equivalent of the pinboard outside the village shop - open to all and free of charge.

On the software front, I have been using Tracker Dog to assist me in gradually bringing all my favourite apps up to the latest release or version. Even so, I managed to miss the latest release of one of those must-have apps that many power users swear by - Filez from the great nosleep software open source project. Luckily, Roger posted a piece to our mutual hangout, Happy Palm so I clicked through and grabbed the latest version which has some nice interface and functionality enhancements. I don't suspect I use even 50% of the functions available but it is truly an indispensable app for me. Having said that, one does need to exercise care when altering file attributes. Just yesterday, I had to do a hard reset and reload the previous night's BackupMan backup after getting clumsy whilst removing a non-functioning keyboard driver in too much of a hurry.

Zen and the art of PDA journalism

I have just read The Zen of Palm by Foxpop's Trevor Caswell and I found that it eloquently echoed the majority of reasons for my move back to the PalmOS 12 months ago. Given the ubiquity of the title, I thought it would be a wheeze to see how many articles I could find that incorporated this well-worn phrase in their titles. Without breaking a sweat, I chased up the following six articles in seconds flat.

• Zen of Palm - Designing Products for Palm OS® from palmsource
• The Zen of Palm and how it backfires by infosyncworld's Jørgen Sundgot
• 3Com and the zen of palm by Forbes.com's John Shinal
• Zen of Palm Part I by gearbits.com's Ken Rhee
• Zen of Palm Part II by gearbits.com's Ken Rhee
• The Zen Done Gone by Brighthand's Trotter Hardy

What is interesting is the range of opinions and standpoints that are expressed under the same theme.

A thought for the season

As we head into the frenzied commercial and gastronomic orgy that Christmas has become, Jo Clarkson over at Ethical Matters has come up with some timely tips for an ethical Christmas, ten of which I have reproduced below:

• Reclaim the meaning of Christmas! Make a gesture of goodwill (donate money or do some volunteer work).
• Send e-Christmas cards or buy recycled ones.
• Resolve to cut down on Christmas spending this year – set a budget.
• Buy a Christmas tree from a sustainable source.
• Avoid shopping malls – support local commerce.
• Buy only fair trade and organic goods.
• Make your own decorations and reuse them each year.
• Avoid excess packaging on food and gifts.
• Recycle your Christmas waste.
• Tidy up Christmas using non-toxic cleaning products.

For our own part, we try and do at least some of the following:

• Agree with relatives to not swap loads of gifts but make donations instead.
• Defuse kiddie stress by spreading the gift opening over the whole of Christmas Day rather than just a manic couple of hours.
• Send last year's unused 'as new' gifts to children in Brazilian flavelas or African orphanages.
• Buy just enough food rather than pile the trolley with treats and nik-naks.
• Spend a TV-less evening mending last year's homemade decorations and dressing the tree
• Recycle gift wrapping/boxes/bags - even if it is just within the family if you're worried about what folks will think!
• Share our Christmas Day meal with someone who might otherwise spend the day alone.

If you have read the above and think that it is all nonsense or are even asking yourself 'what's in it for me?', here's a thing. A few years back, we became involved in helping a woman and her stepchildren, who had fled war, murder and oppression in Africa, find their feet in a confusing and sometimes scary new environment. A variety of folks helped them get a place to live, decorate that place and stock it with essential homewares and the like. Just before Christmas, we bought our new friend and her children a few small gifts, knowing that her meagre minimum wage pay as a cleaner (xenophobes please note: she refused to claim benefit) couldn't stretch to such things. On Christmas Day, there was a knock at the door and there was our friend and her family, who had simply walked over to hand us a gift and say 'Thank You' in her broken but improving English. It was a cheap, colourful floor mat - the kind that is sold in an 'Everything for £1' shop - wrapped, I suspect, in someone else's cast off wrapping paper but, never in my whole life have I been so humbled by such a pure and selfless act. Whilst we sadly don't see her ever smiling face very often, I will never forget that gift.

So, my thought for the season? Do something, just one thing, more than simply buying stuff with the swipe of a card. Volunteer a hour of your time, knock on the door of a lonely neighbour or, hardest of all, decide to make small changes to your life that will make big changes to other's lives...and then actually make those changes and stick with them.

London At Dawn

Anyone who has even a passing interest in the landscape of London or photography should head over to London At Dawn, a photographic project by Anthony Epes. Beautiful photographs of the sun rising over both well known and less well known aspects of London.

Hello to far-flung friends

Just quickly cruised the comments on previous posts and noticed that two friends far away have been popping in.

Erja is all tartan bumflap and vodka - the blondest, loudest and most Kerrang!worthy Finn to ever fall asleep on a Northern Line train. Sadly missed by all back in Blighty, she is now back in Joensuu in Eastern Finland where she is a leading light in "Rokki", one of the main events of the Finnish rock-festival calendar. To see the snow in Joensuu and possibly Erja walking across the town square as I once did, check out the local webcam.

Herr Lutz graciously commented in a positive manner on England's Rugby World Cup victory, despite the obvious press comparison with the 1966 defeat of the then West Germany by England in the football World Cup. Herr Lutz is currently on a Phileas Fogg-like 12 month whirlwind tour of Far East cathouses, astride the passenger seat of a Honda C90 piloted by his very own Vietnamese Passepartout. Spurred by tax evasion in the UK and the fear of the Boys From Brazil in South America, he plans to winter in Oz before returning to find love amongst the temples of Thailand.

T3 tweaking

In the few off duty moments I have been able to grab in a very busy week, I have continued to refine the set up of my T3.

I have chosen to continue running Cryptopad alongside Memo as my encrypted memo app for the time being. This is despite downloading the Palm™ Security 5.0p for Tungsten™ T3™ Handheld which adds data encryption, intrusion protection and faster password entry to the OS. Why? Because Cryptopad allows document by document encryption rather than just on selected apps and catergories. That said, I have yet to really try all the permutations of Palm's upgrade so, in truth, the jury's still out on this decision. Continuing in the same security/encryption vein, I have loaded Yaps! and migrated the DB from the retiring Clie via IR. This continues to be a favourite - simple & unadorned but essential to store, encrypt and display the scores of logins I use in the course of an average week.

On the offline browsing front, I have taken the seemingly popular route to keep abreast of my favourite sites and feeds by using Plucker on my T3 but replacing the standard conduit with JPluck. This is due to the fact that JPluck is faster, supports cookies and RSS, caches the downloaded sites/feeds and will convert XML to a Plucker-friendly format. Another plus is that as JPluck is Java based so if I move platforms, it'll be a no-brainer - thanks for the tip, Roger.

Wordsmith also made the jump from my old Clie to the T3. Docs to Go is great but Wordsmith will be essential when I bring a keyboard into the equation. Two other apps making the leap were DayNotez and Bonsai. Whilst I no longer use Bonsai that heavily, it's handy for when I need to manage complex list and project management tasks. On the other hand, I use DayNotez to track key events and fault management escalations throughout my work day.

Other useful additions to my apps include:

• Day Off: to track my leave and sick days.
• Tracker Dog: A very neat app lister and version tracker for Palm software.
• BatteryGraph: Jeroen Witteman's fine battery monitoring tools.
• Blocks: Freeware Tetris clone.

In my 'Tasks' list, I have a couple of to-dos for the remainder of this weekend. The first is grabbing the Web Pro 3.0.1 upgrade for T3, which palmOne says will speed up web downloads in proxy and proxyless modes, give faster display rendering when switching between display modes and allow handling of websites that use frames. The second and more daunting task is to continue the data cleansing and field remapping of my exported Contacts, which got messed up in the Clie to T3 transfer. Although it is a drag, I am determined to see this through and have a 100% accurate and up to date list of contacts. Once done, I can export and store a CSV copy regularly to maintain an independent backup and a readily accessible datasource for other apps.