Monday, August 28, 2006

A new generation of ultra-mobile PCs

There is a great slideshow on the eWeek Web site that depicts the new generation of ultra-mobile PCs from Sony and OQO which run Windows XP and typically weigh 1-2 pounds. Some have slide-out keyboards, and a number of people that have reviewed these devices have been none too pleased with them...that said, I'm sure there is a market for these devices in sales and executive types that are always on the search for the smallest, lightest laptop that still runs XP.

My main problem with these devices is that the keyboards are usually just awful--like trying to type on a bunch of chiclets--and the manufacturers often compromise sturdiness (and roadworthiness) in lieu of weight and size. As always, it will be very interesting to watch these devices hit the market, and to see who is buying them.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Attention Crackberry Addicts: Nasty Bug in Blackberry Desktop / Intellisync

I recently discovered a really nasty bug in the Blackberry Desktop/Intellisync (version 4.1.1.9, dated February 2006) that you might want to be aware of. A couple of times over the past six months, Intellisync has crashed during calendar sync, leaving absolutely no trace as to why it crashed and taking Outlook down with it for good measure. About six months ago I was able to work around the problem after many hours of tinkering by figuring out approximately which range of calendar entries was causing the problem and “brute-forcing” a solution by deleting all calendar entries around the problem date.

The problem occurred again today, and fortunately I was able to remember a particular change that I made to my calendar, which as it turns out, was the cause of the problem. I had pasted a graphic image (JPG) (a map, actually) into the calendar entry notes page, after which Intellisync crashed over and over again, repeatedly on the same calendar entry (which of course was only shown as 'now reading calendar entry xxx').

After remembering that I had created the calendar entry with the image in it earlier today, I decided to remove the image from the notes page and re-sync--and wha-la! Everything worked OK again.

So—don’t paste graphics into your calendar notes!

For the record, I have a T-Mobile Blackberry 7105t with the latest OS and Desktop Sync patches installed.

Monday, August 07, 2006

roofnet - DIY Open Source ISP using 802.11 Technology

This is really awesome--a group at MIT has created a public domain, open source mesh network based on standard 802.11 b/g technology. A mesh network enables a single node with Internet access, such as a house, to share that access with a number of adjacent locations. The mesh involves packets being able to hop from 802.11 node to node, and so long as each node is within the standard range for 802.11 (which is around two miles, if memory serves), there is no conceivable limit to the size of the mesh other than the fact that propagation delay would make performance at the end nodes intolerable after a certain number of hops.

This concept brings high-speed Internet access to many areas that could otherwise not receive it, such as mountainous areas that don't have access to cable modem or DSL and that do not have the exposure needed for satellite Internet. I have heard of some communitities doing this as "homebrew" experiments, but I have not run into an open source alternative until now.

Kudos to the roofnet group--keep up the good work!