Coffee Vs Zaurus, How much can it handle... Options

[cortez]

Ok, so I'm back from my vacation, during which I disassembled the complete unit trying to find any coffee stains... nothing found really, so I carefully cleaned all around the edges and cleaned the (oh so tiny) display-cable.

To make a long story short, all cleaning and drying efforts had no effect. See the attached pictures for both the screen while booting and after starting the desktop.

Booting:  2552_Booting.png ( 458.72K ) Number of downloads: 43

Desktop:  2553_Desktop.png ( 1.45MB ) Number of downloads: 44


I have to decide what to do next. I have the feeling that repairing the unit will be quite expensive. I already blew away the charging part of the Zaurus (by setting the polarity on a universal adaptor).

I want something future-proof when buying something new (of course). What I like most about the Zaurus is it's form factor (the clamshell) in combination with it's size and extensibility. Most of the time I only use it as an agenda. For the rest of the time I try to develop a bit here and there, and experiment with all kinds of software and learning Linux. It's my mini-laptop I guess. What I hate is the inability of synchronisation with my work agenda and mail (Exchange server). If that could be fixed a new Zaurus is definitely my PDA for the next few years.

I tried a M$ device a while back, and it's great for playing Sudoku and using it with TomTom but developing for just another Windblows device is just horrible, and a PDA without a keyboard is not the thing for me.

It's kind of a luxury problem I guess, just find the right replacement...

[speculatrix]

sorry to hear that the Z is irrecoverable.

I got some Z spares by advertising in the WANTED section, maybe you will be lucky too. The screen from any clamshell, even back to the 700, 750 and 760 should work.

Failing that, perhaps you could donate your Z to one of the major projects like openBSD or pdaXrom or Angstrom? It can still be used for testing software without the display.

[sds]

I want something future-proof when buying something new (of course).

Same here, unfortunately nothing comparable has shown up yet.
And Sharp seems to be manufacturing at least the C1000 still (as Trisoft reported recently), so for the time being, and a couple of more years we are good.

What I like most about the Zaurus is it's form factor (the clamshell) in combination with it's size and extensibility. Most of the time I only use it as an agenda. For the rest of the time I try to develop a bit here and there, and experiment with all kinds of software and learning Linux. It's my mini-laptop I guess.

Same here.
In addition, I have all my development e-books from Manning and the Pragmatic Programmers along with many magazines from the ACM Digital Library. I have both Ruby/Rails and Java/Ant prototyping environments conveniently setup (thanks for your jamvm, classpath and j2me packages, btw). I also ripped many of my CDs and transferred them. I often use the dictionaries, etc...
I sold my notebook as the Z. mostly replaces it. For real work I have a dual Opteron workstation at home.

What I hate is the inability of synchronisation with my work agenda and mail (Exchange server). If that could be fixed a new Zaurus is definitely my PDA for the next few years.

Well, sync is not possible with Lotus Notes used in my current project either... not that it will make you feel better... I am currently looking into web/server based calendar options to sync with KO/PI.

The prices on the Z. are really falling down, btw.
I bought recently a SL-C3000 with Ambicom WiFi and Socket Bluetooth cards as a gift for my girlfriend's birthday for $275 from the US eBay.

So I would say get a Cxxxx model, let me know if I can be of assistance...

[cortez]

Well, some bad situations can lead to great new possibilities... After the "coffee experience" I thought of a replacement for my trusty SL-C750. I really couldn't find anything like the Zaurus. So I searched eBay for a used Zaurus, did some bidding here and there, and now I'm the lucky owner of SL-C1000 and a SL-C3100. So, this story doesn't end up too bad after all

[speculatrix]

Well, some bad situations can lead to great new possibilities... After the "coffee experience" I thought of a replacement for my trusty SL-C750. I really couldn't find anything like the Zaurus. So I searched eBay for a used Zaurus, did some bidding here and there, and now I'm the lucky owner of SL-C1000 and a SL-C3100. So, this story doesn't end up too bad after all

I hope it was a case of buy one get one free! My wife complained I had too many zauruses - but that was sort of an accident (I bid thinking it was a bargain and someone would outbid me, and bang, I'd bought another!!)

[craigtyson]

Give ISOClene a go it might sort your display out.

C