Messages

1

Software / Need To Recover Kdepim Pwmanager Password...

« on: January 29, 2010, 06:10:43 pm »

- I have a file, see?  It's encrypted, see?  But I don't have the password any more, see?  (*smack*)
- Alrightythen.  I've sadly lost my beloved Z, and I only have a pwmanager backup file from *before* I changed the master password.  If it was after I'd be fine ... load up PasswordManager on Linux and have it.  But when I load up my KDEPIM pwmanager file into KDE PasswordManager and enter the password, it won't unlock it.  That's why I think this file is before the password change.  (grin)
- I've been looking all over for a password recovery tool for this, but I can't find one anywhere.  I'm sure it's a non-trivial undertaking, but hey, I have multiple cores at my disposal.  It should be theoretically possible.
- Does anyone know how I can recover the data from a pwmanager file?

Thanks for your time...

2

PocketPenguin / Intro & Faq

« on: January 29, 2010, 05:54:19 pm »

- I hear ya.  I finally lost Hiroshi and ordered an UMID BZ to replace it, so I'm Z-less until further notice.  There it is...

3

Android / Android Sourcecode Is Out !

« on: November 21, 2008, 11:39:42 pm »

I've got the new G1 phone

- Nice!!  Wish it weren't just on T-mobile.  They have zilch for coverage here at the house (little boy pout)...

4

Android / Add More Ram?

« on: November 21, 2008, 11:37:09 pm »

- I e-mailed them to see what they'd charge to bump the RAM to 128MB and the NAND to 1GB.  I'll post results if they come...

5

General Discussion / Things Yet To Be Done With The Zaurus

« on: November 21, 2008, 11:12:04 pm »

- "Headless" to me says "no GUI".  Unfortunate.  A lot can be done from the command line, but the Z is a graphical device.  Be nice to leverage that.  'Course that dramatically complicates things...

6

Zaurus - pdaXrom / Pdaxng

« on: September 17, 2008, 02:15:21 pm »

I just opened up our pdaxrom-everyone mailing list to the public, You wont see to much traffic on there (hopefully that will change), but if you would like to become involved in pdaxrom please join.

- I subscribed, having an FC9 box I can dedicate to builds.  I'm awaiting my e-mail in response to subscribing, and thinking it may have been caught by the spam filter.  Now if I can just remember the URL to my web mail...

7

Hardware Mods / Pimp Your Zaurus: 1gbyte Nand Flash Upgrade

« on: September 16, 2008, 01:38:48 pm »

The RAM upgrade is hard simply because it's in a BGA package which needs hot-air rework equipment and no fear. I seem to recall Maslovsky had a few done.

- 'Twere he.  Saint Maslovsky has a C750 w/ 128MB RAM and was working on the C1000 about the time Cacko 1.23 was released.  Since then he evaporated, seemingly.  Hope he's okay and all.
- I like the GB flash mod.  I could fit Debian in that and not worry about stuffing it on an SD card.  Nice!  Now if I could just work up the courage to rip Hiro apart and go at him with heat and purpose.  (owlish stare)

8

Boston / Welcome!

« on: September 11, 2008, 09:31:29 pm »

- Wowzers!  Over two and half years!  Amazin' Raisin Bran.
- I'm in Greenfield, NH now and spend all my time working on the house.  (wry grin)  Latest project is roofing ... sheesh that's a passle of work!  I'm pretty much against work if I can help it.
- Still have the C1000 from the last post.  It's still amazing, but alas, thought I've more and faster boxen available for development I never find the time.  I work from home so even leaving the house is a major accomplishment for me!  (bemused smile)  Go to the Boston area?  (chuckle)  I think I've been there about five times in the last 30 months.
- I actually get about all the Z "group" I need right here at OESF, anwyay...

9

General Discussion / I'd Like To Buy A C1000 But

« on: September 09, 2008, 08:07:58 pm »

Primarily the Zaurus is a good pocket computer.

- Precisely.  It's an all-purpose system that's slightly larger than a pack of cards ... jack of all trades and master of none.  If maximum flexibility to configure the system to work as you like, and fiddling with how things work and/or are done, then the Zaurus simply can't be beat.  If you are willing to invest the time and energy there is very little a Zaurus can't be made to do.  Likewise, if someone else hasn't invested the time and energy already there's very little the Zaurus will do with a simple install and launch.  Fortunately most of the big bases are covered, like PIM and general "office" kinds of apps.

Unless you really want a Zaurus for what it does best - you have more alternatives now than the Zaurus

- This is true of any computer.  If you want what it does then get it.  If it doesn't, look further.  There are no alternatives to what the Zaurus does, however, particularly in this size and form factor.  Absolutely none.

specially if you want to hold it in the light of iTouch/iPhone comparison.

- Most especially nothing by Apple does what a Z does, given that app development is a serious PITA and Dictator For Life Jobs can jerk your iPhone product from his one and only distribution channel whenever the whim strikes him.  No, not a Z at all.  I have a Zaurus.  I will never own an iPhone.
- If you want it to "just work", however, iPhone may be a good choice for you.  I prefer flexibility and the freedom to do what I want with hardware I've paid for.  That's the tradeoff ... live in the Jobs Cage and have it "just work" (as long as "work" is only the way DFL Jobs decrees it will work), live in the M$ Cage and have some flexibility at the expense of performance and stability, or spend time learning how and why the system functions like it does and make it "just work" exactly the way you want to.  Then there's Palm, which is a DOS-level operating system that I wouldn't even consider a valid paper weight.  (smirk)  I'm not aware of any other choices.

- Was that a rant?  Bad Rags (brown-eyed puppy dog look)...

10

PocketPenguin / Gumstix

« on: August 28, 2008, 02:56:46 pm »

- I'm interesting in a much better LCD than the one gumstix has on their site.  That's pretty low-res.
- I have an old Psion 5 that I'd like to try to cram one of these into.  I've always loved the keyboard on that thing.

11

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Zaurus Oscilloscope

« on: August 28, 2008, 02:36:51 pm »

- Sorry for my slow reply.  I have seventy different things to do any given minute and sadly reading OESF doesn't bubble to the surface as often as it could.
- This sure do help!!!  Thanks jfr!!
- Based on your response I'm going to look into acquiring one of these.  It sounds like if it won't work out of the box, it can be made to work, and the Syscomp folks are supportive for this effort.  I have an FC9 system (the one I'm typing on now) that's devotable to development for Linux and/or the Z.  The main driver here is price.  I might be able to scrounge up the money for a DS-101 and fiddle with it as time permits, knowing I have full access to all required source to modify as needed to make it function.  This is a doable solution, where $900 for a DSO that will do continuous sampling is not.
- At this point I don't know how I'd detect a crash.  I may do something oddball like use the Tektronix to trigger on spikes and do a buffer dump, then reset for the next spike.  Or I could use the ASCOM driver on the laptop to continuously poll the mount and trigger a capture when it fails to respond, assuming I can do that  within the 1.6ms the buffer holds at 20M samples/second.
- I've always wondered why these darned things have such tiny buffers.  Modern PC memory has like a 6Gbyte bandwidth and costs nearly nothing.  That bandwidth will support 20M samples/second on 12 channels at 24 bits/sample.  Even if bus contention reduces that rate by an order of magnitude it should handle the sample rate of the DS-101 without even trying, and a gig of that RAM would hold 3.3 full *seconds* of data instead of a piddly 1.6ms.  Heck I'd make it with a standard RAM socket for user upgrade to more buffer.
- Still this is uber-spiff!  Onto noodling finincing.  Thanks again!!

12

General Discussion / Yoo Hoo........anyone Out There?

« on: June 29, 2008, 09:15:18 pm »

- I've been without money, not been able to find my car keys, out of gas for the motorcycle, and locked out of the house, but I have never been without Hiroshi.  It just doesn't happen.  I don't know how often I use my Z because Hiro is always there in my butt bag ... I reach to my waist, grab, and use without a second thought.  Hiroshi always works, never crashes, never fails, never loses data, and the Z is imminently expandable and configurable to do a simply amazing number of things that were never envisioned when it was made.  In my opinion the Zaurus is what every PDA should dream of growing up to be one day.  That includes every PDA or smart phone I've see to date.

- I've taken four months to solve a single Sokoban level; this game on the Z doesn't save where you are, it saves the level you are on, so I had that game loaded and active on the task bar for four months straight, in addition to anything else I may have done during that time.  I've owned seven different PDAs and Hiroshi is the second most reliable, but the completely and utterly most enjoyable of them all.  (most reliable: Psion 5mx - no reboot for three full years until I got my first Zaurus because they stopped making Psion - bows head in silence for Psion's passing)

- I use Hiroshi primarily for PIM and games, puzzle games like Zudoku and Sokoban.  I have used the Z for music, wardriving, surfing for info, and I've fiddled around with VoIP, apache, mysql, C++ development, perl, and anything else that crossed my mind in the last four years.  The power, flexibility, form factor, and minuscule size are a real sweet spot for me.

- I don't post here much of late because I moved into a "fixer upper" house, which takes a considerable chunk of time, and this is at an excellent dark sky site, so I've taken up amateur astronomy.  I do hope to write some astro software for Hiro to run goto telescopes.  Time will tell, or it won't, Gosh Darn! ™

- Having typed all that, I'll definitely give the latest pdaX a shot once it's available!  (grin)  I like trying out distro and feel confident that some day I'll find one that works as well as Cacko.  If not ... NAND backup does just what it should, it puts Hiroshi back precisely as it was before flashing, so it's painless and fun to fiddle around with the possibilities...

13

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Switching To Verizon In The Usa

« on: June 29, 2008, 08:27:12 pm »

- We moved over a year ago and our contract is finally up, so we can jump ship from the no-signal Sprint, and it looks like Verizon is the only game in town from a signal perspective, so I guess that's what we'll get.  I have an LG PM325 I think it is, and it's BT has always been super flakey.  Half the time it doesn't report it has DUN, half the time it does report it has DUN it's service 4 and the other half it's service 5, and most of the time it does report it has DUN it won't connect.  It's been a serious nightmare that I've simply given up on, quite frankly.  On the positive side, when it does report it has DUN and I can actually get it to connect, it works swimmingly.  (wry grin)

- But with the new phone comes new hope that Hiroshi may actually be able to connect to the 'net with the cell phone one day.  I have an Ambicom BT card, Model BT2000-CF, the one with the blue "tooth" surfing on it, because back when I was getting a BT card many posts here at OESF indicated that was the most reliable one, and I'm using Cacko 1.23 which includes a BT configuration tool, though my experience is that command line is the only way to be sure.

- In particular I'm not looking for a "smart" phone or a web phone or any expensive gee-whiz do-dad for my pocket.  I'm looking for a cell phone primarily, and a BT link for Hiro secondarily.  Any other function it may have is superfluous to me, and therefore nothing I want to pay for.  (grin)

- I was thinking the Motorola Moko might work.  It's got BT and says it supports DUN, and with the US-normal contract fiasco it's a whole $20.  Given the current job situation less is more, but I'd entertain any option that was a "sure thing".

- Thoughts?  Ideas?  Recommendations?  Love to hear 'em all.  Thanks for your time...

14

C1000/3x00 General discussions / Zaurus Oscilloscope

« on: June 29, 2008, 08:10:33 pm »

- Neat!  I've been looking for a DSO to do transient capture, but so far I haven't found one that appears to be what I'd need, mainly because the capture buffers are so darned tiny.  But I could very well be wrong ... I have a Tektronix lab 'scope I use right now and I'm not so familiar with DSOs.
- I'm very, very interested in two things:

1) Can this DSO do transient analysis even with that tiny 32k sample buffer?  At 20MS/s that's a minuscule slice of time, so on the surface it looks inadequate.  But it very well could work somehow that I'm not aware of, in which case I'd be very, very interested to hear it.

2) This port.  I really like the idea of using the Z as a portable o'scope.  Very spiff!!

Details:

- I'm doing work with goto control systems for amateur astronomy, and I'd like to analyze the power rails for transients introduced by the pulse-width-modulation drive for the motors.  Some goto mounts are very finicky about  supply voltage, and I think it's actually because they put too much noise on the rails.  My thought for analysis was not to trap individual transients, but to capture supply voltage and current data (using the two channels) and see where to goto crashes.  It's the transient that causes the goto system to wonk out that I need to see.  I was hoping a DSO would do the trick but nothing I've read indicates they will because I haven't seen any affordable ones that will capture 20MS/s continuously.  They all do it 'til their buffer is full, then you're sunk, or at least that what numerous owner manuals seem to imply.
- I'd love to wrong!  I'll buy one of these things, no problem.

- Thanks for your time...

15

PocketPenguin / Gumstix

« on: June 29, 2008, 07:34:32 pm »

http://www.gumstix.com/

- This does look familiar, but it's still freaky.  600Mhz XScale w/ 128MB Ram on a board the size of a stick of gum.  Outrageous!
- I find it interesting that is uses the OE build and so little relating to it here as well...