Author Topic: Hi And Some Questions About The C3200 (Read 4184 times)

Dobby · « **on:** July 21, 2006, 08:25:31 am »

Hi guys thought I'd take the oportunity to say hello from England. Looks like a wealth of tips and helpful people here so thanks in advance!

I have a few questions before I go ahead and purchase the latest Zaurus (I'll number the questions so it's easy for people to repond if they can). First though here are my reasons for wanting one (other than because they are so darn cool!). I want it to replace my Laptop, filofax and mp3 player. I'm an IT Contractor (Software Dev to be exact) and I use my filofax quite a bit to take notes, ideas, todos, calendar etc. I also have quite a powerful laptop but to be honest I don't really use it much other than to watch DVD's in my hotel room and maybe do a bit of programming. I also play the odd computer game but I could live without that use.

Is this a sensible choice (1)? I want to be able to do all of the things that I can do with my filofax like take notes, draw diagrams etc. Listen to MP3's. Do some Ruby on Rails programming and watch DVD's if pos.

I've had a look around and it seems you can get Ruby but not the latest version which I will probably need for Rails development. Would I be able to hack the standard linux ruby package to get it to work on the Zaurus (2)?

I'm not exactly a guru when it comes to linux but that is also one of the reasons I want to get one. To begin with I'll just be playing around with it so won't be ditching the other hardware until I am happy with the distro I'm using etc. Speaking of which what distro to people recommend for what I want to do (3)? Would I also need a linux desktop machine (4)? My 4.5 machines are all XP (well except the .5!)

I've read the handwritting recognition is less than pleasent. Are there any natural langauge apps that would solve this problem (5)? Not essential but it would nice. The Windows Mobile recognition is awesome. A friend of mine has the SPV and his writting is aweful yet WM has no problem deciphering it. That's the only thing I like about it though!!

As I will be tinkering around with the little thing can anyone recommend reference material, books etc that would be useful with my limited knowledge of linux.

eek! Sorry for the long post!

lardman · « **Reply #1 on:** July 21, 2006, 09:41:42 am »

Hi

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I use my filofax quite a bit to take notes, ideas, todos, calendar etc. I also have quite a powerful laptop but to be honest I don't really use it much other than to watch DVD's in my hotel room and maybe do a bit of programming. I also play the odd computer game but I could live without that use.

Note taking, calendar, todo, etc. are all catered for - just check about sync abilities to any desktop package you use.

Playing DVDs is not possible, however ripping them beforehand to a large CF card is doable, though the screen is small.

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draw diagrams etc.

What type? Are there any CAD style packages about anyone? I'm sure you could port one for GPE if needs be. Again note the screen size...

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I've had a look around and it seems you can get Ruby but not the latest version which I will probably need for Rails development. Would I be able to hack the standard linux ruby package to get it to work on the Zaurus (2)?

The latest release appears to be available in OE (http://www.openembedded.org/repo/org.openembedded.dev/packages/ruby/) so it should work on one of the OpenZaurus images.

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Would I also need a linux desktop machine

No you wouldn't need one, WinXP is fine for file transfer, etc.

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I've read the handwritting recognition is less than pleasent. Are there any natural langauge apps that would solve this problem (5)? Not essential but it would nice. The Windows Mobile recognition is awesome. A friend of mine has the SPV and his writting is aweful yet WM has no problem deciphering it. That's the only thing I like about it though!!

Not sure, I've never really used it, but my understanding is that the MS stuff is significantly better, little project anyone ?

Si

bluedevils · « **Reply #2 on:** July 21, 2006, 09:50:30 am »

1) You should be able to do all of that

2 and 3) checkout pdaxrom and openzuaurus. They may have more recent versions of ruby. These ROMs are more like the linux desktops.

4) You don't *need" a linux machine, but for me it is more convenient. The pim suite I use is related to the KDE pim suite on a linux desktop and you will be able to nfs, ssh and crosscompile much more naturally. If you use an X11 rom (pdaxrom or openzaurus gpe) many of the software will be the same as the desktop version.

5) yes the handwriting is less than optimal, but then the keyboard makes up for it IMHO.

Dobby · « **Reply #3 on:** July 21, 2006, 10:01:46 am »

Thanks guys, this helps.

So you couldn't hook in a external USB DVD drive then for the DVD's?

lardman · « **Reply #4 on:** July 21, 2006, 10:08:24 am »

You may be able to, but you'd probably not be able to decode them in realtime. In fact iirc there was a recent-ish thread about trying to do just this, try search.

Si

Dobby · « **Reply #5 on:** July 24, 2006, 09:47:01 am »

Ok I've taken the plunge and ordered from Price Japan. Wuhooo! Went for wifi + usb host and inc delivery it came to $620. Not bad for shipping to the UK.

Now I just have to read up on pdaxrom and open zaurus...

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...
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I've read the handwritting recognition is less than pleasent...
... the MS stuff is significantly better, little project anyone ?

Well, the high res screen would make an ideal candidate for proper recognition. I'd love to have a go at writing something like this but I don't have a clue about handwriting algorithms. I just had a look around and found HRE which is a library that maybe possible to adapt as long as it's possible to interface with the touch screen data. I take it that it's just mouse data?

nilch · « **Reply #6 on:** July 24, 2006, 10:01:08 am »

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Well, the high res screen would make an ideal candidate for proper recognition. I'd love to have a go at writing something like this but I don't have a clue about handwriting algorithms. I just had a look around and found HRE which is a library that maybe possible to adapt as long as it's possible to interface with the touch screen data. I take it that it's just mouse data?
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Just wondering why you want handwriting to work well, that much, when you already have a better (of course that's by me) input method - the keyboard.

That of course does not take away from the fact that hadwriting recognition on the zaurus couild have been better - but I have hardly found anyone on these forums use handwriting in place of the keyboard.
Unless that is, you are thinking of PDA along the Palm standards - where a PDA meant handwriting recog to work for any input.

Just curious - thats all... slow day at work.

Dobby · « **Reply #7 on:** July 24, 2006, 10:34:28 am »

It's a good point. I'd like to be able to draw diagrams with notes along side. Now they don't always have to be converted to text but sometimes it is useful.

Also, I've found that hand writing is quite natural and wanted something that would emulate my filofax. Of course as I mentioned I am a programmer and so I'll be using the keyboard when doing a spot of coding. I should be used to small keyboards I used to have a Psion II with an A-Z keyboard and a two line LCD display!!

I guess I'll wait until I get the device and start playing around with it before I worry about the handwriting. As it has a touch screen keyboard it does seem a bit of a waste not to have decent support for it.

totaln00b · « **Reply #8 on:** July 24, 2006, 10:46:42 am »

Umm,

I've always quite liked the handwriting recognition on the zaurus (Cacko/Sharp Rom). It does take a few goes to get used to (long train journeys are ideal for this) but once you're familiar with it, I think it's great.

I don't know what sort of diagrams you're talking about- just hand-drawn ones, or something more cad-like, but Freenote is good for general doodling, and has things like text boxes for notes. As far as I know it only works on the Sharp-based Roms, ie not OZ or PdaXrom, but I could be mistaken.

Jo

Dobby · « **Reply #9 on:** July 24, 2006, 11:55:27 am »

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... but Freenote is good for general doodling, and has things like text boxes for notes. As far as I know it only works on the Sharp-based Roms, ie not OZ or PdaXrom, but I could be mistaken.

Ooh good point thanks. I was looking at Freenote but if it doesn't work with OZ or PdaXrom that could be a problem. So many things to research...!

Da_Blitz · « **Reply #10 on:** July 24, 2006, 12:58:13 pm »

Just tried dvd support on OZ, dosent work. mplayer was not compiled with libdvdread however the dvd does work (im using a dvd reader/burner, just had to insert one module) and there is no udf fs support for mounting the dvd, i will report thi]ese as bugs to the OZ guys

scheck.r · « **Reply #11 on:** July 24, 2006, 05:33:46 pm »

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... but Freenote is good for general doodling, and has things like text boxes for notes. As far as I know it only works on the Sharp-based Roms, ie not OZ or PdaXrom, but I could be mistaken.

Ooh good point thanks. I was looking at Freenote but if it doesn't work with OZ or PdaXrom that could be a problem. So many things to research...!
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Freenote 1.12 works great on PdaXrom beta1.
There is also Xournal which is great too, see [a href=\"https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=18415&pid=136228&st=60&#entry136228]https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showt...60&#entry136228[/url]

Dobby · « **Reply #12 on:** July 25, 2006, 05:44:09 am »

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Just tried dvd support on OZ, dosent work. mplayer was not compiled with libdvdread however the dvd does work (im using a dvd reader/burner, just had to insert one module) and there is no udf fs support for mounting the dvd, i will report thi]ese as bugs to the OZ guys
[div align=\"right\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Hey that's good news. What's the quality like? Any jitters or slow down? So you needed libdvdread (the module you say you inserted right?) but how do I get UDF support? Is that another module that needs adding? or a driver or something?

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Freenote 1.12 works great on PdaXrom beta1.
There is also Xournal which is great too, see [a href=\"https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=18415&pid=136228&st=60&#entry136228]https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showt...60&#entry136228[/url]
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=136296\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

Excellent! So many choices I'm bound to find the right ROM and collection of software/drivers for my needs. I wonder if Freenote works on OZ or if DVD support works on PdaXrom ... Well, I'll soon be experimenting!

Thanks guys this is really exciting stuff and I'll finally get a better understanding of Linux based systems.

Ooh I almost forgot. What DVD drive are you using? Would any USB DVD drive work?

JustMatt · « **Reply #13 on:** August 08, 2006, 03:52:03 pm »

Hi, I too am looking to make "the plunge" and had a few questions. I figured I would add them to this thread instead of making a new one. I currently have a Tapwave Zodiac 2 but the Zaurus SL-Cxxx is pretty tempting. I really like the clamshell design and that I can use it as a PDA and as a micro laptop. Some of the questions I have are:

Is high(ish) quality audio input possable with the zaurus? It would be great if I could record live music onto a large cf/sd card. Is there any software available that would make this better? I read somthing about a VIOP client for the zaurus but I dont know what the input quality is or even if it was for the SL-Cxxx series.

I read some of the software lists, FAQ's and forum posts and it seems that at least SNES/NES emulation is at pretty much full speed. Is this true?

I think I know the answers to the following questions but I figure if I can get all of my questions taken care of in one place it would be great. Thanks for your paitence...

On my zodiac I can watch videos pretty much straight from my computer. It skips a bit on some high resolution files but for the most part it runs great. Just wanted to be sure I would get a similar experience on the Zaururs.

I am sure MP3's playing will be covered in just about any rom package and that is one of the big things I will want.

I have heard that the C3000 has some lag associated with reading information off the hard drive but that issue is resolved with the C3x00's increase in flash ram size or with exchanging the hard drive with a flash drive. I think I am torn between a C3200 or a C1000. Any big limitations of the C1000 other than not having an internal HDD and its associated electronics?

Sorry for the huge post. Thanks in advance for any info you guys can give me.

Matt

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Author Topic: Hi And Some Questions About The C3200 (Read 4184 times)