.KEYWORD culte0903
.FLYINGHEAD LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
.TITLE Plug in to the Computing Unplugged mailbag
.DEPT
.SUMMARY In this edition of letters to the editor, readers offer comments and questions on a variety of topics, including Palm m130 frustration, Xbox and access to online gaming, the FatFinger review, and when Computing Unplugged will be available on AvantGo.
.EDNOTE In this edition of letters to the editor, readers offer comments and questions on a variety of topics, including Palm m130 frustration, Xbox and access to online gaming, Linux advice, the FatFinger review, and when Computing Unplugged will be available on AvantGo.
.H1 Birthday bust
My son gave me a nice Palm m130 for a birthday gift. I brought the first one back because I had to press most buttons (tap on screen) over and over to get them to function. The second unit is not much better.
What a waste of money. I have heard wonderful things about Palm handhelds, but mine has been sitting here for months just collecting dust! It is so frustrating I have to put it away.
Is this a poor performing unit, this m130? What can I do?
Mike Bouyea
.H2 Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz responds
Folks generally like their Palm handhelds. There’s no question that the Palm m130 is a lower cost unit (which means, most probably, less robust). But most folks are quite happy with them. If you’re having problems (especially during the warranty period), don’t hesitate to contact Palm’s support organization. I’m sure they’ll want to help you out.
Another option (more of a long shot) is to do what’s called a "hard reset" on the device. Make sure you backup your data first. Sometimes, these things get stuck in a weird state and a complete, fresh restart helps. Beyond that, Palm’s folks are the experts.
.BREAK_EMAIL Click here for more reader letters.
.BEGIN_KEEP
.H1 Dead channels
Last year I was a regular reader of your magazine via the AvantGo channel. The news articles kept me up to date with the goings on in the palm world during my trip to work. Some time late last year you were having some technical problems and I have never received an update since March 2003.
Today I thought I would see what was going on via your Web site and noticed you are now rebranded Computing Unplugged, but I am unable to find an AvantGo channel as such. Do you have any plans to make a new channel or should I try to create my own?
Kind regards,
Chris Smith
.H2 Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz responds
Uh, we broke them. Messily. We’re trying to figure out what went wrong, but at one time, we were apparently feeding some stranger’s entire site through our AvantGo feed. Probably not a good idea to do programming after consuming a big pile of chocolate!
In all seriousness, yes, it’s a priority to get the AvantGo channels back online. They’ll likely be at http://www.computingunplugged.com/avantgo/ or http://www.computingunplugged.com/wireless/, but we’re not sure when. As for whether you subscribe by creating your own channel or through AvantGo, we’re not sure which it’ll be. We’ve been understandably a bit reticent about asking them to feed Computing Unplugged until we can get it working right.
Take care and thanks for reading!
.END_KEEP
.H1 Unplug your Xbox
Great article on the Linksys/Xbox wireless setup (at http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200305/00001038002.html).
I have spent the past two days searching the Internet and reading forums trying to get my Xbox to access online gaming across my wireless network. A couple of things if you have the time.
First, I have the following setup–all Linksys.
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Cable Modem–>WAP
.BULLET WAP–>WET11
.BULLET WET11–>switch/hub
.BULLET Switch/hub–>Xbox and other items like replaytv
.END_LIST
Can I have a switch in there?
Second, how do you alter or set the Xbox’s IP? I thought it had a set IP of 0.0.0.6 or something.
Thanks,
Ryan Casey
Paper Connexion, Inc.
http://www.paperconnexion.com
.H2 Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz responds
Ryan, there should be no reason you can’t have a switch or a hub (I’d recommend a switch, of course) between the WET11 and the Xbox. I haven’t yet tried that, but I’m planning to tear apart my TiVo and drop in an Ethernet card, and when I do, I’ll want that switch.
As for changing the Xbox’s IPs, I cheated. I’m running something called EvolutionX. I can’t give you a URL to download this (you’ll have to hunt for it) because it will only run on a modified Xbox. Be aware that modifying your Xbox will most definitely void your warranty, and depending on how you do it, may well be illegal according to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
Here’s a link that will at least point you in the right direction: http://www.Xbox-scene.com.
.H1 FatFinger review reviewed
I was a bit disappointed with the FatFinger review in Computing Unplugged (at http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200306/00001029001.html). Whereas it did give a good description of the product, the comparisons against Graffiti were not completely helpful. Without comparing FatFinger against the Palm OS on-screen keyboard, not to mention third-party handwriting recognition software, it did not give us much on which to decide whether FatFinger is really something worth buying.
Again, the article was helpful in describing the product, and certainly one can make a judgment based on the trial software, but it was a shame that so much effort was put into comparing only against Graffiti.
Erb Cooper
.BEGIN_KEEP
.H2 Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz responds
Erb, there’s a difference between a review and a product shootout. In a review, we write about one given product where in a product shootout, we do a survey of the different products. We tend to mix it up and do some reviews and some shootouts. It would have been inappropriate to compare FatFinger to a variety of other products given this was a review. And given that Graffiti is the standard entry tool (and you can easily try out the Palm on-screen keyboard), I think this was a pretty fair review and we’re grateful to Chris for writing it.
That said, I’m sorry it didn’t meet with your expectations. Keep reading. I’m sure we’ll find other ways to replace Grafitti as time goes on.
.H1 Jumping through hoops for Acrobat
It was speaking of v2.0. I think it was referring to v3.0 since 2.0 has been out a while.
Meryl K. Evans
.H2 David answers again
You know, you’re right. Sadly, though, I think we just published something that was rather out of date. That article’s been in our pending bin for a while, and while I’d like to claim it was all about Acrobat 3.0 and we had a typo for 2.0, I think the reality is that we ran an article on the old version. Sometimes, when you’re working with hundreds of products, news items, and technologies, the numbers and names all blur together.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
For more information on AvantGo, visit http://www.avantgo.com.
For more information on Xbox-Scene, visit http://www.Xbox-scene.com.
For the article, "Wirelessly connect to your Xbox using the Linksys WET11 Wireless Ethernet Bridge," by David Gewirtz in the May 2003 issue of Computing Unplugged, visit http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200305/00001038002.html.
For more information on FatFinger 2.0 from Avaion Software, visit http://www.avaion.com/fatfinger.asp.
For the article, "FatFinger 2.0 faces off against Graffiti in time trials," by Chris Guella in the June 2003 issue of Computing Unplugged, visit http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue200306/00001029001.html
.H1 Easy, flexible article reprints
ZATZ now offers a quick, easy, flexible and inexpensive way to use article reprints in your marketing and promotion efforts. You can now get article reprints for a one-time fee of only $200. For details, visit http://mediakit.zatz.com/reprints.
.END_SIDEBAR
.END_KEEP
