pilif

The 13 most annoying things of the P800 phone

I had to buy myself the SonyEricsson smartphone P800 as I really liked what all the reviews wrote about it. And it’s cool. I really like it – much more than my former Nokia 7650 (don’ t tell me that I am buying much too many cellphones. I know that, but I’ve not found my solution yet – at least not until I bought the P800…

Anyway. During the first three days, I am using the phone, I came across the following list of annoying things, you should have in mind when buying the phone:

The “Select all” Option in the Messaging-Application is quite well hidden. When I deceided to write this article here, I still thought there was no such option at all and I wanted to write a big complaint about having to select each and every sms in the “Sent”-Box to empty it. If you are in the place to design a GUI: Use Menu separators wise and don’t mix toggle-options with commands. The “Select all” command is just above the display-toggle-option in the edit-menu (don’t ask me what display-options have to do in a “Edit”-Menu)
There is no support for SMS-delivery-reports. A pity. I really liked the handling of SMS-reports in my Nokia 7650. But then: How many times did I really *read* those reports? Learn: Not every feature is that important to be implemented…
The handwriting recognition works really nice – besides that one problem: In PocketPCs and of course Palms, there is a seperate area on the screen for entering text. The P800 uses the whole screen. This seems nice as it allows you to write quite large letters. But actually it is a big problem: As the recognition area overlays the GUI, the software in the phone has to guess whether the current screen-contact was for a GUI-element (like a button) or a stroke. This combined with the fact that a dot (.) is just a line from top left to bottom right and with the extreme sensitivity of the recognition engine lead me to overwrite many textfields with a dot instead of pressing a button in the GUI – I made a small line instead of just a click. I really want to either have an extra recognition area or an adjustable sensitivity for the recognition.
Why is the Clock-Application not avaliable with a closed lid? I hate it to open the keypad just to see when I have the alarm set to.
The T68i and the Nokia 7650 both had a Screensaver/Standby-Screen that was useful as it displayed the current time. The P800 does not: When inactive, it first displays a screensaver (an animated gif) and then turns the display off. Nice for battery lifetime – bad for people that do not wear clocks. Workaround: Make just one click with the Jogdial and the P800 will display the standard screen showing the time (but not the date – see below).
If you have cell info enabled, the cellinfo string will be shown below the provider-name where the current date would be placed instead. There is no way to see the current date with enabled cellinfo besided opening the phone and selecting the clock application. Stupid.
Jogdial: Veeery nice idea. This is great. Too bad it’s so hard to push it down into the phone. I always push it forward instead of down. But this may be a problem with my fingers.
Keyboard. I know there is no better (at least none as cheap as the current) way to create a removable keyboard than to have the keys press on virtual keys on the touchscreen…. But: The keys are very hard to press down and pressing them feels so much “rubber-ish”. Buärk. And: I had to recalibrate the display to make those two small “back” and “c” buttons work. I am not sure, a default consumer knows about this…
mRouter: Say what you want, but I life after the principle: Once broken – always broken. And I have never seen a more broken piece of software than the Nokia PC Suite with its mRouter-Tool (even Microsoft Word is better). The P800 uses the same thing (I think, this is Symbian related and cannot be changed that easily). Anyway: The Ericsson software looks more stable to me than the Nokia Software did. It worked flawlessly with IR and USB on my Notebook. I’ll see what it does tomorrow on my office-pc where I will try to synchronize via Bluetooth and USB.
Browser: Why does it open the startpage when I open the browser? OK… actually this makes sense… but then: Mobile Internet Connections are expensive. I want an option to open the bookmarks-page per default. Not the homepage. After all: To change the homepage, I have to open the browser which will automatically open a connection to the internet and display the homepage set per default by your Mobile Provider.
Browser-Key: I prefer Opera as my Webbrowser. SonyEricsson gives it away for free and it works much better than the internal browser for HTML. Why can’t I reconfigure the browser-key at the side of my Phone to launch opera instead of the internal browser?
Shortcuts: I like the shortcuts to the different applications. Why are the shortcuts for the closed operation mode configured in the control panel and the shortcuts for the mode with the keyboard open in the Preferences-Menu of the launcher-application? Or in common: Why are some settings in the control panel and others in the corresponding application?
Multitasking: Yes. It’s a Phone – no PC and no PDA either. I understand that multitasking may not be possible, but then please provide me with a) a list of last started applications or b) the possibility to sort the application-list after self-defined criteria or c) at least sort that list alphapethically! Let me make an example for this: Say you are playing the (greeeeeeat) Solitaire-Game, then you want to have a look at the current time. Thus you start the clock-application (why is the clock not always displayed in the status-bar?). Now to go back to your game, you have to go back to the launcher, scroll all the way down in the list and restart solitaire (after you have found it – the list is sorted by the ideas of a marketing-guy – not of one that really uses the phone (Camera before Adresses for example)…
This list seems quite big. Didn’t I say the phone is great? Yes. I did. The phone is great. The above list is complete. There are no more problems and many of the existing ones are quite easy fixable. I will list them down in a more professional way and I will be sending them to the SonyEricsson Support. I dont’ think, I’ll get an answer, but maybe they fix one of the problems in a future release…

Go and buy your P800 – you will like it.

Apple X11

Yesterday, a new release of Apples X11-Server has been released. It can be downloaded at the usual location.

What I really like: Apple has addressed all concerns with the Application so far. The feedback on the mailinglist really got attention and everything has been implemented as requested: Keyboard-Mappings, the different Hints to the Windowmanager, …

The tool is still as fast as the previous release.

I’ve read about one problem: The new release 0.2 reads the global /etc/X11/xinitrc which the old release did not. This can lead to the eventually installed twm or another windowmanager being executed instead of the quartz-wm one should expect.

The Solution is either to delete the above file or to customize the installation of the new release and chosing to install “XConfig” which will overwrite any configuration file possibly being still on the system from a different X-Server.

Back Again

It’ done. I’ve not only sucessfully survived the relaunch of our broadband-portal Superspeed, I too have survived the installation of a new server at a new location. Although I’ve had muc htoo less time, I think, everything should be working again – everything besides my SpamAssissin installation which I will again patch to use my mailserver virtual user sql authentication scheme. And believe me: After my todays look at my non-spam-assasinated mailbox, I came to the conclusion, that this issue has my top priority ;-)

More X11

As you really seem to like my last posting about the Apple X-Server, I hereby do a followup:

I’ve not spent much time with the tool as I am primary a Linux- and Windows guy. Although I really like Mac OS X and the nice design of the Apple computers, I do not own one and thus can only use the one that Richard has in our office.

We are currently in the last phase of a big project which leads to less free time for me and Richards computer being occupied most hours of the day…

Anyway: Apple recently opened a mailing list which I have subscribed myself to. It’s quite cool to read the messages: The level is quite high – as is the traffic. And best of all: People from Apple working on the project are activly posting there.

Someone already created a unofficial FAQ (the official one is still a text-document posted to the mailinglist). One Article deals with the Keymapping, but goes a bit further and explains how to get the Alt-Keys working.

Unfortunately I’ve not yet had the time to check it out, but I will keep you updated…

Apple X11 – cool

OK. It took me quite some time to review the X-Server (and to fix the one big problem I’ve head with it – but see below). I got tired and had to go home so I’m writing this now.

First: The thing is fast. I am used to the speeds of XDarwin and so I was really surprised about Apple’s work. It launches in about half a second on Richard’s mac and launching Eterm or nedit just happens instantly without any remarkable delay. I’ve read that the X-Server is not only 2D-accelerated (which alone is a big improvement over XDarwin), but also provides OpenGL-Support for X11-Applications. I’ve not tried that out yet.

When launched, the Server starts an Xterm with it and I’ve not yet found out how to change that. I was really disappointed to see that it used an US keymap which, although I know where one or another character lies on my swiss keyboard, is not an option for production use.

It turns out, that the US-Keymap is hardcoded in this release, so it cannot be changed. But a workaround exists anyway: Create a Symlink from /System/Libarary/Keyboards/<<your keymap>> to ~/Library/Keyboards/US.keymapping and the X-Server will use your keymapping. Of course this breaks US-Keyboards possibly plugged with your account, but if you really have an US keyboard, there is nearly nothing to stop you from using it ;-)

The Xterm provided by Apple is not able to display umlauts which may as well be a configuration problem. I’ve yet to find that out, although I am not really motivated to do so. Eterm is a much better alternative.

So I am quite happy with Apples solution – even Copy & Paste works between Aqua and X – something XDarwin fails to be able to. The only Problem: Characters you get by combining your Keys with the Alt-Modifier cannot be created (which is maybe the reason why Apple hardcoded the US-Keymap) but the only one of those characters I use really often is the @-sign which I can create with Copy & Paste for now.

Another tipp: I’ve written yesterday that Safari does not support Window-Cycling-Shortcuts. This turned out to be not true: The shortcuts are just not added to the Menu and are Command-> and Command-<. This allows Richard to use the browser and makes me happy as he will finally stop using IE ;-)

New Year / Macworld Keynote

First of all: A happy new year to my fellow readers. I was in Paris from december 26th to january 2nd which (at least partially) should explain the lack of updates here.

I’ve just watched the quciktime stream Steve Job’s keynote on this years Macworld in San Francisco. And I mostly like what I saw.

OK. The loooooong introduction of iDVD was quite boring and the presentation of iMovie was quite uninteresing (to me), but the rest was quite cool.

The whole thing began with this little thing which I really like but is much too expensive for what it is. Then a down-stripped version of Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express has been introduced. Not quite interesting for me.

The renewed i-Applications</a> where also not that interesting to me. One exception: iPhoto seems quite cool to me and I will try it out on Richard’s Mac here in the office when it’s available. What I really liked: Apart from what “analysts” where saying (and from what slashdot gladly picked up), the i-Apps remain free to use.

The new presentation software Keynote really looks interesting. Maybe I should give it a shot. If it’s just half as annoying as PowerPoint, I will really like it.

I was quite surprised to see the new Webbrowser Safari which was announced just after Keynote. I just went to apple.com and downloaded it. Some points:

It does not support tabs
There is no shortcut for window-cycling (which will render it useless for Richard)
It’s fast.
It’s reat-looking
I’ve no idea why it’s in the metal-look
I was surprised to learn that Apple did not use the Gecko-Engine but took KHTML from the KDE Project. This is now the second big project prefering KHTML before Geko (the other one will probably be Wine). Stefe Jobs produly announced that Apple will give the community back any modifications they made to KHTML. he told that Apple belongs to the nice guys respecting Free Software. But when I think of it, I come to the conclusion, that they really had to give the source back. Actually the even must provide us with the full sourcecode of Safari (which they have not yet done so) because KHTML as the rest of KDE is licensed under the GPL and Safari definitlely is a “dereived work”.

I hope to see the sorcecode soon. Mostly because I want to see this browser with Tab-Support.

And then came those Powerbooks…

I really like them and one of those will definitely be the first Mac i am going to buy myself. I am not quite sure which of them as both of them have a flaw:
- The 17”-PBis just a little to big to carry around. Additionally I am asking myself why they did not use the free space to enlarge the keyboard. It seems quite small to me and the wide free space right and left of it looks stupid.
- The 12”-PB is too small for my likings. I prefer a bigger resolution than 1024×768 (which is very high for a 12” display).
  Anyway: The devices are qute cool and I really want to get one.
  
  After all, the Keynote was cool to watch and I am looking forward for the next one.
  
  PS: When downloading Safari, I came across an XFree86 based X-Server by Apple but the download-script for collecting Email-Adresses did not work so I could not get it (yet). I wonder: Does this have something to do with FilmGimp? And: Does the clipboard work with this X-Server (it did not with XDarwin)? I’ll keep you informed…

Downloadscript fixed

They have just fixed their download-script for the X-Server. I am downloading now… The archive is 40 Megabytes in size.

What I am keen to see: I have Fink and with Fink, XDarwin installed on this machine here.

We’ll see, what the Mac-X-Server does to the current X11-installation ;-)

Things I hate (3)

Jepp. The test was successful. The installation is up and running again.

After many hours of stupid system administration work, I am thinking about what I have had to do if Linux would have been running on said server.

First of all, it would be highly unlikely that something like this i-will-not-boot-anymore would happen on a Linux-Server. the architecture is more straight-forward there and it cannot happen that the system destablizes itself without external intervention. But let’s say, it happened anyway (stupid administrator or even a hardware defect (like defect ram causing currupted data to be written to the harddrive at an incorrect location).

If I cannot boot Linux (or whatever other UNIX-flavor you like), I just take a rescue disk and boot from it. Unlike the disk provided by Microsoft, I would get a full-fledged console allowing me to do everything I could do on the defective installation. The Windows disk provides me with a recovery console which does not allow much more than writing a new boot-record to the harddrive and an automated recovery procedure (actually two – one works better, the other worse. As usual, the better one is hidden (behind the “new installation” step)) which will do something intransparently which is supposed to fix your installation. And: I had to work with a german Windows installation disk and the translation is really bad. I would have preferred the english version, but the administrator does not have the choice there.

As always: Intransparence is bad. Where the boot-process of every Linux-Distribution is well-documented and very transparent and thus can be modified, debugged or even stripped down to the bare minimum (init=/bin/sh), the process in windows is very complex and cannot be altered at all. This forces the user to do unneccesary time-taking reinstallations as the software is not smart enough to fix the problem and the administration is not allowed to.

Debugging the problem: In UNIX/Linux I get most of the time a nice and understanable error-message. If I can’t understand it, I can enter it to google and usually get answers. If not, I can even grep through the sourcecode and thus make me an image what it means.

Under Windows – at least some parts of the Windows-Servers, getting a really useful error-message is difficult: The Event-Viewer uses the same Error-Codes for completly different things and the same things may have the same error-message which renders google quite useless (and don’t even try to understand those messages – they are not helpful at all). Greping through the sourcecode is no alternative at all.

So after all I think my odyssey with this crashed server would have taken much less time and work if the server would have been running Linux or a different flavor of UNIX. Too bad it isn’t .

Now I am really going home

Things I hate

Long time, no post. Sorry for that, but I was quite busy.

Today, I was invited to a nice pre-christmas dinner by the mother of my girlfriend. I really looked forward to the event and I deceided to just come to the office for some hours and then to go and take the train to Erlenbach where my girlfriend lives.

As soon as I was in the office, someone came to me and told me that a Win2k-Server just went down. I did what I always do in such cases: Go and reboot the thing.

But this time, it did not help.

So I went to get a TFT-Display and a keyboard to see what’s wrong. And I was not pleased: Bluescreen at startup.

None of the debugging-tools provided by Microsoft was of any help, so I took the server at my place and inserted the original installation disk.

As I suspected, the repairing-tool launched by pressing “R” in the Setup-Screen did not help. The real good system repair tool can be gotten when chosing to “I”nstall a new Installation and then chosing “R” when the old installation has been found.

I was pleased to see that the server booted again, when the installation was complete. All the settings and the whole configuration was still there yess!

But two things were wrong:

The WINS-Service could not be started. The error in the error-log was “File not found”. An indication *what* file was missing was not given.
The Exchange-Server used by our renter was down and could not be started. The error in the log is german and I will not even try to translate it for you as it is meaningless anyway.
In short: I could not fix the problem before I went to Erlenbach, so I had to return to the office instead of going back home after the (excellent) dinner because I am away around christmas.

My solutions for the problems:
- The WINS-Server could be reaniomated by un-installing and re-installing it.
- With the Exchange-Server I am still trying, but I think, Q257415 and Q296790 may be of help (Note: Google Groups is really great if you don’t know any solutions any more.
  I’ll keep you updated on my progress here.

Things I hate (2)

I got it to work.

The /disasterrecovery-Option for the Setup.exe of the exchange-server was not enough. Searching more in google finally brought the solution: Q267573.

I’ve created a .reg-File so you don’t have to make 5000 clicks when in the same situation:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftRpcClientProtocols]
"ncacg_ip_udp"="rpcrt4.dll"
"ncacn_http"="rpcrt4.dll"
"ncacn_nb_tcp"="rpcrt4.dll"
"ncacn_ip_tcp"="rpcrt4.dll"
"ncacn_np"="rpcrt4.dll"

If somebody can tell me why the dedicated disaster-recovery-option of the setup program does not create those entries, please tell me here and now!

I will now make some tests with an Outlook-Client and then finally go home (it’s 1:30am localtime)