b.cognosco

PalmOS Turning Japanese

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 15:36:27 GMT

The softer side of Palm, PalmSource, has been acquired by Japanese software company Access which offers a mobile internet platform for PocketPC, Windows Mobile, and other operating systems. They seem to have limited support for PalmOS 5, but no demos that I could find.

I hope this means we'll get a decent third-party browsers for Palm devices soon. The Blazer Web Browser is dreadful. Access NetFront looks good, with intelligent support for graphical web content and helpful tools for developers.

Japanese company buys PalmSource

OKYO, Japan and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ACCESS Co., Ltd., (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813), a global provider of mobile content delivery and Internet access software, and PalmSource, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSRC), provider of Palm OS®, a leading operating system powering next generation phones and mobile devices, today announced they have signed a definitive agreement for ACCESS to acquire PalmSource in an all-cash transaction valued at USD $18.50 per share of PalmSource common stock , or approximately USD $324.3 million (approximately ¥35.9 billion). ACCESS' USD $18.50 per share offer represents an 83% premium for PalmSource stockholders based on the market closing price of USD $10.09 on September 8, 2005.

Skype Productivity Progress

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 04:18:45 GMT

As a Treo 600 owner and reluctant Outlook user these two bits in Stuart Henshall’s Skype Journal caught my eye, but there’s a bit of a fly in each. The main theme of the Treo integration is forwarding calls to Skype – not economically viable if you have a Sprint account and forwarded calls count against your usage. As for the Outlook Skype, I’m afraid the requirement to set IE as the default browser is a show-stopper. Still, these two folks are pushing the envelope, moving Skype closer and closer to the mainstream.

Skype and Treo Solution

Steve writes in Adventures in Home Networking how he coordinates his Treo and SkypeIn and SkypeOut into one effective communications solution. He doesn't like to mess around with headphones. He documents his solution for the home office, around the house, and around town. He sums it up as completely changing the way he communicates.

At my home office:

* when I get home I put my mobile (Treo 600) in its cradle and this initiates an automatic auto-forward to my SkypeIn number, which also comes with free voicemail.Microphone
* at my desk I am using my Logitech noise cancelling USB Microphone and my desktops speakers, people tell me the quality is very good – so there is no need to mess around with headphones Adventures in home working

Outlook Skype

Peter Kalmstrom has been developing plug-ins for Microsoft Outlook for a long time. Now he too has created a solution to integrate Skype into your contact list.

The next big thing in the IT world is telephony and voice. There will be a lot of interesting developments in this area in the years to come. One of those developments is already here: Skype. It is a peer-to-peer network based IP Telephony application. I like it a lot and decided to build an Outlook add-in for it. Outlook Skype

Treo Problems

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 21:25:06 GMT

The Treo posting thing isn't working quite right. The messages are getting through, but the attachments, i.e. the pictures, aren't making it. I don't know why. Looking into it. Also, I'm no longer receiving notification e-mails via my Treo. Makes me wonder if the geniuses at SprintPCS have started spam blocking without telling me...

Is This My Last Thinkpad?

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 14:09:00 GMT

IBM is in talks to sell its Personal Computer (desktop, notebook, and laptop computer divisions) company. The rumored acquirer is Chinese company Lenovo Group, Ltd. although Samsung and Acer are also mentioned. Analysts praise the sale as the right move, noting that the only thing IBM about an IBM computer is the name.

I beg to differ. If you've never carried an IBM ThinkPad you won't understand this, but ThinkPads are the cream of the laptop and notebook genre. Yes Virginia -- they're even nicer than the luscious Apple PowerBooks. The ergonomics are simply the best in the industy (even if the OS is wonkier).

Over the years I've used laptops by IBM, Sony, Toshiba, Dell, and Apple (four different PowerBook models). In all of that I never once considered giving up my desktop computer as my main workstation. I carried small laptops, desktop-replacement laptops, and mid-range laptops, but none was ever good enough to get me off the desktop.

But my current IBM ThinkPad T41 has pretty much done just that. I think it has a lot to do with the keyboard -- hands down the best laptop keyboard I've ever used. I have a bunch of parts for a new PeeCee I've been meaning to build since August, but the TPad has made that seem somehow less important. The intelligent, automatic, self-configuring, networking lets me walk into almost anywhere, anytime, and simply fire up with a net connection. The battery life is phenomenal. I use a spare battery in the CD-ROM slot, but with that I can get 10 hours of work time -- with WiFi enabled.

None of this cool stuff came from an Asian design team. It came from IBM. Sure, all the manufacturing came from Asia and that means all the cool stuff is affordable. But IBM provided the creativity and innovation that drives it.

If IBM sells off their PC division I, for one, will be sorry. In a world of commoditized, generic, indistinguishable computers only two companies have any personality left -- Apple and IBM. Their personalities differ, as do their approaches. But both add something important to our computing experience. If either leaves the game our personal computing world will be much poorer.

A(nother) New Treo

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Sun, 16 May 2004 03:47:49 GMT

Ever since I bought my new Treo 600 people I call have complained about the poor sound quality whenever I try to use a headset. My Shure QuietSpot headset, which worked so well I recommended it here on the blog, sounded terrible and I had to stop using it.

I finally got around to going to the Sprint store to get the Treo checked and the tech sent me back to Best Buy to get a new unit. So now I have a new Treo and I hope the headphone jack on this one works as designed. Some research on the Net indicates some Treo 600 users have had trouble with poor sound quality, buzzing, and internal noise. I love the device but the headphone problem made it impossible to use effectivley as a phone. I'm hoping for better luck this time.

Mobile Blog Notifications

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Wed, 21 Apr 2004 00:55:09 GMT

I recently bought a new Treo 600 to replace both my cell phone and my PDA, which happen to break within a month of each other. One of the things I did, naturally, was get a plan that give me Internet access. I've never done that before but now I want to take advantage of the mail-list feature in Conversant and have new posts sent to my cell phone account. So this post is a test to see if I get a notification on the phone whenever a new message arrives.

WiFi HotSpot VPN

terrywfrazier@gmail.com — Sat, 17 Apr 2004 19:29:16 GMT

I ran across a new security offering this morning -- HotSpotVPN -- when I went to ITConversations to sample the audio version of Larry Lessig's new book "Free Culture".

HotSpotVPN is a subscription-based VPN (virtual private network) server that lets you make a secure PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) connection from anywhere. This kind of service offering is great for travelers, road warriors, and people who like to hang out at coffee houses and local watering holes to surf or just get a break from the office.

Securing my connection in such situations has been a vexing problem. I've used various combinations of SSH, telnet, VNC, and other software to munge together my own ad hoc security for the past year or so. Doing so took a lot of help (from my friend Brent Ashley) and still didn't provide the level of coverage or convenience I needed. For the most part, I just avoid doing anything remotely sensitive from a public WiFi connection and I change my passwords regularly for any service I have to use.

So the idea of a simple, no-maintenance, easy-to-install, no-software VPN is really appealing. The service offers a one-week trial period so I signed up this morning and ran down to my local Java House to try it out.

Installation is a snap since there is no software, and the instructions at the HotSpotVPN site are excellent. It took me less than a minute to get the VPN connection configured under Win2k and I was up and running. The site also has instructions for Linux and Mac users. After the one-week trial period HotSpotVPN is $8.88/mo via a PayPal subscription, or $88.88 for one year paid in advance. The service can be used from any computer if you have access to the network connection setup.

Completely Secure?

Complete is a big word to use in the same sentence with "secure" -- a sentiment HotSpotVPN notes on their website. There really is no such thing, and Microsoft's PPTP protocol is no exception. As security expert Bruce Schneier notes, Microsoft's own implementation of PPTP is buggy as hell. But there are implementations of PPTP for other OS platforms and I'm given to understand they correct many of the holes that Microsoft left open. I can't tell what platform HotSpotVPN runs on, but I'm guessing it's something other than Windoze since the service is hosted by security firm Wifi Consulting -- at least I hope that's the case.

From what I know about such things I'd prefer a VPN using IPsec, which is a public, open VPN standard that wasn't developed by the world's worst security company. But I'm not sure it matters all that much. The main reason to secure your public connections is to keep out the amateur hackers, script kiddies, and general mischief-makers. Die-hard espionage types, the kind you can't really stop anyway, aren't likely to spend their time scamming random packets at generic access points. So the idea is to just put some kind of lock on your door, even if it isn't the best lock available, and get the hackers to move on to some easier pickings.

Since most people in public HotSpots aren't using any security their data will be far more appealing than any type of encrypted data. And in the time an average person spends surfing in one of these places (probably an hour or less) it seems unlikely that a typical mischief-maker will be able to cause much trouble.

Alternatives

This is the first stand-alone VPN offering I've seen, and I think it's a fantastic idea. I expect we'll see similar offerings in the not-too-distant future. At the moment the only alternative I'm aware of is GoToMyPC.com. Way back in 2002 I experimented with GoToMyPC and wrote about my experiences. GoToMyPC offers more than just VPN, and when I used the service the price was $19.95/mo. That was a little pricey for me, since VNC offered the same remote control functionality for free.

But a secure connection has become more important over time. I spend more and more time connected at paid and free WiFi hotspots, and I see that time continuing to increase. $90/year doesn't seem like a bad price to pay to reduce my risk.