3 Dec
2002
3 Dec
'02
3:40 a.m.
On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, Andreas Freiherr wrote:
I prefer the Series 3 over the Series 5 because there
is no pen. I
always fear leaving scratches on the display...
The Series 3 was awesome as well. I remember agonizing over the decision
between the Series 3 and two other organizers (one was the Sharp Zaurus,
the other may have been the HP OmniGo). I spent at least a couple hours
in Office Depot (major US office supply chain) playing with each one. In
the end, the Psion won because of it's GUI, 16-bit sound, and the fact
that it had it's own scripting language (OPL) making it easily and
immediately hackable.
I don't use the stylus a whole lot with my Series 5 anyway (my finger
works just as well) but it doesn't scratch the surface when I do.
For the "dumb terminal" topic, there used to
be a good VT100 emulator
from a company called Yellow Software for the 3a (also runs on 3c /
3mx). I bought it together with my first 3a and was a happy user of both.
I can't remember what serial applications I used my 3a for, but I have the
3link serial dongle so I must have used it for something. The Series 5 is
great because all you need is the cable (no dongle necessary). I had it
hooked up to my wireless modem (when it was still around, RIP) and coupled
with the Psion web browser it made for an awesome mobile internet
terminal.
Since then, the need for Telnetting into a host came
up, and the trouble
is that Yellow's emulator is not capable of using the IP stack, but only
supports the serial interface.
I have a very good Telnet program on my Series 5 called Hermes. It's
fantastic. I used to be able to Telnet into my server at 85MPH ;)
So, I rolled my own VT320 emulator (I call it
"V-Tel"), which has been
tested with VMS, True64, and Linux, and which supports the serial
interface directly as well as through PsiMail's TCP/IP stack. Editors
like vi or TPU do work, MONITOR SYSTEM on VMS is lacking the graphics
character set yet, but all control sequences are interpreted properly.
Perhaps I find the time to add double-width/double-height characters and
the semi-graphics font during Christmas holidays.
This is for the Series 3? Gnarly!
It may be a bit late to put V-Tel up as shareware, and
it may be a bit
too early for the Series 3 to be discussed here, but if somebody is
still looking for a portable terminal, this solution works very well for me.
The Series 3 is definitely a classic in my book. It's already been
relegated to the collection (though it still sits in my office).
I wrote a program that would produce the "Red Box" tones to fool US
payphones into giving you free calls. It worked wonderfully. Sometimes
people would look at me strangely as I held my palmtop up to the receiver
of the phone. I'm sure they thought something nefarious was afoot. Ah,
the good old days.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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