Re: Tablet Advocacy
 

What, you mean you're still *here* ?! You should be in Finland already, widda gals ! :-)

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I leave Friday morning.

Still scrambling to prepare, too. There was a snafu with my new corporate credit card that gave me panic today... lol. The solution requires me to work from home tomorrow so I can sign for the overnight delivery, so that worked out. :D

Re: Tablet Advocacy
 

Pretty good snafu indeed :-)
Well, Godspeed then !

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As I noted in another post here, I somehow became the lightning rod for a few (or one) malcontents here. That was never my intention. I will not be a deliberate participant in disrupting this otherwise decent forum. believe it or not, I actually hate drama.

So, I'm taking a vacation at the least. I'm not happy with recent events or the nature of the discussion afterward (which I believe has been largely based on misrepresentation of the facts). I'm sure there will be some snide comments about "taking my ball and going home" but nothing could be further from the truth. If my active participation runs the risk of inciting drama, whether I've actually done anything inappropriate or someone just thinks I have, then I'm not serving my original purpose. On that note, I will quote a PM I sent to one member here:

I may or may not be back. However, rest assured I will at least complete fulfilling the N800 face plate requests I have outstanding. I have truly enjoyed the real and virtual friendships I've established in the short time I've been here.

Please don't feed the trolls. ;)

Peace.

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I hope you don't leave, but think a short break might be a good idea so that you can recharge the batteries and allow the hoohah of the last few days to die down. Enjoy Finland, forget about this forum for a week or two then come back when your enthusiasm for all things 770 and N800 gets the better of you! :)

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And don't ferget ta bring back picteres of 'em babes :)

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Here you go:

http://www.exodus.co.uk/picfiles/cfa02h.html

Go nuts...

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If you are emotinally incapable of STOPPING WITH THE NAME CALLING (malcontents + 50 OTHER NAMES IN THE PAST) then you should leave. I want to relax with you and just ignore each other but u wanna fight still. You shouldn't leave though... u should just STOP CALLING ME NAMES MAN AND PRETEND I NEVER EXISTED LIKE KARL DOES and everything will go back to normal for u.

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I am not an obsessive poster nor do I usually engage in a flamewar kind of thing. But you almost got me into one where there was absolutely no need.
The kind of person it takes to accomplish that are of a kind I don't like to be around because they have a bad influence on almost everything.

I think this forum doesn't need posters like you, wether you have good insight or not. And you have good insight, you must have; You keep telling us in every single post you make. (...)

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WILL IT NEVER END!!!!

Texrat Please return!!

IF ANYONE ELSE HAS HARSH WORDS...JUST---SHUT---UP!!!!

I will gladly welcome a moderator if it will stop the conflict. How can anyone learn anything with all the fussing taking up bandwidth!!

GROW UP PEOPLE!!

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Checking in from a workshop near Helsinki (break time), using my N800. I would have posted yesterday but there was this huge wall of PWN around the place. ;)

Speaking of preeteen fun, when did 'meltdown' become a euphemism for 'soberly expressing doubt'? Is that like when 35 years ago we said 'bad' when we meant 'good'?

Speaking of good... Finnish women. Consider me pleasantly surprised. :)

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Great to hear from you Tex ;)

This forum has had some pure pwnage! Hehe. Hope you're having fun out there.

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You probably,don't have a choice, but good places to go from Helsinki are St. Petersburg or Tallinn.

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I saw the tours mentioned. No chance on those though. Did go to Suomonlinna Island. Very nice.

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See ? Told ya so... :-)

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Hmm - I guess Mrs Texrat does not read ITT? :)

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She would rather die.

Besides, there is her fetish for Harrison Ford to bring up @ opportune times...

Re: Tablet Advocacy
 

Ok, time to report on the Finland adventure.

First, specific to tablets: I did not have my laptop on the trip and was forced to live on the N800. Fortunately I got the VPN client I'm testing to work and managed to handle almost everything I needed to do, including accessing SQL Server asp.net reports across the pond and corporate email. Asp.net interaction will be important to some of my development projects.

The next tablet-specific item may be of interest to several posters here. I was taken to task some time back because I expressed the opinion that not all browser errors were due to the tablet/browser. This assertion was based mainly on my own experience, ie, where I used the same device/OS that others used and didn't experience those problems. Suffice to say that while in Finland I encountered NUMEROUS browser crashes, many fatal (shutting down all Opera windows). Once I returned home to the comfort of my own wifi, they dramatically reduced in number.

As far as I'm concerned, this bolsters what I said before: there MUST be other factors involved, such as routing, ISP config, signal strength, etc. Maybe even the "right" combination of factors. I experienced the most problems while using the Helsinki Radisson's wifi, which had an open signal but authenticated via a web page.

I also tried, as was suggested, using Privoxy to access an intranet page that was giving me grief (due to browser reporting) as well as the infamous Wells Fargo banking page (same problem). Privoxy did not help in this regard, and I'm confused as to why anyone thought it might. What's needed is a proxy server that acts as a middleman browser, passing along the data entered via Opera to the target server using a virtual Internet Explorer browser. Any way to do that? I haven't found anything.

I also played around with the previous version of Minimo, but as before had many problems, mostly browser crashes and the inability to access web pages. I also didn't like the fact that it wouldn't let me paste in URLs. ???

Anyway, the good news is that this experience showed me that if the browser compatibility problem can be resolved, the N800 can 100% replace a laptop in the work environment I am developing for. That was very encouraging!

Oh, and overall, Finland was great. I developed leg problems that required brief hospitalization (probably gout they say) and the doctors were great. $150 euros for everything! A fraction of the US costs.

Bad news is, I did not get to visit with my friends in tablet program... :(

Re: Tablet Advocacy
 

Privoxy allows you to change the user agent on the outgoing HTTP request. Depending on what the server is doing to block non-IE browsers, this *can* be sufficient.

But I'm glad you've finally seen just *how* flaky some people find web browsing on an N800. Admittedly, it seems a lot better these days - but perhaps I'm not using it as much.

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Okay, thanks for that info about privoxy. I just can't get it to work for me in any way, unfortunately. It even blocks certain corporate intranet pages, which I didn't expect!

As for the flakiness, I think what I've related is critical to understanding what's going on. Not to belabor the issue, but the circumstances regarding my home experience versus other experiences is very telling. I need to share it with the Opera developers. But the root question remains: why should different environments affect the browsing experience to that degree? Is Opera just too sensitive?

Re: Tablet Advocacy
 

I would have to say that the Opera browser is my top/chief complaint on the N800, and so far I am just lost trying to use Minimo (and have used the last 3-4 updates 0.2 now). When using Opera many times on various different pages I've had it just lock-up/freeze trying to add bookmarks/favorites, also the almost complete inability to play videos from webpages, this is especially troubling since most websites and the internet in general is such a multi-media playground now. One should be able to go to a site like Comingsoon.net or IMDB or even IGN or Gamespot to be able to watch movie or game trailers.

How about something in the control panel or in the Opera settings for scroll speed ?
(N900-please include more/better buttons/layouts and some sort of a scroll wheel on the right side)

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Well, I don't want to get too deep into particulars on Opera features here... there are better threads for that. I was just trying to unfuzz the dialog over where the problems may be occurring. I strongly suspect that Opera is just too sensitive to certain routing issues, such as timing, and there could be router configuration/signal issues as well.

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Good to hear from you and your adventures! Like yourself I am finding more and more I am living from the tablet, not by design. It's just happening. I would be interested to know what sort of equipement you have at home. I have a old IBM gateway and it works well for now but out and about can be a pain. Although I've found those AP's that authenticate through a web page generally won't let me on using my laptop, SUSE 10.2. The most trouble I get is from hotels and the least is from coffee shops and ATT wifi hotspots. Go figure. Sorry to hear about your health problems, glad to hear you got it taken care of! Most of all I'm happy to see you got through the last year when Nokia shut down/moved several US locations. Thanks for the updates, I'm following your adventures closely. I was a very good boy and have received an 800 for my birthday but since it's my busy time now I haven't taken time to transfer anything yet.

Best Wishes for the Future,

Peter

Re: Tablet Advocacy
 

Thanks for the post Peter!

At present I am using a router provided by Verizon with the FIOS service. I also had excellent results with my Netgear mimo router previously. My little Linksys does ok but needs occasional reboots.

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How much memory have you allocated for swap?
I gave mine entire 128megs of internal card. I had no problems so far... Perhaps it's just a set of sites that I go to that by default are not to crazy with multimedia... but even youtube works pretty well...

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I also am using the full 128mb alloted as well, I have 2 4GB SD cards, 1 internal, 1 external.

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Speaking of videos, I was delighted to discover that I can watch CNN videos in ubuntu using totem-mozilla. But I don't think anyone can watch CNN videos on the N800, or is that just me?

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Amen to that!!

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Nokia will beat them on price.

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I hope that's a joke.

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Some people will pay a little more for a device that really works for them.

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Not at all. N800 now selling for under $330 at Amazon. Where's the competition that's doing that? So far the N800, warts and all, is the best bang for the buck.

The joke is when people act as if the N800 is the only device out there with flaws, and that alternatives are absolutely perfect. ;)

N800 works great for me (and others). It's unfortunate you are not pleased, but (and not to be trite) it's rare that a solution will please 100% of the purchasers.

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I think for the first time you have said something that I completely disagree with ...

I don't think it matters if the device is $1. If Nokia intend to compete in a marketplace that includes the iphone, among others, it needs to deal with the persistent complaints and criticisms from reviewers and the vocal owners that are having a hard time.

I think the n800 is superb, but then I have 15 years linux experience, including 5 years owning a Zaurus or two, which suffered the same kind of issues that the n800 does. As a result, I don't experience the same frustrations that others do, and am a bit more accepting of any limitations.

I agree that other, more expensive, devices are also flawed, and it remains to be seen how many problems there are with iphones, but the fact remains that perception is everything. Nokia needs to get its user community behind it.

I think that the lack of communication regarding upcoming features and timelines is probably the core issue they need to address ...

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I think my point was completely missed.

It was all about bang for the buck. Disagree? Ok. No biggie. I've never said anything to contradict what you just posted... in fact I have always agreed with it. Sooo... I'm not getting the disconnect here.

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No I don't disagree at all. You are right, it has by far the best bang for the buck available. I'm simply saying that that is not enough, I think.

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I can understand why some would feel that way.

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The frustration for me is the hardware is superb but the software sux (imho).

It is the reverse with Windows Mobile. I can do everything I want with existing software, but the hardware isn't "just right" for me (though some upcoming WM6 devices might be there).

I am trying to be patient because it took MS (and developers) about 10 years since Windows CE 1.0, but there is so much promise for the N800 that it becomes extra frustrating.

Re: Tablet Advocacy
 

Hey Texrat:
http://thoughtfix.com/web.resume.pdf

Bring that to high places too? ;) hehe

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You interested in relocating? ;)

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Hehe. Sure, for the right offer. I wish I could code. It seems that's what's needed most.