Some of you might have noticed that I've been away the last couple of days.
(that's right, yes? Someone must have noticed??) Some quack had decided I needed a handful of screws in my spine -- I couldn't reach, otherwise I'd have screwed them in myself.

Aaaanyyhooo -- I took my 770 with me. Now people, this is Belgium and a small town hospital, so forget about WiFi hotspots on the grounds; the best reaction I got was: "Duh?", so Internet access was not the reason why I took the 770 (although, read on).

I had purchased a second 1 gig card (still no luck on finding 2GB RS-MMCs in this neck on the woods) and converted a couple of DVDs to 770 Format with Konttori's mucho excellente Media Converter tool (for the curious: Kill Bill 1 and 2 and Battle of the Bulge; the latter split into two parts as it is an almost 4 hours long movie). I added a few CD tracks and a selection from the magnificent Baen ebook repository (Jim Baen recently passed away, but his good work of offering electronic books without even a hint of DRM madness continues).

The bottom line is that this was my best hospital experience to date. I realize that that doesn't necessarily mean much, what with hospitals being what they are, but the Nokia 770 is an amazingly good thing to have with you in bed .

I have previously mentioned my other go-everywhere tool, the Sony Ericsson P910i smartphone, which also plays movies, shows books and plays a mean tune, but the P910's 320x208 screen cringes into submission next to the 770's 800x480 powerhouse (and BTW, the "pearly lights" backlight so many complained about actually makes movies look even better and allowed me to turn the backlight way down for reading). It's screen is also physically smaller than the 770's; this looks trivial, but it makes a huge difference if a Tiger tank is charging right into your face (I admit, I never got to watch the Kill Bills because of too much Happy Juice keeping me in Fairyland. And for some reason Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson always seem to win the toss).

And although, as I previously mentioned, WiFi access is considered science fiction (notice the clever link to Baen Books there? Good eh?) in Belgian hospitals, the 770 actually picked up three neighbouring APs. Unfortunately, none of their owners were social -- or mad -- enough to open their link to the world, so I couldn't do anything with them. But I might have, in which case nobody would have missed me at all.

Is there really nobody who noticed? <snif>

PS: I still can't pair my P910 with my 770, so GPRS was out as well (and in any case Mobistar, my GSM provider, has a really crappy GPRS setup that might for all intents and purposes just be called WAP, or even WALC: What a Load of Crap). So, still nobody noticed I was gone, eh? You bastards! I could have died on that operating table and you just don't care!! I hate you all!!!!!

...
(changes meds to much more powerful drugs)
...

Ahem, here're the links:

Baen Books: http://www.baen.com/

[hypnotic insert: All Buy Baen Books! They are the best! All Buy Baen Books! Go Buy Baen Books Now!]

All about Media Converter: http://www.internettablettalk.com/wi...kia_770_format

And what the heck, the P910i: http://www.mobile-review.com/review/...-p910-en.shtml

Pictures of me after surgery: http://no_way_jose.com

I *had* noticed it'd gone quiet around here, but couldn't pinpoint the exact specific root cause. Now we know. Meanwhile I've been on holidays, and it rained and froze, so there :-)

What format/how do you read Baen books in? I've read them on my PC in the past, but forgot about them and haven't tried it on my 770 yet.

Aw, chucks. Thanks, buddy.

I find RTF gives the least amount of hassle. FBReader has problems with the tabbed HTML format, Palmbook format occasionally produces weird characters and I never got Microsoft Reader format to work (honestly, I don't even know if FBReader supports it). The zipped RTF version is small enough, and opens without a hitch in FBReader. The added bonus is that it is much easier to ste^H^H "borrow" material from an RTF file to embellish one's own work.

I just realized I forgot to add unending praize for the magnificent FBReader program in my original post, so y'all consider it added now.

How are you getting DVD movies into the Media Convertor? I have been successful converting some files already on my hard drive, like .avi and .mov files (BMW films, for example) but cannot figure out how to get real movies. I saw Konttori say it can't rip directly from DVD, for copyright reasons. Is there a source out there that gets you real movies in DivX, AVI or other format we can use to convert? I use VONGO, but it and other sites I've found all have proprietary front ends so the files are either streamed only or in some funky format.

Thanks for any insight - i'm keen to use the 770 as much as I can on an upcoming road trip and leave the laptop at home!

DVD Decrypter is your (well, mine anyway) friend. It is easily Googeable.

Rock and roll! I also found 24 episodes online at 24on.myspace.com but their procted files and don't convert well. Oh well. Found some cool old movies on a site I can't recall the URL of, but am watching Sherlock Holmes and The Secret Weapon on the flight tomorrow!

Karel I hope you are OK after surgery.
As for films I am just watching Aliens special edition on my Nokia 770. It looks really great, especially compared to my Nokia N73 and its 320x240 screen.
As for the wireless, I am archaeologist who is currently working in Ireland and I can catch a wireless open network in the middle of the field in the country. The nearest farms are about 200 - 300 meters away, but there is communication mast and that is possible hotspot. I can listen to Polish radio station (since I am Polish) working in the middle of nowhere in Ireland

Head's still screwed on. Whether I'm actually OK is a point of hot debate in several circles of intimi and occasionally even on this forum.

I still agree, despite the fact that even the N800 cannot display movies at a true resolution of more than 400x240. If ever I can lay my hands (however shortly) on one of those Archoseseses... yeah, the 604 or the 704 are what I'm thinking of, I might reconsider my opinion.

Still, Archos has ostensibly gone over to the Evil Side since they released the magnificent PMA430 and are now more interested in taking all our money than in producing groundbreaking machines.

(I realize that the same might be said of Nokia, but at least we, a merry band of freeloading raiders, can still foil their Evil Plans)

I'm still holding on to my P910, mainly because it still works (Break! damn you, stupid reliable phone!). When it finally decides to die, I'm going to look for the cheapest BT-enabled phone possible.