From: Paul <A5043644623@ATTPLS.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 12:04:51 +0000
Subject: The Coupon
Why can't we get this coupon sooner. There is no way we can wait till
the night before (PLS closs) and scramble to shift everything over.What
happens if we buy the product (PrestoMail) now. Can we present coupon
later for a credit?
Paul_McHugh
From: Todd Zaorski <Toddski@TEACHTSP.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 10:41:51 -0800
Subject: RE> AOL News
RE> AOL News
To MAGICCAP@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU
A new phenomenon?!! The estimate, given by Wayne S., that
AOL News hasn't worked for at least the last two months is
pretty accurate. The last time I can remember it working was
about two weeks before the big AOL e-mail blackout. I don't
remember exactly when that was, but AOL was completely
inaccessible to all MagicCap devices for a 2-3 day period.
Even when it did work, it had the annoying habit of sending
old news and repeats of previously received news. The
"latest" piece of news I ever got during the month or two
that it worked for me was about 18 hours old (based on the
date/time stamp on the bottom of the message). As far as AOL
not knowing about it, that's false as well. I've seen plenty
of messages posted to this list, the MagicCap newsgroup, the
Sony MagicLink area on AOL and the General Magic area on AOL
describing the same problem. My guess is that AOL doesn't
care about it being broken.
:todd
>
> [This message may have contained graphics created by a
Magic Cap device on
> America Online.]
>
> subject: AOL News
>
> Dear MAGICCAP List,
>
> Although email and stock quote services provided by AOL on
this PIC-2000 work
> just fine, the news headline service doesn't work for love
or money. Tap the
> newspaper in the AOL building, set the number of stories
requested, tap 'Get
> Latest'; the PIC connects, the progess panel
progresses,but the news page
> remains empty.
>
> I called AOL tech services. The fellow there was as
helpful as he could be,
> but this wound up being reported as a new phenomenon. Any
of you have a
> similar problem?
>
> TIA,
>
> Rod From the desk of Roderick Sprattling...
>
From: Wayne Sanderson <A5023644635@ATTPLS.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 17:06:40 +0000
Subject: RE> AOL News
E-mailing AOL about problems with connecting with MC communicators or
quality of available services does no good. I sent a message to them
(and mirrored it and their reply to this list) to the effect that
certain services were lacking at best and inaccessible at worst-and
that rather often. I stated that I was soon to make a choice about
service, and whether an acceptable level of service was available for
my ML or not would decide the issue. I stated in the body of the
message that I used the AOL account both with my desktop and my ML.
What I got back was a form letter that basically said 'Sorry you feel
that way-we do the best we can and we are not perfect,blah blah blah-
and then it went on to tell me that my account is also accessible
through a desktop and they can send me the client sortware!!! What is
the message here? The message here is that AOL DOES NOT CARE ENOUGH
ABOUT ITS' MAGICCAP USING CUSTOMERS TO EVEN READ THEIR COMPLAINT
CORRESPONDENCE!!!!!! And it reinforces my long held belief that AOL
only makes limited pda client software available as a means to hook
people on with their desktop machines and charge their butts off with
things like the hidden extra hourly fee for web access that is separate
from the 'free 5 hours' of monthly access that they are very careful
not to tell you about or openly advertise.
From: "Rishi R. Oswal" <Yipadedoda@AOL.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 13:14:23 -0400
Subject: Re: Landline Envoy
[This message may have contained graphics created by a Magic Cap device on
America Online.]
(Paul) writes:
> I hope that the rumors of synching between the
> two devices is true.
> That is a home run. I will definitely sit and
> wait on the Magic Cap
> platform if that is the case.
It's not a rumor. I heard it from General Magic themselves at the BAMCUG
meeting.
RO
From: Manuel Veloso <veloso@APIX.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 11:55:41 -0500
Subject: Re: ML-2000 for Internet Use - ideas and questions
>satz> The problem with all these marvelous upgrades from the portable
>satz> computer world is cost. Would you be willing to pay $2000+ for a
>satz> communicator? For this price you can get a nice portable
>satz> computer with quite a number of these features.
>
>exactly my point. At some price-point, people will go out and buy a
>486/pentium subnotebook instead of a Magic Cap device. Keeping the
>cost down means not having some features that those subnotebooks have
>-- big gobs of memory, hard drives, that sort of thing.
Well, I'd actually pay $2000 for something that wasn't a subnotebook if it
was worth it. I'd have to do a lot of things that other notebooks couldn't
do, including:
1) ink/handwriting
2) indexing of written stuff, so I could find it again
3) fax/communications (email, etc) capability
4) a good notebook/notepad
5) a full Java VM/AWT
6) a big screen with lots of storage (flash paging is fine)
7) a robusto OS
8) contact tracking (names & addresses)
In my case, I've got a whole bunch of legal and sketch pads with all kinds
of stuff on it. I'd rather have an electronic tablet (the rumored 'slate')
than have yet another PC with all the data synchronization headaches.
Basically, I'm ready to abandon traditional desktop/laptop computers in a
big way.
Ideally, it could have some kind of Timbuktu thing on it, so I could
actually get to a desktop computer if I really, really wanted to.
-----------------------------------------
Manny Veloso Digital Plumber
Active Paper, Inc. http://www.apix.com
-----------------------------------------
From: Kevin Fries <A5743644696@ATTPLS.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 17:33:00 +0000
Subject: Recovering a crash
Hello All,
I am getting three messages when I boot my SML (PIC 1000). These
messages occur only when the SRAM card that holds ALL of my data is in
the slot. I have typed the error messages below. I assume these are
displaying in a LIFO manner. The machine was processing a Farcast
message when it initially crashed. My best educated guess as to what
happened is this: Farcast ran the device out of memory, this forced a
cleanup. Since the message goes into new items, when farcast crashed,
it corrupted new items. This is causing MC to blowup when it tries to
access new items. The problem is, it is not cataloging anything
further down the processing chain and therefore hiding very critical
information to me.
I do not know if what I have supposed is realistic since I have not had
time to look at the MC programming environment (Steve, I am still
whating for the CD you offered). However, I have been given no reason
to question this theory based upon the machines behavior.
When I started getting strange behavior I started asking Farcast, Sony,
and Sony New Technologies. Unfortunately for me, the employ circle
management (keep pointing to the guy on the left causing the person to
go in circles until they give up. See also governmental practices).
My configuration is as follows:
Sony PIC-1000
2M Epson SRAM card (bought at Sony recomendation)
300k Main Memory (276 w/card inserted)
1M free on RAM card as reported in storeroom.
I was able to get a few items off the card but many still remain
unreachable.
----------------- Error Messages ---------------
"There is now enough room to save things to your memory card."
"Your comunicator is too full to open the package. You may throw away
unused messages and other items to make some room."
"Your memory card does not have enough room to save your receint
changes.
Before turning the comunicator off, please discard items stored on the
card ..."
----------------- Error Messages --------------
Please help, Thanks
Kevin Fries
From: Kevin Fries <A5743644696@ATTPLS.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 18:00:33 +0000
Subject:
Hi guys,
someone wrote:
> haste makes waste, att is not going to let us down.
>
> Cool yer jets...
Hate to break the news but they already did. That is the reason for
the $150.00 coupon. :-)
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Kevin Fries
From: Paul Linhardt <plin@SONYSOFT.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 10:45:37 -0700
Subject: Farcast Denial
Rod Spattling writes:
>Although email and stock quote services provided by AOL on this PIC-2000 work
>just fine, the news headline service doesn't work for love or money....
Er...we had nothing to do with it. Honest!
Paul Linhardt
Sony New Technologies
makers of Farcast :)
---------------------
Sony New Technologies
http://www.sonysoft.com
1-800-739-7337
Attention! New e-mail address: plin@sonysoft.com
From: Paul Linhardt <plin@SONYSOFT.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 11:04:51 -0700
Subject: Re: Landline Envoy
>I hate carrying around the extra cable with my Envoy to use a wireline.
>Is there a PC card modem like Xjack that will work. Any other solution.
>
>Paul_McHugh@attpls.net
The answer is probably "no".
Sony Electronics sells a a 14.4 Apex modem card (that supports both
cellular & wireline). However, we did a quick test and it appears the
Magic Cap driver does not work on the Envoy. In any event, you still need
a special cable to connect the Apex card to a RJ-11 jack.
When you think about it, don't you always need a special cable when
connecting a PCMCIA card to a RJ-11 jack?
-Paul
PS: For more details on SEL's modem card, consult:
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/Magic/wmlinkbundle.html
---------------------
Sony New Technologies
http://www.sonysoft.com
1-800-739-7337
Attention! New e-mail address: plin@sonysoft.com
From: Karen H <A5953643689@ATTPLS.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 18:37:08 +0000
Subject: The Coupon
>>>>Why can't we get this coupon sooner. There is no way we can wait
till the night before (PLS closs) and scramble to shift everything
over.<<<<<
Or better yet, why do we have to wait for a coupon at all. Why can't
ATT send a file of PLink subscribers to GM, and just let us send an
email saying 'send me Presto'. They can verify that we are a
subscriber and ship it off. I'm all for making this paperless... It
seems so inefficient to have to wait for a piece of paper in the mail,
then send it to GM, then wait for the software to arrive by mail.
Karen
mindfire@aol.com
http://users.aol.com/mindfire/mindfire.html.
There is nothing that makes its way more directly to the soul than
beauty. Addison (1672-1719)
From: Greg Satz <satz@CISCO.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 12:38:03 -0700
Subject: Re: Recovering a crash
Poster: Kevin Fries
> I am getting three messages when I boot my SML (PIC 1000). These
> messages occur only when the SRAM card that holds ALL of my data is in
> the slot. I have typed the error messages below. I assume these are
> displaying in a LIFO manner. The machine was processing a Farcast
> message when it initially crashed. My best educated guess as to what
> happened is this: Farcast ran the device out of memory, this forced a
> cleanup. Since the message goes into new items, when farcast crashed,
> it corrupted new items. This is causing MC to blowup when it tries to
> access new items. The problem is, it is not cataloging anything
> further down the processing chain and therefore hiding very critical
> information to me.
Apparently you collected too many farcast messages, or at least you let
your 'new items' package get too large. This happened to me once but a
little bit differently. I was upgrading from Farcast beta to the released
Farcast 1.0. My machine also went into a clean up. Afterwards I couldn't
see a great many of my packages on my pc card. What I did was immediately
put the pc card write protect switch on and copy what I needed to and could
still see with magic xchange.
I was advised via this list to do some deep cleanups (filling up main
memory with a few self-made sound stamps). Sometimes this is supposed to
get your lost data back. Maybe this might help you but it didn't for me.
What I did was use my telebug box (external hardware debugger for the
communicator) to upload the contents of the entire pc card to a Macintosh
file. I then used a data fork (hex) editor to extract packages that I could
still recognize. I would open up my backup copies and try to pattern match
in amongst the 4mb file.
I have had to do this 3-4 times now. The first few times I could actually
extract the full packages entirely. This last time caused by Farcast or
whatever I could not extract them. So what I did was extract the text
messages from email. I was able to recover my appointments but I did lose
my name cards and had to use my last backup.
It would seem that Farcast has a bug or Farcast triggers a bug in Magic Cap
that writes over data on the pc card. Since the pc card is just memory, any
package can accidently write over any of it at any time. When this happened
to me I figured it was something I had caused. Now there is another victim
I no longer think it was me but suspect Farcast/Magic Cap.
Incidently the sram pc card format looks like a linked list. Furthermore it
would appear the contents of the data is not checksummed or in any way
protected from spurious write damage. I have had sram cards that would hang
my communicator (spinning in a loop). If my observations are correct we all
will continue to suffer until the sram pc card data format is made more
robust. Software will always corrupt random places in memory without good
memory management protection, which costs money. It sure would be nice if
the damage to the pc card would only hurt a single package and not the
entire card.
Greg Satz
From: Luke Derossi <lderossi@COMCAT.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:31:34 -0400
Subject: Re: backup failures?
Charles Ashley wrote:
>
> Dear Magic and IntelliLink Corporation,
>
> I'm having difficulty with Magic Exchange doing full backups of my ML2000, and
> am wondering if any of you have also had this experience. When doing a full
> backup to a Windows PC, MXchange gets stuck on the last past and says "waiting
> for communicator. this could take several miniutes". Well, it never gets
> beyond this. I've let hours pass, and have to click cancel to do anything.
> The thing is, even after showing the progress bar, there is no full backup in
> the backup directory after this.
>
> Thinking it may be a PC/comm problem, I've tried this this from a number of
> different PCs. No luck. I can backup and restore individual packages just
> fine, it's only the full backup which fails every time.
>
> Vital statistics:
>
> Magic Exchange 1.0
> Magic Cap Com DLL ver 1.0
> Handheld Comm DLL ver 1.12
> Translator Engine DLL ver 3.0
>
> Thanks in advance for any thoughts,
>
> Charles.
Charles,
How much main memory remains on your communicator's internal storeroom
shelf? Also, how much workspace, as indicated by the chart at the
far-right side of the storeroom, is remaining?
Have you tried a clean-up before the backup? Also, as a longer
solution, try removing any RAM cards and pack up any third-party
packages that might be on your main memory shelf, and then try the
backup. If this has an effect, you might want to try unpacking each one
individually and see if you can trace the problem to any specific
package. While the package itself isn't being backed up, it could be
changing something in main memory when its unpacked; hence this
troubleshooting procedure.
Regards,
Luke Derossi
for
General Magic, Inc.
From: Luke Derossi <lderossi@COMCAT.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:43:30 -0400
Subject: Re: Landline Envoy
Paul wrote:
>
> I hate carrying around the extra cable with my Envoy to use a wireline.
> Is there a PC card modem like Xjack that will work. Any other solution.
>
> Paul_McHugh@attpls.net
Paul,
Check into the Sony wireless modem kit, which provide drivers for some
PC card-based modems. While the intent of this kit is for cellular use,
users have reported success using some of the PC modems with landlines.
I'm not sure whether these have an Xjack or not however, and I'd be
curious to see whether the physical design of the Envoy's PC slots would
even allow for an Xjack. You can find information on the Sony wireless
modem kit at http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/Magic/wireless.html
Regards,
Luke Derossi
for
General Magic, Inc.
From: Luke Derossi <lderossi@COMCAT.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 15:49:42 -0400
Subject: Re: Landline Envoy
Paul Linhardt wrote:
>
> >I hate carrying around the extra cable with my Envoy to use a wireline.
> >Is there a PC card modem like Xjack that will work. Any other solution.
> >
> >Paul_McHugh@attpls.net
>
> The answer is probably "no".
>
> Sony Electronics sells a a 14.4 Apex modem card (that supports both
> cellular & wireline). However, we did a quick test and it appears the
> Magic Cap driver does not work on the Envoy. In any event, you still need
> a special cable to connect the Apex card to a RJ-11 jack.
>
> When you think about it, don't you always need a special cable when
> connecting a PCMCIA card to a RJ-11 jack?
>
> -Paul
>
> PS: For more details on SEL's modem card, consult:
> http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/Magic/wmlinkbundle.html
Ok, scratch my last post suggesting this as an option. ;-) The Xjack
that Paul (the first one) speaks of is a little slide-out RJ-11 jack
that accepts a standard phone connector. Its a really slick idea, but
since the RJ-ll connector has to stick through it half-way, I'm afraid
it would hit the case of the Envoy. That is, if the Apex worked, and
had such a jack.
Regards,
Luke Derossi
for
General Magic, Inc.
From: Dan Free <dharma@ARI.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 16:16:52 -0400
Subject: FS: leather case
I have an extra Magic Link leather carrying case for sale due to an unusual
twist of events. (Item #PICA-C1) The case is NEW, in the original box, with
the shrink wrap never opened. The first $40.00 takes it, I'll mail to any
continental US destination, by snail mail.
Inquiries or acceptances to:
Dan Free
From: Wayne Sanderson <A5023644635@ATTPLS.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 21:07:21 +0000
Subject: Re: Recovering a crash
I've noticed that my PIC1000 gets cranky and does unexpected cleanups
when the SRAM card gets below the 100k free mark. Letting it go too
long guarantees that it will lock up when you boot the SRAM card- at
least that is how mine works. If yours is still able to give you
messages like 'discard from the memory card', then you are in luck. Try
managing the card so that you don't drop below 100k. Discard things you
really don't need, archive older received mail on your desktop with
Magic XChange, etc. (Printing received mail to Windows Clipboard and
then storing the image as a windows file insures that it will be
immediately available from the PC without having to reload the entire
mail package into the PIC.) These tricks will keep your card happy.
When main memory gets too full, you get frequent cleanups an all kinds
of headaches. It only stands to reason that if SRAM is treated by the
device as an extension of memory, then when that memory gets full you
get similar headaches.
From: Shawn Welter <A5323644602@ATTPLS.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 22:51:35 +0000
Subject: Leaving ATT
Dear Magic Cap Mailing List,
I was wondering if the switch from att to presto is that difficult.
Would it be wise to back up the link and remove the batteries to start
over without attpls. I personaly only need to keep my names and
addresses plus some saved email. Is there anyone with some input on
this.
As for a replacement to Att I am just going to use my local provider.
The question is can I use a pop acount other than the one for my ppp
account? I am considering mci as my provider so I can use the 1800 #.
Is presto able to dial different numbers if you are dialing from
different locations? I live on the state border and the providers in
the area have multiple access numbers.
Shawn Welter
PLEASE NOTE: Some Quantum Physics Theories Suggest That When the
Consumer Is Not Directly Observing This Product, It May Cease to Exist
or Will Exist Only in a Vague and Undetermined State.
From: Paul Linhardt <plin@SONYSOFT.COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 16:04:28 -0700
Subject: Re: Recovering a crash
Kevin Fries writes:
>I am getting three messages when I boot my SML (PIC 1000). These
>messages occur only when the SRAM card that holds ALL of my data is in
>the slot. I have typed the error messages below. I assume these are
>displaying in a LIFO manner. The machine was processing a Farcast
>message when it initially crashed. My best educated guess as to what
>happened is this: Farcast ran the device out of memory, this forced a
>cleanup. Since the message goes into new items, when farcast crashed,
>it corrupted new items. This is causing MC to blowup when it tries to
>access new items. The problem is, it is not cataloging anything
>further down the processing chain and therefore hiding very critical
>information to me.
>
Kevin,
Thanks for the detailed description of your problem. We are checking into
it and will post a more detailed response as soon but want to double check
some facts first.
One point that I would like to clarify is that is that you are running out
of workspace (aka transient) memory even though you have 300K of permanent
memory free. Memory is divided into permanent and workspace memory. You
can monitor your current workspace by looking at the thermometer at the far
right side of the store room.
Farcast does use more workspace memory than most applications because
certain types of incoming messages are stored in the Farcast package.
Messages with list article buttons and unprocessed articles (with droid
stamps in the upper right corner) fall into this category. Processed news
stories are moved to new items package and do not take up workspace memory.
Things you can do free up more workspace memory are:
(1) Delete Farcast messages with "get" buttons after you request articles
(this is probably the most important item on this list)
(2) Delete packages you don't use regularly and/or delete changes to
packages. These compete for workspace memory since there is a workspace
overhead for each package. (One reason I counsel against 4mb SRAM cards is
because there is a tendency to store too many packages which are not used
thus eating up all the workspace memory.)
(3) FYI, certain operations such as unpacking packages and inserting PC
cards may cause objects to be copied into workspace memory. Obviously,
these are necessary operations, but the likelihood of running out of
workspace during these operations is higher.
(4) Check the Farcast FAQ (in the SNTI catalog entry on Farcast on our web
page) for other tips on using Farcast. Tuning your Farcast usage patterns
will improve performance. Remember your communicator has limited memory
resources. The purpose of using agents is to narrow down the vast amount
of information available out there.
(5) Since communications operations also take up workspace, if you're
having problems, you may want to refrain from doing other operations while
collecting mail.
(6) If you're using Presto!Mail, we recommend you check Farcast's "process
later" rule so that Presto!Mail & Farcast don't compete for scarce
workspace resources.
>I was able to get a few items off the card but many still remain
>unreachable.
>
It is unclear to me whether your card is actually corrupt or whether the
lack of workspace is making it impossible to do simple operations. If the
later is the case try:
(1) Pack up Farcast
(2) Power down & back up
(3) Reset the Farcast package (using the Magic Lamp in the Storeroom)
(4) Re-specify the e-mail provider for Farcast
>When I started getting strange behavior I started asking Farcast, Sony,
>and Sony New Technologies. Unfortunately for me, the employ circle
>management (keep pointing to the guy on the left causing the person to
>go in circles until they give up.).
>Kevin Fries
While it is true that there is a tendency for applications developers to
point the finger at the OS & vice versa, I checked with our small team and
we don't have any recollection of being contacted by you on this issue.
Who and how did you contact us? We are definitely interested in bug
reports on this type of problem (particularly concerning data losses).
BTW, anyone using a Beta copy of Farcast should definitely upgrade to the
latest version. Farcast 1.1 is the current version available on our web
site. Both Farcast 1.0 and 1.1 do some testing of available workspace.
We will post again soon with more details,
-Paul
---------------------
Sony New Technologies
http://www.sonysoft.com
1-800-739-7337
Attention! New e-mail address: plin@sonysoft.com
From: Bruce Tong <zztong@MAIL.EV.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 08:39:41 -0500
Subject: Re: Landline Envoy
> I hate carrying around the extra cable with my Envoy to use a
> wireline. Is there a PC card modem like Xjack that will work.
> Any other solution?
I found a phone cable at Radio Shack which is only about six inches
long. I can leave one end plugged into my device, and tuck the other
end back into the case when not in use.
--
Bruce Tong
Systems Programmer
Electronic Vision / Fitne
Work:
Phone : (614) 592-2511
Fax : (614) 592-2650
mailto:zztong@evi.ev.net
http://www.fitne.ev.net/
Play:
mailto:zztong@eurekanet.com
mailto:zztong@aol.com
http://www.eurekanet.com/~zztong
From: AJ Wright <aj@GS1.CINTI.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 21:23:40 -0400
Subject: Looking for 2 meg card
Anyone know where (perhaps mail order) to find an inexpensive but good
(quality) 2 meg SRAM card for a ML 1000?
AJ
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
"Determination and perserverance move the world;
thinking that others will do it for you is
a sure way to fail"
Marva Collins
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
From: "F. Schurtz" <fas@GATE.NET>
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 22:03:24 -0400
Subject: Re: Looking for 2 meg card
AJ Wright wrote:
>
> Anyone know where (perhaps mail order) to find an inexpensive but good
> (quality) 2 meg SRAM card for a ML 1000?
>
> AJ
Yes, Call Mike Hurley at Direct Mobile 1(214)224-7906. He has 2meg
SRAM PCMCIA cards for $129.00 delivered by Fed Ex. Got mine today and
it works fine in my PIC-1000.
Sandy
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