BushidoHacks.com

20081114

SDHC does work on SD devices - Click!

Contrary to what you may have hear, Yes, SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) cards do work on devices that use SD (Secure Digital) devices.

There may be a few devices that are not compatible with SDHC, but so far it works on my computer's media card reader, my Palm Treo 650, and there is a good chance it will work on the Wii.

In any case, now is a good time to stock up on SDHC cards for Chirstmas items such as digital cameras, music players, cell phones, and computer file storage.

I still haven't run into any DRM issues, then again, DRM is really stupid in the first place.

Labels: handhelds, hardware, palm, phone, Wii

posted by Bushido Hacks 11/14/2008 10:57:00 AM (0) comments top

20080913

Rockbox is better than your iPod - Click!

After a near foolish attempt to replace my iRiver 120 MP3 player with a SanDisk Sansa, I finally got around to getting Rockbox to work.

My experience has been positive especially after fearing a repeat of previous experiences. My only regret is that the iRiver 120 has a black and white screen. Imagine what it would be like if it was in color.

I should be able to listen to music how I want it this time, by playlist order (which the iRiver's original software could not read .m3u or .pls files) or in some form of portable relational database.

FM radio still works, although I wonder if there is some way to pick up other bands. I should double check my understanding of electronics.

I have not explored all the features yet, but I am amazed that I can finally play games and WRITE text files on the device. I hope I can read PDFs on it now.

Another feature that Rockbox has that the origninal iRiver (or several other MP3 players) is support for people with disablities, specifically those with impaired vision.

My only grievances about Rockbox so far are how the Installation instructions were written. I wanted to install the manual instructions for rockbox, but when the Linux instructions started talking about using a .exe file (which Linux does not run .exe files) and mentioned some tools for modifying the .hex file (the iRiver firmware patch) that were not on my system, I had to conceed to using the Automatic instructions.

It would also be a little awesome if there was like a mini-Linux console to write shell scripts and fiddle with sed, awk, and vim. The Handhelds.org had something like this. I blame the emphasis on Debian packages for why Handhelds.org wasn't very successful.

Outside of all that, Rockbox rules!

Labels: disabilities, hack, handhelds, lifeisgood, linux, music, radio, software, tech

posted by Bushido Hacks 9/13/2008 05:20:00 PM (0) comments top

20071223

Safely upgrading PalmOS for the Treo

Palm recently had an update available for the Treo 680 that nearly scared me to death last night when the USB port on the older computer I use to sync with my PDA. Supposedly this update should improve battery life. (Tip: Hop onto eBay and look for a battery with double or more charge storage. The inital battery stores at least 1200 mAh (milliAmpere-hours). For all you physics majors out there, that is about 4320 coulombs (1 coulomb = 1 Ampere-second). The electronics industry likes to use mAh.) While it might be true, it actually adds alot of crap software to your PDA.

Flashing your PDA is RISKY, as previously entries will show.

But the people who wrote the instructions for the update wrote four different versions of the instructions.

So here is what you should do.
1. Sync your PDA. Back up everything first. Back up any third party programs to your SD card.
2. Find a spare SD card. You don't need a large SD card. A 256MB will do, though you'll only need about 20 MB. Do NOT use the same SD card that you store your stuff on. It needs to be blank. You can find a 256MB card down at Target for like $10.
3. Go to the Palm website where the update is. Read everything.
4. Use the IT instructions. When you get to this page, use the instructions for IT and Enterprise.
5. Download the update file, extract files to spare SD card. This step is listed in the IT instructions, but it is important to list here considering the following step.
6. Reboot the PDA. With NO SD card in the PDA at all (you can still leave your SIM card in the PDA), take the battery out and put it back in. (That is if you have a Treo 680).
7. Plug-in AC Adapter. You are going to need it plugged in for this operation.
8. Put in the SD card with the update program on it. It should start automatically, but if it doesn't go back to step 6 and perform a hard reset.
9. Follow the rest of the instructions on the website.
10. When the entire update process is complete, remove the other SD card with the update on it. Put it some place where you can use it again when the next update comes out.
11. Put the SD card you use for your stuff back in, but don't put the programs that need to be on your PDA back on the PDA. They may be reloaded after the next step.
10. Resync your PDA with your computer. After you since, reinstall any outstanding programs that may not have been put back after syncing.

What I can't believe is that this update DID NOT come with a Java VM.

I plan to have more stuff to talk about after the Holidays. Fall has been sort of a dry spell here at this website, and after reading some of my old archives, I realized that many of the things that I talked about doing an am able to do now and am ready to explain here in the new year. I would like to get some wiki entries wrtten up for Eclipse, Android, Treo, and syncing on Linux within the next month or so. These are promises I would like to keep as they are what people really want. Not some discount for some sudoku game. (I never liked sudoku. Crosswords are better.)

So until next time, Merry Christmas!

Labels: handhelds, palm, phone, scary

posted by Bushido Hacks 12/23/2007 03:52:00 PM (0) comments top

20050131

Wanted: Instructions to sync a Sony Clié PEG-UX50 with Fedora Core 3 - Click!

OK, I love my new PDA (thank you, duffstuf123! ^_^), but finding instructions to syncronize such a wonderful piece of new technology has been difficult to find.

Yeah, my Clié came with an installation CD and an instruction manual. The guy who sold it to me was even generous enough to include a 128MB Memory Stick. But something I had not anticipated occured: there is no instructions for syncronizing this device with Linux...yet.

PalmSource did make an announcement stating that they would develop software to syncronize PalmOS devices with the Linux operating system. KDE has a good program called KPilot to syncronize the device with programs part of their KDE PIM groupware.

However, their are some relatively simple instructions to set up Palm devices with Linux. I just have not found a common method yet. I hope to find the instructions by the end of this week and when I do find them, I will post them here at BushidoHacks.com or I'll post the link to the instructions that I have found suitable for the Sony Clié.

Stay tuned. Good news is on the way.

Labels: ebay, handhelds, linux, palm, sony

posted by Bushido Hacks 1/31/2005 07:59:00 AM (0) comments top

20040624

OK, PDA RE-reloaded - Click!

For a little while, I have decided to reload my PDA once again only with GPE. What a mistake!

GPE uses that god-awful GNOME interface. You can't hold down your stylus and hope that a menu appears.

However -- and there's always a however in life (850 KOA's website is much better now. I listen to Reggie in St. Louis on the Big 550 KTRS)--, GPE does have its perks.

If you like to play games, GPE is your kind of environment. Tetris and Lights Out out are good (Lights Out is the shiz-nit!), but alot of the other games suck very badly.

GPE also had much better handling of time syncronization, something GNOME, KDE, and OPIE have trouble with. For example, I'm typing this at 8:20AM, but I'm using KDE right now and the clock reads 2:50AM. Keep in mind I am in St. Louis not Tokyo. GPE also has better lighting than OPIE. Fortuantely, the OPIE guys are working on a patch to increase their lighting.

Battery support in GPE is excellent. It recognized the battery jacket, and after 24 hours undocked, there still is power because it shut itself off after 3 minutes. Turning it back on, well...I press the power button but I'm looking at the colored blocks on the screen, I'm not impressed. Thus, I have to pop the PDA out of the Jacket, an take the main battery out, put it back in, put the jacket back on, eject the CF and SD cards (SD still not supported yet. Come on! GIVE US SOME DAMN SUPPORT HERE!), press power (vibe! That's normal.) Wait for Tux, wait for the GPE logo (which is like 10 minute later. It took a lot shorter with OPIE), wait for X to load (X is another good thing about GPE. OPIE doesn't have X embedded, but they should.), then Log in.

OK, there's the other problem. Logging in. OPIE did not have logging in, and if the next release of OPIE did come with Logging in (which I recomend, since PocketPC use to have it), it would let me log in with only ONE PROFILE! I attempted to delete the second profile, but when I logged out as root, it wanted me to create a second profile. I don't want to make a second profile, damnit! I want to be root! So I created a second profile against my will. (DAMN YOU GPE!).

Sometimes the well built apps in GPE crash unexpectedly, and sometimes the entire PDA shuts off. (Oh, crap!) There is also NO SOUND! And no support for the HP fold away keyboard compatiple with my h5450. (My PDA's not fat, it's just loaded with love. (OK, ladies, enough with the "Aww"s))

2 out of 5

Back to OPIE for now.

Labels: brick, fubar, handhelds, mod, shovelware

posted by Bushido Hacks 6/24/2004 07:58:00 AM (0) comments top

20040618

PDA Reloaded - Click!

OK, there is no way to convert a Pocket PC from Windows to Linux on a Linux Terminal...yet. So I went to a windows PC to reload Linux on my PDA. Handhelds.org is still lacking, but Opie is not. Seeing that I have the CF jacket for ny HP H5450 and a CF card reader that will take the packages. So, for now, transfer the packages to a CF card, via CF card reader, then plug the CF card into the PDA.

Note, this is for the packages, not the system. It's good to use my PDA again. Now If only I can get the damn WLAN to work! There are settings to change the configuration but it aways loads the programmers settings. I figured that out because my router's name IS NOT okuwla.