What's in your recycling bin?

I just cleaned out the recycling bin on my laptop and reclaimed 5 Gigs of disk space! The scary thing was that it wasn't like there were any really big files or directories - it was tons of small stuff! I know that I never go check the contents of the bin and in the past I have been amazed by how much gets in there, but that's a lot of space. How 'bout you...how much is in your recycling bin?

Poor customer service

I wrote last time about having had a pretty good experience with Lakeridge Software. I thought that today I would write to even up the good support verses bad support score. For the life of me, I cannot get Dinarsoft (the company who makes MemMaid) to reply to my emails. Since I switched to my Dell, my old registration code for their software won't work. I will make a third request to their support today, but I am getting more than a little annoyed at their poor service.

They have a thing or two they could learn from Lakeridge! It seem's like Josh's Cluetrain (not his personal theory, but he's a great advocate) has left the station without a representative from Dinarsoft onboard.

A twisted thought...

There was a great web page and tool announced earlier this week that will generate a really cool graphical link  for your Gmail account.  I was on their web site when I had a really diabolical thought: what a great way to harvest valid email addresses! Now l am not saying that this developer is harvesting - as a matter of fact, I think it is a cool way to give back to the community...but just think what someone with ulterior motives could do with a friendly “service” like this!

 

A positive support experience...

I have been trying to make a conscious effort not to make my blog become too Pocket PC-centric. Since that’s the gadget of the week though, it’s tough! :^)

Today I had a good experience (well, it turned out good) with some tech support that I wanted to share with the blogosphere. I was having a lot of problems getting Wisbar Advance to install correctly on my Pocket PC. No matter what I tried, I could not get the application to install anywhere but in my Built-in Storage. I finally resorted to sending an email to their support email address out of sure frustration. Much to my surprise, I had a response within 5 minutes - and it wasn’t even a canned response!

The response to my question was MUCH faster than I expected and Chris came across like one of the good ol’ boys. He asked me good questions over a series of email messages without implying I didn’t know what I was doing (which I know from years of tech support can be a tough thing to do sometimes). It was nice to work with someone who took support seriously. I wish that every tech support request was this positive, but I’ve had more than my share of bad experiences with HP, T-mobile, and more! Kudos to you Lakeridge Software!

A twisted thought...

There was a great web page and tool announced earlier this week that will generate a really cool graphical link for your Gmail account. I was on their web site when I had a really diabolical thought: what a great way to harvest valid email addresses! Now l am not saying that this developer is harvesting - as a matter of fact, I think it is a cool way to give back to the community...but just think what someone with ulterior motives could do with a friendly “service” like this!

On ActiveSync

Just one of those days to stop and think about things I’m thankful for…

Microsoft ActiveSync has been receiving kudos from me over the last week. There are those times when it doesn’t work so well and times when it does and I guess I am in the heart of the good times now. When I first got my new Dell, I downloaded version 3.8, but I had a number of issues with file conversion (specifically for Word documents). I received a lot of errors about not being able the converter not working and as a result, the files wouldn’t sync.

When I had my lock-up last week and needed to rebuild my device, I decided to step down to the 3.7.x version of the software and ever since, syncing has been seamless. Documents and PIM data are always up to date and changes are reflected on my PDA the moment they are committed on my PC. It is a nice change back from the days of having to manually sync my Palm by hitting the HotSync button. I think that MS has got a better solution for PDA syncing than Palm.

SMT5600 is more like a PC than a phone

One of the things I like about the Audiovox is that it isnt just a black box like most all phones. What do I mean by that? Well, let me explain...
Most cell phones are just an appliance. They make and receive calls best and manage to do a few other things like check POP mail or browse WAP sites. Even in today's world of camera phones and the like, the expandability and customization of most phones is really limited. Sure, on my 3650, I can decide if I want the background to be blue or green, but on the Smart Phone platform, expandabitity is limited only by developers imagination.
Now I know there are SDK's available for Symbian and lots of phones can run Java apps, but they are nothing like the apps that can be developed for the Windows mobile platform. I am not a crazed Microsoft supporter, but I am all for using what works best and in my opinion, MS has got this space nailed! Out of the box, I can sync easily with my PC, listen to MP3 files, surf the internet (with a fairly good browser), pull down email at regular intervals, chat with friends, personalize my phone until the cores come home, and much more!
In summary, I am one of those people who won't run a device the way it came out of the box and I have been pleased with the flexibility of the Audiovox!

SMT5600 is more like a PC than a phone

One of the things I like about the Audiovox is that it isnt just a black box like most all phones. What do I mean by that? Well, let me explain...

Most cell phones are just an appliance. They make and receive calls best and manage to do a few other things like check POP mail or browse WAP sites. Even in today's world of camera phones and the like, the expandability and customization of most phones is really limited. Sure, on my 3650, I can decide if I want the background to be blue or green, but on the Smart Phone platform, expandabitity is limited only by developers imagination.

Now I know there are SDK's available for Symbian and lots of phones can run Java apps, but they are nothing like the apps that can be developed for the Windows mobile platform. I am not a crazed Microsoft supporter, but I am all for using what works best and in my opinion, MS has got this space nailed! Out of the box, I can sync easily with my PC, listen to MP3 files, surf the internet (with a fairly good browser), pull down email at regular intervals, chat with friends, personalize my phone until the cores come home, and much more!

In summary, I am one of those people who won't run a device the way it came out of the box and I have been pleased with the flexibility of the Audiovox!

Back in the saddle

So, l searched the web for ideas about what might have caused the problem with my Dell. The only thing I could find was a posting on Aximsite that suggested I check to make sure the battery was fully seated - no dice! I performed a hard reset, built everything up from ground zero, and now things are back to normal...but this time I made a backup of my default build!!!

Doh!

I think it’s so ironic that just this morning I was thinking that my Dell has been the most stable Pocket PC I have ever owned and during lunch today I received the following error message:

A memory error has been detected. Press [the contacts button] to correct the error. If the system does not boot, press [Power]+[Reset] to clear all data in the memory and reboot the system.

Pressing the contacts button does not work, so I get to rebuild my handheld. Oh joy!