I
have a mobile phone that has a camera. Don’t ask why.
I
have taken some photos with it but they never get any further
than to display on the phone.
The
phone, a Sony Ericsson has Bluetooth connectivity but I have
never thought of using it for anything other than the hands
free that I use the car.
The other day whilst killing time at Fosse Park, I hate that
place, the car park was designed by a computer maze game designer.
I usually park on the section that includes PC World. So that
is where I was killing time. I noticed a couple of USB Bluetooth
adapters. I thought why not get one and try to get my photos
out of the phone onto the PC.
So I did.
I installed it on my Viao PC and watched as it searched for
other Bluetooth devices. It found my Phone and my Palm Tungsten
T.
Following the usual practice of click first and look up instructions
next, I set up a serial port.
I
asked it to look into my Phone and sure enough I had a folder
for Pictures show up.
At
this stage it is fair to say that I had an error which caused
Windows ME to crash.
Not
to be outdone I rebooted and tried again. After three crashes
I installed the device on XP machine while I waited for the
Vaio to complete “Scandisk”
It was very different on XP and I did not get it to see my phone
or my PDA. While I was waiting Vaio came back up so I hot swapped
the device and there were my two devices again. This time I
successfully copied all of my Picture files and closed the device
down before ME crashed. So I have my pictures and I live to
try and find the cause of the crashes.
Here
are a couple for you to see.
IGR
Following
last month’s feature on Open Source Browsers, here is
one readers response.
Hi
Ivor
I read your comments in the newsletter about browsers.
I have been using alternatives to IE6 for a number of years,
mainly because alternatives stored just-viewed pages and they
didn't have to be re-loaded off the net, which was infuriatingly
slow on dial-up. I used Opera for two years then Firefox for
over a year, first with version 0.8, then 1.0 and as of yesterday
1.0.1. I find it quick and easy to use. It has some excellent
plug-ins like weather feeds and direct inputs to other search
engines like Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia.
I
have just commissioned my new self-build PC and decided to go
also for the free open-source Open Office. The version I started
with is 1.1.4. It looks and feels like Microsoft Office and
is 99% inter-operable. Yesterday the beta of Open Office 2.0
was made available. That is even more swish, but I might wait
till the full launch in May before I convert as I am not a heavy
user these days. Improvements of interest include greater PowerPoint
inter-operability.
Meanwhile I am writing this on the open-source e-mail client
Thunderbird. This offers more than Outlook Express, (you can
do mail-merge from the address book), but not yet as much as
Outlook. It does have a superb SPAM filter.
See you Wednesday
Steve
Did I mention I have become an “ebayer”.
As
many of you know my throughput of gadgets is quite high. Up
to now I have given away many of them and taken quite a few
down to the dump. I have taken functional Video Cassette Recorders,
Surround Sound systems etc. and left them to scrapped. When
I bought my latest digital camera I realised I had four digital
cameras and four 35mm cameras two of which were SLRs. So I got
myself an ebay account and I have now flogged the lot. I have
also sold a Video mixer and 5 inch colour TV. It is really a
great way to get rid of your unwanted kit. I have made enough
cash to buy a new Zoom Lens for the Canon EOS.
I now find myself searching for stuff to sell. I only need to
sell another four items with positive feedback to get a gold
star. Wow!!
Ivor
