As mentioned in earlier posts somewhere, I have a 3Com PMCIA card & back then spent 8 hrs over 2 days trying to get the phukker installed & working on my work DELL notebook.

Well nothing has changed here I am again after 4 hrs trying to get this same convoluted complicated disasterous bit of technology working on my new SONY.

The installation is painful - you have to do 2 steps

1) Install hardware
2) Install Bluetooth Manager software

(thats just the start, then comes the 'making discoverable & pairing' exercises - On my iPAQ PDA this particular exercise was actually quite easy (it was the iPAQs config for Wi-Fi that proved painful but the iPAQ WinCE network config software is plainly horrible & vey unintuitive - on my notebooks & the Zarus PDA the Wi-Fi install & setup is a breeze but the 3COM bluetooth on notebooks using PCMCIA seems very crappy.

1st you insert the Bluetooth card & then the software does SIX device installs - com3, com4 com5 com6 com7 + Bluetooth device. You are asked to examine each one in the devices folder to see that it is working ok. Serial client, serial host, DUN client, LAN client, fax client + Bluetooth card.

Next you install the Bluetooth manager then start tearing your hair out trying to figure out what to do next. I can get the Bluetooth manager to scan & recognise my T68 phone so I can see that something is working.

You are then supposed to add a dialer and choose the 3COM Bluetooth DUN client (com5) but the create a dialer script shows it has having com4 (of course the phukker fails with a modem error when you finish & try connecting).

This is what happened to me last time before I wiped all the devices out - manually 1 by 1 - & did a re-install

This is just too damned complicated - I really can't begin to imagine how a non networking person could ever get through the proceedure.

#2 - removed all the com ports & allowed WinXP to reinstall them, this time I was able to a modem using DUN on com5 - still not commnicating with the T68 but am getting closer - now up to 6 hrs of work on it.


Cheers

Doug Marker

MY WIFE NOW WANTS IT.

She is anti technology & can be reduced to tears trying to do some tasks - I bought her a
MAC iBook - then an IBM i-series thinkpad - she uses both (really prefers the MAC).

Both have Wi-Fi (that made such a difference to her in that she actually began surfing the net).

But after travelling with both the iBook & ThinkPad - and doing emails in various countries, she took one look at the Sony PCG-U1 & fiddle with it & now says this is what she wanted all along. (But if Apple ran on the PCG-U1 that would be paradise for her).

I am about to install virtualPC on it & instal WinNT & Win98 just to see how good this babe is - I will upgrade to 384MB though (for VPC).


Cheers

Doug Marker
(So we will buy another one shortly once money materializes & thus can establish good relationship & terms with supplier)

My other choice - reason for the outright enthusiasm for the PCG-U1 is that it is so durned small (2.5 times a CLIE PDA) and I want total portability, lifebook is still too heavy & I don't need CD rom (can plug into USB if needed).

I now use memorystick/SD cdard/CF card for data txfr between computers (PCG-U1 has memstick native, the others are thru PCMCIA cards that accept SD & CF). Also, I can either attach a CDROM thru the built-in network in PCG-U1, or I can copy CDROM to CF (have a 256mb one & can go to 512 & 1 GB CF cards now).

Lifebook is a very good unit but PCG-U1 has the near perfect combination of size, weight & features.

Cheers - Doug

PS my reason for keeping on top of all these devices is that my job as Principal Technical Architect requires that I know their capabilities - esp strengths & weaknesses)

After a weeks holiday & 2 more hours farting around this morning, I got the 3COM bluetooth device working on the SONY PCG-U1 but it only connects at 9.6 k at the moment but I have a Sony-Ericsson T68 GPRS phone & service.

Am guessing I still need to fart around plying with the speed settings at both end - my opinion thus far of bluetooth is that it is crap.

I really do like Wi-Fi when it is available. The Wi-Fi works on the PCG-U1 using PCMCIA. But, it is a bit annoying as the PCMCIA slot means the antenna part sticks out & makes it a bit irritating trying to hold the PCG-U1 and operate the mouse buttons also your hand masks the signal & lowers the effectiveness of Wi-Fi. This problem is also there with Bluetooth but the antenna is smaller & thus a bit easier to put up with.

This post is coming via bluetooth on the PCG-U1.

This device leaves using a PDA for the Internet, in the joke bucket. PDAs might be ok for email but are really useless for decent Internet access. T&hey are so bad at reading web pages that in my opinion they are wose than nothing due to the pure frustration factor.

Cheers Doug

Hmmm, bad one - re dropping things in toilets my worst experience like that was in Japan many years back & using a public squat toilet & afterwards finding my wallet had fallen out of hip pocket into the hole. Yochhh.

RE Sony Clie - my favourite PDA as it doesn't really pretend to be what it isn't like iPAQ & Zaurus tend to do as regards Internet access.

But, SONY have announced a new CLIE model these is *very* interesting in that it looks to me to be capable of swithing to Linux (SONY have been working on Linux behind the scenes).

The new CLIE is very expensive at US$599, has 2 radical new features that no other PALM device has 1) is 200mhz Intel processor & 2) is a PC Card slot for Wi-Fi. (At that price the SONY PCG-U1 is a bargain and vastly more functional.

Anyway, I am sure you made a good choice with SONY - I am convinced that that corporation will 'clean-up' in the next major Internet boom (once Bush stops war mongering & is ignominiously voted out of office to join his (ok) dad as 1-term presidents who fought wars but screwed the economy).

Cheers

Doug