Adin’s Tech Adventures

Tried moving over a small site of mine which was using SQLite to the free tier.

The biggest issue is the lack of Stored Procedures and Triggers.

As an alternative to NoSQL databases this is not a big deal since none of them have SPs or Triggers. But if you are moving to it from a regular SQL database hoping it is simply an SQL database that is distributed then you should know about their omission.

I had to recreate my triggers in my code but did not like that as a solution.

Similar to the ModalPopupExtender problem. The CollapsiblePanelExtender will apear during the page even if you set the Collapsed=”true”.
I got this here
“Set the containing panels style like so:

height:0 overflow:hidden

The wrinkle: It has to be done as a class not as an inline style. Inline style doesn’t fix it, separate class does. “

Well, I finally discovered why my Palm Centro would restart every now and then. Especially when pressing the space bar. What is interesting is that when I searched the web for others with this problem (especially regarding pressing the space bar) I did not find anything.

Anyway, the source is pTunes. Specifically, the ability to ‘background play’. What this means is, that when you are playing a song you can go to other applications and the song will continue in the background. Ever since I disabled this option my Palm has not restarted even once!

To do this: In pTunes, open the menu. Choose ‘Background Prefrences…’. uncheck the ‘Enable background play’ check box

So you wire up an event when using WebClient.DownloadFileCompleted. But how do you know which file completed? you may be using a loop to download a bunch of files and to do something specific when each one finishes. The event fired looks like this:
static void myEvent_DownloadFileCompleted(object sender, System.ComponentModel.AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)
both e and sender don’t seem to contain even the name of the file downloaded. What did was, add to the WebClient object’s QueryString property a value which I then look at. See an example below:

static void Main(string[] args)

{

WebClient x = new WebClient();

x.DownloadFileCompleted += new System.ComponentModel.AsyncCompletedEventHandler(myEvent_DownloadFileCompleted);

x.QueryString.Add(“what”, “x”);

x.DownloadFileAsync(new Uri(“http://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/images/logo.gif”), “c:\\x.gif”);

WebClient y = new WebClient();

y.DownloadFileCompleted += new System.ComponentModel.AsyncCompletedEventHandler(myEvent_DownloadFileCompleted);

y.QueryString.Add(“what”, “y”);

y.DownloadFileAsync(newUri(“http://www.google.com/intl/en_ALL/images/logo.gif”), “c:\\a.gif”);

}

static void myEvent_DownloadFileCompleted(object sender, System.ComponentModel.AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)

{

Console.WriteLine(((System.Net.WebClient)(sender)).QueryString[“what”]);

}

I’m sure anyone who hears this song can think up their own interpretation and analogy. When I heard the words I couldn’t but think of our current situation here in the holy land. Jerusalem which in Hebrew means Legacy of Peace holds the Temple Mount (ie people of the hill). Until Israel Liberated it along with Judea and the Shomron in 1967 the Muslims forbade Jews and Christians from access to many of the holy places. Today, Israel shares its treasure with all who wish to come. Unfortunately, The Arabs (the valley people) are not interested in Sharing. Let us hope that at least in this conflict The people of the hill continue to thrive and share Jerusalem with the world.

Well, I’ve been using my Palm Centro cell phone for about a month. Most reviews of products are often after playing with it for a few hours or maybe a couple of days so you don’t really get a true sense of how the product holds up over time.

I will continue by using positive and negative points:
Negative
Stability: The phone seems to reset itself every few days. It often happens when entering a new appointment but has happened doing other things as well. When I got the phone I installed an app AttnGrab which would light up the LED when there was any kind of an alert like a missed call. After disabling this app the stability improved. I also use pTunes on a daily basis and since this runs in the background too it might be the cause of some instability. I upgraded it from 4.04 to 4.07 which may have helped too. Basically the phone is more stable now then it was for the first few weeks.

Look: I’ve decided the phone is pretty ugly and even nerdy looking. The word that comes to mind is chubby

Positive
GUI: management apps are great, easy to navigate and get to what you want, this includes the calendar, phone book, tasks…
pTunes: Great app. I listen to podcasts coming and going to work. I make the playlists on the phone and due to the large screen see where I am in the playlist. Also, if the phone crashes, my place isn’t lost

Other
Keyboard: I have no problem typing on the keyboard, it is easier to use than typing using the style though I would prefer the bigger screen with no keyboard even though slightly harder to type with. 95% of the time I am reading info and not writing it anyway.

Secrets I’ve learned
First day of week: When I got the phone Saturday was set as the first day of week which was confusing when using the calendar. To change this you need to go to the Prefs app –> Formats. It isn’t set in the Calendar app like you may think

Alerts: Pressing and holding the middle button (with the work ‘Palm’ on it) will bring up missed alerts like missed calls are appointments.

Volume: when click the power button the screen comes up but is locked. If you are listening to pTunes you don’t need to unlock the phone (by pressing the middle button), the volume buttons work

3rd party software I use
Adobe Reader: The desktop part converts regular pdfs to the version that you install on the palm. I use this to read eBooks that are in pdf format. Much better than reading pdfs using Documents to go which can only open the noncompressed and versions which make it slow.

eReader: Good for reading the default text docs used on Palm devices

eWallet: Have been using this software for years to save passwords and other secret info. Syncs with a desktop version. Still using the same version I bought for my Palm Vx

Piloc: Needed to read and write in Hebrew. At first I thought this might be causing instability but now I am not so sure

TCPMP: To view movies. I’ve checked it out and it works but I can’t say I actually use it. To watch DivX movies you will need to add tcpmp_aac_plugin.prc plugin

WatchM: Use to set alarms during the week. You can set 2 alarms to ring any day of the you want. Since there is no snooze. I set one as the alarm and the other for 10 minutes later.

Well, I got my palm Centro a couple of weeks ago and have been using it as my full cellphone and Palm Tungsten replacement since. Well, i have though a lot about what to say about the phone. While it certainly does what I expected it to do, it does nothing beyond. That is, it does not excite me with “great” features. I bought it mainly because I wanted to not have to carry around a palm pilot and a cell phone as two separate items everywhere. Even if I set an event on my Palm it would be in my bag so I never heard the alarm attached to the event. Now I can easily set events and write tasks (due to the keyboard) and always hear the alarm.

Things I like:

• Easy to to find the app I need and the apps themselves are easy and clear to use. Setting an event or writing an SMS is easy.
• All things Phone are excellent. Sound quality is excellent also when using the speakerphone. log history of calls is clear and saves an unlimited number of calls. The search in the contacts is quick and clear too
• Syncs with Outlook with no problems.
• I use it to download short stories so when I am waiting somewhere like waiting for the dentist I can read though the screen is too small to use it as an actual e-book reader
• pTunes. Another item I am oft to carry around is my Creative Stone MP3 player. Undoubtedly, the Centro is a better mp3 player. I can see many songs at once, build and edit play lists and set bookmarks.
• The screen is clear and crisp. You can make it very bright when in the sun also very dark so it doesn’t blind you when in a dark room. Changing the brightness is fairly easy too
• Going in and out of silent mode is easy with a dedicated button at the top of the phone
• Reacts quickly to clicks. I would not even notice this if I hadn’t tried out Windows Mobile phones before and notices the lags.

Things I do not like:

• Crashes. Once every few days, it seems to crash. It never crashed by itself, I was always doing something on it like typing a new event or trying some new program out. It may be crashing more often now since I sometimes do lower level things like use the FileZ app to change file properties. When I stop playing around with it so much and just use it it should crash less though it crashed twice when just creating an event. The main annoyance is that pTunes will lose your location when the Centro crashes. So if I am in the middle of the 4rth mp3 in a play list of 9 and I didn’t pay attention where I am, it will take me a long time to find my place again.
• Look and size. I cannot say that I am proud to be seen with this phone, it is nowhere as sleek as the other new phones on the market. Smart phones or otherwise. It is a big white block. I actually think I look nerdy with all its buttons on the front . It is also twice as thick as an iPhone or HTC Diamond and you feel it when it is in your pocket.
• My boss has an iPhone and the way all the elements on the screen are large, and easy to touch with your finger is really a big difference to the tiny (especially scroll bars) elements on the Palm OS, and with the Centro’s small screen it make a big difference
• The camera make really poor pictures even in medium lit situations. I think they are worse than my old Nokia 6131 pictures.
• The headset jack is a 2.5 inch one. Even if you get an adapter to 3.5 you will only hear sound in one ear. You need to get one made especially for the Palm Centro. My boss game me his 2.5 inch headset that came with some Sony phone and I could only hear in one ear. If I want to use the phone as my MP3 player I will have to get an original one.

In conclution, though my list of dislikes is long. I do not regret getting the phone. If an iPhone was the same price and didn’t need to be hacked to be use in Israel I would say that is a better choice. Except for the iPhone, I have not seen a phone I would prefer (including Windows Mobile, but bot Symbian which I have not used). If the Centro was the exact same form factor as my Palm Tungsten E with a large screen and thin form factor I would be perfectly happy.

Yes, I like Windows Vista.

(Just make sure you have 3+ GB RAM)