Work in progress...

There's a number of projects I wanted to do in the past few months but never found the time:
- finish the IBM Model M mod
- Apple Newton keyboard adapter for use with HP Jornada 7xx series
- DE9 to PS/2 adapter for a great looking industrial PC keyboard
- install that 4x20 LCD screen I bought months ago
- battery rebuild for my Psion Teklogix Netbook Pro
- update retro-museum.org homepage

Namco TV game

I recently bought one of those Namco 5-in-1 TV games and boy was I pleasantly surprised. Two games I liked the most are Pac-Man and Dig Dug. I also liked Galaxian which is a pretty interesting variation of Space Invaders. The last two games are Bosconian and Rally-X but I can't say I enjoyed them much. The 'console' is quite well made yet a bit bulky.and can be difficult to hold for long. It's powered by four alkaline batteries and there's no AC adapter plug. Luckily the batteries last a very long time.

Super Nintendo

Two days ago I was offered a complete Nintendo SNES system with 2 gamepads, 9 games, Game Boy adapter and 4 GBC games for 20€. Of course I went for it! Turns out the system is in full working order and all the games run. I also tested the SNES I bought six months ago - works like a charm. I'm now looking for some SNES games like Donkey Kong Country, Mario Kart, Bomberman, Starwing, etc. Let me know, if you want to sell or trade. I got some Sega Mega Drive and Sega Master System games for trade.

Booting Linux from Compact Flash Pt.1

My first job was finding suitable hardware. I didn't want to sacrifice any of my existing setups so I decided to build a whole new computer based on Intel's Pentium III chip. The next step was chosing a suitable chipset. Since I wanted a system that would be as quiet as possible, I needed to passively cool the CPU with the help of Zalman CNPS-6000 copper heatsink. My other requirement was having at least 768MB of RAM. I actually had two Slot-1 440BX motherboards lying around and a number of DIMM modules sized 128MB and 256MB. Unfortunately both boards proved to be inadequate. If I went for Soyo 6BA-IV+ I would either have to buy 512MB modules or forget the passive cooling part as Zalman heatsink obstructed two DIMM slots out of four. Finally, after giving it lots of thought, I decided Via Apollo Pro 133T chipset was the way to go.

After several days of searching, I picked up a really cheap setup consisting of an Abit VH6T board, Pentium III 800MHz and three sticks of 512MB ECC RAM. This was to be my new platform.

- End of part 1 -

Trivia: CR2032

Most of us geeks eventually get to 'meet' this button cell battery that powers the RTC (real-time clock) and CMOS SDRAM. Funny how I only now, after many years of dealing with computers, found out what CR2032 actually stands for. It's very simple: 20 mm diameter, 3.2 mm height!

NBP: Intel PRO/Wireless 2011B

I recently purchased two Intel PRO/Wireless 2011B PCMCIA cards on eBay and recieved them the other day. Both look as good as new and even came with the manuals and CDs. What's best is that these cards are Plug and Play as far as the Netbook Pro is concerned. They also support 128-bit WEP and have no trouble connecting to an AP with a hidden SSID. I have yet to test them with the Jornada but my guess is it will probably require additional drivers. Compared to the Orinoco Gold, they stick out less and aren't as bulky. Signal strength appears to be about the same.

GPRS Palm Tutorial

1. First of all, create a new connection and name it. Since you'll be using the phone as a modem, select "Connect to: Modem". Next, select IrDA or Bluetooth and the device (phone) you'll be using for this connection. After you're done, click Details... and move to the next step.

2. Here you have to enter the Init String supplied by your mobile operator. Save by clicking OK twice and move to the final step.

3. Go to "Preferences > Network". All you have to do in this step is click the Preferences tab and create a new connection. Name it, enter the username and password provided by your mobile operator, pick the connection you created in the first step and finally enter the phone number. The example below is for slovene Si.mobil. Provided you did everything right, the Connect button should get you connected.

Netbook Pro tips & tricks

I recently wanted to install drivers for my Avaya Wifi card through ActiveSync. Infrared was my only option since I don't own the USB sync cable. Normally this shouldn't be a problem but it was in this case! I figured it out in the end. There's an Irda Switch option in the Control Panel . All I needed to do was check the 'Enable Irda Switch transmit data polarity' checkbox and voila, I was able to sync no problem.

Where to?

Where is this blog headed? Well, at the moment it seems to be sailing into the Handheld PC waters. Palm vote was mine and the one for Retro Computing is probably from Andy :) The poll will be left open until the time runs out (12 days) however the focus of the blog will almost certainly end up on Handheld PC with occasional articles about Palm and possibly Retro Computing.

At this time I'd like to ask you to suggest a new name for the blog. Comments are open.

About Blog Contents

While I enjoy writing about different things, I'm beginning to feel this blog is missing a common thread. This would probably help attract more readers which is what I'm trying to achieve. I see no point in writing a blog that will only serve itself. I'm currently thinking about covering mostly Handheld PC form-factor devices, Palm OS based devices and peripherals for both. There are also other options and I'll soon be posting a poll about what you'd like to read. Please leave a comment, if you have any suggestions or just want to express your opinion.