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.

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.

HPC News

My Case Logic external hard drive case review was published by HPC:Factor today and you can read it by clicking here.

I recently became interested in forum userbars. Since I didn't want to use an existing userbar, I decided to create my own. There are many tutorials available on-line: here and here for example. You can find the pixel font and the instructions on how to use it here.

Psion Netbook Pro: Follow-Up

There are various annoying issues with my Netbook Pro:
- unresponsive spacebar
- weakened battery
- crackling while playing mp3s

I managed to fix the spacebar rather quickly by inserting a small piece of thick paper between the rubber dome and the keycap. The second issue is a bit more pressing but since the battery still holds about 3-4 hours (with Ethernet), I can live with that for a while. However, I will be rebuilding the battery, if I decide to keep the Netbook in the long-term. The crackling sound is the biggest problem so far. What happens is that, if you do anything (task switching, scrolling, etc.) during MP3 playback, you'll get lots of crackling noise (like static) in the background. If you leave the computer alone, sound remains clear. Supposedly, there is a bug in later firmwares (400 and newer) and we're currently trying to find the last pre-400 firmware to test this.

Psion Netbook Pro: First Impressions

I recently recieved the Netbook Pro I ordered from Pulster. Everything was well packed and in excellent condition. So, how does a 5 year old Netbook compare to the modern netbooks? It's about the same size and weight as an ASUS eee PC but the screen is only 800x600. However, having a touch-screen does have its advantages and the keyboard is very comfortable. So far I've only tested a Toshiba Bluetooth SD Card 2 and SMC EZ Connect Ethernet PCMCIA card. Both worked out of the box, no drivers had to be installed. One of the bigger disadvantages of the Netbook is the inability to play video (or so they say). One of these days I'll see, if it can digest 640x480 at 25 fps. You also pretty much need to install Opera for a normal browsing experience. If you disregard the last two annoyances, you get a solid netbook for a fraction of a price and still unbeatable battery life. Who needs a netbook when we have the Netbook?

HPC News

Yesterday I finally placed an order for a used Psion Teklogix Netbook Pro at Pulster (DE). I just couldn't resist the low price of €150 (plus €15 shipping). The Netbook Pro will hopefully completely replace my Jornada 728 and take care of all my needs on the move. Why? The features just blow you away! It has a significantly bigger touch-screen capable of 800x600@65K, a nice, comfortable keyboard and runs Windows CE .NET 4.2. There's also lots of room for expansion in the form of a 16-bit PCMCIA slot, Compact Flash slot and SDIO slot as well as USB host. In theory the Netbook comes very close to being the perfect HPC.