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I wonder if they fixed the issue where PDFs that come up in the native PDF support (without a plugin) being printing nothing but blank pages. Or is it just me experiencing that?

Due to end of year crunch, I am not much motivated to add stuff to it, but I am thinking about it a lot. I do most of my programming away from the computer anyway

To support future features, I think I need to test for not only the first character but the second as well. If it is a double quote then we have a string that can have whitespace in it. This would have several important benefits. I could say:

@"Waiting For" - supporting categories with spaces
#"next Friday" - supporting due dates with spaces still no luck in finding a document with all the Outlook "shortcuts" for due dates btw
:"task bodies can have spaces already" - no known benefit that I can think of

I think this would work best from the GUI, not the command line. The command line parser would probably treat "Waiting For" as a single argument and strip off the quotes. From the command line, I think you would be able to double the quotes and make it work, but I haven't tried it.

Human language shortcuts leans me toward some kind of localization, which makes me think I should start the process of rewriting it in C++ before I do any further work on it in AutoIt3.

The deed is done, I got an iPhone Second Generation 16GB off ebay.

This morning I find some timely news.

Well, the answer appears to be on Wikipedia:

On June 21, 2010, the new iOS 4.0 software update was released to second and third generation iPod Touch users for free.[14][15] It includes multitasking, app folders, backgrounds, iAd, and much more. However, second generation iPod touch devices did not receive multitasking, backgrounds, and Bluetooth keyboard support

According to this discontinued project on Google Code, IPhone 3.0 firmware and later allows syncing Outlook Notes natively. But not the iPod Touch?

Apparently the the iPod Touch too. I may need to do a firmware upgrade

If I buy a second generation iPod Touch off ebay, what would I be missing compared to third generation, in terms of firmware, upgradablility, jailbreakability or anything else I should keep in mind?

This looks like a pretty sweet deal if you can get it (you'll have to bid, there's no buy it now price): http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-iP...s&hash=item3f03de1af1

Runs Windows Mobile 5 and isn't locked to any particular carrier. You don't even need a carrier if you use it with Wifi. Also comes with a heavy load of software.

Resolution 240x240 according to these guys. Bleh...I would use it as an ebook reader too, so the resolution makes it a no go. Not wanting a keyboard either. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I am not interested in the phone function either. I'd hate to be stranded on the interstate because I read one too many RSS feed and my battery is dead. I have a separate NET10 phone for which I pay about $16.67 a month ($100 for 180 days) for voice and I am pretty happy with that.

It's time to think about replacing my Dell Axim X51V, the second PDA which I had to retire due to a bad digitizer.

Maybe you should check ebay for a replacement digitizer instead. It would only cost you around $8 to replace it.

http://shop.ebay.com/i.ht...=Dell+Axim+X51V+digitizer

I think I have one in a wrapper. I bought one for my retired Tungsten T3 also, as a test to see if I was competent enough to replace digitizers in PDAs. I failed.

I've probably changed my mind. Of all the PDAs that can sync PIM items cloudlessly to Outlook and has a decent screen resolution, the iPod Touch is probably my best option. steeladept convinced me to take a look, and further research of my own corroborated it.

Handbase on the Windows Mobile platform and also on Palm was a great app which I almost registered. In fact, I tried several and on the WM platform, I found it to be the best balance of power and ease-of-use.

You can easily find the perfect mobile device with PDAchooser too. The PDAchooser is the simplified variant of PDAmaster and it is optimzed for quick and efficient device searching. It provides less features but easier usage and clearer user interface than PDAmaster. You can also compare the results after the query.

[attach=1]

Lost this site for a while, and just found it again after a few days. Helpful in searching for PDA's or smartphones within certain specifications such as screen resolution.

I think the best thing would be something like an AddToAny or AddThis button, kind of like what you're doing with the eKstreme link at the bottom but more user friendly and more visible. I would suggest that the phrase "social bookmark this page" doesn't mean much to most people, it sounds a bit marketing guru-ese and not something I would want to click.

[cloudlessly]

steeladept, thanks for making me consider iPod Touch as an option, which was unthinkable for me before you started making the case. Sounds like you were where I was. My own research is so far corroborating what you say:

• MobileNoter Wi-Fi edition for iPod Touch/iPhone syncs to Microsoft OneNote cloudlessly. I don't currently use OneNote, don't really like it, but maybe I need to.
• Pocket Informant for iPhone. Used to sync  only to ToodleDo and Google though, but  "Version 1.2 adds syncing directly to Oulook via our WebIS Desktop Sync" Thus it also can be cloudless.
• The PIM situation on Android seems grim. Do a Google search for Android PIM and you will find dozens of threads like this, but no finished apps and apparently no open API's on Google's side.

Microsoft has made .NET the path of least resistance at least for their express versions of their compilers/IDEs, so by avoiding .NET you are weeding out a lot of hobbyist programmers as well, which is a good thing or bad thing depending on how you look at it.

I assume that people who hate .NET hate it on the Windows Mobile platform as well. If I wanted to try my hand at developing an app for Windows Mobile, I'd probably install SharpDevelop which is non-Microsoft IDE for .net/mono apps simply because I have no clue how I would do it otherwise and I have been able to get a "Hello World" running at least that way. (Microsoft's express versions do not support compiling to the mobile versions the last time I checked, you need the full Visual Studio for that).

As a user, which I am 99% of the time, it is weird to have 4 versions of .NET installed at all times but it does seem superior to getting notified of a Java update every week. But I assume the .NET haters hate Java even more than I do.

steeladept, does that assessment change any at all when it is considered I will not be buying a data plan for reasons stated here? How many cloudless Apple apps are out there?

Actually looks like there are a few. I know there is an iSilo for iPhone as well.

Also, can iPod Touch use passthrough connectivity from a PC when connected to the PC like Windows Mobile can? Then in theory I could do some things like downloading podcasts "online".

LeaderTask (free on GOTD today) seems to have what you are looking for. Tasks, notes, calendar & contacts. Syncs with Outlook and Gmail.

And free; today at least.

I did take advantage of the giveaway and was very impressed until I saw that sync is one-way except for contacts. When you click on sync, you do a two way contact sync, and then an import of Outlook notes, tasks, and calendar items, but it does not push its own notes, tasks, and calendar items to Outlook. I was interested in seeing how it represented sub-items, like subnotes and subtasks in Outlook, but it doesn't try. However at least there is a mobile version so that may not matter.

The interface is very nice.

Maybe not the HTC Diamond....2.8" with VGA resolution
a big step down from the X51v...3.7" with VGA resolution

It's time to think about replacing my Dell Axim X51V, the second PDA which I had to retire due to a bad digitizer.

I am checking ebay, the best thing I am finding is an HTC Diamond. I consistently am seeing the Sprint version selling for around $100, or $150 with a charging dock. I think people hate Sprint so much it brings the price downl.  I don't intend to use it as a phone. I have a Net10 phone for voice ($100 every 180 days and more talking minutes than I need.) and there is no data that is so urgent to me that it justifies paying $60/month for a data plan. A daily sync gives me more data than I can possibly read or play, and I am usually not that far from a PC anyway. And I like the feature set of the HTC Diamond, and I plan to sync over USB or the charging dock if that's possible.

Since I don't plan on using the phone, is there another "Windows Mobile device in $100-150 range on ebay" anyone would care to recommend, with or without a phone built in?

By the way, I have had horrible luck with the digitizers going bad on both the PDAs I have had, Tungsten T3 and Dell Axim X51v, any hints at picking something where the digitizer may last longer are welcome, I wasn't very good at replacing the digitizer in my T3 and don't want to try again with my Axim (which also seems to have some power issues).

GPS doesn't matter so much, but I am assuming I could use it for something even without a data plan (maybe a pedometer?) - correct me if I am wrong.

Do what ever you need to do, I can only echo what others have said regarding your value to this community and that you should be confident in whatever decisions you make.

It has been a difficult road for me, full of obstacles I wouldn't have had if I had started out when I was much younger, had the money for a proper education, etc. etc. etc.

Possibly, but I graduated from college with honors in Computer Information Systems with full intention of getting my pick of programming jobs, but after college I wasn't the sort people wanted to hire apparently, and it has taken me a couple decades to come to terms with the fact I will always be a hobbyist programmer at best. And no one is real life is supportive of this hobby when I have tried to code things on my own, so I have a file of things I have abandoned, maybe I will get to them when I retire at 80, if my mind is still good. It's really hard to abandon this hobby, though. I've abandoned it several times.

One thing to bear in mind is that I am used to is interacting with my data with several different apps. I registered both Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion (tried not to use both at the same time but they both had their annoyances so I switched back and forth). In addition I used NewTray and liked to try out various freeware addons to display tasks on the today screen, many of which were aware of not only the native tasks but of Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion. I think if I went with Apple, that ecosystem doesn't seem to exist I would be locked into one app and wouldn't be able to work around its annoyances. I don't have a lot of incentive to go with Apple anyway, I would not be able to write an app for it for example unless I purchase an Apple computer. So for the time being I will stick with Windows Mobile, although I strongly considered Palm Pre and Android.

I'm giving Chrome a third or fourth or fifth chance, largely because the latest Firefox beta broke all my search addons, and also because the Firefox folks seem intent on baking in features only useful to a handful of users, such as Personas and Tab Cheetos (or whatever they renamed it to).

However the search addons situation in Chrome is at least as bad actually, you always have to add the searches separately to the addon, there must not be an API to access the existing search engines in Chrome.

Not at this time...Pfrank does it but working through the rename steps, there seems to be more to it than meets the eye..

and ideally whatever renames it should probably be creating the wiki links and filtering out illegal characters in both the filename and in the wiki link so we are sure they are created by the same rules and therefore match..

And I think I am going in another direction now, but thanks for the offer.

LeaderTask (free on GOTD today) seems to have what you are looking for. Tasks, notes, calendar & contacts. Syncs with Outlook and Gmail.

And free; today at least.

Nice find, I'll check it out.

If you can wait about 10 more hours, I will set a reminder to check it out when I get home from work to verify that you can, indeed sync Notes and Tasks as well.  I will check in then as well with that info

I appreciate that, and there is no urgency at all. While you are at it, if it does sync tasks, can you make sure it doesn't just dump them in the calendar, a "solution" I've seen in other places. I had the impression there were no native tasks on the Apple products to sync to, I will be happy if I am wrong.

What I went from Palm OS to Windows Mobile, I was using Outlook for my PIM functions (an infinitely better experience than Palm Desktop) and all I had to do to migrate my PIM functions was do a sync from Outlook again. But if I bought a Palm Pre, I would not have that experience, because Palm pre memos are not backwards compatible with the old memos, nor do they sync with Outlook. Sad. I was a registered user of MemoLeaf, too, which built on existing Memos functionality. I miss that program, there is really no equivalent on Windows Mobile, there are only things which copy your notes to a different folder altogether which seems unnecessary. Not sure what my next platform will be.