New beta version iSiloX/XC 3.35b1

[radleyp]

Presto, it works! Thanks. PRadley

[Agrajag]

I am EXTREMELY concerned that this scheduling feature is a step in the wrong direction. I suspect this will negatively impact any will to supply a conduit feature and I cannot stand using Windows Scheduler. It insists that I run my desktop in a way I don't want to run. Reliance on it is, in my opinion, a bad idea.

Agrajag, I think you have misunderstood how this works. You do not "use" Windows Scheduler at all. iSilo does. All you do is set the schedule in iSiloX and it does the rest. BTW, I don't agree with you about the conduit, at least not the one AvantGo has. AvantGo updates every site every time you hotsync: I want to update selectively. So what I want is a combination of these two features, the scheduler and the conduit. PRadley

[Agrajag]

I would have to believe that for iSiloX to use Windows Scheduler, that Windows Scheduler would have to be active and ready to go. I forget what my setup is but Scheduler doesn't run the way I'm setup (auto login perhaps?) and fails to schedule any event I set in it. When I do change to the mode it wants, I get annoyed by a few pesky items that also slip my mind right now (perhaps I need to log in each time?)

As far as the Conduit, I agree. I'm not saying to match AvantGo's conduit but to make a better one with these features in it. That way I can still know the conduit will do its job based on each independent item. Other conduits do this so I don't see why iSilo can't as well.

[radleyp]

That's indeed annoying. So let's push for a conduit! That will take care of everyone's problem. RadleyP

[jreifsnydr]

As a macintosh user, can I assume that this scheduling feature in the new beta version will not apply to us "mac people"?

[iSilo]

The new scheduling feature is also available in the beta of
"iSiloX for Mac OS". However, in "iSiloX for Mac OS" you need to leave the conversion list open for automatic scheduled conversions to occur.

[Agrajag]

Darren,

Does this effort take away from any possible chance of seeing a conduit with such features? The system I hot-sync on isn't on all that much. I turn it on for a short period and sync right before bed. A conduit would be a great improvement for my needs.

[BasilC]

Originally posted by radleyp
Basil, I don't understand why you are having this problem. I don't think you realize that there is a webclipper icon in iSilo. All I do is find the image, click on the Tools menu, open up the iSilo web clipper and install. It's just as simple as HandStory.

Haven't tried zooming, but I don't think it's possible in iSilo.

As for your flipping through images, if there is one thing that annoys me in HS, it is the lousy scrolling. Images bigger than the screen cannot be accessed as they can in iSilo which allows for horizontal and vertical scrolling. In HS, you have to install a series of images. BTW, the map I installed in iSilo also fills the entire screen.

Nor did I spend any more wait time for files to open in iSilo than I did in HS - both took some time.

I really see no marked advantage to anything in HS.

Cheers, PDR

PDR, Sorry to take so long to respond to your points, but I'm afraid they still don't tally with my experience:

a) Webclipper Icon: I was aware of this and have tried it out. But I haven't found a way of using it to copy a single image from a web page. I either get the entire page or all the text minus the image. In HandStory I can just right click inside the image and save to Palm. To get the image in iSilo, I had first to save it as a separate file on my computer, open that file then use the iSilo webclipper icon.

b) Time taken to open files: I agree - pretty much the same

c) Flipping through images: I think you're confusing two issues. You're talking about scrolling an image, I was talking about moving from one image to the next on the pda. You can do the later easily with HandStory because of the arrows that show up on the screen. In iSilo you have to close the image and select the next one from the library.

d) It is possible to scroll images in HandStory and you can have any size of image, much bigger than the screen. You don't need any scroll bars, you just use the cursor to drag the image around (you can also do this in iSilo). The rate of redrawing seems to be very similar

So I still think that HandStory is better for images. Nevertheless, iSilo wins out in some other respects, and Plucker is best in other ways. So I still use all three (and AvantGo, but only for OnlineWeather - I haven't found a satisfactory way of accessing this using any other application).

If I'm missing a trick (or several tricks) with iSilo and images, I'd be glad to be enlightened.

[radleyp]

Thanks for your comments.

Yes, I did misunderstand. You are right about the images in iSilo, you cannot just click inside an image and get only that image, you get the whole page. So, I must agree with you: HS is better for images. My question is then to determine if I need that kind of image conversion, since I am not thrilled at carrying around all those document/image converters. Maybe I'll use just iSilo and HS.

With HS and iSilo, why do you use Plucker? But please get rid of AvantGo (see below).

You may have seen some discussion here of iSilo and font changes: I find that I cannot use FontHack 123 with Piloc/Interpilot cyrillic localization. Have you tried? I would like to know your experience.

Weather: why don't you use Alexander's link to Wunderground weather? I use it, and it works fine.

PDR

[kstuart]

I am finding that this beta adds enough features that I decided to test IsiloX. So far so good. The only disadvantage of IsiloX as compared to Plucker Desktop at this point, is that the file sizes are 33-50% larger with Isilo. My guess is that Isilo uses DOC format compression, while Plucker uses as default ZLIB compression (and in fact when I tried Plucker using DOC compression, the file sizes were only about 10% smaller than Isilo). Perhaps DOC fomat compression is necessary in Isilo to enable the feature that allows Isilo to read DOC files? Can anyone verify this?

Anyway, I am mostly posting to provided a helpful link.

For those who are using Windows XP, if your Windows User Login does not use a password, then Scheduled Tasks won't work. But there is a fix for this on "Kelly's Korner XP Tweaks" at http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm - but be sure to backup your registry (or set a manual Restore Point) whenever using anything on that page. The relevant tweak is "67. Run Scheduled Tasks w/o PW".

I've seen this problem come up for people using Windows XP, every time that Windows Scheduled Tasks is mentioned, so I thought this might be useful...

[Alexander Turcic]

That link you provide is very useful - thanks!

On your compression observation:

No, iSilo doesn't use DOC compression for its own documents, but a proprietary compression algorithm. It is usually very efficient. What I think you can try (if you haven't done so yet), is to turn on image compression. You find it in iSiloX when you click on the channel properties (tab image).

[Agrajag]

That was my problem. My setup doesn't use a password and this forced it to.

[BasilC]

Originally posted by radleyp
With HS and iSilo, why do you use Plucker?

I use Plucker for several reasons:

a) I have problems setting the correct fonts in iSilo, but no problems in Plucker (could just be my incompetence)

b) I like the ability to mark a regular clip as launchable from the PDA's launcher application

c) iSilo keeps defaulting to showing icons and scroll bars, while I normally prefer full screen view

d) Plucker will show me which links I've already visited

e) The HandStory viewer seems to be less configurable than either Plucker or iSilo. I set mine up so that I can go back by depressing the jog wheel, with HandStory I think you can only configure the buttons, and I prefer to leave them for launching particular applications

Originally posted by radleyp
Weather: why don't you use Alexander's link to Wunderground weather? I use it, and it works fine.

I'll have a look at this. For weather I mostly use the BBC 5-day forecast for my own locality and the forecasts on WorldMate. But I occasionally look at the OnlineWeather forecasts. The thing is that the AvantGo download from OnlineWeather gives me forecasts for a very large number of British towns and cities, and sometimes I don't know where I might be interested in before I leave home in the morning.

Originally posted by radleyp
I find that I cannot use FontHack 123 with Piloc/Interpilot cyrillic localization. Have you tried? I would like to know your experience.

I haven't tried any alternative fonts on my Clie, but I used them a lot on my Visor. The default fonts on the Clie are rather too skinny for my liking, but I get round that by having Interpilot Czech or Russian activated all the time, including when I'm reading stuff in English. If you do that, the default font changes to one which is nicer to look at and more legible. The only problem is that words with French or German accents on get mangled - Interpilot converts the letters with accents/diacritics into Russian or Czech characters. I haven't tried Piloc. Does it have the same effect?

Is FontHack 123 generally worth using? Which fonts would you recommend?

[gvtexas]

Originally posted by BasilC
The default fonts on the Clie are rather too skinny for my liking...

While this is only a tiny part of your post, thought I'd chime in with a solution. I hate the thin fonts of the natural Clie fonts as well, and found a little program that fattens them up without involving new fonts. In fact, I'm happy enough with the results that I don't use extra fonts.

I have found, however, on my SJ30 that I have some trouble with it if I check the "Autofix after reset" option (which means I have to reenable ThinFontFix after reset to work). This is not a hack, just a little utility program.

Thin Font Fix

Cheers,
Gary