Tuesday, April 16, 2002
Do you ever just not feel, you know, fresh?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 11:17 AM
I install a lot of 3rd party applications on my HP 565, and despite having an iPAQ 3870 that I swore would be my "beta device", I always install applications onto my HP 565 to test them. Inevitably, after a few months I end up with a sluggish device that just doesn't quite work the way it used to. Even after un-installing everything I installed, it's not quite as fast as it should be. Ditto for Windows XP on my desktop - why is this a common factor in all Microsoft operating systems? Does the same thing happen on Linux or Macs?
At any rate, I decided to hard reset my HP 565 and start over - and once again I'm amazed at how fast and responsive it is. I name my all computers after feudal Japanese weapons and cultural elements, so my main Pocket PC is always "LittleShogun". Here's where the Pocket PC really starts to fall flat on it's face: restoring a device. If I were to put it in the cradle without first changing the device name, it would create a partnership with Pocket_PC (the default name), completely ignoring the fact that I already have a profile set up and several files that I want to put on the device. Why doesn't it ask if a profile already created should be restored? I changed the device name to "LittteShogun" and deleted the old partnership name before I synced because I've done this before. Yes, I made a typo in the name - which is where the fun started. It synched up just fine, but I was puzzled as to why my files didn't sync until I saw the typo. I changed the name of the device, synced it again, but ActiveSync isn't smart enough to change the name of the synched file folder.
Changing the name of the synchronize folder seems to have thrown ActiveSync into fits - I just tried to sync and I got a nice red "X" and a "Synchronization Error" message. No explanation, just an error. How does that help the user? My next sync attempt resulted in a locked up ActiveSync process that was constantly looking for changes - even after I took the device out of the cradle. Eventually I manually killed ActiveSync and restarted it, and now my Pocket PC is happy - but only after I hacked the registry to point at the properly spelled file sync folder. Augh! If someone like me struggles with this, what hope is there for all of you? ;-)
At any rate, I decided to hard reset my HP 565 and start over - and once again I'm amazed at how fast and responsive it is. I name my all computers after feudal Japanese weapons and cultural elements, so my main Pocket PC is always "LittleShogun". Here's where the Pocket PC really starts to fall flat on it's face: restoring a device. If I were to put it in the cradle without first changing the device name, it would create a partnership with Pocket_PC (the default name), completely ignoring the fact that I already have a profile set up and several files that I want to put on the device. Why doesn't it ask if a profile already created should be restored? I changed the device name to "LittteShogun" and deleted the old partnership name before I synced because I've done this before. Yes, I made a typo in the name - which is where the fun started. It synched up just fine, but I was puzzled as to why my files didn't sync until I saw the typo. I changed the name of the device, synced it again, but ActiveSync isn't smart enough to change the name of the synched file folder.
Changing the name of the synchronize folder seems to have thrown ActiveSync into fits - I just tried to sync and I got a nice red "X" and a "Synchronization Error" message. No explanation, just an error. How does that help the user? My next sync attempt resulted in a locked up ActiveSync process that was constantly looking for changes - even after I took the device out of the cradle. Eventually I manually killed ActiveSync and restarted it, and now my Pocket PC is happy - but only after I hacked the registry to point at the properly spelled file sync folder. Augh! If someone like me struggles with this, what hope is there for all of you? ;-)
