WorldMate 2006 Professional Edition PDA Review

WorldMate 2006 Professional Edition is the “Swiss Army Knife” of travel as it contains 14 travel-related tools in one neat little package. The subscription-based application wirelessly provides updates to weather reports, world times, flight schedules and statuses, currency rates and satellite maps.

Itinerary

The itinerary holds all the information regarding your flight, car rental, hotel, cruise info, train and even meetings. Since services can e-mail you the itineraries, it might be easier to copy and paste the information into your device than to go through the Itinerary tool. [Click image to view larger]

Area Codes

When people give you a phone number, they might not include the area code or dialing prefixes assuming that you know them. The Area Codes tool provides GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), US and Canada area codes, and international dialing prefixes. Search for codes by entering the first letter of the city or country to jump to it. However, if you want to do a reverse lookup (i.e. enter the area code to find out where the call came from), you’ll need to rely on the Internet or another tool as this one doesn’t do reverse lookups.

Map

View the world day / night map to quickly see where it’s day and night around the world. Tap any spot on the map to identify the city or select the city from the list to see its exact location. A nice tool that would be nicer if we could zoom in.

Measurement and Currency

Someone tells you that where you want to go is 16 kilometers away. Americans continue to hold out on converting to the metric system, so enter the distance into the measurement calculator to find out that the destination is 10 miles. It also converts areas, length, speeds, volumes, weights and temperatures. Currency calculator works similarly where you can select three currencies for converting. Since currency rates change, the tool stays updated through the subscription service.

Packing List

Instead of starting a packing list from scratch, use the checklist in WorldMate’s Packing List. Check the items you need to pack, and they appear on “My List” so you only see what you need to take instead of all the items you’re not taking. Packing List also sorts items in categories for easier finding.

Tipping/Tax Calculator

Not all countries operate the same in terms of taxes and tipping. The Tip, Tax Calculator lets you select the country and service (restaurant, bar/pub, hotel porter, taxi, concierge, deliveries, airport and general) so you can figure out what you will owe. The calculator also gives you the option of adding the tip, tax or both amounts into the calculation on top of the bill amount.

Clothing

Business trip or not, you might want to shop for surprises and clothes for yourself. But the sizing in Europe, UK and Japan might not be the same as home. Instead of picking out three different sizes of shoes that look about your size — use the Clothing chart to look up your shoe size and find the right size. If you’re a female size 8, you’re a size 40 in Europe, 6.5 in England, and 25.5 in Japan. The application advises using the chart as a guideline.

WorldMate Professional supports many handheld devices, smartphones and cell phones. It’s a worthy investment for frequent travelers so they can stay updated on all important travel-related information. Mobimate also has a standard edition, which offers fewer services for a lower subscription rate.

Those who rarely travel won’t need something as powerful as WorldMate. Other applications exist that don’t require a subscription. However, this means you’ll need to enter the currency rates yourself for calculating and it won’t be updated unless you regularly check the rates. Weather applications that don’t rely on over-the-air updates can be updated when connecting the device to the PC through the cradle or USB cable.

WorldMate is available for just about every mobile device. Even a 2007 edition is available as well as a standard edition. Here are links to get you started and figure out what you’d be interested in.

Try WorldMate

Broken Sword: The Shadow of Templars Palm Game Review

While the review focuses on the PalmOS version of the game, some of its elements can apply to the PC version, Gameboy version, and Windows Mobile version.

Broken Sword: The Shadow of Templars is an epic adventure that begins in Paris where American tourist George Stobbart witnesses a murder in a (what else?) cafe. The murdered stole the ancient manuscript from the dead man. George takes an interest in the murder and begins unraveling a lengthy story surrounding the Knights of Templars. He doesn’t go on the adventure alone as he meets photojournalist Nico Collard.

George does all the grunt work and puts himself in danger while Nico stays comfy in her flat waiting for his visits or phone calls. While maneuvering on a PalmOS device gets tricky, Astraware does a spectacular job in bringing the adventure to the small device.

The engrossing story has kept me busy for hours and months. I’ve had the game for a long time, but due to other commitments — I couldn’t play it or took long breaks in between. More impressive, the long game plays beautifully on the PalmOS and never crashes. The graphics in the cutscenes, where you watch a mini-movie or stills, looked sharp and contained a cinematic effect.

The game contains many little details that appeared clearly on the small screen. The trickier parts of the game involved using two or more objects together. I had to play with the controls for a long time when I came across the first time a situation called for combining two objects. Once you figure it out, future object combinations go more smoothly — but not perfectly.

Adventure games have one drawback — replayability, or lack thereof. Few people replay an adventure game upon completion. But this one lasts a long time to earn its money’s worth. Not only does Broken Sword: The Shadow of Templars take you beyond Paris to Ireland, Spain, Britain and Syria, but also it provides plenty of comic relief. George’s quick-witted humor makes him instantly likable.

Considering I took breaks between game playing sessions, sometimes I lost track of the story. In most cases, the game gets you back on track. Playing Broken Sword: The Shadow of Templars reminded me of the old days when I loved playing adventure games like King’s Quest, Mystery House and Leisure Suit Larry. Be patient, absorb all of the dialog and you’ll enjoy the game to the fullest.

Broken Sword: The Shadow of Templars for PalmOS or Windows Mobile.

Compatibility: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is not compatible with Palm Tungsten T and Tungsten T2, Sony CLIÉ UX40, UX50 and VZ90. It’;s also not compatible with low resolution (160×160) Palm OS® devices such as: Zire 21, Zire 31, Z22, Tréo 600, or QVGA (240×320) Palm OS® devices such as: Qool QDA 700 and the PiTech W300.

Pocket PC Compatibility: The game comes in two versions, one for Windows Mobile 2003 and the other for Windows Mobile 5. Be sure to get the right one.

PDAs: Soft and Hard Resets

A friend of mine bought another PDA when her Zire 22 wouldn’t charge. I asked her why didn’t she tell me as the solution could be an easy one. Nonetheless, I told her to try a soft reset and then a hard reset. She said she was charging the new one and then was going to put the new one into the old one’s cradle to see if it charges. Good idea, but I’d try the reset first.

Info on resets: Before doing any kind of reset, backup the device, if possible. A soft reset compares to rebooting a computer. Doing a reset doesn’t erase the data.

Most devices come with a small hole on the back. The tip of your stylus might be able to press it. If not, get a paperclip and straighten it. This works most, if not all, the time. Just insert the clip or stylus into the hole until you see the welcome screen appear. Some devices don’t have the reset button in an obvious place like the Tungsten T3 requires sliding it open to access the hole or the Treo 650 that has its reset button behind the battery door.

A hard reset erases all the data and returns the device to the way it was when you two first met. Again (can’t remind folks too many times), back up your data before doing a hard reset. Put the paper clip or stylus into the hole on the back of the device and hold it down while you press the power button until you see the screen appear with either a message asking if you want to erase the data, or the device’s default welcome screen. Also, check your device’s documentation because the hard reset process could be different — but this one is common.

After doing a hard reset, sync your device with the computer to restore the data. Before doing this, check the device’s documentation on restoring data. For instance, Palm OS users need to open HotSync and select Custom. Select the Conduit and click Change to “change the action to Desktop overwrites handheld.” Windows Mobile users open ActiveSync, click on Tools and then Backup/Restore. Select the Restore tab and click on the Restore Now button.

Palm and Treo Hacks

The Treo takes up one whole chapter of this book plus references in the communication-related. Still although the Treo is a popular PalmOS-based device, it rightfully doesn’t dominate the book. After all, many owners of PalmOS devices don’t need or want to have a powerful device like the Treo.

In spite of “hacks” in its name, the book isn’t as geeky or technical as it sounds. A hack is also known as a trick or add-on for adding more power to a program or system. However, not all of the tips are technically hacks because they provide how-to advice: annotate everything, find anything, get the most out of the date book, how to become a better student, and so on.

One caveat, when the book references another hack or figures, the light gray text barely appears and it is difficult to read. MacHaffie also refers to third-party software as a way to add more options, games, and functionality to the PalmOS device. It’s tough to please people with varying interests. It might’ve been better to refer to places where you can find and download software. Many people would appreciate these discoveries.

The games section, for example, has references to quite a few role-playing games (RPG) in comparison to other types of games. Most of the sections only take a few pages, so it’s not a big waste if the topic doesn’t catch your eye. Again, it’s tough to address a wide audience and there wouldn’t be enough material to create a separate book addressing only PalmOS games, student tips, and advice for business users.

Roughly about a fourth of the book covers communications, phone PDA hybrid tips, and multimedia. So those who have basic PDAs without any connections still get a bulk of information they can use. The 55 tips are listed in the table of contents listed on the book’s Web page (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/palmtreohks/toc.html) and checking it out should give you a good idea if you’ll find the book useful or not.

You won’t find much tech jargon so the hacks are easy to understand. The book has tips for beginners, moderate users, and experts and each hack is represented by thermometer’s temperature (high for expert and low for easy) for quick reference. Very few hacks are at the expert level, so beginners and moderates should have no trouble applying most or all of the hacks.

Title: Palm and Treo Hacks
Author: Scott MacHaffie
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 059610054X
Date: October 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 234
Cover Price: USD: $24.95 Amazon: $16.47

PDA-lize the Blog - Update

Thanks to A. Non for letting me know the PDA Your Movable Type Blog entry needed updating. I just tested it and it still works. Thanks to AvantGo’s changes, there are fewer screens and steps.

For WordPress users, there is WP Mobile Edition from the talented and prolific WP’er, Alex King (details also at WP Support). Also, WP has a discussion on a posting through a PDA blogging client. Another option is to use BlogMail (not limited to WP).

When I first posted the entry, my blog was using .html files. Now it uses .php and all went well. So, I’ll use the php name in this version. If you use .html or .htm, just substitute php with whatever you use.

If you run a weblog using Movable Type, then you can easily make it available for PDA readers. It takes under 30 minutes to set it up. For me, it took 10 minutes max.

Select the weblog to convert to PDA format. Click on LIST & EDIT TEMPLATES > CREATE NEW INDEX TEMPLATE (just above the gray boxed area that lists your existing templates) .

In the NAME box, enter a name for the weblog. Mine says, “Portable meryl’s notes.”

In the OUTPUT FILE box, enter a name for the file with a .html extension. Here I enter, “pdanotes.php.”
Copy and paste the following and change the <TITLE> and the <DIV> right after the <BODY> tag.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"

"DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html>

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;

charset=iso-8859-1" />

<TITLE>meryl’s notes on the go!</TITLE>

<style type="text/css">

<!–

body {

color:#333;

background-color:white;

margin:20px;

padding:0px;

font:11px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

leftMargin=0

}

h1 {

font:bold 12px/12px verdana, arial, helvetica,

sans-serif;

margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;

padding:0px;

}

p {

font:11px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

color:#333333;

margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;

padding:0px;

}

.Content>p {margin:0px;}

.Content>p+p {text-indent:0px;}

.tinyfont { font:8px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }

.smallfont { font:9px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }

.titlefont { font:14px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }

a {

color:#000000;

font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

text-decoration:none;

}

A:link { color: #09c; TEXT-DECORATION: none }

A:visited { color: #07a; TEXT-DECORATION: none }

A:active { TEXT-DECORATION: none }

A:hover {

FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal

BACKGROUND: #eee;

}

#Header {

margin:50px 0px 10px 0px;

padding:17px 0px 0px 20px;

/* For IE5/Win’s benefit height = [correct height] +

[top padding] + [top and bottom border widths] */

height:33px; /* 14px + 17px + 2px = 33px */

border-style:solid;

border-color:black;

border-width:1px 0px; /* top and bottom borders: 1px;

left and right borders: 0px */

line-height:11px;

background-color:#eee;

/* Here is the ugly brilliant hack that protects IE5/Win

from its own stupidity. Thanks to Tantek Celik for the

hack and to Eric Costello for publicizing it. IE5/Win

incorrectly parses the ""}"" value, prematurely

closing the style declaration. The incorrect IE5/Win

value is above, while the correct value is below. See

http://glish.com/css/hacks.asp for details. */

voice-family: ""}"";

voice-family:inherit;

height:14px; /* the correct height */

}

body>#Header {height:14px;}

.Content {

margin:5px 5px 5px 5px;

padding:2px;

}

.dateheader {

position:relative;

width:auto;

min-width:120px;

margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;

padding:5px;

z-index:3;

}

–>

</style>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

<DIV id=Header>meryl’s notes on the go!</DIV>

<div align="left">

<MTEntries lastn="15">

<MTDateHeader>

<div class="dateheader"><H1><$MTEntryDate format="%A, %B %e,

%Y"$></H1></DIV>

</MTDateHeader>

<br>

<DIV class="content">

<span class="titlefont"><i><$MTEntryTitle$></i>

(<$MTEntryDate format="%I:%M%p"$>)<br /></span>

<$MTEntryBody$>

<MTEntryIfExtended>

<p><$MTEntryMore$></p>

</MTEntryIfExtended>

<MTEntryIfAllowComments>

<p>:: Comments left behind ::</p>

<MTComments>

<$MTCommentBody$>

<span class="smallfont">:: <$MTCommentAuthorLink$>

<$MTCommentDate$></span><br /><br />

</MTComments>

</MTEntryIfAllowComments>

</div>

</MTEntries>

</div>

<HR width="75%">

<P CLASS="tinyfont" align="center">

<a href="http://www.movabletype.org">Powered by

MovableType</a></P>

</body>

</html>

Hit SAVE and do a REBUILD (can just rebuild the indexes if no other templates are updated).

That’s it for the Movable Type portion. Next step is to go to AvantGo and log in.

Click on MY ACCOUNT (upper right side of the screen) > CREATE A PERSONAL CHANNEL (under Subscriptions) > in CHANNEL LOCATION, enter the URL to your new .php or .html file that you just created. For this, it is: http://www.meryl.net/blog/pdanotes.php.

Click on VIEW to make sure it takes you to the page you have just created to verify it is the correct URL. Once confirmed, close the window and you’re back at AvantGo.

Modify the CHANNEL SIZE and CHANNEL REFRESH as you desire. Remember, PDAs holds various amounts of data depending on the user’s PDA. Some are as small as 16 MB and others have 624 MB. When you’re done, click SAVE CHANNEL.

Return to the MY ACCOUNTS tab. Select EXPORT SUBSCRIPTIONS. COPY the new channel you just have created by highlighting the entire URL and pressing CTRL-C. PASTE it in an email or word processor by pressing CTRL-V. This is the URL you give to others or put in your Web site for others to access your pages through the PDA. Here’s the one for meryl’s notes.

Consider yourself portablized!

Return to Original Graffiti

When I received the Tungsten T3, I was instantly happy with it except for one thing — the Graffiti. I had to unlearn years’ worth of the original Graffiti to use the T3. To date, I still can’t remember how to do punctuation. If I had the T3 first, then the Grafitti is great for a first-timer, but not for us long-time users.

You can return your PalmOS device back to its original Grafitti with this trick, but you need to find someone with a Tungsten T or Sony Clie with OS 5 to make this work. Using Palm m515, m500 or anything with the original Graffiti will not work. Thanks to Hong Kong PalmOS expert, Brando, for the instructions to restore the original Graffiti.

If you don’t have access to the Tungsten T or Sony Clie, there are other options. See PalmInfoCenter for details. I have not tried this since I don’t have access to either device. Remember — backup and you’re on your own. No blaming me if things go wrong.

1. Download a handheld file manager like FileZ so you can view the files, which are stored in the ROM. If you use FileZ, tick the ROM box.

2. Use a handheld that has the original Graffiti system installed (Tungsten T or Clie). Look for the following files using FileZ:

* Graffiti Library.prc, size: 30k, creator: grft
* Graffiti Library_enUS.prc, size 22k, creator: grft

3. Beam or copy the two files to the target handheld you want to change from Graffiti 2 to the original.

4. Perform a soft reset (press the device’s reset pin), and the original Graffiti should be ready to go.

Notes: Procedures has been tested with a Tungsten T. Successfully installed Graffiti over Graffiti 2 on a Tungsten T2, Zire 71, Tungsten C, and a Sony Clie NX80V. Other models that run Palm OS 5 should also be compatible. Even after the replacement, the write anywhere on screen feature of Palm OS 5.2 still functions. The on-screen Graffiti reference also reverts back to the original guide.

Restore Graffiti 2
If you want to restore Graffiti 2, you must perform a hard reset, so backup the data first. A hard reset it performed by holding the power button down during a reset. This restores the handheld to its original factory state, and will wipe out all of your installed programs and data, so make sure you have a recent backup on hand.

Another restore option from Ben Combee who provided this tip to revert back to Graffiti 2 without a hard reset. However, this does not work with the Sony Clie UX50.

1. In Filez, go to the Details form for each database. Change both the name and creator code of each one.

2. Soft reset your device.

3. In Filez, delete the two databases, then soft reset.

New and Not Improved OmniSky

OmniSky, a wireless service provider, has filed for Chapter 11 and sold its wireless assets to Earthlink. Earthlink released a software upgrade for its wireless customers including those who transitioned from OmniSky. After using it for one week with a Palm Vx and Minstrel modem, I’m disappointed with the software because it’s less usable and slower than OmniSky’s software.

It has nothing to do with change since that occurs daily in an IT business environment. It has everything to do with the usability and speed of the application. There are only minor improvements, but they’re overshadowed by the problems.

New Earthlink Wireless users who have never experienced OmniSky likely will be somewhat satisfied with the software not knowing what they’re missing. The only thing they may notice and dislike is the slow connection when surfing the Web.

Trashing

Previously, when deleting an email, there was a popup box that provided the options of deleting it from the Handheld, Handheld and Server, or Cancel. If I wanted to save an email for the home PC, then I’d delete it from the handheld. If I was finished with the email and had no need for it, I’d select to delete it from the handheld and server so I wouldn’t have to deal with it again on the home PC.

The new software makes it an application preference. You can either choose to Delete from Handheld or Delete from Handheld and Server for the entire emailbox. There’s no option to do it on an individual email basis. Now, I am stuck with a handheld mailbox full of emails that I want to address on the home PC, but don’t need on the handheld, and this further clutters the tiny space.

Another timesaver on the old software is that when you deleted an email, it opened the next email for immediate reading. The new one takes you back to the Inbox screen where you have to select the next one to read.

Composing

Replying to emails is time-consuming process with the new software. When replying, it puts your cursor at the top of the email body followed by your signature. It doesn’t allow you to select a bulk of text with the stylus or the keyboard and delete them with one move. Plus, it doesn’t differentiate the sender’s message from yours with > or some other character.

The old software had this capability. I realize many users do reply at the top, but I also know many that reply throughout or at the bottom. However, this is a handheld device and it’s hard to review the original email when your cursor is at the top. The previous software made it easier to review the original response as you entered your response.

When forwarding or composing a new email, the new software puts the cursor in the Subject: of the email and the tab doesn’t work. The old software put the cursor in the TO: and allowed me to tab from To: and Subject: to the body of the email. To boot, the scrolling button scrolls line by line instead of page by page in the old software.

The first few days, the modem failed to connect to the network more often than it succeeded. This has somewhat improved, but not to the excellent levels that OmniSky provided. The handheld keeps spitting a Fatal Alert error (DataMgr.c, Line: 8589, Index Out of Range) requiring a soft RESET. I’ve been able to work around it.

Once, it happened every time I tried to Send and Receive Email and I couldn’t work around it. I called the Earthlink tech support. He instructed me to uninstall and reinstall the software. Since I wasn’t near the home PC, I tried again to bypass the error and got email working again. Unless needed, I don’t plan to uninstall so as to avoid further messing up things.

Mini-Web Surfing

Rarely do I explore the Web on the handheld device, but wanted to see how it worked with Earthlink’s software. It’s much slower and painful to use than OmniSky’s software. It took so long to access a Web site, I lost patience and quit the application. Even with OmniSky, it did occasionally take a little time to load a page. In this case, it happened every time.

OmniSky gave the user the option of using PQA (Palm Query Application), and/or buy a browser, such as the Handspring Blazer, to use in conjunction with the fast Web-clipping format. Earthlink has built a new client on the Handspring Blazer and trashed Web-clipping capabilities. The result is a snail-like and unstable browsing experience

Improvements

The software has a few improvements, but not enough to ignore the problems and live with the software. If you forward an email with an attachment, it sends the attachment. The old software didn’t include the attachment when forwarding. It also has the capability to view attachments.

You can select multiple emails for moving or deleting from a folder. The Inbox interface is better since it provides more information in four columns: Mail, From, Subject, and Date. The mail column indicates whether or not you’ve opened the email and includes a paperclip when there are attachments.

The new software comes with new options such as Select All Messages, Empty Deleted Items, and View Options. There is also a Deleted folder, which wasn’t in the old software. At first, I didn’t like this folder because it added another step to delete messages from the folder. It may be helpful to have this, but it depends on how the deleting works and it’s been tough to figure it out.

There’s no documentation detailing whether or not an email that’s in the Deleted folder will remain on the server for PC retrieval. I tested it and the email did remain on the server and the PC retrieved it. However, it’s confusing because of the Delete from Handheld or Delete from Handheld and Server preference. Does nothing get deleted from the server unless it’s deleted from the Deleted folder? Or does it depend on the preference?

The software has the capability to manage up to 10 accounts. Adding a Yahoo account went without a hitch. It’s easy to switch between the two accounts using the drop-down box.

Earth To Earthlink

Earthlink has been an ISP for a long time and I believe they were thinking like the PC user instead of the handheld user when developing the software. It would’ve been simpler to take OmniSky’s software and add required elements, if any, to make the service work.

It’s commendable they attempted to better the product and try to give us something new, but not at the sacrifice of usability and speed. I never received a survey from Earthlink asking how I liked my service and software.

The software title has a version number tied to it, giving the impression they plan to upgrade. If you use the service, tell them what you’d like to see in a future release.

PDA Posting to MT

Here’s a way to post to the blog from your PDA (with or without a modem) and not worry about “inappropriate surfing” at the office. The only drawback is that the boxes where you enter your entry are SMALLLLL. However, Ben and Mena plan to add more functionality in a future release. Details on how to do it are in the MT Forums.

Go into AvantGo and create a new channel. Enter a name for it and the following for the URL (one line):

http://www.yourdomain.com/mt/mt.cgi?
is_bm=1&bm_show=allow_comments,
excerpt,text_more&__mode=view&_type=entry&
link_title=&link_href=&text=

Note: If you keep your MovableType directory elsewhere than /mt, but sure to modify that in the line, too.

Save it. Sync your handheld. Go into PDA AvantGo on your handheld and select the item you just created by the name you gave it.

The first time you do this, you’ll need to enter your user ID and password that you use to sign in to your Weblog. Sync it AGAIN. You won’t have to enter your user ID and password again.

Then, go back into PDA AvantGo and enter your entry. It will be online when you sync again either through a modem or cradle.

This entry got on through a modem and it has been tested through a cradle sync.

Feedback from Wari:

If you have multiple blogs, you can use the following to take you right into a certain blog’s entry. You can determine the id number by entering Movable Type, clicking on the blog you want to add to your PDA, and looking at the ID=”#.” The # is what goes after ID= in the following:

http://your.domain.com/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&blog_id=1

Again, substitute your domain and be sure to point to wherever mt.cgi is located if you don’t use the typical home/mt/mt.cgi location.

PDA Your Movable Type Blog

If you run a weblog using Movable Type, then you can easily make it available for PDA readers. It takes under 30 minutes to set it up.

Select the weblog to convert to PDA format. Click on LIST & EDIT TEMPLATES > CREATE NEW INDEX TEMPLATE (just above the gray boxed area that lists your existing templates) .

In the NAME box, enter a name for the weblog. Mine says, “Portable meryl’s notes.”

In the OUTPUT FILE box, enter a name for the file with a .html extension. Here I enter, “pdanotes.html.”

Copy and paste the following and change the <TITLE> and the <DIV> right after the <BODY> tag.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=iso-8859-1" />
<TITLE>meryl's notes on the go!</TITLE>
<style type="text/css">
<!--
body {
	color:#333;
	background-color:white;
	margin:20px;
	padding:0px;
	font:11px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
	leftMargin=0
}
h1 {
	font:bold 12px/12px verdana, arial, helvetica,
                       sans-serif;
	margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;
	padding:0px;
}
p {
	font:11px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
	color:#333333;
	margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;
	padding:0px;
}
.Content>p {margin:0px;}
.Content>p+p {text-indent:0px;}
.tinyfont { font:8px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }
.smallfont { font:9px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }
.titlefont { font:14px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }
a {
	color:#000000;
	font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
	text-decoration:none;
}
A:link { color: #09c; TEXT-DECORATION: none }
A:visited { color: #07a; TEXT-DECORATION: none }
A:active { TEXT-DECORATION: none }
A:hover {
	FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal
	BACKGROUND: #eee;
}
#Header {
	margin:50px 0px 10px 0px;
	padding:17px 0px 0px 20px;
	/* For IE5/Win's benefit height = [correct height] +
[top padding] + [top and bottom border widths] */
	height:33px; /* 14px + 17px + 2px = 33px */
	border-style:solid;
	border-color:black;
	border-width:1px 0px; /* top and bottom borders: 1px;
left and right borders: 0px */
	line-height:11px;
	background-color:#eee;
/* Here is the ugly brilliant hack that protects IE5/Win
from its own stupidity. Thanks to Tantek Celik for the
hack and to Eric Costello for publicizing it. IE5/Win
incorrectly parses the ""}"" value, prematurely
closing the style declaration. The incorrect IE5/Win
value is above, while  the correct value is below. See
http://glish.com/css/hacks.asp for details. */
	voice-family: ""}"";
	voice-family:inherit;
	height:14px; /* the correct height */
}
/* I've heard this called the "be nice to Opera 5" rule.
Basically, it feeds correct length values to user agents
that exhibit the parsing error exploited above yet get
the CSS box model right and understand the CSS2
parent-child selector. ALWAYS include a "be nice to
Opera 5" rule every time you use the Tantek Celik
hack (above). */
body>#Header {height:14px;}
.Content {
	margin:5px 5px 5px 5px;
	padding:2px;
}
.dateheader {
	position:relative;
	width:auto;
	min-width:120px;
	margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;
	padding:5px;
	z-index:3;
}
-->
</style>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV id=Header>... meryl's notes on the go!</DIV>
<div align="left">
<MTEntries lastn="15">
<MTDateHeader>
<div class="dateheader"><H1><$MTEntryDate format="%A, %B %e,
%Y"$></H1></DIV>
</MTDateHeader>
<br>
<DIV class="content">
<span class="titlefont"><i><$MTEntryTitle$></i>
(<$MTEntryDate format="%I:%M%p"$>)<br /></span>
<$MTEntryBody$>
<MTEntryIfExtended>
<p><$MTEntryMore$></p>
</MTEntryIfExtended>
<MTEntryIfAllowComments>
<p>:: Comments left behind ::</p>
<MTComments>
<$MTCommentBody$>
<span class="smallfont">:: <$MTCommentAuthorLink$>
<$MTCommentDate$></span><br /><br />
</MTComments>
</MTEntryIfAllowComments>
</div>
</MTEntries>
</div>
<HR width="75%">
<P CLASS="tinyfont" align="center">
<a href="http://www.movabletype.org">Powered by
MovableType</a></P>
</body>
</html>

Hit SAVE and do a REBUILD.

That’s it for the Movable Type portion. Next step is to go to AvantGo and log in.

Click on MY ACCOUNT (upper right side of the screen) > CREATE CUSTOM CHANNEL WIZARD > in CHANNEL LOCATION, enter the URL to your new .html file that you just created. For this, it is: http://www.meryl.net/blog/pdanotes.html.

Click on VIEW to make sure it takes you to the .html page you created to verify it is the correct URL. Once confirmed, close the window and you’re back at AvantGo.

Proceed through the Channel Wizard. It has instructions for each screen so you can determine what you’d like to do. Remember, PDAs holds various amounts of data depending on the user’s PDA. Some are as small as 2 MB and others have 32 MB.

Click NEXT > Enter a CHANNEL TITLE (meryl.net articles) > Enter the CHANNEL MAX SIZE based on reading the instructions > NEXT > Select YES or NO for FOLLOW OFFSITE LINKS based on instructions > NEXT > Determine CHANNEL LINK DEPTH upon reading instructions > NEXT > Select YES OR NO for INCLUDING IMAGES (I recommend NO) > NEXT > FINISH (or go BACK if you need to revise something).

You’ll return to the MY CHANNELS screen. Select EXPORT CHANNELS. COPY the new channel you just have created by highlighting the entire URL and pressing CTRL-C. PASTE it in an email or word processor by pressing CTRL-V. This is the URL you give to others or put in your Web site for others to access your pages through the PDA.

Consider yourself portablized!