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A new blog for the old dogs

hpcboy Page Icon Posted 2020-10-01 3:11 PM
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H/PC Philosopher

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I've been thinking of how to give back to this generous community. The easiest and cheapest way is perhaps to write something. So I took the plunge and created my very first blog on the world wild web!

The blog is all about my gadgets and hobbies. HPCs are what I want to write about most first, just as an excuse to congratulate myself on acquiring a Sigmarion III and a Sharp Netwalker this week!

https://solochampion.blogspot.com/

TL: DR: I cooked up my very subjective scoring system to help myself understand more about my new old devices. Here is the excerpt if you don't want to see my rants all over the place...

MY FOUR DARK HORSEMEN

Here are my four major contestants at the moment:

HP Jornada 720 (2000)
Alphasmart Dana (2002)
Sigmarion III (2004)
Sharp Netwalker PC-Z1 (2009)




Technical specifications at a glance


Why I count them in (in short): fine physical touch typing keyboard, small footprint, instant-on, respectable battery life (see my further notes), excellent design and ruggedness (despite their age), tweakability, and curiously, no 24/7 (forced) connectivity.
Not my concerns: uber builtin connectivity (all happily lacking one way or another), and high raw power (CPU speed, amount of RAM, internal storage).


My scoring system

I have given scores to these four machines in five categories: Portability, Battery, Screen, Applications, Keyboard.

These scores are rather unconventional and are based on the following personal criteria.

(1) Portability: How easy and convenient it is to carry it around in pockets or in small bags/cases.

(2) Battery: Not original capacity ratings. Rather, this has to do with after replacing the battery cells. All these devices were made more than 10 years ago (J720 was 20!) and so the original battery packs are almost certainly dead. Fortunately it is not that difficult to replace the cells (more on this in my later posts) and the new capacities can become far superior than the factory values.

(3) Screen: How comfortable it is to the eyes of those who type regularly and frequently on the devices.

(4) Applications (Tweakability): Again this does not only concern the stock operating systems (all have been depreciated), but are more about the possibilities of installing upgraded or alternate systems, especially Unix or Linux ports.

(5) Keyboard: How groovy for one to touch type on the builtin keyboard.

All four machines are of excellent and durable build quality.
All are instant-on.
All except for Dana are in clamshell form.

And the results are ...



Full score = 25
Jornada 720: 23
Alphasmart Dana: 21
Sigmarion III: 20
Netwalker PC-Z1: 18


In a nutshell, my biggest love still goes to the Jornada 720 (with a 728 board).

English is not my native language and it's just very amateurish writing. So pardon my inapt expressions and lack of professional knowledge about your buddies.

Edited by hpcboy 2020-10-01 3:15 PM
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hpcboy Page Icon Posted 2020-10-01 6:27 PM
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Just posted two new posts. One for the receiving of my Sigmarion III. Another one is a bold experiment of doing a solder-free battery repair job (and success!).

Part I is here

Part II is here


Edited by hpcboy 2020-10-01 6:30 PM
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ArchiMark Page Icon Posted 2020-10-01 8:18 PM
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H/PC Sensei

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Congrats on your new blog and your successful battery surgery on the Sig 3!

Thanks for sharing your adventures with everyone.

Best,

Mark
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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2020-10-01 11:41 PM
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Hi hpcboy.

Congrats on getting the Sigmarion 3.
I have a question for you, you noted Sigmarion 3 supports NetBSD, would you tell me which version works?
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2020-10-01 11:45 PM
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Looks like you have a 680/690 keyboard on the 720.
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hpcboy Page Icon Posted 2020-10-02 12:24 AM
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I have yet to try NetBSD myself. I just saw some blogs report running NetBSD on SIII. I've also heard that NetBSD runs well on similar ARM machines (the Sharp Zaurus?).
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hpcboy Page Icon Posted 2020-10-02 12:27 AM
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My 720 is a Japanese version, which has the same keyboard layout as 680/690 AFAIK. That's why I am waiting for the mail of another 720 with an English keyboard.
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hpcboy Page Icon Posted 2020-10-02 12:38 AM
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Thanks for your encouragement, ArchiMark. There are many small plans about my HPC experience in the pipeline. . I am not sure if folks like reading long posts in forums, especially nowadays, but I still want to keep records of my progress as a beginner somewhere easy to access.
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ArchiMark Page Icon Posted 2020-10-02 1:40 AM
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H/PC Sensei

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You're welcome, hpcboy!

Think it is great that you are doing this and sharing your experience with everyone.

As for netBSD, I (and a few others), ran OBSD successfully on my Zaurus 3200 about 5 years ago. However, I ran into some limitations with compiling certain programs using cmake.

Eventually, gave up with it and Zaurus.

Think the Zaurus was a great shirt pocket computer and miss having one sometimes.

I had high hopes for the Netwalker, but unfortunately, Sharp didn't release updates as I had hoped and most users with ability to do some updates were in Japan, with sites in Japanese, so, gave up on it too and sold it.

Now have come full circle recently with getting a 720 recently.



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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2020-10-02 2:02 AM
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hpcboy - 2020-10-02 9:24 AM

I have yet to try NetBSD myself. I just saw some blogs report running NetBSD on SIII. I've also heard that NetBSD runs well on similar ARM machines (the Sharp Zaurus?).

Wow! I can't find that blog, would you send me the link or post it here?
I will really appreciate it.
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hpcboy Page Icon Posted 2020-10-02 2:55 AM
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stingraze - 2020-10-02 2:02 AM

Quote
hpcboy - 2020-10-02 9:24 AM

I have yet to try NetBSD myself. I just saw some blogs report running NetBSD on SIII. I've also heard that NetBSD runs well on similar ARM machines (the Sharp Zaurus?).

Wow! I can't find that blog, would you send me the link or post it here?
I will really appreciate it.


Still looking for it in my messy bookmarks... It should be somewhere...
So far I've found two relevant pages:
http://www.jp.netbsd.org/ja/ports/hpcmips/ (for Sigmarion 2?)
https://wiki.netbsd.org/tutorials/how_to_install_netbsd_on_hpcarm/ (written for Jornada, but may serve as a general reference?)

As the Sharp Zaurus has exactly the same processor as the Sigmarion III, perhaps the major differences are the kernel modules? http://wiki.netbsd.org/ports/zaurus/

The rest should be a matter of gathering and kernel modules?
RAM: MobileD-Ram Infineon HYB39L256160AT-7.5×2
GPU:215W4200AFA12F (ATI)
GDDR:K4S643232F-TI/P (samsung)
Not sure about the CF and USB ports. But I suppose there is nothing proprietary about these common interfaces.

Edited by hpcboy 2020-10-02 2:56 AM
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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2020-10-02 3:01 AM
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Thanks for the info.

Let me know when you find it!
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hpcboy Page Icon Posted 2020-10-02 3:20 AM
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ArchiMark - 2020-10-02 1:40 AM

Now have come full circle recently with getting a 720 recently.





I have exactly the same feeling about the HPCs in general.
People generally dismissed these old machines and as if took the low specs were laughing stock. But there are lots of misunderstandings (64MB RAM? No 4k 1080p playback? Can't play Steam?):
(1) WinCE and the HPC form factor (keyboard, widescreen, multiple slots) can do far more than traditional palmtop PDAs, and can still accomplish so many essential tasks just as smoothly as using today's smart devices.
(2) Despite the rapid changes of hardware specs and software versions, we have more or less the same simple needs especially the text-centric tasks (PIM, emailing, notetaking, and even programming), minus today's obsession with entertainment/infotainment/edutainment.
(3) It seems to me a lot of hardware resources are actually wasted on bloated programs and eye candies. I love running simple Debian on a lean machine, and find it rather difficult to understand how resource hungry Ubuntu has become.
(4) Many HPCs have much higher quality than today's cheapish netbooks, can run just fine, and are not that expensive (anymore).
(5) The HPCs have style, unlike the faceless smartphones.
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ArchiMark Page Icon Posted 2020-10-02 6:27 AM
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hpcboy - 2020-10-01 7:20 PM

Quote
ArchiMark - 2020-10-02 1:40 AM

Now have come full circle recently with getting a 720 recently.





I have exactly the same feeling about the HPCs in general.
People generally dismissed these old machines and as if took the low specs were laughing stock. But there are lots of misunderstandings (64MB RAM? No 4k 1080p playback? Can't play Steam?):
(1) WinCE and the HPC form factor (keyboard, widescreen, multiple slots) can do far more than traditional palmtop PDAs, and can still accomplish so many essential tasks just as smoothly as using today's smart devices.
(2) Despite the rapid changes of hardware specs and software versions, we have more or less the same simple needs especially the text-centric tasks (PIM, emailing, notetaking, and even programming), minus today's obsession with entertainment/infotainment/edutainment.
(3) It seems to me a lot of hardware resources are actually wasted on bloated programs and eye candies. I love running simple Debian on a lean machine, and find it rather difficult to understand how resource hungry Ubuntu has become.
(4) Many HPCs have much higher quality than today's cheapish netbooks, can run just fine, and are not that expensive (anymore).
(5) The HPCs have style, unlike the faceless smartphones.



Amen, brother hpcboy.

Well said.

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