Quickies: Floating Point, MemoWare, New England

The Landware Floating Point Stylus for the m500 series is finally available. It costs $14 for a limited time. -Ed

This month marks MemoWare's fifth anniversary. They host nearly 10 thousand locally stored PDA-friendly documents, all free for downloading, neatly categorized, and searchable. -Craig Froehle

Join the New England Palm Users Group for an Arcade Game Extravaganza at 6.30 PM on August 21 at MIT. Janice Karin is the main presenter, but special guest Aaron Ardiri will demo new software in addition to his current stable of Game&Watch games. Robert Jen will also demo 9Ball Pinball, the game he wrote for LandWare. -Janice Karin

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Memoware

I.M. Anonymous @ 8/21/2001 9:46:06 AM #
Memoware is great - and I use it quite often, but honestly the way it's organized needs some work. Here are a couple of simple suggestions;

1) Organize alphebetically. When was the last time that you walked in to a bookstore looking for some book, and they didn't ask you the author or the title, they asked you the publication date? If you did this, you could just put a little flashing *new* next to stuff recently added, or have a separate category for recently added material.

2) Separate the Docs from the iSilo from the TomeRaider. For those of us who haven't ponied up $20 just for the privilege of reading open-copyright books in the TomeRaider format, it's a real pain to wade through the titles. A better system would be one where the title would appear only once, and would have TR or Doc or iSilo options.

3) Simplify the submission process with a form - that would make the process much more automatic, and would eliminate the problem of people submitting incomplete data to you.

Of course the best system would be one in which every title would be sortable by author, title, format, or date added, like they now do at PalmGear. But since that kind of switch is probably a pretty big project, maybe just doing the suggestions above would help.

BTW I don't mean to sound too critical - I love memoware, but it's time to upgrade a little if memoware plans on becoming a central source for ebooks just when the market is getting good. :)

RE: Memoware
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/21/2001 12:36:37 PM #
Memoware is great, however I agree with the previous post,
-Si

RE: Memoware
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/21/2001 11:20:34 PM #
I love Memoware, and also agree with the first poster; however, some of your suggestions have already come to pass.

If you want to see the largest collection of Docs (which include all Memoware's documents) go to the Qvadis library. If you want to see just TomeRaider stuff, go to Tomeraider's website. Unfortunately, iSilo's website hasn't been developed in a long time, so that one is off (too bad, iSilo is a nice format).

Otherwise, both Qvadis and Tomeraider have collaborated really well with Memoware, and have done a hell of a lot to pump up Memoware's collection and push the Doc and TR formats.

RE: Memoware
MemoWare @ 8/23/2001 8:35:01 AM #
Hey, all, Craig here. Thanks for the feedback -- it's tough to just intuit what people want if they never make suggestions. Here's my reply to these suggestions:

> 1) Organize alphebetically. When was the last time that you walked into
> a bookstore looking for some book, and they didn't ask you the author or
> the title, they asked you the publication date? If you did this, you could
> just put a little flashing *new* next to stuff recently added, or have a
> separate category for recently added material.

Heh...I _used_ to have a separate "New Stuff" category, but most people wanted new material categorized properly from the get-go (so if they went to the "Sports" section, they'd see new stuff as well as old stuff). But, I'm working on an update to the back-end database that will let you organize virtually MemoWare any way you want.

> 2) Separate the Docs from the iSilo from the TomeRaider. For those of us
> who haven't ponied up $20 just for the privilege of reading open-copyright
> books in the TomeRaider format, it's a real pain to wade through the titles.

Well, right _now_ you can search by format -- try the PowerSearch page at http://www.memoware.com/mw-power.htm, but that's still more limited than what I eventually want.

> A better system would be one where the title would appear only once, and
> would have TR or Doc or iSilo options.

Exactly...I couldn't agree with you more. The new system will be organized by _title_ with different formats of the same title grouped together -- this should make browsing and searching much easier.

> 3) Simplify the submission process with a form - that would make the process
> much more automatic, and would eliminate the problem of people submitting
> incomplete data to you.

The new system will have this feature, but people still make mistakes and don't fill out forms correctly, so I'll still have editorial oversight (i.e., I'll review submissions before OK'ing them to be added to the database). What will really speed things up is not having to copy and paste all the info from people's emails into the database by hand (which I've done now for over 4 years).

> Of course the best system would be one in which every title would be sortable
> by author, title, format, or date added, like they now do at PalmGear. But since
> that kind of switch is probably a pretty big project, maybe just doing the
> suggestions above would help.

You got it. I've been working with a couple of friends on this database overhaul since February, and we're getting close. I think you'll be just stunned at how much more powerful and easy-to-use the new system is once I get it online.

Since I do this solely as a hobby (I actually have a day job), things don't happen as fast as I'd like, but it's getting there.

Thanks again for the feedback, and best wishes...
- Craig

Floating Point is Fabulous

Binks @ 8/21/2001 10:11:25 AM #
I want to say that this is the best addition to my Palm ever. This device in ingenous and well made. I would be willing to review it for Palm Infocenter, I got mine yesterday and so far its a sure hit.

Their service and support is excellent too! I waited a long time for this item and it was well worth the wait.

Awesome job Landware!!!

Binks

RE: Floating Point is Fabulous
nzjss @ 8/22/2001 1:36:52 AM #
I agree with Binks that the Floatingpoint Stylis is the best accessory for your palm!
Mine was bought for a Palm Vx but fits perfectly in my M500.
The difference between a Palm Vx and M500/505 stylus is only that the M500/505 has
a shorter top piece so swapping the M500 top piece onto the Vx FloatingPoint made
the FolatingPoint fit perfectly in my M500.
The FloatingPoint is finer so it can be placed more accurately on the screen,
PLUS the spring loaded tip puts a very even pressure on the screen giving
measurably less wear and more constant graffiti recognition by the palm.
My Palm Vx stylus would wear through a protective cover over the graffiti area in
20 odd days and the FloatingPoint still has less wear at 60 days!
NZJSS
Wellington, New Zealand


Floating Point...

I.M. Anonymous @ 8/21/2001 2:20:52 PM #
Did you know that PILOT Pentopia makes a stylus for the PalmV that fits perfect in the right holder on the Palm m505. It has a floating point, and a Ball Point Pen under the Cap plus a Reset Pin. It locks right in the side chanel on the 500. This was the only thing I could pass on from the PalmV I had.

Scott

RE: Floating Point...
Logan @ 8/21/2001 8:49:29 PM #

LandWare's floating point stylus is quite a different beast from the pentopia.

Floating point's special nib dampening system provides a "non-linear" response to pressure exerted by the user. By contrast the pentopia is equipped with a simple coil spring which provides a "linear" resistance as you press down. So what does this actually mean?

It is non-linear nature of Floating point's stylus nib movement that mimics how a pad of paper reacts when you push down on it with a pen. If you push down on a pad lightly it feels quite "soft" and gets increasingly firmer as you push down harder with the pen. In other words the firmness of the paper pad increases at a non-linear rate, just like the floating point stylus.

Compare this to the resistance offered by Pentopia's regular sprung stylus. They increase at the same rate as the force exerted by the user. ie Push twice as hard and the stylus offers twice the resistance, push three times as hard and the stylus offers three times the resistance etc which is NOT the way a pad of paper reacts in real life. In addition to this the difficulty with the pentopia's approach is that either the coil spring is too stiff to provide adequate compliance when writing, or too soft to maintain good 'feel'.

hope this helps...

RE: Floating Point...
EnocH @ 8/22/2001 2:04:42 AM #
You are spot on with you thesis, ;>
I agree wholeheartedly.
Ever thought of being a reviewer? ;>

God Bless,
EnocH

RE: Floating Point...
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/22/2001 4:08:57 PM #
What does this mean in the real world for those of us who use FitalyStamp instead of Grafitti? The stylus looks cool, but I can't figure out if there would be an advantage for FS users.

Thanks

RE: Floating Point...
Dave @ 8/22/2001 4:32:41 PM #
The floating*point stylus allows for better accuracy when using the FS because of the thin tip in addition to more silent operation.

RE: Floating Point...
Logan @ 8/23/2001 6:57:03 AM #
Improved grafitti recognition is only a secondary benefit provided by floating point. FitalyStamp users would still benefit from floating points primary advantages namly:

1. Significantly greater comfort when writing and tapping. Unlike other "sprung" stylii floating point faithfully replicates the feel of writing on a pad of paper.

2. Reduces the peak contact pressures applied to the organizer's screen during regular stylus use which in turn significantly reduces screen wear.

An previous comment in this thread illustrated the latter point pretty well when he said "My Palm Vx stylus would wear through a protective cover over the graffiti area in 20 odd days and the FloatingPoint still has less wear at 60 days!"

hope this helps


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