Hi,
Thought of writing the answers in one post:
* KeyMail random insertion problem: No firm pattern has been
established yet, but it has been documented a lot on this forum.
Apparently KeyMail decides to grab random text and inserts at the
end of an outgoing address. These characters include control
characters, random parts of KeySoft messages and parts of
database strings.
* Background tasks and foreground jobs: In operating system (OS)
world, a "background process" is a job that does something in the
background with little user interaction. These are mostly helper
tasks used by programs, system routines and so forth. As opposed
to this, a foreground process would be the program you might be
using at that time that interacts with a user.
* Power states: speaking of background processes and what happens
when the BN sleeps, I feel its time to explain more system
routines and "behind the scenes" materials (at least based on
usage data I've gathered):
There are a number of sleep states defined not by BrailleNote,
but by Windows CE's power management modules. At minimum, these
modules define the following power states: device is on, device
is off, device is on standby with or without using power buttons,
device is "turning" on," device is "turning" off and reset.
"Device on" refers to when the device is being used by a user;
"device off" would be when it is completely off. The third
refers to when the device is on but no user interaction is going
on (idle) or the device is off but temporary information is there
so it can turn on fast; The next two are transitions from being
off to on and vice versa, respectively. The last is reserved for
when a reset button or event is triggered.
For today, I'll explain what exactly happens when the device is
off, on and in case of reset.
* Device turning off: when the power switch is on "off" position,
the main memory would still be powered to provide a way for
BrailleNote to resume fast. At the same time, timer would run to
keep track of time and to tell the alarm to sound when it is time
to do so. The braille display, keyboard and speaker (things
required by BrailleNote to interact with you) are turned "off."
* Device turning on: When the power switch is on "on" position,
BrailleNote powers the display, keyboard and speaker so user
interaction may happen. These two are sort of equivalent to
sleep function found on modern PC's.
* Reset: When this happens, KeySoft is told by the OS that it
should shut down; at this point, KeySoft tries to save essential
information such as closing files, settings and so forth. Then
KeySoft terminates, and OS tells the hardware (specifically CPU
and power modules) to restart. During reboot, BrailleNote's CPU
loads Windows CE image (containing KeySoft) from ROM to RAM,
starts the OS and, in turn, OS starts KeySoft. Under KeySoft 9.1
and later, you'll see a progress percentage indicator during
reset to indicate the poogress of reboot.
As for details on what really goes on from system level, I'll not
go there today - perhaps one day.
* April Fools jokes: I sort of let the "joke" go, but now, I'd
like to comment on whether to send it to HW. As the author of
that joke, my intent was to deliver user requests in a humorous
way. We've done this a few years ago and had a good laugh about
it in the end. I appreciate people's comments on the humor and
sentiment behind the post. However, as Grant said, I feel its
better to leave the joke "as is" - that is, leave it here and not
send it to HW. Two reasons: for "background presence" of HW
staff who would've read it and perhaps discussed it among
themselves, and second, for keeping their priorities for solving
problems with solid facts. As a saying goes, "you cannot see an
answer to a problem unless you're presented with facts first."
And, as another saying goes, "you need precise steps to solve a
problem," which is the definition of what's termed "algorithm."
Thus, I think it is best to keep that joke post here so that the
company could have more time solving important issues first
without being bogged by posts with speculative content.
* Speaking of solving problems, I would like to cordially suggest
the following when attempting to solve a BrailleNote related
issue: when you see a post from someone who needs help with
something, please try it on your end first so that you can tell
the other person what to press and how to respond to prompts.
I'm sure that when you try to solve a problem for somebody, you
would like to be as accurate as possible. For example, if you're
asked by a friend of yours as to how to access KeySoft System
Disk on the Apex (which there are at least two ways of doing
this), then I'm sure you'd experiment with your BrailleNote and
try to duplicate your friend's situation and try accessing the
system drive (the easiest route (simpler than tampering with
KeyBase files, in my opinion), is modifying file access time by
changing printer type from printer setup menu; then the next time
you go to File Manager/Browse, you'll see a backspash as the
drive name, which is the drive you're looking for when accessing
things stored on the system disk).
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Joseph
___
Replies to this message will go directly to the sender.
If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a
copy to the list as well.
To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
[email protected]
To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
