What sort of PDA is it? And, what sorts of things do you want to sync?
PalmOS based PDAs are, so I understand, not too hard to sync. In fact a
lot of Palm functionality is built into Ubuntu, including syncing with
Evolution for mail and calendaring. (Now, if you can get Evolution to
correctly work with an Exchange server like it's supposed to, and not be
slower than death, then let me know how you did it!)
WindowsMobile based PDAs are a bit more of a hassle. I have one of those
(got it free) and am basically just not syncing it right now. You can
definitely make it work, and in fact my desktop machine sees it, but since
I haven't gotten Evolution working, I haven't spent a lot of time figuring
out how to fully sync with the PDA.
What I really want is for Sunbird to be supported for syncing, and I'll
keep my calendar there, or even better if Sunbird and Thunderbird could
support Exchange via OWA.
I'd also love to see Linux for my PDA, actually. With full support
including WPA2 for the little SD wifi card I have for it.
Tony
--On Thursday, February 05, 2009 04:36:31 PM -0800 Warner White
<[email protected]> wrote:
Josh, Rick & Tony--
Thanks for your responses. Now I know what to do.
For people switching from Windows to Linux this is one of the
differences. Somehow I thought the Alt+#### was just built into "things." I
didn't occur to me that it was an OS thing. But, for making the
transition,this is just one more thing. If only I could get my PDA to sync
in Linux I'd be all set. (And if KMyMoney weren't quite so clunky.)
So, for me, I want it more GUI and more like what I'm used to, but the
more it gets like that, the more viruses and other troubles we'll have.
I thought of taking my problem to the Ubuntu forum, but I was sure I
would get a quicker and more complete response from you.
Thanks,
Warner
Warner White
12 Harbor Watch Road
Burlington VT 05401
H: 802-863-0182
C: 802-318-0956
www.warnerwhite.org
________________________________
From: Josh Sled <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, February 5, 2009 12:47:02 PM
Subject: Re: Loss of Alt+#### function
Warner White <[email protected]> writes:
> I have lost the use of the combination Alt+four numbers to get special
characters. For example, Alt+0151 (on the keypad with NumLock on) to get an
em dash. Now when I do it, nothing happens. It's
> working on Windows with Firefox, with OpenOffice, etc., but not on my
two Ubuntu machines.
>
> I think it was working until recently, but I'm new enough to Ubuntu
that I can't be certain.
>
> Any ideas?
That is something unique to Windows. But, 'nix has a better
alternative…
You'll want to make use of the 'Compose' key. Which key this is mapped
to on your keyboard varies, but (under Gnome), can be set in
Panel >
System >
Preferences >
Keyboard >
[tab:]Layouts >
[button:]Layout Options >
[expander:]Compose key position.
I have it mapped to the right "Menu" key on my Windows-layout 104-key
keyboard.
The idea with Compose is that you first hit the compose key, then a
variable-length sequence of characters in order to affect a single
composed key. For instance, I'd hit <Compose> <'> <e> to get é, or
<Compose> <"> <o> to get my heavy-metal ümulats like sö.
But that's just the beginning of the fun! There's all sorts of awesome
Unicode characters this allows you to enter.
For instance, you might talk about the √∞°² (sqrt infinity degrees
squared), or want to try out ½ of the vulgar fractions. Maybe you
dislike :), and would rather ☺. Or don't like hearts like <3, and would
rather use ♥.
Like talking about ∿ waves? Or need to talk about how things might be
≥ and ≤ others? What about the null set ∅. Or how things are cold
± a
few degrees?
The <https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ComposeKey> link already posted
is very good, except for their bad instruction about creating a
~/.XCompose
file by copying one out of /usr/share …
Instead, just add [[[
include "%L"
]]] as the first line of ~/.XCompose, and the current default file for
the locale will be loaded first, then you can override things to your
heart's content. I've attached my ~/.XCompose to give you some ideas.
But also, take a look at </usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose> to
see what's already defined.
Also the Panel > Applications > Accessories > Character Map is great for
finding the details of unicode characters.
Cheers…
--
...jsled
http://asynchronous.org/ - a=jsled; b=asynchronous.org; echo $...@${b}
