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REX 6000 Help Page News Archive

December 16-31, 2001

Developer news - Dynamic Linking package released. (From Graham)

"I have just released a "dynamic linking" package. See http://www.cobb.uk.net/Rex/Dynlink/ for details. This is a package which provides an easy method for an addin to call routines in another addin. This simplifies splitting code across multiple addins or creating a shareable library of utility functions.

There is more overhead than in the "jump table" approach recently proposed by Marc Nijweide and it might be worth trying to combine some of these ideas. In the meantime, I welcome comments or suggestions on the dynlink package. Also, if you use it or find it useful please let me know."

December 25, 2001

Wishing for peace on earth, and good will towards all peoples.

December 23, 2001

New Lottery add-in released! (From Michael)

"Hi -- I've uploaded a new lottery addin to:

http://members.tripod.com/personal_itch/lottery.zip.

It's a first try at doing what is mentioned (Myles' page?) as a possible addin idea. There is a readme file that explains how it works, and it requires 2 memos to be on the rex before it'll work. It's probably of limited usefulness, but I remember someone requested this, so here it is. Would like feedback if it works or doesn't do things quite right, etc. It is somewhat configurable and could be made moreso. Hope someone likes it!"

From the Lottery Help file:

"Lottery Help The lottery addin requires that 2 memos already exist on your rex: Lottery, and zLottery.ini. In the Lottery memo you should only have lines of numbers that you regularly play, one set on each line, and the numbers in each set separated by one or more spaces. The zLottery.ini file describes some of the parameters of the game you are playing, and must be in this format: the first line is the lowest of the numbers from your number pool, the second line is the highest number, the third line is the number of numbers you must choose, the fourth line is 1 if the numbers you choose must be unique, or 0 otherwise, and finally the fifth line is the number of matches you must have for a winning ticket. For instance, for Texas Lotto, the file would have the following lines: (1) 1 [because the number pool is between 1 and 54], (2) 54, (3) 6 [because in Texas Lotto you choose 6 numbers], (4) 1 [because each number chosen must be unique], and (5) 3 [because 3 or more matches is a winning ticket]."

December 22, 2001

New Arkanoid add-in released - levels, levels, levels!! (From Simon)

"Hello! I've released a new version of the arkanoid game, 0.2. The main difference is that the game now loads the levels from a memo, which means that the game can have at most 99 levels. It is supplied with 14 levels. Some of the changes are listed below:

* Now loads levels from a file. Allows for up to 99 levels.
* Better distribution of specials.
* Sticky and destroyer specials now disappears after a while.
* The game does not slow down as much when several things are moving as it used to.
* Faster gameplay
* The playing field has grown by one block horizontally.
* Added impossible blocks (demands 255 hits to be destroyed) This is somewhat buggy.
* Lots of code rework.

To play the game, you have to upload both arkanoid.rex and arkanoid.txt to your REX. The game can be downloaded from my homepage:

http://www.student.lu.se/~etn97ksi/sim_home/rex.html

For those that want to contribute: The levels-file is a normal ASCII-file, easily edited (see the README). Those that want can email me new levels. Further, if someone would like to draw nicer graphics, I'd be willing to include that in the next version (if they really are nicer ;-)).

I would also like to hear from you if you encounter any bugs. I'm not quite sure how to handle the memo database, so please report failures to load the levels (the game won't start in that case). A known bug in that respect is that files named arkanoid* (i.e. arkanoid followed by something) might be loaded as level files. So don't name any file arkanoid* :-) Thanks to Otavio Guzzi for the Arkanoid-icon!"

December 20, 2001

Did you ever wonder how many REX 6000s were sold worldwide?

We did. So we asked our "inside source." Turns out the number is in the range of 65,000 REX 6000s sold worldwide. There's no way of determining how many of those are still in service today, nor how many are sitting in desks as backup units. The total number of actual users must be some thousands (tens of thousands?) less than that.

Intellisync setup troubleshooting advice. (From CPWong)

"After installing Intellisync for Rex 1.01 on my notebook, I had "illegal operation" everytime I tried to configure the options to sync with Outlook. This is most consistent problem and I finally found out that I can configure it if I go into the option and configure it for Outlook option one by one and exit the application. I had to repeat this process 3 times (Calendar, Task, Memo, Address Book). This can be done in any order and it works.

I didn't bother to look further as to why I'm getting this. Just thought I let you know this in case someone ran into this problem and I want to spare others from this agony of "illegal operation error" with most frustrations."

REX 6000 available at Canadian site. (from Matt)

This link (http://ecom.aebc.com/ae/dept.asp?dept_id=2241) will take you directly to the REX 6000 page on the Canadian aebc.com site.

December 19, 2001

Source for REX serial cradles - cheap! (From Peter)

"For those who need extra serial cradles for only $9.99 (plus shipping):

http://www.pcliquidator.com/rexdock.htm

More updated Linux REX development tools. (From Simon)

"If someone is interested, I've updated the conv2rex utility and added a new "viewrex" util on my homepage, see:

http://www.student.lu.se/~etn97ksi/sim_home/rex.html

Both programs are released under the GPL.

I've fixed some bugs in conv2rex, cleaned up the source and added some features. conv2rex can now convert images with arbitrary color-depth to REX bitmaps in source form (for use in C-programs), binary form and also icons for use in .res-files.

Viewrex displays REX images on a host computer from files (the image must be in binary format).

Both programs are written in C using libSDL, so I *hope* they should be portable to Windows and other platforms. I'm using getopt(), and I'm not sure if that's available in windows. If anyone would like to contribute windows executable(s), I'd be glad to place them on the homepage."

December 18, 2001

Update on DS2 case order.

Money transfer from my bank to Zmcnulty's in Japan was screwed up. Bank said it was my fault, I _know_ it was their fault (I have a copy of my written request!) but never mind, bottom line is/was that they didn't transfer the money correctly and after almost two weeks of wrangling, they finally at least did admit that the money didn't go anywhere except between my own accounts! (Quite interesting to "lose" over $1000 in your own accounts - maybe I have too many?)

So - I have to go back today and re-do the transfer, Zmcnulty will be able to place the order as soon as the money gets to his bank, and then we'll be at the mercy of Citizen to get the cases to us. How quickly Citizen fills the order will drive how quickly we can get the cases out to everyone else. Best-case scenario would likely mean they'll be shipping to individuals some time in late January, but there are no guarantees on that.

I'd apologize for all the delays, but hey, we're doin' this for free! :-)

Web2Rex beta available. (From Laurent)

Following up on his promise to have something for us to try soon, Laurent has provided a beta of his Web2Rex program. It is meant to be used along with VREXNET, so if you want to try Web2Rex you need to read the VREXNET section of the Websync page and download VREXNET version 1.3.

"Hi, attached is the very first beta of Web2Rex, with a short release note (readme.txt) on it (take time to read it before you use it). I think this "beta" is useable (i.e. can be distributed), but because I'd like to improve it I don't guaranty any compatibility between this beta and the final version 1.0 regarding all the configuration & settings you may add. In other words, that means you may restart all your "customization" of Web2Rex (like area/city codes, etc) for the final version 1.0 too ...

Documentation is poor but it should be easy to find out everything you need by yourself. Unless you modify the config files ing the "cfg" directory the application should not crash. If Web2Rex looks "stuck" wait for a minute, there's probably an internet problem that will be shown after (or may be your web connection is slow).

I used Web2Rex during the last few days and so far I did not found any problems ... Get it a try. Enjoy !"

In this beta, Travel and Email downloads are not yet enabled in this version, and you can only select one News source. The icons are very nice, and look way cool on the REX. <g>

REX availability in Singapore. (From Paul)

"...As for the availability of the Rex 6000 in Singapore, there are piles of them sitting around here. They're not as popular here as Palm, Handspring, Sony, Compaq, and and all the other PDA manufacturers have captured the market. If you're transitioning in Singapore, your best bet would be to go to a place called Sim Lim Square and hunt around. At the prevailing exchange rate, you'll probably be getting them for about US$105 to US$110 from many of the laptop shops around there. Maybe even lesser if you're lucky."

Concerning syncing on NT4. (From Marcus)

"I was having trouble getting my rex to sync w/ my laptop running Windows NT 4.0. It just seemed like it didn't want to accept the hardware correctly. After looking in the operating systems section of your site I saw someone had recommended trying to use the third party software CardWizard. I did a quick search and found the software here:

http://www.amrel.com/asi/download.htm

The software worked beautifully! I installed it, restarted, and to my suprise it detected the rex immediately. I am now able to sync the rex w/ intellisync 1.01 without any problems at all."

December 17, 2001

A short history of the REX development team.

Recently, Chuck (former Xircom REX team member) offered to talk about his experiences on the REX development team. The following is a summary of his experiences. . .

"...I'll try to give you a rundown of how the REX development process evolved.

I was the first person hired specifically for the REX project back in Oct 1999. I have to say from the outset that the Xircom people were a VERY bright bunch led by an exceedingly brilliant and energetic owner and president, Dirk Gates. I always felt like I was the dummy catching up with the group and as you may surmise in the following story, I oftentimes was!

I was hired directly by the dept head M.C. because he had been my supervisor at a previous company. Oddly enough my direct supervisor on the REX project was P.B. who had interviewed me 6 months earlier for a different position and I think, found me lacking somehow but that's just my gut feeling.

The REX was bought from the Franklin Company and was reported to be Dirk Gates' pet project. The Franklin Co. had put together a prototype which used a special stylus made by some British company that interacted with an electromagnetic or electrostatic screen. Another one of those brilliant British inventions that was bound for failure. The prototype had some handwriting recognition software in it too. I tried it onece and it was pretty cool but the tylus had to be held at a constant angle relative to the screen.

When I first looked at the source code for the REX I was pretty befuddled even though I had quite a bit of C++ experience. The Franklin company had used code from previous Franklin products so there was a lot of supurflous functionality lying around. They had bought a number of modules from third-party vendors such as the handwriting recognition software and the stylus/touchscreen software. The code was intended to be built on a UNIX system and we had Windows NT 4.0 which at that time I had never seen before. Keep in mind that at that time there were just wo of us on the project.

Very soon after I started an casual old friend of mine R.L. was hired on the project. R.L. had been working at a BIOS company down in San Diego for some years. R.L. was smarter and more ambitious than I had remembered him and soon he was digging into the code and making some progress. Soon after that we acquired a very smart hardware guy, D.B. who designed the hardware for the cradle which I did the software for. The main progrqammer from Franklin came down and gave us some lessons for a few days but my understanding was still out in the weeds.

So we sat in that confused and un-led condition for about two months and finally a real manager was hired for the project. He was from Compaq down in Texas and was not only a nice guy but a good strong manager. After that we got some sales people on the team and actually seemed to be developing a direction. By now we were about 4 or 5 months into the project. REX had gone through about 6 different possible configuration scenarios all of which I cannot remember because the whole size, shape and functionality changed week to week. The acronyms were flying ike feathers at a duck shoot!

Well, finally someone got in touch with The Citizen Watch Company in Japan where, I think the units were made for Franklin. P.B.s manager, D.K. went to Japan and came back with two issues that I remember. The serial baud rate to/from the REX is around 67KHZ. It turns out that Citizen had the Dataslim 2 which I'm sure you are all familiar with. Citizen sent us some units, all in Japanese then we started developing the USB cradle. By this time, around March or April 2001 we had moved to our own room in a different building. By the way, these dates are pretty fuzzy. I really didn't pay much attention to the sequence of events.

Now we got a middle manager, D.K. who was another really good guy and very capable. Soon after this I was given the task of taking code intended for a serial to USB converter and making it work with the REX cradle. The REX uses a serial interface, yes. BUT!!! There is NO flow control between the REX and the USB cradle! The code I was given to modify was steeped in every kind of serial port flow control known to man! And what's worse is that the code was originally conceived by a madman and maintained by people who I suspect had never written a comment in their software in their life! So here I was doubly befuddled again because I had never worked on the Universal Serial bus before. So I had the cradle hardware, the serial-to-USB software and the USB all to learn at the same time.

To make a long story very short, a bunch of us had a lovely trip to Japan to get the nitty gritty from Citizen and I worked nights and weekends while turning everybody's hair gray while waiting for the code to be perfected. Then a bunch of the Citizen guys came here to work on other last-minute issues. Nicest bunch of people you could ever meet!

That's not all that was going on at the time! The Citizen Company had led us to believe either by neglegence or deceit that a REX with 2MB of memory could hold 6000 entries! Hence the name REX 6000(and don't ask me how big an 'entry' is -- ... maybe 30 to 50 bytes normalized over contacts, phones, notes etc). Well, we got close to having everything working and the shit hit the fan when our sales people found out that the REX could only hold about 800 entries when equipped with 2MB of RAM. So really quickly Citizen created a bunch of REXs with 4MB of RAM. Don't get picky! It was either Flash or RAM but I don't remember which. So now we had a bunch of units which SAID they had 4MB. Now we had a problem! We intended to release an !UPGRADED! REX which was supposed to have 4MB of RAM but the ones we were initially shipping already had 4MB of RAM so we hacked to code from Japan a little and made the display say it only had 2MB even though it really had 4MB. The Citizen company was in process of trying to get the database size under control when the project was dissolved. I heard that there are 3 copies of the database maintained in the REX.

So, we go the damned thing shipping, got REX.net in place and started hiring more people for the next go around. The next version of the REX was going to be a PDA with telephone functionality. I've seen some ads on T.V. for what the next REX would have been. Somebody came out with almost the exact same idea on about the same time schedule. Probably INTEL knew about the project and that's why they cancelled the REX.

Once INTEL bought Xircom and we got word that REX was dead, we all sat around and did little or nothing for a few months waiting to be reassigned within Xircom. Most REX people left almost immediately. I hung around and let INTEL give me a big severence package and I've been unempleyed since July 2.

That's the REX story, maybe not perfectly accurate but close enough. We all wish it could have worked out differently; that we could have gotten everything ready for Xmas 2000.

I use my REX all the time and it is nice and comfortable in my shirt pocket."

Arkanoid add-in released. (From Simon)

"Hello!

I've made an Arkanoid game addin which I hereby release under the GNU GPL. The game can be compiled both for the REX and for computers with libSDL installed (tested on UNIX, should work on windows). It has some, but not all, of the features Arkanoid/breakout-style games has.

I've created a section on my homepage for this game, see:

http://www.student.lu.se/~etn97ksi/sim_home/rex.html

You can download the game with sources from my homepage, or directly:

http://www.student.lu.se/~etn97ksi/sim_home/filer/arkanoid-0.1.tar.gz

or (for non-tarballers):

http://www.student.lu.se/~etn97ksi/sim_home/filer/arkanoid-0.1.zip

or just the .rex binary:

http://www.student.lu.se/~etn97ksi/sim_home/filer/arkanoid.rex

Have fun ;-)"

Linux-compatible REX image converter released. (From Simon)

"I also made a converter images->REX C-source (yet another) since I couldn't find any converter that would run under Linux or that included the source-code.

It fails on one image I have, but I think that can be attributed to SDL. Since it uses SDL_Image, it can (in theory) convert BMP, PNM, XPM, PCX, GIF, JPEG, PNG and TGA images to REX-ditos. But I guess JPEG images isn't of much use anyway ;-). This is also available on the page, or:

http://www.student.lu.se/~etn97ksi/sim_home/filer/conv2rex-0.1.tar.gz

Simon add-in released. (From Otavio)

Benjamin Green (of RexRunt fame) has released a "Simon" add-in. From the readme.txt:

"To play: Repeat the ever-increasing sequence by tapping the correct quadrants of the screen."

Available from: http://www.lh.co.nz/software/rex/Simon.zip

REX source in Holland. (From RJ)

"Rex6000.org,

There are still some Rex 6000's available in Holland. They can be bought at www.pdashop.nl for Fl 330,56 (or ? 150,00 / $134,01). Quite expensive compared to the US, but hey who cares :)"

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