DS2 case review from early recipient. (From Ugg)
"The DS2 case is nice. The plastic buttons [allow
you to access the REX buttons while the REX is in the case] are a neat feature.
Also, the case is smaller in my pocket than the leather case. There's no
place for a stylus, so I'm going to have to think of a way to mount one
(any ideas?). My major concern with the case is the protection of the REX
unit. The case does feel pretty sturdy for being plastic, so I guess time
will tell."
Dictionary add-in updated again. (From Myster, John, and
Gerd)
From Myster
"John Del Ferro just released a new
beta version 0.7a of RexDictionary addin. Since he will be away for
some days he asked me to post on RRC a readme
file for those having trouble with it"
From John:
"The Dictionary BETA is Done. It seems fairly stable.
MAX SEARCH TIME for a word is about 10 seconds.
GERD is working on some additional language dictionaries.
QC Tang is working on an ENGLISH-ENGLISH Dictionary based
on words needed for SAT. (I have the first 5000 words already and will
release on weekend)
PLEASE TRY. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING WITH
MEMO SYNCING. IF YOU ARE NOT AN EXPERT AT WORKING WITH MEMOS AND SYNCING,
THEN WAIT FOR THE README!!
SORRY it is so rushed, but I don't have a lot of time!!"
From Gerd:
"I have created several new language pairs. But
they are not 100% compatible with John's. My files would need some hand
editing to be understood by the addin. I will work on that over the weekend.
You can have a look at
http://xtide.ldeo.columbia.edu/~krahmann/rex/rexdics.html
for what I have so far (english-other, other-english)
and for what is easily possible. Please read the comments on the page
before you ask me to create other pairs. For missing pairs from the main
table please send me an e-mail."
Outlook Notes and REX memos - some considerations. (From
Greg)
"I, too, have loaded some big text files into the
REX. Here are some observations that might help:
Outlook's Notes have the same size restrictions as the
REX. If they hit the size limit, then editing them is very restricted --
you can't make them get any bigger. This means that, to "rename"
them, you must *replace* the first line, and it can't get any bigger than
it originally was.
After loading such a text file, "Quick Sync"
*always* performed a full sync on these memos. Ugh, something was broken.
I fixed this by checking only Memos in the configuration dialog and performing
a sync. My next sync after that (with everything back to my saved defaults)
was a bit slow, but the sync after that again was back up to the usual speed.
Whew!
I haven't found a way to restrict these notes from loading
into Outlook. I have changed my view of the notes section in Outlook to
"By Category", so I can shut out the notes in the "Text"
section, and they don't bother me any more. I actually find this view to
be very useful, as all of my notes are categorized."
Some good ideas for using RexReader. (From Jack)
"Re: RexReader text converter...Actually, you should
be able to use a program like Word (or better yet, WordPerfect) to create
a WYSIWYG document, using bold, italic, etc. then use the search and replace
function to replace these tags with the RexReader tags. You might also consider
an HTML editor. From what I've read, the RexReader uses encapsulated tags
for the text, meaning there's an ON switch and an OFF switch for each formatting
type (bold, etc.). This is similar to HTML and WordStar type formatting.
WordPerfect's Reveal Codes should show something similar. Also, check out
a freeware program called NoteTab Light. You can write your own keyboard
shortcuts to automatically enter RexReader style formatting in a text document.
NoteTab Light is available at: www.notetab.com."
REX laid out for your inspection. (From Ben)
Not for the first time, someone has performed a bit of
surgery on a REX 6000:
"For anyone who wants to know what the inside of
a 6000 looks like:
http://www.hyperip.com/Rex6000/
If you're really interested in viewing the inside of a
REX, see the Hardware section on Di's Technical REX site at:
http://www.dimitriy.com/REX6000/main.htm
Sun/Moon add-in setup advice. (From Jack)
"I've bounced this to Dave, so he's aware of it now
also.
I downloaded the Sun/Moon addin from Dave's site, the version
with the addin and the configureation generator. The generator makes a configuration
file called ZAstro1.txt. I messed up on my first try, and entered my longitude
as east, instead of west. This resulted in sunrise and sunset being reversed.
I tried generating the configuration file again, uploaded the new file,
and still got the same result. I did it a third time, and STILL got the
same reversed solar and lunar positions.
Later, digging through the memos in search of something
else, I found THREE ZAstro1 text files. For some reason, in uploading the
new version of the files, rather than overwriting the existing file, RexTools
(or the R6K itself) allowed three duplicate files with the exact same name
be created. I deleted all the existing ZAstro1 files, generated a new configuration
file with the correct coordinates, and this time, the addin worked.
So, two things: First, if anyone else has problems with
the addin, they may want to look for duplicate ZAstro1 files, delete them
all, and start from scratch (I've sent Dave a number of links with either
coordinate generators, or coordinate lists, because I doubt most folks know
their lattitude and longitude offhand). Second, was this a glitch in RexTools
or my R6K only? Or have other users experienced this duplicatation of text
files loaded through RexTools? I've never experienced this problem using
memos generated through Outlook's Notes, so I can only assume it only involves
RexTools. <shrug>"
RexReader 1.4 released! (From Peter)
An updated version of RexReader has been released. This
is an interesting add-in that allows you to display formatted text in memos
on your REX!
"RexReader V1.4 is out with the following changes:
- There is no size limit on memos anymore
- Limit of 50 pages per memo
- Page brakes are handled and dedected better
- The page number is shown in the status field and if
shown and a beep sounds the rendering of the page has completed
- Rendering of bold and small text corrected (where
to narrow)
- Formatting option _p leads to new page
- The enter key refreshs the current page (if an alarm
or a battery dialog obscured the screen)
- Code cleanups
The addin can be found at:
http://members.a1.net/peter.kogler/RexReader/readme.htm"
CR2025 contingent getting noisy.
From Kwaazaar:
"Why is everyone using CR 2016 batteries? I'm using
CR 2025 for over 6 months now and also use DockPatch, but battery-status,
as reported by the Rex, is still "GOOD". The CR 2025 batteries are cheaper,
easier to get (in Holland: HEMA) and so far it seems they last at least
twice as long. They're a little thicker, but do fit. To get them out,
a small knife has to be used, since they're a little stuck in there."
From Franco:
"You can buy the CR-2025 batteries much cheaper
at http://www.aspencer1.com/items.asp?db=12.
To get them out from the Rex, use the tip of a pin inserted slightly inclined
between the back of the Rex case and the battery."
A reminder - the REX 6000 PIN is sort of secure. (From
Chris)
Chris was helping a user who had forgotten his REX PIN.
A reminder that your REX is secure with a PIN as long as you don't hand
it over to another REX user who knows how to use REX Tools. On the plus
side, if you forget your PIN you may not have to initialize your REX to
get up and running again:
"It may also be possible to read the current password
from the RexTools debug file:
- Insert the Rex in cradle (or PCMCIA slot)
- Run RexTools
- When it asks for password, just press "Cancel"
- On your PC, look in the folder \Windows\temp for
the file called "TimerDebug.txt" 5. Open the TimerDebug.txt
file in WordPad
- Search for the text: DSSR0002000001F400015A
- 2 or 4 lines after that, you may find the password
in a row of square "box" characters"
If this causes you stress because you want to store your
credit card numbers on your REX, see Gerd's Encrypted
Memo add-in.
Rexkeys and Dockpatch cohabitation? (From Martin and Zdenek)
Martin was curious if Rexkeys and Dockpatch could be used
together on the REX (both update the firmware). Zdenek replies:
"I am using both RexKeys and DockPatch patches.
It works fine. If you wish to export your RekKeys data to .RKX file, use
the RexKeys first and save Rex.bin produced for future corections to your
localisation."
Sunmoon add-in helps you chart the heavens. (From DaveREX)
"Hi all ! I've just released
a new addin named SUNMOON.
SunMoon tries to pack the most relevant Sun & Moon
events for the current time and date (in the user's eographical location).
It marks the rise and set times for sun (mathematical,
civil, nautical, astronomical amateur, astronomical professional) and moon
(just the mathematical ones).
It plots the position of sun and moon in their daily cycles.
And for the sun it is compared with its maximum and minimum variations (summer
and winter solstices).
Finally, both are also situated in their global cycles.
For the sun it marks us the current zodiacal constellation (and in consequence
the season). For the moon its current phase, both graphically and numerically.
This time the addin doesn't need to be recompiled for each
user !! ;-> ...it reads the data from a memo.
If you are interested please have a look at
http://www.geocities.com/davrex6000/SunMoon/SunMoon.html
Please note it is still a BETA version. Feedback welcome
!!"
"The absolutely best way to carry a REX (& cash
& cards)" (From Marc)
"Hi, The best way I have found to carry REX is this
combo money clip: Storus
Corporation . The REX fits in the credit card slot PERFECTLY. I put
it in buttons first and put blue (the expensive stuff) masking tape over
the little holes. The latter keeps the dust out and the former protects
it exteremely well from wracking and damage. Before discovering this perfect
solution I broke a couple REX 5s, roughing them up on construction sites.
As for the money clip, you wrap your greenbacks around your driver's license
and a few credit cards..............and you have it all in one, comfortably
in your front pocket. The unit is very sturdy (I've got the stainless steel
one) and does not in any way obstruct the screen or buttons. Just take it
out of your pocket and use it. And the money clip is great too, it will
hold a lot or a little very securely. I kept thinking one end or other would
make the connection between these two products, but I haven't seen mention
of it. So here is my mention. Nothing else is close for no-nonsense access
and protection."
Hungarian keyboard available. (From Tice)
"I've put a Hungarian keyboard layout firmware and
Rexkeys extract for Rex 6000 on my
homepage. Use
it and enjoy entering those funny Hungarian accented characters (if you
ever need them...)!"
Tice's site is a sight for sore eyes for REX 3/Pro/5000
users. Don't miss it if you are using any of the previous REX generations!
Like a kid in a candy factory... (From Jack)
"1. I haven't had this much fun since hanging around
Mark Gamber and Bill Pytlovany, while they were back engineering hooks into
AOL for AOL add-ons. I'm not a programmer, at best a monster macro maker,
and kludger, tying together unrelated software, hardware, and ideas...so
watching all these projects evolve has been a blast. Makes me want to learn
Assembler.
2. ...I saw an incredibly cheap source for them [serial
cradles] on Dana's site ($9.95) and ordered two. Dissassembled one within
seconds after opening the box. Carefully unhooked the serial cable, and
reassembled, then installed the DockPatch for the REX 6000. This gives me
an extremely portable kludge for burning rechargeable AAA batteries instead
of the 2016's.
3. I THEN found a holster for the Game Boy Advance called
the Zip Around Single (you can get one at Amazon.com). The freed Rex 5000
cradle fits snugly into the left side of the pack, and the REX and miscellaneous
thin gear can fit in the right side of the pack. The whole thing can be
strapped to a belt or whatever, since the loop is velcro. There is another
addon to this thing that lets you carry the pouch in a shoulder holster.
Do NOT wear anything resembling a shoulder holster into a Federal facility,
guys, trust me on this.
Zip Around ($9.99) from Amazon.com
4. I THEN discovered that the DockPatch
let me operate the R6K in my USB cradle, drawing power, I assume, from the
USB power source itself.
5. There's a LOT of room left internally in the REX 5000.
You could store spare batteries, whatever in there with some modifications,
and if you're into lighting, you could fit in batteries and a light source
on the cradle. Check out something called the Interact SharkLight for the
Game Boy. I mention this one specifically because it doesn't draw power
from the Game Boy, instead relying on AA or AAA batteries, and you've got
10 inches of gooseneck to chop or modify. Food for thought.
6. I sent this to someone a while back and never heard
back from them, so I'll run this past you guys. Z80 sounded familiar to
me, and in digging, I remembered that my old CP/M machines used incredibly
tiny programs that had to
be compiled. As an example, big RAM on a CP/M machine was 64K, and a "hard
drive" was 8K. A monstrous amount of public domain CP/M Z80 source
is available (see http://www.faqs.org/faqs/CPM-faq/).
An example, I've got 2MB of old CP/M programs. The equivalent in today's
Win machines would be around 2GB or more. I remember spreadsheets, wordprocessors
(I had Portable Wordstar), and more, all taking up, at most, 50K, which
was HUGE back then. The 8K holes for addins represents the sum total of
my hard drive back then. Can any of this stuff be ported to the REX?"
Battery feedback. (From Bill)
"Just thought I'd pass along my
own experience with battery usage. I bought a 25-pack of 2016's from aspencer1.com
for $17 plus shipping, so I can't complain about the price. Label says
"New Sun", I think it's a Chinese brand.
The useful life of these things seems
to be completely random. Some have lasted as little as 1 week, some as
long as 3 months. There seems to be no consistency. I use my Rex sparingly,
just for scheduling, phone numbers and addresses; no book reading, web
downloading, etc. I rarely enter any info directly, I use Outlook for
that, then sync.
So take it for what it's worth, these
batteries grade out as an "Incomplete."
See the battery section in the REX
FAQ for troubleshooting advice, and see our Battery
Vendors page for more information on batteries (including power ratings
by brand) and a list of battery vendors by country. Also see Greg's
REX site for additional information on batteries.
Case options galore... (From Jack)
"...I carry my REX on my belt in a Ripoff Pager Holster.
It's, um, a brand more familiar with cops, and other people involved with
tac gear. You can find it at galls.com.
I use a large one (Model CO-42), because I carry my REX in a Durastor case,
and I have a Cardstor case to hold a spare set of batteries, a paperclip
(to reset the REX), and one of those new lighted stylus (stylii?). Before
the lighted one, I used the thin HP Jornada stylus/stylii. The Durastor
and Cardstor cases are available from shapenet.com,
pretty cheap, IMHO. Oh, and the Ripoff Holster clips OVER the belt, so you
don't have to take off the belt to put the holster on it.
Pager
Case from Galls ($12.99)
Cases from Shapenet
(Click on Computer Products and select Durastor from the drop-down list.)
Oh, I forgot, if you prefer something smaller, I also found
a nice pager holster available at Wilson's Leather stores. It's just large
enough to hold a PCMCIA case in it, and a small stylus."
Feeling nostalgic? (From Intellistink)
"Surprisingly, a lot of stuff at rex.net still works
- virtual tour, faqs, etc. If you're feeling nostalgic, try the tour at
http://www.rex.net/rex/cda/tourmain/
or go to http://www.rex.net/rex/cda
to salvage some rex.net parts for your own web page or to see some pages
not available from the main rex.net page."
Developer News: REX firmware investigations posted.
From Chris:
"Per Waleed's suggestion, I've posted
several items from my use of the IdaPro disassembler on the Rex firmware,
including a complete listing, with all farcalls, switch statements, syscalls,
etc. decoded.
To accomplish the latter, I wrote some Ida "IDC"
scripts, also posted on my site. Daniel had some success using them with
the freeware version of Ida. However, my Ida Rex database (also posted)
is apparently not compatible.
Waleed, I promised you the CalPatch source, didn't I?
Coming soon..."
From Waleed:
"...thank you very much Chris, finaly we can make
realy good AddIns, Thank you Chris & thank
you Graham for all your efforts.
I think now it's time to write a good Registery Manager.
Also Chris, what about new Libraries?"
Sounds like things are going to get even more interesting
as the developers create more sophisticated development tools and expand
their understanding and control over the REX firmware. Thanks very much
to the developers for all the time they put into making the REX a truly
fun and versatile PDA.
DS2 case order update.
The DS2 cases from Japan have arrived in the US and Australia
and should be in Europe soon! (Thanks, Zmcnulty!) The regional shipping
volunteers will be sending them out as soon as they have time! Please continue
to be patient, but you can look forward to the case arriving soon.
For those who did not participate in this order, sorry,
but all the cases are pre-paid and we don't have any extra ones available.
There are no plans at this time to do another group buy, and Zmcnulty is
now back in the US, so our "man in Japan" is no longer in
Japan. . .
Web2Rex update(s) coming from Laurent.
Some users have noticed that the International News (English)
download in Web2Rex isn't working properly. Laurent is aware of the issue
ans has some new things planned to make Web2Rex
more flexible:
"I've also noticed a couple of days ago that the
International news (in english) were no longer working properly. In fact
this is due to a recent change in yahoo news web site (the web page layout
is different now) and there is no possibility in version 1.3 to update
that.
I am working on a way to add more flexibility regarding
this problem, so that you can adjust yourself the changes without having
to wait for a new software update of Web2Rex. This
customization "way" will require from the users to follow a
procedure in order to identify which parameter has to be updated and how.
If the same thing happens for some other Web2Rex categories
in the next weeks, I will make an up-to-date version 1.4 But for now,
my biggest Web2Rex priority is to release a version 2.0 that will allow
you to do some customization... but it is not that easy ..."
Dictionary add-in Phase 1 released! (From John)
"PHASE 1 is complete!
So if you begged for this, I expect you to look at it and
give me feedback. If I get enough feedback I will proceed to add the following
features:
1) FAST searches by adding index files
2) Searches all the memos in the dictionary automatically.
Goto the web site and give it a try and then give me feedback.
The only dictionaries I have are those provided by MOJO
long ago. I have tested it on his ENGLISH-FRENCH Dictionary.
Get his files and load them up as memos. Give them all
the same category name. (the dictionary files are not on my site)
When you use MemoCat, make sure you add his word-marker
"*". So if you are looking up "car" enter "*car"
as your search word.
If I get enough feedback, I'll proceed to PHASE 2. MOJO
has already "promised" to make some index files for the dictionary.
That will greatly speed up the search.
http://www.geocities.com/jdelferro/rex"
Web2Rex ver. 1.3 "secrets revealed!" (From Laurent)
"Web2Rex version 1.3 has
some "undocumented" features that I just forgot to mention when
I wrote the release notes. Hope you will find some of them usefull:
1 - AutoRun your web downloads
2 - The 5th element
3 - Start IntelliSync from a specific directory
4 - Web2Rex is computer "pollution free"
5 - Automatic Exchange Rates in Euro
6 - Start Web2Rex in debug mode"
See here for detailed
descriptions of the hidden features!