03-15-2004, 06:00 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,186
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Kiosk Carnage: First Aid for Pocket PCs
Call me a geek, but I've always enjoyed a good mosey through the aisles of office supply stores. The pens and desk accessories caught my attention at an early age, but as I grew older, I became increasingly fascinated by the harder stuff. Hardware, to be exact. When these stores started carrying computers, cameras and printers, my browsing time doubled.
Then, on a fine sunny day in June, when the birds were singing and the smog was making my lungs a lovely shade of brown, I noticed a new addition to the hardware aisles. Nestled snugly between the printers and the keyboards was a small display populated by a few interesting devices. There was a Casio Cassiopeia E-10, a Palm of some sort, and a clamshell Jornada. I was intrigued, but alas, none of the units worked. The Jornada had a broken display, the Palm wouldn't turn on, and someone had pried all of the buttons out of the Casio. :grumble:
Stores have gotten wise in the last few years, and have started protecting their hardware better - usually by putting them under plexiglas. This prevents most breakage, but does nothing to curtail that most basic of human instincts - the primal urge to poke at something shiny. When applied to Pocket PCs, this obviously leads to seriously ill machines. They are slow and unresponsive, their screens are dim, and they usually have about 20 programs running at the same time.
As a Pocket PC fanatic, I feel obliged to fix them. I work my way down the line of ailing machines, closing all of the running programs, turning the display brightness to maximum, and leaving each at the Today screen. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the machines are happier. :worried:
How about you? Have you ever administered first aid to a Pocket PC in need?
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03-15-2004, 06:03 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 95
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I must admit, I am one of those people who poke and prod shiny things!!!
MUHAHAHAHA! :devilboy:
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03-15-2004, 06:05 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,162
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A similar display is in a local CompUSA - but with newer devices (although not the most modern right now).
The stand used to be front and center for people to see, now it's off in a more unnoticable corner away from the display of the current devices.
When I take a look at the devices there I usually end up closing the many, many running apps. This is mostly for selfish reasons - I don't want to have the PDA memory all bogged up when I'm checking it out.
It's always better off when I leave it though.
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03-15-2004, 06:07 PM
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Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 6,878
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Yes, I do "fix" Pocket PC's when I see them chugging along sluggishly in store displays...
It's a sickness! :wink:
Steve
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"My eyes are rolling back in my head so far I can see my grey matter bubbling and frothing from reading this thread....bleh." JD
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03-15-2004, 06:09 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 545
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I've done this....
I have even gone to the length of beaming or BTing a new theme to it. No use in having the store stuck on the same ole default grassy knoll. I even sent one a patrotic theme. Of course now most machines are behind a metal rail or plexi and that makes beaming difficult. My thought with the old way of tethering them was this....would it occur to the manager that they'd SELL MORE if the blasted things ACTUALLY worked! I mean would it kill CompUSA to put up a open, (all important stuff firewalled) AP so people can try out WiFi on these?
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03-15-2004, 06:16 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,768
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I use bluetooth or IR to send a few themes that I think show off the bright 16-bit displays and then make the Today screen look nice to view. I then delete all of the contacts and tasks made up of things like:
'yo mama'
'w3rubn2340-54'
'icanntfigureouthowtomakeaspace'
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Jonathan (JonnoB)
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." -Edmund Burke
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03-15-2004, 06:28 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 51
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wow..i thought i was the only one that did this. It just looks so sad that all these units are mistreated. I find myself turning them off, adjusting settings etc. I do this all the time when i visit my local futureshop or best buy. For love of the pocket pcs.
Ecks
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Ecks
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03-15-2004, 06:33 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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I do fix what I can, but invariably the batteries are dead and there is no charge cord. Typically the styluses (stylii?) are missing. The local CompUSA has a 4155 with a cracked screen, a 2215 that wasn't charged and a 1945 that was missing the battery entirely. Yes I mentioned it; yes they knew. Funny though, the playstation displays are always functional. I know that because I never see them without somebody at them playing a game.
I had read somewhere that the display machines are special builds that hard reset themselves every so often, so I don't bother jazzing them up. (At least the ones on those half round kiosks). It makes them perform better and eliminates the inappropriate notepad graffitti that tends to wind up on the units.
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Sometimes you are the anteater, sometimes you are the ant.
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03-15-2004, 06:35 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 784
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LOL...yeah the least I usually do is give the little fellas a soft reset. But sometimes there's nothing I can do to save them, and that's hard, it really hits home... :cry: :wink:
__________________
T-Mobile Dash | HP iPAQ 4100 | HP iPAQ 2210 | HP iPAQ 1910 | Intermec 6651 | Toshiba E570 | Compaq iPAQ 3600 | Casio Pocket Viewer
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03-15-2004, 06:43 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 556
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WOW!
I can't believe this!!! I really did think that I was the only one who does this. I also always close all the open programs, and turn the screen brightness ALL the way UP! (just like I run my PPC) (My wife says I'm the most anal person she's ever encountered.  ops: In fact, I keep my processor, AND my screen brightness turned all the way to max, regardless of whether I'm on battery or AC.
I'm so anal about this that I'd rather run out of juice, and not be able to use my PPC at all, than to have to use it with the screen or proc turned to anything other than max.
I am such a freak. Now, I'll bet I really AM the only one that's like this! :mrgreen:
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