Quickies: Handspring CFO, BugMe!, Mailer, LotR, Jot, Baseball

Posted By: As Listed Wednesday, August 14, 2002 8:44:10 AM

Handspring has chosen William R. Slakey, 44, to be its Chief Financial Officer, effective September 30. He's a former Palm and Apple employee. -PR

Electric Pocket has released new versions of its BugMe! and Mailer apps. Support has been added to both for Sony hi-res and hi-res+ screens. -PR

The PalmStore is offering a free copy of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring DVD with the purchase of a Palm m515. -Ed

CIC is currently working on a new update for Jot which will work with the Sony models that the current version does not. -Tvoung

BCX Software has released BCX Baseball 2.0, a Major League Baseball simulation program. It is $25. -PR

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BCX Baseball - expensive?

I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 9:34:53 AM #
Seems very expensive for a cheap looking game. Or maybe it's just that I don't get baseball...

Each to their own...

Electronic Version of Strat-O-Matic?

jjsoh @ 8/14/2002 9:46:54 AM #
This is pretty interesting. It reminds me of an electronic version of a baseball board game I used to be play when I was a kid. Does anyone out there remember Strat-O-Matic baseball? Who knew playing baseball with dice could be so fun?! :)

And just like this game, each year you'd update additional rosters for each following year. (That's assuming these guys will continue to supply rosters each year). It would be great if some of the major video game developers/publishers would do the same, instead of teaking last year's game with a new roster and charging full price. Blah!

The only thing I don't see is a versus mode against another Palm. That would be cool.


Jim

RE: Electronic Version of Strat-O-Matic?
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 9:57:41 AM #
Looks a lot like it. Did you know that The Sporting News has on online version of Strat-O-Matic baseball available?
OT: Electronic Version of Strat-O-Matic - Baseball Mogul
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 10:25:30 AM #
If you like this type of game, you should check out Baseball Mogul Online. It lets you play in leagues against others with a pretty detailed stats-based game engine, and you get to develop your team over however many years you feel like playing. Pretty cheap monthly subscription for the hours of addiction you get out of it :). I think they also have a CD-ROM version for Windows.
RE: Electronic Version of Strat-O-Matic?
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 11:25:39 AM #
I also don't see any indication that the game will accumulate stats to allow you to replay a season nor anything about being able to move players around among rosters for trades, drafts, etc.

LOTR DVD offer

Toymaker @ 8/14/2002 9:57:37 AM #
Now if they only offered the LOTR eBooks with a Palm, that would be cool.

RE: LOTR DVD offer
Ronin @ 8/14/2002 10:11:34 AM #
Actually, I recall that Palm Digital Media recently discussed this very issue in either an e-mail newsletter or on their web site in the context of Open E-Book Week.

If I recall correctly, they mentioned that they know that many of their readers would like to see the Lord of the Rings trilogy, etc. in e-book format but that the publishers holding the rights were not convinced that digital publishing was viable. Palm went on to suggest that one way to convince these publishers otherwise would be to support Open E-Book Week and purchase an e-book and introduce some one that has never read an e-book to doing so.

Personally, I think it is a great idea and the more ways that people have reading material available to them the better.


In the Spirit of Umoja,
Ronin

RE: LOTR DVD offer
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 10:13:14 AM #
Yes, but very unlikely to happen unfortunately. I've read that the owners of the rights to the LOTR books (his son?) aren't interested at all in going all e-lek-tronic...

We can but dream...

RE: LOTR DVD offer
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 10:22:30 AM #
If only the LOTR DVD was worth it. It's essentially just a preview for the real DVD that is coming out in November. Good quality transfer though.
RE: LOTR DVD offer
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 11:03:02 AM #
And if only the LoTR books weren't so dark, depressing, long-winded, and boring, that would be even cooler. Too bad that won't change though.
RE: LOTR DVD offer
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 12:17:12 PM #
The books:

Dark: yes, very, agreed.

Depressing: overall, yes, as the author did assume that his world was winding down from a true "Golden Age" discussed in the painfully incomplete Silmarillion (though the lay of Beren and Luthien is quite good, IMHO). This was also his opinion of the real world, as polluting technology overtook the natural beauty of England.

Boring: In several places, yes. Especially the beginning--which is all about the Hobbits in Hobbiton doing Hobbity things.

Long-winded: and HOW!! There's an entire chapter about rabbit stew. RABBIT STEW. of course, Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series is worse, but now I'm digressing even further...

Despite these obvious flaws, I still came away immensely satisfied with the books, with the feeling that I had just read a dang good story. I recommend LotR for anyone with patience and stamina, and would be delighted to have an eBook edition.

--JM

RE: LOTR DVD offer
big_raji @ 8/14/2002 2:39:30 PM #
I'd hate to recommend anything warez-like here, but I've seen LOTR in ebook format in many places.

I guess people with lots of time on their hands scan them and OCR them.

Scary stuff.

---
Wooo!

RE: LOTR DVD offer
james_sorenson @ 8/14/2002 2:58:08 PM #
I have both the paper and the technically illegal ebook versions of LOTR. There are too many times when I want to read LOTR on the go, but don't want to worry about wrecking my book. I would have happily paid for the ebook version if they'd let me!
The politics in this are as bad as RIAA with CDs versus MP3s. Too many businesses mistrust putting a commercial market plan on a bunch of 1's and 0's.
Errrr...sorry. I guess this is just a tad off topic.


-------
James Sorenson

RE: LOTR DVD offer
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 3:04:00 PM #
> I'd hate to recommend anything warez-like here, but
> I've seen LOTR in ebook format in many places.

Go buy the books for $12 at Wal-mart so you don't feel guilty about it.

RE: LOTR DVD offer
big_raji @ 8/14/2002 3:09:23 PM #
>> I'd hate to recommend anything warez-like here, but
>> I've seen LOTR in ebook format in many places.

> Go buy the books for $12 at Wal-mart so you don't
> feel guilty about it.

Oh, I don't feel bad about it. I've bought the series three times over the years already... and still only have one book left that I can find. eBooks are great... no stupid friends that will borrow them and never return them. :P

---
Wooo!

im lazy for books
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 3:31:54 PM #
If only it came in audio playable in my clie =)
RE: LOTR DVD offer
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 6:33:03 PM #
Technically, not all copies of LOTR in e-format are necessarily illegal. Due to SNAFU, Houghton-Miflin accidentally nullified their copyright to the books when they sent over too many copies of the first edition.

Apparently this was before international copyright laws were out in place, and through some odd limit being exceeded, all U.S. copies of the first edition are Public Domain, since copyright did not apply in the U.S.

So, if someone wanted to scan in a first edition e-book, in the U.S. they would be totally within the law.

Now, granted those books are EXTREMELY rare, and Houghton-Miflin very quickly came out with the second edition to recover their copyright on the later editions, but it is conceivable that some of the e-books are legal.

IF only Lord of the rings DVD came with m515.

I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 3:32:54 PM #
Since m515 isnt worth a crp it would be a good move to have a free m515 for every lord of the rings DVD purchase.. =)
RE: IF only Lord of the rings DVD came with m515.
higgy @ 8/14/2002 9:17:22 PM #
Look, you got a rise out of me!

Higgy

RE: IF only Lord of the rings DVD came with m515.
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/15/2002 3:09:46 AM #
is that a good thing

or a palm thing.

BugMe is dead!

I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 3:35:43 PM #
BugMe has gone from what once was a very good, very efficient app with a small memory footprint to one of the worst cases of "bloatware" available for the Palm. And the poorest thing about the new version is that it does nothing better than the original version.
Makes you wonder if Microshaft is not behind the product.
RE: BugMe is dead!
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/15/2002 3:53:31 AM #
I agree.

This is an endemic problem with Palm software. There is a sort of vicious circle working here - so-called "features" are added to product to give it an edge over a competitor, who responds in the same way. Of course this produces more bugs along the way, which needs another revision to fix the problem. Many iterations later, we have the bloatware of which you speak.

In part this sort of thing is driven by marketing considerations too: (a) by releasing a new version, this justifies a little publicity eg, new versions lists at PalmGear. (b) the new version is downloaded by most existing users, and by some who may have tried and deleted a previous version - the result is a big jump in the number of downloads recorded at sites like PalmGear, which is helpful in terms of making the Top 50 lists. The latter is particularly pernicious as newbies will often try popular software, on the basis that it must be good - although if you consider the number of downloads only (not actual purchases) this is not very meaningful.

I don't see any solution, other than supporting software which sticks with "lean and mean" code.

RE: BugMe is dead!
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/15/2002 9:41:54 AM #
I totally agree! I wish companies like Electric Pocket would offer different version. I have a Palm V, so I don't need color. I don't need templates. I don't need all the bloated bells & Whistles. All I want is a solid, graphical note taker that I can assign alarms.

Ridiculously overdue

I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 3:39:57 PM #
ElectronicPocket lost me as a customer a loooooong time ago when they decided not to release Clie versions of their software....
RE: Ridiculously overdue
Phil @ 8/15/2002 9:16:45 AM #
Agreed.

It took them too long. Especially because BugMe! is a killer app for high resolution devices (simply more space). I just wonder why they donīt offer a scrollable screen (Like ritemail does). Speaking of ritemail (http://www.ritemail.net): beautiful user interface and the best use of HR Iīve ever seen. But ... no alarm. What a pitty. MaxilariasNote was my choice then.

Phil

RE: Ridiculously overdue
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/15/2002 9:35:06 AM #
Unfortunatly, riteMail is a 320K app that, according to the error message I received. "requires 512k or more free memory."

That means over 830K for a Note taking app? OK, it has email integration, and some may consider it a killer app, but all I wanna do is jot graphical notes!

Palm leadership

I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 4:25:05 PM #
...Handspring has chosen William R. Slakey, 44, to be its Chief Financial Officer, effective September 30. He's a former Palm and Apple employee...

Seems that all unfit and therefor sacked staff from Apple make it finally on some mystical way to the looser Palm. And when there even there not anymore bearable - they end up somewhere at Handspring.
But wait - that cannot be true - CEO of Palm and 3Com CO the incredible idiot benhamuchi which drove Palm intentionally in the outback is still at Palms steering wheel and was not going back to his honorable job selling waterpipes and carpets in his Lebanon hometown. Something did not work here - or ist my conception wrong?
Probably.
All this does not matter as my Pal m shares are below the cost of a midsize leftover toilet paper now - thanks to Palms incredible leder**** - and the warm and cosy watertank (gold parachute heating system supplied by the shareholder idiots like me) of unfit managers.

RE: Palm leadership
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 4:51:52 PM #
I am a Palm shareholder and I don't like what
the management has done too.
But still those attacks on Eric not right.

What happens at 3Com and Palm tell a true story
about American's stock market.
Share holders are nothing. No matter how bad a job the managerment has done, they still have their job.
Don't think if you do such a lame job at your work,
you would have been fired?

The funny thing about it is Eric still claims Palm is
not for sale. I wouldn't sell it too if it is so wonderful to me.

RE: Palm leadership
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 5:31:38 PM #
Thats a misconception - yours and Eric's - the company does not belong to Eric at all. Palm belongs to the shareholders. Money talks - and the Palm devotees talk. I can not see that the captain is satisfying any of them.
RE: Palm leadership
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/14/2002 11:30:41 PM #
It is true in theory that Palm belongs to shareholders.
I am one of them.
Any owner that is not crazy would fire a worker whose
performance is anything close to Eric's.

But you know the reality. Eric is still the CEO and
Chairman. And Eric even tells you Palm is not for sale.

So forget about money talks. That is the reality
of NAZ.

IF only Lord of the rings DVD came ON the m515.

Lungboy @ 8/14/2002 5:09:49 PM #
Maybe on a pallette of SD cards

watch a minute
swap cards
repeat

=)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eagles may soar but at least weasles don't get sucked into jet engines.

RE: IF only Lord of the rings DVD came ON the m515.
I.M. Anonymous @ 8/15/2002 11:28:48 PM #
It would take two 128Mb SD cards if encoded at good quality in Kinoma Player, one if low data rate encoding was used. I had Shrek on SD, the whole movie was about 110Mb using moderate compression. Cool for the kids, but make sure you device can handle it or you will get it back with a dead battery.

Altema

OS5 Clie :(

I.M. Anonymous @ 8/15/2002 9:07:21 AM #
When are we going to get a news item on this? :-(
RE: OS5 Clie :(
Ed @ 8/15/2002 9:33:06 AM #
Did you miss this article from a week or so ago?
www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3967

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