Number 235 - December 2002

Mobile Computing
by Bill Beverly reprinted from July, 2002 PC Alamode
Mobile and wireless computing are very popular among both professional business men/women and computer users in general. Every year more and better computing products hit the market. The popularity of these wireless and mobile computers and devices revolves around many features built into them. Not the least of which is the Internet. The Web, more than the media, can keep abreast of the best available information to consumers on a near real time basis. Many of these computing devices use various versions of Windows'operating systems. You will find in this article tips, tricks, and useful information to enhance your mobile and wireless computing. Airport & City Code Converter     If you travel a lot and need a ready source for all those confusing airport and city codes, see Airport & City Information . Battery Power     Win2000's power management features can help increase battery life, but they won't solve all your woes. Fortunately, you can take a number of steps to prolong the life of your beleaguered battery.     Whenever possible, use lithium ion batteries. They offer the best charge-to-volume ratio and lack the dreaded memory effect, which causes NiCad batteries to lose their charge unless they are always drained all the way down before being recharged.     Get multiple batteries. Many full-size notebooks can accept a second battery, provided you're willing to do without a CD-ROM drive for the duration of a plane flight. You can double your operating life this way.     Turn off multimedia. If you need to conserve power, the last thing you want to do is send power to speakers or have your CPU (central processing unit) working overtime on video clips you really don't need to see.     Look for custom power settings. Your notebook may support battery-friendly tweaks, such as modes that lower the CPU clock speed.     Turn down the display. Use your notebook's brightness and contrast controls to ease down your display settings and conserve a little energy.     Unplug PC (personal computer) card devices. It takes juice to keep a network or modem PC card active, generally a waste if you're on an airplane*, so remove the PC card for the trip and plug it in when you get to your hotel room.     * Unless WiFi enabled -TOGGLE Ed     If you have ever run out of laptop battery power while on a trip and then had to look for an electrical outlet, the solution to this problem is an external battery call Electrofuel Power Pad 160. Depending on your power-saving settings and level of activity, it can potentially extend run time by 12 to 16 hours. It's about the size of a large magazine. [ about $500 - TOGGLE ed] Boot to DOS     In addition to making sure your laptop battery is fully charged to speed up security checks at the airport, you should also set your computer to boot to DOS from a floppy. Booting to DOS lets you avoid waiting for Windows to load. Format a new disk and make sure to copy system files to the disk when formatting so the computer can boot from the disk. Upon completion of formatting, pop the disk into the floppy drive and you're set for a quick, no-frills boot.     Computer Notebooks     Many computer users are finding that computer laptops/notebooks singularly or with docking stations are becoming replacements for the desktop units. Laptops/notebooks with docking stations can be used with all of the peripherals devices, such as printers, scanners, copiers, etc., found with a desktop, and those machines without docking stations can handle multiple peripheral devices. So, if you are a road warrior, who relies on laptop/notebook, here are some useful tips to enhance your computer use.     Purchase a second battery to extend your computer use when electrical outlets are not available to you. Whenever possible, use electrical outlets at airports, libraries, bookstores, coffee houses, etc. Always backup your files.     Make reservations at hotels/motels that offer high speed Internet access, and always check their phone lines to determine if they are digital or analog and bring along a digital/analog adapter. More than 2,100 hotels in the United States now offer high-speed Internet connections.     Prior to traveling, log on to GeekTools to see if your hotel offers these high-tech amenities. California has the largest number of these facilities while Wyoming the fewest.     Lastly, always use anti-theft devices for your computer equipment whenever on the road. Dial Tone     If traveling in the United States and/or abroad, you may find that your PC laptop doesn't recognize the sound of domestic/foreign dial tones. In these cases, your best bet is to tell your laptop to ignore the dial tone. In Win 95/98/ME/XP, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, Dial-Up Networking. Now right-click your Internet Connection and choose Properties. Under the General tab, click the Configure button. Under Connection, uncheck the Wait For Dial Tone Before Dialing box and click OK twice to exit. Entertainment     Check Citysearch to see if there will be anything interesting going on in your destination city. Citysearch provides searchable theater, music, sports, and other listings for dozens of U.S. cities. File Synchronization     When traveling there's a possibility for encountering Murphy's Law of File Synchronization: The one file you need isn't there; it's sitting on a server back in the office. With Win2000, a notebook, and a network, you've got all the ingredients to successfully use Offline Files and Folders. Unlike the Briefcase feature, this great synchronization tool is firmly integrated with Windows Explorer and doesn't require a lot of extra work on your part. Offline Files and Folders work best when your data is well organized with all your key files stored in shared folders on network drives.     To synchronize files between your notebook and the network, right-click on a file or folder icon and click Make Available Offline. Synchronization is automatic.	To further configure offline synchronization, open an Explorer window, choose Tools, Synchronize, and then click the Setup button.     To work with offline files, simply open the shortcut to the network folder. If you don't have a live Net connection, Windows works with local cached copies. Later, when you reconnect, Win2000 syncs the files. But be aware that Win2000 doesn't sync certain types of Access databases and Outlook Personal Folders (.pst) files. Knowledge Base article Q252509 explains how to work around this issue. Flight Tracking     Trip.com's Flight Tracker offers a graphical way to check the status of a flight in progress, which is useful for seeing if a business associate will be on time or if your flight is late. Type in the airline and flight number and a continually updated map pinpoints the plane's location. Laptop Travel Kit     Before you head out the door on your next trip, create a mobile preparedness kit. First grab a pair of tweezers for pulling out cords coiled under the base of the phone. Also take two phone cords for getting at hard-to-reach outlets that might be behind hotel desks or beds and a cheap female-to-female connector from Radio Shack. If the idea of two phone cords seems too bulky, consider an inexpensive retractable cord. Lost & Found     With a Web-enabled wireless device, the next time you're lost on the road call for directions without ever speaking to a person. By signing up with Yahoo Mobile , your wireless phone, PDA (personal digital assistant) or pager has instant access to a plethora of services like e-mail, news alerts and life-saving driving directions. While Yahoo's Mobile service is free, make sure to check with your wireless Web provider for hidden fees.     Mail by Phone     If you need to pick up mail on the road, try Yahoo's voice service. It will read your mail to you upon calling a toll-free number: (800) MY-YAHOO. Shoutmail offers a similar service, but no toll-free number. To use the service, you'll first need to check the company's Web site for a local access number. Both services are free and ad-supported. Mute Sound     To save battery life on your portable computer, you're always better off working without sound. Sound takes power to make noises. Keep in mind that whenever possible, you should adjust the volume on your laptop using the computer's hardware. While turning the volume down in Windows will save battery life, it won't help as much as turning down the external volume wheel on the computer. Some computers use power for the speakers based on the hardware setting whether or not there is any sound. If your computer has no external volume control of any kind, then just mute the volume in your operating system. Portable Drives     If you run Win98/Me/XP on your laptop and use a portable drive when traveling, a setting change can help speed access to your drives. Right-click your My Computer icon and choose System Properties. Click the Performance tab, and then click the File System button. Under Removable Disk, check the Enable Write-Behind Caching On All Removable Disk Drives and then click OK twice to exit. This operation tells your laptop to use RAM to speed up access to files on your portable drive. Power Schemes     If frequently on the road for your job and you travel with your laptop, then power conservation has to be one of your concerns. WinXP comes to your rescue with several predefined "power schemes" that will help you preserve your laptop's battery life. You can also create your own power scheme if none of the predefined ones meet your needs. To access the power schemes, just choose Start, Control Panel. If the Control Panel opens in Category view, choose Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options. In Classic view, open the Power Options icon. Speed Up Browsing     To speed up a sketchy Internet dial-up connection, try turning off images for a faster surfing experience. In Internet Explorer, select Tools, Internet Options, Advanced. Scroll down to Multimedia. Then deselect Show pictures. In Netscape Navigator, choose Edit, Preferences, click Advanced, and deselect Automatically Load Images. Tablet PC     Tablet PCs are a new generation of computers that won't be available until later this year (Nov 02-ed). These products are based on Microsoft's tablet version of Windows. These Windows based tablet PCs enable you to write notes with a pen and then Windows translates the words into text. To learn more about the new Tablet PCs, go to Microsoft's web site . Web Sites     Here are a few of the many other web sites that provide useful information for mobile and wireless computer users.     If you own a Pocket PC, check out Pocket PC Passion .     If interested in PDAs, take a look at PDA Geek .     For anyone interested in wireless input devices, such as mice, trackballs, keyboards, headset, etc., LogiTech has all of this information.     If you're a businessperson, you will want to visit Mobile Business Solutions for a business-oriented treatment of various wireless tools and technologies.     If you're shopping for a mobile computing device Simon is a good resource.     Finally, if you have a Web-enabled cellular phone, Yahoo provides listings of Web sites designed for your phone's monochrome display.     There are many practical, affordable, and useful mobile and wireless laptop/notebook computers/PDAs, Pocket PCs, tablet computers, and wireless devices such as cell phones, global positioning system devices, etc., all of which impact upon our lives and ways of conducting personal affairs and business. If you still havent gotten aboard this computing train, it's not too late!     Bill Beverley is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and intermediate computer enthusiast. Early in his military career he was on the ground floor in the development of the U.S. Armys Field Artillery Tactical Fire Direction System (TACFIRE), a forerunner of subsequent digital computers / communications within the army.
Number 235 - December 2002