From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (gordon hlavenka)
Subject: Re: Your chance to spend someone else's $$$
Organization: Vpnet Public Access
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 23:48:55 GMT


Well, as promised, here's my report:

Sharp OZ-9600:  Costs almost as much as the HP95LX, but is not
compatible with anything but other OZ-series products.  No PCMCIA,
only 256K RAM.  Keyboard is great, though -- and I like the
touchscreen and the file-folder system.  I think the next OZ-whatever
will be excellent; the 9600 is a transitional model.  The drawing
feature would have sold me on this one if it were useful.  But the
drawing pad needs scroll bars (A4 size virtual screen), a few
"gestures" (like circle to mark something, strikeout, etc.) and at
least a text tool.  Letter recognition is probably out of the question
in this price range...

Psion Organizer 3:  The least expensive machine I looked at.  Very
impressive OS, but the memory expansion is expensive (SSDs) and I got
some bad support stories in email.  Also, despite people syaing the
button problem is fixed, apparently there are still units being sold
that don't include the fix.  Also, the only place I could find to
actually touch a Psion was at Comdex Fall, and the guy in the booth
was not friendly or helpful.  (Judging from what I heard, he was
probably from their Customer Support staff.)

HP 95LX:  This I bought.  Service Merchandise listed it for about $30
less than Elek-Tek or CompUSA; and the local CompUSA was out of stock
on it besides (and Service was just across the street :-)  1MB model
and the connectivity pack set me back $680.  (Naturally, the next day
someone on the net was selling this for $450 or so!)  An old Practical
Peripherals power pack puts out 10.2vac and has the right plug, so
there's my external power.  Broderbund's Memory Mate (which I run on
my desktop machine) seems to do just fine on the 95 -- but I'll need a
RAM card for the database.  Where are the best prices on PCMCIA
cards?

Now, when does the 95LX FAQ get posted again?  I'd like to know what
the scancodes are for assigning things to keys in APNAME.LST, and so
on.


Oh, yeah -- fugitt@tempus.Corp.Sun.COM writes:
>You didn't mention the Wizard model number that had this problem. I've
>used a 8200 for over a year. The 8200 has two sets of batteries and an
>internal switch. I've never lost any data while replacing the batteries on
>my Wizard.

I think the model number is OZ-2000 (?) -- it's the original Wizard.
There is no external power connector, and even though the serial
adapter is externally powered, serial comms make a HUGE demand on the
internal batteries.  I have to maintain backups of these for several
execs (Not computer-types at all!) and I don't see the unit until the
BAT indicator is on.  By this time, there's not enough juice left to
run the serial interface for a backup.  And the switch is awkward; too
easy to set it wrong.  (I haven't yet; but I have trashed the RAM a
couple of times trying to do a backup)  If there's an external power
jack now, that's obviously fixed.

Backups on the 95 I do using DC95 / DCS95, and PKZIP with the options
'-a -p -r -t092591'; this packs anything I've done into a ZIP on my
desktop machine.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------
Gordon S. Hlavenka           cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us
Vote straight ticket Procrastination party Dec. 3rd!