Book of Sigmarion III: Chapter 3 The Sigmarion Clan reunited

A couple of weeks ago the Solo Champion summoned the old Sigmarion clan (I, II, III) by NTT DoCoMo (the actual manufacturer was NEC) on Yahoo! Japan via Buyee, an international package forwarding service specialized in online shopping.

At first I chose to have all three devices packed up together and shipped via DHL, which was faster and cheaper than EMS. However, the big box was returned to Buyee the very next day by DHL due to exceeded limit of the amount of batteries allowed in one package. Oops.

It took another couple of days for Buyee to process the returned package, refund the DHL fees, and rerun the shipping instructions step. This time I chose Japan Air Small Package, priced almost the same as DHL with a bit longer delivery time. 

Book of Sigmarion III: Chapter 2 SlashToShift

The major roadblock for me to get into using my Sigmarion III is the unconventional keyboard layout, especially the punctuations and various symbols spread all over the place.

Over last couple of weeks I was searching for an old Japanese app called SlashToShift. The app enables the user to redefine the values of many of the keys. Despite the fact that all the links on Japanese websites are dead, and nifty.com is in a way immune to the grand WaybackMachine (the largest online archive of websites, living or dead), I finally managed to track down a copy on some obscure Chinese software download website. 

Since the original documentation and the app interface are in Japanese, I prepared a brief user guide in English for those who are interested in using this app on their Sig3. https://www.hpcfactor.com/scl/1087/QTA_Software/SlashToShift/version_1.50

A reply to another mobile warrior

This is the main content in my reply to a message from another veteran mobile warrior.

For the moment, I still consider Jornada 720/728 the best HPC for me. The form factor is just so right. None of my smartphones or portable computers can beat that. Sigmarion 3 (or possibly 2) comes close. In comparison, Sig3 is more responsive and has a gorgeous screen (because of its smaller size in higherresolution), But I don't like the unconventional keyboard layout. Unless I can find a way to hack the keymapping, I would stick with my J720 as my primary HPC.

I have twins today!

Yet another box from the nation of the rising sun again!

Ordered on 30 Sep, arrived today (3 Oct). Super fast.

Book of Sigmarion III: Chapter 1 Revival of the Ancient Warrior (Part II): An experiment of solder-free battery repairing

Previously in the Book of Sigmarion III ...

The battery is dead! The cells are dead dead!

The only means to resuscitate the dead battery pack is by replacing the dead cells inside. They are 3.7V 18500 (NOT the much more common 18650!). 

My little champion proclaims, "Here came the rescue, my friend!"

Book of Sigmarion III: Chapter 1 Revival of the Ancient Warrior (Part I)

HOMECOMING

Here arrived my Sigmarion III, the 3rd generation of Handheld PCs by DoCoMo (a major mobile service provider in Japan). 

I won the bidding on the Japanese Yahoo auctioning site. This item only cost a bit more than 5,000 yen. An excellent deal in my opinion. In fact, from time to time the Japanese sellers would describe their listed items as "junk". However, more often than not things would turn out to be (much) better than expected. I have a very high respect for the Japanese for how they take great care of things they own, especially collection items and gadgets. As you can see, everything is in such an excellent condition. If the box had been (re-)shrinkwrapped I would even have believed that this is a (like-)new machine! 

Prelude: A New Beginning of the Old Legends

I. THE OLD LEGENDS

Like many midlife working adults in large modern cities, I grew up during the advent of the internet (still remember irc, mailing lists, Netscape and Eudora?) and personal computing devices of the 1980s, I have witnessed and lived through many generations of gadgets: from the boxy metal heavy personal desktops, to the minuscule PDAs in the 90s and beyond, to the UMPCs mostly as an expensive passing fad for the niche, then to the low-cost but cheapish Netbooks since mid 2000s, and finally at this point, the golden age of the ubiquitous Smartphones.

I was once a loyal follower of PDAs. My first love was a Palm III. Then I moved on to Handspring Prism, and then a couple of Sony Clie (NR70V, NX73V), the much deprived Abacus Wrist PDA, and finally a Handera 330 (still having it today!). I did use a Pocket PC (iPAQ 2210) for several months but the PPC platform just failed to win my favor on many counts. 

The year of the Millenium marked not only the would-be-but-never-was Apocalypse, but also the birth of truly converging devices. Traditional PDAs and handhelds were quickly exiled to legacies and forgotten, thanks to the emergence of Web 2.0 as a new infrastructure of daily communications, which went hand in hand strongly with the rise of iOS and Android smartphones as the ideal all-in-one mobile solutions.

A sidenote: The Nokia N900, a truly usable Linux phone (I'm looking at you, PinePhone), was my initimate companion at one point. But two years later, I just found no words to say "No!" to my mobile service provider's FREE offer. So I switched to the gift LG Optimus G (Android 4.1) and never looked back since then.

Smartphones = a dream come true!?

But it is still too early for my dream to realize. I have always been feeling a sense of uneasiness and insecurity, worrying about yielding too much privacy automatically, unwillingly, and permanently to the world wide web especially the big manupulative moneymakers (conspiracies!). Although I develop no love for social media in general and more so MMO gaming, I still find myself spending a huge chunk of time every day feeding on online content, YouTube clips, podcasts, patreon channels, news feeds ... I even manage part of my day job online using my Android phone (now LG Q6+, still Android OS 8). 

So perhaps it's time to call for a moment's respite and take stock of my gadget experience.