It reminds me of the Pandora!

[pmprog]

In the UK, Wally is short for Walter, but also means (less offensively) fool or idiot but also a somewhat affectionate "silly person", insult, i.e "You messed that up, you big wally!"

Late to this party, but I remember having this book

How to Be a Wally

How to be a Wally Manning, Paul

www.goodreads.com

Believe there was a sequel too, can't remember if I had that one though

 

[Lightkey]

Got it, thanks!

Both the DragonBox Pyra technical specs page and the pre-order page still show 2GB and 4GB options, so that's what I originally went with for the article originally, but

I've been telling him about other wrong information in the press-kit and website, like the SATA adaptor not being eSATA but he never fixes them. Anyway, if you look at the pre-order page, you can see that the 2GB models have disappeared from the webshop.

Edit: Another one he has not corrected in the technical specification is that the volume wheel had to be replaced with a digital one. You've also got the storage wrong, it's one internal microSD slot and two external SD slot. And there is a misspelled Pra. ;-)

 

[levi]

None of the computers I own can do suspend (to disc), but all of them can do sleep (to ram) if that's any use to you. It would be cool to get that working for a device like the Pyra, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a hot mess to begin with when it comes to full suspend.

FWIW I don't remember ever reaching 30 hours of use with my Pandora, short of shutting it down completely and resuming some days later. It had a low power mode which clocks the CPU lower and turns screen off and things, and after Notaz fiddled it would also stop boosting the voltage to get the 5V out for the USB A as long as you weren't using it, which had a big effect. But I don't think it ever clocked much past the 20 hour point for me, even after all of that.

 

[EvilDragon]

Got it, thanks!

Both the DragonBox Pyra technical specs page and the pre-order page still show 2GB and 4GB options, so that's what I originally went with for the article originally, but

Nice seeing you here

I still have the information about the 2GB RAM version up, as a few have placed that order and might want to look it up.
It's not possible to actually preorder it anymore - and the page needs to be overhauled, it's VERY VERY old (but I didn't have the time to do that yet - will probably find the time when the Pyras are being shipped out )

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Ahh yes, TECO. The editor where one interesting exercise is to work what your username does a command sequence.
I used to use TPU a lot. I'm not a programmer as such, but the configs I edit are mostly done in nano, and vi if nano is not available. Modifying the configs on embedded systems means you use whatever low-footprint editor is available on that system.

TECO is actually easier to use than people give it credit for, I think. I rather like it for certain things. I use it to make grocery lists mostly. It's easier on the MicroPC to edit a grocery list to check off an item using TECO while pushing a shopping cart because I don't need to use backspace, which is harder for me to reach while doing that.

 

[Yogendra]

I no longer know if I remember corectly, and I haven't read Discord, but the (second) Greek company was doing the cases(and the great job) and a Bavarian company was doing the coating, I think.
It might be that the coating fails because of something in the case, but maybe it's just the company in Ingolstadt doing inconsistent coating ?

I think evil dragon messed up - the bavarians were supposed to do the cases and the Greeks were supposed to be doing the coating OR was it the Turks that were supposed to do both

 

[bradlinder]

Thanks all!

I've updated the storage specs, corrected the "pra" typo, and removed the line suggesting you could still pre-order.

I do try to keep on top of the latest developments, but digging through forum threads for all the projects I cover can be pretty time consuming, so it's easy to miss out on some developments, so I appreciate your help in making this article more accurate!

I know that won't help folks who may have already seen the article and have no reason to re-read, but hopefully it will help provide the correct info to anyone seeing the article for the first time.

 

[monty]

Thanks for checking in on the forum.

I knew about Liliputing, but never sat down to scroll through it before. Now I have a new daily site. Which is great (except for my productivity, of course).

Minor typo on the spec sheet table: 'Diaplay'

 

[Lightkey]

I've updated the storage specs, corrected the "pra" typo, and removed the line suggesting you could still pre-order.

Why? It's very much still open for pre-orders.

 

[levi]

TECO is actually easier to use than people give it credit for, I think. I rather like it for certain things. I use it to make grocery lists mostly. It's easier on the MicroPC to edit a grocery list to check off an item using TECO while pushing a shopping cart because I don't need to use backspace, which is harder for me to reach while doing that.

I don't know TECO, but in vi (or vim, which is usually the better choice these days) it's just a matter of navigating to the line entry and typing dd to delete it.

 

[bradlinder]

Why? It's very much still open for pre-orders.

Because I read EvilDragon's statement about the 2GB model not being available for preorder anymore a little too quickly. I'm not doing myself any favors trying to make the case that I care about accuracy today, but it's supposed to be my day off

 

[levi]

Yeah, the 2GB unit is no longer open for preorder because it won't be sold in the future. You can still preorder a 4GB unit until the day the units actually go on sale.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

I don't know TECO, but in vi (or vim, which is usually the better choice these days) it's just a matter of navigating to the line entry and typing dd to delete it.

Ah I usually replace the * next to the entry with an x. In TECO it's fs*$x. But I may not use TECO anymore, I tried to make a macro, and when I run any macro TECO freezes. Not sure why. I'm a little sad because other than that I like it.

 

[Phlyra]

I've updated the article to reflect that while low-power idle mode is not available, that the 10 hours of battery life is an expectation during "normal" usage. I'm sorry I misread that, and sorry about misspelling your name @EvilDragon, I've corrected that as well.

Anything else I got wrong? Somebody pointed out that the 2GB RAM option is no longer available? I still see it on the pre-order page.

I do care about getting things right, and will do my best to correct any errors anyone points out.

But I also believe that with this kind of niche product, it's worth pointing out the strengths and weaknesses, because you don't want people misunderstanding the current state of the software or capabilities of the hardware when they place an order, and I don't want to mislead my readers into thinking that a device can do more (or less) than it's really capable of. Sorry if some of you saw that as my being harsh on the Pyra, but I'm actually quite excited to see how far it's come and that it's finally ready to ship!

It might be worth pointing out that as it’s the successor to the Pandora, with an even stronger dev community behind the Pyra, whilst the current state of software development might not be optimal, users can expect it to improve significantly with even more users contributing...

 

[JDTAY]

Anyone see the new mailing list post?

One audio bug fixed, one more to go.

 

[levi]

Ah I usually replace the * next to the entry with an x. In TECO it's fs*$x. But I may not use TECO anymore, I tried to make a macro, and when I run any macro TECO freezes. Not sure why. I'm a little sad because other than that I like it.

In case anyone's interested, in vi that'd be 0(zero)clx<Esc> assuming the * is on the very beginning of the line. If it's not on the beginning of the line but always in the same place, you can insert enough 'l' (lower case L) keys to get there after the zero and before the cl command, or use <integer> followed by l, e.g. 05lclx<Esc> if your * is always in the sixth column. If you want to search for * characters, type /* followed by Enter and from there you can enter clx to change it to an x. And if you want to go to the beginning of the file you can press 1G although if there's an indent on the first line it may go to the end of that and you need to type zero (0) to get to the very first character still (in vim 'gg' does the same thing as 1G and is easier to type).

 

[netcat]

oh vi.... is it really still king? I've never found a smoother editor. Indeed slow terminals are still a fact of life. I have been wondering if vi might be rimagined for thumb typists (with analogsticks)? that said I did quit some coding on the zaurus clamshell in vi, and didn't seem to mind. actually I think vi is the ultimate editor and will never be bettered. it's the best we (humanity) can do.

 

[matzesu]

Thanks that you corrected the Article, although it’s maybe to early to say it’s ship in this month..
I would be happy to have my Pyra in my hand, especially since I made a lot of writing mistakes whit this iPhone Touch Keyboard..

But if nobody complain about this shipping in this month, dos this means it’s official??



Send from something, i guess ^^

 

[oskda]

It's a bug in the OMAP5 hardware without any known workaround.
The idle mode of the CPU is the low-power mode that the Pandora uses to reach 30 hours+ as standby when you just have it lying around.
This unfortunately crashes the OMAP5 occasionally.
It's no design or layout error we made - it's a hardware bug in the OMAP5 TI never resolved.

Had Microsoft not bought Nokia, ...

Any future CPU upgrade will fix that.

Then now the IMPORTANT question is: how much TI OMPA5 do you have on stock (or you can get from other sources than TI, as TI doesn't sell it anymore)? I.e.: How may Pyras with OMPA5 can you supply until you have to switch to other SOC actually on market (like NXP ones with extended support and guaranteed long time on market)?

This may give us an idea when we could change CPU board to one without low-power bug in OMAP5. Or when someone can buy a Pyra with new CPU board without that bug.

For some of us a low-power idle mode and suspend mode, like we have on all smartphones and actual computers, are a very valuable point, because Pyra is a "mobile" device like a smartphone but in pocket computer format. Even on my desktop PC (actually a convertible/notebook computer) I use suspend mode a lot of, because a lot of times I want it to be where I left it instantly when I back to it. In a pocket device I would value that capability even much more, because I would use it in the move, and I will have a lot of on-suspend changes on it.

Even my good old calculators (HP 48/50 TI89/92) have suspend mode: I turn them on and all is exactly where I left them (obviously on HP48 suspend mode, where RAM is powered on and real time clock continues beating, is rated in years, something no modern smartphone can handle). And my old Sharp Zaurus pocket computers have proper idle/suspend mode.

Booting up not only takes more time than instant recovery from idle/suspend mode, but also takes time and work to setup all like you had before: it is time and work.

OK, we can live with actual OMAP5 limitation on that bug, having it on on low-speed (with not so much hours like proper idle/suspend-on-RAM mode would have), but the ideal situation would arrive with new SOC without that bug.

 

[linx]

In case anyone's interested, in vi that'd be 0(zero)clx<Esc> assuming the * is on the very beginning of the line. If it's not on the beginning of the line but always in the same place, you can insert enough 'l' (lower case L) keys to get there after the zero and before the cl command, or use <integer> followed by l, e.g. 05lclx<Esc> if your * is always in the sixth column. If you want to search for * characters, type /* followed by Enter and from there you can enter clx to change it to an x. And if you want to go to the beginning of the file you can press 1G although if there's an indent on the first line it may go to the end of that and you need to type zero (0) to get to the very first character still (in vim 'gg' does the same thing as 1G and is easier to type).

And I shall add that instead of using 'cl' which the l i guess stands for letter, you can use 'r' for replace so one keystroke less and that would be 0(zero)rx<Esc>