Re: Tablets? - OT

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 13:55:33 -0600, "Ralph"
<nt_consulting64@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>

Well, you sure are farther along than I ever got to play.

Thanks for the observation on Telxon. I was once assigned late and tried
pulling a project out of the fire that was built around one - it was a
disaster. I had to go to the boss and say kill it. (Never a solid career
move. <g>)

The trick with the Telxon was to ignore their stuff and go back to the
C&T documentation

Never was sure if it was me or 'Memorex'. You cause me to believe it wasn't
me after all. <g>

I have no doubts whatsoever <g>

Your observation...
"The major problem I've always faced is finding good hardware, the
application requires a printer, credit card reader and a memory card (now we
use a memory stick), and few people provide all those."
is quite accurate.

Back in '92 I was involved with a project to create a mobile POS station.
(in case power went out in the stores, for sidewalk sales, etc.) It wasn't
'mobile' in any sense of today's definition - as it had a couple of 20lb UPS
batteries, a disk array, PC, monitor, cash drawer, card readers, printer,
... - but it could be pushed well enough. <g>

That sounds a tasty project
- I would have built the whole lot into an airline bar cart

As it turned out the real pain became a mattter of where to put all that
stuff. We kept trying to lighten it up and ergonomically organize it.
However, anything that would 'fit' into one plan, never seemed to work with
the others. Something was always the odd man out. If you did find something
that worked, you soon discovered they had 10 units in stock or were out of
business. And then the wiring...

Thinking about it, the Epson PX16 with full LCD and touch screen would
have done the trick

The situation didn't changed very much for 10 years. Until my client had
enough clout to dictate design. It is still just as bad in the handheld and
tablet world.

I know of one large US company that found a hand held that they liked
made by a small UK company
- to secure supply they bought the manufacturer

For all the talk about "Hardware Advances" - there are some obvious
integrations, which for some strange reason, never show up. Everyone seems
to create their particular toy like it is going to be the only thing on the
counter or the only item you are going to be lugging around. With strange
shapes, bizarre locations for connectors, 20' or 6" cords, etc. I guess they
were designed mostly to look well in magazine ads and sales pitches. (Which
leads to another observation - this stuff is all built by and bought by
people who never actually have to use it. <g>)

Hopefully someone will come out with a tablet that has USB ports located
where items are not guaranteed to get broken off, readers and printers that
are usable without being a contortionist (and cleanable without factory
re-conditioning <g>), &etc.

Gawd, USB ports, on the current machine, a Casio, the USB port breaks
inside the case.

The system was in chaos until I found a Belkin PCMCIA -> USB hub card
- I landed up buying about 90 of them via EBay from an 'old stock'
clearer in California, getting them shipped to a private address in
NJ, where they were picked up by airline crew.

People still manage to break those, but fortunately there is a guy
near the client who is adept at repairing them.

What really annoys me is that Win CE machines tend to be much better
and cheaper than DOS/Win tablets
- but I did not relish the prospect of coding for CE

Another thing that annoys me is that local suppliers make a huge
margin for simply unpacking boxes and whenever there is a problem they
blame it on software - which is absurd.
- they also keep trying to get the client to re-kit with new hardware,
saying the machines are unavailable
- then, when I find a source of reconditioned kit, they buy it for
peanuts and sell it to the client at original list price
- bunch of parasites

I can see you have also been round the block a few times ...


.

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