PAC Mate notes

Greetings. First off, I'd like to say that I'm writing this post on my PAC Mate, but yet its on my desktop. Let me explain. Remember when I posted not long ago about version 3.0 for the PAC Mate (PM) came out, and mentioned that one of the main improvements/features in this version was the ability to run a desktop with the PM? Well, this is what I'm doing now! I'm listening to one of my favorite Internet stations, Club 977, through Winamp, and composing this post on Blogger, all while sitting on my bed. I must say, my bed's lots more comfortable than the boring desk chair I usually sit at in front of my computer, :)

If you're interested in setting this same functionality for yourself, then I'd be glad to provide the instructions that I went by. Let me gather the information and I will post it sometime this week, hopefully in the next few days.

The other big note about the PM that I must mention was brought to my attention by my friend and coworker Donna Miller. She says that one need not go out and buy the Sprite Backup software that one can use to backup the PM. You might do this if you were away from your computer and wanted to backup onto a compactflash card. Instead, you need only use Active Sync on the computer. Active Sync will backup and restore ALL (previous word in caps) of the data and settings you have on your PM, including any serial numbers, drivers, or other important information you need to use your PM or other software. Plus, there is a setting in the Backup-Restore dialog in Active Sync on the PC where you can check a check box to have Active Sync perform a backup after each synchronization. I don't know about you, but remembering to do regular computer maintenance is hard enough for me, much less remembering to backup my system. So being able to do this after each sync session sounds pretty good to me.

If you can't afford or justify buying Sprite Backup, now you don't have to. Just use the tools you have available to you. One note of caution though: be careful after an upgrade on the PM, not to restore the backup from Active Sync only to discover that the backup was from the prior PM version. To avoid this, before backing up and after upgrading the PM, be sure you uncheck that check box I mention above. Otherwise, happy backing up and restoring!

Additional note: After upgrading your PM or after a hard reset, when you connect the PM to the PC in Active Sync, you will be asked if you want establish a new partnership. There will be two radio buttons--Guest and Standard Partnership. Choose Guest and then hit the Next button. This will allow you to restore from a prior backup without having to worry about mixing up the partnerships.

In conclusion, this is Wayne, signing off from the PAC Mate, or should I say from my desktop? Either way, it feels good to say that, :)