Leonid Mamchenkov

It has been a long time since I checked the SonyEricsson P800 scene. Meanwhile there were plenty software updates and a lot more media content published. I’ve spent a good deal of today downloading all sorts of sounds and pictures, testing new software products and updating the old ones.

Out of the whole pile, here is a short updates recommendation:

• Tracker – desktop software. It is up to version 4+ now. Lots of useful functionality added including favourites which have applications, contacts, files, messages, etc. Calendar view can now switch from day, to week, to month, to todo, and to few other views. This should save you starting the Organizer. You can also have notes on the desktop now. It can now close all the applications with the flip. Or only the selected one. And a lot more.
• miniGPS – mobile cell locator. It is up to version 1.53 with lots of useful additions. It can delay actions now. It can also perform actions periodically. Nice.
• IM+ – instant messaging client. This is something I haven’t used before, but loved at first site. It supports all protocols that I need and even more (ICQ/Yahoo/MSN/Jabber/etc). Russian works out of the box. Fantastic. :) I always forget to use ICQ on the desktop – now I’ll carry it with me all the time. By the way, my ICQ number is 14956994. My Yahoo ID is leonid_mamtchenkov. Don’t overuse. :)

There is a lot of media hype caused by the death and presidential funerals of Ronals Reagan. Some interesting facts get mentioned in the media. Like for example, the fact that Reagan’s funerals are the first presidential funerals held in the last 31 years.

White House website has few pages devoted to America’s past presidents. Some interesting read there.

Going through the web and reading pages related to my GPS device quest, I came across a couple of interesting and very related projects – orienteering and map reading.

Here are few links for serlf education.

• Reading Topographic Maps – A Free On-Line Book on How to Read Topographic Maps and Use a Compass.
• Topo Map Reading Guide – help on how to read topographic maps.
• Learn Orienteering – site that seems to be in some reorganizing stage, but still provides some useful info on how to handle the compass and find your way around if your device doesn’t work.
• Small FAQ at some orienteering club’s web site.

Now I hope you will not get lost. ;)