newbie queztions

[XeonRebel]

y'ello, xeonrebel again

this thing its amazing!, its a great device for students of medicine (hear my advice kidz, this zire 71 rulez for medicine)

but, its also amazin' how it generates zirephobia!, hehe...man, i mean, i dont even want to touch my zire cause i dont wanna ruin it...

anyway, i just have a few questions:

1-waterproof: is there a waterproof case? and what to do in case a few drops of water hit the zire? (i almost collapse when one drop fell near the sd card port) <--like in this case.


2-can palm os catch viruses? if so, can they do extensive damage like in normal pc's? (bios level damage)

and last but not least

3-is there a program that can check my zire for problems? (an equivalent of scandisk or regscan for windows)

thankss

by the way, where can i find a faq about palm os?

[Stardust]

To answer your questions:

1. Water - Your best bet for shielding your Z71 from an involuntary drizzle is a vinyl case with a zipper so the unit is protected all around. If some liquid does fall onto any part of the device, don't panic. Just wipe it off with a soft dry cloth.

2. Viruses - No need to worry about this if you don't connect to cyberspace with your Z71. Some Palmwarez apps are said to contain gremlins that will exact retribution, but I presume you don't use them.

3. Troubleshooting app - I don't know of any that is compatible with Palm 0S5 and can detect corrupted files.

Enjoy your Zire 71, mate, and don't be so bloody paranoid.

[ALMS]

This might sound strange, but you can use a zip lock sandwich bag to keep the Palm safe from water and still be able to use it.

[dirtydog]

well if your that paranoid heres a case thats shaockproof and waterproof. http://store.palm.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1244836&cp=1308827.1309404&parentPage=family


Dirtydog

[madkins007]

1. Waterproof cases. Two catagories- 'store and transport', like the world-famous Otter-Box dry boxes. These are relatively cheap and incredibly tough, but you cannot use your PDA while in one.

There are several 'use while inside case' waterproof cases around. Plain Zip-Lock Bags (heavy duty types with GOOD zippers) are cheap and perfect for casual water, sand, and dust protection. For tougher situations, try one of the waterproof bag-type cases (www.actiongear.com, www.styluscentral.com) or the expensive and incredibly tough OtterBox Armored series.

2. Viruses. Although the major anti-virus software companies are saying otherwise, viruses are not a concern- at least, not at this time. There is a bit of code called the 'liberty bell' that can do some damage, but it is not a high risk and is not actually a virus.

BackupBuddy (www.bluenomad.com) and other programs will scan for this bit of code if that options is selected. In my many years of rather indiscriminate downloading, etc., I have never seen it, though.

3. There are some utilities that will help do some of what you want.

-InWatch (www.stacworks.com) helps monitor installs and, when you are ready to remove it, helps remove it ALL. It ALSO has a 'pre-clean' function that finds what it thinks are 'orphan files' (bits of old files, old data files, etc.) and lets you delete them one by one if you want. (It tells you the files 4 character extention. By going to Palmsource's site, they have a utility that tells you who some of these are registered to so you can make a better guess as to whether to delete them or not.)
-SqueakyClean is like InWatch's Pre-Clean bit.
-dbScan is a freeware address book cleaning utility that checks for problems there. It is amazing how easily this particular database gets corrupted!
-UnDupe removes duplicated entries in the 'Big 4' applications. Palm Desktop has a similar option in the newer versions, as does BackupBuddy.