4tper
Encryption application, uses blowfish. Sounds nice, but I like gnukeyring because it has a jpilot plugin, even if I do trust blowfish more than gnukeyring's 3-DES. Schneier can say blowfish is untested all he wants; I think it's up to snuff so far.

ant
java-based make-like utility. Not really palm software, but may be useful with SuperWaba (a java system for PalmOS).

atarigo
Some say "atarigo" is the best way to start learning how to play go. Others say it teaches a required skill, but overemphasizes the importance of that one skill in a game requiring many skills, by only addressing that single skill. Anyway, atarigo is a simplified form of go.

BatteryGraph
On comp.sys.palmtops.pilot, the consensus appears to be that this is the best replacement for BatteryLog, when you're running PalmOS 5.x. BatteryLog is a really great application, but while it worked on PalmOS 4.1, it does not work on my new PalmOS 5.2.1 system.

BatteryInfo
I know next to nothing about this app.

BatteryLog
Great on PalmOS 4.1, useless on PalmOS 5.x

BatteryTime
I know little about this app

birthdays
This is a great app. It's intended as a birthday reminder program, but I also use it for reminding me about my wedding anniversary, when we moved into our current condo, important dates in history, and so on.

BizHours
This is pretty nice. It lets you keep track of when the stores you frequent open and close.

booster
This came as a microsoft .exe. dosbox couldn't extract it. wine is trying to... But it just gets stuck. Never mind. So far I'm not having much luck with wine and installshield-based windows installers.

boulder
Boulderdash clone. Up/down work on my Tungsten, but left/right do not.

CarMoney
I eventually gave up on car-repair-tracking apps. I just wasn't happy with any of them. This is partly because nothing would do a bidirectional sync with a desktop app.

checkers
A basic Checkers (draughts) application. It's fairly strong, but then again, I'm no checkers expert.

clip
As I recall, I didn't like this app on my old IIIxe, because it required me to use graffiti. I'm trying it again on my Tungsten C, because it has a physical keyboard. It doesn't run at all on my Tungsten C with PalmOS 5.2.1.

Converter
This is a pretty decent units conversion app. I sometimes use it for converting computer network throughput measures, or celsius <-> fahrenheit. But it has many more units than that.

coolfnts
I decided not to try this app, because I somehow got the impression that it would cause crashes in some applications that make assumptions about the layout of the screen that depends on font size.

CradleSnd
I believe this application did not work on my IIIxe with 4.1 and an old serial cradle, but it appears to work nicely on my Tungsten. :) It makes your palm make a sound when you hook it up to your USB cable, as well as when you remove it from your cable. This eliminates some pointless fiddling when you think you've got your palm connected but don't, or when the palm falls off the cable and you otherwise wouldn't have noticed right away.

crash
This is a great application. It worked well on 4.1, and it appears to be working well on 5.2.1 as well, though just backing up and restoring was insufficient to make the transition for this app; I actually had to delete it and reinstall it. It basically attempts to detect if your palm has crashed, and if it has, it presents a screen telling you the system crashed. It then counts down 10 seconds, prior to resetting the palm. This mostly eliminates the worry of not having a paper clip or suitable stylus with you if your palm crashes.

digifix
I used this a lot on my old IIIxe, and it looks like I'm needing it on my Tungsten too. It's intended to keep your digitizer from drifting (which is what is meant when your stylus no longer "clicks" exactly at the point where you're clicking). This program put an end to my digitizer drift on both my IIIxe and my Tungsten C.

dragon
This is apparently useful for learning Chinese, but I haven't gotten much mileage out of it. I'm learning much more just asking my wife to teach me new words. :)

dstpanel
This is supposed to automate daylight savings time changes. I didn't use it on my IIIxe, and I believe my Tungsten includes this feature out of the box

easycalc
This is apparently a pretty powerful calculator (includes some graphing functions, I believe), but I've been mostly using o3 lately, because it shows a deeper stack on the screen.

o3
Nice RPN-based calculator, with a nice, deep on-screen stack.

Eventor
Not sure why I rejected this date-reminder app in preference to birthdays.

eztip
This is my favorite tip calculation application. It's the only free one I've seen that includes the ability to optionally itemize a bill.

flickhead
I rejected this in favor of movietkr, but I don't recall why.

frotz
This is an interpreter for text based adventure games (think "Infocomm" games like "Zork"). I keep it around but I keep not bothering to play with it, even when I flew to San Francisco recently.

GameTimer
This is a very nice timer application for those of us who play go or chess, if you have an opponent who takes forever to make a move. :)

geeksnds
This provides lots of mime versions of well known songs, that you can use on your sound-making reminder applications. However, now it appears that EmeraldSounds has geeksnds's sounds, plus many more.

EmeraldSounds
Like geeksnds, but better. Great software.

gnugotmail
It looks nice, but it doesn't appear to support decent security - that is, unless you tunnel it somehow.

gnukeyring
This is a great little app. It lets you keep an encrypted password list. Actually, the notes portion of a password can be long enough, that you can keep encrypted documents in it too, though they likely cannot be more than 4 kilobytes in length. It uses 3-DES. And, most importantly, it comes with a jpilot plugin.

Go81
This is a basic Go AI. Like all Go AI, an average go club player can defeat this program easily.

HanAD
I believe this is a birthday reminder app, but I'm quite happy with "birthdays"

HappyDays
I believe this is a birthday reminder app, but I'm quite happy with "birthdays"

internals
This is a nice app that tells you about the internals of your palm. Unfortunately, it lies about the dimensions of my Tungsten's display

iRogue
This is your basic rogue game app, ported to palmos. I never use it, but it's there if I get very bored someday

jetsync
Sync software. I prefer jpilot

jpilot-backup
This is a jpilot plugin that is supposed to give you finer grained control over what is backed up, and what is not - EG, you likely don't want to backup documents that are automatically regenerated every day (think offline webbrowsing). However, I believe I suffered a data integrity issue on sync with this app, which went away when I unconfigured it.

jpilot-icalendar
This sounds awesome, but then it turns out that it's not for the "iCal" IETF standard, but rather an ancient X windows app coincidentally also called ical.

jpluck
This is a really nice offline browser application. I use it to copy onto my palm, each morning, a compressed form of webpages I know i'm likely to want to read during the day. Apparently the original author has abandoned opensource and is going to try to turn a buck off of something similar but closed-source. Meanwhile, jpluck is still quite usable, and it sounds like someone else is going to take over maintenance of the existing jpluck software. I use this daily. Use the version of plucker that comes with the plucker distribution (it's more stable on my Tungsten C), not the version of plucker that comes with jpluck. But jpluck is still really great for converting web pages and RSS feeds to plucker format. The only thing I don't like about this app, is that the http proxy support doesn't seem to work that well, and you can't enable proxying for individual URL's - it's all URL's or none, apparently. Oh, and also, I don't think this app handles https pages, but you can wget a page and then convert that with JPluck. BTW, JPluck is no longer maintained by its original author, but as with all good opensource code, it's been reincarnated as Opusculus

jSyncManager
Some kind of sync software. I like jpilot.

keypadhk
A numeric keypad for palmos. I don't need one.

killpdb
Appears to be a Spanish-language application for removing a pdb (which is a PalmOS database file).

konane
A kind of fun Hawaiian game. However, I beat it the first time I played it, which probably means it's too easy to hold one's attention for long.

linkdirect
Some sort of serial sync software. It didn't let me speed up my sync on my IIIxe, and I'm not even planning to try it on my usb palm.

mailsync
Didn't work well for me, but it might if I put more time into creating Just the Right Config File for it.

megamemo
Like pedit32, but free, and doesn't have a jpilot plugin?

memocircus
Another memo replacement app. I like pedit32, which is already paid for.

miniword
dunno

movian-VPN-Certicom
Looks good, does ipsec, but it's bundled up in a .exe that neither dosbox nor wine want to extract. Someone suggested cabextract, but then he said he got stuck after that.

movietkr
I use this often. It stores a database of movies you've seen and want to see. It really cuts down on the time I spend at blockbuster browsing the shelves.

MrCar
Another car app without two way sync.

muehle
I have no idea what this is.

multisync
More sync software.

mysync
More sync software.

NoSecurity
Crack past the system password - but not past gnukeyring!

nsokoban
Sokoban for palm, which means "a puzzle game".

PalmDOS
Looks kind of interesting, at least on my Tungsten C. I suspect this was one of those apps that refused to do graffiti, so I ignored it before. Im hoping it'll let me delete .pdb's and .prc's from on the palm: EG when plucker gets stuck on a bad link. However, this app appears to crash my palm a lot, and zfilez probably does everything this does anyway.

palmfive
Nice app. It's wuciqi (Chinese) aka gomoku (Japanese) aka oomoke (Korean). I've probably spelled some or all of those names for it incorrectly, but I think they're close. :) Sadly, the opening screen doesn't draw correctly on my Tungsten. This and PilOth were about the only game apps I used on my palms with any regularity at all.

palmhack
I didn't use this on my IIIxe with 4.1. 5.x doesn't support hacks anymore.

PalmImage
jpluck's gallery works fine. I'm sticking with that for now.

PalmVNC - Reexamining this in more detail, Sat Dec 4 18:04:18 PST 2004

ParkingPlace
Requires AppForge Booster. Doesn't sound worth it when I can just use a memo.

pbackup
For PalmOS 1.x - 3.x?

prc
Builds a program called par, which can extract the contents of a .pdb into one file per record, among other things. I've used it to automatically pull certain memos out of the .pdb's that jpilot sync's, and then translate them into web pages using the python version of txt2html. Linux software; probably also runs on unix and DOS.

pdbc
Creates pdb's and prc's. Linux software, not PalmOS

pedit32
Sweet memo replacement, does memos 32K in size, jpilot has a plugin for it. There are other large-memo replacements, but I haven't found any others with a jpilot plugin. Unfortunately, it's shareware.

pente
Pente AI. Plays well. I beat it infrequently.

pilotgo
Go AI. Plays badly, but I keep it around anyway. :) It's derived from a very early release of gnugo (which plays quite a bit more strongly in contemporary releases).

PilOth
Othello AI. Plays well. :) In fact, it stomps me every time by wonderfully ego-bruising margins. Provides incentive to one day read an othello strategy book!

pilrc
Resource compiler for PalmOS apps?

pkshogi
Shogi program (Japanese chess). I wound up not keeping it - I believe that was because it was shareware. Some say Shogi is sort of half way between Western Chess and Go/Baduk/Weiqi in requiring intuition, instead of being predominantly analytical, like Western Chess.

plphotos
JPluck's Gallery is fine by me.

plucker
For a while, I used the version of plucker that came with JPluck, but this one seems more reliable on my Tungsten, and works fine with the .pdb's that JPluck generates (compressed with zlib - you can select the compression style in JPluck).

PocketChess
A chess program. I've never actually finished a game against it :) In fact, I haven't finished a chess game since high school, but I keep this program around just in case.

PocketDoan
A meditation timer. I keep thinking maybe I'll use it someday :)

PocketMoney
Another financial app I wound up scrapping.

progect
A project management program, which supposedly can also be used for creating outlines as well. I haven't been using it.

pyrite
Sync software. Runs on linux. Somehow related to python.

quicktype
One of those things for making you type faster on your palm. I don't feel like I need it.

reflecticus
A mirror/flashlight program. Doesn't seem to be of much use on my Tungsten. I used the mirror function a time or two on my IIIxe.

RoadLingua
For studying Chinese.

SciEd
This claims to be able to do 128K memos. However, I don't see a jpilot plugin

SendMailHtml
Never looked at it that seriously. There remain plenty of people whose mail software doesn't grok html yet.

showtimes
Movie show time database. I'm happy enough with just JPluck'ing movie web pages for viewing under plucker though.

SimplyInstall
Looks like windows sync software. Wine runs it, at least partially, but I'm happy with jpilot

sitescooper
Similar to plucker and JPluck. Supposed to be more capable than plucker at scooping up websites (EG, is supposed to be able to do "HTTP Basic Auth"?). I'm happy with JPluck though.

SolFree
A solitaire program. Visually appealing. Has a handful of solitaire versions, including the one my grandmother taught me as a boy. :)

spec
image viewer. I'm happy with JPluck's gallery support. ISTR that this crashed my IIIxe.

StylusPilot
Stylus Calibration checker. I never used it on my IIIxe. Is this really necessary when you have digifix?

superwaba
Java runtime system. Er, OK, it's almost fully compatible with the java language. And then the accompanying libraries are totally different - but at least they're more suited to use for writing apps for devices with small screens and slow inputmethods.

syncbuilder
More sync software. I like jpilot.

tealauto
Another car program I wound up ignoring.

TipMe
Not as nice as EZTip.

toasttimer
I use this all the time! I use it when I'm steeping tea. I use it when I'm giving a presentation. I use it when I need to check in on a long process I fired up, so I remember to go see if it's finished after getting thoroughly distracted with something else. I use it when my wife and I need to get to bed, and we can't pull ourselves away from a movie, so we say "OK, just 15 more minutes, then we shut it off for the night..."

tv
I really don't know what this is

UnitConverter
Just plain "Converter" seems to work well.

units
Just plain "Converter" seems to work well.

upgrade
TCUpdate3_enUS. I don't really know how much this helped, but at least now my Tungsten's green LED at the top flickers during 802.11b network activity.

uptime
Appears to require hack support.

usb-reset
A script I wrote that usually can unwedge the USB on my home Fedora Core 2 system, which I use to sync my Tungsten C often. Very linux-specific.

vexed
A puzzle game. I've never played it, but I keep it around anyway, just in case I get really bored

wabybirthday
I tried this for a while, but eventually ditched it for the "birthdays" program. It was too slow on my IIIxe.

waterlog
Cool idea, but I drink huge glasses of water, and this program seems to cater to tiny ones. The idea is to encourage you to drink the RDA of water every day.

weichiango
A go program. Don't know that I've used it. SuperWaba program? I believe it didn't work well on my IIIxe.

xiang
A Xiangqi program (Chinese Chess). I used to play XiangQi in college a little; I hope to someday relearn the game.

X-Master
Useless on 5.x. Very nice on 4.x. Supports hacks. Is cost-free.

PalmToolBox
This looks really nice, but apparently it's based on an API that has disappeared from recent PalmOS - EG 5.2.1. I don't appear to be able to use it. It's supposed to be a collection of tools, like ping, traceroute, &c.

MergicPing
This is a simple, very palmish ping utility. There is also a ping command in my Tungsten's network log, but that's sort of "out of character" for PalmOS software. This program can double, to some extent, for an nslookup program, because it always reports the IP address of the host it's pinging, even if you entered a hostname.

filez
A file browser? Can move files to a memory card? I haven't had occasion to use it much yet. It seems to have a lot in common with the "internals" program I've been using for a while, as far as allowing you to browse the internals of .prc's (programs) and .pdb's (databases).

OnBoardC
This is for doing C programming, with a byte-code interpreter, right on the palm. I haven't really looked into it much yet.

PortScanner
Writing a port scanner for PalmOS is a terrific idea, but this app doesn't do more than the most basic TCP port scans, and the Cancel button doesn't work at all. It also couldn't tell that I had walked a long way out of range of a wireless access point, just continuing to try a long series of ports. I eventually had to reset the tungsten to get PortScanner to quit PortScanning.

TBA
Supposedly this is a war dialer, but it just crashes my tungsten C. At least the "crash" program reset my palm for me. :)

daycount
Computes the time in between two dates. Can also do just "business days"

zdocj
A doc editor. Haven't tried it out yet. Claims to be able to edit multi-megabyte files on the palm.

BeamMobile and IrSquirt
These are both InfraRed transmission programs. One of them claims to be able to beam things to PocketPC handhelds.

NetInfo
This is useful for doing netmask arithmetic. If you don't know what that is, you probably don't want this program.

netstat
Tells you your IP address, MTU, and various network statistics. Not at all like the linux/unix program having the same name.

ptelnet
telnet is basically an evil protocol. However, a telnet client can still be useful for troubleshooting network problems. This program is a bit clumsy if you connect to more than one host or port, but it does appear to be effective.

TuSSH
I understand my boss' boss uses this. It's an ssh client. I'm happy with pssh though.

Yanoff
This is some sort of newsreader. I haven't fiddled with it yet.

Hydra
This is some sort of hacking tool. I think it might be for sniffing unencrypted passwords off of a WEPless 802.11b network.

PalmPing
Didn't work for me. I'm quite content with MergicPing.

pssh
An ssh client intended just for the Tungsten C, so far. It does quite good color vt100 emulation, and is reasonably legible on my Tungsten's 320x320 screen. It also puts up a minikeyboard with just the symbols you need for unix/linux admin'ing and programming, that aren't included on the built-in physical keyboard.

sntp
Claims to be an ntp client. With jpilot sync'ing my palm's time every time I sync, this doesn't seem like a crucial app for me. Also, it didn't appear to work when I attempted to use it through my WRT54G at home.

VersaMail
This is a mail app that came with my Tungsten C. Strangely, it supports simap, but not smtps, so I'm likely still going to end up tunneling it, if I use it at all.

"Web"
This is the online webbrowser that came with the Tungsten C. My main complaint about it is that it can't do popups, even if you want it to, and a number of sites I visit have been doing popups with useful content. You should be able to enable popups on some sites, turn them off on others, and have the browser ask you if you want popups from the rest.

NetChaser
Sweet app for finding wireless hotspots. Can tell you which ones are WEP-protected and which aren't, as well as signal strength. Unfortunately, it's shareware, and just not quite important enough to me to be something I want to register.

WIFfI
I'm trying to get by with this instead of NetChaser, but I seem to have to reset my Palm after using it, before 802.11b will work again for other applications.

Address
What respectable palm box doesn't have an address book?

EZBuy
Price comparison software. Is that 1 gallon jug really cheaper than the 2 litre?

HotSync
Comes with PalmOS. Tune HotSync parameters. Also, if you have a USB cable instead of a USB cradle, you can initiate a hotsync here.

MeetingLog
So far, I've just been using pedit32 memos to log what transpires in meetings. I'll likely give this a chance sometime though.

Date Book
What respectable palm box doesn't come with a Date Book. Note that the EmeraldSounds mime songs work fine with this.

ToDo list
I wound up mostly ignoring this, instead using a couple of "needs to be done in the short term!" pedit32 memos: one for work, one for home.

FreeJongg
I haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but it looks nice in the screenshot. Of course, this isn't "real" mahjongg, but it is the familiar mahjongg solitaire that some folks play in the West.

BigClock
This is a nice application. I realized I could use my datebook app, to wake me up M-F, and let me sleep in Sat and Sun. But then it turned out that because the datebook is "less insistent" than your average alarm clock, that the datebook didn't work out that well for this purpose. BigClock, however, is good and insistent. Also, BigClock will let you define 5 time zones (one is local time) to view the time in - so I set one for Ajijic Mexico, one for Beijing China, one for Cincinnati, and one for New York. It lets you set four alarms, but I'm only using one so far. It also has some timers, but I'm not sure if I need them, when I have ToastTimer and Timing.

Timing
This is an application that lets you set up to 13 independent timers. The timers can count up, or count down. It may be a bit redundant now that I've started using BigClock though.

Quake, Doom, Hexen
Find them here. I don't actually put these on my palm, but they're a great example of what yu can do with palmos

Quake, Doom, Hexen, and a Nintendo emulator
Find them here. I don't actually put these on my palm, but they're a great example of what you can do with palmos.

DioPlayer
An MP3 and wav player. I don't use it, but it's nice to know it exists.

Souped-up search applications



Over/under clocking:


Hits: 5850
Timestamp: 2024-04-24 23:55:42 PDT

Back to Dan's tech tidbits

You can e-mail the author with questions or comments: