TechgnosisWeb Prime

… feared across the seven seas for how fucking hard it is to configure me!

So, those of you who’ve been wondering what my excuse is for not posting the past couple of days, you can go and blame Jancelot. It is thanks to him that I now find myself the possessor of a CompUSA-brand Bluetooth USB Dongle (with an effective range of 100 meters, natch). So, of course, as with any shiny new tech-toy, I’ve spent the past couple of nights going to bed late playing with it.. or trying to play with it, at least.

You know, I remember when Bluetooth first came out, how it was supposed to be this amazing seamless technology: two Bluetooth-enabled devices would just come within range of each other, and automatically be able to communicate and share services, with no messy configuration or messing about. It was supposed to be like plug-and-play, but without the plugging. Reality, however, is a cruel and unforgiving mistress.

I’ve spent 2 nearly sleepless nights trying to get the Bluetooth dongle and my iPaq 2215 (which has acquired the affectionate nickname ‘Glitch’) to communicate wireless.. and they do talk. They can find each other anywhere in the house, they can establish a mutual partnership, they can tell each other what services they have, they can even connect.. for a few minutes, anyway. And then the few minutes of joy are over, and one of them (I’m not sure which one of them it is yet, but by golly, I’ll find out) drops the damn connection, and it’s time for resets and reboots all around before I can get them to talk again.

I’ve tried most everything: tutorials, finding roundabout ways to connect, even re-flashing Glitch with the latest ROM image, and downloading hacked versions of the latest Widcomm Bluetooth software for the dongle, but with no noticeable effect on the stability of the connection. Connect, start doing anything halfway useful, watch it fall down, go boom. I have noticed that the connection almost always spazzes out on me when attempting to move data to Glitch, not from Glitch to the PC (I was able to download a 1.5 MB eBook from Glitch’s File Store to the PC’s desktop.. but attempting to move the same file back into the store ’caused the connection to fry). Likewise, Activesyncing over Bluetooth works fine.. for a short while, and so long as I don’t try to transmit much data at once… but as soon as Activesync starts trying to download all 500 pages of my AvantGo updates to Glitch, the Bluetooth connection dies again.

Anyway, I’m still trying to figure it out.. but it’s been a bitch and a half.. still, i won’t give up.. for those few glorious moments when it does work and I can sit in the living room and wirelessly stream pr0n to my PDA while everyone else is watching Crappy-ass Reality Show X, it’s so totally worth it.