Author Archives: Greg

FilmHelp: Dead battery in Alphasmart Dana crashes entire unit

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Another hypertechnical FilmHelp article from Greg Pak
I recently acquired a used Alphasmart Dana (original AA series, 8 mb memory) that wouldn’t start up. Since these machines are all solid state and are built for abuse, I highly suspected that the problem was just a dead battery. But when I plugged the Dana in via USB or via an AC adaptor, the machine still wouldn’t start up. The closest I got was the Palm logo briefly flickering across the screen, even when I tried both soft and hard resetting the unit.
Finally I removed the battery and inserted a charged battery from my working Dana. And the new Dana started up immediately! I was able to reset the unit, and from that point on it was able to work with either the AC adapter or with three AA batteries.
But when I reinserted the dead battery (in hopes of charging it), the machine froze again and wouldn’t start up — even when plugged into the wall. It required a hard resetting to function properly again.
My final test was to try the dead battery out on my working Dana. The result was the same — the Dana froze up and had to be hard reset to function again.
Conclusion? A dead battery can cause an Alphasmart Dana to crash. Recovery may require a hard resetting, which wipes out any added data, returning the machine to its factory presets.

Chris’s Invincible Super Blog loves “Incredible Hulk” #603

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An excerpt:

… even though it’s fun in a completely different way from Herc, the same vein of comedy shines through, with Pak’s scripts pulling off the neat trick of acknowledging how silly this all is and just going with it anyway because it’s too fun not to, and the same goes for the Dark Reign one-shot that also hit this week. It’s good stuff.

Click here to read the whole thing.

CBR’s The Buy Pile loves “Incredible Hulk” #603

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Hannibal Tabu has posted a rave review of “Incredible Hulk” #603 in his Buy Pile column at Comic Book Resources. Here’s an excerpt:

Whatever you think is going to happen this issue, it just doesn’t, and it sucks you in then sucker punches your expectations with something even more amazing. Note perfect characterization, skillful and intimate artwork from Ariel Olivetti, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith and Elizabeth Breitweiser.

Click here to read the whole thing.
“Incredible Hulk” #603 was written by Greg Pak and hit comic book stores on Wednesday.

Comic Book Club loves “Incredible Hulk” #603

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Alex Zalben has reviewed “Incredible Hulk” #603 for PopCultureShock.com — and he loves it! Here’s an excerpt:

I’m loving this book now. Great, great character work with Skaar and Banner vs. Daken and Wolverine, a nice twist on the old Hulk/Wolverine rivalry that perfectly fits with the characters.

Click here to read the whole thing.
“Incredible Hulk” #603 was written by Greg Pak and hits comic book stores today.

CBR reviews “Incredible Hercules” #136

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Yet another rave for “Incredible Hercules” #136 (written by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente with pencils by Reilly Brown), this time from Greg McElhatton at Comic Book Resources. Here’s an excerpt:

Here’s just one of the things I love about “Incredible Hercules.” One minute it’s taking itself seriously, using Joseph Campbell’s heroic journey to map out the path of its characters. Or, it might be taking classic mistaken identity riffs from Shakespeare plays. And then, when you least expect it… one god gives another a wedgie.

Click here to read the whole thing.