Amongst the esoterica in my Plucker blog listings are the Palm-related Musings of FoxPop's Tom Stoneham - and not just because he's recently linked to me. His PDA and philosophy blogs, though very different, are both fine reads and I have enjoyed dipping into them over recent weeks.
Tom's also writes for the multi-platform PDA site FoxPop and it was through that site's bulletin board that I scooped up a couple of goodies that Tom posted last week - a Palm Portable Keyboard and a Brando WorkShop Retractable SyncCharger Cable.
A keyboard is a real must-have piece of kit for me as I spend a lot of time taking notes and developing action plans in meetings away from my desk. Pen and paper are all well and good but transcribing notes onto my desktop is a time-sapping pain I am keen to rid myself of. For me, Graffiti is simply not quick enough for large amounts of text entry and so the PPK will be a big help. Having previous used an early version of the old solid GoType keyboard, the collapsible PPK takes a little getting used to. However, I am already getting used to it's feel and trying to get to where the function key combinations are more intuitive.
The retractable SyncCharger cable does what it says on the blister pack without fuss and is small enough to fit in the palm of a closed hand or keep in my laptop bag. Whats more, it comes from Brando, the home of my favourite reusable screen protector (Task: Order T3 sized Brando screen protector).
Drop by the FoxPop bulletin board if you are looking for or selling PDAs and accessories - the prices are reasonable and the range covers General, EPOC, WIN CE, and Palm-related products. In this day and age of online auctions and thrusting ecommerce, it is nice to find the online equivalent of the pinboard outside the village shop - open to all and free of charge.
On the software front, I have been using Tracker Dog to assist me in gradually bringing all my favourite apps up to the latest release or version. Even so, I managed to miss the latest release of one of those must-have apps that many power users swear by - Filez from the great nosleep software open source project. Luckily, Roger posted a piece to our mutual hangout, Happy Palm so I clicked through and grabbed the latest version which has some nice interface and functionality enhancements. I don't suspect I use even 50% of the functions available but it is truly an indispensable app for me. Having said that, one does need to exercise care when altering file attributes. Just yesterday, I had to do a hard reset and reload the previous night's BackupMan backup after getting clumsy whilst removing a non-functioning keyboard driver in too much of a hurry.
Posted by bignoseduglyguy at December 12, 2003 11:54 PM | TrackBack