My old Palm IIIx is no longer collecting dust on the book shelf. It has been given a new set of AAAs and pressed back into service. As I have said on previous incarnations of this page, I kept the IIIx because, in it's heyday, it was the perfect balance of form and function and the PDA to have. After a year and a quarter using an iPaq 3630 Pocket PC as my primary PDA, I have decided to sell it off and go back to a PalmOS PDA. Whilst PPC ownership has been fun and a learning experience, a recent trial return to my trusty Palm IIIx has convinced me that my future lies with with the Palm OS and not Microsoft's. My reasons for heading back are numerous but the main factors are these:
Palm's olive branch - Part of the reason I moved to a PPC in the first place was Palm's shoddy treatment a last year of those running Palm-related websites. Although Happy Palm wasn't one of those affected, the fiasco over hobbyist website URLs with the word 'Palm' in them left a bitter taste in many a mouth, including mine. Today, now Palm has stopped harassing it's fans my swap to PPC, in retrospect, feels more like a knee-jerk reaction than a sound decision.
Office in/compatibility - One key factor in moving to a PPC was the supposed seamless handling of Office documents which, like millions the world over, I use extensively in my work. I have had growing suspicions that Pocket Word and Pocket Excel were lacking some of the refinements of say Wordsmith and DataViz's Documents To Go but not having run them side by side, I wasn't sure. However, when Steven Bush over at Brighthand published his comparison recently, my suspicions were confirmed and more scales fell from my eyes.
Form factor fun(tion) - Although I have my doubts and fears about being tied to proprietary technologies, in this case Memory Stick (tm), there is no ignoring the fact that Sony are producing some of the most innovative, well-featured and good looking PDAs there are to be had at this time. The weight, bulk and clumsiness of the iPaq and its CF sleeve have become an increasing annoyance that I am no longer prepared to ignore. In my opinion, although the PDA I plan to buy, either a Sony Clie T675c or PEG-NR70V, has roughly the same proportions as the unsleeved iPaq, the clamshell form factor of the NR70V particularly exploits this size to better effect and provides greater functionality. My IIIx will meet all my essential PDA needs until I get the new one but I am impressed by the way that these high end Sony Clies stretch the OS to the limit and pack in additional functionality.
...and finally - I missed Graffiti a great deal. Despite devoting a considerable amount of effort to configuring the PPC's Transcriber to recognise my scrawl, I could never get comfortable with it. Coming back to my IIIx again, I was surprised at how natural Graffiti felt to me and how much faster it was than transcribing my own handwriting. I missed the elegant simplicity of the interface. I missed the intuitive commands. I missed the ingenuity of the hacks and those that wrote them. I missed the Palm user community and the special feeling of thumbing one's nose at Bill and his Seattle Posse. Of course, I just know that I'll go and buy this damn Clie only to find that I have a Friday afternoon special with 4 missing pixels, a slack hinge, a loose stylus and ... well, you get my meaning - at least it will give me something to write about on Happy Palm!
After a year and a quarter using an iPaq 3630 Pocket PC, I am going back to a PalmOS PDA. This means my trusty and cared-for iPaq and its add-ons are up for sale. The line is as follows:
Original package
Recent weeks have seen the return of the savage pain that is the RSI/CTS/Tenosynovitis which has plagued me on and off for the last 4 years. The sensation of having red hot pokers plunged into my upper forearm and blunt drills driven through my mouse hand carpals has been a deterrent to all but essential PC use. For anyone out there who is tempted to ignore the odd twinge, work through the next screen break or simply chug a few Advil/Nurofen/PK of choice, strap their wrist and carry on regardless, I would say this: DON'T BE SO DUMB! Get it checked out, read up on the condition and make changes to your computer-using habits before it is too late. One handy piece of donationware I have found recently is Mouse Tool, which allows users, with a little practice, to click, double click, right click and drag & drop without using the mouse buttons. Check the rest of Jeff Roush's site out for more details and some good links to sites concerning RSI/CTS/Tenosynovitis.
And now the Joy, for like the Angel Gabriel rehearsing for next month, I am the bearer of glad tidings. She Who Must Be Obeyed And Holder Of The Familial Purse, presented a golden opportunity for me to broach the ever-thorny subject of 'I really need a new PDA, sweetheart' this lunchtime. She walked into the kitchen, displaying the facial expression that she normally reserves for the announcements of pregnancy (four times to date), wallet-emptying car damage (three times in 12 years) and the desire to increase the headcount of the household animal population (too many times to count). To my momentarily cold sweated but then deeply relieved and joy, it was the latter subject rather than one of the former, with SWMBO and the three eldest offspring doing 'labarador puppy eyes' to reinforce the message. Through relief more than reasoned consideration, I eagerly agreed and then launched into a counter-bargaining stance, stating that I wanted to move back to a PalmOS PDA after my 18 month flirtation with the PPC world in the shape of my iPaq. My magnanimous and benevolent attitude towards getting yet another kitten was more than enough to render her usual responses all but useless. The long drawn discussions about the actual need for a fourth PDA, the fog of uncomprehending resistance typical of the technophobic spouse and the dreaded nitty-gritty of EXACTLY how much more is 'a little bit more expensive than the last one' actually is - these were all dispensed with and replaced by two or three questions of token resistance before capitulation and agreement!
The smart money is on a Sony Clie NR70 or NX70 at this time. To help me choose (and continue the Nativity theme started earlier), I am exploiting the feedback of Three Wise Men, namely Happy Palm colleagues Chuck and Jason, who have recently bought Sony PDAs themselves, and the ever helpful Steve T, stalwart of many a PalmOS PUG. I will, of course, post progress reports on the final choice and acquisition.
Slashdot is running a great post about a guy who is on ebay selling 'aircraft on a stick' as homes. Go look.
Idly searched myself at Googlism and found that I was 'back online'. I'm now consulting Google to find out why I was offline in the first place.
Had a rollercoaster ride through some blogs today. It all began when, after looking at Palm PDA news sites, I surfed into this at gamegirladvance then clicked though to the poster's own site and then on to her mail to Jeff 'Mr Amazon' Bezos and his assistant's reply before plunging into her partener's life which includes painting Palms
Cut down the time between home and the office by heading down to eBay Motors and snatching up a slice of the Cold War. For a serious amount of wedge, you can be the proud owner of a MIG 21, the classic Russian jet fighter capable of flying at mach 2.
Not posted for a while as I have been reading books rather than pixels in an effort to avoid the RSI/CTS pains screaming up and down my mouse arm right now. Currently half way through reading Mike Daisey's 21 Dog Years: Doing time @ Amazon.com, which I learned from
NTK the author will be reading to British trade unionists next week.
The Osbournes aired on UK terrestrial for the first time last night and I almost bust a vessel watching and laughing.
Top quote?
Sharon: introducing Ozzy to the dog therapist she has brought in to deal with the dog pissing on the furniture "This is the therapist."
Ozzy: shaking head in disbelief "The dog doesn't need a therapist, it needs you to get up at 7 and open the door!"