Sightseeing
Have you ever noticed that there are those days, all day long, where every single driver on the road — on the way to work, at lunch, on the way home — is travelling about 3 1/2 mph barely too slow, always in the wrong lane for what they want to do (turning left out of the middle lane, suddenly cutting over into the right lane, or sitting in the middle of the intersection waiting for a break in traffic in a through lane to resume going straight)? Or those days where you're behind the old woman who slams on her breaks every time the road curves a little? Or those days when every truck in the metropolitan area is using the freeway the same time that you are? Or when every single vehicle seems compelled to come to a complete stop before turning into a parking lot from the street?
As you likely guessed from the rather pointed rhetorical question, yes, today was that day. If there were any kind of real interval to it, I feel as if I should put a mark on the calendar so I can plan ahead for when it rolls around next time.
Anyway, enough ranting about that.
* * *
I finally caved in.
For years and years, I had been a decidedly anti-palm-pilot person. Upon looking at one shortly after their initial release, and coming to the conclusion that they were little more than a very expensive glorified day planner, I made the decision right then that the advantages a handheld device like that (for me anyway) justified neither the cost nor the inconvenience of having to tote around yet one more electronic gadget.
For a while I toyed with the idea of the combination palm/mobile phones, but regardless of all other pros and cons, they still just look dumb.
And, of course, I think I stuck to my decision after watching scores of people falunting their stylus skills every time a remotely interesting bit of information came up in conversation:
"The 1998 Jaboulet Côtes du Rhone? Let me jot that down. . . ."
"Just a second. . . . [mumbling to self as scribbling] Second. House. On. Ri. . . R . . . Right. There we go."
Listening to an old boss brag about his Graffiti™ mastery to another coworker didn't help either.
Regardless, after increasingly recurring bouts of frustration with feeling utterly brainless when away from the computer (yes, I'm turing into a member of the cyborg generation, apparently), not to mention not having a very good way to manage addresses or personal to-do items, and having my birthday check happily deposited into my account, I figured the time was right.
Wow, was I amazed.
During my period of anti-palm prejudice, unbeknownst to me, these little guys had taken on approximately the computing power of my college laptop computer.
Palm 33Mhz vs. Laptop 12Mhz
Palm 16MB storage vs. Laptop 20MB hard drive
Palm 320x200 color LCD vs. Laptop 640 x 350 monochrome LCD
but
Palm 4oz vs. Laptop 18 lbs. (No lie. The term "portable" applied to that thing was a relative characterization at best.)
Anyway, I've had more fun with this thing.
*And* it plays Mummy Maze. What more could you ask for?
As you likely guessed from the rather pointed rhetorical question, yes, today was that day. If there were any kind of real interval to it, I feel as if I should put a mark on the calendar so I can plan ahead for when it rolls around next time.
Anyway, enough ranting about that.
* * *
I finally caved in.
For years and years, I had been a decidedly anti-palm-pilot person. Upon looking at one shortly after their initial release, and coming to the conclusion that they were little more than a very expensive glorified day planner, I made the decision right then that the advantages a handheld device like that (for me anyway) justified neither the cost nor the inconvenience of having to tote around yet one more electronic gadget.
For a while I toyed with the idea of the combination palm/mobile phones, but regardless of all other pros and cons, they still just look dumb.
And, of course, I think I stuck to my decision after watching scores of people falunting their stylus skills every time a remotely interesting bit of information came up in conversation:
"The 1998 Jaboulet Côtes du Rhone? Let me jot that down. . . ."
"Just a second. . . . [mumbling to self as scribbling] Second. House. On. Ri. . . R . . . Right. There we go."
Listening to an old boss brag about his Graffiti™ mastery to another coworker didn't help either.
Regardless, after increasingly recurring bouts of frustration with feeling utterly brainless when away from the computer (yes, I'm turing into a member of the cyborg generation, apparently), not to mention not having a very good way to manage addresses or personal to-do items, and having my birthday check happily deposited into my account, I figured the time was right.
Wow, was I amazed.
During my period of anti-palm prejudice, unbeknownst to me, these little guys had taken on approximately the computing power of my college laptop computer.
Palm 33Mhz vs. Laptop 12Mhz
Palm 16MB storage vs. Laptop 20MB hard drive
Palm 320x200 color LCD vs. Laptop 640 x 350 monochrome LCD
but
Palm 4oz vs. Laptop 18 lbs. (No lie. The term "portable" applied to that thing was a relative characterization at best.)
Anyway, I've had more fun with this thing.
*And* it plays Mummy Maze. What more could you ask for?