Right stuff for tasks? (PDAs)
=============================
This is only a brain dump, do not expect anything useful!
I normally have ready to use several pocket computers (they are often on my
desktop or near it):
* Palm III
* Psion 3a
* Sharp Zaurus SL-C760 (just checked it - it's really a C760, not C750 as I
thought)
* Ben NanoNote
* Elektronika MK-52 calculator
Use of the calculator is obvious: it is often faster to use it than open a
calculator application on the computer. For the rest of these devices the
things are more complicated. I have some frequently stuff programmed in the
Electronicas memory so it is practical to use it.
For some reason I prefer to use the Palm III for reading. During my work on the
desktop I do convert selected WWW sites to the Plucker format and the I load
them to the Palm. That's easy and then I can read the stuff on the Palm at any
time. The Plucker viewer allows to save the links to www in the Memos
application: thus I can, for example, read results of eBay searches off-line.
The I can sync the Palm with the desktop and open the saved links on my
computer. It's nice. In other hand, I practically do nothing creative on the
Palm (even the written text are limited to shopping lists, short notes and so
on).
I usually take the Zaurus when I need to write something on the run. The
SL-C760 still fits in the pocket but has a a nice hardware keyboard. I found it
much more comfortable than the keyboard on the Ben NanoNote. Actually the
NanoNote is best as an advanced pocket calculator (GNU Octave+Gnuplot and my
own software) but I didn't needed such functionality too much in past few
years (my work was changed a bit and in reality I now need no pocket computer
at all). Both of these devices can be used as nice music players (the Zaurus
has even a great remote controller on the headphones cable). Sometimes I do
some light programming on them (usually to test some ideas when I'm far from my
desktop).
Unfortunately, things became complicated when many WiFi networks started to use
more modern encryptions and other modern things. My device became unable to
connect to them: the NanoNote cannot connect to the Eduroam (works great on
unencrypted networks, anyway - so in a train it is just OK). The Zaurus uses
the "b" variation of the WiFi protocol so it is mostly out of luck. This makes
both machines useless in one of their most important uses: in the remote UNIX
terminal role. I had to use my Ubuntu phone for this. And I often carry just
one computer with me (or the phone and the Palm as this is the lightest
combination).
And to be honest, I didn't used the Palm 3 for anything but testing for more
than year at least. It's heavier than other machines and on the desktop I
always have computer with bigger keyboard and larger screen.
If you miss the HP palmtops (200LX, 100LX) or the Atari Portfolio: I still have
them but use them very infrequently. It is because their size and weight but
also because they are quite precious and I do not want to damage them (I have
at least 4 working Palm IIIs so I'm concerned about Palm loss - and it is also
mechanically simpler and thus more durable).
Update:
=======
Just did check spelling of my Gopher texsts by the ispell(1). Most of texts
should be OK. There was HUGE number of errors! Sorry.
