Technology/Retro/PDAs, (sdf.org), 02/11/2019
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I like PDAs. Sure, I've mentioned it on gopher, but no one
here knows the true extent of my passion. That's OK though.
It's good enough to be a fan.
Lately, I've been in a rut in life. Mostly I waste time. A
few hobbies have fallen by the wayside, and there are some
projects that aren't getting done. Life has these times,
it's nothing new for me, and it's not uncommon.
But even in this rut, I can't bear to let my PDAs die.
Today, I used my Psion 3a for a few alarms, to help me
manage my time. The little guy is helping me get out of my
rut; thanks Psion! If I hit "Menu" and "Info>Usage Monitor"
I can see that I installed the current set of AAs on
7/18/2018. Man, way to be Psion, that's killer battery life,
even though I've barely used you recently.
My Dana.wireless is sitting atop a drum (still!) I haven't
been using it, but I do keep it charged. Someone in gopher
space recently did a batter mod to theirs, I'm not going to
search out the link right now (rut, remember?) When my pack
died, I just bought some NiMH battereis, took the old pack
apart and soldered the little terminals on. It's a tight
fit, but it works. The mod sounds cooler. That battery life
is lame though, I have to charge the thing all the time.
In the drawer are a few others. There's a T3 that I keep
charged (it and the Dana die the fastest,) and a Handera 330
that I aquired recently (it has awesome battery life in the
LiON pack!) In the other room there's a Palm IIIc that also
has awesome battery life.
The common thread here is keeping old PDAs charged even
though I'm not really using them much. Why do I do it? I'm
not really sure. I want to use them more, I just don't.
There are too many other things to procrastinate doing.
****
I'm not entirely retro. On my desk I do have a modern phone,
tablet, and ebook reader. I keep them charged. I have a tiny
Pi (the Red Consensus,) with a wireless keyboard. I keep the
keyboard charged. Between these and the old PDAs, I feel
like I'm always plugging something in.
****
My wife found some article the other day about the social
problems that are coming from smartphone use. A researched,
scholarly article, likely peer-reviewed (though, I didn't
look at it, she read it to myself and the kids; it sounded
quite legitimate.) It made me think of the people on gopher
(and elsewhere in pubnix) who have either talked about or
have ditched their smartphones.
Of course, I recalled the fact that I did the same a couple
years back. I really, really enjoyed ditching my smartphone.
I asked myself why I went back, and recalled that my current
work requires itnernet and email all the time.
How could I forget? I dislike my current work. That's why
I'm trying to write more, so I can have something new to
dislike!
In my ideal world, I'd have a job that didn't require the
internet all the time, and that didn't require a phone
except on rare occassions. My dumb-phone excursion ended
poorly because I simply couldn't do my work and fish (yeah,
that's right, I went back to a smart phone so I could have
the internet while I fished. I know, my life is difficult.)
Really, though, I would love to disconnect. I'm a big baby,
when it comes down to it.
****
Reality. Reality is that people have to work to eat.
Governments extend this responsibility so that people have
to work to sleep in a bed, in a house, or exist at all
(closing of the commons, if you will.)
I'm no exception- far from it. Life is exceptionally good,
but it's still a matter of churning out work so that I can
feed the family.
I'm not opposed to work. I actually love work, and feel that
it is an essential part of life on planet earth. If my
current situation falls apart, I'll do whatever I have to do
to keep the family going. The very last thing that I want is
to be lazy (though, I do that far too often.)
