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Technology,/Lower Tech (sdf.org), 11/29/2018
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There are a handful of users on gopher- at least that I know
about- who use old or obscure hardware to write their gopher
posts. I was very pleased this morning to find user xiled's
phlog[1]. Good ascii art, interesting subject matter, and a
nice phlog header format to boot! And even cooler, there's
an "input device" designation for each post. His most recent
11/27 post was written on an AlphaSmart dana.wireless...
which is what I'm using to write this!
I don't use the AlphaSmart much. Usually, it sits on top of
a djembe drum on my nightstand. Since I went to the trouble
of rebuilding the very simple NiMH battery pack I do keep it
charged, but I barely touch the thing. It's quite nice to
use; I should use it more.
For text editing on here I use the CardTXT program, the
modified AlphaSmart one that takes advantage of the screen
width. I love that it saves plain text files. I keep it
installed on the 512MB SD card, just in case I lose power
all the way and the PalmOS resets.
I used to use the built-in "AlphaWord" program, with a
little script to convert the file format into plain text on
my laptop. But that got old. It is a shame, though, that
CardTXT doesn't have better fonts; the AlphaWord fonts are
nicer to read. Makes me wonder if maybe I could add some
more fonts here...
There are many other things in gopher space that I want to
write about, but I think I'll wait til I'm back on my
computer, because I can't really reference things easily on
here. I think writing on a disconnected device is nice, but
it would take quite a bit more time to go back-and-forth
between this and a connected device in order to reference
other gopher content. I could take paper notes while I'm
reading, and use those to reference. Or something. I'd be an
odd exercise, but as I think about it, it might be fun. I
don't know why odd things are so much fun.
