I got a free palm pilot for attending a "Palm Champions" event, which was
cool. It's a nice machine, a IIIxe. Good amount of memory and a decent
backlight. Well, everything was going along swimmingly until I missed the
battery dying off. Nasty incoherent messages about system errors and very
little else. Finally, utilizing my experience with ROM driven devices, I
killed the little bugger by draining it completely. I pulled the batteries
for an overnight, followed by 10 minutes of depressing the on button.
That got it restarted, the new batteries helped too, and now we are back to
being friends although not quite as trusting as before. The problem is that
all, and I mean all, of my data was gone. Initial setup for any of these
devices is very time consuming, all the numbers you gleefully put in, all
the extras you add. I missed a final backup and lost about three days of
input. Three days is a lot.
For a while I had stopped using my Newton. The palm was smaller lighter and
seemed to fit most of my needs. I was also part of a wider user community,
happily beaming our business cards around. I even got a copy of Small Dogs
backtalk (excellent product!) and was gradually moving things over.
Now, things have changed. Even though I have some nasty dead battery
problems with my Newton, I never lost data. You always could come right
back to where you were with a hard reset and pcmcia cards. My Newton even
got badly frozen one time winter camping and it came back. I guess I am
spoiled by that quality, and the overall craftsmanship that makes the Newton
what it is. I still carry the Palm in my pocket, but now it makes me
nervous. I lost a couple of things that were irreplaceable, software
registration numbers etc. I know the moral is backup frequently, but this
is especially true if you have a palm.
I will just add that I support the palm over just about any Win CE device.
The Palm 7 is, while lacking in memory, one of the coolest tools on the
planet. As I look for a platform to migrate to, I will lean toward palm,
however nothing stands up to the Newton so far.
______________________
Prentiss S. N. Gray
Senior Systems Engineer
GE Capital - Information Technology Solutions
"No matter where you go, there you are"
- Buckaroo Bonsai
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