Jeff Luszcz’s Web Log

After giving the new Palm a couple of days to settle with my old data, I’ve started to configure it more to my liking. One thing I’ve noticed since the last time I went out and try to download software is that the Palm software repositories (like PalmGear) have decided to make it harder to ‘just download’. Instead you need to create an account (even to just download freeware). Very annoying and, at least for now, I’ve gone elsewhere to find software to download.

I managed to download Metro, the public transportation guide and trip planner for world cities. I was impressed with the level of instructions it can give, even in my own neighborhood. You would still want a map, because you will sometimes get instructions to take an hour multi-model train trip instead of the 10 minute walk. e.g. 16th Street and Mission to go to Duboce and Church. The software tells you to take Bart to Civic Center and transfer to the N-Judah and get off at Church and Duboce. That is correct, but way out of your way. But still, not bad, esp. if you are in front of a system map.

I’m investigating getting a new cell phone, my old one has a shattered secondary screen and has a bad pay-as-you-plan. What I’m looking for in a new phone is:

Small but with good battery
Bluetooth to access data network w/ Palm and Laptop
Access to high speed data network like Edge
Camera (though this is a nice to have, not a have to have)

I also need to have a good plan that allows me to talk durring the day (between 10am and 7pm) without costing an arm and a leg, works around the country and has unlimited data transfer.

It’s surprising how hard it is to find out this information through the major carriers’ websites. I’ve love to have a wizard to guide me through the process. Anyone who gets my plan will have me for about 2-3 years. I’m off to the blogs and Palm user websites to find the info I need. It’s mostly the dataplan and bandwidth that the carriers are hiding.

My new Tungsten T5 appeared after endless monkey-with-wire-in-pleasure-center like clicking on the FedEx package tracking website. In many ways its a much nicer machine than my old Palm m130. Bigger, and brighter screen, more memory. Slightly nicer updates to the bundled applications. I probably won’ tbe using the internal MP3 player, but will have a couple pictures to carry around. Moving all my data over from my previous palm was a snap, though with one hiccup. I followed Palm’s (or is it PalmOne these days) instructions to install the latest applications off the bundled CD. When the install is done, it will reboot your computer after an getting your permission. My iBook rebooted but came up into a grey/white screen and just hung there. Something which has never happened before. I rebooted and ejected the Palm Software Install CD and the machine came up as expected. A slightly weird hiccup, but with appearently no long term effects.

All my data made it over, though none of the old applications from my previous machine. I’m not sure if that is standard or if I had removed them from the backups while trying to troubleshoot my old broken Palm. I quickly got my ebooks back (eReader nee PalmReader) and got Brave New World back. I’m almost done with it. It’s my stuck in airports and busstops reading. The larger T5 screen is much nicer for reading than my older machine. It’s more like a view into a paperback book, than trying to read on a cellphone creen.

I put a couple new ebooks on, my standard Java reference, a Perl and PHP reference and a couple pieces of literature for the bus-stop queue. Beowulf, Paradise Lost and Art of War. We’ll see which one wins the evolutionary war of boredom reading.

Installed the Bart schedule application, it has saved my life more than a couple times. I’ve always been interested in Transportation related software and scheduling. I expect to see more of these types of applications with the explosion of cheap wireless wide-area networks, cheap GPS technology and changes in the public’s transportation needs.

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I missed going to the WordPress 100k event at the Odeon due to dinner plans. Heard from a friend it was blast. I’ll have to make time for the WordPress 1,000K event. That should be next week.

It’s amazing to think how much you can offload onto a piece of technology. Since the Newton 100 came out I have had a PDA. I upgraded to a Newton 2000 and then when the Newton project was cancelled I moved over to the Palm. Palm III which lasted me for many years until it died last December. A Palm m130 replaced it. The addition of color didn’t really affect my use of it (calendaring, contacts, memos, ebooks and a couple games to kill time) and it lasted me only a year and 2 weeks. Trying to figure out which machine to buy to replace it has caused more mental energy to be used than I expected. It seems my machine broke at the exact wrong time in the product cycle for me to feel comfortable in buying a new machine. I looked at hte Treo 650 which I think is a pretty nifty pda. Phone, network access, color, and a couple other goodies all in one package is very tempting. The one big thing preventing me from making the leap into getting a smart phone is that I end up in places where I don’t want the equiv of a $700 phone sometimes. I don’t imaging skiing, or going to a bonefire at ocean beach, or mountain biking with a treo, but I would have no issues doing that with my current cell phone. Once I realized that, it made the decision to stay with a traditional PDA. The Palm Tungsten T5 looks like it will fit my needs. A little pricey for what you get (I’d like both wifi and bluetooth for $400) but the large screen is nice. I do a lot of reading after my wife goes to sleep and the palm is perfect for that. No bright light to keep her up, and I get to keep a pretty large library on it. The larger screen size will be better suited to reading. I keep hearing rumors that a new machine is due (Palm has announced new machines in March before and the rumors are starting) Problem is, I’m so used to having my calendar in one place with me all the time, its making it hard to plan work/life since my calendars are now spread between laptops and paper wall calendars. You can’t grep dead trees. I know the act of putting my credit card number in the palm order page will allow them to release the T6. Oh well….

My perfect PDA would be:

Wifi / Bluetooth
half to full VGA screen
T5 size or smaller
Compact flash AND SD slot
Sync with my Mac
Java VM or Python bindings