Calendar done!

[cjsmith]

HA. Got all the data I had in MeetingMaker (well, all personal stuff: calling gigs, sister-in-law crashing at our place, dentist appointments, crap like that) entered into my ancient creaking Palm Pilot. By hand (ouch). Across a change of batteries, no less. Criminy! But it's in there.

I can sense a Treo in my future... like an oncoming train. It's just a question of when I'll grudgingly part with the money.

Comments

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I overcame my prejudices and when my Clie died I switched to a Windows Mobile PDA (the Dell AXIM x51v) and I've been very happy. In particular, I like that I can easily write my own software. Developing for PalmOS was always painful at best; Windows Mobile Forms Compact .NET edition is a pleasure. I've implemented my own PIM along with a Hebrew document reader, a crossword-solving environment....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ooo, that one does look nice! One big thing leaning me toward the Treo is the integrated phone. I'm currently carrying TWO big clunky devices and could conceivably downgrade to one.

I swear by my Treo 650

[kennita.livejournal.com]

It's cool to have your phone book and cell phone integrated so you can type a few characters of the name and have the contact info come up, pick the phone number, and press Dial.

Add in a camera/camcorder (low-res, but OK for computer screen viewing), Web browser, and MP3 player, and the gazillion programs that you can get for the Palm, and for my money it wins BIG. I haven't needed to program it, or even wanted to -- what I wanted (or close enough) has always been available for much less than my time is worth. But if you consider it recreation....

Not to dis Windows Mobile; it's just that I have no need to develop software for my PDA, so having it be easier on WM is irrelevant to me. Funny how Palm/Windows Mobile turns the Mac OS/Windows wars on their head....

Re: I swear by my Treo 650

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I, too, have not yet wanted to develop software for the PDA. I need only its basic functionality (plus a phone). I wonder what I'd do if the Treo were easy to program, though. :-)

Re: I swear by my Treo 650

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I haven't needed to program it, or even wanted to -- what I wanted (or close enough) has always been available

When I first got a PalmOS machine, that was true for me as well. But when they went to PalmOS 5, they broke the "hacks" that I had bought that did integrated Jewish holidays in the calendar and allowed for Hebrew fonts (and bidi formatting) in notes.

It was certainly PalmSource's right to break the "hacks" when they went from Dragonball to ARM processors. But they didn't provide equivalent hooks in the new OS for these things, and I need these things, so that tipped the balance for me: I now needed to write my own PIM software.

Re: I swear by my Treo 650

[eichin.livejournal.com]

I *do* write code for... well, just about everything :-) and gave up on palm because it's just such a nasty dev environment. I used a wince box (ipaq 4155) for a while - because I could write python hacks on it - but found the UI wretched - borrow one and try it, if you consider that path, it's a lot more different than I expected. (These days the Nokia 6630 is an acceptable blend - I can code in python (talking to the GPS and the builtin-camera), the PIM apps are not terribly clever but also not terribly complex or broken either. I still carry a "real" camera, though.)

Several of my friends (and coworkers) love the treo, though (especially the sysadmins :-)

[laurenhat.livejournal.com]

Woo! Congrats on getting that done. Sounds like an awful process, but I'm glad it's over.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It's just one more baby step along the way, but each step feels good.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I must need chocolate - I first read your last line as starting with I can sense an Oreo in my future. :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Nurse! 5mg intravenous theobromine!

[veazeyae.livejournal.com]

just five?!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Patient has to be monitored for adverse reaction first time it's administered intravenously in pure form. Otherwise I'd just call for the whole bottle ;-)