PDA Saga
I poked at my Clié earlier, to see whether I could do anything with the cracked glass that made its touch-screen stop working during Pennsic. After removing the case, I found that I could make the digitizer function briefly by wedging a thumbnail under the corner of it. I was able to perform a HotSync, and to beam a little more information over to the Visor (which I'd been meaning to give away, but I'm now glad I hadn't gotten around to doing so yet), but I was not able to accomplish the same thing with a shim, and the longer I worked the more difficult/less effective the thumbnail trick was. So I haven't copied over most of my calendar items or to-do list yet, nor any of my addressbook. My normal shopping list (in HandyShopper) didn't get copied over either. I'll try again later, and then look at how well the Sony software and Handspring software cooperate on my Windows box -- if I can convince either of those that the Visor is the Clié and just update it as though it had merely forgotten some stuff, great -- likewise if the two desktop apps play nicely side-by-side and I can just copy/paste between them -- but I don't want it to decide that I meant to delete the desktop copies of things or make any other sort of mess. I'd recently installed the backup software that justgus37 told me to, so if I had another PDA that used Memory Sticks I could just restore onto the spare device; alas the Visor doesn't use those.
I'm hoping I can score a dead Clié cheaply off eBay that has a working digitizer, and do a transplant, but since broken displays/digitizers seem to be the most common cause of PDA failure ... well, wish me luck.
In the meantime, I still need to install a compatible version of the MobiPocket ebook reader on the Visor -- at Pennsic I tried beaming over the copy from the Clié but that version requires the 320x320 screen and the Visor only has a 160x160 display.
Sometime before next Pennsic I want to write -- and distribute -- a PalmOS app that imports the Pennsic University class schedule and lets the user select items to copy into the DateBook app as appointments/reminders. (Just being able to read the list requires an HTML reader or ... either Word doc reader or PDF reader, I forget which ... but I want more than just a copy of the schedule to scroll through. I want a more convenient small-screen interface, and to be able to limit the view to the list of classes I'm thinking about attending. Getting the description by tapping on a class title would also be useful.) Y'all may need to remind me of this every few months.
The last few days of Pennsic I was carrying around a "medieval PDA" -- a wax-tablet book that hung from my belt. I'd wanted one for a couple years. My idea was that each night I'd copy the day's notes from the wax tablets to my electronic PDA in my tent before I went to bed, and copy the next day's schedule onto the wax tablets. (I got a three-leaf book, which has four writing surfaces.) In practice ... well I've still got checks and debit-card purchases from Friday to copy over to the Visor. But I've not had to erase anything for lack of space yet. Unfortunately the wax is even harder to read in dim light (dusk or candlelight) than the Visor's screen, and considerably harder to read by flashlight. But I still like my belt book.
The merchant from whom I bought the book told of another customer, who had bought one a year or two ago. He came into her shop and asked whether he could buy just a center leaf. She wasn't thrilled at the idea of taking another book apart to give him just a center leaf, but when he pleaded, "I need more memory," she decided his phrasing was too cute to deny.
I can just see myself asking to buy "more memory" in a couple years, but let me see how well I can live with just three leaves for a while first. I write small. And as I said, a few days worth of records haven't filled it up (two surfaces haven't even been touched yet) and I don't plan on keeping large amounts of long term data in it.
Hmm. I wonder how well/easily my notes scratched in wax can be scanned or photocopied ...