Like everyone, I suppose, I surround myself with a hell of my own making. In my case it’s the hell where handheld and other devices go when they die. Die in this case being figurative – they all still appear to work, as long as you set your expectations low enough.
Perhaps this was brought on by watching too much Star Trek (TOS, for you dweebs) when I was a kid. I’m told that when the series first ran, my Grandfather used to watch it every week. Or maybe it’s just a petty power trip. Could be I’m just a crow fascinated with petty baubles.
I’m here at work, and I’ve got three computers around me, waiting to crankily refuse to do my bidding. The Mac here, I use most often and the least for actual work but I find it’s usually most cooperative when it comes to getting things done. Though the iSight camera on top is nice but I have no clue why I needed it since noone else I know uses one so I can’t videoconference, which is what it’s good at. Then I’ve got the PC I bought because the one they had here was neither fast- nor portable- enough for my “needs”. And of course there’s the Mac server. My Mac laptop is in my bag since I’m headed to El Centro for the weekend (couldn’t be without it, could I?)
The iPod is filling up with songs for the trip down; I’ve got the GPS filled with geocache points that I most likely won’t get to. And now the Palm is being loaded with Topo maps for some reason unbeknownst even to me. I take that back, the palm isn’t docking. It often fails and requires reinstallation of the software in order to work – for no explicable reason – on Mac or Windows.
Of course in the bag I’ve got the camera, schlepp it (and the wide lens) everywhere and rarely find anything worth shooting. And the damned cellphone – suppose I would be sync’ing its data now if it could actually do that. I hear ( http://www.macsprintusers.com ) there’s a new cable that will make this one work as an internet connection (the cable for my old phone fits but does not work). I’ve also got not one but two radio transmitters for the iPod – neither of which seems to work all that well in my car; one requires batteries, the other doesn’t but may not transmit as strongly.
Then of course there’s the Newton at home. I still keep wanting to go back to the Newton. Sync doesn’t work that much better on the Palm (if at all) and though the Newt keyboard is bigger (for when I do articles or journals) it’s nicer to use, and the screen is better. (sigh).
I keep wondering if it’s better to try to combine these devices, or to have them work really well on their own. The phone, for example – doesn’t really work well as a phone. It has a camera, and a color screen, and polyphonic ringtones (no crying baby, unfortunately), games and a calculator – but the battery doesn’t last all that long, and the reception isn’t that great, and I have no way to sync my phone numbers. So at least, you need good connectivity.