The Fort-Knight Dispatch

I recently purchase a new PDA out of a sad necessity. After purchasing a hard drive today for it.. I started thinking.. What? I just bought a hard drive for a PDA? What’s the matter with me?, I thought. After a little reflection I’ve come to the realization that I’ve always taken my PDA seriously. Maybe a bit too seriously…
So, for those keeping score, this new PDA makes number 9.
Let’s review John’s PDA’s which is itself a brief history of the PDA itself.

1)Apple MessagePad 100
The one and only.. The original. This thing was awesome.. except for the handwriting recognition. Compare the Newton to the Palm Pilot. See what Apple got right!
Status: Still Own

2)3Com Palm Pilot
The one that got it right. Took a good idea and made it work! Loved this thing!
Status: Given to brother

3)Compaq C120 HandHeld
QWERTY Keyboard and MSWORD! But.. WinCE 1.0 was clunky. No one supported the 1.0 devices… Strike 1, Microsoft
Status: Still Own, non operational

4)Handspring Visor
Cool expansion pack and cool look and feel! This was the first Palm “clone”. This was a real work horse! Great design. Very durable.
Status: On loan to coworker. Used daily!

5)iPaq H3700
Used a lot for work (development) Wrote some code for this one. Wasn’t really ever my “PDA”. PocketPC software not as quick or elegant as PalmOS.
Status: Still Own, gathering dust…

6) Sony Clie PEG-SJ22
Brief, brief life. It seemed everyone was buying a Clie’ at the time. Nice but ONLY MemoryStick! I hate MemoryStick! Although the “JogDial” rocks!
Status: Died and taken back. Strike 1 and 2, Sony.

7) PalmOne Zire 72
Loved this one until it lost all my data..twice! Got the chance to tell Palm face to face about this one… didn’t get a good response. As much as it pained me to do so because of my long love affair with the PalmOS, strike 1 and 2, Palm.
Status: Died and taken back.

iPaq 3715
REALLY loved this one. First PocketPC device I liked. Great set of features. Great screen, 1.2MP camera w/video. SD slot.. Bluetooth, 802.11b…. (sigh).
Status: MIA. If found, please call! Reward!

9)Dell Axim x50v
Current PDA. Bluetooth, 802.11b (w/LEAP), VGA(wow), 4GB CF microdrive. Going to be putting some video and music on this one. Maybe some maps for a GPS…
Status: Still breaking in…jury is still out. The VGA screen is just gratuitous. I miss the camera from my 3715… I suppose a new digital camer isn’t far away…

I like talking. Most people who know me and read this may find it funny to read my words. Here in these pages, I’m breif. I may ramble but there’s no chance if me sucking a half-hour of your life away telling you a story… well maybe.
See I’m a talker and not much of a writer. A few minutes a day writing and one is supposed to improve. Don’t buy it. What I do buy is that I’ve need to “get out” a little more. Spend more time with my fellow man. As Marley said, “Mankind was (is) my business!” … or something like that.
Anyway, this is about parties. Not good at them. Neither attending or throwing them. So what do I do? Throw a few of them. Get some practice. Have some fun.
The first one I committed to is for my best friend Andy. It’s his bachelor party.
This is not an easy thing to do. Sounds easy. It may even sound fun. Just try it.
Especially when you are out of state from everyone else who’s going to be there.
Now, this one has been planned for a while so just a few details to clean up.
At this point I’m feeling like, “hey.. that wasn’t soo bad. How about something a little close to home?” So a little get together has turned into a block party of sorts. Lot’s of friends and cowords, neighbors and friends of my son invited.
What to do… Build a 20′ wide screen on the side of my house, show “Pirates of the Carribean” and BBQ! My own Drive-in, in my own backyard. I love this country.

Now, we’re a few days away from the Drive-in and a week out from the bachelor party.
Let’s see if I can “get out” a little more … and survive.