Coolest Thing I've Seen Technology Do in a LONG While!

[Zorro]

I've spent most of the past few days (between watching CNN and *attempting* to do actual work) playing with my new Sony Clie 710c PDA (personal digital assistant). I am utterly impressed. Here's a short summary of the features:

• 1. 33MHz Motorola Dragonball VZ Processor (fastest ever put in a PalmOS-based PDA)
  2. 8 bit (256) color display, with upgrade to 16 bit color upon the release of a PalmOS 4.x upgrade which should be released shortly
  3. 320x320 pixel display, twice that of 160x160 Palm m505 and other competing devices
  4. 4M of flash, 8M of RAM, and Sony Memory Stick port, for an additional 128M of storage (additional 8M included)
  5. Integrated MP3 player, that supports drag and drop upload from Windows Explorer
  6. USB HotSync cradle
  7. Rechargable battery, with life of 15 days with typical use (11 hours of constant MP3 play).
  8. Exclusive Jog dial which allows for easy navigation similar to the mouse wheel on a PC

In short this puppy is bad assed!

Here's the cool part. I received a serial cable from http://www.thesupplynet.com that allows me to connect my Clie to my Motorola StarTac phone. I have the option of connecting to any normal ISP using my StarTac as a modem, or using Sprint's Quick Network Connect (QNC) feature to use Sprint's Wireless Web service as an IP provider for the Clie. I chose the latter option due to the fact that when I travel, having to keep track of local access numbers for MSN doesn't sound terribly attractive. Additionally, QNC gets up and running in 10 seconds, compared with a potentially much longer wait with a typical dial-up ISP. Once I got that working (which was no small task, since I couldn't find ANYTHING about setting it up for several hours), I was able to install some Internet applications, having much more success that I had initially anticipated. Here's what I installed:

• 1. AIM: VERY functional AOL Instant Messenger client that even supports the now-standard server-side storage of your contact list [Free]
  2. ICQ: Quite nice, but I spent a ton of time adding everyone into the PDA. This is really the same problem that anyone has with any new installation of ICQ, so nothing new, I suppose [Free]
  3. Eudora Internet Suite: Very nice email client, supported POP3, SMTP, and SSL. Additionally, it will sync with more ubiquitous PC email clients like Outlook, Outlook Express, et al. The included web browser is semi-useful, but lacks some features like graphics and (worst) no ability to display white text designed for color backgrounds. I've since deleted the web browser, but the email client is QUITE nice [Free]
  4. EdgeMatrix WAPman: Quite nice WAP web browser with built-in color support. This is similar to what you would see on a wireless internet enabled cell phone, but has some additional flexibility over my cell phone, at least, in that EdgeMatrix provides a normal HTML to WAP proxy service (complimentary), so you can view non-WAP websites. Limited functionality and usefulness, but you might find it handy in a time crunch where you don't need/want pretty pictures [Free]
  5. Handspring Blazer: Impressive normal HTML web browser with graphics support. I was sucessfully able to look at http://www.augustknights.com (with some formatting problems, due to iffy table support) and the AK Forums through my PDA! I haven't even been able to look at the forums in Netscape... I'm impressed, but sadly, this was the one non-free application I had to install, but by my estimation, well worth the money [$20]

The really cool thing was actually being able to connect to my AIM and ICQ accounts on the PDA and send messages to friends and family from a device not as big as my hand. The one thing that I need is some kind of attaching device that allows me to hold the PDA and phone in my left hand comfortably. They work pretty well back-to-back in my hand, but something more connected would be nice.

I'm utterly impressed. The price tag? Just over $400, but for the features, you can't find a better Palm-based PDA on the planet. Sony's Japanese site is showing wireless modems, wired modems and GPS add-ons for the Clie, so I expect those are on the way here in the US. So there's even more coolness to come. I would recommend this guy to anyone in the market for a PDA. Hope this is helpful...

[the wolffman]

i'm interested in buying a pda to help keep me organized at school and be able to play my mp3s instead of hassling with my cd player. i don't have the money to buy your recommended pda though. should i just wait for the price to drop or maybe try to find a bargin on it through websites?

on a somewhat unrelated note, what is the meaning of the unix code you have? i don't know that particular coding.

[Zorro]

While there's a possibility that the 710's price will drop somewhat in the coming weeks due to the release of the 750, I doubt that they'll come below $300 for some time. By then you should be out of school and on your way to a dead end job that you'll hate and regret having for the rest of your life.

The "# rm -rf /bin/laden" thing is a pseudo UNIX humor coupled with my own personal desire to eradicate that particular bit of scum from the earth.

# => command prompt icon if you are a super user on the system, i.e. root. otherwise, your icon would be ">"

rm => UNIX delete command; short for remove

-rf => command line options for rm, specifying that I wish the delete to be Recursive and Forced. You generally have to specify -rf with rm to delete directories that have subdirectories and/or subordinate files.

/bin => typical file system/directory on UNIX systems where BINaries are stored, i.e. executable programs. There are other similarly named directories like /sbin (Superuser BINaries), /usr/bin (USeR BINaries), etc. It just so happens that the object of my expunging delight happens to have the name "bin" tidily slapped between his given and surnames.

laden => the surname of my target

Executed together on a UNIX system, this would remove the directory "laden" which is a subdirectory (or perhaps file) of the /bin filesystem including all subordinate files and directory without giving you any lip or feedback about whether or not you want to delete these items. Witty, eh?

[the wolffman]

Originally posted by [AK]Zorro
By then you should be out of school and on your way to a dead end job that you'll hate and regret having for the rest of your life.

oh, gee, thanks for the prediction.