Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null
I'm lying here in my bed, tapping away on the full-size keyboard of my 12 inch PowerBook placed on the pillow, and I miss my old Palm IIIe. It was perfect. Sure, it lacked a feature or two I would have liked if it had still been with me, but when I had it it was perfect. I used calendar, contacts and so on of course, but what I really loved was writing on it. The larger the barrier to writing is the less spontaneous things get once you actually start getting them down, and thus the likliehood of the wonderful ideas and expressions that pop up in your mind around midnight a Sunday when you've been in bed for twenty minutes ever getting written (not to mention getting written down in even close to original form) down decreases. With the Palm I just picked it up, pressed one button, grabbed the stylus, opened an application and started writing. When the device you write on is handheld and everything sits in RAM already the whole process is pretty much instantaneous and non-disruptive to your thoughts. A certain input slowness didn't hurt much either, I like to think it kept things in focus. Or so I imagine when I look at the bright, high-resolution (some would disagree on both points), million-coloured display of my PowerBook, with all the applications/distractions of a modern computer right at my fingertips and on my pillow. I had to get up, walk to the desk, unplug it and bring it here to write, I can't keep it on my bedside table among the other stuff like I could with the Palm. Okay, I can, strictly speaking, but I can't really rest easy if I do (especially not if I start thinking about the pulsing sleep light). Small, sleek, powerful, wonderful, yes, but for writing short notes in bed it still isn't perfect.
Of course, what I really want is a connector behind my ear to just plug in a memory card and dump things straight from memory (don't want it builtin, builtin storage always runs out in the end). Before we get there I'm pretty certain I'll invest in a Palm-like device at least once more. Phone, camera, color screen and stuff not necessary, give me good handwriting, a nice organized text entry app and some wireless and I'm all set. Oh, and great Mac connectivity, please. Can't live without my PowerBook.
Now I've entered all this. It didn't take too long, and I like the way it came out, but I think an idea or two has been lost along the way, both related and unrelated. Where do I go to catch those again? Is there a save-point I can reload?