Re: A PDA in every pocket?

Subject: Re: A PDA in every pocket?
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- alltel -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 18:12:29 -0400


I have two other businesses, besides my tech writing, and I
find the PDA and cell phone indispensible. There is no other
way I can take calls from the "other" businesses while at
a client site, and there is no way but a cell phone that I
can take any calls at all while out working on my farm. With
the PDA, I can always take orders for the birthday-party pony
rides that I run on Saturdays. "Hold on while I turn on the
computer," I say, and fish the PDA out of my pocket. I dropped
the PDA (it's a Handspring) into a stock tank once, but fished
it out fast and let it dry in the sun. No problem, surprise,
surprise.

Bruce Byfield wrote:

On Tue, 2005-18-10 at 17:12 -0400, Brian Gordon wrote:


I have had all of the above things at various times,
but have never found them necessary.


I strongly suspect that the functionality of these devices is often
secondary. They are not
exactly status symbols, since they're so widely used, but tokens of
belonging to a certain group. If people bought them out of necessity,
very few of them would sell.

I used to find a PDA useful, when I was working on multiple projects
on-site. However, now that I do almost all my work from home, a calendar
on my desktop does the same job. It connects to my PDA, but mostly the
PDA just sits on the desktop. I suspect that a captive employee would
have very little use for a PDA unless fairly high up the corporate
ladder.

The other hardware is mostly useless to me for the same reason. I'm only
five metres from my business line, and nothing is so urgent that I need
to be always available. In fact, since I'm in the Pacific time zone, and
regularly working with people on the east coast of North America, being
always available might mean unpected calls at 6AM or when I'm relaxing.
So far, not being constantly in touch has had no affect on my ability to
earn a living whatsoever. In many businesses, a so-called emergency can
often wait half an hour or so.


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Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: A PDA in every pocket?: From: Brian Gordon
Re: A PDA in every pocket?: From: Bruce Byfield

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